Salu Ylirisku

Design Research as Conceptual Designing: The Manhattan Design Concept

The term ‘conceptual designing’ refers to an activity that various practitioners already undertake, but for which we lack a clear definition. This article provides that definition and uses an example of a design concept called ‘Manhattan’ to present how exactly this type of process happens. We define conceptual designing as a constructive framing and re-framing activity, which is mediated by and targeted at the creation of new design concepts. Conceptual designing as an approach is valuable for addressing the fuzziness and ambiguity typical of research that explores novel areas with new partners, methods and resources. It is by no means a new phenomenon, and the main contribution of the article is the clarification of conceptual designing as a particular approach to designing and researching. The approach embraces openness, resource-construction and collaboration. We conclude that conceptual designing can be especially useful in research and design projects that bring different kinds of people, organizations, technologies and domains together into the forming of new well-founded proposals for development. The presentation of conceptual designing in this paper is written with an intention to provide designers and researchers with terminology and concepts that they may use to structure their work as well as to become more resourceful in reflecting upon their projects. c The Author 2015.

A Strategy for Material-Specific e-Textile Interaction Design

The interaction design of electronic textile (or e-Textile) products is often characterised by conventions adopted from electronic devices rather than developing interactions that are specific to e-Textiles. We argue that textile materials feature a vast potential for the design of novel digital interactions. In particular, the shape-reformation capabilities of textiles may inform the design of expressive and aesthetically rewarding applications. In this chapter, we propose ways in which the textileness of e-Textiles can be better harnessed. We outline an e-Textile Interaction Design strategy that is based on defining the material specificity of e-Textiles as its ability to deform in ways that match the expectations we have of textile materials. It embraces an open-ended exploration of interactions related to textiles (e.g., stretching, folding, turning inside out) and their potential for electronic recognisability for deriving material-specific concepts and applications for e-Textiles.

Postdramatic theatre in smart city design

Theatre provides powerful ways to engage people in the development of visions for future interactions, yet theatre is seldom used beyond scenario acting in interaction design. In this workshop the participants are exposed to a novel understanding of theatre, called Postdramatic Theatre, which has emerged as an Avant-garde movement in theatre community to break free of traditional characteristics of theatre, especially the dramatic text, mimesis and the exclusion of the real in a play. Inspired by Postdramatic Theatre we introduce three novel formats of engagement for smart city design: Multi-stakeholder Theatre, Field Study Theatre and Future Product Theatre. The use of these formats will be explored in the context of particular foci that will be developed in collaboration with the workshop participants. As the result the participants are expected to become sensitive to the differences of Dramatic and Postdramatic Theatre and have better readiness to conceive of the potential of Postdramatic Theatre for their own design practice and research.

The Varieties of Good Design

This chapter explores the philosopher and logician Georg Henrik von Wright’s metaethical treatise of the varieties of goodness in the context of design. von Wright investigated the use of the notion of ‘good’ in language, and he identified six kinds of goodness: namely utilitarian goodness, instrumental goodness, technical goodness, medical goodness, hedonic goodness, and the good of man. We discuss these different kinds of goodness in relation to six design traditions that we identify, namely conceptual design, usability design, engineering design, ergonomics design, experience design and sustainability design. We argue that the design traditions are grounded in different appreciations of goodness, and that designers and design researchers can benefit from a more precise discernment of values that underpin design processes and design critique in different traditions. von Wright’s treatise serves as a point of departure for the appraisal of the multifaceted and relational character of the idea of good design and of the values of design.