64 research outputs found
Exploring Open Design for the application of Citizen Science; a toolkit methodology
The manufacture of mass produced quality assured products has previously remained within professional practice. Digital manufacture presents opportunities for producing products in low volumes, catering to bespoke requirements. This phenomenon can benefit parties where the manufacture of goods has previously been financially unobtainable, i.e. non-government and charitable organisations. Open hardware (accessible electronic components) can complement digital manufacture, enabling bespoke products to become intelligent, with the ability to sense, monitor, record and produce data. This paper tests an Open Design / Citizen Science toolkit drawing from practice based research and supporting ethnographic activities.
The study documents design workshops with The Sussex Wildlife Trust and Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, conservation and wildlife experts. The papers research contribution is a design toolkit, identifying insightful opportunities for Open Design through Citizen Science. The study showcases new prospects for organisations to engage with the public. The prospects form âreciprocal relationshipsâ via members of the public fabricating monitoring devices and gathering data. Usersâ individual accrued data can meet wider community needs and address local or national conservation challenges. The emphasis of this study has focused on accessible wildlife monitoring, beyond the valuable but limited versatility of the smartphone, extending Citizen Sciences reach
Sensor Sleeve: Sensing Affective Gestures
We describe the use of textile sensors mounted in a garment sleeve to detect affective gestures. The `Sensor Sleeve' is part of a larger project to explore the role of affect in communications. Pressure activated, capacitive and elasto-resistive sensors are investigated and their relative merits reported on. An implemented application is outlined in which a cellphone receives messages derived from the sleeve's sensors using a Bluetooth interface, and relays the signals as text messages to the user's nominated partner
Communication-Wear: User Feedback as Part of a Co-Design Process
Communication-Wear is a clothing concept that augments the mobile phone by enabling expressive messages to be exchanged remotely, by conveying a sense of touch, and presence. It proposes to synthesise conventions and cultures of fashion with those of mobile communications, where there are shared attributes in terms of communication and expression. Using garment prototypes as research probes as part of an on-going iterative co-design process, we endeavoured to mobilise participantsâ tacit knowledge in order to gauge user perceptions on touch communication in a lab-based trial. The aim of this study was to determine whether established sensory associations people have with the tactile qualities of textiles could be used as signs and metaphors for experiences, moods, social interactions and gestures, related to interpersonal touch. The findings are used to inspire new design ideas for textile actuators for use in touch communication in successive iterations
Open design: nonâprofessional userâdesigners creating products for citizen science, a case study of beekeepers.
Affiliated technologies have opened up opportunities for people, no matter what their design competency or expertise, to engage in the design of the products they use. The notion of âOpen Designâ or the open sharing of information relating to the design and manufacture of products, services or objects, can be seen as part of a much more encompassing phenomenon whereby users are the innovators and fabricators of their own products. Digital fabrication can enable the remote fabrication of objects tailoring artefacts to specific users or environmental needs. Open fabrication makes manufacturing processes accessible and can respond to niche needs with bespoke production. Citizen science uses nonâprofessionals to conduct research in their own environment or location, extending the impact of research. This process of âamateur scientistâ and community monitoring has positive and negative aspects that design can help to address.
The workshop conducted as part of this research involved 15 amateur beeâ keepers and led to a probe study involving 150 participants in the UK, testing a new approach to coâcollaboration yielding positive outcomes. The bee population is currently under threat from environmental change, pollution, disease and they are users with a specific interest, bespoke needs and a knowledge base outside of their profession. The decline in bees is a scientific issue as they are seen as a barometer for the health of the environment. Through analysis of observations and insights gained through active designâled workshops, this paper examines the potential barriers, opportunities, benefits and pitfalls of userâdesigners engaging with citizen science using open design and open fabrication tools. Workshop results included: methods, motivations, designer and manufacturer opportunities and insights into repeatable processes forming the start of a citizen science toolkit. The objective was to ascertain the possible pitfalls of a group of userâdesigners creating their own citizen science tools enabled by technologists and designers
Social Responses to Nature; Citizen Empowerment through Design
Traditionally, design content creation has remained within professional practice and manufacturing industries. Open Design (OD) utilizes accessible fabrication, enabling lay users to create and reappropriate content. Citizen Science encompasses activities where communities gather contextual environmental data for scientific or community purposes. The paradigm combination provides opportunities for communities, grass-roots projects and social initiatives with opportunities to create âproductsâ addressing personal and global issues. Social design (SD) combines OD/ Citizen Science practices, empowering responses by fostering âinnovations that are both good for society and enhance societyâs capacity to actâ. This article highlights a SD case study that applied OD/Citizen Science to beekeeping. The âBee Labâ project empowered participants to construct data-gathering devices, embodying Manziniâs SD approach. The case study aided motivated participants to address local/global issues, facing Apis mellifera (the honey bee). The project yielded insights into motivation, community leveraging, public engagement for social good and more. Insights have been distilled into repeatable stages for analogous activities. The results offer applications for communities, design agents or organizations wishing to address the burgeoning challenges facing social responses to nature
Making Instructions for Others: Exploring Mental Models Through a Simple Exercise
Investigating how people understand the systems around themâfrom technology to democracy to our own bodiesâis a common research goal across many disciplines. One of the practical aims is uncovering differences between how people think systems work and how they actually work (particularly where differences can cause problems) and then addressing them, either by trying to change peopleâs understanding or by changing the way people inter- act with systems so that this better matches peopleâs understanding [1].
Being able to say that you under- stand a system is essentially saying that you have a model of the system [2]. In HCI and other people-centered design fields, attempting to characterize peopleâs mental models of technology in which their behavior plays a role can be a significant part of user research. Usersâ mental models will perhaps only rarely accord exactly with designersâ conceptual models of a system [3], but this is not necessarily a problem in itself: â[A]ll models are wrong, but some are usefulâ [4]. Mental models should not be assumed to be static constructs covering the whole of a system; multiple models working at different levels of abstraction can be relevant in different circumstances, from complex work domains to simple everyday interactions [5]
How do designers feel textiles?
Studying tactile experience is important and timely, considering how this channel is being harnessed both in terms of human interaction and for technological developments that rely on it to enhance experience of products and services. Research into tactile experience to date is present mostly within the social context, but there are not many studies on the understanding of tactile experience in interaction with objects. In this paper, we use textiles as a case study to investigate how we can get people to talk about this experience, and to understand what may be important to consider when designing technology to support it. We present a qualitative exploratory study using the âElicitation Interviewâ method to obtain a first-person verbal description of experiential processes. We conducted an initial study with 6 experienced professionals from the fashion and textiles area. The analysis revealed that there are two types of touch behaviour in experiencing textiles, active and passive, which happen through âActive handâ, âPassive bodyâ and âActive tool-handâ. They can occur in any order, and with different degrees of importance and frequency in the 3 tactile-based phases of the textile selection process â âSituateâ, âSimulateâ and âStimulateâ â and the interaction has different modes in each. We discuss these themes to inform the design of technology for affective touch in the textile field, but also to explore a methodology to uncover the complexity of affective touch and its various purposes
Standard deviation : standardization and quality control in the mash-up era
Standards touch many aspects of our lives, from purchasing to consuming, to maintaining product consistencies (e.g. ISO 9001). Standardization aids replicating: compliance, quality and durability to diffuse geographic areas, driving innovation by providing constraints (BSI). Historically, standardization was a cornerstone for commerce enabling traders to interact, trusting accurate measures, used in judging a productâs worth. Open Design utilizes Internet-accessible digital making platforms, for creating and disseminating ideas. The rise of Fabrication Laboratories and distributed digital manufacturing (e.g. domestic 3D printing) has increased accessibility of high-quality manufacture. Design agents as well as designers can create products; either for personal use from the bottom-up, or re-appropriate another makerâs solution. Reciprocity is key to the process. As such, in this paper we refer to design agents, rather than applying labels of âprofessionalâ or âuserâ. However, as design agents become enabled to produce complex artefacts, âobjective validationâ for shared blueprints quality, becomes imminent. For example, 3D printing is reviving DIY toy making, with materials that can degrade overtime, potentially presenting choking hazards. Due to this status quo, the authors are not presenting lawsuit opportunities, but preventative procedures whilst encouraging proliferation of design agent led Open Design. Regulatory requirements for sectors touched by âopen phenomenonâ are unprepared. How can maker communities, design agents and others lead the way in promoting ways of working that enable robust quality control in open environments? To answer this question, interviews with British Standards Institute (BSI) representatives were triangulated with design workshops. This participatory approach to knowledge creation was chosen due to its inherent compatibility with the theoretical underpinnings of Open Design. This paper presents models exploring âstandards integrationâ for Open Design purposes, enabling design agents to create âcompliantâ outputs, to benefit all. We conclude that there are possible avenues for standardization, but that this must be tested in the field.
#open design, #digital manufacture, #industry standard
Evolutionary approach of a textile designer through cross-disciplinary research practice: A case study in the field of advanced methods for joining textiles
This paper will discuss the evolving methodological approach of Helen Paine who has a background in knitted textiles for fashion and completed her cross-disciplinary PhD at RCA in 2016. The PhD was sponsored by TWI: an engineering institution that specialise in materials joining and partnered with Speedo International to develop capability in the field of advanced methods for joining textiles. A multi-strategy framework that encompassed both craft-design and scientific methods was applied by the research to investigate new opportunities for ultrasonic and laser welding technologies. Specific insights relating to how and when either a craft-design or scientific approach was applied throughout the research trajectory will be discussed with the aim of contributing to an emerging methodology for textile-designers engaging in cross-disciplinary research practice
- âŠ