Art and Design Commons^™

Re-Evaluating Learning Environments To Nurture Studio Culture, Ceri Almrott

Conference papers

Following the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant remote teaching that lockdown enforced the requirements and suitability of physical learning spaces such as studios can be questioned. This paper seeks to understand the requirements of students in this decade of their physical studio spaces. Using focus groups, surveys and user feedback activities students on the Product Design programme were asked to evaluate the studio spaces within the university as they returned to on-campus learning and provide qualitative feedback on their experiences.

It was found students still require physical studios that allow them to undertake their design work and utilise tools and …

Examining Performance Of Vr Sketch Modeling Tool In Personal Sketches, Ming-Huang Lin, I-Chen Chiang, Ling Lee, Hao-Xuan Lu

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This study examined the performance of the virtual reality (VR) sketch mod- eling tool Gravity Sketch in the early stage of design and explored its advantages and disadvantages. In the experiment, nine graduate students in the field of design with several months of experience with Gravity Sketch sketched ideas in VR and on paper. Qualitative analysis was performed using retrospective methods and grounded theory. The results revealed that fewer sketches were produced and less time was spent on design thinking in VR than on paper because (1) sketches created using the VR tool are three-dimensional models and (2) the high …

Upcycling Discarded Hdpe Plastic Bags For Creative Exploration In Product Design, Himani Deshpande, Jin Yu, Akash Talyan, Noah Posner, Clement Zheng, Hyunjoo Oh

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Upcycling enables new product production out of discarded materials. This paper presents a new structured process to support designers to use discarded HDPE plastic bags as useful and meaningful materials for creative exploration. The proposed process involves a four-step fabrication workflow using tools and machines widely available in design studios: (1) preparing a stack of plastic sheets, (2) fusing the stack of materials to create a new plastic sheet with intended thickness, (3) cutting and scoring the fused sheet to create parts, and (4) assembling the parts to build 3D artifacts. To assist the fabrication, we also present a custom …

Bio-Based Plastics In Durable Applications: The Future Of Sustainable Product Design? A Design Review, Puck Bos, Conny Bakker, Ruud Balkenende, Benjamin Sprecher

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This design review evaluates the use of bio-based plastics in durable consumer products. The main question is: how does the use of bio-based plastics influence the product’s design, functionality, marketing & communication, and sustainability? Although higher material prices would lead one to expect that higher value applications would be targeted, research shows bio-based plastics are mainly used in short-lived applications like packaging. This study investigates their use in durable consumer products through a design review. The results indicate that bio-based plastic usage is still in its early days in durable products. Bio-based plastics appear to be utilized as straightforward replacement …

Designing Menstruation: An Examination Into The Influence Of Experiences On The Use Of Menstrual Products, Ihsan Kamil, Muireann Mcmahon

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This study examines the experiences of eight menstruators and the impact these experiences have had on their attitudes towards menstruation and menstrual products. Participants engaged in a virtual workshop and discussed their personal experiences, both positive and negative, their opinions on various menstrual products, and the impact their experiences had on their attitudes towards menstruation and menstrual products. The findings from this study were thematically coded, and the influence of experiences on product choices was subsequently discussed. The varying needs of participants were also highlighted and discussed. Additionally, this study has identified that existing menstrual products do not meet all …

Connecting Creative Product Design Processes To Creative Product Design Outcomes: A Scoping Review, Peiying Jian, Jin Gu, Alison Olechowski

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Generating repeatable guidelines for designing creative products has long been an aim of the design research community. Even so, a widely trusted or agreed-upon process has not yet emerged. As a first step toward this goal, it is important to take stock of the reported connections between creative design processes and creative design outcomes. Thus, we conducted a scoping review focusing on creative prod-uct design. Our search identified 130 papers published from 1969 to 2021. The most frequent study type was a proposal paper (n = 53). Twenty-seven of the included papers used experimental methods. When connecting the creative design …

Manta And Cactaceae: Rehabilitative Smartphone Accessories For People With Chronic Mild Stroke Impairments, Mailin Lemke, Edgar Rodríguez Ramírez, Brian Robinson

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Stroke causes damage to the brain, often resulting in weakness or paralysis on one side of the body. Everyday objects such as smartphones can play an im-portant role after a stroke facilitating participation in daily activities. However, commercial smartphones can be challenging to use, and people with stroke of-ten adjust their behavior to minimize the affected arm and hand use. This study explores how an object attached to a smartphone could evoke behavior change and contribute to the initiation of use of the affected arm. As part of a design workshop, different ideas were envisioned to promote the use initiation …

We Got This..., Julian Wellisz

Masters Theses

Working nonstop? Not sleeping enough? Feeling alone in your deadlines? Are you struggling with work-life balance?

Know that you are not alone. Since the covid-19 pandemic began reports of loneliness, mental health issues, and burnout have increased.

It’s quite possible that you are opting-in to an individualistic culture of overwork. If you go to RISD that's almost certain. This is true for students and teachers alike.

While these current systems work for some (primarily those at the tops of their respected hierarchies), for the majority of us there are better ways of being. Providing social and emotional support and creating …

Ready Made, Made Ready: Everyday Objects For Everyday Emergency, Dara Benno

Masters Theses

What does it mean to adapt to a changing world?

Climate change is altering the world as we know it. We live in a chronic state of emergency. It’s easy to slip into a downward spiral of despair or ignore what we know to be true in order to carry on with our day-to-day responsibilities. By facilitating a complete recognition and heightened awareness of the common threats brought on by the climate crisis, we can begin to make the mental shift toward living in a new normal.

Ready Made, Made Ready rejects a dissociative attitude and seeks to shift exceptionalist …

Goodreads Redesign, Brooke Mylander

Graphic Communication

The following project is a redesign of Goodreads.com. The current user interface of Goodreads’ website is outdated and not user-friendly. This project addressed many problems current users complained about the site and made new designs for each major frame of the site with new, fixed features.

Sneak Peek: Sneaker App Design, Adam Birder

Graphic Communication

Sneak Peek is a fictional mobile application I created for this senior project. It is an informational and social app that allows users to browse sneakers and read sneaker news, as well as interact with other users and the content within the app. The goal of this project is to create a fully designed high-fidelity prototype showing the complete user journey throughout the platform.

The Measurement Of Product Typicality In Design Research. A Basic And Applied Approach, Travis Kent

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

The objective of this study was to examine the use of the cognitive construct of “typicality” to guide design decisions in the development of consumer products. Increasing products that will appeal to consumers, designers strive to balance novelty and familiarity. A potential way to thread this needle is to understand how “typical” a design is of its particular product category. The construct of typicality has been used by psychologists to understand how people create and represent categories. Objects that are more typical of a category are often associated with positive responses from observes (e.g., greater visual appeal, faster recognition). In …