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Stories from an unfinished prototype: a seemingly never-ending loop of practice and research
No full textThis pictorial focuses on the role prototyping played within the author’s latest research on tangible narratives exemplified in the design case of [Project’s title removed for review]. The pictorial illustrates the ongoing process of prototyping this design case. It discusses the challenges and insights gained from it, among them, the importance of accounting ergonomic principles when prototyping artefacts, embracing the physical properties of working materials during the prototyping process, considering the potential pitfalls of relying too heavily on technical knowledge, and the importance of compartmentalizing and prioritizing during the ideation process. Finally, the pictorial concludes with an analisis on the role played by the action of prototyping and the importance of the continuous dialogue between the designer/researcher and the artefacts created
Combination of Experiential Learning to investigate design students’ design thinking ability
No full textThe study investigated the relationship between Experiential Learning and design students’ design thinking ability. Experiential Learning was divided into three modes: grasping experience, transforming experience, and the Learning styles, and design thinking ability was evaluated in four phases, Discover, Define, Develop, and Deliver. One hundred and four undergraduate students (from sophomore to senior) majoring in Industrial Design responded to the Learning Style Inventory-version 3.1 and the design thinking ability questionnaire. Independent Sample t-test and one-way ANOVA were employed to analyze the differences in design thinking ability associated with Experiential Learning. The findings of the study indicated that in the Define phase, students grasping experience with Abstract conceptualization exhibited better performance than those who utilized Concrete experience. Conversely, in the Develop phase, students using Concrete experience showed better performance than those who employed Abstract conceptualization. In the Deliver phase, students transforming experience through Active experimentation achieved better results than those who utilized Reflective observation; furthermore, Converging and Accommodating performed better than Diverging and Assimilating. In sum, investigating design thinking ability from the viewpoint of Experiential Learning improved insight into design thinking and offered suggestions for design education
The social influences of digital technologies in the Design of S.PSS and DE: a literature review
No full textDigital technologies have become essential in most parts of the world. Being leveraged by the covid-19 pandemic, they have been used to scale up and create new products and services in different sectors. It is a shared understanding that these disruptive technologies have caused profound changes in the structure of society and, particularly, opening discussions about ethics and democracy. The Sustainable Product-Service (S.PSS) and Distributed Economy (DE) systems models are win-win opportunities for sustainability, not only in the economic and environmental but also, in the social dimension, sometimes neglected. Despite the growing application of digital technologies, there are few discussions about their socio-ethical interference in the design of S.PSS and DE. This article is a systematic literature review to map the benefits and risks of digitization for the social dimension in these models. The selection criteria are based on six design strategies for the social dimension in S.PSS and DE developed within a set of projects conducted by the Learning Network on Sustainability (LeNS). This study aims to map and reflect on what is presented in the articles through those consolidated socio-ethical system design strategies. As a result, there is pointed a gap in ethics as a strategy for design in the digital era
Designing interfaces for text-to-image prompt engineering using stable diffusion models: a human-AI interaction approach
No full textThe use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) is more vital ever than before to create new content, especially images. Recent breakthroughs in text-to-image diffusion models showed the potential to drastically change the way we approach image content creation. However, artists still face challenges when attempting to create images that reflect their specific themes and formats, as the current generative systems, such as Stable Diffusion models, require the right prompts to achieve the desired artistic outputs. In this paper, we propose future design considerations to develop more intuitive and effective interfaces that can be used for text-to-image prompt engineering from a human-AI interaction perspective using a data-driven approach. We collected 78,911 posts from the internet community and analyzed them through thematic analysis. Our proposed directions for interface design can help improve the user experience as well as usability, ultimately leading to a more effective, desired image generation process for creators
Systemic design for sustainable community care for older adults: A case study in Turin, Piedmont, Italy
No full textThe COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted various industries across the world, leading to changes in industries and the widespread adoption of teleworking networks. As countries transition from urban lockdowns to community lockdowns, community telemedicine has become a crucial agenda item. The pandemic has posed an unprecedented health challenge, particularly for older adults with chronic diseases due to its highly contagious nature and prolonged duration. The aim of this paper is to explore the impact and challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic governance model on older adults care in the Turin A.S.L.TO3 community. This paper was conducted within the methodology framework of systemic design, through literature review of the design approach to sustainable care development with the aim of identifying the gap in the current research, and semi-structured interviews with A.S.L.TO3 community care managers to ensure the accuracy of the data collected and the understanding of system issues from the manager\u27s perspective, and cross-cutting multi-level analysis was conducted using case studies research methods in conjunction with the design tools community cross-scale model and stakeholder map, in order to understand the complexity of the community care system in its entirety and to clarify the relationships that occur in the system over time through strategic foresight. This paper explores key criteria for environmentally innovative sustainability decision-making interventions for community care transformation. This can help to govern and facilitate adaptive governance feedback systems in emergency situations from the perspectives of social, economic, environmental sustainability, and ageing inclusiveness when specific problems are identified
Exploring the design applications of key emerging materials from natural Sciences through a design ideation workshop
No full textThe design direction is shifting towards new design landscapes with alive and adaptive aesthetic features and functions and confronting natural alternative designs. Designers, architects, and artists have proposed the exploration of emerging materials by exploiting synthetic biology, bionics, chemical technology, and material science to create new design alternatives with natural aesthetic features and functions. In practice, however, designers are not properly familiar with the potential applications of these emerging materials and their alive and adaptive aesthetic and functional features in product design. Thus, particularly in traditional product design development, the applications of these materials are untouched resulting from three hindering factors. First, knowledge regarding potential applications of emerging materials for product design is lacking. Second, designers’ creativity is restricted because they are not able to disconnect from established product design solutions. Third, the current product design scope does not allow designers to go beyond traditional product design processes. The present study conducted a design ideation workshop by employing a design-led problem-solving process with eight design graduate students from product design and intelligent system design majors. The purpose of the workshop was to explore the three factors and understand the requirements, constraints, and opportunities for new product design concepts with alive and adaptive aesthetic features and functions by exploiting and integrating emerging materials from natural sciences into product design
Designer Empathy in Virtual Reality: transforming the Designer Experience closer to the User
No full textEmpathy is a key driver for designers to unlock their user’s perspective. However, its multi-dimensional nature can be detrimental to the design process; therefore, a structured approach is vital. The current emergence and capabilities of Virtual Reality (VR) technology have inspired this research to explore how designers can achieve the optimal level of empathy required to produce innovative design solutions. A qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews with design engineers working with industry was performed to analyse current challenges in empathic design and identify how VR can address such challenges. The study highlighted that communication and resource factors were the main barriers to designer empathy. In response to this finding, this research bridges the gap between the designer and the user through the digital transformation of the designer’s profession that provides enhanced value to human-centricity, social and ecological interactions. The outcome of this study entails the creation of a specification for a novel fully immersive virtual environment: Designer Empathy in VR that augments designers’ empathic skills and empowers the designer to achieve cognitive and affective empathy towards their user from multiple perspectives. This research is a platform for a future empirical study addressing the impact of digital empathy on creating user-centred and innovative design solutions
Transformative effects of co-design: The case of the “My Architect And I” project
No full textIn this paper, we present a co-design process intended to develop tools to improve the experience of architectural design services for single-family housing projects in Belgium. Our main goal is to identify the transformative effects of this co-design process from the lens of the experiences of participants. This paper is based on focus groups conducted with architects and user-clients for post-evaluation of the process. Findings include insights on (i) their experiences during the co-design process; on (ii) transformative effects such as changes in perspective (including empathy) and practice; and on (iii) ownership of the project and its outputs. This paper shows that co-design processes can have a lingering effect on participants, even more so on the ones showing up more than once. These observations help inform co-design processes, and more broadly participatory design research and practices
Fostering social inclusion: empathic approaches for migrant-centred design
No full textIn recent decades, the field of design, particularly interaction design, has brought attention to the experiences of migrants with technology. A key aspect of this research has been the active involvement of displaced communities in the design process, through the implementation of empathic design approaches. These approaches place significant value on subjective and experiential perspectives fostering a thought process in which individuals seek to understand others by relating to their experiences. Following this empathic approach, this work focuses on the design for and with migrants, by engaging long-term migrants through a focus group and a participatory activity. The aim of this work was to reflect on participants’ migration experiences through the creation of design artifacts. The created artifacts were analysed and discussed through the lens of empathic design approaches to distil implications to inform design in support of arriving migrants. Our findings highlight the importance of empathic design in the interaction design field and to promote social inclusion for marginalized communities
Changing products through new advancements in design
No full textThe present article discusses the importance of new processes, emerging materials, and new technologies as key strategies for conceiving, designing, and producing innovative products and systems. Over the past decade, advancements in these fields have significantly influenced how products and systems are conceptualized and designed, impacting the entire value chain and the methods for creating and changing business models. This transformation enables speculation and the crafting of new artifacts and future scenarios by altering how products are developed, upgraded, and updated, offering benefits in idea creation, experimentation, testing, and sustainability. The article presents the main topics through the subjects of the papers submitted to the track “[CHANGING] Products and Production”. In this regard, it will delve into themes such as, but not limited to, new aesthetics and functions in product design, AI, haptic and wearable technologies, bio-fabrication