Tomasz Jaskiewicz

Creative approach to the design and prototyping of experimental smart spaces, case studies from the interactive environments minor

This paper attempts to challenge the established practice of design and engineering of smart environments in two ways. Its first premise is that smart spaces should be formed by systems that comprise not only home or office appliances, but also embedded building component agents. The second premise of this paper is a consequent call for an interdisciplinary approach to creation of smart spaces. Experimental undergraduate course is used to provide a set of case studies to illustrate benefits and threats of such approach, as well as the relevance of the integration of iterative prototyping already in the earliest phases of design processes.

Complex multiplayer urban design system: concept and case studies

This paper explores the idea of creating a software and hardware system supporting collaborative urban planning and design. It demonstrates several working case studies of various parts of such system. Using these examples a selected strategy for a computer supported cooperative work for the field of architectural and urban design and planning is illustrated. Proposed strategy is part of the Protospace system and laboratory development at the Delft Univesity of Technology, faculty of Architecture.

Unlocking the Interactive Office: Concurrent Prototyping Approach

In this pictorial we present a project case, where an interactive office environment was designed following concurrent prototyping embedded in an iterative design approach. The case illustrates how concurrent prototyping supports designing complex interactions between multiple people and multiple interactive objects, while innovating in both social and technological realm. Identified variables of the involved process allow steering the design towards a variety of possible solution qualities. We propose this approach as a viable strategy for dealing with the complexity of designing in the domain of Human-Building Interaction.

Prototype-Centric Explorative Interaction Design Approach in the Case of Office Energy Coaches Projects

This paper presents an explorative prototype-centric interactions design approach, as applied to the processes of designing interactive products for encouraging sustainable occupant behavior in office environments - the “Office Energy Coaches”. In this approach, iterative making and trying out of prototypes is central to the organization of the design process, and no strict time separation is imposed on design activities, whether of analytical, creative or executive type. Instead of being organized by predefining the type of design activity to be performed during a given phase of the project, the design process phases are characterized only by increasing fidelity of created prototypes. The paper discusses projects from two design studios at industrial design faculties in the Netherlands and in China, where the prototype-centric approach was performed. Despite cultural and organizational differences, in both cases the approach proved to be successful. Fast, iterative prototyping involving interactive technology helped in organizing design teamwork, accelerated obtaining in-depth insights, facilitated conceptualization of meaningful interactions and supported development of experiential interactive product concepts. At the same time, some shortcomings of the approach have been observed, including several forms of fixation that designers faced when prototyping, as well as limitations of prototyping tools impacting the overall process performance. Based on discussed cases, we suggest areas for improving the prototype-centric approach, including recommendations for design methods, techniques and tools aimed at interaction design students and professional designers alike.

Supporting Iterative Research and Design Explorations in the Living Lab Context

This chapter presents an approach for organising research and innovation in the Living Lab context, where context research instruments, as well as conceptualised, developed and tested prototypes are integrated in one hardware and software platform (BOCS platform). The BOCS platform allows collecting of sensor and building management data, self-reporting of subjective information by users and providing feedback to users through a variety of channels. By this, the platform supports iterative cycles of context researching, co-creating, implementing and testing of solutions. The initial goal for the use of the platform is to enable creation of solutions aiding office occupants in improving their comfort while reducing building energy use. This goal is attained by enabling iterative identification and a gradual build-up of in-depth understanding of involved social practices, and incremental introduction and evaluation of ways to support the change of these social practices through monitoring, self reporting and feedback in office environments. The chapter outlines the organisation of the proposed process in detail. The approach is further positively evaluated based on the outcomes of a preliminary case study. It is finally suggested that in the future the approach may be applied to other Living Lab situations where complex challenges are faced and fast results are expected.

Energy Feedback Objects

It is often assumed that providing occupants with feedback about their energy consumption will encourage them to understand their own contribution to energy consumption and stimulate them to save energy as a result. However, providing such feedback in the form of raw data is known to be too difficult for occupants to interpret. There are many examples where raw data has been replaced by easy to read data visualisations, communicated through metaphors, translated to specific tips, or even turned into playful interfaces and games. However, even such approaches often have short-lived impact on occupant behaviour, as they are often not embedded into complex social practices taking place in building environments, and providing individual feedback to occupants proves insufficient. The challenge of developing energy-feedback designs which may trigger lasting behaviour change by engaging social practices of building occupants was taken up by students following the “Interactive Technology Design” (ITD) course at the IDE faculty of TU Delft.