Design and semantics of form and movement (DeSForM 2006)

Design and Semantics of Form and Movement (DeSForM) grew from applied research exploring emerging design methods and practices to support new generation product and interface design. The products and interfaces are concerned with: the context of ubiquitous computing and ambient technologies and the need for greater empathy in the pre-programmed behaviour of the ‘machines’ that populate our lives. Such explorative research in the CfDR has been led by Young, supported by Kyffin, Visiting Professor from Philips Design and sponsored by Philips Design over a period of four years (research funding £87k). DeSForM1 was the first of a series of three conferences that enable the presentation and debate of international work within this field: • 1st European conference on Design and Semantics of Form and Movement (DeSForM1), Baltic, Gateshead, 2005, Feijs L., Kyffin S. & Young R.A. eds. • 2nd European conference on Design and Semantics of Form and Movement (DeSForM2), Evoluon, Eindhoven, 2006, Feijs L., Kyffin S. & Young R.A. eds. • 3rd European conference on Design and Semantics of Form and Movement (DeSForM3), New Design School Building, Newcastle, 2007, Feijs L., Kyffin S. & Young R.A. eds. Philips sponsorship of practice-based enquiry led to research by three teams of research students over three years and on-going sponsorship of research through the Northumbria University Design and Innovation Laboratory (nuDIL). Young has been invited on the steering panel of the UK Thinking Digital Conference concerning the latest developments in digital and media technologies. Informed by this research is the work of PhD student Yukie Nakano who examines new technologies in relation to eco-design textiles

Artificial intelligence in the design process

The book discusses how to include artificial intelligence (AI) systems in the early stages of the design process. Today designers need new tools capable of supporting them in dealing with the increasing project’s complexity and empowering their performances and capabilities. AI systems appear to be powerful means to enhance designers’ creativity. This assumption was tested in a workshop where sixteen participants collaborated with three AI systems throughout the creative phases of research, sketching, and color selection. Results show that designers can access a broader level of variance and inspiration while reducing the risk of fossilization by triggering lateral thinking through AI-generated data. Therefore, AI could significantly impact the creative phases of the design process if applied consciously. Being AI systems intelligent agents, the book treats the Human-AI collaboration as a collaboration between human agents, proposing a set of guidelines helpful to achieving an efficient partnership with the machine

Artificial intelligence in the design process

The book discusses how to include artificial intelligence (AI) systems in the early stages of the design process. Today designers need new tools capable of supporting them in dealing with the increasing project’s complexity and empowering their performances and capabilities. AI systems appear to be powerful means to enhance designers’ creativity. This assumption was tested in a workshop where sixteen participants collaborated with three AI systems throughout the creative phases of research, sketching, and color selection. Results show that designers can access a broader level of variance and inspiration while reducing the risk of fossilization by triggering lateral thinking through AI-generated data. Therefore, AI could significantly impact the creative phases of the design process if applied consciously. Being AI systems intelligent agents, the book treats the Human-AI collaboration as a collaboration between human agents, proposing a set of guidelines helpful to achieving an efficient partnership with the machine

Distributed Synchronous Visualization Design: Challenges and Strategies

We reflect on our experiences as designers of COVID-19 data visualizations working in a distributed synchronous design space during the pandemic. This is especially relevant as the pandemic posed new challenges to distributed collaboration amidst civic lockdown measures and an increased dependency on spatially distributed teamwork across almost all sectors. Working from home being 'the new normal', we explored potential solutions for collaborating and prototyping remotely from our own homes using the existing tools at our disposal. Since members of our cross-disciplinary team had different technical skills, we used a range of synchronous remote design tools and methods. We aimed to preserve the richness of co-located collaboration such as face-to-face physical presence, body gestures, facial expressions, and the making and sharing of physical artifacts. While meeting over Zoom, we sketched on paper and used digital collaboration tools, such as Miro and Google Docs. Using an auto-ethnographic approach, we articulate our challenges and strategies throughout the process, providing useful insights about synchronous distributed collaboration.Comment: Final published versio

Climate adaptation in design education:applying a fourstep research by design strategy

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the insights gained by testing in a design studio a particular research-by-design strategy, focusing on the generation of innovative solutions for climate change adaptation. The strategy is based on the Design Thinking Process and has been applied in the climate adaptation design studio, which took place in 2022 at a Master of Architecture degree program in the Netherlands. The case study area was the Zernike university campus in Groningen, the Netherlands, which is situated in the verge between the city and the surrounding rural landscape, facing the urgent climate change challenges of the wider region, mainly floodings due to increased frequency of rainfalls and sea level rise. Furthermore, the area faces particular challenges, such as the increasing demand for serving additional needs, beyond the current educational and business related functions, such as (student) housing. Three indicative design research projects were selected to illustrate the tested research-by-design strategy, while systematic input has been collected from the participating students regarding the impact of this strategy on their design process. The results reveal that this strategy facilitates the iterative research-by-design process and hence offers a systematic approach to convert the threats of climate change into opportunities by unravelling the potentials of the study area, resulting in place-based, innovative and adaptive solutions

Cocreation In Context: An Evaluation of Participatory Technology Design for Enhancing Community Engagement with Public Spaces

The integration of interactive public displays into urban regeneration is a dynamic research area, extending beyond traditional screens to offer accessible, alternative interactions in outdoor settings. These displays not only provide users with a wealth of information but also provide in depth emotionally charged interactions, evoking nostalgia and re-engaging people with a space.In the ever-evolving urban landscape, this thesis addresses the challenges posed by adapting spaces and the effect this can have on the way people engage with these spaces, highlighting a need for innovative interventions to help communities to remain engaged with their local spaces. This work centres on integrating interactive public displays into urban environments, with a primary focus on evoking nostalgia (an affectionate feeling for the past [54]) and topophilia (emotional connections to a space [271]). This thesis embarks on a journey, engaging a diverse range of users, including designers, children, regeneration experts, and community members. It commences with a nine-month deployment of a tangible embedded interface into a dynamic urban context, receiving over 10,000 session interactions. This real-world experience shows the importance of incorporating aspects of cultural heritage and immersive content into informative designs. Subsequently, the journey explores uncharted territories, navigating the landscape of cocreation methods and collaborative efforts, culminating in the development of a multisensory installation, that integrates olfactory, auditory, and visual elements. This exploration delves into the intricacies of community engagement, technology integration, nostalgia, and the dynamics of urban regeneration. As these chapters unfold, valuablelessons are drawn from field experiences, guiding a reflective journey through the design process with an aim to advance interactive public display creation by addressing gaps in design tools and methodologies. Resulting in feature requirements for an overarching master design suite, this contribution advances the field of HCI within urban regeneration. It brings together valuable lessons learned and recommendations for integrating novel multimodal installations of the future, while also addressing the need for adaptable tools to facilitate their design. This holistic approach underscores the transformative potential of technology in shaping urban environments and community engagement

An investigation of the development of students’ and teachers’ perceptions towards technology: A framework for reconstructing technology education in Malawi

The study investigated students’ and teachers’ perceptions towards technology and technology education with the ultimate aim of developing their beliefs and practices suitable for teaching and learning broad-based technology education and to inform future policy framework for restructuring the curriculum. Research leading to the development of technology as a school curriculum shows emphasis on the importance of students developing technological literacy essential for living in a technologically mediated society but little is known about developments related to teaching and learning technology in Malawi schools. Malawi’s Vision 2020, the Science and Technology Policy for Malawi and the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy 2006 – 2011 stipulated the need for schooling in Malawi to help students attain technological literacy as it was seen as instrumental for economic growth and development. Attempts were undertaken to include science and technology and also craft, design and technology as learning areas, but among a myriad of factors, teachers lacked theoretical, philosophical and pedagogical underpinnings of the subjects. The existing curriculum also has little scope for developing student technological knowledge and capabilities which would enable them to understand, create, control and manipulate technology. The need now is to establish technology education as a more comprehensive curriculum area than that promulgated in the technical curriculum. This study therefore provided teachers with an opportunity to broaden their understanding of the nature of technology and technology education critical for their meaningful conceptualisation of teaching and learning technology. The focus of the study was to explore influences of, expand the teachers’ and students’ ideas about technology and technology education and also to enhance teaching practices. In order to capture a more holistic understanding of such influences, an interpretive research methodology was adopted and the teachers were involved in in-depth, one-on-one and semi-structured interviews, group discussions and classroom observations before and after professional development workshops. This helped to collectively construct the social reality surrounding the teachers’ existing beliefs and teaching practices and how to change those practices and beliefs. The study was situated in a socio-cultural theoretical framework by encouraging collaborative interactions among teachers in their school groups. The study began by examining students’ and teachers’ existing beliefs and practices and these were seen as impacting on how and what teachers learn. A teacher professional development programme incorporating those beliefs and practices and also focusing on social-cultural frameworks of learning was organised to help teachers reconceptualise their understanding about the nature of technology and technology education. The professional development programme also incorporated a discussion of PATT modelling as a tool for teacher learning of students’ conceptualisation of technology and reflections of their own learning in the workshops. Key characteristics of the professional development model, therefore, included: ∙ An understanding and incorporating the teachers’ beliefs and practices into the professional development programme for teachers to change such beliefs and adopt broader views of technology. ∙ Encouraging collaborative learning in their schools for teachers to share knowledge, their own experiences and that of others, and planning presentations of their interpretations of selected scholarly readings. ∙ Teachers learning about technology from the perspectives of students using PATT data that was seen as an effective professional development tool. ∙ On-going reflections and support to enhance teachers’ capacities to reflect on their own experiences for purposeful change. The professional development helped teachers develop a broader understanding of the nature of technology and technology education using a model that focussed on teachers developing their own concepts through readings of scholarly papers, learning from other teachers’ experiences and through discussion of student concepts and attitudes to technology. Findings of the research revealed an effective professional development model focussed on social cultural frameworks of learning that resulted in teachers’ positive perceptions of technology and technology education. They had also shown innovations to implement technology as a consequence of their enhanced technological pedagogical knowledge. Three key findings arose from the study, and these are: ∙ The teachers’ contexts and the stance on the goals of the technical education curriculum influence understanding of the nature of technology and technology education. ∙ Enhanced technological pedagogical knowledge promotes teachers’ innovations to develop and implement technological activities. ∙ A professional development underpinned by social cultural frameworks of learning is an effective model when it incorporates teachers’ beliefs and experiences. The findings of the study have implications for pre-service and in-service teacher education and development, policy change in relation to curriculum reviews and reforms in Malawi and other developing countries. There are also implications for further research that focus on developing knowledge and understanding among teachers on how to improve teaching and learning that enhances student technological literacy but which considers the context being targeted by the curriculum. Enabling policy for implementing technology education in Malawi exists but a successful realisation of the policy goals is entirely dependent on teachers’ shared understanding about the nature of technology and technology education. This study provided teachers with a rare opportunity for further professional growth and development leading to improved teaching practices and knowledge about technology and technology education. Therefore, more research of this nature would be required to help develop capacity for reconstructing technology education in Malawi and other developing nations which may also plan to shift from colonial industrial arts-based curriculum to a broad-based technology education