Design Studies最新文献

Digital technologies enable realistic and highly refined representations early in the design process, yet designers frequently use rudimentary objects in their design practice. This research proposes a framework to explain characteristics of objects that make them appropriate for different roles in complex design projects. Objects created by designers in three research settings are explored through interviews. Through the lens of sociomateriality, objects are seen in roles of joining conversation across knowledge boundaries or encapsulating conversation. Four characteristics of fidelity, investment, ambiguity, and history are proposed to determine which role an object is suited to. The framework helps explain and guide effective use of technology and appropriate use of objects in design.

This study explores site analysis, which involves designing a building in outline to test whether a particular site can accommodate a given proposal. During this process, information is gathered to develop and test solution conjectures. Designers' examination of solution-conjectures is underexplored. In addressing this issue, the study draws on dual-processing theory, where cognitive processes are divided into Type 1 and 2; the former being intuitive and efficient, and the latter effortful and slow. 21 interviews were conducted. The findings indicate that architects can avoid complex analysis by reframing difficult questions to reach solution-information-satisfaction. Confidence associated with narratives accompanying solution development prompted feelings of solution-satisfaction, leading to information neglect, major delays, and other problems.

Design anthropology covers various design practices and research. While some researchers/pactitioners rely on anthropological insights to enhance design, others use design as a tool to gain anthropological knowledge. This paper explores the symbiotic relation between design and anthropology and proposes a ‘design anthropology of collaborative making’. It contributes to gaining insights in plural ways of knowing while providing contextual insights that inform design practices. Starting from a common skill from an ‘in-habitat’ position, we consider both perspectives and invite collaborative engagement between people and materiality. Based on collaborations with the San community in Namibia on shoemaking and with Syrian refugee women through embroidery, we explore the added value of this tactile engagement through making to bridge theory and practice.

This paper examines the role of team learning behaviours in the performance of architecture teams. This is significant to architects because most architects work in project teams. Although there is a growing body of research on the behaviours of design teams, this survey is one of the first studies conducted specifically on the learning behaviours of architects working in teams. We conducted a survey with 105 architecture firms in Victoria, Australia to collect perceptions of team learning behaviour and team performance, then interviewed nine architects to explore their team learning practices. Results from the survey demonstrated that team reflexivity, error communication and boundary crossing behaviours were positively associated with team effectiveness and employee satisfaction.

Engineering aims to solve consequential, real-world problems. To be effective problem-solvers in societal contexts, engineers and designers must be trained to conceptualize and operationalize ethics, equity, and justice in their practice. Our work develops a methodology – based on the Design Justice framework – for ethics, equity, and justice audits of design pedagogy. We apply this methodology to audit design and design critique courses at a technology institution – the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Through this audit we identify exemplar courses as well as ways in which courses fail to engage with ethics, equity, and justice. This audit, the largest of its kind, is a proof of concept of how the audit methodology can be applied to design education and practice.

We aim to understand how public sector organizations practise ‘design thinking’ to respond to changing demands and develop alternative courses of action. The literature on design thinking is largely prescriptive; few studies analyse how change is actually brought about through situated design practices. Design scholars have therefore argued that such practices themselves should take centre stage as objects of analysis. We take an ethnographic approach to studying the design thinking journey of the Dutch Health Inspectorate, using participatory observations and interviews to collect our data. Drawing on the anthropological concept of ritualization, we identify two important mechanisms through which design thinking helped the Inspectorate disrupt existing organizational strategies and engage with stakeholders in a fundamentally new way.

Team composition affects the creativity of teams in design tasks. Existing research presents mixed results on the impact of team composition on creativity. We conducted an experiment to investigate the effect of three different team categories on design creativity: designers, designers and non-designers (mixed teams), and non-designers. 18 volunteer dyads completed a short design task by generating solution ideas. Three expert judges scored the ideas for originality, usefulness, and compliance with requirements. The judges also assigned independent subjective creativity scores. Fluency and rareness were also calculated. Findings indicate that mixed dyadic teams score highest in almost all variables, thereby suggesting that design is no different than other domains, thus adding to the literature that favors diverse teams for increased creativity.