Nineteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Interdisciplinary design approaches have become vital in Graphic Design teaching, research, and scholarly activities in U.S. higher education. The objectives of this study are to articulate and disseminate knowledge based on my reflections on graphic design teaching, and collaborative research and scholarly activities the U.S. higher education between 2014 and 2024. Interdisciplinary design approaches can be employed by individuals and/or a team who possess different disciplines to investigate complex design situations and problems to generate advanced knowledge which is not possible to accomplish in a single discipline as well as create positive and sustainable solutions for stakeholders and participant communities. The methodologies were a mixed-methods research approach that combines both qualitative and quantitative methods in a single study and series of case studies. This involves multiple research methods for data collections, analysis, and evaluations on the effectiveness of teaching, research and scholarly activities. In this paper, multiple case studies of graphic design teaching, research, and scholarly activities are presented. Reflections and discussions of each case study are included.

Designing Child-friendly Data Collection Tools

Ganna Borzenkova
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

This paper reports on the development of a child-friendly data collection tool in the context of the Peer2Peer research project (http://peer-2-peer.co.uk/) which aims to investigate how design-based relational play can be used to encourage children with cerebral palsy, aged 7 to 10 years, to engage pro-actively in peer social interactions to support their social-emotional wellbeing. To collect relevant data about the determinants and difficulties of children’s participation in peer social interactions and making friends, we developed a child-friendly data collection tools: face-to-face questionnaire ‘Dino’ and ‘All about me’ profile pages. Both tools were developed to support and complement observations of the children, and semi-structured interviews with their parents and practitioners. Data collection took place at two special schools in the United Kingdom. ‘Dino’ questionnaire uses a narrative story about gamified virtual character – a little blue dinosaur Bella which guides children in completing the questionnaire. All the questions are connected through the storyline and prompts the children to share their own story, making children feel that they are playing with and helping the virtual character in the story rather than completing classroom tasks. For researchers, using fictional characters and storylines as a medium can help to shift roles and see issues more closely from the perspective of children with cerebral palsy, rather than imposing their own academic views and stereotypes on them. The tools contribute to the area of design for health and wellbeing and can be adopted and used by other researchers working with children with disabilities.

Osmotic Sensoria - a Neurodiverse Learning Space

Niberca Gissell Polo
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

In the ever-changing landscape of technology, young generations navigate the complexities of a technological world, it is imperative that we, the educators, understand the conditions that foster enriched learning environments that are truly diverse, equitable, and inclusive. As new technologies emerge, like MixReality, the Metaverse, and AI, we need to reshape the educational paradigm. Despite innovations and efforts to embrace different ways of thinking and creating, the Industrial Revolution model still stands as the norm. There is a pressing need for a paradigm shift, particularly in the realm of diversity, equity, and inclusion, where neurodiverse learners often find themselves marginalized in traditional learning spaces. To contest the status quo, my project, Osmotic Sensoria, is a pop-up installation that explores ways to naturally, and organically, stimulate brain learning systems—neurodivergent and neurotypicals alike—through an immersive experience where multiple participants engage in guided play, kinetic learning, and multisensory stimulation (oral narrative, visual projections, and other) to enhance cognitive flexibility and creative thinking. Grounded in principles of human-centered design and informed by research in educational models and cognitive neuroscience, Osmotic Sensoria serves as a design-led research artifact—a living laboratory—that collects people’s group learning experience to open discourse about the future of education as it relates to neurodiversity within a DEI model.

Augmented Environmental Graphics in Healthcare

Aprille Chua
Poster Session

Healthcare employees spend a significant amount of time in the workplace, and their wellbeing is often neglected. An excess of job demands and limited resources can negatively impact their physical and psychological wellbeing, ultimately affecting patient wellbeing. Research has shown that Environmental Graphic Design (EGD) or Augmented Reality (AR) technologies can improve the patient experience in hospitals and other healthcare facilities. However, no existing research has explored how these two elements – EGD and AR – might be used to enhance healthcare employees' wellbeing in this context. To address this gap, this design research has evolved into a multidisciplinary approach. By embracing cross-professional contributions, we explore a series of work recovery interventions (prototypes) that can be effectively implemented to enhance the well-being of healthcare employees in the healthcare context. This research is also relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic, which highlights the urgent need to prioritise our well-being. By focusing on the intersection of environmental design, technology, and employee wellbeing, this study aims to unlock new possibilities for enhancing healthcare employees' well-being. The findings of this study have the potential to shape the design and improvement of healthcare environments, focusing on interventions that promote work recovery and communication platforms and, ultimately create a positive work environment that benefits both employees and patients.

The Impact of the Empathic User Experience Research Process on Design Students’ Empathy and Communication Skills

Eunmi Moon, Jungmi Kim, Yoosun Kim, Deana McDonagh
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Sustainable development in the design field requires innovation to keep pace with the evolving times. To achieve this, it is essential to understand users' needs and desires accurately and minimize unnecessary waste and consumption through sustainable design. Empathy and communication skills are the most critical competencies for designers who create sustainable, user-centered designs. Therefore, instead of solely focusing on design techniques or outcomes, developing the ability to communicate and empathize with users is essential. So, design curriculum changes are needed to prepare future design professionals adequately. Research on curriculum and teaching methods to enhance design students' empathic ability and communication skills is necessary. This study designs and implements an empathic user experience research process that emphasizes empathy and communication in design. It assesses how this process improves design students' ability to grow into future design professionals by enhancing their empathy and communication skills.

Designed BY not Designed for

Deana McDonagh, Eunmi Moon
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Focusing on the members within our communities who are often overlooked and underserved (e.g., aging and disability), can lead to a higher level of innovation for the designer. This paper discusses the newly established (dis)Ability Studio based in a traditional scientific and engineering institute, which provides a unique environment that supports individuals as contributors to knowledge rather than only research subjects. This studio supports diverse abilities and is underpinned by the goal that products, environments, services, and policies, need to be designed by rather than designed for if we acknowledge that the more typical abled-bodied designers can often miss the opportunity to integrate the 'voice' of the user. This discussion highlights an emerging design and disability community that enriches design education and design research projects. Two research projects are discussed (1) an omnidirectional hands-free self-balancing ballot chair and (2) an 'aging in place' housing system for life-long living. As a community let us go beyond the convenient sample to ensure we enable user-inspired innovation.

The Role of Technology in the Construction of Social Reality in Everyday Life

Ayşe Dalyanoğlu, Ozge Merzali Celikoglu
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

In everyday life, individuals meaning their experiences and interactions within a social activity and organise their social lives. Language plays an important role as a tool in the process of objectifying individuals' experiences and constructing reality. Individuals begin the process of interpreting symbols and meanings are generated through subject-object interaction. User comments on online shopping platforms, which are frequently preferred these days, reflect the interactions and experiences of individuals with products and contain traces of everyday life. This study investigates the position of robot vacuum cleaner technology in everyday life and its effect on the construction of social reality. The role of the robot vacuum cleaner in changing the perception, way of thinking and doing housework habits on house cleaning is investigated. Based on the experiences of users, user comments about robot vacuum cleaners on the Trendyol platform are used as a data source. The data is analysed by content analysis. The method discusses the social reality reflected by robot vacuum cleaners in everyday life in a theoretical framework. As a result of the research, the experiences made meaningful by society through robot vacuum cleaners have gone through an intersubjective journey and the reality that society constructs for house cleaning in everyday life has been discovered as an objective representation. The interactions of society with each other and with technology affect the process of interpreting and meaning the product, as well as user behaviours, social norms, routines and mundanity.

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