AHFE Open AccessInterdisciplinary Practice in Industrial Design
Editors: Yong-Gyun Ghim, Cliff (Sungsoo) Shin
Topics: Interdisciplinary Practice in Industrial Design
Publication Date: 2023
ISBN: 978-1-958651-76-6
DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1002964
Articles
Machine Learning to Define Anthropometric Landmarks for Relevant Product Design 2D Blueprint Measures
Functional designers use 3D body scan measurements to create 2D pattern blueprints, to develop products that size and fit bodies appropriately - to enable safety, comfort, and activity-related performance. To gather measures, surface anthropometric landmarks are critical, to enable accuracy and consistency between scans. However, many 3D scan databases do not include data with anthropometric landmarks, making bodies challenging to measure. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to develop a machine learning (ML) model for the automatic landmarking of 3D body scans from raw point clouds. A deep neural network model was developed, using the Civilian American and European Surface Anthropometry Resource (CAESAR) scan dataset (2002) for training. The model enabled 3D scans from any device that outputs in color to be used for landmark automation. Results of this work have also demonstrated that ML landmarking can enable bulk processing of 3D body scan point cloud data more efficiently compared to traditional manual landmarking methods.
Ahmed Baruwa, Susan Sokolowski, Jacob Searcy, Daniel Lowd
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Breast Cancer Recovery Product Design Needs Using an Athlete Benefit Model (ABM)
To assist with breast cancer recovery, patients may be recommended to wear a compression bra or top by their physician or oncologic physical therapist. These products often have ineffective thermoregulation, support/compression, fit, mobility, and hand feel, along with being unattractive and expensive. What is unique about these challenges is that they could potentially be resolved through a sports product innovation lens. Sports product manufacturers innovate seasonally to develop products that reduce pain, edema, discomfort, and swelling through targeted support/compression, while addressing thermoregulation, fit, mobility, hand feel, aesthetics, and price. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to utilize a sports product design Athlete Benefit Model (ABM) to determine product needs for female and male breast cancer recovery. Through this work Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analyses were conducted to determine design opportunities. Moving forward, the research will involve manufacturer identification, materials development, prototyping, sizing, and wear testing.
Susan Sokolowski, Andr Leiserowitz, Michael Orlow, Juliana Courogen
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Sports Apparel Warm and Cool Touch Effusivity Spectrums Based on Human Perception
In the sports product industry, technical apparel materials can be developed to be perceived warm or cool to the human touch. Those created for warm touch are typically for cold environments - generating warmth for athlete comfort, whereas cool touch materials are developed for hot environments – making the athlete’s skin surface feel cool and fresh. These attributes can be engineered into the face or back side of the material – providing different point-of-purchase and next-to-skin perceptual experiences. The goal of this study was to define warm and cool touch effusivity spectrums that the sports apparel industry can reference when developing new technical materials. The warm and cool touch characteristics of common sports materials were evaluated mechanically with a Modified Transient Plane Source (MTPS) sensor and perceptually with a human subject fingertip test protocol. From the data collected, cool and warm touch effusivity spectrums were determined for face and back material sides. For the face side of the material specimens, subjects’ perception of warmth was at an average effusivity value of 145.9 (+/-23.1), and cool at 182.2 (+/-19.7). For the back side of the specimens, the materials were perceived warm at 138.6 (+/-22.6), and cool at 177.3 (+/-19.3). The results of this study provide sports apparel material developers insight into target effusivity value ranges for athlete warm or cool touch perceptual experiences.
Susan Sokolowski, Emily Karolidis, Arya Hakimian
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Developing Practice Guidelines for Interprofessional Educational Collaboration between Design and Healthcare Fields
Designing effective assistive technology (AT) requires knowledge of materials, design methodology, and user needs.Creating AT supporting daily tasks benefits from collaboration with Occupation Therapy, yet this is not a professionalnorm. To address AT design challenges and promote future professional collaboration, Thomas Jefferson Universitydeveloped an interprofessional education (IPE) co-design program for Occupational Therapy Doctoral (OTD) andMasters of Industrial Design (MSID) students. Using experiential learning modules, students co-create assistive devicesfor individuals living with Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva (FOP), a rare genetic disorder causing progressiveimmobility. Students experience real-world contexts and collect ongoing data; FOP user-experts participate in thedesign process via standardized interviews and structured feedback recorded during device user-testing sessions.Here, we present our in-progress approach to creating evidence-based practice guidelines for future collaborationsbetween healthcare professionals and designers based on an IPE collaboration. This IPE program offers insight intohow to structure effective interdisciplinary programs and implement co-design methodology.
Kimberly Mollo, Eric Schneider, Tod Corlett, Alia Boynton, Sarah Chu, Lauren Kennedy, Danielle Oconnell
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User-Oriented Definition of Smart Products: a "Body" Perspective
As more and more smart products appear in people's daily lives, designers begin to pay attention to smart product design. Industry and academia try to explain "what Smart Products are" in different fields. Although Smart Products are not a new term, there is no consensus on the definition of Smart Products. However, this is problematic for designers. Because the understanding of Smart Products directly affects how designers design smart products to bring users a better life. Smart products are quite different from previous products in terms of functions, interactions, and technologies. This not only affects designers but also poses challenges for users. This paper reviews the concept of Smart Products and Intelligence, constructs a user-oriented definition of smart products based upon the embodied cognition theory of cognitive science, proposes the characteristics of smart products, which provides designers with a new perspective for designing smart products.
Yi Zheng
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Stretching and Using Designers’ Empathic Horizons
This paper builds upon previous research where we discovered gaps related to how empathy is understood and how the empathic horizon is characterized within design studies. First, we offer concrete definitions of empathy through various perspectives to clarify misconceptions. Second, we offer a brief historical overview of the ‘empathic horizon’, which can be traced back to the 1960s. Third, we offer a critical analysis of empathy/empathic horizons and begin to characterize what is meant by empathic horizons through the literature reviewed. Fourth, we illustrate how designers’ empathic horizons may be unintentionally and intentionally stretched. That is, we believe that each person has an empathic horizon that evolves spontaneously, is connected to personal individual embodied experiences, and evolves dynamically across their life journey. Literature shows that a person’s empathic horizon is predominantly developed unintentionally but it can be intentionally stretched or expanded, particularly when awareness is brought to the value of doing so. Fifth, we use our Jellybeans Empathic Modeling Activity that 1145 people have participated in since 2011 to flush out the definitions we’ve established. This paper contributes information not currently found in design literature by bringing together theoretical and practical definitions and characteristics about empathy and empathic horizons that are relevant to design practitioners and design educators.
Joyce Thomas, Megan Strickfaden
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(Re)storying Empathy in Design Thinking
Storytelling can be associated with temporality, memory, emotion, embodied ways of individually experiencing life, and social ways of collectively experiencing the world. Storytelling is also a kind of re-storying of human experience that has the potential to drive design solutions in very significant directions. We believe that storytelling has the potential to be a cornerstone towards breaking down assumptions about others and revealing beliefs and values about the people that designers call their users or audiences; and as such, storytelling can be significant to human-centred design processes and towards building empathy in design thinking. This paper highlights some of the central ideas around storytelling, re-storying and empathy from the fields of design studies, contemporary literature, psychology, and philosophy. This includes explorations into how designers invest time into storytelling and how this can lead towards deepening empathy and understanding of others’ circumstances. Our core assumption is that storytelling and re-storying are key ways to connect one person with another and to bring together groups of people through sharing and exploring details about individual experiences including intimate and emotional qualities of the human condition. Moving from our highlighted core concepts we put these to work through three projects created by authors and presented as case studies to better understand temporality, memory, emotion and embodiment, and to explore how empathy can be enacted. The three case studies are: a self-knowing activity called Embodied Maps; an activity that has been made into a short film called Evolving Lines; and an ethnographic film created to explore low vision and the urban environment called Light in the Borderlands. Each of these case studies are examples of different types of re-storying, woven together to shed light on and facilitate deep reflection and meaningful conversations about oneself and among people who carry distinct cultural knowledge and disparate lived experiences. Storytelling and re-storying in each of these case studies are developed through sustained and respectful dialogue over hours, weeks, and months as part of design inquiries leading to and facilitating meaning-making processes. This paper promises to illuminate how storytelling and re-storying can be used as a means to being a more empathic design thinker and move towards innovative design solutions that are more suitable, functional and, ultimately, valuable to people.
Megan Strickfaden, Adolfo Ruiz, Joyce Thomas
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Pillow Forts: Teaching Design Through Play and Making
A pillow fort is something that many people will remember from their childhood yet tucked between the cushions there is tremendous potential for teaching valued information about three-dimensional and spatial design. Pillow forts is a proposed design studio assignment where theories that include elements, principles and processes related to industrial design, architectural design and spatially-oriented design fields are taught to students engaged in post-secondary education. The aim of this paper is to report on the methods and implementation of a pillow fort assignment in a design foundation studio course. This paper also presents the ontoepistemological methodology behind this deceptively simple assignment. Students are taught fundamental theories around three-dimensional design and then given a simple design goal to make a pillow fort in their living environment using only the objects they have in their immediate environment. By creating an opportunity for students to work with key theories of three-dimensional design, working through the design process using the languages of play, and making in their living environment, students can develop a deep and more holistic approach to designing without even realizing that is what they set out to do.
Malcolm Stielow, Megan Strickfaden
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Eyewear Design: The Journey to Improve Fitting for a Diverse Population
Eyewear is a product at the intersection of medical devices and fashion accessories. It is an everyday object most people take for granted without much consideration of its functionality and symbolic meaning. Many consumers do not know that their frames are not fitting them well, leading to potential damage to their visions. According to 2020 census data, America is diversifying racially and ethnically, which requires the ergonomics of eyewear to be diverse as well. Currently, there are various terminologies of eyewear fittings on the market, including Standard Fit, Alternative Fit, Elevated Fit, Low-Bridge Fit, Asian Fit, etc. Without a standard regulation for eyewear fitting, consumers often have a hard time understanding the differences and finding a good fit for themselves. This paper introduced an Eyewear Design Studio course initiated in the Fall 2022 term at Drexel University, collaborating with an eyewear start-up firm Knows Eyewear. It explores the students’ eyewear design journey and uses case studies to discuss how they provided better-fitting eyewear designs to diverse users and equal access to better vision.
Juanjuan June He
Open Access
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Leveraging Biologically Inspired Design As An Effective Instructional Strategy
This project(s) adressed by this paper have been undertaken by graduate students in the MID program within the School of Industrial Design at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Georgia Tech offers both two and three year graduate programs, the longer program being intended for students without undergraduate training in design. As such, they lack basic design skills or familiarity with the design process. This prerequisite “certificate year” of studies is comprised of two semesters, intended to help students develop the skills and understanding needed for the subsequent two years of study. Most of the initial semester is focused on basic design skill building – specifically form, proportions, spatial relationships, structure, problem definition, user research, basic anthropometry, 2D visualization and model fabrication to name a few. The first opportunity for students to apply these skills to a complete project has traditionally been a lighting-related design project in which biologically-inspired design (BID) is used as a model for developing design solutions. Since 2013, this BID approach has been applied in 8 of the 11 years, collaborating with professors from Georgia Tech’s Center for Biologically Inspired Design who introduce the concept of biologically inspired design, discuss case studies where the BID process has been particularly effective, and to provide input & feedback throughout the design process to help guide the students as subject matter experts (SME) on BID. Students are given a project brief that details how students must identify a lighting-related problem and a biological inspiration that can be leveraged in solving the problem through design, along with specific project requirements. In an effort to facilitate identification of a biological inspiration, the class typically visits the local zoo or aquarium as a group with a focus on the unique characteristics of different organisms that might be utilized or emulated to innovate effective design solutions. This break from the routine has typically been both motivating and fun for the students who become very engaged in this project.While there are numerous approaches to the design process (i.e. Double Diamond, Circular Design Process, Design Thinking, Engineering Design Process etc.) using BID as a model for introducing the design process to new students has proven to be particularly effective. The final deliverables resulting from this effort frequently are outstanding – despite the fast pace of this project. This paper details how Biologically Inspired Design (BID) has been used successfully as a means of introducing the design process to graduate students.
Wendell Wilson, Young Mi Choi
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Digital to Physical Medical Modeling: Industrial Design Activities in Support of a Limb Cooling Medical Device
Industrial design has a long history of leveraging anthropometrics human factors data as a basis for good design and decision making throughout the design process. This data ranges from individual measurements supporting the bespoke design for the individual to large data sets normalized across populations that supporting a much broader user group. When it comes to the design of medical devices, traditional anthropometric data has increasingly been complemented by a range of scanning methods (3D surface, CT, MRI) as a form of input with a resulting output of CAD models as well as digitally fabricated medical models. Both the digital and physical medical models can support a number of industrial design activities as well as serving as a collaborative platform between allied disciplines during the design and development of a medical device. This paper relays the specific role medical modeling played in the industrial design process for the device design of a limb cooling product. This product was targeting the impacts of tourniquet induced limb ischemia by leveraging cooling to mitigate tissue damage. Over the course of this project, limb medical models were utilized as a platform for a number of activities including supporting several industrial design methods from early ideation to testing and concept refinement.
Jason Germany, Abhijith Shasheendra, Ketan Sunil Mhetre, Shahram Aarabi, Ashley Emery
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Identification of Design Elements in Vehicle Interiors for creating an Appearance associated with Sustainability
Sustainability as a current trend in many industries is not only about developing products with a lower environmental impact, but also about communicating these efforts to customers. The vehicle interior is a key opportunity to communicate sustainability, as this is where the user interacts and experiences the vehicle during the use phase. Therefore, it is necessary to know which design elements create a user experience associated with sustainability. The purpose of this study is to identify design elements in vehicle interiors linked to sustainability.SIGNIFICANCEThe need to be aware of our environment and the responsible use of resources is an important topic now and in the future. Published in The Global Risks Report 2022, 84 % of more than 800 respondents in the Global Risks Perception Survey were either concerned or worried about the outlook for the world. This shows the interest of people to see changes in the world and in products. Product design can visualize those changes. As a result, the customer perception of sustainability is essential to communicate a future sustainable mobility through vehicle interiors.METHODSA literature review and an online survey are the used methods in this study. The literature review leads to a collection of design elements that might be perceived as sustainable. This collection includes product designs in general and especially concepts of interior design in architecture. From these results, the design elements for vehicle interiors to be tested were derived. According to Seeger (2005), the technical product design can be subdivided into four subgestalts. The subgestalts are layout, shape, color/surface and graphics. The chosen design elements are relatable to these subgestalts.The online survey has three main parts: demographic data, individual attitudes towards sustainability and a pairwise comparison of different vehicle interior design elements. The questions of the second part are based on the General Ecological Behavior Scale GEB-50 (Kaiser 2020) to determine individual environmental attitudes. Furthermore, items from the General Belief in a Just World Scale GBJW (Dealbert 2002) add the opportunity to measure the willingness to engage in prosocial actions, because the social dimension of sustainability is included in the tested design elements.With pictures of vehicle interiors a pairwise comparison shows, which design elements are associated with sustainability. Every picture shown in the third part of the questionnaire only includes a manipulation of one of the subgestalts.RESULTSThe analysis of the collected data shows which variations in design elements in the subgestalts layout, shape, color/surface and graphics are associated with sustainability in the vehicle interior. It also shows how the perception of design elements correlates with various demographic characteristics and individual attitudes toward sustainability. The results obtained can be used for the user-centered development of vehicle interiors to create a user experience associated with sustainability. A following study can develop a guideline for sustainable vehicle interior design based on the generated results. To evaluate other design variations more surveys are conceivable with a similar structured questionnaire only changing the pictures in the third part.
Julia Gritzbach, Franziska Kern, Philipp Pomiersky, Wolfram Remlinger, Thomas Maier
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Optimisation Approach for the Convergence Process of Design and Technology in Automotive Development
Technical product development (PD) is becoming increasingly complex. New adaptations have to be carried out constantly in order to meet the process-related, but also product-related challenges. In order to be able to effectively optimize a development process, a precise understanding of the process, i.e. on the process steps and correlations, is necessary. The fundamental decisions during automotive development are made in the early phase as part of the Design-Technology Convergence process (DTC). For this reason, the convergence process is of great importance for automotive development and yet there is very little valid knowledge about it. In addition to the ambiguity of the cause-effect relationships in this phase, no specific approaches exist to initiate necessary changes in a holistic way, taking into account the prevailing characteristics in this important phase, in order to make PD fit for the current challenges. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to elaborate approaches for optimizing PD in the early phase, especially DTC from everyday practical experiences.A systematic literature review was used to identify the basic needs and current approaches for optimizing development processes. Since no approaches exist for DTC, we have conducted expert workshops specifically on this topic area. The experts were professionals from the automotive industry who contributed their experience of daily work in DTC in order to ultimately derive optimization potential. Based on these results, various approaches were formulated that can be used to address the current challenges facing PD.Through the interviews, it was possible to create an up-to-date depiction of the practice in the early phases of automotive development. In particular, this describes the current challenges that need to be taken into account in these crucial phases. These challenges include the current trend toward sustainable PD, as well as the general shortening of development times and better integration of interdisciplinary development teams. Furthermore, potential were also mentioned as to how the convergence process can be made fit to master these challenges. With the help of the results, four approaches were derived that can be used to raise the potential. These approaches can be divided into a method-based, process-based, tools-based and skills-based approach. These different approaches can be used to address the current challenges in a targeted manner. On main focus is on supporting specific collaboration between designers and engineers, as this is seen as a core factor for success in DTC.Based on our investigations, we were able to generate a valid image of real-life practice in the early phases of the automotive development process. On the basis of this image, we identified both the current challenges as well as the potential that ultimately describe the need for optimization of the DTC. Thus, on the other hand, specific approaches could be derived as to how an optimization of the DTC can be accomplished so that the identified potential can be effectively raised. Furthermore, the results also serve as requirements for the targeted implementation of changes in the DTC. Ultimately, the combined application of the various approaches results in a holistic strategy for the implementation of optimizations in the early phases of PD in the automotive industry. This will be further elaborated and evaluated in subsequent studies.
Florian Reichelt, Daniel Holder, Thomas Maier
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Emerging materials fostering interdisciplinary collaboration in Materials Design
Materials Design is a recognized emerging and growing area in design practice and research that converges different fields and approaches to addressing a holistic perspective of materials in and for design. Therefore, it incorporates knowledge from various disciplines, like engineering and science. Direct interdisciplinary collaboration between engineers, scientists, artists and designers can benefit projects whose purpose is to bring innovation regarding materials and design. We assume this interdisciplinarity is a crucial practice for developing the emerging field of Materials Design with a sustainable and circular perspective. This article conveys the findings of an empirical collection of case studies on emerging materials and product design. The results demonstrate the sustainability and circularity orientations they present and different disciplinary cooperation to generate innovative outcomes. The authors examined ten European enterprises that present products driven by emerging materials from alternative sources to support the statement. The paper identifies and reflects on the importance and value of collaboration. It aims to disseminate knowledge about the field of Materials Design and intends to highlight that interdisciplinary collaboration in this area can be favourable for achieving a sustainable paradigm and more responsible production and consumption patterns.
Sofia Soledad Duarte Poblete, Laura Anselmi, Valentina Rognoli
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Design and interdisciplinarity for sustainable and innovative valorization of agro-industrial waste and residues
The paper aims to deepen the debate regarding the design discipline in relation to science, especially focusing on the possible outcomes generated by a concerted action between design and science in addressing the urgent environmental issues.In the research context, interdisciplinarity encourages new results and synergies through the exchange of knowledge and the construction of new paths, also promoting the adoption of different perspectives other than established research perspectives and paradigms. It brings together different scientific approaches, skills, methods and expertise to deal with complexity, to master technical challenges and to carry out research with different complexity levels. Although design is intrinsically interdisciplinary, nowadays the figure of the designer is changing, moving from the role of central planner to that of a participant in the design of complex systems. The boundaries of design as a discipline tend to blur more and more, with designers markedly approaching and operating at the intersection of other disciplines, researching, and even experimenting on matter first hand in their works.However, although there is a lot of data and insights on collaborative research programs, there is a lack of empirical evidence on how to best implement interdisciplinarity, on the added value it produces and on how to overcome narrow disciplinary restrictions.The difference between design and scientific research processes is well-established in design literature, it contrasts design and science on the basis that science is concerned with understanding real needs generally describing the nature course, and design is about using possibilities to create new particular conditions (e.g. a new product).These considerations lead to a critical reflection: if the scientific future occurs out of legitimate necessity, then how does the role of the designer take shape in this scenario, beyond the more recognized contribution of design to scientific research such as constructing models of representation and simulation, designing artifacts for testing and experimentation, ideating scenarios, visualizing scientific ideas and helping to disseminate scientific knowledge? The design can actively join scientific research by bringing new inputs, finding new applications for scientific research outcomes, providing means of experimentation and reflection, challenging scientists’ perceptions and encouraging the pursuit of new research directions. The topic of the sustainable valorisation of agro-industrial waste and by-products – which counts numerous examples in literature- is presented as a case study of virtuous collaboration between design and science. The agro-industrial sector represents a driving force in the global economy however, it is accompanied by remarkable amounts of residues and waste generated by agronomic practices and industrial manufacturing which, according to sustainability and circularity principles, can be transformed into valuable resources through systemic approaches. In particular, the opportunities generated by the collaboration between chemists and designers for the extraction of bioactive compounds from biomasses of the wine and edible flowers production chain are discussed, through the adoption of sustainability and circularity principles through the entire process, as well as a further critical thinking about the recovery of the organic matrix waste generated in laboratory, wherever possible, to solicit design applications.
Barbara Pizzicato, Elena Cioffi, Severina Pacifico, Mario Buono
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To Mandate or Not To Mandate: Internships in Industrial Design Education
Internships are widely valued with students, educators, and professionals believing they support student success and improve readiness for entry into the profession. Students who participate in an internship related to their profession are more likely to find employment in their field. (Binder, Bagueley, Crook, and Miller, 2014). However, it is unknown how a mandated internship experience in industrial design education impacts student experiences, the rate of participation, and the perceived quality of the internship. Through internships, students are immersed in work culture, processes, and a variety of industrial design settings while also gaining a highly valued line on their resume. While their academic coursework focuses on learning core skill sets and theory, soft skills, professional expectations, and understanding of the realities of the field are often learned through an internship. Some postsecondary institutions have created a mandate for participating in at least one internship prior to graduation, yet little is known about the impact of a required internship in comparison to programs that prioritize internships but do not have a mandatory internship requirement for graduation. This study of two 4-year comprehensive universities in our country aims to assess various considerations around internships, including obstacles to participation, the impact of a mandate on when students participate in their internships, and how students obtained their internships. The study also investigates the legitimacy and quality of internships, and if demographics such as gender or race are a factor in participation. This study employed quantitative methods for data collection and analysis. A survey was administered at two separate 4-year industrial design programs in our country and included current 3rd year, 4th year, and graduated students from the prior year. The sample for the survey included (n=78) students, (n=43) from a program with a mandated internship program, and (n=35) from a program with no internship mandate. This study also included semi-structured interviews of 8 students, 4 from each institution to understand application rates, internship experiences, hiring process, and perception of value for their education and for their preparation for employment. This initial investigation is a model for further investigations involving a broader range of institutions and internship experiences.
Betsy Barnhart, Carly Hagins, Katherine Tierney
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Anticipate, Embrace, and Leverage Ambiguity
In his seminal book, Conceptual Blockbusting, James L. Adams states that an emotional block to creativity is the “inability to tolerate ambiguity . . . an overriding desire for order; and having no appetite for chaos.” Tolerance for ambiguity can be defined as the degree to which an individual is comfortable with uncertainty, unpredictability, conflicting directions, and multiple demands. Industrial designers work in ambiguous environments. Unfortunately, modern organizations are ordered around the principle of doing things that are efficient, repeatable, and reliable...the fundamental problem with trying to be creative is that it’s none of those things. Higher education is a modern organization that does not encourage students to develop a tolerance for ambiguity but strives to eliminate ambiguity from their educational experience. How one deals with uncertainty and the stress of an ambiguous situation is an important consideration in the life, education, and professional practice of industrial designers. An industrial design student with a low tolerance for ambiguity, who is seeking opportunities in the professional world, is bound to feel stress, anxiety, and frustration. This paper defines tolerance for ambiguity to create awareness of its influence on the success of students who are studying industrial design. Recognizing and developing opportunities for students to experience and practice ambiguous situations is important to student’s success as they move from the educational experience into professional life.
Paul Skaggs
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Conference Proceedings
Synthesizing Humans with the Planet: Regenerative Agriculture and its relevance and application to Industrial Design
Humans came from the earth and we have the ability to enhance or destroy its ecological processes. For approximately 10,000 years we have, in general, found ways to exploit the earth’s bounty while leaving degraded eco-systems. Sustainability, arguably, is about learning how to realign and co-create with the earth and its regenerative processes. Regenerative Agriculture is a pioneering example of this potential, learning from both traditional practices and ecological science. This paper/presentation introduces and explains concepts around Regenerative Agriculture (RA) and how it can be applied to the production of renewable materials for physical products. Products employing these materials can help humans synthesize with the planet and its productive processes while healing it and fulfilling human needs. It will explain RA’s principles, parameters, types, processes & applications and what materials are being produced currently that designers can integrate into their products to solve the Ecological Crisis. RA is pioneering new ways that humans can enhance the planet. A foundation for understanding RA, is how farmers are applying these processes for efficiency to ensure its success at providing both ecological services and low cost production of materials. This is critical for the success of Circular or Mutualistic Design when it comes to renewable materials. It will also explore how RA can play a significant role in reversing climate change, as these practices were identified as some of the lowest hanging fruit to decarbonize the atmosphere to pre-industrial levels in one generation as identified by Drawdown.org. Thus, integration of these materials into mass produced products can, if applied appropriately, accelerate climate decarbonization. This is a pioneering field that holds promise both ecologically and economically. It is estimated to be a $700 Billion industry in the coming decades. This paper/presentation will also identify products pioneering regenerative materials. Lastly, it will introduce several Regenerative Verification Programs, one that the Author co-created, that exist to help designers make wise choices in specifying materials that are contributing to Mutalistic future.
Braden Trauth
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Industrial Design Guidelines for Robot Acceptance: The Role of Morphological Elements of Mobile Service Robots in a Restaurant Environment
With the advancement of technology, robots are increasingly being utilized in the service industry. While researchers have argued that human-like robots are more acceptable in a service context, they can also cause more discomfort than robots with a functional appearance. Although it has been studied that a robot’s appearance affects how people perceive its capabilities, there is a lack of detailed explanations on which design elements influence human perception and acceptance of robots, and how. This study hypothesizes that robots with a functional appearance can be more accepted by introducing certain lifelike features from anthropomorphic robots. This study aims to identify the design elements and their relationships to perceived attributes of mobile service robots in service environments. After examining the relationship between robot morphology and human perception, three robot attributes are defined: perceived characteristics, capabilities, and warmth. Three design elements of form, color, and interface are then extracted from prior studies that form the perceived attributes. A case study of two robots was conducted, one with a lifelike appearance and the other with a functional one. Finally, design guidelines are proposed based on these design elements to assist industrial designers in creating more acceptable designs for mobile service robots.
Domagoj Bui, Yong-Gyun Ghim
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Relation between the reality of digital and texture information using Onomatopoeia
In recent years, virtual spaces and metaverse using VR technology have been attracting attention from web and application infrastructure services, and it has become commonplace to represent real information in the digital world. The spread of multiple devices has made it possible for anyone to browse and collect information on the web. Against this background, many businesses are accelerating the shift to e-commerce, meaning information on the texture of objects must be read digitally, creating a gap between the impression of the web and reality. Therefore, information that is difficult to read from such visual information is increasingly supplemented by elements such as language, motion, and sound. Among these, a verbal presentation can accurately convey ambiguous information, and among the verbal elements, onomatopoeia can be used to express detailed information as well as impressions based on sensitivity. In a previous study, it was found that onomatopoeic impressions have an intimate relationship with texture information through a system that can quantitatively capture onomatopoeic impressions. With the proliferation of e-commerce, the use of onomatopoeia is considered effective in narrowing the gap between digital images and impressions.This study clarifies the extent to which users can capture texture impressions from images and how the presentation of onomatopoeia affects texture impressions.In this experiment, 12 samples were displayed on the PC screen and evaluated in six categories (slippery/sticky, flat/uneven, smooth/rough, soft/hard, warm/cold, and moist/dry). The evaluation was performed using the SD method. In addition, we presented the appropriate onomatopoeia for each sample and conducted the same evaluation to clarify how the impression changed with and without onomatopoeia. The results indicated that the impression was positive for all samples, with significant results for four samples (slippery, soft, sticky, and uneven). In particular, the impression was reversed for all samples except for the slippery sample, indicating that onomatopoeia had a significant effect on the impression of the object. These results suggest that the respondents had little experience with objects and could not narrow down their impressions to a single texture image; their impressions were low without onomatopoeia, and the presentation of onomatopoeia enhanced the texture image. In addition, there were six samples with high impressions (smooth, flat, warm, rough, hard, and dry) even without the presentation of onomatopoeia. The tendency for high impressions is thought to be that the respondents can read the mono impression from the image and imagine the tactile texture from the visual information because it is difficult to cause a shift in recognition.In conclusion, the presentation of onomatopoeia is effective when the texture of an object can be read as multiple impressions, and it was found to have a positive effect on the impression of the object. Therefore, we believe that ambiguous texture impressions can be expressed and the gap between reality and onomatopoeia can be narrowed by presenting linguistic information.
Wonseok Yang, Misato Akiba
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Conference Proceedings
Designing Mobile Service Robots: Roles of the Visual Interface and Manipulators for Human Perception
The increasing use of mobile service robots in public spaces has led to more frequent encounters and interactions between humans and robots. However, our understanding of how people would perceive and react to these autonomously moving robots in real-world situations is still limited. Previous research suggests an optimal degree of human-likeness for anthropomorphic robots, but it remains unclear what level of anthropomorphism makes a robot most acceptable in a specific use context and how designers can achieve it. This study investigates the effect of a mobile service robot’s visual interface and manipulators on its morphology, human-likeness, and human perception. A conceptual framework is developed from literature to define the design elements that comprise robot morphology and their effects on human-likeness and human perception. The framework is then tested through an online survey using four design variations of a mobile service robot. The study finds that a robot’s visual interface and manipulators increase its human-likeness and enhance understanding of its intended function. However, no clear correlation is found between human-likeness and perceived capabilities in this study’s use context.
Yong-Gyun Ghim
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings