Human-centred design: An emergent conceptual model

(Human-centred design: an emergent conceptual module by Zhang T and Dong H) Understanding human needs and how design responds to human needs are essential for human-centred design (HCD). By combining Maslow’s hierarchy of needs model and Küthe’s “design and society” model, this paper proposes a conceptual model of human-centred design which marries psychology and sociology in investigating the relationship between design and human needs. The study reveals a tendency that design evolution responds to the hierarchy of human needs. Nowadays design tends to care for more levels of human needs

Exploring the ethics of human-centred design

This seminar was delivered on 27th April 2012 by Dr Marc Steen, a senior scientist in human-centred design, co-design, open innovation and innovation management at TNO, a not-for profit organization for research and innovation in The Netherlands (www.tno.nl). He earned MSc, MTD and PhD degrees in Industrial Design Engineering at Delft University of Technology. Before joining TNO, he worked at Philips and KPN. Marc works in international projects TA2 (www.ta2-project.eu) and WeCare (www.wecare-project.eu) and for national and international clients. He is particularly interested in questions concerning creativity and cooperation, participation and empowerment, and ethics and reflexivity. The presentation was hosted at Brunel University as part of the Human Centred Design Institute (HCDI) Research Seminar Series. HCDI is a University Research Centre (URC) that brings together expertise in Human-centred Design which combines methodologies and technologies from design, engineering, computer science, artificial intelligence and philosophy. Human-centred Design leads to machines, systems and products which are physically, cognitively and emotionally intuitive to their users. The Human Centre Design seminar series are events designed to encourage communication and teamwork with colleagues across the university and experts leaders in human-centred related topics.This seminar will explore the ethics of human-centred design (HCD), where HCD is meant to refer to innovation processes that include user involvement and co-design (ISO 13407). Based on critical reflection in several HCD projects, and drawing from three schools of ethics, the idea is explored that the process of HCD has intrinsic ethical qualities: Ethics-of-alterity (Levinas, Derrida) helps to see HCD as a fragile encounter between other and self; Pragmatist ethics (Dewey) helps to construe HCD as a process of joint inquiry and imagination; and Virtue ethics (Aristotle) helps to understand the virtues of cooperation, curiosity, creativity and care. In addition, reflexivity is proposed as a way for practitioners to cope more mindfully with the ethical qualities, so that HCD projects can more effectively promote participation and empowerment, and help people to flourish. Moreover, one idea for future research is proposed: To study the relationships between our ways of organizing HCD, processes of participation and empowerment, and the effects on actually improving people’s well-being

Design for services

This seminar was delivered on 29th February 2012 by Dr Daniela Sangiorgi, a lecturer in Design at Imagination Lancaster - a design-led research lab at Lancaster University. The presentation was hosted at Brunel University as part of the Human Centred Design Institute (HCDI) Research Seminar Series. Daniela is an internationally recognised scholar in the field of Service Design research, with one of the first PhDs in the field and is co-author of the book “Design for Services” (2011) by Gower. Her research focuses on the role of Design for Service Innovation. She has participated in EU research projects looking into methodologies and best practices for service design and social innovation and has more recently participated in a UK EPSRC funded research project on the role of design within healthcare clinical commissioning. Daniela has been working with local manufacturing SMEs and multinational organisations exploring scenarios, competences and tools for their development into service solution providers.HCDI is a University Research Centre (URC) that brings together expertise in Human-centred Design which combines methodologies and technologies from design, engineering, computer science, artificial intelligence and philosophy. Human-centred Design leads to machines, systems and products which are physically, cognitively and emotionally intuitive to their users. The Human Centre Design seminar series are events designed to encourage communication and teamwork with colleagues across the university and experts leaders in human-centred related topics.This presentation will provide an overview of Design for Services as a discipline considering where it comes from, what it is doing now and a reflection of where it is going. It will draw on research conducted for the co-authored book ‘Design for Services’ (Meroni and Sangiorgi, 2011). It will use case studies to illustrate how Design for Services has been developing its role and competences by focusing on different areas of application related to service experiences, service systems, service models and service futures. The seminar will provide an opportunity to reflect on how the discipline is currently challenged by the transformation of the concept of services itself. Services are no longer considered as a design ‘object’, but as a ‘mean’ for supporting the emergence of a more collaborative, sustainable and creative society and economy; they are proposed as a higher conceptual order to think about innovation and value co-creation. This shift needs consideration when imagining the future of the Design for Service discipline

Human centred design: a paradigm for 21st century enterprise

This seminar was delivered on 7th March 2012 by Professor Joseph Giacomin, Director of the Human Centred Design Institute (HCDI) based in the Department of Design in the School of Engineering and Design at Brunel University. The Institute is renowned for performing research leading to products, systems and services which are physically, perceptually, cognitively and emotionally intuitive to their users. Professor Giacomin has participated in numerous EU and UK research projects and has produced more than 60 publications. More recently he has published his book Thermal - seeing the world through 21st century eyes. Joseph Giacomin is a member of the editorial boards of Ergonomics in Design, Ergonomics, and the International Journal of Vehicle Noise and Vibration (IJVNV). He is a Fellow of the UK Ergonomics Society (FErgS), a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA), a member of the Associazione Per Il Disegno Industriale (ADI) and of the Royal Photographic Society (RPS).HCDI is a University Research Centre (URC) that brings together expertise in Human-centred Design which combines methodologies and technologies from design, engineering, computer science, artificial intelligence and philosophy. Human-centred Design leads to machines, systems and products which are physically, cognitively and emotionally intuitive to their users. The Human Centre Design seminar series are events designed to encourage communication and teamwork with colleagues across the university and experts leaders in human-centred related topics.The 21st century is characterised by ever growing expectations regarding experiences, quality of life, privacy and ethics. With the growing pressure for human centred products, systems and services, the activity of design has taken centre stage in most customer driven innovation. Having been often described as the "century of the human mind", the current period is rich in new products, systems and services which are characterised by interactivity, intelligence, agency and emotion. This seminar will define the paradigm of human centred design, an approach which is being followed by ever greater numbers of businesses. The multidisciplinary paradigm will be defined in comparison to the main competing paradigms of technology-driven design and sustainable design, the business implications will be discussed and application examples will be provided. Key areas for HCD research are also identified

Applying scenarios in user-centred design to develop a sketching interface for human modelling and animation

This paper presents our user and usability studies for applying scenarios in user-centred design to develop a sketching interface for virtual human modelling and animation. In this approach, we utilise the User Centred System Design (UCSD) strategy and spiral lifecycles to ensure system usability and functionalities. A series of usability techniques were employed. After the initial conceptual design, a preliminary user study (including questionnaires and sketching observations) was undertaken to establish the formal interface design. Second, an informal user test was conducted on the first prototype: a “sketch-based 3D stick figure animation interface”. Finally, a formal user evaluation (including performance tests, sketching observations, and interviews) was carried out on the latest version: a “sketch-based virtual human builder”. During this iterative process, various paper-based and electronic-based sketching scenarios were created, which were acted-out by users to help designers evoke and verify design ideas, identify users’ needs, and test the prototype interfaces in real contexts. Benefiting from applying the UCSD strategy and scenario-based design to develop a natural and supportive sketching interface, our investigation can be a useful instantiation for the design of other sketching interfaces where these techniques have not been widely acknowledged and utilised in the past

Making Designing Worth Worth Designing

This position paper on Methods to Account for Values in Human-Centred Computing summarises the Working to Choose framework as an option for addressing several of this CHI 2012 workshop’s topics. It also lists worth-focused design and evaluation approaches that my collaborators and I have developed, applied and assessed

Design, mental models and behaviour change

This seminar was delivered on 15th June 2011 by Daniel Lockton a PhD reseracher in the Cleaner Electronics Research Group which is part of the School of Engineering and Design at Brunel University. Dan’s research centres on investigating techniques for using design to influence users’ interactions with products and systems, so that they are used in a more environmentally friendly manner (reducing energy use, reducing waste generation, and so on). The aims include: developing a method for selecting techniques, useful to environmentally sensitive product designers, interaction designers and engineers working on future products and systems; and testing practical implementations of some of these techniques, in consumer electronic products, to determine their effectiveness at achieving the target behaviour. Funded by an Ormsby Trust studentship, this work builds on Dan’s ongoing personal research into ‘Design with Intent’ (http://danlockton.co.uk) – how users’ behaviour is influenced by the design of products, systems and environments, and a general interest in ‘design for independence’: reducing society’s resource dependence, reducing vulnerable users’ dependence on others, and reducing users’ dependence on ‘experts’ to understand their technology. Dan studied Industrial Design Engineering at Brunel University, Runnymede, from 2000-4, and then a Cambridge-MIT Institute Master’s in Technology Policy at the University of Cambridge from 2004-5, before returning to Brunel in 2007. As a freelance designer / engineer / researcher, clients have included Sinclair Research (lightweight transport R & D, including some work on the ultra-light ‘A-Bike’ and in the mobility field), London design consultancy Tangerine (product and branding research) and gadget retailer Mayhem (new product prototyping) as well as a number of individual entrepreneurs. He has also written on automotive history and other design and innovation issues, and has recently become a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). The presentation was hosted at Brunel University as part of the Human Centred Design Institute (HCDI) Research Seminar Series. HCDI is a University Research Centre (URC) that brings together expertise in Human-centred Design which combines methodologies and technologies from design, engineering, computer science, artificial intelligence and philosophy. Human-centred Design leads to machines, systems and products which are physically, cognitively and emotionally intuitive to their users. The Human Centre Design seminar series are events designed to encourage communication and teamwork with colleagues across the university and experts leaders in human-centred related topics.Behaviour change, in one form or another, has become a hot topic, from the 'gamification of everything' to the Cabinet Office's 'Nudge Unit'. Design is central to this subject, whether or not politicians realise it: all design influences people's behaviour, whether we do it deliberately or not. We can't avoid it - so we might as well do it intelligently, particularly where we can help align the needs of users and benefits for society. In this seminar, Dan will talk about some of the insights arising from the Empower project, a collaboration between Brunel Design, More Associates and the University of Warwick. They have been trying to understand how people's behaviour affects patterns of energy use in workplaces, via a range of ethnographic studies and participatory design workshops, in order to develop products that make it easier for both individuals and businesses to change their behaviour and collectively reduce their energy use. Most of what they have found out is about mental models - how people understand the systems around them, and the parts they play in them, and how people within the same place may have different understandings of how things work. The diversity of mental models suggests a range of different design approaches for influencing behaviour, based on how we, as designers, want to treat users: do we want to work with the understanding they have, or do we want to change it

Design and competitive advantage: collaborative strategies enabling radical innovations of meanings

This seminar was delivered on 30th April 2012 by Dr Claudio Dell'Era, Assistant Professor in the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano, where he also serves as Co-Director of MaDe In Lab, the Laboratory of Management of Design and Innovation of MIP Politecnico di Milano. Research activities developed by Claudio Dell’Era are concentrated in the area of Management of Innovation. Specifically research interests are about two main streams: the former concentrates on innovation strategies developed by leading companies that operate in design-intensive industries where symbolic and emotional values represents critical success factors to generate competitive advantage (Management of Design-Driven Innovation); while the latter analyzes approaches and practices adopted during innovation processes by high-tech companies that face turbulent environments (Management of Technological Innovations in Turbulent Environments). He has published in relevant international journals, such as the Journal of Product Innovation Management, Long Range Planning, R&D Management, International the Journal of Operations & Production Management, Industry & Innovation and the International Journal of Innovation Management. The presentation was hosted at Brunel University as part of the Human Centred Design Institute (HCDI) Research Seminar Series. HCDI is a University Research Centre (URC) that brings together expertise in Human-centred Design which combines methodologies and technologies from design, engineering, computer science, artificial intelligence and philosophy. Human-centred Design leads to machines, systems and products which are physically, cognitively and emotionally intuitive to their users. The Human Centre Design seminar series are events designed to encourage communication and teamwork with colleagues across the university and experts leaders in human-centred related topics.Customers are paying increasing attention to product design, whether the aesthetic, symbolic or emotional meanings of products. Designers can support companies in exploring customers’ needs and the appropriate signs (such as form, colours, materials, etc) that give meaning to products. Managing collaborations with designers is therefore a critical issue for companies that operate in design-intensive industries. The seminar discusses how a company may develop a proper collaborative strategy by identifying an effective portfolio of designers. It shows that companies that innovate collaborate with a broad range of external designers. Most important, innovativeness does not depend on diversity brought by an individual designer, but on diversity brought by the entire portfolio of designers of a firm. The implication is that companies should not focus only on the characteristics of single external parties when developing a collaborative innovation strategy, but, rather, manage carefully a balanced portfolio of collaborators

Comfort seats: Influence of laptop and tablet use for seat design

This seminar was delivered on 18th April 2012 by Prof dr Peter Vink from the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at the Delft University of Technology, where he guides 10 PhD students active in the field of interior design. He is also principle scientist at TNO (the second largest applied scientific research organization in Europe), where he specializes in leading research in design of work, work environments, interior design and work systems. In his group projects are carried out in the field of Participatory Ergonomics (how and who to involve in a design process), Comfort (hand tools, seats, vehicle interiors and improving working conditions) and Intelligent Manufacturing (developing simulation systems to improve the design of the organization and lay-out of assembly lines). Professor Vink has in excess of 200 publications in the field of interior design and has been a consulatant and advisor for companies including Boeing, BMW, Gispen and SNCF. The presentation was hosted at Brunel University as part of the Human Centred Design Institute (HCDI) Research Seminar Series. HCDI is a University Research Centre (URC) that brings together expertise in Human-centred Design which combines methodologies and technologies from design, engineering, computer science, artificial intelligence and philosophy. Human-centred Design leads to machines, systems and products which are physically, cognitively and emotionally intuitive to their users. The Human Centre Design seminar series are events designed to encourage communication and teamwork with colleagues across the university and experts leaders in human-centred related topics.The use of laptops and tablets is increasing. In 2008 more laptops than desk tops are sold and tablet sales is increasing as well. This has influence on the design of office and vehicle interiors. However, the ideal tablet office or laptop aircraft seat, which results in an optimal position and experience, is hard to establish as for reading, typing and touchscreen activities other positions are experienced as comfortable. These changes in work devices have their consequences for the interior. For instance, in the office the desk top is not often used. In using the current desk top PC the keyboard, mouse and screen can be placed on every position. The guidelines prescribe for instance the screen height and the keyboard position. For a notebook this is more difficult as the keyboard and mousepad are connected to the screen. Sometimes a docking station or seperate screens, mouses and keyboards are connected. Or a notebook standard with keyboard and mouse is used. In this case the work station can be designed in such a way the VDU guidelines are met. Using a tablet with a touchscreen the human body position is completely different. For a train, car or aircraft seat this device use has its consequences as well. In this presentation several devices and environmental designs will be shown, background information and effect studies will be presented showing consequences for seat and environment design