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Mindfulness for designers. An integration of mindfulness, design education and reflective practices
No full textHow should we educate designers to enable them to address the challenges of a complex, unpredictable, and interconnected future? What are the specific competences that designers need to address these challenges, and what pedagogical approaches are necessary to cultivate these competences? Although educators are shaping multiple paths to explore these issues, the complex nature of these questions demands holistic, multidisciplinary, and empathic approaches, rather than mechanical and outdated ones to envision educational systems that meet their students\u27 needs. Researchers have become interested in mindfulness as a potential tool to improve educational practices. Mindfulness simply means paying attention in a certain way to our experience, but its practice can produce changes in our experience and the people around us, alter traits, and enhance creativity. However, research on mindfulness in design education is scarce, which hinders the development of holistic pedagogical tools. I address this gap by investigating the nature of mindfulness in the context of design education. This research seeks to (1) understand mindfulness mechanisms that enhance learning and reflective practices and (2) provide design educators with pedagogical tools and strategies to integrate them into design studio classrooms. The essential questions this project addresses are: How does mindfulness impact designers’ learning experiences and reflective practices? How can design educators integrate mindfulness into design studio classrooms? This project is structured into three research phases. Exploring and understanding the phenomena Developing design artefacts through practice Integrating and validating design artefacts Phase one adopts a theoretical approach. Phases two and three unify theory and practice by applying a ‘Research Through Design’ approach. There are (at least) four ways in which this project can benefit from this consortium: First, this research area is young and has a lot of unexplored territory. Thus, experienced researchers can help me improve my research methods or find new experimental approaches. Second, because this research is multidisciplinary, I think talking to experts from different design fields can help this project and lead to future collaboration. Thirdly, as part of my participatory research approach, I am interested in learning not only from experts but also from my researcher peers. I believe the combination of insights from their unique perspectives can have a profound impact on the improvement of this project. Finally, I am interested not only in benefiting my project but also in helping my research peers improve theirs
Museums at a crossroads
No full textWhat type of museum experiences can be designed when local communities are involved? And where does technology fit? How can museums as places to nurture community engagement also become spaces to have cultural, transformative experiences? Museums and cultural heritage institutions are not only custodians of the some of the world’s most valuable natural and creative works; they are themselves creative institutions that reflect and shape cultural production. Especially since the advent of the New Museology, this creative potential has been understood in interdisciplinary terms, bringing theories and methods such as postcolonial studies and poststructuralism to bear on these processes of production. The impetus has shifted from museum professionals guarding their silos of expertise to seeking multiple, even overlapping perspectives from as diverse a range of the public as possible. In a world where digital technologies are increasingly embedded in the lives of their visitors as well as their own practices, museum practitioners and researchers both turn to disciplines that can inform this element of cultural production. In this paper, some cases will be presented where an answer to these questions will be sought and, more in general, some insights will be drawn from them of what the road ahead of museums might look like in the coming future
Touchy-feely: A designerly exploration of haptic representations of three mood states
No full textHuman moods are diffuse, elusive, and often difficult to articulate, yet they hold immense potential for wellbeing-centric design because they play a significant role in shaping our everyday life experiences. A person’s mood influences their experiences with a designed system, and in turn, their interactions with the design also influence their mood for better or worse. To enable designers to better comprehend and communicate moods in their design processes, this paper reports a project that explored the possibilities of creating haptic objects as a medium for communicating subtle qualities of specific moods. The project focused on three commonly experienced moods - cheerfulness, grumpiness, and gloominess. We first identified a set of haptic features that represent experiential qualities of these moods. These features were then synthesised into three mood-expressing haptic objects, which were evaluated using a blind test. The results indicated that haptic objects can be purposefully created, and that haptic qualities hold promise to complement verbal and visual forms of mood communication
Prototyping a 7-meter frameless dome as emergency shelter: Test build viability and devise team strategies
No full textThe COVID-19 pandemic profoundly impacted the world, highlighting existing inequalities, social injustices, and significant ecological and humanitarian crises. Adapting to a changing post-pandemic world necessitates a redesign of emergency shelters conducive for quick setup and takedown at the onset of an emergency. Geodesic domes are a possibility because of their structural strength, and they use the least amount of material while providing maximum interior space for the occupants. Although geodesic domes have widespread recognition and diverse contemporary uses, their inherent complex geometry poses difficulties in setting them up quickly. This construction challenge is due to the large number of required parts, particularly in a framed dome scenario. In addition, some of these parts may vary slightly, and distinguishing between them can be difficult. In this project, we attempted to solve this problem by employing a simpler geometry of a frameless Goldberg polyhedron configuration and exploring the application of digital fabrication to ease the build complexity. We report on a seven-meter diameter cardboard dome prototyped to determine build viability per geometry, the process needed, and the safety precautions required to erect the structure. This paper explains the geometry, details the step-by-step building process, specifies the hardware used, and discusses our findings. In addition, we share strategies conducive to building the dome by a small group of people, which can foster community and collaboration in a stressful situation with consideration placed on efficiency and minimal errors
Designing innovative research pathways for the advancement of design research: IASDR 2023 Doctoral and postgraduate consortium
No full textThe paper explores relevant themes for design research that arose from research works proposed for IASDR2023 and developed by doctoral candidates and recent master\u27s degree graduates. Particular attention has been paid to research investigations that reflect on the theme of Life-Changing Design, specifically examining how design is responding to the transformations occurring in the contemporary period. Reflections on the soft impact of technologies, in particular digital technologies, on daily life are accompanied by an analysis of innovations and challenges faced by healthcare systems, products, and services. This is followed by an examination of social innovation themes and practices, and the development of new principles of inclusity. A concluding contribution highlights the requirement to identify innovative approaches to design education extending beyond recognized methodologies to implement personal and technical skills of new generations of designers
A holistic co-design model engaging multi-stakeholders for the rural revitalization in China — A case study of Qingshan Village, Hangzhou
No full textChina has devoted itself to green growth along with the national strategy of rural revitalization. Qingshan Village in Hangzhou stands out as a representative case, imbuing a centuries-old countryside with new life and serving as an experimental model for China Future Village.” This study discusses and evaluates Qingshan Village’s progress through the lens of a holistic co-design approach to social design and community development. This approach considers all the different factors that contribute to the complex context with an understanding of how they are interconnected. Co-designing the future village involves various partners: designers, local government, non-governmental organizations, companies, and residents. Designers play the role of renovation, fostering community building, improving lifestyle, and branding the culture; the participation of other stakeholders is critical to creating a sustainable village that addresses environmental, economic, social-cultural, and governance concerns. This integrated approach results in a more comprehensive and effective solution for rural development
Design considerations for supporting social interaction in algorithmic social media feed
No full textNowadays, social media platforms employ recommender systems to proactively suggest the posts that a user is likely to prefer, even if it comes from strangers (e.g., the “Suggested Posts” feature on Instagram). Previous studies revealed that these algorithmic recommendations influence users’ social interaction practices in social media. However, there is little attempt to investigate how social media feeds should be designed to ensure the social interactions users truly want. Given this background, we conducted four design workshops aiming to explore design considerations for social media feeds that can support users’ social interactions under the impact of algorithmic recommendations. Based on the results of workshops, we present five design considerations with design proposals: respecting the following posts, preventing undesired disclosure, sophisticated management for recommendation algorithms, recommendations for the group of users, and reinforcing linkage to the community. In conclusion, we discuss design implications for recommender systems considering the intrinsic nature of social media
The role of human-centred design in promoting understanding of local contexts: a study of Japanese students addressing social issues in Bangladesh
No full textWhen implementing design projects aimed at solving social issues across borders, it is essential to deeply understand the local people and culture. In particular, when enterprises in developed countries deploy services to address social issues in developing countries, the lack of understanding of the local context and biases can become a barrier to sustainable business development. In such a context, a human-centred design approach plays an important role in the process of designing as it facilitates an in-depth understanding of local people and culture. In the context of education, when students in a developed country develop sustainable services and businesses in order to take on social issues in a developing country, what components in the design process promote such an understanding of the local context? What types of approaches provide them with insights into the local people? Or, how do these insights inform their design processes and ideation? This paper reports the results of a study that investigated the influence of a human-centred design approach, employed in a module aimed at addressing social issues in Bangladesh by proposing sustainable service designs, for a particular group of Japanese undergraduate students. This study especially examined what components, typically involved in a human-centred design approach, influenced students\u27 perspectives on the local context within the module, focusing on the four consideration frameworks: 1) Being aware of local social issues and market needs; 2) Co-creation of values in the local market; 3) Utilisation of local resources and capabilities and; 4) Building partnerships with diverse stakeholders
In-house designers to break out public sector auditing in a manageable way
No full textFor Supreme Audit Institutions to live up to the expectations of Parliament and the public and meet the needs of the public sector organisations they audit, they need to break out of their traditional knowledge-driven role of public spending watchdogs. Human-centred design offers an alternative to more knowledge: knowledge-in-action. Yet, the current frame of auditors restrains them from experimenting with alternatives. This study shares our experiences as in-house designers at the Netherlands Court of Audit of enriching the current focus on siloed public administration with citizens’ perspectives and of finding alternative ways to increase audit impact. Moreover, we show the crucial role that in-house designers can play to help auditors break out of their audit profession in a manageable, non-disruptive way, while staying true to their fundamental principles
Rediscovering Mental Health intervention methodologies through Design.
No full textCollaborations between Design and Mental disabilities organizations have the capacity to develop new intervention methodologies responding to the limitations of the intellectual development disorder in different contexts. The progressive integration capacity of design in organizations, seeks to analyse the degrees of its influence on intervention and implementation of a collaborative creation process. Creative methodologies in the social innovation sector, specifically in direct action with users, encourage and enable the development of new techniques resulting in potential innovative activities and products with a view to increase efficiency in the execution of tasks or obtain information on the impact on the user’s quality of life. This cross-sector partnership allowed to unveil potential reformulations to multidisciplinary practices among the technical specialists already integrated in the organizations with the designers as well as organizational procedures currently applied