Designing for perceptive qualities : 7 showcases

ABSTRACT In this paper we describe seven showcases, namely ‘BeTouched’, ‘Dawe & Valle’, ‘Wonderturf’, ‘IN2WACO’, ‘Blow!’, ‘ShyLight’ and ‘PeR’, that give relevant insights on how to design for perceptive qualities in artifacts. Designing these perceptive qualities hypothetically enables a person to engage in a reciprocal perceptive interplay with the artifact: perceptual crossing between person and artifact can happen. This paper is part of an ongoing research in which we designed, built and evaluated several artifacts with perceptive qualities and in which we discovered a set of design notions. The theoretical model and the design notions involved in this research-project are introduced. The showcases illustrate and give value insights on the application of the theoretical model and the design notions

Designing for perceptual crossing : applying and evaluating design notions

In this paper we describe our research on how to design for perceptual crossing between person and artefact. We present the design-research process, the design and evaluation of the designed artefact PeP+, short for perception pillar plus, and the generated design relevant knowledge. In our previous research we formulated a number of design notions, namely Focus the Senses, Active Behaviour Object, Subtleness, Reaction to External Event, Detecting Active Behaviour Subject, Reflecting Contextual Noise and Course of Perception in Time. These notions are relevant for designing perceptive activity in an artefact to allow for perceptual crossing between a person and this artefact. The person is able to get the feeling of sharing a common space with the artefact: to feel involved. To further investigate these design notions we reconsidered and implemented them in the design of PeP+. We discuss how the different design notions are applied in the artefact and show their relevance in an experiment. In this experiment we compare three behaviours, namely random, following and active, of PeP+ that are the result of the development of the design notions. The experiment gave insights into the development of the design notions and the experience of the person. This research uses phenomenology as a theoretical framework. Theory is used as inspiration and is the basis for synthesis

Impact de l’expérience immersive sur la prise en compte du kansei en design industriel amont

In an ever-changing context, the industrial design uses representation as a vector for inspiration and as a tool to operate stylistic choices which in turn enable the shaping of the experience induced by the designed product.This doctoral research presents the comparative study of traditional early design activity and immersive early design activity. This enables the evaluation and modeling of Virtual Kansei Design. My work essentially address the application and experimentation of fundamental theories through the design of two successive tools composing and innovative early design process.• The Immersive Moodboards are spatial immersive inspirational environments dedicated to the understanding of a stylistic trend, designed to substitute and enhance traditional moodboards.• The Immersive sketching is a generational environment enabling the design to position, erase, manipulate… a graphical mark in a three dimensional space planned for the creation of the first ideation sketches.This research aim to develop tools and a digital immersive workflow which first of all enables the design to anticipate Kansei (holistic relationship between the designer/user and the product) in order to optimize strategic style related choices and secondly enhances the fidelity between inspiration and generation while increasing the ability of the designer to produce innovating and aesthetic concepts.Dans un contexte industriel en constante évolution, le designer industriel utilise la représentation comme un vecteur lui permettant de s’inspirer et d’opérer des choix stylistiques afin d’imaginer l’expérience induite par les concepts de produits qu’il développe. Ce travail doctoral présente l'étude comparative entre l'activité de design amont traditionnelle et l'activité de design amont immersive, permettant l'évaluation et la modélisation de l'activité de Kansei Design Virtuel. Mes travaux portent essentiellement sur l'application et l'expérimentation de théories fondamentales à travers la conception de deux outils consécutifs du processus de design:• Les Univers de Tendance sont des environnements inspirationnels spatiaux immersifs dédies à la compréhension d'une tendance stylistique et conçu pour substituer et augmenter le rôle des planches de tendances traditionnelles.• Le Dessin Tridimensionnel Immersif est un environnement générationnel permettant au designer de déposer, effacer, manipuler… un tracé dans l'espace et dédié aux premiers croquis d'idéation.Ces recherches ont pour but de développer des outils et un workflow digital immersif permettant d'une part, d'anticiper le Kansei (relation holistique designer/client-produit) afin d'optimiser les choix stylistiques stratégiques et d'autre part, de maximiser la fidélité de retranscription entre espace d'inspiration et espace de génération tout en augmentant la capacité du designer à produire des concepts esthétiques et innovants

Spatial Auditory Maps for Blind Travellers

Empirical research shows that blind persons who have the ability and opportunity to access geographic map information tactually, benefit in their mobility. Unfortunately, tangible maps are not found in large numbers. Economics is the leading explanation: tangible maps are expensive to build, duplicate and distribute. SAM, short for Spatial Auditory Map, is a prototype created to address the unavail- ability of tangible maps. SAM presents geographic information to a blind person encoded in sound. A blind person receives maps electronically and accesses them using a small in- expensive digitalizing tablet connected to a PC. The interface provides location-dependent sound as a stylus is manipulated by the user, plus a schematic visual representation for users with residual vision. The assessment of SAM on a group of blind participants suggests that blind users can learn unknown environments as complex as the ones represented by tactile maps - in the same amount of reading time. This research opens new avenues in visualization techniques, promotes alternative communication methods, and proposes a human-computer interaction framework for conveying map information to a blind person