Interface and Interaction Design Patterns for Intercultural Collaboration

This paper reports about on-going research into interaction design patterns in intercultural remote collaboration. It proposes that interaction and interface design patterns help to communicate and generate new design knowledge in supporting intercultural teamwork. It describes methods used to observe and develop design patterns in collocated, remote and blended collaborative learning and design contexts, and reports preliminary findings of interface and interaction design patterns, which support intercultural remote collaboration

Innovative collaborative design in international interaction design summer schools

[About the book]: Design is changing, and to educate the next generation of designers, these changes need to be addressed. In light of the growing role research and interdisciplinary collaboration play in contemporary design performance, Design Integrations calls for an innovative shake up in design education. Poggenpohl asserts that design research is developed through a typology within academic and business contexts, and follows different research theories and strategies. Such issues in design collaboration are explored in-depth, with essays on an inter-institutional academic project, cross-cultural learning experiences, and a multi-national healthcare project, demonstrating the importance of shared values, interdisciplinary negotiated process and clear communication for tomorrow’s designers

Towards an online design studio: a study of social networking in design distance learning

In this paper we examine the role of social networking and online community building in distance design learning. We analysed interactions of Facebook, a popular social network site, using qualitative content analysis and social network analysis. Two distinct learner identities could be identified – a design course Content Focused Learner and a course Context Centred Socialiser. We discuss the implications of this finding particularly in respect to online design studio education

Comparing inductive and deductive methodologies for design patterns identification and articulation

Design patterns offer a valuable format to communicate knowledge of successful design solutions to recurring problems. However, there is a lack of research into design patterns that differentiate the applicability of the proposed design solutions across different nations. This paper discusses inductive and deductive methodologies for analyzing qualitative data in order to identify and articulate design patterns for cross-cultural computer-supported collaborative design learning. It proposes a methodology how patterns for facilitating intercultural design education can be identified and articulated. Within this research, an inductive, deductive and comparative methodology for identifying and articulating design patterns was developed. Therein, eleven patterns for intercultural computer-supported collaboration were identified and written. This paper introduces the proposed methodology taking the design pattern “MOOD OF THE MOMENT” for example

Comparing design summer schools in European and Asian contexts

School of DesignRefereed conference pape

Utilising Flash Meeting software in collaborative design-learning

In this paper, we describe a case study of computer-supported collaborative learning in design using FM (FlashMeeting), a Web-based video-conferencing tool offered freely on OpenLearn. This 6-week experiment, involving Open University students and staff, aimed to explore the capabilities of FM software to support several phases of the design process including formulating a design brief, discovering user requirements, setting design specifications, concept generation, design embodiment and implementation of proposed concepts. We conclude this paper with lessons learned from using FM in a design e-learning project

Utilizing FM software in collaborative design-learning

In this paper, we describe a case study of computer-supported collaborative learning in design using OpenLearn FlashMeeting software, a video conferencing tool. This 6-week experiment, involving Open University students and staff, aimed at exploring the capabilities of FlashMeeting software to support several phases of the design process including formulating a design brief, discovering user requirements, setting design specifications, concept generation, design embodiment and implementation of proposed concepts. We conclude this paper with lessons learned from using FlashMeeting in a design e-learning project

STAR framework revisited: Curriculum for user-centered design summer schools

Annually, an interdisciplinary community of students, researchers and practitioners from computer engineering, social sciences, Human Computer Interaction, visual communication and other related disciplines, gather together for 2-to-5 weeks to participate in intensive summer school sessions. Although the overall theme and the participants vary each year, these programs remain focused on the teaching and practice of User-Centered Design (UCD) in the context of the local community where the academy is conducted. By listening to lectures, working in ateliers, living with target users and facing real-world design problems, participants experientially learn a mixture of IxD processes, ethnographic methods, prototyping techniques and teamwork skills, despite the program's short duration. Intensive design summer academies like this are essential, as they offer an environment for experimentation that is difficult to create in other educational settings. However, organizing and implementing these programs in ways that optimize the learning process is challenging. As past participants, atelier leaders and instructors for a variety of summer workshops, the authors made several poignant observations about the need for an educational framework to facilitate learning and to address the students' diverse cultural backgrounds, educational disciplines, learning techniques and cultural markers. Upon further examination of the educational literature, ethnographic observation during subsequent summer sessions and interviews of past students, atelier leaders, lecturers and organizers, the authors proposed the STAR Framework for design summer schools. [see Schadewitz, Adler, Moncur, Roberts, 2006] While this framework offers organizers clear direction on structuring IxD summer schools, it provides little guidance on the curriculum itself. It has become clear that special attention must also be paid to the content, order and delivery of the curriculum, particularly given the limited time frame of the session. Building upon the established framework, this paper proposes a curricular construct that will maximize knowledge transfer within the summer school context

A frame signature matrix for analysing and comparing interaction design behaviour

Protocol studies are an established method to investigate design behaviour. In the context of a project to investigate novice interaction design (ID) behaviour across protocols and cultures, we found that existing design behaviour analysis frameworks did not provide reliable results. This paper describes the development of a new approach to analyse and compare ID behaviour using verbal protocols. We augment Schön’s basic design and reflection cycle with construction of a frame signature matrix and analogical categorisation coding. We demonstrate this approach by comparing two protocols of novice interaction designers in Botswana. The initial findings indicate that this approach increases consistency and accuracy of coding, and that there are different degrees of reframing for the design problem and solutions