Digital Commons Network^™

Memorandum 4.2 (Complete Issue), Memorandum Staff

Memorandum (student professional writing magazine)

No abstract provided.

E-Lit's #1 Hit: Is Instagram Poetry E-Literature?, Kathi Inman Berens

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

Preface

A lot has happened in the world, and in e-literature, since my essay débuted as a conference presentation then a publication in electronic book review in 2018. Global protests against the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor during the pandemic summer of 2020 sparked reckoning with how banal, mainstream, and lethal is white supremacy. Six months later, in response to specific critiques about access and equity inside the Electronic Literature Organization, its Board of Directors published a statement about Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) as a core value. As an editor of the Electronic Literature Collective Volume 4, …

Transformative Sketching: Unveiling Character Identity In Two Dimensions, Sanya Jain, Prasad Bokil

DRS Biennial Conference Series

We understand this world through our sense perceptions and past associations. The main objective of the study was to sketch the face of a character with a specific identity, so that it aligns with its intended description, thus ensuring it is perceived as intended. The use of shapes and features of animals have helped to derive characters that represent an archetype. The digital representations of these characters find their place along two distinct axes: (i) transitioning from elaborate to minimal and (ii) shifting between animalistic and human features. The methodology harmoniously merges diverse character appearances, eliminating fragmentation. We place significant …

A Designer’S Lexicon: An Ethnographic Exploration Of Language In Design Practice, Madison Sabatelli

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Although a visual language often takes precedence as the main communicator in design, text can act as a fundamental medium of developing ideas. Writing not only has similar capabilities as sketching in order to externalize concepts, but also when developing cognitive thinking and communicate with others. Using instructional, social and reflective lenses, this ethnographic study catalogues and analyzes examples of written language present across several design studios at The Ohio State University. Artifacts presented include writing prompted by design instructors, written interactions between peers and student self-awareness delivered through reflective writing. Acting as a purveyor of language, writing serves a …

Thought Experiments In The Ethics Of Designing For Future People., Peter Buwert, Matt Sinclair

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The Non-Identity Problem (NIP) is a philosophical puzzle which challenges our intuitive assumptions and reasoning around the question of our moral obligations towards ‘future people’. This paper explores the significance of the NIP for design, an activity which is necessarily both future-oriented and ethical in nature. Through examination of two thought experiments proposed by philosopher Derek Parfit, this paper makes two contributions to the field of design ethics. Firstly, it raises the profile of the NIP as a topic of interest and for further study in design ethics research. The second is to propose that philosophical thought experiments can play …

Prospective Design: A Structuralist Design Aesthetic Founded On Relational Qualities, Fernanda Botter, Frederick M. C. Van Amstel, Marco André Mazzarotto Filho, Cayley Guimarães

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Prospective design is a research program founded on critical dialogues between Global South and Global North philosophies of design. Prospective design expands the current work on designing sociotechnical transitions by including the contradiction between “forces of nature” and “human forces” as a structural feature of Western society, which generates patriarchal and feminist worldviews, colonies and metropolises, and capitalist and socialist economic systems. In prospective design, contradictions are sensed, expressed, and worked out through a structuralist design aesthetic founded on the concept of existential structures, i.e. an accumulated set of relationships needed to reproduce human life. Instead of changing them directly, …

Playable Systems: Game Co-Design For Systemic Intervention, Evan Barba, Adeline Hvidsten, Josina Vink, Anna Kirah, Rebecca Rouse

DRS Biennial Conference Series

No abstract provided.

Reflective Narratives In Social Design: Towards An Autoethnographic Approach, Spyros Bofylatos, David Perez

DRS Biennial Conference Series

No abstract provided.

The Power Of Doing Less: The Concept Of Exnovation In Transition Design Through A Multi-Lens Perspective, Esther Noëth, Stine Moons

DRS Biennial Conference Series

No abstract provided.

Design For Wellbeing And Happiness, Leandro Miletto Tonetto, Ann Petermans, Rebecca Cain, Anna Pohlmeyer, Tiiu Poldma, Deger Ozkaramanli, Pieter Desmet, Matthias Laschke, Marc Hassenzahl

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The influence of design on wellbeing and happiness is a subject of growing research across various design domains, including products, services, systems, and environments. However, a challenge remains in grounding research on solid theories and methods that can unveil how design impacts people's wellbeing, enabling evidence-based approaches to design. This theme track focuses on contributions from design in fulfilling the societal need to promote wellbeing and happiness, aligned with the conference theme: Resistance, Recovery, Reflection, Reimagination. The conference encourages us to expand our design horizons by reflecting on how the world is challenging the prevailing focus of design, which is …

From Data Points To Well-Being: A Design Framework Of Self-Tracked Data Through The Lens Of Positive Psychology, Yvette Shen

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The "Quantified Self" movement has grown, with more people using self-tracking tools to monitor everything from physical activities to emotional well-being. This study investigates the interplay between self-tracking practices and positive psychology, highlighting their collective potential to boost personal well-being. Integrating self-tracked data with principles like strengths, resilience, and personal growth allows for the transformation of mere metrics into compelling stories. The paper presents a de-sign framework that is influenced by classroom projects and the examination of data presentation in health and fitness apps. This framework manages the complete data lifecycle—from collection and organization to interpretation, presentation, and finally, harnessing …

Anticolonial Prospects For Overcoming The Coloniality Of Making In Design, Carmem Saito, Rodrigo Freese Gonzatto, Frederick Van Amstel

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Design has been instrumental in preserving the coloniality of making – a set of ideological, cultural, political, market and relational processes that operate to identify, categorise and hierarchise different making practices that benefit the metropolises at globalised production structures. This paper presents a theoretical examination of the coloniality of making based on the anticolonial scholarship of the Design & Oppression Network. The examination proceeds with three prospective studies to overcome this form of coloniality in fashion, interaction, and graphic design. The first part of each study denounces how design reproduces the hierarchy between intellectual and manual labour and justifies class, …

Empowering Through Design: Designing Inclusive Sheltered Workshop Environments For Trainees With Special Needs In Hong Kong, Izzy Yi Jian, Wanchun Ye, Qiling Long, Kin Wai Michael Siu

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Intellectual disability (ID) affects approximately 1% of the global population, repre-senting diverse support needs. Sheltered workshops in Hong Kong, as elsewhere, aim to maximise the potential of individuals with ID (trainees), acknowledging their equal rights to be full members of the community, though their needs are often overlooked in design research, and space constraints pose developmental challeng-es. This study conducts case analyses of sheltered workshops in Hong Kong and globally, focusing on spatial layouts, interior design, and developmental goals. User personas provide insights into the experiences of trainees and supervisors. This re-search proposes a comprehensive framework featuring 3 aspects that …

Social Design At The Brink: Hopes And Fears., Mariana Fonseca Braga, Frederick M. C. Van Amstel, David Perez

DRS Biennial Conference Series

No abstract provided.

Translational Design: Enabling Impact In Complex, Multi-Stakeholder Research Projects Through Design, Rowan Christopher Page, Rosie Hornbuckle, Leah Heiss, André Nogueira

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Translational research converts the knowledge generated through basic research into tangible innovations, solutions, and interventions that directly impact people and the planet. As universities increasingly seek to maximise research impact, the applied, action-oriented, epistemology of design is well-positioned to support translational research. Successful translation requires strong communication and collaboration between different disciplines, industry partners, policy, and research end-users. Multi-stakeholder collaborations foster holistic approaches, leading to more effective and contextually relevant solutions. Designers are well-positioned to facilitate complex entanglements, integrating the needs and values of diverse perspectives. However, the emerging role of design as an enabler of translational research needs to …

Design Sketching And Visualization, Futures & Research, Bryan Howell, Janwillem Hofftjzer, Mauricio Novoa Munoz

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Design sketching in analogue, tablet, and immersive technologies, combined with artificial intelligence, is rapidly evolving and is primed for reinterpretation and further contextualisation. Discussions about analogue and digital sketching, live and online education, traditional and emerging visual contexts, generative and explanatory visual knowledge, emerging technology and methods, and the visual power and speed of sketching with artificial intelligence have seeded the ground to reassess our relationships with the role of sketching, and visual knowledge. The “Design Sketching and Visualization, Futures & Research” track welcomes visual or written research papers from industry professionals and academics on three topics: 1- Analogue and …

Service Design And Circular Economy In Hybrid Retail Design, Nonkululeko Grootboom, Katelijn Quartier, Christina Breed

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper serves as a pilot study exploring hybrid (physical and digital) retail design within the context of the circular economy, and it examines the prerequisite of the hy-brid retail environment in facilitating customer engagement with circular economy practices. Utilizing an exploratory qualitative approach, we collect primary data through semi-structured interviews with an SME retail brand and ten of its customers. Additionally, we conducted observations of both the physical store and its social me-dia. This contributes to the limited existing literature on hybrid retail design within the context of the circular economy, particularly in the fashion industry. By bridging two …

Co-Diagnosed: A Multi-Disciplinary Workshop Reimagining Cultures Of Care For Medical And Mental Health, Valerie Greer, Emily Johnson, Virginia Pankey, Jack Burton

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper focuses on places of healing for co-diagnosed patients who suffer from both mental and medical illnesses. Comorbidity is recognized as a growing concern yet there is little prece-dent in the healthcare industry for designing spaces that respond to needs of patients who re-quire hospitalization for medical conditions, and who simultaneously suffer mental health disor-ders. To explore this problem, we created a workshop to engage healthcare providers, adminis-trators and healthcare architects with undergraduate and graduate students in art, architecture, visual communications and urban design. Our goal was to identify issues that must be ad-dressed through the lens of patients …

Enabling Regenerative Transitions: What Can Design Offer?, Michelle Alina Miller, Alexander Baumber

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Transition design first emerged as a provocation to designers to apply design theory and practice to enable societal transitions, including transitions toward sustainability. This raises questions around the roles that transition design can play in sustainability transitions and the specific capabilities that designers can draw on. This paper seeks to answer these questions via a transition design case study project in agricultural sustainability. Specifically, the project focuses on the growing interest in regenerative agriculture in New South Wales, Australia from 2017 through 2023. Within the case study, the researcher as designer-practitioner works as a change agent, taking part in collaborative …

Towards Active Aging: Investigating Innovations Within Intelligent Communities, Gabriela Branco, Manuela Quaresma

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Intelligent communities can nurture environments conducive to fostering positive and meaningful relationships among the elderly. This systematic literature review examines the role of these communities in the aging population’s social relations. Through the review of studies and interventions via the Scopus database, we investigate how some innovative approaches are positively impacting the quality of life for the elderly. We identified examples of initiatives, technological solutions, and a social project successfully implemented in communities to strengthen older adult support networks. The contributions of this article lie in providing a comprehensive view of how smart technologies are shaping support for the senior …

A Framework For The Agency Of Sketching, Annemiek Van Der Wal, Janwillem Hoftijzer, Martijn Haans

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Previous scholars have advocated the significant value of sketching in design process-es. This paper first explores how design sketching functions as an agent for design, building on insights derived from both theory and practice. Interviews with professional designers in the field reaffirm the functions and importance of sketching. Not only for designers themselves, but also for their clients and consumers. Given the value of sketching and the variety of stakeholders involved, this paper then aims to structure the affordances of design sketching in a practical framework. Considering that af-fordances must be discoverable and perceivable in order to be effective, this …

Past, Present And Future Of Design Ethics, Helle Vesti, Linda N. Laursen, Christian Tollestrup

DRS Biennial Conference Series

With the ever-more present climate crisis, resource shortage and the expansion of AI, the core question of the ethical aspects of our development of new products and solutions becomes unavoidable. But which topics are commonly discussed in design ethics literature and how has it evolved? To answer this question and to understand the existing underpinnings and foundation of ethics in design, we adopted a structured literature review searching literature across 42 renowned scientific design journals. A systematic search revealed 1177 academic publications relating to the topic. After filtering and reviewing the titles, abstracts and keywords of these publications, a total …

Making Space Online: Situating Complex, Intersectional Identities, Dori Griffin, Brooke Hull

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This co-authored visual essay explores our process of making space for ourselves online within the complexity of our intersectional identities. Individually, we’ve appropriated mainstream social media posts to share marginalized experiences, generate meaningful connections, and merge our personal and research identities. On Facebook, Griffin shares her experiences as a cis-female, invisibly disabled, neurodivergent design educator. On Instagram, Hull shares their experiences as fat, queer, trans non-binary design student. Together, using tools with low barriers to entry, we document how design educational praxis affords our marginalized voices access, or not, within physical and virtual design education spaces. As white authors, we …

Harnessing Information Visualization As A Vehicle For Translational Design, Joli Holmes, Matthew Blanco, Todd Linkner, Estefania Ciliotta Chehade, Paolo Ciuccarelli

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Designers are often positioned as mediators or interpreters, working between disciplines and stakeholders to frame and address problems. This quality is particularly desired when a product transitions from one implementation to another. Translational designers assist this process through critical activities such as navigating differing domain knowledge and balancing conflicting values or cultures between stakeholders. We argue the primary outcome of translational design is not necessarily an artifact but the translation of knowledge across disciplines for decision-making. Our research explains and shows how information visualization can translate meaning within a group of experts familiar with the same topic and between a …

Faculty Wellbeing In Corporate Academia: A Critical Examination And Reimaging Of The Curriculum Vitae, Aaron Ganci

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Faculty wellbeing is declining among US higher education faculty, and burnout is becoming increasingly common. This study examines the role of design artifacts, namely the curriculum vitae (CV), within this dynamic. The CV has succumbed to interconnected social forces, including neoliberalism and inclusive democratization, fundamentally altering its design and the connected faculty experience. To better understand if design action might improve faculty wellbeing, this study employs a transformative research design to examine how the CV might be reimagined to promote positive transformation and improved wellbeing. This mixed-method qualitative study utilizes a novel bend of interviews, participatory co-design activities, and a …

Advancing Design With Generative Ai: A Case Of Automotive Design Process Transformation, Yi Li, Yeye Li, Wei Yan, Fan Yang, Xuanxuan Ding

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Generative AI has greatly enhanced the production of digital content and has had a significant impact on the creative activities of designers. However, generalized generative AI falls short of designers' expectations in semantic understanding and image generation, and thus been poorly used in specific design domains (e.g., automotive design). This paper aims to explore the integration of generative AI into the design process, focusing on the generation of automotive design. We deconstructed the process of automotive design through user research, extracted the needs and pain points of designers, and transformed them into fine-tuning tasks for generative models. We trained three …

Show Me What You Mean: The Case For Easy-To-Use 3d Visualizations Of The Built Environment, Noelyn Stephens, Juan Salamanca

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Visual communication, particularly realistic visualization, has been found to be effective for facilitating constructive discussion on issues related to the built environment. Here, we make the case that a browser-based, intuitively designed 3D visualization interface could widen access to such approaches increasing opportunities for co-creation. Using this type of easy-to-access tool could allow community members to own the process of creating a shared vision for their city.

The Power Of The Pen/Pencil: Developing A Design Sketching Syllabus To Help 1st Year Product Design Students Communicate Effectively, Paul Kennea, Richard Malcolm, Francesco Luke Siena, Joseph Stewart, Allan Cutts

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Digital, immersive, and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have propelled technology-focused design to the fore. Due to our technology-driven society and growing demand for technology literacy, the perceived need for traditional/analogue skills is being overlooked/underappreciated. Within product design (PD) education, students are increasingly embracing digital design tools to communicate, overlooking traditional/analogue tools. Subsequently, students are increasingly designing within the remits/restrictions of digital tools. This presents numerous challenges, including overreliance on computer aided design tools, perfectionism through corrective tools available with digital sketching platforms, and the complete disregard of quick concept generation in favor of AI. The power of the pen/pencil is …

Guiding Design Students To Sound-Driven Design From The Base Camp Of Semiotics, Rosana Sanz-Segura, Eduardo Manchado-Pérez

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The lack of knowledge in the field of sound-driven design lags our educational efforts to teach BSc students about the role of sound in current design process methodologies. Teaching programs rarely include subjects dedicated to creating a coherent experience using data-to-sound strategies, sound informativeness, or the interactions that users have with product sounds. Understanding sound at the same level as other sensory cues prepares students to enrich the usability, attractiveness, and communicative qualities of products, services, and systems. This contribution aims to provide an integrative and multidisciplinary perspective of sound-driven design through the adaptation and application of the ‘Design Framework …

Indicators For Evaluating Service Design Inclusivity In The Healthcare Sector: A Review Of The Literature, Marco Petazzoni, Sabrina Bresciani

DRS Biennial Conference Series

To foster a culture of inclusive care and patients-centred solutions in the healthcare sector, being able to assess the inclusivity of services is an essential step for enhancing the design and improvement of services. What are the key indicators of inclusive service design in the healthcare sector? Based on insights from the field of the built environment, a thematic analysis of the literature on service design in the context of healthcare, psychology, and public service design is conducted. Indicators extracted from the literature are structured into four categories: physical, sensorial, cognitive, and psycho-social, and according to two phases: service design …