Ccm Caroline Hummels

The reflective transformative design process

The department of Industrial Design at the Eindhoven University of Technology distinct itself through a unique combination of focus (designing highly intelligent systems, products, and related services) and education model (competency-centred learning). Based on the foundations of our department we identify three implications for our preferred design process: it is flexible and open, it values design action as a generator of knowledge and it is driven by a vision on the design opportunities that are afforded by emerging intelligent technology. In this paper we explain the reflective transformative design process and the rationale behind.

Seven Principles to Design for Embodied Sensemaking

The TEI-community is based a various paradigms. We believe that the community matures by scrutinising these different paradigms and unravelling the consequences for designing for tangible, embedded and embodied interaction. In this paper we explore the consequences and possibilities of phenomenology-inspired embodied theory, and more specifically the concept of embodied sensemaking, i.e. human sensemaking using sensorimotor couplings to support social coordination between people. Based on our theoretical setting, we introduce seven design principles for developing face-to-face embodied sensemaking technology. We show in this paper how we used these principles to develop a mobile design and sensemaking studio for the encounter between two persons to sketch a future at the cross-section of their disciplines. By explaining these principles, we aim to show what embodied theory can bring the TEI-community, and invite others to do the same.

Social stairs: taking the piano staircase towards long-term behavioral change

This paper addresses the development of Social Stairs, an intelligent musical staircase to change peoples behavior in the long-term to take the stairs in favor of the elevator. Through designing with the Experiential Design Landscape (EDL) method, a design opportunity was found that social engagement encouraged people to take the stairs at work in favor of the elevator. To encourage this social behavior, people who involved each other and worked together whilst using the Social Stairs were treated with more diverse orchestral chimes that echoed up the stairwell. In this paper we reflect on the differences between the persuasive system of the well-known Piano Staircase and the Social Stairs. We report on the deployment of the Social Stairs for a period of three weeks in the public space within the university community and identify opportunities for triggering intrinsic motivation, social engagement and how to keep people involved in the long-term.

Designing Disruptive Innovative Systems, Products and Services: RTD Process

There are well over hundred design processes described in literature, so why invent a new one? Over the last decade we have observed a need in our department for a process that emphasises different values than most current processes highlight. To start, we have seen a desire for a process that supports design-driven innovation, that is, we step away from incremental innovation in favour of disruptive innovation, in which disruptive refers to the absence of a well-established frame of reference for users or the market. Not only the product as such is new, but it also enables the creation of radical new meaning for the user, the market and society. We have seen a desire for design processes that can deal with this openness and complexity, in order to design open and intelligent systems that evolve during use, and which have a high level of complexity due to their adaptive, context-dependent and highly dynamic character. Next to this, the role of the designer is changing. More and more we see open platforms and design projects in which a variety of people and experts create products. We believe this has implications for the design processes used. Finally, we have seen the desire for a design process that fits self-directed learning instead of teacher-directed learning, which corresponds with educational theories like social constructivist learning. Based on these observations on the changing face of design we present the Reflective Transformative Design process (RTD process). It is a design process, particularly aimed to support the design of disruptive innovative and/or intelligent systems, products and services, that emphasises values like openness, contextand person dependency, envisioning a new society, intuition, craftsmanship and development through reflection. In this chapter, firstly, we elaborate on the changing field of the Industrial Design and the implications this has for design processes. Subsequently, we explain the rationale behind influential paradigms of design methodology and a variety of design processes, and show why they do not match the abovementioned changes and needs. Thereupon we introduce the Reflective Transformative Design process (RTD process) in detail. We explain how it works and elaborate on the rationale behind the model. We present the design processes of two projects, Other Brother and Ennea, to elucidate and discuss the possibilities of the RTD process to design disruptive innovative systems. We conclude the chapter by demarcating the position of the RTD process in comparison to existing processes and by explaining our plans for further development of the RTD process.

Interactive Jewellery: a design exploration

Many current wearables have a technology-driven background: the focus is primarily on functionality, while their possible personal and social-cultural value is underappreciated. We think that developing wearables from a jewellery perspective can compensate for this. The personal and social cultural values embodied by traditional jewellery are often tightly connected to their function as memento. In this paper we reflect from a jewellery perspective, a memory-studies perspective and a TEI-perspective on three design proposals for interactive jewellery. We identify 1) drawing inspiration from interaction with traditional jewellery, 2) using relatively simple technology with high experiential qualities, 3) abstract and poetic data representation and 4) storing data uniquely on the digital jewel as possible design directions.

The Blue Studio: Designing an Interactive Environment for Embodied Multi-Stakeholder Ideation Processes

This paper describes the process of designing the Blue Studio: an interactive space for embodied multi-stakeholder ideation processes. Inspired by embodied sensemaking -- the way people make sense of things through external expression and interaction with other people -- we iteratively designed material, interactive and spatial interventions in the Blue Studio and evaluated them with multi-stakeholder participants in various studies. Thereupon, we analyzed the impact of the design interventions, based on the seven principles to design for embodied sensemaking and highlighted opportunities for refining our interactive space for embodied ideation. Based on the insights gained, a final design of the Blue Studio was realized and evaluated on functionality.

E-scale: unity of location and time, increasing bandwidth and enhancing physical learning does matter

In this paper we explain that we focus on tangible interaction, because the physical world is inherently meaningful for people, i.e. we perceive the world in terms of what we can do with it, in terms of our skills. By physically interacting with the world this meaning emanates. We elucidate this principle by means of E-scale, a tangible device to enter answers on questionnaires into a computer. Meaning is created by coupling the graphical layout of the scales on the questionnaires, to the layout of buttons on E-scale, and by enabling to slide down E-scale along the scales while entering data. The results from our experiment show that unity of location and time, increasing bandwidth by controlling multiple parameters simultaneously and physical learning and thus development of bodily skills, increase usability (reduce time) as well as experience (overall satisfaction). We hope that sharing the rationale behind our TEI designs and research might contribute to the discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of TEI.

How Design-inclusive UXR Influenced the Integration of Project Activities: Three Design Cases from Industry

In this paper, we discuss how the implementation of design-inclusive User Experience Research (UXR) has influenced the composition of UXR and design activities in the industrial setting of Philips Design. We present three design case studies that were executed in a time span of three years: a baby sleep project; a pregnancy project; and a baby bottle-feeding project. Through a retrospective analysis we conclude that the approach adopted in these cases progressed from complete separation of UXR and design activities to design-inclusive UXR in which design forms an integral part of research. This is reflected by a rearrangement of project activities to identify, envision, enable and evaluate user experiences. Previously the UXR (identify and evaluate) and design (envision and enable) activities were executed sequentially. Now, these four project activities merge in studying design interventions in context over a prolonged time, to iteratively explore and advance UX design qualities.

[X]Changing Perspectives: An Interactive System for Participatory Sensemaking

Public issues are complex: they concern many different stakeholders who have conflicting stakes and are involved from their unique perspective. Working on public issues requires an open process that allows stakeholders to not only contribute to decision-making but also to take up a role in the process. We propose [X]Changing Perspectives, a product service system that stimulates participatory sensemaking: the joint construction of meaning between individuals that could not have been reached on their own. We visually demonstrate the designed materials and service elements and discuss the promise of our approach to [X]CP for complex design challenges in public issues.

[X]Changing Perspectives: Enriching Multi-stakeholder Deliberation with Embodiment in Participatory Society

Societal issues in cities concern many different stakeholders, all involved from different perspectives. In the context of deliberative democracy, this asks for a broad participation of stakeholders to influence and contribute to decision-making processes. We designed [X]Changing Perspectives, to explore how design might enrich deliberation with participatory sensemaking: the joint construction of meaning between individuals whereby the individuals are affected and could not have reached the constructed meaning on their own. We conducted three case studies in real life public issues with groups of 32 - 110 multi-stakeholder participants. The sessions were filmed and analysed through video analysis. Sessions revealed that enriching deliberative conversations with tangibility and visual representations contributes to a multidimensional understanding of the situation and its conflicting stakes without resulting in conflict or consensus. The physical triggers seemed to contribute to equal participation and to constructive deliberation. The visualization of conversations provides a sense of scale and reminds participants of the relativity of their conversation in light of other or unknown perspectives.