Traditional as radical

An essay that considers the traditional methodologies of making as a model for contemporary sustainable design

Emotional Biosensing: Exploring Critical Alternatives

Emotional biosensing is rising in daily life: Data and categories claim to know how people feel and suggest what they should do about it, while CSCW explores new biosensing possibilities. Prevalent approaches to emotional biosensing are too limited, focusing on the individual, optimization, and normative categorization. Conceptual shifts can help explore alternatives: toward materiality, from representation toward performativity, inter-action to intra-action, shifting biopolitics, and shifting affect/desire. We contribute (1) synthesizing wide-ranging conceptual lenses, providing analysis connecting them to emotional biosensing design, (2) analyzing selected design exemplars to apply these lenses to design research, and (3) offering our own recommendations for designers and design researchers. In particular we suggest humility in knowledge claims with emotional biosensing, prioritizing care and affirmation over self- improvement, and exploring alternative desires. We call for critically questioning and generatively re- imagining the role of data in configuring sensing, feeling, ‘the good life,’ and everyday experience

Underdogs and superheroes: Designing for new players in public space

We are exploring methods for participatory and public involvement of new 'players' in the design space. Underdogs & Superheroes involves a game-based methodology – a series of creative activities or games – in order to engage people experientially, creatively, and personally throughout the design process. We have found that games help engage users’ imaginations by representing reality without limiting expectations to what's possible here and now; engaging experiential and personal perspectives (the 'whole' person); and opening the creative process to hands-on user participation through low/no-tech materials and a widely-understood approach. The methods are currently being applied in the project Underdogs & Superheroes, which aims to evolve technological interventions for personal and community presence in local public spaces

Emotional Durability Design Nine: A Tool for Product Longevity

How can we develop products that consumers want to use for longer? The lifetime of electrical products is an ongoing concern in discussions about the circular economy. It is an issue that begins at an industry level, but that directly influences the way in which consumers use and discard products. Through a series of workshops and knowledge exchange sessions with Philips Lighting, this paper identifies which design factors influence a consumer’s tendency to retain their products for longer. These were distilled into a guiding framework for new product developers—The Emotional Durability Design Nine—consisting of nine themes: relationships, narratives, identity, imagination, conversations, consciousness, integrity, materiality, and evolvability. These nine themes are complemented by 38 strategies that help in the development of more emotionally engaging product experiences. We propose that the framework can be applied at multiple points during the new product development process to increase the likelihood that ‘emotion building’ features are integrated into an end product

An audio-visual approach to teaching the social aspects of sustainable product design

This paper considers the impact of audio-visual resources in enabling students to develop an understanding of the social aspects of sustainable product design. Building on literature concerning the learning preferences of ‘Net Generation’ learners, three audio-visual workshops were developed to introduce students to the wider social aspects of sustainability and encourage students to reflect upon the impact of their practice. The workshops were delivered in five universities in Britain and Ireland among undergraduate and postgraduate students. They were designed to encourage students to reflect upon carefully designed audio-visual materia ls in a group-based environment, seeking to foster the preferences of Net Generation learners through collaborative learning and learning through discovery. It also sought to address the perceived weaknesses of this generation of learners by encouraging critical reflection. The workshops proved to be popular with students and were successful in enabling them to grasp the complexity of the social aspects of sustainable design in a short span of time, as well as in encouraging personal responses and creative problem solving through an exploration of design thinking solutions

An exploratory study on the consequences of individual upcycling: is it worth making people feel attached to their upcycled products?

Product attachment, the emotional bond experienced with a product, is an emerging concept for sustainable production and consumption. The logic behind it is that when people are attached to any product, they are more likely to postpone its replacement or disposal. Some types of product have been studied regarding product attachment in past research but the focus has been on manufacturers ’ perspectives rather than on consumers’ ‘everyday creativity’ activities such as ‘individual upcycling’. Individual upcycling, creation or modification out of used materials resulting in a higher quality or value product than the composition al elements, is particularly relevant to product attachment. This is because upcycling, as a creative, engaging user activity, may offer the experiences of self-expression, group affiliation, special memories and pleasure, all of which are possible product attachment determinants. In the meantime, recent evidence suggests that the number of people who upcycle things has increased, possibly as a response to the contemporary ‘Maker Movement’ and aided by physical and digital resources. Despite this growth, individual upcycling has not been investigated extensively, especially its relation to product attachment and product longevity. Acknowledging this, this study investigated the consequences of individual upcycling with respect to product attachment and the product longevity of upcycled products, and compared the results with mass-produced products with the same functions through an exploratory questionnaire with 23 UK-based upcycling practitioners. The results demonstrated that the attachment to upcycled products is positively correlated with irreplaceability, and irreplaceability with product care and expected product longevity. The results also showed that the expected product lifetime years of the upcycled product with attachment are longer than the estimated average product lifetime years of the mass-produced products with the same functions

The Development of an On-Line Learning and Teaching Resource for the Socio-Centric Aspects of Sustainable Design

This paper fits into the topics of socially relevant design, design and emotion and sustainable design and explores the question how can we create a more sustainable way of life? The paper also addresses the central theme of the conference – Design Education – creating a better world. This paper reports on the next phase in the development of a web-based learning and teaching resource specifically aimed at the socio-centric dimension of sustainable design which can be found at www.sociocenticdesign.com . A more extensive literature review was conducted, of which a summary is presented, however, the focus is on the outcomes learned from the collection of further primary data. It is confirmed that there is strong dominance by the techno and eco-centric dimensions and that there is a lack of awareness of the socio-centric dimension. It is concluded that being sustainable in design actually is about leaving the final design to later; it means that first and foremost sustainable design is to consider the designs purpose and its effects on the user, the community and society as a whole. An evaluation of two existing web-based resources, that focus on eco-design, was also conducted and informed the outcomes presented in this paper. The paper sets outs in some detail the content, arrangement and suggested web-interfaces for the new learning resource focused on the socio-centric dimension. The content is arranged into the following sections based upon the recommendations generated by Conrad: Past and Future; Time; People; Consumption, Design and Theories. The results of the research suggest that a high level of interactivity in the web-interface will be required

Investigating Emotions in Creative Design

A wealth of research has suggested that emotions play a significant role in the creative problem solving process, but less work has focused on investigating the role of emotions in the design process. This is surprising given that creative problem solving lies at the heart of the design processes. In an exploratory study we interviewed 9 expert designers about their emotions during the design process. The content analysis allowed us to identify the various types of emotions relevant in the design process and to extend Wallas’ model of creative problem solving with emotional components for each of its stages. In addition, we identified two important roles of emotions in design and several ways in which expert designers regulate their emotions. We discussed the theoretical and practical applications of our work

Emotional Durability Design Nine—A Tool for Product Longevity

This is the final version. Available from MDPI via the DOI in this record.How can we develop products that consumers want to use for longer? The lifetime of electrical products is an ongoing concern in discussions about the circular economy. It is an issue that begins at an industry level, but that directly influences the way in which consumers use and discard products. Through a series of workshops and knowledge exchange sessions with Philips Lighting, this paper identifies which design factors influence a consumer’s tendency to retain their products for longer. These were distilled into a guiding framework for new product developers—The Emotional Durability Design Nine—consisting of nine themes: relationships, narratives, identity, imagination, conversations, consciousness, integrity, materiality, and evolvability. These nine themes are complemented by 38 strategies that help in the development of more emotionally engaging product experiences. We propose that the framework can be applied at multiple points during the new product development process to increase the likelihood that ‘emotion building’ features are integrated into an end product.Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Collaborative Doctoral Awar