Papers by Catherine Elsen
This paper analyses four settings of so-called collaborative "creative workshops" (their methods,... more This paper analyses four settings of so-called collaborative "creative workshops" (their methods, logistics, regulation processes) and provide peepholes on their respective features, with the informed goals of defining criteria for comparison, finding shared essence and distinctive characteristics. Key aspects such as time, facilitation and autoorganization shape a "creative continuum" that formalizes how creativity can be stimulated and how participants might collaboratively develop creative behaviors. KEYWORDS Creative and collaborative workshops, creative tools and methodologies, impact of time and regulation on collective creativity. ABOUT CREATIVITY Creativity, innovation, creative economy or creative management are timely topics in fields such as design, economics, education or innovation research. Various initiatives around these concepts take place and, among them, invitations to experience hands-on, practical approaches of creativity-what we will call in this paper "creative workshops". The emergence of these workshops raises various fundamental questions about creativity. One of them concerns its very essence: can we teach it? When it comes to educate to creativity, two schools of thought coexist. Indeed, if creativity has long been considered by most as an unexplainable gift that cannot be learned nor taught (MacKenzie, 1998), others start formulating divergent opinions: properly structured by tools and methodologies, creativity (or contexts favorable to creativity) could emerge
Par Catherine Elsen (LUCID-ULg) et Adeline Cornet (ID CAMPUS) Succes stories Pourquoi l'Ipod, qui... more Par Catherine Elsen (LUCID-ULg) et Adeline Cornet (ID CAMPUS) Succes stories Pourquoi l'Ipod, qui n'est ni le premier lecteur MP3 performant ni le moins onéreux, est-il devenu l'incontestable référence en matière de lecteur de musique portable ? Et pourquoi le Aravind Eye Care System, créé, en Inde, par le Dr. Venkataswamy, est-il, entre autres, en capacité d'offrir aux plus démunis des lentilles de vue adaptées pour moins de 4$, chose tout à fait impensable dans nos pays occidentaux ? L'Ipod et les lentilles, ces produits de consommation fonctionnels, créatifs et innovants, sont tous deux le résultat d'une approche avant tout intégrée et holistique, qui a su répondre tant aux besoins réels d'un public cible qu'à ses envies. Une démarche qui sait faire vibrer à la fois nos cordes rationnelles et émotionnelles[1] : le Design Thinking. Le Design Thinking : une réponse à une société en mal d'innovation ? Dans nos sociétés, la nouveauté, en tant que telle, ne suffit plus. Pour rencontrer un succès commercial, l'efficacité et l'attractivité, les produits, services, systèmes ou applications doivent plus que jamais être abordés au travers d'une approche innovante et créative qui dépasse largement le simple concept d'originalité.
International journal on advances in intelligent systems, 2019
This paper explores the relatively new phenomenon of citizen participation in the Smart City cont... more This paper explores the relatively new phenomenon of citizen participation in the Smart City context. We present a case study comparative analysis of three participatory approaches implemented in three European Smart Cities. Each of those operational perspectives is studied in view of the theoretical concepts conveyed by the scientific state of the art, this way highlighting similarities and gaps between theory and practice. The results are focused on (i) the various existing interpretations of the “citizen participation” and the “Smart City” definitions, on (ii) the different selection processes applied in all three cases to recruit the participating citizens and on (iii) the benefits and drawbacks associated with the implementation of participative processes in a Smart City. The article closes with a discussion about key elements to keep in mind when implementing a bottom-up participative approach in the context of a Smart City. Eventually, the confrontation between theoretical and practical perspectives results in a revisited version of Arstein’s ladder of citizen participation, adapted to the Smart City context.Peer reviewe
Interfaces numériques, Jan 23, 2018
Cet article traite de la passation graphique d'une intention et révèle, par l'intermédiaire d'exp... more Cet article traite de la passation graphique d'une intention et révèle, par l'intermédiaire d'expérimentations ciblées, quels composants graphiques soutiennent particulièrement bien ou mal cette passation. Les résultats suggèrent d'apporter une attention toute particulière, que l'on soit concepteurcollaborateur ou développeur d'interfaces de soutien à la collaboration distante, aux courbes dites « principales ». Celles-ci semblent effectivement être garantes d'une intention graphique potentiellement mieux transmise et mieux capturée-l'essence graphique d'une collaboration distante efficace.
Work-a Journal of Prevention Assessment & Rehabilitation, Sep 17, 2020
BACKGROUND: Articulating design and ergonomics skills through education is a major challenge for ... more BACKGROUND: Articulating design and ergonomics skills through education is a major challenge for both fields. Indeed, professional ergonomists are increasingly deeply involved in design processes, and ergonomics education should train them in design skills. As courses in ergonomics education are often time-constrained, it is difficult to mobilize students in real-scale projects and to involve them in design processes. Conversely, activity analysis and active involvement of users in design projects (through co-creation or co-design processes) are rarely convened in architecture and design curricula. OBJECTIVE: It is therefore necessary to develop effective and relevant pedagogical settings, enabling students of both fields to develop their abilities and equip them to act in concrete design situations. METHODS: In this paper, we describe a large-scale pedagogical setting involving groups of students from different disciplines gathered around a real-scale design project (re-shaping the waiting room of a mental health center). The ergonomics students' main task is to analyze the needs and real activities of end-users; the interior design students' task is to produce the design project. This communication more precisely focuses on describing the ergonomics students' fieldwork and the practical and pedagogical innovations put in place to help them face the various challenges encountered during the project. RESULTS: Based on formal feedback from students, teachers and stakeholders, we address three main challenges: (1) dealing with the temporal constraints of the intervention, (2) documenting and observing a sensitive situation and (3) involving endusers to place them at the core of the design process. For each challenge, we describe the issue at stake, the work conducted to deal with this issue, and eventually the feedback collected from students, teachers and stakeholders. CONCLUSION: The paper concludes with an analysis of success and failure factors for such pedagogical settings, in particular for physical enquiry devices, co-creation processes, and co-constructed pedagogical settings. It shows the impact of these settings for students, but highlight that collaboration between ergonomists and designers is a key issue for learning in a positive experience.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2012
Understanding collaborative design goes far beyond analyzing group dynamics, tasks allocations or... more Understanding collaborative design goes far beyond analyzing group dynamics, tasks allocations or negotiation during decision-making processes. In this paper, we focused on the collaborative sketching process, during which the intentions of designers are supported by their sketches and by specific strokes. Twelve professional designers attended an experimental design session, where they were asked to express, share, capture or interpret sketches. A qualitative and quantitative fine-grained analysis of strokes teach us (i) how designers tend to deal with representations that are not theirs; (ii) what main graphical keyfeatures constitute the inner nature of the shared information and (iii) how and when can this graphic essence be shared with collaborators.
Cet article examine l'évolution et la modulation des usages des « objets médiateurs » en design i... more Cet article examine l'évolution et la modulation des usages des « objets médiateurs » en design industriel depuis l'avènement des outils de CAO (Conception Assistée par Ordinateur). Ces outils ont longtemps été étudiés en regard des avantages et inconvénients que leur utilisation constituait pour le processus de conception, et toujours en comparaison des outils dits « traditionnels » (dessins à main levée, maquettes) [9 ; 5]. L'article suggère d'étudier plutôt ces outils, médiateurs de l'activité de conception, pour leur complémentarité qui apparaît parfois très en amont du processus de conception (dès la phase conceptuelle). Les bases théoriques qui structurent l'ensemble de l'intervention sont présentées et discutées à la lumière de cette suggestion tout comme les principaux résultats d'une intervention in situ, pour une objectivation des nouvelles pratiques « métier ».
An increasing number of large scale projects requires that distant teams collaborate together rem... more An increasing number of large scale projects requires that distant teams collaborate together remotely. At the same time, the current CAD tools only offer minimal support for partial and asynchronous interactions. The application we propose enables full synchronous and remote sketch-based collaborative design. This setup is a combination of a virtual desktop (a remote meeting table), a standard videoconference system, a gesture recognition module and a networked, real-time, collaborative drawing software (SketSha). The solution as a whole is multimodal in essence (gestures, speech, drawing…) supporting immersive remote collaborative design. Context In a wide range of activities sectors, collaboration has been intensified, notably in the design domains. Collective work is increasingly organized simultaneously (rather than sequentially as it used to be in the past). Moreover, design teams are often spatially distributed, and the need for distant real-time interaction is consequently emerging. A lot of effective systems are available for the sharing of information, but most of them are asynchronous (e.g. databases, email…) or allow only partial interaction (e.g. phone). Virtual reality is a promising way to respond to the challenges of such changes in organizations and processes. The Lucid-ULg proposes a system for sketch-based multimodal interaction based on the paradigm of the in
Journal of design research, 2014
In response to questions about designers' visual way of knowing and working, this article explore... more In response to questions about designers' visual way of knowing and working, this article explores how sensory experience is conveyed during the early phases of architectural design. By processing 985 graphic components issued from a three-month ethnographic observation inside an architecture firm, and proposing an original methodology for their analysis, we identify and analyse graphic expressions of sensory-related design intentions. Multi-sensory dimensions of experiencing an architectural artefact, and the way architects deal with users experiencing space differently, are topics also considered in this article. The resulting observations remind us not to mistake apparent lack of graphical clues for lack of sensibility when it comes to addressing sensory experience during architectural design.
Springer eBooks, 2008
This paper describes a research project which aims at studying the ergonomic and cognitive value ... more This paper describes a research project which aims at studying the ergonomic and cognitive value of EsQUIsE, a freehand design environment for architects. This sketch-based modeling software is implemented on a Tablet PC. The EsQUIsE software provides architects with the possibility to generate automatically 3D views from the freehand drawings. The first part of the paper deals with the usability of such a digital environment for sketching, and especially the use of the drawing areas. The second part of the paper is dedicated to the analysis of how 3D views are generated and used for exploring alternative solutions. Although in interviews architects rate 3D highly, in fact they do not produce a large volume of 3D sketches. Issues about visual and spatial reasoning in design are thus highlighted. Finally, the benefit of such a tool for creativity is questioned.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Sep 20, 2008
This paper presents a new supporting tool for distant collaborative design, named SketSha. This p... more This paper presents a new supporting tool for distant collaborative design, named SketSha. This prototype supports the early stages of design and more particularly the initial and crucial step of free-hand sketching. SketSha and its particular interface, named the virtual desktop, aim to keep from Front-To-Front collaborative work all the benefits and to appoint to them some of the nowadays IT facilities, in order to manage in a realistic and efficient way a long distance collaboration and to effectively serve the designers' needs. Our hope is to reintroduce the social aspects and group interactions, crucial for real system efficacy and adaptation to the business world. The paper presents the fundamental assumptions made to implement SketSha, that are questioned and analyzed through a real-size experimentation featuring 30 architecture and building engineering students, working together in real-time in different locations (Belgium and France). This experiment and the necessary survey open up interesting fields of investigations, such as the relevance of the sketch stage and the proposed device to support distant collaborative design in architecture and the benefit it represents for students, in a pedagogical point of view, to merge the IT aspects and the design studio. The methodology and the replicability are analyzed to increase the level and quality of our students' formation and, finally, a critic of SketSha constitutes a benefit for the developing teams.
Interfaces numériques, Mar 30, 2013
Cet article traite de la passation graphique d'une intention et révèle, par l'intermédiaire d'exp... more Cet article traite de la passation graphique d'une intention et révèle, par l'intermédiaire d'expérimentations ciblées, quels composants graphiques soutiennent particulièrement bien ou mal cette passation. Les résultats suggèrent d'apporter une attention toute particulière, que l'on soit concepteur-collaborateur ou développeur d'interfaces de soutien à la collaboration distante, aux courbes dites « principales ». Celles-ci semblent effectivement être garantes d'une intention graphique potentiellement mieux transmise et mieux capturée-l'essence graphique d'une collaboration distante efficace.
This paper studies new cooperative practices using an "anthropo-based" approach of "mediating obj... more This paper studies new cooperative practices using an "anthropo-based" approach of "mediating objects". It provides insights into cooperative modalities with draughtsmen and mediating objectsʼ potentials as efficient cooperative medium. It suggests to consider design toolsʼ and representationsʼ complementarities instead of maladjustments in order to design cooperative support systems closer to real industrial practices.
Nordic Design Research Conference, Aug 15, 2021
In Autumn 2020, the Belgian association Wallonie Design dedicated to promoting design published a... more In Autumn 2020, the Belgian association Wallonie Design dedicated to promoting design published a call tender to define and illustrate more than 100 words used in design practice. This Lexicon aims to complete an existing set of internal mediation tools, developed by the association to better explain the potential and benefits of design to different stakeholders and to promote design by and for other professions. Inter'Act research lab of University of Liege specialized in design and architectural research conducted this two-months project called "the Walloon Design Lexicon". It was developed through a collaborative writing process, a call for illustrative examples and two workshops. Through these participatory activities, the scale gap between words and practice revealed other intern and inter-professional communicational scale issues. The debate on the words generated a precious knowledge on design practice and designers in a macro (design industry) and global scale (economy of innovation).
SHS web of conferences, 2018
L'évolution des besoins des architectes en matière d'outils de conception les a poussés à adopter... more L'évolution des besoins des architectes en matière d'outils de conception les a poussés à adopter et adapter des outils d'abord dédiés à d'autres secteurs. Certains de ces outils dits paramétriques sont davantage utilisés dans les grands bureaux d'architecture que dans les petites agences, qui représentent pourtant la majorité des acteurs de la conception architecturale (Stals et al., 2017). Le papier se concentre dès lors sur l'analyse du ressenti d'architectes intégrés à ces plus petites structures et participant à une journée de formation. Leur appréhension des outils de modélisation paramétrique est évaluée comparativement en début et en fin de formation selon trois attributs émergeant tant de la littérature que de leurs propres réponses. L'article développe donc les résultats selon trois attributs : créativité, aspects techniques, fonctionnalités. La pertinence de l'usage de tels outils dans de petites structures est également discutée. Mots-clés. Outil de conception, Modélisation paramétrique, PME.
This paper specifically focuses on one aspect of the experience design process, sometimes even st... more This paper specifically focuses on one aspect of the experience design process, sometimes even stressed as one if its shortcomings: the time it takes to properly gain insights about possible real-life experiences of proximal or distal end-users. In the process of making sense of sometimes conflicting viewpoints found in the literature about timing and its possible impact on design processes and outcomes, this paper compares four distinct settings and addresses the following research questions: • How “time-framing” the design process possibly filters (positively or negatively) the awareness designers have about end-users; • How the experimental protocols, their inherent limitations and artificialities, do shape the designers’ involvement in the process of designing for an end-user’s experience. Results put techniques for «disciplined creativity», such as brainstorming or analogies, front-to-front with more reflective approaches that unfold over more time, and discuss respective but complementary added values of both.Peer reviewe
eCAADe proceedings, 2016
Digital design tools are nowadays deeply rooted in most architectural design processes. Either us... more Digital design tools are nowadays deeply rooted in most architectural design processes. Either used as a way to communicate a designed artifact, or rather as a medium to test innovative morphologies (lately referred to as non-standard architecture), these design tools profoundly shape the way architects envision complexity all along their day-today tasks. The large teams of "star-architects" were able to develop dedicated and specific strategies and digital tools to overcome some of the technological gaps they were faced to when using commercial packages. But how are small and medium firms dealing with the inherent complexities of such software? This contribution analyzes how those firms (and more specifically the Walloon ones) deal with the growing complexity of digital tools, both in terms of use and interdisciplinarity.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2010
This paper presents a two months in situ case study analyzing the characteristics of designers' c... more This paper presents a two months in situ case study analyzing the characteristics of designers' cooperative work through the use of "mediating objects". We suggest that the consideration of real and evolutionary practices and everyday complementary work tools helps to understand the various cooperative modalities between co-workers and offers good clues for the development of cooperation support systems. Keywords: Cooperative design analysis, study of the design tools as cooperative work support, evolution of industrial design practices. Most of scientific papers facing these difficulties share the same comparative argumentation principle. On the one hand, traditional design tools such as free-hand sketches are said to stay the most powerful support to preliminary design phases but do not easily meet the constraints of remote cooperative design tasks [1; 2 and 3]. On the other hand, it is often argued that CAD tools fail to support ideation [4; 5] but ease longdistance communication and documents exchanges. We have to record that, with the exception of few innovative design studios, still
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Papers by Catherine Elsen