Sketching Designs Using the Five Design-Sheet Methodology

Accepted for Publication in January 2016, now available as pre-print in IEEE XploreSketching designs has been shown to be a useful way of planning and considering alternative solutions. The use of lo-fidelity prototyping, especially paper-based sketching, can save time, money and converge to better solutions more quickly. However, this design process is often viewed to be too informal. Consequently users do not know how to manage their thoughts and ideas (to first think divergently, to then finally converge on a suitable solution). We present the Five Design Sheet (FdS) methodology. The methodology enables users to create information visualization interfaces through lo-fidelity methods. Users sketch and plan their ideas, helping them express different possibilities, think through these ideas to consider their potential effectiveness as solutions to the task (sheet 1); they create three principle designs (sheets 2,3 and 4); before converging on a final realization design that can then be implemented (sheet 5). In this article, we present (i) a review of the use of sketching as a planning method for visualization and the benefits of sketching, (ii) a detailed description of the Five Design Sheet (FdS) methodology, and (iii) an evaluation of the FdS using the System Usability Scale, along with a case-study of its use in industry and experience of its use in teaching

Experience and guidance for the use of sketching and low-fidelity visualisation-design in teaching

We, like other educators, are keen to develop the next generation of visualization designers. The use of sketching and low-fidelity designs are becoming popular methods to help developers and students consider many alternative ideas and plan what they should build. But especially within an education setting, there are often many challenges to persuade students that they should sketch and consider low-fidelity prototypes. Students can be unwilling to contemplate alternatives, reluctant to use pens and paper, or sketch on paper, and inclined to code the first idea in their mind. In this paper we discuss these issues, and investigate strategies to help increase the breadth of low-fidelity designs, especially for developing data-visualization tools. We draw together experiences and advice of how we have used the Five Design-Sheets method over eight years, for different assessment styles and across two institutions. We follow our experiences with an equal measure of advice. This paper would be useful for anyone who wishes to use sketching in their teaching, or to improve their own experiences

Design concept development in transportation design

The paper presents results of a study about design concept development in transportation design. The main question of this study concerns mainly the existence and development of design concepts and its status in the design process furthermore it partially describes its content, manifestation and function. From the view of industrial psychology, the design concept is one of the most important stages in the design process, because its availability determines the success, regarding the design object. A design concept can be understood as the first solid and focused unit of knowledge in design processes with ill-defined problems. In the Design Process Planning, based on Action Regulation Theory, design concepts act as a compact guiding principle, including the anticipation of the artefact. Using this as a scientific basis a long term study with 25 students including cross section and longitudinal aspects were held from 2005 to 2008. Three concept types derived from the literature preceded the investigation, whereby the holistic experience-oriented one after Uhlmann (2006a) forms the beginning. This focus was confirmed within the investigation for the majority of the projects, yet one must assume that, functional (construction-oriented) or formal concepts successfully finds to application. Holistic concepts enable a more comprehensive and more balanced treatment within the design process. Within the work two general methods of generating design concepts: extracting and compiling were defined. Following the typical processes they can be assigned to different fields: transportation design (extracting) and industrial design (compiling). Furthermore three designer types and an open category could be identified. The three types “automobile”, “design” and “story” can be clearly and consistently assigned by the students. The research closes with a recommendation of a hybrid design concept processing using aspects of the two generating methods as well as instruments of different designer types. Keywords: Design Concept, Transportation Design, Field study, Early stages</p

The Explanatory Visualization Framework: an active learning framework for teaching creative computing using explanatory visualizations

Visualizations are nowadays appearing in popular media and are used everyday in the workplace. This democratisation of visualization challenges educators to develop effective learning strategies, in order to train the next generation of creative visualization specialists. There is high demand for skilled individuals who can analyse a problem, consider alternative designs, develop new visualizations, and be creative and innovative. Our three-stage framework, leads the learner through a series of tasks, each designed to develop different skills necessary for coming up with creative, innovative, effective, and purposeful visualizations. For that, we get the learners to create an explanatory visualization of an algorithm of their choice. By making an algorithm choice, and by following an active-learning and project-based strategy, the learners take ownership of a particular visualization challenge. They become enthusiastic to develop good results and learn different creative skills on their learning journey

Creating explanatory visualizations of algorithms for active learning

Visualizations have been used to explain algorithms to learners, in order to help them understand complex processes. These ‘explanatory visualizations’ can help learners understand computer algorithms and data-structures. But most are created by an educator and merely watched by the learner. In this paper, we explain how we get learners to plan and develop their own explanatory visualizations of algorithms. By actively developing their own visualizations learners gain a deeper insight of the algorithms that they are explaining. These depictions can also help other learners understand the algorithm

Reflections and Considerations on Running Creative Visualization Learning Activities

This paper draws together nine strategies for creative visualization activities. Teaching visualization often involves running learning activities where students perform tasks that directly support one or more topics that the teacher wishes to address in the lesson. As a group of educators and researchers in visualization, we reflect on our learning experiences. Our activities and experiences range from dividing the tasks into smaller parts, considering different learning materials, to encouraging debate. With this paper, our hope is that we can encourage, inspire, and guide other educators with visualization activities. Our reflections provide an initial starting point of methods and strategies to craft creative visualisation learning activities, and provide a foundation for developing best practices in visualization education.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures. Accepted at 4th IEEE Workshop on Visualization Guidelines in Research, Design, and Education (VisGuides 2022), at IEEE VIS 202

Reflections and Considerations on Running Creative Visualization Learning Activities

This paper draws together nine strategies for creative visualization activities. Teaching visualization often involves running learning activities where students perform tasks that directly support one or more topics that the teacher wishes to address in the lesson. As a group of educators and researchers in visualization, we reflect on our learning experiences. Our activities and experiences range from dividing the tasks into smaller parts, considering different learning materials, to encouraging debate. With this paper, our hope is that we can encourage, inspire, and guide other educators with visualization activities. Our reflections provide an initial starting point of methods and strategies to craft creative visualisation learning activities, and provide a foundation for developing best practices in visualization education