Digital Commons Network^™

An Overview Of Current Practices And Approaches To Co-Designing Services With And For People With Dementia Towards Developing A Framework For Best Practice, Kristina Niedderer, Laura Orton, Isabelle Tournier

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of current practices and approaches to co-designing services with and for people living with early to mid-stage dementia to derive a set of principles and practices for application in the IDoService project. It explores the understanding of service design and of co-design for the purposes of this paper, and then uses a meta-review of co-design of services for people with dementia, underpinned by a selection of case studies from the literature to extract and collate a set of key principles of best practice. We then consider the application of these …

Potential Benefits Of Designing Immersive Technologies To Reduce Anxiety In The Perioperative Patient Journey, Nikou Javadi, Ian Gwilt, Aaron Davis

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This research investigates if virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) technologies can be used to help people cope with the anxiety associated with a surgical procedure in the patient health care journey. Perioperative anxiety is a natural response to surgery stress which may happen at any point before or after a surgical procedure. Research has shown that high level of perioperative anxiety are a potential health and recovery threat for a patient due to the effects on psychologic and physiologic responses. The concept of Digital Health is increasingly playing a more substantial role in health care provision and there is a …

A Designerly Approach To The Sonification Of Electric Vehicles, Sara Lenzi, Juan Sádaba, Paolo Ciuccarelli

DRS Biennial Conference Series

In recent years, efforts to frame sound-related areas of research such as sonification, sonic interaction design and product sound design in terms of design methodologies became more common. Sound designers seem to be willing to structure a field traditionally characterised by tacit knowledge in terms of explicit design processes, tools and methods, to increase the reach and impact of the field. In this paper, we describe the first two stages of a commercial sonification project for the design of sounds for Electric Vehicles. The project was developed applying a design methodology that integrates a specific tool (the sonification canvas), which …

Participatory Iot Policies: A Case Study Of Designing Governance At A Local Level, Louise Mullagh, Naomi Jacobs, Nuri Kwon, Milan Markovic, Ben Wainwright, Kirsty Chekansky

DRS Biennial Conference Series

As IoT devices proliferate public spaces, it is vital that adequate governance structures and policies are designed and implemented in order to enhance trust, and protect privacy and security of citizens. At a local level, smaller towns and cities that are not part of the ‘smart city’ movement, but instead are connected through IoT devices, also need to consider how these devices are governed. This research explores how two novel methods (design fiction and walkshops) can be combined and embedded in the design of policy for IoT governance at a local level. The contribution of the work lies in wider …

Making Posters To Understand Statistics: Towards A Didactical Approach In Communication Design, Michele Mauri, Simone Vantini, Beatrice Gobbo, Tommaso Elli, Elena Aversa, Andrea Benedetti, María De Los Ángeles Briones Rojas, Gabriele Colombo

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The paper describes a didactical approach to introducing statistics to communication design students at the master level. The approach helps them develop a critical attitude toward data manipulation and information visualization, acknowledging a lack of education in such areas despite their growing relevance in the communication design field. In previous experiences, we observed how theoretical lessons in statistics were inefficient because they were perceived as distant from the communication design practice. We, therefore, adopted a “thinking-through-doing” approach: instead of asking students to study statistical methods, we asked them to design a poster explaining them. In the paper, we present the …

Design Meets Death: A First Systematic Mapping Review Of Design Contributions To End Of Life Field, Andrew Tibbles, Farnaz Nickpour

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper, for the first time, maps and interrogates the contributions towards the emerging field of design and death, through a systematic mapping review. Key databases and grey literature publications are searched and 183 design contributions are analysed, categorising results according to death spectrum; type of contribution; interventional complexity; design approach; and stakeholder involvement. Findings show an increasing trend of design contributions towards death between 2000-2021. The field is being progressed by a triad of Healthcare, Computer Science and Design disciplines, often siloed in their efforts. Design approaches and methods including Human Centred Design and Co-design are popular, particularly within …

Design As An Agent Of Narratives: A Conceptual Framework And A First Exploration In The Context Of Inclusive Paediatric Mobility Design, Cara Shaw, Farnaz Nickpour

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Although much of human experience is qualitative, front-end design documentation typically defaults to quantification which can abstract, dilute or lose meaning and reasoning with regards to lived experiences. Narratives are a well-established channel for gathering rich qualitative insights around individual and collective experiences, perceptions and values. However, the potential to advance the role of design beyond simply an embodiment agent for dominant narratives - to an agent for uncovering, interrogating, speculating, and scaling a diversity of narrative ‘classes’ and ‘statuses’ - is yet to be fully explored. This paper proposes a conceptual framework positioning design as an agent of narratives …

A Place We Call Home: Curriculum For Land-Based Education, Adolfo Ruiz

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper describes initial research into the creation of curriculum that combines visual communication design with local Indigenous knowledge in the Tłı̨chǫ Dene region of subarctic Canada. This curriculum is intended for regional youth, and to be accredited by the Faculty of Extension at the University of Alberta. Situated outside dominant models of design education, the following sections illustrate the significant role that embodied knowledge and relationality can play in land-based pedagogy. As part of this discussion, the field of design is situated as an intermediary between an Indigenous community and a Western academic institution. Through a reflexive, narrative form …

Ideasquares: Utilizing Generative Text As A Source Of Design Inspiration, Gyeongwon Yun, Kwangmin Cho, Yunwoo Jeong, Tek-Jin Nam

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Online searching tools are used for early design ideation. However, they tend to limit designers’ creativity due to direct visual feedback and lack of novelty. We pre-sent IdeaSquares, a design concept text generation tool for supporting the ideation process. We used text-generation artificial intelligence (AI) that was fine-tuned on the Red Dot design award winners’ data to show newly generated design examples as search results. To understand how young designers use concept text generation tool for the design ideation, we conducted a comparative user study where partici-pants used two versions, generative querying and conventional searching mode, of the tools during …

The Power In Maps: Reviewing A ‘Youth Violence’ Systems Map As Discursive Intervention, Jocelyn Bailey, Lorraine Gamman

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper offers a reflection on a systems mapping experiment undertaken as part of the Redesign Youth Futures project, which aimed to visualise the complex system producing youth violence in London. The paper brings together key ideas in the practice of systems thinking and mapping, with contributions from the literature on design and power, to theorise the map as an intervention in a discourse – in this case, the popular and policy discourse around youth violence. In doing so, it offers an account of how power is operant in and through such an artefact: in the embodiment of (and resistance …

Design Beyond The Human World Of Management And Organizations: Towards A Cosmology For The Anthropocene, Emmanuel Bonnet, Diego Landivar, Alexandre Monnin, Ulises Navarro Aguiar

DRS Biennial Conference Series

In this paper, we intend to make explicit the shared ontological foundation of design and management and question them in light of the advent of the Anthropocene. To do so, we first draw these disciplines closer before qualifying their common ground as an underlying “cosmology they share”. This cosmology is characterized by the centrality of the notion of organization. We argue that design as well as design knowledge must be assessed with regards to this peculiar cosmology. We call for the need to go beyond what we call the “monism of organizations” or the “organized world”. We propose a new …

Visual Communication Design As A Form Of Mindfulness-Based Intervention, Jesvin Puay-Hwa Yeo, Chua-Tee Teo, Reuben Tay

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The paper explores the effects of mindfulness-based design interventions to help children better self-regulate their emotions. It attempts to ascertain if the use of prototype designs could further enhance the children’s awareness or mindfulness, and emotional wellbeing. Children’s emotional and behavioural problems have become a growing concern. These problems are related to the difficulties children face in controlling their emotions, which may lead to psychological problems in adulthood. This indicates the need to help children understand feelings and how to self-regulate emotions. A pilot design project was conducted to explore the connection between mindfulness-based practice and emotion regulation in children …

Systemic Design's Guidelines To Implement Organizational Change, Caterina Rosini, Silvia Barbero

DRS Biennial Conference Series

: In the future, organisations must face sudden changes and increase competitiveness. Firms need to have resources and competencies to set a strategic advantage in the business context to survive. This paper describes two management models used to define strategy and implement benefits for the firm and compares them with a systemic framework and the Systemic Design Approach. The comparison highlights the necessity to analyse organisations considering their complexity in terms of resources and interactions between spheres and roles. This evidence led us to sustain that Systemic Design can provide a better approach to organisational complexity and could be able …

Design Placebos For The Impossibility Of Empathy In Videotelephony, Nesli Hazal Oktay

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This year, humans were locked in their homes with a rising need for digital communication such as videotelephony. Although videotelephony helps to reduce the physical gap, it leaves little room for the transmission of body language that is usually associated with empathy. This research is inspired by the cognitive model of empathy which can be explained as our desire to understand others’ emotions and interact with them accordingly. By creating a reflective experience of imagining through the body in movement, the research looks into what inter-action design’s role be in working with empathy and asks: In which ways design placebos …

With Or Without Emoji? The Effect Of Emoji On Risk Perception And Preventive Behaviors In Health Information, Tingyi S. Lin, Yue Luo

DRS Biennial Conference Series

For nearly a decade, emoji have been widely used as a substitute for nonverbal clues in computer mediated communication, especially in social media. Although the use of emoji in health communication via social media is becoming pervasive, the influences of using emoji in health information on information receivers’ perceptions and behavior has not been fully studied. In order to discover these influences, this study collected 210 Taiwanese self-statement questionnaires for analysis during the COVID-19 period in Taiwan in 2021. It adopted a 2x2 between-subject design to examine and respond to the research questions. The results verified the enhancement effect of …

A Framework For Designing The Seamless Automotive Multimodal Experience In Future Connected And Autonomous Vehicles, Fangli Song, Wei Wang, Hongnan Lin, Yuanqing Tian

DRS Biennial Conference Series

As multimodal user interfaces (MUIs) significantly enrich user experience with connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs), a seamless modality combination and multimodal switch is the key to enhancing human interaction's efficiency and usability across multiple interfaces in vehicles. From the theoretical review, we discuss the concept of seamlessness. Based on the consideration of driving automation upgrade and multi-tasking dynamics, we introduce two seamless dimensions of the new design space of multimodal user interfaces in both chronological and spatial orders. We propose a framework incorporating the design space and discuss the factors influencing the performance of multimodal seamlessness with the driving tasks …

Legal Design Could And Should Be More Sociolegal, Amanda Perry-Kessaris

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Legal design could and should be more sociolegal. Sociolegal research can offer conceptual frameworks, empirical methods and data, and normative direction to legal design. At the same time, designerly methods can enhance the abilities of sociolegal researchers to make and communicate sense of things to, with and for themselves, academics in other disciplines, and the wider world. So, if legal designers were to engage more deeply and systematically with sociolegal research and researchers, benefits could flow to legal design, to cross-disciplinary research and to the wider world.

Setting The Stage: The Value Of Contextual Social Research When Designing With Local Sustainability Initiatives, Cyril Tjahja

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper presents an exploration of the (pre)conditions in which local energy transition initiatives operate in the city of Groningen, the Netherlands, and to what extent these conditions influence the co-design process. The findings show that participation in such schemes is not necessarily a given, as local initiatives and (design) practitioners can encounter several interrelated issues, which must be taken into account before even considering a co-design approach to the energy transition. Informed by insights from the social research studies conducted, the initial design-centred approach was altered to incorporate (co)design in a more flexible and iterative manner, inspiring new ways …

Where Do We Go From Here? Rethinking The Design Studio After The Covid-19 Pandemic, Saskia Van Kampen, Anne Galperin, Karin Jager, Lesley-Ann Noel, Johnathon Strube

DRS Biennial Conference Series

In this paper, five design educators apply an investigative framework to discuss the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the Design Studio and the future of design education at North American universities. The educators are dispersed geographically across Canada and the United States and teach in public higher education. They have a working and reflection group that has met weekly or bi-weekly for 18 months to discuss and write about their practice as design educators. This paper is a distillation of the group’s experiences, their reflections regarding the future of the design studio, and their intentions for practice …

Are Stereotypes, Such As The ‘Headclutcher’, In Stock Images For Mental Illness Stigmatizing?, Laura Orton

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Public perception and attitudes of mental illness are heavily influenced by mass media, so it is important the visual communication delivered into society is responsible and not unintentionally damaging. Stereotypes are used frequently in visual communication for speed of understanding. However, stereotypes are often based on unfounded assumptions, and these assumptions can cause stigma towards the stereotyped group. This study questions what stereotypes, if any, are present in stock images of mental illness and discusses what effect they may have on stigma. There have been previous calls for images such as the ‘headclutcher’ to not be used to represent mental …

Alien Encyclopedia, Zengqi Guo

Masters Theses

Alien Encyclopedia is a body of work that analyzes, expands, redefines, and leverages the definition of “alien” as both problematic and an avenue of possibility. By mapping the word “alien” as a fragmented play of alternatives, I translate the lessons derived from this exploration into a maker’s lexicon. I use “alien” to frame my identity, as a prompt to ground my projects, a factor to interrupt existing typography and to spark questions, a generative tool to explore the interpolation between the familiar and unfamiliar, and to incite new solutions and actions to solve the problems we are facing now. Alien …

Disoriented: Navigating The Nuances Of Communication, Ann Dinh

Masters Theses

What happens when you lose your language?

With this loss comes emotional and cultural implications, moments of incompleteness, along with a power struggle. Within immigrant communities especially, there are issues of communication and comprehension between generations. U.S.-born children of immigrants must deal with both a generational and cultural gap, gaps exacerbated by both distance and time. All of this is compounded by the challenges of assimilating to Western culture. In confronting the loss of language, this thesis aims to develop new informal methods of communication, ones less reliant on established language structures, ones that can help interact with future generations.

Sub Sequence : Building A Participatory Infrastructure, Aaron Wright

Masters Theses

What might it look like to make the nebulous quality of air pollution visible?

There is a lack of infrastructure that has been constructed in response to the contaminants produced from the Port of Providence in Rhode Island. Air quality surrounding the Port is impacted by air pollution from legacy industrial sites – diesel trucks, marine vessels, oil and gas storage and distribution, asphalt and cement processing, metals recycling, natural gas and utility services, and large heating plants.

The thesis sets out to investigate, question, and iterate upon the possibilities of collective environmental action and accessible information through an individual’s …

Soul Soiree: How “Sunday Best” Dressing Encourages Celebration Of Self, Olufisayo Quadri

Masters Theses

Celebration is an important part of living a fulfilled life. From significant milestone events like weddings and birthdays to smaller moments of serendipity, the act of celebration is an affirmation of one’s place in the world. Across cultures, communities have used festive textiles to show an appreciation for their values and histories.

Openness, Qiwen Ju

Masters Theses

We perceive the world as flat when we close one eye. When both eyes are open, the world takes on a three-dimensional quality.

Our childhood, education, family, and environment form and bind our cognitive perspective. As the ancient Chinese proverb goes: “You can’t see Mount Tai by blinding your eyes with one leaf.” Truth is exceedingly difficult to discern. Like the obscuring leaf, there are blind spots in our vision. Prejudice is often the narrow leaf that obstructs perception, preventing us from seeing with greater dimension.

For actual comprehension, we can only see through the eyes, hearts, and minds of …

Connect: Translating Complexity Through Visual Simplification, Ilhee Park

Masters Theses

CONNECT: Translating Complexity through Visual Simplification brings complex data into concise visual systems that encourage ease of access. With a background in Human Factors Engineering, user engagement remains a central focus in my design. Whether reducing barriers to scientific information or untangling deeply complex data, design must contain intuitive concepts without the need for extended explanation. Using bold color and geometric shapes as the core design language to render pictorial narratives, this thesis maps my development as an information designer through modes of gathering, deciphering, and interpreting.

Telematic Immersion: Performance, Technology, And Audiovisual Work In Virtual Studies (2020) By Paulo C. Chagas, Cássia Carrascoza Bomfim

Journal of Network Music and Arts

This article discusses the concept of telematic immersion developed in partnership with composer Paulo C. Chagas. Focusing on Chagas’s work Virtual Studies (2020) for flute, live electronics, and 3D video, we reflect on different aspects of artistic creativity in the telematic environment including the use of audio and video technology and the multiple connections between musicians and apparatuses. The article discusses how the parameters of chamber music in the physical environment, such as the uniqueness of the live performance, the corporality of sound, and the visual and choreographic dimension of the performance are being transformed through the virtual setting of …

E-Commerce Brand Design And Website Prototyping, Ashley J. Tuliau

Graphic Communication

MJ Swim is an e-commerce brand and website concept with a focus on customizable products and individualized sizing. Most online swimwear companies follow a fast-fashion business model which prioritizes mass production and offers affordable prices. However, aside from the many environmental consequences of this, fast fashion leaves large disparities in clothing quality, sizing accuracy, and product uniqueness. My primary goal was to create a dynamic website that would be flexible across a variety of devices and allow for optimal product customization. My secondary goal was to create a strong and inclusive brand identity that would thrive in a solely online …

Emotion And The Visual Arts, Hailey Bayne

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

The emotional aspect of the visual arts has been researched and reviewed for decades, and many artists have completed work with the purpose to instill an emotional response in the viewer. How are emotions communicated and perceived through the visual arts? Utilizing knowledge from centuries of art theory, other emotion-focused artists, and the science behind the core emotions, I completed five multimedia pieces in complete isolation whilst triggering only one singular core emotion per piece. I used my understanding of myself and my emotional responses to center each piece around a different schedule, diet, look, and routine complimentary to the …

Tigilan Mo Nga!: A Zine Utilizing The Elements Of Digital Illustration To Highlight Ocd Experience In A Filipino Household, Zia Mei C. Ocampo

DLSU Senior High School Research Congress

Tigilan Mo Nga! is a zine inspired by Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in a Filipino household as well as the manifestation and effects of obsessive-compulsive disorder. The purpose of this zine is to further and fully understand the OCD experience. It is told from the perspective of a young Filipino with OCD. Data from two written interviews that were accomplished by an OCD patient and a BS Psychology Major were used as inspiration for illustrations in the zine. Overall, the zine includes themes of stigma, OCD in a Filipino household, and compulsions.