Dialogic shifts: The rhythm and sequence of artefacts in aesthetically informed interaction design practice

Aesthetic accounts of interaction design (Löwgren 2008, Wright et al 2008) acknowledge the importance of the descriptive and dialogic roles that design artefacts play. Yet, much of the focus in this aesthetic turn (Udsen 2005) concerns final designs, or products of the design project. Ephemeral artefacts that are produced in the course of these projects or the design actions by those who created the artefacts inside projects are often omitted and rarely discussed. This paper critically reflects on a project to shed some light on the 'secret life of artifacts' and the role they play through making and using by the project team

Show and Tell: Accessing and Communicating Implicit Knowledge Through Artefacts

Abstract This paper contributes to the current discourse on the role of artefacts in facilitating and triggering interaction among people. The discussion will focus on artefacts used as part of an interview method developed in order to discover knowledge that was observed but absent from both project reports and other documentation within multidisciplinary collaborative research projects, located within the field of Interaction Design. Using artefacts in an interview context enabled participants to reveal insights that were, in turn, participatory and human-centred. Thus the method was effective and appropriate in illuminating knowledge situated in interaction. This ethnomethodological tool enabled participants to reflexively externalize their understanding of the complex interactions that occur within projects, encouraging participation, interaction, visualization, reflection and communication through the use of tools aimed at capturing and illuminating the lived experiences of human engagement. These interviews were conducted with a selection of participants, chosen because they were researchers, working together within a cooperative research centre. Keywords: best practices, consultancy, critical systems, theory, user-centered design (UCD

An interview with sound artist Guy Webster by Jillian Hamilton and Jeremy Yuille

Guy Webster is a sound artist who has been featured in numerous festivals, galleries, conferences and theatres in Australia, Japan, UK and Europe. As part of the Transmute Collective he developed the immersive soundscape of Intimate Transactions. On 2nd November, 2005 Jilliann Hamilton and Jeremy Yuille met with Guy Webster to discuss his approach to immersion in soundsapes

An interview with sound artist Guy Webster by Jillian Hamilton and Jeremy Yuille

Guy Webster is a sound artist who has been featured in numerous festivals, galleries, conferences and theatres in Australia, Japan, UK and Europe. As part of the Transmute Collective he developed the immersive soundscape of Intimate Transactions. On 2nd November, 2005 Jilliann Hamilton and Jeremy Yuille met with Guy Webster to discuss his approach to immersion in soundsapes

Spontaneous scenarios: an approach to user engagement

In this paper we present work on a scenario and persona based approach to exploring social software solutions for a globally distributed network of researchers, designers and artists. We discuss issues identified with scenario based approaches and a potential participatory solution adopted in this project

Design research journal ranking study: preliminary results

Australian universities recently received a list of journals from the Australian Research Council (ARC). This list was the proposed set of journal rankings for the new Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative. This list includes journals for design and design research. Few design research journals appear on the list, and moist of those few have low rankings. The ERA journal-ranking proposal is intended to cover all appropriate journals across all fields. Journal rankings for any specific field should represent an appropriate distribution of journals for that field. Journals are described as A* journals representing the top 5% of journals in a field, A journals representing the next 15%, B journals representing the next 20%, and C journals for all the rest. The political and financial importance of the ranking system is one aspect of the new government’s move from the former Research Quality Framework (RQF) to the new metric assessment system developed for the ERA. We identified several problems in reviewing the proposed list. Some problems affect the field of design and design research. Other problems affect all sectors. To examine some of these problems, we will refer to the results of our study. We therefore outline our study before going further. To identify appropriate journals for the design sector, we conducted a worldwide study by inviting leading scholars in design and design research to list leading journals in the field. Our next study will use several comparative methods to measure the validity of this first study and to draw on a larger sample with more definitive results. We hope to develop a more fine-grained analysis to answer questions we do not address here. We are completing this study in the time required to meet ARC response deadlines. This the first study of its kind in the field, based on a large and reliable sample. The titles are well known. The reputations, impact factors, and index standing of the top journals supports our results. Based on responses to the survey, the journals that we will recommend for the levels designated A*, A, and B follow