10 search hits
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A file that has nowhere to end
(2023)
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Hagar Ezzeldin
- ‘A File That Has Nowhere to End’ is a text that was developed during BS projects at HBK
Braunschweig 2022/2023. The text accompanies an artist book and both are part of Domestic
fantasies(3) body of work.
The text revolves around the studio and artistic experiences from the personal point of view. the
first part of the text contemplates my artistic and collective work in Egypt over the past two years.
That unfolds into the studio experience between Germany and Cairo afterwards.
Highlighting the questions which brought out after my visit to documenta15, tracing the time
spent in the studio and transferring it into physical forms of knitting and arm knitting. These works
was processed while discussing the different meanings of creativity, craft and knowledge over my
calls with my mother. Finally I contextualize these questions accordingly to the readings of Annie
Albers, Yazan Khalili and Katja Praznik.
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Action Theory and Cognitive Psychology in Industrial Design : User Models and User Interfaces
(1999)
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Leshan Li
- The goal of this dissertation is to develop a systematic human-centered design philosophy "Human-Artifact-as-an-Entity" or "form follows use" and human-centered design approaches based on ecological views. It applies at the first time systematically action theory and cognitive psychology in industrial design. It creates the new human-centered user models, called irrational user models, which include in the narrow sense the mental model (perception, cognition, motor performance, emotion, and volition) and the action model (the course of action). The irrational user models involve the rational aspect, the irrational aspect and the unusual aspect, for example, way of action in emergency, and these models include in the wide sense values, needs, self-consciousness, and cultural environments. It develops the instrumental needs, as a complement to Maslow´s needs theory. It defines the action system. It classifies and defines five kinds of user actions: perceptual action, cognitive action, expressive action, volitional action, and skilled action. It gives systematically the definition of user-artifact interface and its design theory. It defines information and the structure of information for industrial design. The main tasks of designers are to provide action guidance for users, including goal-guidance, preparation-guidance, plan-guidance, selection-guidance, execution-guidance, rule-guidance, termination-guidance, cognition-guidance, and evaluation-guidance. It suggests the criteria of the natural way of user´s action to artifacts. This dissertation involves four chapters: (1) Motivation and action components, (2) action control, (3) action system, (4) case studies.
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Application of morphological analysis in strategic product development and business model innovation : the example of cruise industry 2030
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Mehdi Mozuni
- The benefits of matrix-based modeling techniques in covering entire solution space within innovation-management practices have been discussed by various researchers. However, these techniques will face methodological obstacles, when the design subject is future-oriented; since (1) the time-scale, in which the solution space is occurred, addresses users that are yet non-existent; and (2) continuous changes in the key factors and their interactions make the technique incapable to conceive all the relationships and deliver synthesizable data. Upon this dynamic and uncertainty, the rational core, upon which the projection is being established, suffers itself from the lack of substantiation. An example of such research cases was selected for the purpose of this dissertation, in which the cruise industry is being explored for novel user experiences in a 2030 perspective.
Cruising is a multi-dimensional user experience and business system encompassing many constraints and innovation latitudes represented by multiple disciplines. These constrains and possibilities are applicable to a current practice of UX design, yet not consistent and reliable for a 2030 perspective.
This study suggests that a matrix-based cumulative expert survey (a hybrid algorithm of Delphi technique and Morphological Analysis) can support the process of innovation-management in very complex environments. In addition, these two tools can mutually cover each other’s theoretical and functional deficits by illustrating transparent value-based arguments in a modifiable iterative manner.
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Cultural variables and their impact on the furniture design process in the era of globalization
(2015)
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Ahmed Mohammed M. Abdelrazik
- It is known that humans are to very large degree products of their environment; their thoughts, desires and needs are shaped by many cultural trends related to their societies, creeds and traditions, which are different according to changes in natural and environmental factors.
These cultural variables depend on many issues, which differ from one place to another and from one country to another depending on environmental systems, history, language, religion, beliefs and so on. Accordingly, we can find huge differences in the cultures of people and their needs.
Although designers are always keen on maintaining a certain aloofness, a certain freedom of mind, they too are subject to the cultural trends affecting their respective societies, the impacts of which will appear in their work. Designers’ thoughts and works will need to be analyzed in order to appreciate positive or negative effects, with special consideration given to current developments, especially the ongoing shrinking of the world into one “global village” under the globalization era.
In many developing countries there is confusion among designers, in addition to the clear gap and the conflict between the meaning of globalization and the concept of “cultural identity” and its applications in the field of creativity. All this needs to be clarified and investigated.
Therefore, the main objective of this thesis is to study and analyze this tangled relationship, and to make an attempt to apply an integrated vision to connect cultural concepts as variables and investigate their influence on design under the conditions of a comprehensive and widespread globalization.
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Design and Unsustainability (Design Exclusion) – Structuring sustainable design approaches for socially responsible practices (Design for equal usability and accessibility)
(2023)
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Rihan Hamdy Rihan Hussein
- The world exists in a socially unsustainable state. Conditions of social inequity in meeting human needs have exceeded the limit. This state has taken place in the same society and across different populations, and its results have become classic wicked problems. Such conditions ‘are a result of the assumptions of utilitarian philosophy underlying mainstream economics, which is indifferent to the risk of very bad outcomes for some individuals in the present or everyone in some alternative futures’ (Dresner, S.: 2008, p. 4).
This state has been inextricably linked to design. Simply, it could be acknowledged that there’s a correlation between the state of design (design paradigm, studies and research guiding design practices) and the state of the world through recognizing the role of design in meeting human needs. The foremost intent of design is the satisfaction of human needs (Margolin, V.: 2002, p. 25). Accordingly, the socially unsustainable state of the world implies that there’s a defect in the past and current design practices; and that the current various forms of design paradigm, studies and research don’t do a good job in guiding the practices to be sustainable.
Unfortunately, in the dominant system – production for the market, most professional design practices serve via commerce and commercialism (Chick, A.: 2011, p. 70) whose primary purpose of design for the market is creating designed things for profit (self-interest). Actually, design is shackled to other goals and values rather than its real ones; ‘increasingly design, as a service, acts on instructions rather than taking action in the original sense’ (Fry, T.: 2009, p. 25) or according to its own theory. It lost its free will and its ability to control. Driven by serving the commercial brief, it ‘serves an instrumental mode of making that brings things to being without knowing what the consequences will be’ (ibid.: p. 26).
This study has examined the phenomenon ‘the correlation between design and the social unsustainability state of the world’ to discover deficiencies in the past and current design practices behind this state, and accordingly, put forward suitable elaborative approaches for avoiding the recurrence of this phenomenon.
The study has proved and acknowledged that unequal design practices or not deeply considering the dynamic diversity of people’s contexts characteristics in design practices (design exclusion) is a verified main cause behind this phenomenon. This has been achieved via collectively evaluating the interaction effectiveness within individual-designed thing relations of access and use through which equitability could be achieved, or via evaluating how equitable accessibility and usability of designed things are across people.
The dominant design paradigm driven by serving the commercial brief is most fundamentally formulated as a reduction of variety. It adopts the average case model (the average user or the standard environment) or targets specific people, groups or societies. Inflexible design models lacking a variety of actions to fit the diversity and dynamism of interaction contexts in the system of meeting human needs create troubles in such a system. Treating all contexts as the same leads to excluding to varying degrees many people from benefiting from the mainstream designed things, and consequently, their needs aren’t partially or completely met. Exclusion by design ‘represents the extreme reaction to poor design which leaves many frustrated or facing difficulty, even if not excluded’ (Clarkson, J.: 2007, p. 178). Many individuals, groups and societies have been vulnerable to design exclusion regarding usability and accessibility, and consequently, their needs haven’t been met.
Evaluating (describing, analyzing and interpreting) the phenomenon according to the proposed cause has helped add new verified and generalized theoretical knowledge (knowing – what, how and why) to the body of knowledge. It may be of value and may contribute to the growth of scientific knowledge and thus achieve a more comprehensive and deeper understanding of the phenomenon. This knowledge is represented in the accurate anatomy of the individual-designed thing relations of use and access, the deep clarification of the dynamic diversity of people’s contexts, the accurate descripttion of the socially unsustainable results of our current design paradigm (design exclusion), and the confirmation of the proposed cause related to design practices behind the phenomenon.
In light of this knowledge, for projecting the phenomenon future and trying to control and adjust it, the study has worked on structuring and establishing new suitable elaborative approaches – the design for equal usability and design for equal accessibility approaches as main parts of the equitable design approach – for supporting the optimal model of sustainable design. Both approaches challenge the conventional design paradigm adopting the average case model or targeting specific people, groups or societies, and work to ensure inclusiveness and practicality. For each approach, diverse paths have been introduced to ensure that all people find what is useable and accessible for participating in daily life activities, achieving tasks and satisfying their human needs. Also, for each approach, some fundamental keys have been structured and established for raising awareness needed to promote its message within the design, business and decision-making communities.
This structured and established projective knowledge (knowing – what should be done, and how) may be of value and applicably useful in helping avoid design exclusion, and tackle the pressing and complex problems of a world made socially unsustainable. Also, it may contribute to the growth of scientific knowledge, which in turn guides the new design practices to address the agenda of sustainability regarding social equity in meeting human needs – equity within generations – and pave the way for shaping humans’ future in a socially sustainable fashion.
Together, the theoretical and the projective knowledge may provide effective knowledge that may be of value in refining the design theory, and enable us to think about design in new ways and guide the new design practices to produce socially sustainable design.
According to the applied procedural method, this study follows the descriptive, causal and projective normative studies. It can be classified according to its nature and underlying motivation (purpose of study) as a theoretical (basic) and projective study. For data collection, it has relied on the indirect observation tool; and for processing the data, it has used the qualitative analysis method inductively, deductively and abductively.
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Emotional impact on furniture design (action & reaction) : user-based approach
(2014)
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Hamdy Sayed Mohammed Ibrahim
- Emotions are the most sensitive engine of everyday life as they are the daily experience of everyone. When designers can control emotions with their designs, they can communicate with users. The “first impression” is the designer-user’s first communication point; it controls users' purchase choice, as people without emotions, as in Damasio´s study, are often unable to choose between alternatives, especially if each choice appears equally valid. So, orienting the users’ first impression positively may direct their purchase decision to repurchase the product. Also, the experience with the product- especially those with long-term lifetime usage requires emotionally designed products to accommodate the negative emotions stimulated during this long time experience. Those emotionally designed products need a specific designing strategy that can fulfill users’ emotional needs to turn them into reality. Moreover, the positive emotions such as happiness, attractiveness, surprise, interest, trust, and fun need to be supported and evoked by the design from the very beginning of the design process and throughout the experience time.
Norman's three levels of perception and Plutchik's wheel of emotions have been used in a research methodology to develop the design process to result in an emotionally communicative product. This method is developed based on a particular strategy, tools, and stimuli, by involving particular users in the entire design process, designing for re-configuration, and following-up on the user's relationship with products to accommodate the negative emotions that have been elicited through their experiences with the products. This method has been used to provide users with aesthetically and emotionally dynamic products that enable them recovering the positive feelings that influenced their purchase decision. An application structure was designed and used. This outline is based on identifying emotional design characteristics of a pre-specified users' target group, and then fulfilling their emotional needs by involving them in the design and product evaluation process, to ensure a user's positive first impression with pleasant surprises at purchase, and then extending this pleasure as long as possible.
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For User Study : the Implications of Design
(2006)
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Rosan W.Y. Chow
- The practice of user study is well presented at numerous conferences, documented in various literatures and discussed at different Internet discussion groups. At the moment, there seems to be plenty of experiences and knowledge about user study accumulated in design practice. The idea of user study is well received and affirmed across professional and educational institutions. It is generally accepted that user study is important for contemporary professional practice of Industrial Design. However, our belief is mostly supported by informal observation, testimony and good will but lacks formal articulation. The profession of communication design lags behind other design fields in terms of practicing user study. Rigorous discourse on user study in Industrial Design lags behind that in Human Computer Interaction. Moreover, other fields have already recognized the need for more in-depth understanding on user study so research on user study has begun. These studies, however, are missing a perspective from design. The lack of formal articulation and design perspective has left the ‘applicability gap’ open between user study and design. Although we know that user study results are not necessarily useful for design practice, we have not dealt with this issue properly. This study is aimed to address this problem. Research on user study has been empirical: observing how designers design. However, this type of research often lacks theoretical framework, and as a result, we are not certain if the research outcome is by chance or systemic. More importantly, this type of research slights historical and cultural contingency, and it begs the question whether it can serve as principle for future practice and research that for sure will change. User study is an invention to suit design practice. But design practice is also an invention. We do not have to describe and explain design practice as now but to interpret and articulate the potential/possibility of user study based on an articulation of the nature of design – to create an idealized scenario. I seek to articulate the nature of design and draw implications for these two questions: “How does user study inform design?” and “What are the formal characteristics of user study outcome?” This theoretical inquiry provides a language by which the practice and research of user study can be reexamined and reorganized. The result will bring issues to the public domain for debate and improvement. It will increase the effectiveness of our communication to one another and will serve a (temporary) map for guiding research and design on user study. In the first part of the investigation, we explore the nature of design and arrive at a workable definition that design is an inquiry oriented toward a specification that fits. In the second part, we derive meanings from this articulation to address the research questions, and it leads to some unexpected conclusions. For the research question, “How does user study inform design?”, based on the nature of design articulated, it is implied that current user study provides a context for design. For the question, “What are the formal characteristics of user study outcome?”, it is concluded that the context ought to be a specific reasonable narrative rather than a general casual explanation. More interestingly, the results of the inquiry make us realize that context creation does not necessarily precede the generation of possible specifications in the design process, thus it calls into question the fundamental assumption on which the research questions are based. It is revealed that not only user study informs design, but also in principle, design can drive user study. Not only is design-driven user study possible, but it is also preferable for design situations where the product to be made is highly undetermined. The conclusions project new perspectives on jumping the ‘applicability gap’, open up new line of inquiries for user study, and shed light on the potential coordination between design and research in general.
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Sustainable Mobility System and Human wellbeing Design enquiry and case study of Bhutan
(2021)
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Hari Kumar Suberi
- Applying research through design methodology this study enquires mobility as a complete system, which is cybernetically oriented and contextual. For the mobility system to remain sustainable in future and to enable better quality of life is a systemic challenge. Therefore, the system enquiry has the potential to add substantial knowledge in science by defining systemic problem situation, which is often complex and is invisible to the researcher. Therefore, list of variables that potentially define rough image of mobility as a system is identified, which is negotiable keeping in mind the original cybernetic rather than reducing it to simplified object. The complete mobility system is defined by network of variables influencing effect called as effect system and their associated feedback effects are identified for further research work. Therefore, the variables influencing effects are considered as semantic building block of mobility system, which may be used as multiple research problem identification. 22 different global variables are identified for further analysis to describe mobility as a system and its image projection with the help of Vester Sensitivity Model and scenario logic for future decision support. The scenarios in this study are normative value proposition, which is used to position the contextual mobility system problem situation for policy design and innovative exploitation of the system in addressing sustainable development. To support the normative description of the mobility system, empirical re-conformation is further analysed by conducting the case study referring to historical and current mobility development trend of Bhutan, which is shown as an explorative system and its description in addressing the transition to sustainable system in future horizon. The detail analysis of system cybernetic and case study of Bhutan shows, behaviour correction of user and system re-orientation is necessary condition for sustainable development, which is very complex owing to multiple uncertainties. The current analysis recommends the service-oriented market development from the image projection of mobility system is more appropriate than product-oriented market growth for sustainable mobility system design.
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The Sundanese script: visual analysis of its development into a native Austronesian script
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Eka Noviana
- Before submission to the Javanese Islamic sultanate in the sixteenth century CE, the Sundanese writing culture had developed in a variety of media, for example, gold, stone, copper, bamboo, or lontar and gebang leaves. The letterforms on bamboo, lontar, and some on stones, differ in style and structure to the forms on gebang and copper. These peculiarities are also mentioned by K. F. Holle (1877) and Prof. Dr. J. G. de Casparis (1975). This research shares the same curiosity as that of Holle and de Casparis. With a background in graphic design, a visual approach as an arts-based research method is used to analyze this development. This discourse allowed to understand the influences of hand gestures, materials, and tools on the form of the letters and lead to my visual analysis. It can be concluded that only intensive writing activities could allow the observed variation of letterforms, which also lead to structural changes, facilitating the speed of writing. This is suggested by original texts as much as by the visual analysis. The Saṅhyaṅ Sasana Maha Guru text describes ten writing media for different purposes and Saṅhyaṅ Siksa Kandaṅ Karesian text lists more than thirty professions, some of which may need media for keeping the record.
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Urban Mobility Services : Opportunities for Car Manufacturers
(2014)
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Maria Schnurr
- The current burdens of urban mobility range from severe congestion to pollution and loss of public space. While vehicle manufacturers and infrastructure providers still try to “build their way out of congestion” and achieve improvements in effectiveness and efficiency by mere “technology fixes” there is an increasing demand for social innovations like mobility services. Mobility services assist individuals in changing locations and include conventional “driver services”, such as public transport or taxis, “vehicle provision services” such as car rental or car sharing, and “information and assistance services” which comprise all services assisting users in organising their travel. In the past, car manufacturers were largely excluded from this growing market. However, from 2009 on car manufacturers entered the mobility services market with strikingly innovative offers.
The thesis uses an interdisciplinary approach by touching on aspects like human behaviour, business planning, environment scanning, and sustainable urban transport planning. It draws on methods from different scientific disciplines, mainly transport research and future research. The EU-15 countries were chosen as the geographical region for this thesis. The timeframe for the analysis are developments from 2010 until 2020.
This thesis explores the factors influencing the future demand of mobility services and identifies criteria for customer acceptance. Based on these framework conditions for mobility services the thesis presents an action and research agenda for car manufacturers, including recommendations for selecting appropriate mobility services, suggestions for market entry strategies, and research arenas that need to be initiated resp. intensified.