Digital Commons Network^™

Putting Humpty Dumpty Back Together: Pricing In Anticommons Property Arrangements, Ben Depoorter, Sven Vanneste

George Mason University School of Law Working Papers Series

Recently, a new theory has drawn considerable attention in the literature on common property. A number of scholars have pointed to the danger of excessive propertization in the context of what are termed "anticommons" property regimes. Although this theory has found its way into numerous legal and economic applications, the empirical and cognitive foundations of the theory of fragmentation remain unexplored. Based on experimental data, this Article conducts an investigation into the social and personal processes involved in the anticommons.

The results confirm the theoretical proposition that anticommons deadweight losses increase with the degree of complementarity between individual parts and …

Bridging Cultures In Electronic Communication New Multiliteracy Models For Interaction Design., Patricia Search

DRS Biennial Conference Series

In my research I am developing new multiliteracy models for computer interface design. These design models are derived from dynamic, time-based communication structures used in oral communication in Indigenous cultures. The research uses visual patterns to represent the changing semantic structures in an interactive information space where there are numerous networks of associations. These multiliteracy models integrate the semiotics of early oral cultures with the semiotics of modern electronic communication. They reflect pluralistic, aural-visual, community-based communication styles that differ from Western perspectives of temporal sequencing, logical analysis, and fixed hierarchies. For these reasons these designs have important implications for improving …

The Design Of The Edge As Cultural Activity: Towards A Dislocation Of The Greek Logos., Konstantinos Ioannidis

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The vital relation between coastline and human emotion has been projected within every possible rhetoric means (from poetry and painting to literature and cinema) but never before had this relation played the most affective role to our behavior than nowadays where cities are determined to return these areas back to citizens and restore all these notions-meanings that have, so violently, been removed from the urban waterfront as a result of the socio-economic changes of the last decades. But in most times this effort is muddied by amateurish attempts at generalization with standardized architectural practices which develop more or less customary …

What Is The Future Of Interactive Multi-User Systems?, Mark Palmer

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The research objective concerns the creation of genuine multi-user systems. This work arises from the creation of immersive systems and the philosophical critique of the assumptions made by discourses that seek to understand the digital. Although in philosophical terms this has focused on an immanent rather than transcendent ontology it is also possible to understand this approach through the ‘discoveries’ of complexity theory; concepts through which research can develop practical strategies that can be employed in the creation of these systems.

A Human-Computer Framework For Schema-Driven And Precedent-Driven Visual Analogy In Design., Wei Dai, Hernan Casakin

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The use of visual analogy is considered to be a most suitable aid for design problem solving. Reasoning by analogy deals with two main cognitive paradigms. The first one is concerned with schema-driven analogy, which is defined as the use of abstract experiential knowledge that can direct a design solution to a familiar problem type. The second paradigm has to do with precedent-driven analogy, and is distinguished by the use of a concrete prior design problem whose major components and its corresponding relationships could be explicitly mapped onto the problem at hand. In order to support the use of visual …

New Models For Design Management In The Textile Industry In Response To Direct Digital Textile Print Technology And Manufacture., Bruce Carnie

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper is based on initial research including a literature review of the management of digital printing processes and technology in the paper and textile industries. For the purposes of this paper I will use the scope of thought evolved from the Design Management Institute in Boston USA. Continuing research will be augmented by quantitative data analysis and comparative analysis of case studies and also research of the philosophical underpinning of these business ventures. This paper is an introduction to the argument for a systematic approach to the impact of direct digital printing processes and technology on textile design using …

A Compare Study On The Construction Principles Of Chinese Characters And The Product Semantics., Ya-Chen Kuo, Dengchuan Cai

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Both product semantics and construction principles of Chinese characters are techniques using for form creating. Product semantics was used for interpreting product meanings by product designers and was prospered since 1980s. The construction principles of Chinese characters were a set of methods for creating Chinese characters which were generalized by Xushen around 100 AD. Product semantics includes five principles: metaphor, simile, metonymy, allegory, and analogy, while the construction principles of Chinese characters are: physical resemblance principle (Xiang-Xing), indication principle (Zhi-Shi), implication principle (Hui-Yi), principle in combination with shape and pronunciation (Xing- Sheng), principle in combination analogy principle (Zhuan-Zhu), and substitute …

Determination Of Presence Within Virtual Space: Implications For Interface Design., Rebecca Bond

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper proposes that measuring and mapping perceptions of ‘presence’ (or, the experience of ‘place’ in ‘space’) may lead to a greater understanding of virtual or ‘cyber’ space experiences, and contribute to the theory of human computer interaction (HCI) and design theory. As the experimental design is focussed on how users perceive and interact in their virtual world in relation to the effect of place and space, an attempt will be made to decipher perceptions of the relatively new frontier of cyberspace, leading to new methods for representing this form of space.

Context Of Use And User's Experience: An Exploratory Study In The Product Design Domain., Marianella Chamorro-Koc, Vesna Popovic, Michael Emmison

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper reports on an ongoing empirical study that explores context of use and user’s experience as relevant issues for the design of product usability. Its experimental approach focuses on investigating the nature of the differences between the designers’ and the users’ concept formulation about everyday artefacts in regard to their context of use. Visual representation of artefacts and verbal reports were used to elicit such information from users and designers during the experiment. Initial outcomes indicate that the main difference between the user’s and designer’s concepts and knowledge is mostly due to their individual experience within the context that …

Development Of Complex Products: Design Guidelines For Product Designers., Mark Goellner, Sarah Wakes, Christopher T Shaw

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The paper discusses the development of generic and practically aimed design guidelines for product designers working with complex products. Research has been undertaken to investigate the usefulness and usability of these guidelines. A pilot-study with student- and academic-designers in New Zealand reveals that the product design guidelines in form of a checklist are generally of great interest to support complex design projects, but also that the format and usability of the generic design guidelines needs to be improved to become a useful and powerful tool for the designers.

Collaborative Design Activity: The Inclusion Of Human Affect Processes In Design Theory About Collaboration In Design., Terence Love

DRS Biennial Conference Series

his paper reports the findings of research aimed at identifying appropriate ways forward in building design theory about collaborative design activities that take into account new research findings from cognitive neuro-science about the roles of affect, emotion and feeling in human interactions and perceptions. Human affective processes are essential to many aspects of collaborative designing. These include: individual design cognition; communication between collaborators and stakeholders; individual understanding, valuing and judging of elements of design problems and solutions; optimisation processes; individual and group closure processes; power-based/ hegemonic manipulations; and negotiations about elements of design problem, design solution and design processes. The …

Hermeneutic Phenomenology As A Method For Reflection In User-Centred Designing., Stella Boess, David Durling, Cherie Lebbon, Christopher Maggs

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper seeks to contribute to the development of tools through which design can reflect on its own efforts and effects. User research and the carrying out of a user- centred design task had raised questions on the self-conception of a user-centred designer vis-à-vis those he/she designs for. Hermeneutic phenomenology was adopted as a methodology for critical reflection on a designer’s own activity of user-centred designing. This paper discusses hermeneutic phenomenology as a methodology for reflection on user-centred designing, laying out some of its elements and discussing its applicability to design. It is hoped that this discussion might lead to …

New Tools For The Teaching Of Communication Design., Paul Cleveland

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The basics of graphic design education have remained almost unchanged over the past 25 years. Apart from the introduction of computers and software as enabling tools, the concepts of what makes good design still relies on a mentoring or apprenticeship system. Knowledge and experience are transferred to the student through project work critiques, or by the analysis of seminal exemplars. Recent developments in generative design and computational models of focal visual attention indicate that software education tools for design based on professional experience and communications research can facilitate targeted design solutions.

Cultural Aspects Of Global Industrial Design, 'A Diversification Among Cultures'., Mohamad Zamzuri, Jan Lundberg

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Global industrial design principles have recently gained momentum as one viable method of producing useful, usable and desirable products. However, cultural diversification existing between countries seems to be a tall hurdle facing designers. In short, this cultural difference might prevent the object in question from being widely accepted across the world, although it may have been categorized as being “universal” for the purpose of increasing the profit margin of the company. Therefore, the problems associated with this area of design should be addressed and elucidated in research, to avoid cultural disagreement in the future in product design. The aim of …

Beyond Regularity: Questions Concerning Usefulness., Terry Rosenberg

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper advances a motion that ‘usefulness’ is a regularity (Foucault) that haunts the programme of design and severely restricts it. It will highlight the way design practice is, in the main, constrained by narrow determination of its use(s), generally, and notions of ‘usefulness’ in particular. It will move to explain the way that design(ing) is flattened ontologically by embedded notions of ‘usefulness’ and that these embedded notions have set for design and its discourse a deontic straitjacket. That is, a set of obligations and duties that set a regular delimitation of design and thus rigid intentions for outcomes in …

User-Centred Approach In Visual And Spatial Reasoning: Design Research In Wayfinding Map Design., Christopher Kueh

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Designing effective wayfinding maps to assist people to navigate effectively within a specific environment has always been an issue. According to Wright, ‘[users] have responded negatively to map design in the past ... ’(cited in Wood 1993). The aim of this paper is to address the importance of user-centred approaches in the design of wayfinding maps. In this paper I am proposing that graphic and information designers should emphasize the interaction processes between people and maps, people and the physical environment, and the relationship that people create between the map and the environment. This paper also suggests a speculative wayfinding …

The Relationship Between Package Visual Design Of Green Products And Consumer Behavior - An Example Of Green Laundry Detergent Package., Chen-Fu (Daniel) Chen, Yian-Lin Ling

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This research explains the specific relationship between consumer buying behavior and the package visual design. This research involves a questionnaire survey of consumers through the package visual design of green products with the Eco-label in Taiwan. The laundry detergent product category has been selected for the sample. The related research issues, such as functions of product package, green package design, definitions of green products, and green consumption, are also discussed. This research has explained the influential factors, including both categories of aesthetic and environmental appeal factors, to the green package visual design of the laundry detergent, which may help designers …

Trial-And-Error-Based Innovation: Rapid Materialisation As Catalyser Of Perception And Communication In Design., Jan Capjon

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Design theory of the 1970s tried to map generalised approaches to design action (Cross et al. 1984), an endeavour which seems to have more or less evaporated in postmodern contextualisation. Can some common ground for making still be sketched – or will a future ground of designing only imply diversification? In my doctoral thesis (Capjon 2004) I have tried to map an effective landscape of design action which is shared by all collaborating actors regardless of background and have called its metaphorical depiction the Plant of Emerging Materiality– or PoEM. Its development is based on the capabilities of Rapid Prototyping …

The Comparison Between Novice And Expert Designers' Sketching In Conceptual Design., Hui-Hsia Chen, Manlai You

DRS Biennial Conference Series

In many literature reviews, we find that sketching is confirmed as an activity of generating and developing ideas. The sketching activity is also a key factor of influencing idea generation. However, the focus of conceptual design is to develop the promising new concepts. We are primarily interested in finding a creation process and thinking by analysis of sketching activity in conceptual design. The aim is to support the validation of the importance of the sketch in conceptual design and to further explore an appropriate method for improving the efficiency of ideation activities. In addition, it is important to find the …

Driving Experience And The Effect Of Challenging Interactions In High Traffic Context., Rafael Gomez, Vesna Popovic, Sam Bucolo

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper focuses on exploring the emotional experience of driving and aims to identify some of the aspects that may influence this experience. The paper presents an exploratory study focusing on the driver’s experience during interaction with the vehicle interface while driving. The study is based on a data triangulation approach including interviews, observation, and think-aloud protocol. Preliminary analysis of the study provided encouraging indicative findings, identifying aspects of design that enhance and/or detract from the driving experience. Previous analysis suggests that context and situation have a dominant impact on the driving experience. Further analysis has shown that challenges with …

Reading Digital Clones In The Conservation Process., Matthew Cooke

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper explores notions of ‘the virtual facsimile’, the copy and representation at a practice-oriented level and discusses them with relation to notions of ‘tracking’, ‘recording’ and ‘annotating’ design and design history through digital means. It begins by asking the question: if previsualisation software packages are useful in the representation phase of a construction project, how useful are they as markers and postvisualisation tools for pre-existing structures? Indeed, once modelled, how far departed from the original is the facsimile? Is it possible to extend the usefulness of these tools to include the representation of that which is already built and …

Disciplining Creativity: Neoliberalism And Design Education In New Zealand., Amanda Bill

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Two decades of educational reform in New Zealand have resulted in one of the most market-oriented regimes of higher education in the OECD. In this environment, enrolments in design and other creative degree courses that seem to provide an opportunity for individual expression and self-development have greatly increased. However, representatives of traditional industry sectors complain that there are hardly any jobs for these graduates, and little in the way of career paths. The situation thus seems to confound human capital approaches to education policy, in which tactics such as high fees and student loans are meant to exert a conservative …

The Influence Of Communication Environment To The Brainstorming Practice., Yi-Han Hu, Chi-Hsien Hsu, Chun-Di Chen

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Team work is not new for an organization to enhance the quality and quantity of the answer against the problem [1]. Increasingly, the completion of design work needs group’s effort, leading the request of communication tools to reduce the cost and time for traveling to place the face-to-face discussion. Many studies have devoted to the field using computer-mediated communication tools to support cooperative design work. On the other hand, the utilization of brainstorming in producing many ideas has been recognized. The pervasive usage of telecommunication tools and brainstorming in design work prompts an interest about how brainstorming is conducted over …

Environ-Mental., Bev Lamey, Carol Bristow

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Loony Bins and madhouses; does the environment contribute to the wellbeing of mental health patients (clients)? Have the large Victorian asylums, where patients were hidden from public view, disappeared? Evidence suggests otherwise. People struggling with the distress and disruptive consequences of mental illness, are still kept in oppressive, unsympathetic environments. Research into patient focussed design and architecture has concentrated on physical health care environments and ignored psychiatric health care. As a result many psychiatric patients are still housed (and locked up) in former asylums with their outdated facilities and arrangements. The "Environ-mental" project and SEED is about design for wellbeing …

A Differential Study On The Influence Of Prior Experience And Visual Stimuli In Idea Generation With Analogy Method., Ku Feng Yen, Tze Hsun Wang, Kai Ming Liu, Chun Di Chen

DRS Biennial Conference Series

One of the purposes of design education is to teach designers to employ their prior knowledge and experience to solve problems encountered in the design process, thus making the process more efficient. Design techniques, however, are to improve on design ability through simple and easy learning rules in design education. This study targets the most challenging phase in the design process, idea generation and modification, by emphasizing association and analogical deduction method. Contemporary contributions in the literature on design methods mostly favour descriptions of implementation manners, contents, procedures, and advantages or disadvantages; few rely upon actual design tasks to illustrate …

User Preferences For Personalities Of Entertainment Robots According To The Users' Psychological Types., Sona Kwak, Myung-Suk Kim

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The purpose of this paper is to suggest a design process for constructing personality of an entertainment robot based on psychological types, and investigate user preferences for robot personalities according to the users’ psychological types. In this study, four temperaments derived from 16 personality types in a psychological type indicator, MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator), were applied to design the personality of an entertainment robot. The case study and experiment yielded several results. First, the major experimenters match reactions with robot temperaments. From this result, we could see that robot temperaments are useful guidelines to design the entertainment robot’s personality. …

Identification Of Graphic Character Influenced By The Design Of Characteristic Features., Regina Wang, Ting Chien Lin

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Graphic design of character has been included one of the main factors in corporate identity system. It makes people to create an interactive connection of emotions in addition to enhance brand loyalty though its gratifying appearance. The characteristic feature performs the important role during the graphic character is being designed. It is able to create clear memory and impression for observers if the features of character were illustrated. The core of the investigation is to clarify the characteristic features demanded in identifying a character and to find out the importance of them. It is found that at least five characteristics …

Fragments, Signs, Systems: Research Into Collaborative Innovation., Jan Coker

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper briefly discusses FRAGMENTS of insight resulting from my research into the design of a curriculum for collaborative innovation. In this curriculum diagrams are employed as visual SIGNS that represent diverse understanding of a problem, they are used by student designers to negotiate the collaborative innovative space. Any design can be viewed as a SYSTEM but the “wicked” problems described later in this paper exist in a globalizing and international context and may now offer opportunities for design of systems solutions that foster social and ecological sustainability.

Visual/Verbal Meaning Collaboration In Redefining Interplay., Susan Hagan

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The study of visual/verbal design has not yet resulted in effective principles of practice and analysis for the designer because our reigning perspectives either recast visual messages as objects to be “read,” reduce textual elements to unexamined “background material,” or remove message interests altogether in order to focus on the “presentation” of ideas separated from the ideas themselves. Given particular goals, these reducibility assumptions can yield reasonable, if incomplete, analyses. This fact explains both the persistence and popularity of these assumptions in light of their limitations. However, these assumptions ignore the status of visual and verbal elements as sui generis …

Profiling The Designer: How Are The Design Professions Perceived?, T W Allan Whitfield, Gillian Smith

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper draws upon the results of two large-scale investigations into the public’s perceptions of the design professions. The first was a comparative study involving matched samples of Australians and South Koreans. Carried out within the framework of occupational prestige assessment (e.g. Daniel, 1983), it sought to position the design professions in terms of social standing relative to a range of other professions and occupations. It also provided a comparison of how designers perceived themselves against how the public perceived them (Chung and Whitfield, 1999; Whitfield and Smith, 2003). The second was the most extensive field survey so far undertaken …