1,721,107 research outputs found
Dynamic products: shaping information to engage and persuade
No full textThis book explores how dynamic changes in products' sensory features can be used to convey information to the user in an effective and engaging way. The aim is to supply the reader with a clear understanding of an important emerging area of research and practice in product design, referred to as dynamic products, which is opening up new possibilities for the integration of product design with digital and smart technologies and offering an alternative to the use of digital interfaces. Dynamic products are artifacts displaying sensory characteristics – visual, tactile, auditory, or olfactory – that change in a proactive and reversible way over time, addressing one or more of the user's senses. The reader will learn why and how to communicate by means of such dynamic products. Their potential advantages and limitations are identified and design tools are proposed to support the design activity. It is hoped that the book will stimulate the design community to reflect upon the ever more compelling need to merge the virtual and the material in the information society by exploiting technological possibilities in order to create more meaningful and involving experiences
Design for Emergency: An Open Platform to Design and Implement User-Centered Solutions in the COVID-19 Pandemic
Full text linkAs a consequence of the lockdown enforced to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, people found themselves in a state of social isolation, uncertainty, and vulnerability. Design for Emergency is a data and design open platform launched to ideate and develop user-centered solutions addressing people’s needs and emotions during and after the lockdown. The project is made of four stages: data collection, data analysis & visualization, design, and implementation. The initiative started in Italy, but it soon became global, extending to 11 countries in three continents. As a result, we collected and visualized data about people’s experiences during the pandemic at a global level. Our ideas platform, still growing, includes 36 seed ideas of solutions helping individuals and communities cope with the pandemic. Ideas are openly available for development by anyone, and some of them are currently being implemented. This initiative can be used as a reference and a pilot project to create a framework for designing in situations of uncertainty, emergency, or crisis, where design can quickly discover and address emerging feelings and needs
How to Design with Ambiguity: Insights from Self-tracking Wearables
Full text linkNearly 20 years ago, Gaver et al. introduced ambiguity as a design resource, proposing tactics to reflect everyday uncertainty into interactive systems. This approach is especially relevant for self-tracking wearables, which often obscure the inherent ambiguity of system design and tracked phenomena with seemingly clear, prescriptive data and insights. Although scholars recognize the importance of ambiguity, its practical application in the design process remains underexplored. To address this, we conducted a two-week workshop with 60 designers, examining the application of Gaver et al.'s tactics into 11 design concepts, and performed interviews with 16 participants. Our findings reveal eight relevant ambiguity tactics for self-tracking and offer insights into participants' experiences with designing using ambiguity. We discuss prescription and overlooked ambiguity as levers for the operationalization of ambiguity, the potential benefits and downsides of ambiguity tactics for users, future directions for HCI research and practice, and the study limitations
Correlation between intrinsic characteristics of industrial products and user's perception
Full text linkThe present study bases on the statement that the product experience is becoming a more and more important
element in the user’s assessment and selection of an industrial product. This paper aims at
investigating the existing correlation between form features of an industrial product and the user’s perception
at the aesthetic level. The purpose of this study is to formalize a test able to return the connection existing
between intrinsic features of a product and the user response in terms of meaning attribution
“Mama, It’s Peacetime!”: Planning, Shifting, and Designing Activities in the Smart Grid Scenario
Full text linkIn this paper, we describe a research-through-design (RtD) approach to investigate the potential of households’ electricity load balancing in the smart grid. Through the design probe “Peacetime”, householders explore peak hours as opportunities for serene and non-electricity consuming activities. During two weeks Peacetime was deployed in the homes of three households to explore an alternative framing of non-use of electricity to the commonly used framework for prompting people with feedback on their consumption. Households’ active load balancing included planning of, replacing, reorganizing and skipping everyday domestic activities. Results indicate that focus could be shifted from restricting electricity use to creating alternatives – leading to a positive framing of load balancing. The scenarios reflected in this paper differ from those of rational energy managers basing decisions of domestic life on complex facts and figures. Scenarios from the study portray how planning, reorganization, and time shifting of activities may be obtained with soft means emphasizing values of wellbeing and respect of the variation of households’ social contexts.QC 20241120Part of ISBN 978-953-51-3588-3, 978-953-51-3587-6</p
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