In this paper we describe a recent design research investigation, highlighting ways in which a de... more In this paper we describe a recent design research investigation, highlighting ways in which a designer attempts to communicate to others their intentions regarding users' emotional responses to future artefacts through the use of intermediary objects during design activity. We follow the interactions of a jewellery designer engaged in a project in partnership with an electrical engineer, a software developer, and museum curators. The overall design goal is to create an aesthetically desirable electronic object for use in a specific museum context, allowing the generation of personalized labels. This paper embraces an ethnomethodological approach to uncover ways the jewellery designer attempts to translate an intended emotional state (appeal and desire) towards the designed artefact in the future context, through intermediary objects, which are interpreted differently by different people across the trajectory of design activity. The use of intermediary objects during sociotechnical interactions in engineering design activity is well documented (Vinck and Jeantet, 1995, Boujut and Blanco, 2003, Eckert and Boujut, 2003) but our research suggests more work is required to understand the role that these types of devices play in intending and interpreting future emotional content, which is seen as a significant goal within product design disciplines. We discuss the concept of difference, and how it is managed during design activity involving various actors and actants, leading towards a better understanding of intention and interpretation during design.
This paper examines the role the critique plays in a constructively aligned, student-led curricul... more This paper examines the role the critique plays in a constructively aligned, student-led curriculum in studio based teaching. It is suggested that during 'the crit', conversations structured around reflective practice need to explicitly align learning outcomes and grade criteria to the practice of artifact generation in order to help students develop a deeper understanding of their own learning. The critique presents challenges to promoting deep reflective learning, since the traditional 'crit' structure is perceived by students as being biased, political and emotionally stressful. Through an action research methodology, this paper attempts to understand the perceptions of a cohort of students to a critique variation aligning it more closely to assessment strategies used by academic staff in the grading of student work. First Year students in Art and Design were asked to assess a collection of their peers' work using a colour coded grading scheme. Half the cohort were asked to do a self-assessment of their work prior this exercise, while the second half of the cohort were asked to self-assess following the exercise. A questionnaire was given to all students requesting them to report on their understanding of the learning outcomes and its relationship to the project after all assessments had been completed. Wordle, an online tool that visualises the frequency of word usage in text, was used to generate word clouds of student responses to questionnaires. It is suggested that greater frequency of particular words used can be correlated to deep understanding, structured around Grice's concept of conversational implicature. Results suggest that the traditional 'crit' format would benefit from more explicit alignment to learning tasks, rather than generated artifacts.
Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2015
Much of the knowing employed in skilled craft practice is difficult to communicate solely through... more Much of the knowing employed in skilled craft practice is difficult to communicate solely through written or verbal description. Consequently, the reflection and development of a craft practice in this manner may miss important nuances of practitioners' skills and experiences. We created digital technologies to sonify (using audio to perceptualize data) a group of craft practitioners' gestures to explore how we can aid their reflection in and on their craft, and consequently develop it. Over a number of workshops, the design of these sonifications were iterated based on how the practitioners responded to them. We found that direct sonification of gesture (sounds generated directly from motion sensor data) helped practitioners understand and reflect upon their own and each other's practice, encouraged discussion and enabled modification of craft technique.
The paper presents an overview of activities of a funded project interrogating energy requirement... more The paper presents an overview of activities of a funded project interrogating energy requirements of displaced populations in the Goudoubo camp in Burkina Faso. The overall project adopts a qualitative approach to enquiry using methods often employed by designers in participatory and human-centred design projects, with training provided for embedded researchers from disciplines other than design through a series of workshops prior fieldwork. The overall project aims to build a qualitative toolkit for enquiry into the daily lives of refuges and their lived energy requirements. The paper asks whether the engaged design methods, understood in the context of "global north" practices, are equally effective in sub-Saharan contexts. The paper introduces the methods used, the workshops delivered and then follows the experiences of the embedded researchers who present their findings, challenges and concerns about the delivery and implementation of "design methods" in the field. In their own voice, the researchers outline successes and failures, providing a critical examination regarding the degree to which design methods are transferrable across cultures and contexts.
responsible for a relevant part of the international standardization of digital content throug th... more responsible for a relevant part of the international standardization of digital content throug the Internet. In 1988 he founded the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), the organization that has developed international standards for digital media and has produced divers standards, including MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MP3 music format. On issues of media and digital encoding has published several articles and books, including the recent "The MPEG Representation of Digital Media" (Springer, 2011).
In this paper we describe a recent design research investigation, highlighting ways in which a de... more In this paper we describe a recent design research investigation, highlighting ways in which a designer attempts to communicate to others their intentions regarding users' emotional responses to future artefacts through the use of intermediary objects during design activity. We follow the interactions of a jewellery designer engaged in a project in partnership with an electrical engineer, a software developer, and museum curators. The overall design goal is to create an aesthetically desirable electronic object for use in a specific museum context, allowing the generation of personalized labels. This paper embraces an ethnomethodological approach to uncover ways the jewellery designer attempts to translate an intended emotional state (appeal and desire) towards the designed artefact in the future context, through intermediary objects, which are interpreted differently by different people across the trajectory of design activity. The use of intermediary objects during sociotechnical interactions in engineering design activity is well documented (Vinck and Jeantet, 1995, Boujut and Blanco, 2003, Eckert and Boujut, 2003) but our research suggests more work is required to understand the role that these types of devices play in intending and interpreting future emotional content, which is seen as a significant goal within product design disciplines. We discuss the concept of difference, and how it is managed during design activity involving various actors and actants, leading towards a better understanding of intention and interpretation during design.
This paper examines the role the critique plays in a constructively aligned, student-led curricul... more This paper examines the role the critique plays in a constructively aligned, student-led curriculum in studio based teaching. It is suggested that during 'the crit', conversations structured around reflective practice need to explicitly align learning outcomes and grade criteria to the practice of artifact generation in order to help students develop a deeper understanding of their own learning. The critique presents challenges to promoting deep reflective learning, since the traditional 'crit' structure is perceived by students as being biased, political and emotionally stressful. Through an action research methodology, this paper attempts to understand the perceptions of a cohort of students to a critique variation aligning it more closely to assessment strategies used by academic staff in the grading of student work. First Year students in Art and Design were asked to assess a collection of their peers' work using a colour coded grading scheme. Half the cohort were asked to do a self-assessment of their work prior this exercise, while the second half of the cohort were asked to self-assess following the exercise. A questionnaire was given to all students requesting them to report on their understanding of the learning outcomes and its relationship to the project after all assessments had been completed. Wordle, an online tool that visualises the frequency of word usage in text, was used to generate word clouds of student responses to questionnaires. It is suggested that greater frequency of particular words used can be correlated to deep understanding, structured around Grice's concept of conversational implicature. Results suggest that the traditional 'crit' format would benefit from more explicit alignment to learning tasks, rather than generated artifacts.
Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2015
Much of the knowing employed in skilled craft practice is difficult to communicate solely through... more Much of the knowing employed in skilled craft practice is difficult to communicate solely through written or verbal description. Consequently, the reflection and development of a craft practice in this manner may miss important nuances of practitioners' skills and experiences. We created digital technologies to sonify (using audio to perceptualize data) a group of craft practitioners' gestures to explore how we can aid their reflection in and on their craft, and consequently develop it. Over a number of workshops, the design of these sonifications were iterated based on how the practitioners responded to them. We found that direct sonification of gesture (sounds generated directly from motion sensor data) helped practitioners understand and reflect upon their own and each other's practice, encouraged discussion and enabled modification of craft technique.
The paper presents an overview of activities of a funded project interrogating energy requirement... more The paper presents an overview of activities of a funded project interrogating energy requirements of displaced populations in the Goudoubo camp in Burkina Faso. The overall project adopts a qualitative approach to enquiry using methods often employed by designers in participatory and human-centred design projects, with training provided for embedded researchers from disciplines other than design through a series of workshops prior fieldwork. The overall project aims to build a qualitative toolkit for enquiry into the daily lives of refuges and their lived energy requirements. The paper asks whether the engaged design methods, understood in the context of "global north" practices, are equally effective in sub-Saharan contexts. The paper introduces the methods used, the workshops delivered and then follows the experiences of the embedded researchers who present their findings, challenges and concerns about the delivery and implementation of "design methods" in the field. In their own voice, the researchers outline successes and failures, providing a critical examination regarding the degree to which design methods are transferrable across cultures and contexts.
responsible for a relevant part of the international standardization of digital content throug th... more responsible for a relevant part of the international standardization of digital content throug the Internet. In 1988 he founded the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), the organization that has developed international standards for digital media and has produced divers standards, including MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MP3 music format. On issues of media and digital encoding has published several articles and books, including the recent "The MPEG Representation of Digital Media" (Springer, 2011).
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Papers by arno verhoeven