About integration opportunities between TRIZ and biomimetics for inventive design

AbstractThis paper presents the first results of a Ph.D. program aimed at investigating the domain interface between TRIZ and Biomimetics within the scope of inventive design. Indeed, a few authors have already proposed as a relevant direction of research the identification of integration opportunities between TRIZ and Biomimetics towards a more effective and efficient inventive design methodology. The paper presents a comparison between the tools based on functional modeling used during the process of problem solving within TRIZ and Biomimetics. This comparison intends to elicit overlaps, complementarities and incongruences of these techniques. The indications about how to improve the process of describing natural solutions in an engineering way and how to describe technical problems in order to use natural information as source of inspiration are given by analyzing few examples. The results are discussed in terms of necessary modifications in the engineering problem description in order to use a database of biological functions (i.e. the Biomimicry Taxonomy) as a source of natural knowledge in the process of inventive design

Discovering design: enhancing the capability to design at the cultural interface between first Australian and western design paradigms

This thesis claims that the First Australian design paradigm is distinct from the paradigms of design articulated in the Western canon (such as the rational and reflective design paradigms). I also investigate what it means to design at the cultural interface between First Australian and Western design paradigms, and identify the capability dimensions that are valued when expanding the freedom to design, from within a First Australia design paradigm as well as at the cultural interface. The methodology is informed by approaches to decolonising research at the cultural interface, which respect Indigenous ways of knowing, doing and being. My approach to the methodology informs the phenomenological basis of this study; I use Ricoeur’s approach to hermeneutical phenomenology (HP), as it appears to be suited to cross-cultural interpretation and compatible with the principles of Indigenous standpoint theory that guide research at the cultural interface. The results reveal that First Australian design should be understood as a process of experiential, reflective, respectful, relational discovery, rather than creation. It emphasises the relational aspect and should be understood as a process of connecting people with each other, and to the wider social and natural systems, to maintain a sense of harmony. When designing at the cultural interface between First and Later Australians, the most important differences and tensions seem to occur in the axiological and epistemological dimensions: the principles, the normative questions of what should be designed associated with innovation and creativity, the knowledge system characteristics, and issues of cultural identity and community. Valued capabilities when expanding the freedom to design at the cultural interface include the capability to develop empowering partnerships, and to maintain the integrity of cultural reproduction at the cultural interface

Inclusive colour and information design

Background: The roles and responsibilities of designers today include considering how design outcomes can have a positive influence on people’s lives and our society. However, inaccessible design outcomes that are created by designers are commonplace. This is an issue identified by scholars from various fields of design research. Aim: The main aim of this research is to explore the fundamental reasons behind the phenomenon of design exclusion in our society by gaining an interpretive understanding of the meaning of the behaviour of individual designers. This is based on the belief that individuals in designer groups will share aspects of the same reality and express these through language, based on sociolinguistic approaches combining theories of the community of practice and linguistic relativity. The ultimate purpose is to consider more effective ways of offering user-related colour information to designers from a perspective of inclusive design within the socially responsible design paradigm. Methods: There were three designer studies in this research project which apply multidisciplinary methodological approaches. These were think-aloud protocol, surveys, interviews, focus groups, and colour design experiments. The data collected was analysed both qualitatively by adopting linguistic analysis, thematic analysis, and content analysis, and quantitatively by applying descriptive statistics. Results: In the first designer study, a think-aloud protocol was utilised to explore characteristics of designers by analysing their language use while doing a colour description task. This involved comparing a designer group and a non-designer group. Behavioural features also were observed. The fundamental characteristics of designers were explored by applying linguistic analysis considering four key adjectives (associative, evocative, emotive, and imaginative). These indicate why designers continue to produce inaccessible design artefacts. Three adverbs (artistically, emotionally, and creatively) may indicate ways to provide information for designers to motivate them to think about users of design artefacts. Based on the findings from the first study, the second designer study considered how we can apply and use fundamental characteristics of designers to encourage them to change their designing behaviour towards a more user-centred inclusive perspective. For this, a new attempt at providing information was made by creating a set of Affective Imaginary Information [AII] card formats in both digital and physical forms. These included facial images that conveyed emotions. The contents of each of the AII card formats were decided on based on a small additional user study. The actual set of AII card formats was created collaboratively by the author of this thesis with a professional graphic designer and an information design researcher. Focus group interviews were carried out subsequently with design doctoral students to gain feedback for refinement, and evaluate the usefulness of the AII formats. Due to the emotional and creative characteristics of designers, when looking at the AII formats, design participants tended to imagine the situation of information users and create a story when they look at the facial emotion. More refined AII card formats were created following this stage. In the third designer study, the set of AII card formats were used for actual colour design tasks to test the practical use of the format. The actual use of colour information and designers’ experience while doing tasks were investigated among designer groups with different levels of experience, using online surveys and email interviews. Furthermore, professional design educators were involved to evaluate the usefulness of the AII card formats and gain their suggestions for future directions for these AII formats. This was done by email interviews. Thus, in this stage, the AII card formats were tested by designers with different levels of experience, and positively evaluated by professional design educators. Conclusion: Designers display emotion and subjectivity toward design tasks. In tasks they tended to focus on expressing their personal feelings, experiences, or preferences, even neglecting design tasks. Also, a subjective outlook, and use of personal factors (design sensibilities, previous subjective experiences, imagination, intuition, perceptions of common sense, and conjecture) along with their effect on design tasks were discovered throughout designer studies. Considering the fundamental characteristics of designers, it is likely that AII card formats with use of facial expressions would be useful in communicating user experiences to designers as this encourages designers to imagine the situation of users and empathise with their feelings. Further investigation is needed about the appropriate amount of text in combination with appropriate images for designers as a source of information and inspiration. Research is needed also on what makes designers heavily react emotionally and subjectively to design tasks and the positive or negative impact of this on design and our society. Contribution: Various research methods and analysis techniques were applied throughout this research project. This has enhanced the reliability of the outcomes of the research by providing in-depth findings. Furthermore, sociolinguistic theories and concepts were applied to the design research project to examine the phenomena of design exclusion and inclusion by analysing designers’ linguistic characteristics. This is a new theoretical and methodological approach in the area of design which broadens ways of approaching and understanding the behaviour of designers. Also, based on understanding of characteristics of designers, the AII card formats were created. These were tested, evaluated, and revised several times by designers (with different years of work experience and also different levels of design education) in addition to design education experts. All the procedures for creating the AII formats and final outcomes may encourage design researchers to consider how the characteristics of designers can be used to create visual information formats for them, and to consider how providing information effectively to designers may change their behaviour to empathise more with information users from an inclusive perspective

Een complex-cognitieve benadering van stedebouwkundig ontwerpen

This dissertation investigates: How urban design can be described as a collective cognitive activity in a complex living environment; How urban designers move across scales in their search for coherence; How urban designers, while moving across scales, can be subject to a variety of misconceptions and biases; How isovists and patterns can be used as design instruments to mitigate the negative effects of these misconceptions and biases; And, how urban design practice, and the concept of spatial quality in the province of North-Holland in particular, can be understood on the basis of the proposed theoretical framework. The research method applied is transdisciplinary. It employs knowledge from cognitive science, complexity science, design sciences and urban design to build up a theoretical framework and a conceptual model. Parallel to this, two design instruments were developed and applied, and a case study was conducted. The goal of the research is: To develop a conceptual model of urban design, in which the dynamics of the design process and the dynamics of the living environment are interrelated, by which the role and position of urban design and the concept of spatial quality can be denoted scientifically. Part A. Theoretical framework and conceptual model In the theoretical framework and the conceptual model a distinction is made between designing as a complex system and the living environment as a complex system, and the relation between the two. The first part builds upon insight from the design sciences by relating them to the notion of Synergetic Inter-Representation Networks (SIRN, Haken & Portugali, 1996; Portugali, 1996) and Construal Level Theory (CLT, Trope & Liberman, 2010). On the basis of SIRN, the interaction between internal representations (in our mind/brain) and external representations (in the environment) can be described. To this existing approach, a variety of design-related elements are added, considering designing as mental time travel, as looking for coherence, and the relation between individual, group and collective design processes. This has led to the SIRN+design model, a hypothetical-descriptive model of designing. On the basis of CLT, the movement between abstract and concrete information can be described. A distinction can be made between the different dimensions. From this perspective, the design sciences are examined, and several interrelated dimensions are identified: position in time, position in space, social distance, analogical distance, familiarity, and hypotheticality. Hereby, designing across scales can be described. Based on this CLT-design model, the difference between cognitive planning and cognitive designing, and the difference between analytical and creative tasks are set out. The second part builds upon complexity theories of the living environment (Portugali, Meyer, Stolk, and & Tan 2012). This living environment is not only described as a doubly complex system (Portugali, 2011) but also as Complex Adaptive Prospective System (CAPS). Herein, the dynamics of the living environment is not only described from the necessity to anticipate to changing conditions, but also on the basis of the capacity of humans to hold images of the future, act, and design accordingly. This establishes the relation between the dynamics of the living environment and the (collective) design process. On this basis, a specific type of professional design is addressed: urban design (stedebouw). A number of specific characteristics of urban design are explored. This discipline focuses on collective, large-scale and complex design processes and artifacts. Hereby, urban designers move on fairly large distances across scales, making them susceptible to different potential misconceptions and biases. Part B. Design tools and case study In addition, two design tools were developed and applied, and a case study was conducted. The first design tool is developed to mitigate the negative effects of the airplane-perspective-bias. Isovist-Based Visibility Analysis (IBVA) is a framework for the analysis of three-dimensional isovists, developed in collaboration with Arthur van Bilsen (Van Bilsen & Stolk, 2007). On the basis of IBVA, the visual space can be calculated on a large number of points. The resulting visual fields provide an insight into the three-dimensional space on a large scale in the flat plane. The second design tool builds upon the pattern language by Christopher Alexander (1977). It is proposed to structure the patterns based on the Form-Operation-Performance model (Tzonis, 1992; Guney, 2007) and to describe them based on the different CLT-dimensions. On the basis of the patterns, the negative effects of several potential misconceptions and biases, related to the cognitive activity of designing and the complexity of the living environment, can be reduced. The case Spatial quality in the province or North-Holland has been developed parallel to the development of the SIRN+CLT design model. This case illustrates how by using the model, implicit processes can be described, and how the concept of spatial quality is used in practice. The research has focused on the North Holland Strategic plan (Structuurvisie), the different instruments to improve the spatial quality, and the role of the province as a co-designer of spatial quality. It can be concluded that the scientific interpretation of urban design, based on the developed complex cognitive (SIRN + CLT) model, provides insight into the activities, position and context of urbanism. With this conclusion, the objective of this thesis is realized. From the discussion follow several observations that are highlighted for further research. The parts of the conceptual model can be developed and integrated further. This can provide a basis for developing a theory of urban design practice