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Articles 2431 - 2460 of 10024

Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

Queer Futures: Correlations Between Queer Identity And Imagination Literacy, Gem Barton Jun 2024

Queer Futures: Correlations Between Queer Identity And Imagination Literacy, Gem Barton

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Futures thinking, and doing, has been the domain of the privileged majority for centuries. The very idea of ‘the future’ (singular) was fundamental to the crea-tion and maintenance of imperial domination and technological modernity. To this day, mainstream media readily emits the narrow and repetitive science fic-tion tropes void of (realistic, fair) representation of a wider inclusive society, specifically absent of queerness. This paper builds on the work of Alexis Lothian’s ‘Old Futures: speculative fiction and queer possibility’ in which she explores the forces queer people (and other marginalised communities) invoke when they dream up alternative futures as a way …


Design Principles Of The Pluriversal Design Paradigm, Eveline Van Zeeland Jun 2024

Design Principles Of The Pluriversal Design Paradigm, Eveline Van Zeeland

DRS Biennial Conference Series

When scientists embrace a different paradigm, this naturally leads to a shift in aca-demic behavior. While the importance and necessity of the pluriversal design framework are evident, understanding how this paradigm influences academic conduct is less clear. Through a systematic literature review of 103 academic papers on the pluriversal approach, it is deducted what it is that researchers do or suggest to do when shaping their research and design practice through the pluriversal de-sign paradigm. In this study, the pluriversal design paradigm is distilled into a set of foundational prerequisites and design principles. These design principles can be applied by …


Designer-Maker: Merging Cognition And Construction In Practice-Led Design Research, Laureen Mahler Jun 2024

Designer-Maker: Merging Cognition And Construction In Practice-Led Design Research, Laureen Mahler

DRS Biennial Conference Series

In the decades since the establishment of design research, efforts to identify the nature of design knowledge have repeatedly returned to the question of design’s relationship to science. The resulting debate is often framed by the opposing tenets of positivism and constructivism, and this gap continues to characterize research across the discipline. This paper challenges the paradigmatic divide between cognition and construction through an examination of practice-led design research and, more specifically, a redefinition of the designer-maker. It presents perceptual space as an active, multimodal medium where cognition and construction emerge simultaneously, as evidenced by the work of the designer-maker. …


Impacting Literacy Through The Power Of A Font: Design Research For Inclusive Reading Experiences, Reneé Seward, Allison Breit, Jennifer Keelor, Jenny Halovick, Nancy Creaghead, Oscar Fernández, Akshat Srivastava, Frida Medrano, Spencer Roberts, Shannon Healey, James Plattner, Lepa Juju Stojanovic Jun 2024

Impacting Literacy Through The Power Of A Font: Design Research For Inclusive Reading Experiences, Reneé Seward, Allison Breit, Jennifer Keelor, Jenny Halovick, Nancy Creaghead, Oscar Fernández, Akshat Srivastava, Frida Medrano, Spencer Roberts, Shannon Healey, James Plattner, Lepa Juju Stojanovic

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Struggling with reading can feel like navigating an endless maze of confusion and frustration for some people. It can weigh heavily on their minds, fostering a sense of inadequacy, isolation, and fear of judgment by others. In the United States, a significant portion of both young and older individuals face these challenges, with statistics showing that 37% of fourth graders and 30% of eighth graders read below basic levels. This paper will detail the development and research of a web-based reading application that leveraged typography and technology to engage struggling readers with their favorite content while improving their foundational reading …


When A Tree Says No: Towards A More-Than-Human Consent Notion For Design, Franca Lopez Barbera Jun 2024

When A Tree Says No: Towards A More-Than-Human Consent Notion For Design, Franca Lopez Barbera

DRS Biennial Conference Series

A growing body of more-than-human approaches in design reconsider and re-articulate design’s relationship to the natural world through relational frameworks. However, such endeavours do not come without difficulties and may even reproduce the very logics they seek to overcome. Despite the prolific efforts within the design community, overcoming the modern/colonial legacies of design and its anthropocentric paradigm remains a formidable challenge. Departing from the Quebracho Colorado tree as a guiding example, this paper delves into a gender and decolonial analysis of the notion of consent that underscores design’s role in reproducing extractive approaches to nature. It then goes on to …


Playful Speculative Design: Crafting Preposterous Futures Through Playful Tension, Sofie Kinch, Jess Uhre Rahbek, Stine Behrendtzen Jun 2024

Playful Speculative Design: Crafting Preposterous Futures Through Playful Tension, Sofie Kinch, Jess Uhre Rahbek, Stine Behrendtzen

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper explores the imaginative borderland of speculative design, often re-ferred to as 'preposterous futures,' and presents a framework for playful specula-tive design building upon carnivalesque play theory. To operationalize the framework, the concept of ‘playful tensions’ employs three continuums of rele-vance: Firstly, designers should address the ‘purpose’ by navigating the interplay between 'concern and provocation.’ Secondly, the ‘concept’ should be crafted to straddle the boundary between the 'serious and ridiculous,' and thirdly, integrat-ing both 'believable and absurd' elements to scaffold the ‘formgiving’ process. To demonstrate the practical efficacy of the framework, three projects by estab-lished artists and designers are …


Designing Future Workspaces For Cognitive Aging, Katja Thoring, Patrick Kornherr, Markus Kurz Jun 2024

Designing Future Workspaces For Cognitive Aging, Katja Thoring, Patrick Kornherr, Markus Kurz

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper reports on a speculative design project addressing the future workspace. Based on data extrapolation, we assume that by 2048 more people of advanced age will be working in office environments. Consequently, the share of employees suffering from cognitive deficits will significantly increase. Based on this future scenario, a speculative design object has been developed: A cognitive-stimulating desk lamp that could prevent further deterioration of office workers' cognitive abilities through acoustic stimulation. We explore potential technical features of the lamp and address the avoidance of stigmatization and ageism at the workplace. The contribution of the study is twofold: First, …


Preferable, Contextual And Sustainable… Climate Futures For Ecological Citizens., Robert Phillips, Sharon Baurley, Emily Boxall, Luke Gooding, Daniel Knox, Charlotte Nordmoen, Alec Shepley, Tom Simmons, Sarah West, Joanna Wright Jun 2024

Preferable, Contextual And Sustainable… Climate Futures For Ecological Citizens., Robert Phillips, Sharon Baurley, Emily Boxall, Luke Gooding, Daniel Knox, Charlotte Nordmoen, Alec Shepley, Tom Simmons, Sarah West, Joanna Wright

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The responsibility for sustainable futures extends beyond individual disciplines, necessitating the adoption of diverse approaches across various fields. Water pollution is at epidemic levels, valuable materials go to landfill, ocean detritus grows, many people are disconnected from green space, and biodiversity is plummeting. We need new modes of climate futures, championing citizen agency. Societies require cross-collaborative, inclusive approaches to navigate climate future challenges. We seek to foresee ‘climate futures’ that signpost challenges, unpicking (appropriate) opportunities, benefits, and pitfalls. Through an Ecological Citizenship lens, the authors traverse situations, through preferable futures. It is an entry point for transition design, creating climate …


If This Street Was Ours: Provoking The Reimagination Of The City As A Democratic Space, Gheysa Prado, Marco Mazzarotto Jun 2024

If This Street Was Ours: Provoking The Reimagination Of The City As A Democratic Space, Gheysa Prado, Marco Mazzarotto

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper revisits the event ‘se essa rua fosse nossa’ (if this street was ours) held in 2014, in Curitiba, Brazil, that aimed to provoke, discuss, and propose new ways of thinking and designing the public spaces in the city so they can be more open, accessible, inclusive, and democratic. With the perspective of a decade, the goal is to analyze its positive outcomes in the city, then, and in the present moment. The event consisted of a series of critical and creative activities. Its closure was a pop-up parklet that occupied half a block using urban furniture resulting from …


Embodying The Driving Experience Through Ai Driving Assistants As A Means Of Noticing The More-Than-Human, Olga Barbara Lackner Jun 2024

Embodying The Driving Experience Through Ai Driving Assistants As A Means Of Noticing The More-Than-Human, Olga Barbara Lackner

DRS Biennial Conference Series

On the road, a shift of agency away from human drivers is taking place with AI-based roadside monitoring and driving assistants. This changes interaction both within the car and with the environment outside of it, mediated by driving assistant algorithms. It also changes encounters with the non-human, framing and evaluating them from a technological lens. This paper aims to show how the human experience of their environment during a car ride is shifted through AI, where encounters with non-human entities are observed and logged by technology, and how this can be used to remediate passengers’ experience of their environment during …


Using A Mutualistic Design Methodology To Exhibit The Benefits Of “Suboptimal” Product Design, Asa River Jackson Jun 2024

Using A Mutualistic Design Methodology To Exhibit The Benefits Of “Suboptimal” Product Design, Asa River Jackson

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Human-centred design has evolved to the point where much of what is considered optimal is projected as a result of the anthropocentric design process itself. To investigate what unexpected and beneficial outcomes might be produced by intentionally equating the needs of humans and nonhumans, a “Mutualistic Design” methodology was created. This paper discusses the process and results of an exhibition guided by this method, and how it encouraged a dialogue for professionals and academics regarding more-than-human and "suboptimal” design principles. Artefacts included in the exhibition were sitting furniture, coffee tables, walls, a piece of literature, and a card game. Each …


Development Of A Scale For Measuring Individual Cultural Capital Relevant To Design Thinking, Takuo Ando Jun 2024

Development Of A Scale For Measuring Individual Cultural Capital Relevant To Design Thinking, Takuo Ando

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This study attempts to (1) conceptualize the cultural capital of individuals who accept Design Thinking (DT) and (2) develop a scale from the level of individual values, beliefs, and mindset. Previous studies on design thinking have mainly analyzed designers and trained design thinkers. However, this capacity resource is inherently considered to lie with all employees, including non-designers. Being able to embrace DT can be paraphrased as holding beliefs, values, and attitudes related to design. As DT does not necessarily require formal education, the development of such a scale could also be useful for finding natural design thinkers in organizations. We …


Design For Longevity Literature Review In Product Lifecycle, Financial Planning, And Gerontology, Sheng-Hung Lee, Joseph F. Coughlin, Sofie Hodara, Maria C. Yang, Olivier L. De Weck, Eric Klopfer, John Ochsendorf Jun 2024

Design For Longevity Literature Review In Product Lifecycle, Financial Planning, And Gerontology, Sheng-Hung Lee, Joseph F. Coughlin, Sofie Hodara, Maria C. Yang, Olivier L. De Weck, Eric Klopfer, John Ochsendorf

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper explores definitions of Design for Longevity (D4L) through a preliminary literature review to create an interpretation of D4L in the finance and service context. The concept of longevity has been applied to many industries and applications. this paper reviews the term D4L as it applies to three fields: product lifecycle, financial planning, and gerontology. Using specific keywords across three search engines—Web of Science, Google Scholar, and Design Research Society Digital Library—we gathered 78 academic papers and synthesized 24 academic papers. As a result, we proposed a holistic and interdisciplinary definition of D4L as a lens to identify longevity-related …


Enhancing Financial Education For Longevity Through Service Design, Sheng-Hung Lee, Joseph F. Coughlin, Sofie Hodara, Maria C. Yang Jun 2024

Enhancing Financial Education For Longevity Through Service Design, Sheng-Hung Lee, Joseph F. Coughlin, Sofie Hodara, Maria C. Yang

DRS Biennial Conference Series

As populations live longer, the traditional sequential phases of life—learning, earning, and retiring—don’t account for the complexity of demographic shifts. To age gracefully across a multiplicity of life phases, people must develop financial literacy at younger ages. This paper proposes a redesign of financial educational services between financial advisors and first-time clients using a Service-Behavior-Engagement (SBE) framework. We propose an immersive, multisensory service design kit, Design for Longevity (D4L), which includes tangible artifacts to facilitate experimentation, vulnerable conversations, and purposeful play: Longevity Planning Blocks, cards, and an interactive canvas. To test the kit, we conducted a 30-minute demonstration, followed by …


Speculative Ethics, Design, Philosophy & Education, Wouter Eggink Jun 2024

Speculative Ethics, Design, Philosophy & Education, Wouter Eggink

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Designing requires great social and moral responsibility as we are surrounded by products and services that shape -and simultaneously get shaped by- the way we live. This asks for active reflection on ethical issues. However, with the classical top-down approach, ethics may be perceived as restrictive, setting boundaries for what is allowed and what not. Within philosophy of technology, ethical reflection is moving towards a more constructive approach, accompanying technological development with careful considerations. This paper takes a step further and proposes something that could be called 'creative ethics', where a bottom-up approach in dealing with ethical issues fosters inspiration …


Health-Promotion Information Is Not Effective: General Goals Of Health And Wellbeing Conflict With Young Adults’ Instant Needs In Cooking And Food Choices, Taoran Ji, Debra Lilley, Emma Haycraft Jun 2024

Health-Promotion Information Is Not Effective: General Goals Of Health And Wellbeing Conflict With Young Adults’ Instant Needs In Cooking And Food Choices, Taoran Ji, Debra Lilley, Emma Haycraft

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Young adults are living in an era where nutritional and health knowledge is more accessible and advanced than ever before. However, young adults’ diets are still a concern. The PhD research reported on in this paper aims to suggest behavioural interventions that can align young adults’ individual dietary needs and their long-term goals of eating healthily. Using the methods of diary study, semi-structured interviews and card sorting, this research investigated young adults’ perceptions of their dietary behaviours and experiences of prior interventions, to understand the gap between their ‘knowing’ and ‘doing’ in terms of healthy eating. The findings indicated that …


Designing For Intimate Wellbeing: Aidee, A Qualitative Approach To Urine Home Monitoring, Margherita Motta, Delphine Ribes Lemay, Sebastian Baez-Lugo, Annelaure Klaus, Nicolas Henchoz, Emily Groves Jun 2024

Designing For Intimate Wellbeing: Aidee, A Qualitative Approach To Urine Home Monitoring, Margherita Motta, Delphine Ribes Lemay, Sebastian Baez-Lugo, Annelaure Klaus, Nicolas Henchoz, Emily Groves

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Despite the widespread use of self-tracking technologies for promoting personal wellbeing, there is limited research on the monitoring of intimate data, particularly urine. To shed light on the design possibilities within this unexplored domain we designed Aidee, a prototype system composed of an app and interactive device that assists users in performing urine monitoring through qualitative data expression and ambient physicalization. To evaluate our prototype we conducted an exploratory between-subjects study involving 54 participants. Our findings indicate user acceptance for qualitative data expressions in the domain of personal wellbeing. Moreover, our study underscores that the combination of an app and …


Tinder, I Don’T Like This: Identifying Desired User Interaction Qualities To Support Intimacy Building In The Online Environment, Petra Salaric, Rebecca Cain, Emilene Zitkus, Valentijn Visch Jun 2024

Tinder, I Don’T Like This: Identifying Desired User Interaction Qualities To Support Intimacy Building In The Online Environment, Petra Salaric, Rebecca Cain, Emilene Zitkus, Valentijn Visch

DRS Biennial Conference Series

As internet became the primary source for relationship formation, reports have emerged of negative experiences, poorer mental health and lower wellbeing. The design of online dating services influences user behaviours and can either support or inhibit relationship formation. To foster successful online relationship formation, understanding desired interaction qualities is crucial. This exploratory study presents a survey involving 100 participants from 23 nationalities across 5 continents. It identifies five key desired interaction qualities: excitement, comfort, safety, trust, and reciprocity. While trust emerged as the most vital for intimacy building yet often lacking in the online environment, excitement and playfulness were identified …


Service Design And Circular Economy In Hybrid Retail Design, Nonkululeko Grootboom, Katelijn Quartier, Christina Breed Jun 2024

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 …


Connecting Sustainable And Well-Being-Enhancing Behaviors: Reflections Through Daily Practices Of Young Adults, Michael Christopher Kowalski, Jungkyoon Yoon Jun 2024

Connecting Sustainable And Well-Being-Enhancing Behaviors: Reflections Through Daily Practices Of Young Adults, Michael Christopher Kowalski, Jungkyoon Yoon

DRS Biennial Conference Series

An experience sampling study was conducted to further understand daily activities of young adults with implications for Environmentally Sustainable Behavior (SB) and Subjective Well-being (SWB) simultaneously. Studies on SB and SWB are present in established bodies of design research, though connection across these strands appears limited. Analysis of 209 survey responses from 27 participants showed that while many activities were reported with mutually positive outcomes for SB and SWB, when there was conflict, individuals were more likely to prioritize their own subjective well-being over environmental sustainability. Activities that included designed products and environments that more readily supported SB and SWB …


Insert Here: Unpacking Tensions In Designing Technologies For The Vagina, Nadia Campo Woytuk, Joo Young Park, Marianela Ciolfi Felice, Madeline Balaam Jun 2024

Insert Here: Unpacking Tensions In Designing Technologies For The Vagina, Nadia Campo Woytuk, Joo Young Park, Marianela Ciolfi Felice, Madeline Balaam

DRS Biennial Conference Series

From sex toys to fertility trackers to vaginal fitness, the design of vaginally inserted technologies often mirrors gendered norms and societal taboos. These norms perpetuate the vagina as an obscure and mystified area, making it difficult for designers to find their way amidst a web of technical, material, and ethical concerns. In this paper, we present a mingling of our experiences as designers, together with feminist and posthuman literature, to discuss the challenges and tensions arising when designing in this space. We provide alternative framings and reflect on how the case of designing for the vagina creates blurry definitions of …


Show Me What You Mean: The Case For Easy-To-Use 3d Visualizations Of The Built Environment, Noelyn Stephens, Juan Salamanca Jun 2024

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 Jun 2024

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 …


Three Challenges In Practising Research Through Design In The Context Of Phd Design Research, Marco C. Rozendaal, Patrizia D'Olivo, Elisa Giaccardi, Pieter Jan Stappers Jun 2024

Three Challenges In Practising Research Through Design In The Context Of Phd Design Research, Marco C. Rozendaal, Patrizia D'Olivo, Elisa Giaccardi, Pieter Jan Stappers

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Research through Design (RtD) is a maturing research methodology in Design and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), in which design actions are used as a means to conduct research. This way of doing research holds promise for creating transdisciplinary results but it comes with challenges. Research and design are similar in that both aim to create something new. However, depending on a project’s context, there may be different expectations about what that something new is, spanning from generalized knowledge to localized solutions. In this paper we discuss two PhD projects in the healthcare sector and reflect on three challenges encountered by the …


An Alternative Design Ethics Of Otherness-Centered: Caring For Intelligent Artifacts, Li Zhang, Boyu Zhang, Yujia Liu Jun 2024

An Alternative Design Ethics Of Otherness-Centered: Caring For Intelligent Artifacts, Li Zhang, Boyu Zhang, Yujia Liu

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The advent of emerging technologies has introduced intelligent artifacts as distinctive moral agents. While care ethics has expanded to include animals, ecology, and public policy, it remains silent on the ethical dimensions of caring for intelligent artifacts. Intelligent artifacts and their digital remnants highlight uncertainties in the human-machine relationship and accentuate the "otherness" of objects. Given the inherent "otherness" of objects, there is a clear need to clarify this new ethical relationship between humans and objects. This paper advocates for otherness-centered design ethics, an extension of traditional care ethics to incorporate intelligent artifacts as non-human Others. Based on object-turn ethics, …


Discovering Design Implications For Future Food Experiencing Artifacts, Yağmur Kocaman, Damla Gözde Kocaman, Oğuzhan Özcan Jun 2024

Discovering Design Implications For Future Food Experiencing Artifacts, Yağmur Kocaman, Damla Gözde Kocaman, Oğuzhan Özcan

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Despite the growing number of research in Human-Food Interaction (HFI), studies mainly adopt a technology-oriented approach. The field focuses on creating foods computationally, leaving the device design neglected. This paper addresses this oversight by focusing on a prominent technology as a case study (i.e., 3D Food Printing) and exploring new forms and meanings HFI technologies may embody. We first explored domestic users' food-related dynamics, habits, and preferences in everyday life (N=19). We then present the outcomes of design workshops with 25 professional designers, resulting in 73 unique concepts aligned with the in-sights from domestic kitchen users. Overall, we extracted ten …


Revisiting The Uncanny Valley Effect: A Data-Driven Analysis With Curve Fitting Perspective, Xiner Li, Yi Xiao, Yan Zheng, Jinhao Qiao, Chi-Sing Leung Jun 2024

Revisiting The Uncanny Valley Effect: A Data-Driven Analysis With Curve Fitting Perspective, Xiner Li, Yi Xiao, Yan Zheng, Jinhao Qiao, Chi-Sing Leung

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The Uncanny Valley (UV) is a vital part of design research because it directly affects users' emotional responses and acceptance of anthropomorphic technical products. Traditional research relies on curve fitting to measure UV effects. However, these works often overlook the impact of data quality including scale and distribution on the accuracy and stability of fitting results. This study places a strong emphasis on the mediating role of data in UV, revisiting UV using a dataset comprising 1,000 static facial images of humanoid entities, evenly spanning the entire human likeness spectrum. The results reveal a different UV shape than Mori's original …


Contextualizing Comedy Techniques For Speculative Design: Unraveling Futures Cone From Sketch Comedy Series, ‘2032/2033 Futures', Eun Sun Park, Hyunjae Daniel Shin Jun 2024

Contextualizing Comedy Techniques For Speculative Design: Unraveling Futures Cone From Sketch Comedy Series, ‘2032/2033 Futures', Eun Sun Park, Hyunjae Daniel Shin

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Speculative design stretches the boundaries of future plausibility, enabling creators to engage audiences by evoking empathy and provoking debate. Designers often use satire and humor, techniques that comedians have employed for centuries, to engage the public. We examined the popular YouTube comedy series '2032/2033 Futures', which depicts near futures, to understand how comedy can broaden future plausibility and challenge viewers to think critically about preferred futures. To this end, we conducted semi-structured interviews with the creators to contextualize their comedic techniques, such as humor, satire, irony, and wit, within future-oriented narratives and prototypes. Our findings illustrate how comedy can revitalize …


Expanding Participatory Design: Reflections On Current Epistemological Framework In Dark Time, Zi Yang, Kin Wai Michael Siu, Xinzhe Zhao Jun 2024

Expanding Participatory Design: Reflections On Current Epistemological Framework In Dark Time, Zi Yang, Kin Wai Michael Siu, Xinzhe Zhao

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Participatory design is a quintessential representation of human-centeredness. The recent climate crisis and threats to survival have pushed designers to consider the well-being of non-human entities. Many designers have already attempted to incorporate non-human entities (including animals, forests, and rivers) into the design process. They have strived to refine and readjust design thinking and practice within the participatory design framework. However, most practices resemble the 'pseudo-participation' of human subjective imagination. This study raises ethical and ontological epistemological issues based on Latour's profound philosophical insights. Specifically, in the case of non-human entities participating in our future becoming, how will the role …


Contours In Blurred Design Spaces: More-Than-Human Participation Of Artifacts In Design-In-Use, Evert Van Beek Jun 2024

Contours In Blurred Design Spaces: More-Than-Human Participation Of Artifacts In Design-In-Use, Evert Van Beek

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Contemporary design practice requires a more-than-human orientation to deal with computational artifacts. In this paper I discuss how the participation of artifacts in design activities during use time blurs categories of design, use and artifact. I use the analytical concept of design space, informed by a framework of co-performance to highlight some contours in this blurred situation. To do so I adopt a critical design approach, and present three conceptual smart thermostats based on the concepts of framing, tinkering and scripts. This contributes to awareness and discussions of design-in-use and the role of artifacts in an increasingly automated and connected …