3132 research outputs found
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Running on Empty
Full text linkBurnout haunts our modern world, its shadow lengthening as work bleeds into every corner of our lives. We juggle endless digital demands and society's relentless expectations. Though researchers have mapped its terrain extensively, we still struggle to recognize our own descent into its depths.
Running on Empty brings burnout to life through an immersive first-person experience. The installation translates Leiter & Maslach's five burnout profiles into tangible, walkable journeys using augmented reality and physical spaces.
This project combines Research through Design (RTD) with Critical Design approaches, weaving narrative-driven interactions with Augmented Reality overlays that simulate digital stressors in real environments. The concept of storytelling aiding people with recognizing their own burnout symptoms has been validated through multiple prototypes and a comprehensive evaluation method. The approach teaches through embodied experience, showing how burnout evolves from eager engagement to hollow exhaustion.
The project demonstrates how augmented reality, narrative, and spatial design can combine as
powerful tools for experiential learning about mental health and well-being
Inclusive Co-Design and Co-Creation: Enhancing Inclusive Design for learning Practices Through Parental and Student Engagement
Full text linkThis research project addresses a significant gap in integrated Inclusive Education (IE) implementation: the absence of meaningful student involvement in developing personalized learning approaches. Through a co-design methodology, this study positions the Primary co-designer (a student with ADHD/ASD) as the central guide in creating an inclusive learning strategy that is both uniquely tailored to his specific needs and adaptable across diverse educational contexts relevant to him.
The project integrates multiple complementary frameworks to support the co-design process. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles provide flexibility in how information is presented and how students demonstrate knowledge. Experiential Learning Theory facilitates direct engagement with concepts through hands-on activities that avoided text-heavy materials that the student described as "can hurt me." Interest-Based Learning leverages the student's existing passions to increase engagement and motivation. Problem-Based Learning develops critical thinking skills through real-world applications to achieve deep learning. These frameworks are unified under Inclusive Design principles that recognize diversity as an asset while acknowledging inclusion as a challenge.
Central to this approach is the student's agency, expressed through their consistent assertion: "It is my choice." The co-design process honors this agency while balancing it with necessary structure and educational requirements. The parent (Secondary co-designer) provides crucial insights about knowledge transfer between contexts, noting that "English is in all the subjects," highlighting how reading comprehension difficulties affect performance across the curriculum. The facilitator helps navigate the delicate balance between providing appropriate challenges, balancing power, and maintaining engagement.
The strategy developed through this process is designed to be adaptable across different subjects, various learning environments, and with different facilitators or teachers. This adaptability addresses the parent's concern about transferring learning strategies between contexts while maintaining the personalized elements that make the approach effective for the student.
By prioritizing the student's voice in the Inclusive design process, this approach demonstrates how educational strategies can be both uniquely tailored to individual needs and adaptable enough to function in diverse contexts. This research contributes to the broader understanding of how meaningful student involvement can transform the implementation of inclusive education principles in practical, everyday learning environments
Bridging the Digital Divide:Enhancing Medication Adherence
Full text linkThis study examines how the digital divide affects medication adherence among older adults and explores how inclusive design can inform the development of more accessible digital health tools. Although smart pillboxes and health apps are increasingly available, many older users remain excluded due to barriers related to physical accessibility, digital literacy, and trust in technology.
A multi-phase qualitative approach was adopted, involving semi-structured interviews with older adults and healthcare professionals. Thematic analysis identified six recurring challenges: forgetfulness, caregiver reliance, low digital confidence, physical limitations, interface complexity, and digital distrust. These findings informed the design of a two-part system: the En-Take mobile application and a physical smart pillbox.
The app emphasizes visual clarity, simplified interaction, and core features such as QR code-based prescription import, personalized scheduling, allergy alerts, and caregiver data sharing. The pillbox supports ergonomic access, offering a rounded grip-friendly form and a circular LCD display for real-time reminders and system status.
While the small sample size and lack of caregiver representation limit generalizability, the study provides a foundational model for inclusive health technology. Future work includes user testing, caregiver interface development, and iterative hardware refinement. The findings highlight the potential of qualitative insight to inform the design of more empathetic and accessible solutions for aging populations.
Key Words: Older Adults, Digital Divide, medication non-adherence, App Design, Pillbox Design, Inclusive Desig
Empowering Agentic Non-Visual Web Navigation Through Tactile Controls and AI Support
Full text linkBlind and low-vision (BLV) users rely on screen readers to access digital content, yet these tools often impose strictly linear, text-based navigation that fails to communicate spatial layout, contextual changes, or emotional tone. This disconnect leads to cognitive overload, frustration, and reduced autonomy. In response, this research proposes a new model of screen reader interaction: a modular, tangible interface grounded in affordance-based design to enhance agentic non-visual navigation.
Through interviews and co-design sessions with BLV users, the study identifies six key experiential barriers: (1) loss of spatial orientation, (2) lack of state-change feedback, (3) absence of emotional/paralinguistic cues, (4) dependence on sequential logic, (5) inefficient input methods, and (6) mistrust of over-automated AI. These findings informed a series of design iterations, evolving from a conversational AI prototype to a tactile, multi-modal controller.
The final design features a rotary knob for sequential traversal, a rotor switch for hierarchical navigation, haptic and auditory feedback to signal changes and navigation boundaries, and a context-aware AI assistant. Mapped to NVDA screen reader commands and aligned with the POUR (Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, Robust) accessibility framework, each component reinforces spatial awareness, user agency, and reduced cognitive demand
Sacred Shapeshifter: Embracing Ambiguity in Two-Spirit Identity
Full text linkThis thesis explores the reclamation of Two-Spirit identity and its significance within the queer Indigenous community, examining how Eve Tuck’s desire-based research framework can shape futures centered around decolonial love. Grounded in personal narrative, familial histories, and Anishinaabe epistemologies, both the written and creative productions disrupt conventional understandings of tradition, challenge rigid gender binaries, and foster intergenerational healing as a means to raise a new consciousness. Through autoethnographic modes of storytelling, stitching, beadwork, and sculpture come together to explore the ambiguity of Two-Spirit identity and engage in world-building. Rather than focusing solely on damage, this thesis highlights the power of possibility, resilience, and kinship across time and space, carrying ancestral knowledge forward as a gesture of futurity
Unmasked: A Narrative Exploration of Identity in Female Educators with ADHD
Full text linkThis qualitative narrative inquiry explores the lived experiences of five adult female educators in Ontario, Canada who were diagnosed with or self-identify as having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Participants teach across elementary, secondary, and post-secondary levels. A college consultant in educational development was also interviewed as a key informant to provide additional context. Data was collected through one semi-structured interview per subject and validated through member-checking and a collaborative reflection process in which participants could help co-author their narrative vignettes.
The study investigates how ADHD intersects with gender, professional identity, pedagogy, and institutional systems, especially in women, most of whom discovered their ADHD in adulthood. While each story is unique, the participants from this study described bringing fun, sensitivity, creativity and empathy to a system which has traditionally pathologized ADHD rather than recognize it as an exceptional difference.
Themes included paradoxes of identity formation, systemic expectations and pedagogical values. Across educational contexts (elementary, secondary, and post-secondary) systems were seen as underfunded, outdated and unsustainable. Participants shared experiences of burnout and chronic pain as well as some struggles navigating ableism, and internalized stigma. They also reflected on their past as young students with unnamed ADHD and how these experiences shaped their relationships and sense of self. Many participants described teaching in ways they wish they had been taught and shared some examples of how they connect with struggling learners. Common challenges and/or traits included: all-or-nothing thinking, administrative overwhelm, emotional dysregulation, and struggling in environments that are not suited for their physical and mental well-being.
This study acknowledges the importance of expansive supportive and inclusionary measures. A student’s learning environment is a teacher’s work environment; therefore, where empathy and support helps one group, it will likely benefit others. The study calls for the creation and implementation of flexible, human-centered approaches to education that acknowledge and value diverse cognitive and emotional experiences within our schools as learning environments and as workplaces
Designing with Grief: The PACER Framework for Systemic Practice Towards Post-Biological Systems of Care, Memory, and Connection
Full text linkThis Major Research Project investigates grief as a systemic infrastructure that might shape whether institutions adapt, fracture, or renew. Through an integrative review across biology, psychology, culture, and systems theory, combined with reflective practice and case vignettes, I develop a Grief-Informed Futures + Design framework and a six-step PACER (Pace, Affect, Culture, Ecology, Resilience), process that could guide practitioners from sensing signals of loss to testing proportionate responses in policy, services, products, and places. The project asks: How might grief be treated as systemic infrastructure in design and foresight so that institutions metabolize, rather than suppress, loss. Findings suggest that grief-informed methods may strengthen legitimacy, reduce downstream costs, and improve trust and safety for people and more-than-human communities. The contribution would be a shared vocabulary, operational tools, and testable hypotheses for designers, policymakers, and community partners. I close with limits, ethical safeguards, and a research agenda that could enable empirical evaluation and co-development with affected communities
The Futures of Value:Strategic Pathways for Integrating Profit and Purpose
Full text linkThis project investigates how the concept of value in business is shifting and how this shift is influencing the integration of profit and purpose. The research establishes an understanding of the concept of value in business within the contemporary context by synthesizing findings from a literature review, qualitative interviews, and systems analysis. These methods uncover the structural, relational, and ideological forces shaping the concept of value, as well as the interdependencies, power dynamics, and feedback loops within the current system.
To address the research objective of identifying strategic pathways supporting businesses navigating toward sustainable success and meaningful impact, the exploration of the concept of value and its relationship to the integration of profit and purpose was extended into future contexts by employing strategic foresight methods. Horizon scanning and historical analysis identified drivers of change, laying the groundwork for scenario construction. The Cone of Plausibility technique provided a structured approach to explore how altering assumptions about drivers' behaviour might shape different futures. Analysis of the resulting scenarios revealed eight insights, which then informed the development of foundational capacities and strategic pathways to support businesses attempting to integrate profit and purpose. Additionally, a set of guiding questions was developed to support strategy and design teams in thinking systemically and reflexively when working with value propositions
The opportunity to save a life: A qualitative study of a point-of-care overdose education and naloxone distribution intervention
Full text linkCanada’s opioid crisis continues to escalate. Naloxone can effectively reverse the effects of opioid overdose. We planned a randomized trial on the effectiveness of a point-of-care overdose education and naloxone distribution (OEND) intervention on participants’ performance in a simulated opioid overdose scenario. In preparation for the trial, we conducted a feasibility study which included a qualitative process evaluation aimed at eliciting participants’ perspectives of the study’s OEND tool and procedures, and how their lived experiences of the opioid crisis intersected with their experiences of the study. Twenty-three participants were interviewed, including people with lived experiences of opioid use or overdose, and people living in neighbourhoods or working in services where they were likely to encounter overdose. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts was informed by stigma theory. Participants’ accounts depicted challenges faced by people who take opioids in their everyday lives, deep losses experienced, negative attitudes encountered, and systemic barriers to care. Participation in the study itself was portrayed as meaningful. We explored participants’ experiences through three key themes: (1) who were the participants – describing their experiences related to opioid overdose, opioid use and attendant stigma; (2) why did they participate – recounting their motivations to join the study; and (3) what they thought about study processes – reflecting on the OEND materials and study procedures . Accounts revealed a sense of agency as participants confronted the opioid crisis. Our results demonstrate that people experiencing opioid use and overdose and people who care about them are eager and willing to be approached about research at point of care; participants were eager to learn overdose prevention skills and to return for follow-up study sessions. They recounted a range of motivations for participating, the most important of which is the opportunity to actively intervene, save lives and raise awareness. Trial Registration : ClinicalTrials.gov registry (NCT03821649
Understanding Cities as Systems: Making a Case for Foresight
Full text linkThis paper explores understanding the city as a system and the current climate in using foresight. To achieve this, the study engaged several staff and external consultants to understand their current approaches and challenges in the use of futures tools and implementing strategic foresight. The findings suggest that cities are at various levels of maturity and readiness to adopt strategic foresight, let alone futures thinking and various methods. This paper puts forward a series of recommendations, inviting cities to explore futures thinking as part of their strategic and operational planning and service delivery.
Keywords: Cities, Canada, Municipalities, Systems Thinking, Actors, Systems Map, Causal Layered Analysis, Iterative Inquiry, Intervention Strategy, Foresight, Futures, Futures Thinking, Strategic Foresigh