Media Communication, Consumption and Use: The Changing Role of the Designer

Consumers are changing the way in which they create, experience and consume media. User Generated Content (UGC) marks a shift in the way in which ordinary people are now able to contribute to the creation of media. They have become active citizens in what is now a two way conversation. The advent of UGC has created new challenges for communication designers who now need to take on the role of a facilitator in this process. The challenge for communication design is not only to identify appropriate methods for communication, but to understand how best to facilitate connections between users such that they create structures that they can inhabit. This paper explores the changing role of design in UGC rich media communication and presents a Decision Making Framework (DMF) that engages designers in the consideration of the user in the development process. In-depth interviews with leading industry proponents ensure currency of the insights gained. Keywords: Design Process, User Generated Content, Communication Design, Fraimwork</p

Understanding high-impact research through mode 1 and mode 2 research approaches

For many academics in the UK the current Research Excellence Framework (REF) has pulled the notion of impact and impactful research into focus. This paper explores the notion of high impact research and how this relates to traditional notions of research activity and quality. With a focus on the UK and how it fits into Europe it also takes a practical approach describing through case studies how academics can adopt a mixed economy of both ‘pure’ or Mode 1 research and knowledge transfer, knowledge exchange or engagement activities often described as Mode 2 research. The argument here is that the combination of these types of research can result in a virtuous circle of activity leading to high impact, excellent research. The paper ends with an analysis of the practical challenges and opportunities of this approach for both individual academics and also institutional units, departments or research centres

New design processes for knowledge exchange tools for the New IDEAS project

In this paper, we describe our research into designing tools for knowledge exchange on the New IDEAS project at ImaginationLancaster, a design research lab in Lancaster University. This paper will discuss the design process for designing tools that facilitate knowledge exchange, highlighting the challenges faced during the process. We go on to describe how to support others with designing knowledge exchange tools. We will discuss our experience of running a series of knowledge exchange labs as part of our research, in which participants from all of the faculties within Lancaster University co-designed tools and refer to the process of designing one of the tools - the Case Study Tool. At the end of the paper we outline our key principles for designing KE tools for others so that they can be customised and modified. This has implications for those who work in KE but do not already realise that they are designing KE tools, those who have a desire to understand how to design KE tools and those who work in the area of participatory, open or KE design who want to gain a further understanding of their design process and how to support others in designing or adapting their own KE tools

Closing in on open design: comparing casual and critical design challenges

Open Design has become an umbrella term for a wide range of approaches to design and creativity where professional design is challenged. These range from seeing designers as simply irrelevant (in democratized innovation) to an active and creative collaboration between designers and non-designers (co-design) to the dissolution of the distinction between designer and nondesigner altogether. While supporting open design in general, we argue that there are important instances where open design approaches may not be appropriate and that there will be a polarization between casual design activity (for cups, t-shirts and so on) and critical designs (medical equipment, very complex systems like mobile phones).</p

Beyond the castle:public space co-design, a case study and guidelines for designers

In this paper we describe a high profile project to reimagine a large green space in the heart of the city of Lancaster in the UK. This co-design project involved professional designers but also 2500 people with 700 of these making an active co-design contribution. This project forms the basis of a discussion of how we used a series of events to help participants reach their full creative co-design potential moving from doing to creating levels of creativity. From this case study we go on to develop a framework of recommendations to help designers reflect on their normal practice and how they need to operate within a co-design project. These recommendations seek to maximise the benefits of this approach and produce good design outcomes. This framework has been evaluated in a series of international workshops in the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands

When Your Toaster is a Client, how do you design? Going Beyond Human Centred Design

This paper does not argue that artificial intelligence will make objects truly intelligent but it does make the case that within the sphere of the Internet of Things (IoT) objects will increasingly have agency, be making their own decisions responding to data they have collected beyond the direct control of humans. As such these networks and objects can be regarded as actors or stakeholders

Making it better together:a framework for improving creative engagement tools

This research reports on a co-design project to improve creative engagement tools with academics and public sector organisations in the northwest UK. Creative engagement (which is a staple of co-design activities but also used widely outside design) is often supported by tools and resources. However, there is a need to tailor tools for specific contexts to accommodate the skills and practices of creative engagement professionals and the contexts in which they work. While there is a literature examining tools in co-design and to a lesser extent in wider creative engagement activities, there is a lack of research on how tools can be improved. This article presents a framework that enables engagement practitioners to improve the tools they use in their practice. Following a Participatory Action Research approach, three case studies document the application and testing of the improvement framework. The paper discusses the insights and lessons learnt from this process and the impact of the new improvement activities on the practices of the creative engagement professionals. The research outcomes include building improvement capabilities in participants and understanding of how the framework works in practice and how it could be more widely applied to tool improvement within and beyond co-design

Circular Economy, Circular Communities? : Examining the role of community in circular economy organisations

Circular economy (CE) research has previously focused on product development or its implementation in regions or industry; very little research has been conducted into how communities can be used to advance this sustainability model. The work in this thesis investigates how organisations in North West England approach the CE and utilise their communities to further their CE ambitions. It uses stakeholder maps to visualise the community connections and the Community Capitals Framework (CCF) to reveal which capital flows are the most important. This shows how these organisations engage with and use their communities. The research followed a Mixed Methods Case Study approach, using data drawn from interviews and secondary sources. The case studies examined organisations from a range of industries and included multinationals and SMEs. The analysis showed that despite the differences, the organisations approached the CE in many of the same ways. The CCF was applied to stakeholder maps and used for social network analyses of each case study. This revealed that Human Capital was most used by the organisations, but Social and Political Capital played a large role among their connections too. As a result of this research the Knowledge exchange, Experimentation through collaboration, Power, and Influence (KEPI) framework was developed, this can be applied to organisations working towards a CE in order to reveal whether their stakeholder connections are knowledge-based or power-based. By placing their stakeholder connections into this dichotomy, organisations can see which of their connections can be used to further their ambitions and in what ways. The knowledge-based connections are focused on learning opportunities: knowledge exchanges, and relationships that enable experimentation. The power-based relationships provide access to power structures through governance or industry or present the opportunity to influence policy and practice at different levels. This research contributes to an emerging field that is placing human interactions at the centre of the CE

Designing community:creating resilience through collaboration

Community must a be placed higher on the circular economy agenda if a totruly sustainable future is to be realised. This paper will explore the changing definition of community, looking at previous classifications and modern thought to attempt to provide an up date definition that is fit for the future of our multifaceted, complex society. The paper will argue for this new definition to be included as part of the discussion around the circular economy. The research shared in this paper are the initial results from a project that is attempting to make visible and tangible the connections and communities that circular economy organisations are part of. By making visible the connections this research hopes to encourage the design of community as an integral part of the circular economy and a resilient future . The paper will conclude by arguing how the results will contribute to the field of circular economy research