Supporting Worth Mapping with Sentence Completion

Expectations for design and evaluation approaches are set by the development practices within which they are used. Worth Centred Development (WCD) seeks to both shape and fit such practices. We report a study that combined two WCD approaches. Sentence completion gathered credible quantitative data on user values, which were used to identify relevant values and aversions of two player groups for an online gambling site. These values provided human value elements for a complementary WCD approach of worth mapping. Initial worth maps were extended in three workshops, which focused on outcomes and user experiences that could be better addressed in the current product and associated marketing materials. We describe how worth maps were prepared for, and presented in, workshops, and how product owners and associated business roles evaluated the combination of WCD approaches. Based on our experiences, we offer practical advice on this combinination

Towards a Cross-Disciplinary Sound Design Methodology: A Focus on Semiotics and Linguistics

Esta tese foca-se no mundo do design de som, centrando-se no desenvolvimento de uma metodologia que engloba várias disciplinas. Explora o papel do design de som na transmissão de mensagens, servindo de interface entre utilizadores e dispositivos. O estudo também investiga os paralelos entre a semiótica e a linguística e o design de som, interpretando como os sons podem atuar como sinais que representam outras entidades, com base em convenções sociais estabelecidas, e como podemos utilizar a linguística como modelo para criar sons não-falados que, tal como a linguagem, transmitem sistematicamente um significado ao utilizador. Através desta análise abrangente, o trabalho pretende contribuir para o campo, propondo uma metodologia interdisciplinar para o design de som, melhorando assim a experiência auditiva em diversos contextos.This thesis delves into the intricate world of sound design, focusing on the development of a methodology that encompasses various disciplines. It explores the role of sound design in conveying messages, serving as an interface between users and devices. The study also investigates the parallels between semiotics and linguistics and sound design, interpreting how sounds can act as signs that represent other entities, based on established social conventions and how we can use linguistics as a model to create non-speech sounds that just like language systematically convey meaning to the user. Through this comprehensive analysis, the work aims to contribute to the field by proposing a cross-disciplinary methodology for sound design, thereby enhancing the auditory experience in diverse contexts

Exploring the role of graphic design in enhancing the brand identity and menu designs of restaurants: a case study approach

This Thesis examines the important role of graphic design in improving restaurant branding and menu design using a case study approach. The aim is to explore how effective graphic design strategies can help create a strong brand presence and compelling menu design in the restaurant industry. It includes two design projects: the development of the visual identity for an ice cream restaurant and a salad restaurant. The effectiveness of these graphic design interventions in increasing awareness, attracting customers, and conveying brand personality is analyzed and discussed. The findings provide valuable insight into the world of restaurant branding and the impact of well-executed graphic design on creating a successful business identity

Can design documentaries disrupt design for disability?

This paper shows how design documentaries can motivate new perspectives for design and disability. We critically consider the ways in which design documentaries can foreground children's lived experiences and priorities, in cases where it is not always possible to involve children early on in the design process. By presenting a design case for supporting communication that involves children with severe speech and physical impairments and their social peers, we discuss how this narrative method can evoke designer empathy and guide new interpretations. Our findings show that design documentaries can convey to designers rich and multifaceted accounts of children's communication experiences. Although this is found to be generative, we also identify a tension with a bodily impairment understanding of disability. Drawing on reflections from our case study, we propose new methodological implications for embedding design documentaries in the design process of technologies for disability

Creating personas for political and social consciousness in HCI design

Personas have become an important tool for Human-Computer Interaction professionals. However, they are not immune to limitations and critique, including stereotyping. We suggest that while some of the criticisms to personas are important, the use of personas is open to them in part because of an unquestioned focus on explicating user needs and goals in traditional persona research and creation. This focus, while helping designers, obscures some other potentially relevant aspects. In particular, when the goal of the product or software being designed is associated with social and political goals rather than with bringing a product to the market, it may be relevant to focus personas on political aspirations, social values and the will or capacity of personas to take action. We argue that it is possible when producing personas (and associated scenarios) to partially move away from representing needs and embrace personas which more explicitly represent political or social beliefs and values. We also suggest that a phenomenographic approach to user data analysis is one way to achieve this. We provide empirical evidence for our position from two large-scale European projects, the first one in the area of Social Innovation and the second in the area of eParticipation

Experience in Social Affective Applications: Methodologies and Case Study

New forms of social affective applications are emerging, bringing with them challenges in design and evaluation. We report on one such application, conveying well-being for both personal and group benefit, and consider why existing methodologies may not be suitable, before explaining and analyzing our proposed approach. We discuss our experience of using and writing about the methodology, in order to invite discussion about its suitability in particular, as well as the more general need for methodologies to examine experience and affect in social, connected situations. As these fields continue to interact, we hope that these discussions serve to aid in studying and learning from these types of application

Just design

Inclusive design prescribes addressing the needs of the widest possible audience in order to consider human differences. Taking differences seriously, however, may imply severely restricting “the widest possible audience”. In confronting this paradox, we investigate to what extent Rawls’ theory of justice as fairness applies to design. By converting the paradox into the question of how design can be fair, we show that the demand for equitability shifts from the design output to the design process. We conclude that the two main questions about justice find application in design: the question about the standards of justice and the question about its metrics. We endorse a Rawlsian approach to the former, while some revision may be due regarding the latter

Pervasive Technologies and Support for Independent Living

A broad range of pervasive technologies are used in many domains, including healthcare: however, there appears to be little work examining the role of such technologies in the home, or the different wants and needs of elderly users. Additionally, there exist ethical issues surrounding the use of highly personal healthcare-related data, and interface issues centred on the novelty of the technologies and the disabilities experienced by the users. This report examines these areas, before considering the ways in which they might come together to help support independent-living users with disabilities which may be age-related