Food as Experience A Design and Evaluation Methodology

This research, conducted for Frito Lay-North America, Inc, demonstrates how new product designs, package designs, concepts, and prototypes can be created based on the social, emotional, cognitive, and sensory information gathered through a combined methodology based on activity theory, Kansei Engineering and the ZMET process. The study examines how activity theory can be used to observe situational settings mediated by products for the purpose of collecting significant social and behavioral data. It also examines how Kansei methods can be used to evaluate sensory experiences and how the ZMET process can be used to gather demographic and marketing data. The outcome of this research concludes that activity theory, Kansei engineering, and ZMET are each useful, however, none of these methods used in isolation are sufficient to inform all aspects of marketing, new product development, and package design decisions. However, as a combined design and evaluation methodology they can provide more useful data for these processes. Keywords: Experience Design, Kansei Assessment, Food, Activity Theory</p

Designing for Design Activity

The area of graphic design has expanded since digital media was introduced, and it requires new creative thinking skills in the design process. This paper proposes a design process for a graphic design graduate class using activity theory as a theoretical background. This design process consists of three phases to solve the design problems within diverse design projects. Each phase was examined in terms of how the elements of activity theory could apply to the design process. As a research method, Engeström’s activity system model was adapted and explored in the design processes. A case study is presented to see how the proposed design process applied to a design project. Keywords: Graphic Design Project, Design Process, Activity Theory, Prototyping</p

A study of stakeholders' experience of the architectural design process to stimulate an interactive form of communication

The architectural design process involves the input of many stakeholders. Communication between them is crucial as it ensures an effective design process. The practice of architecture has been transformed by advances in hardware and software technologies, to the point where both the workflow and the design process are changing. These technologies have also impacted on the methods of representing and communicating design work. At present, traditional communication uses 2D and 3D drawings, as well as digital media such as animation, computer gaming or graphic design, which have impacted on architectural representations. While these tools are very useful, problems in communication between stakeholders are revealed. For instance, differences in architectural background knowledge and requirements lead to misunderstanding the design, confusion caused by working on inconsistent information, and use of incompatible software which causes difficulties in accessing work. This research project attempts to identify and analyse issues relating to communication within the design process in order to improve it. The study is undertaken using a number of key questions to guide the development and progress of the research. The extent of communication via digital media in the design process, in contemporary architectural practice, is examined, along with the perceived value of digital technology by stakeholders. Architectural design work would benefit from exploiting digital media and the Internet to provide an effective form of communication for enabling a user/stakeholder-oriented involvement in the design process. The work presented revisits the conventional methods of communication in design work, between various interested parties in any given project (stakeholders: architects, engineers, planners and clients), with a view to formulating an outline for a potential system that facilitates communication as part of a participatory design process. This study puts forward suggestions to improve communication in the design process, through a storyboard represents users’ experiences in using an interactive communication system. The suggestions are being tested through a mock-up of the web application, which is then presented to participants to receive feedback. Three guiding principles inform the development of the final system: interaction (to allow fast input and feedback); accessibility (to ensure any particular design software is able to interact with the system); and inclusivity (to allow both specialists and lay people to use the system)

A Study of the Role of Visual Information in Supporting Ideation in Graphic Design

Existing computer technologies poorly support the ideation phase common to graphic design practice. Finding and indexing visual material to assist the process of ideation often fall on the designer, leading to user experiences that are less than ideal. To inform development of computer systems to assist graphic designers in the ideation phase of the design process, we conducted interviews with 15 professional graphic designers about their design process and visual information needs. Based on the study, we propose a set of requirements for an ideation-support system for graphic design

Strategies for organising the attention of receivers in e-mail marketing

 The article entitled “Strategies for organising the attention of receivers in e-mail marketing” discusses issues within social communication, more specifically e-mail advertising communication. In it, I consider the intention to draw the attention of receivers as the major element of said type of communication. The creators of advertisements utilise various methods for presenting their offers, as, in the light of market research, e-mail communication still holds a high significance in marketing. E-mail inboxes are often filled with advertising messages. Users easily identify some of those as advertising messages, and remove them without engaging their attention resources. Other, however, require more careful consideration as they do not reveal their commercial provenance, or even force users to open them. In order to discover the communication-based mechanisms which lay at the foundation of the influence on the receiver, I conducted a study of the material that I collected within a period of 2 years; there I analysed only those elements of an e-mail visible to receivers prior to clicking on a message. Eventually, I extracted 300 examples indicating the applications of the strategies discussed in the article, one of which is based on the intention to highlight an offer among other messages, while the other is aimed at concealing the marketing dimension of an offer. The assumed perspective of this communication-based study was explained by a description of an interdisciplinary nature: I discuss each strategy from the perspective of a linguist, I propose explanations of the mechanisms of their operation based on the knowledge regarding selected psychological mechanisms, and I indicated the operating tactics utilised within each strategy. The significance of the study was emphasised by the fact that a conscious and intentional concealment of the purpose of an e-mail constitutes an instrumental approach to receivers. Therefore, the application by the senders of advertising messages of the discussed strategies raises justified ethical doubts, and demands further research consideration, which might lead to legislative solutions

Using the Co-design Process to Build Non-designer Ability in Making Visual Thinking Tools

This research is a case study of using co-design as a way of assisting the capacity building process for an Indianapolis-based community organizer. The community organizer seeks to develop a visual thinking tool for enhancing her engagement with community participants. Community organizers face a wide array of complicated challenges, addressing these kinds of challenges and social issues calls for innovative and inclusive approaches to community problem solving. The author hopes this case study will showcase itself as an example of leveraging design thinking and visual thinking to support and equip more first-line workers who are non-designers to do their community jobs with a more creative problem-solving approach

Exploring perceptions and attitudes towards teaching and learning manual technical drawing in a digital age

This paper examines the place of manual technical drawing in the 21st century by discussing the perceived value and relevance of teaching school students how to draw using traditional instruments, in a world of computer aided drafting (CAD). Views were obtained through an e-survey, questionnaires and structured interviews. The sample groups represent professional CAD users (e.g. engineers, architects); university lecturers; Technology Education teachers and student teachers; and school students taking Scottish Qualification Authority (SQA) Graphic Communication courses. An analysis of these personal views and attitudes indicates some common values between the various groups canvassed of what instruction in traditional manual technical drafting contributes towards learning. Themes emerge such as problem solving, visualisation, accuracy, co-ordination, use of standard conventions, personal discipline and artistry. In contrast to the assumptions of Prensky's thesis (2001a&b) of digital natives, the study reported in this paper indicate that the school students apparently appreciate the experience of traditional drafting. In conclusion, the paper illustrates the perceived value of such learning in terms of transferable skills, personal achievement and enjoyment

The civic survey of Greater London: social mapping, planners and urban space in the early twentieth century

This paper examines work conducted between 1915 and 1919 by a group of architects and planners based at the Royal Institute of British Architects. The project, called the Civic Survey of Greater London, and the substantial collection of maps and diagrams that resulted from it are currently unknown in histories of mapping and planning, thus this paper offers a preliminary account and analysis of the work. The paper begins by assessing the development of surveying and mapping techniques in the nineteenth century with the aim of situating the Survey within broader historical trajectories. The following section of the paper examines the immediate context for the Survey, in particular the place of Patrick Geddes and his ideas. The third part of the paper focuses on the work of the Survey itself. The fourth part draws out key analytical threads in dialogue with a number of the maps of the Survey. The emphasis placed here is on exploring lines of continuity between the Civic Survey of Greater London and earlier techniques of representation and governmentality. The concluding section reflects briefly on the reasons for the Survey's subsequent relative obscurity and the importance of the project for later traditions of surveying

Visualization in cyber-geography: reconsidering cartography's concept of visualization in current usercentric cybergeographic cosmologies

This article discusses some epistemological problems of a semiotic and cybernetic character in two current scientific cosmologies in the study of geographic information systems (GIS) with special reference to the concept of visualization in modern cartography. Setting off from Michael Batty’s prolegomena for a virtual geography and Michael Goodchild’s “Human-Computer-Reality-Interaction” as the field of a new media convergence and networking of GIS-computation of geo-data, the paper outlines preliminarily a common field of study, namely that of cybernetic geography, or just “cyber-geography) owing to the principal similarities with second order cybernetics. Relating these geographical cosmologies to some of Science’s dominant, historical perceptions of the exploring and appropriating of Nature as an “inventory of knowledge”, the article seeks to identify some basic ontological and epistemological dimensions of cybernetic geography and visualization in modern cartography. The points made is that a generalized notion of visualization understood as the use of maps, or more precisely as cybergeographic GIS-thinking seems necessary as an epistemological as well as a methodological prerequisite to scientific knowledge in cybergeography. Moreover do these generalized concept seem to lead to a displacement of the positions traditionally held by the scientist and lay-man citizen, that is not only in respect of the perception of the matter studied, i.e. the field of geography, but also of the manner in which the scientist informs the lay-man citizen in the course of action in the public participation in decision making; a displacement that seems to lead to a more critical, or perhaps even quasi-scientific approach as concerns the lay-man user