Scaffolds for design communication: Research through design of shared understanding in design meetings

Author(s):  
Jelle van Dijk ◽  
Remko van der Lugt

AbstractIn this paper we explore the influence of the physical and social environment (the design space) son the formation of shared understanding in multidisciplinary design teams. We concentrate on the creative design meeting as a microenvironment for studying processes of design communication. Our applied research context entails the design of mixed physical–digital interactive systems supporting design meetings. Informed by theories of embodiment that have recently gained interest in cognitive science, we focus on the role of interactive “traces,” representational artifacts both created and used by participants as scaffolds for creating shared understanding. Our research through design approach resulted in two prototypes that form two concrete proposals of how the environment may scaffold shared understanding in design meetings. In several user studies we observed users working with our systems in natural contexts. Our analysis reveals how an ensemble of ongoing social as well as physical interactions, scaffolded by the interactive environment, grounds the formation of shared understanding in teams. We discuss implications for designing collaborative tools and for design communication theory in general.

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Marisela Gutierrez Lopez ◽  
Kris Luyten ◽  
Davy Vanacken ◽  
Karin Coninx

Design artefacts are vital to communicate design outcomes, both in remote and co-located settings. However, it is unclear how artefacts are used to mediate interactions between designers and stakeholders of the design process. The purpose of this paper is exploring how professional design teams use artefacts to guide and capture discussions involving multidisciplinary stakeholders while they work in a co-located setting. An earlier draft of this paper was paper published in the Proceedings of the European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics (ECCE 2017). This work adds substantial clarification of the methodology followed, further details and photographs of the case studies, and an extended discussion about our findings and their relevance for designing interactive systems. We report the observations of six design meetings in three different projects, involving professional design teams that follow a user-centered design approach. Meetings with stakeholders are instrumental for design projects. However, design teams face the challenge of synthesizing large amounts of information, often in a limited time, and with minimal common ground between meeting attendees. We found that all the observed design meetings had a similar structure consisting of a series of particular phases, in which design activities were organized around artefacts. These artefacts were used as input to disseminate and gather feedback of previous design outcomes, or as output to collect and process a variety of perspectives. We discuss the challenges faced by design teams during design meetings, and propose three design directions for interactive systems to coordinate design meetings revolving around artefacts.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bettina Nissen ◽  
Ella Tallyn ◽  
Kate Symons

Abstract New digital technologies such as Blockchain and smart contracting are rapidly changing the face of value exchange, and present new opportunities and challenges for designers. Designers and data specialists are at the forefront of exploring new ways of exchanging value, using Blockchain, cryptocurrencies, smart contracting and the direct exchanges between things made possible by the Internet of Things (Tallyn et al. 2018; Pschetz et al. 2019). For researchers and designers in areas of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Interaction Design to better understand and explore the implications of these emerging and future technologies as Distributed Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) we delivered a workshop at the ACM conference Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) in Edinburgh in 2017 (Nissen et al. 2017). The workshop aimed to use the lens of DAOs to introduce the principle that products and services may soon be owned and managed collectively and not by one person or authority, thus challenging traditional concepts of ownership and power. This workshop builds on established HCI research exploring the role of technology in financial interactions and designing for the rapidly changing world of technology and value exchange (Kaye et al. 2014; Malmborg et al. 2015; Millen et al. 2015; Vines et al. 2014). Beyond this, the HCI community has started to explore these technologies beyond issues of finance, money and collaborative practice, focusing on the implications of these emerging but rapidly ascending distributed systems in more applied contexts (Elsden et al. 2018a). By bringing together designers and researchers with different experiences and knowledge of distributed systems, the aim of this workshop was two-fold. First, to further understand, develop and critique these new forms of distributed power and ownership and second, to practically explore how to design interactive products and services that enable, challenge or disrupt existing and emerging models.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiharu Uchida

Retinoblastoma protein (pRB) interacts with E2F and other protein factors to play a pivotal role in regulating the expression of target genes that induce cell cycle arrest, apoptosis, and differentiation. pRB controls the local promoter activity and has the ability to change the structure of nucleosomes and/or chromosomes via histone modification, epigenetic changes, chromatin remodeling, and chromosome organization. Functional inactivation of pRB perturbs these cellular events and causes dysregulated cell growth and chromosome instability, which are hallmarks of cancer cells. The role of pRB in regulation of nucleosome/chromatin structures has been shown to link to tumor suppression. This review focuses on the ability of pRB to control nucleosome/chromatin structures via physical interactions with histone modifiers and chromatin factors and describes cancer therapies based on targeting these protein factors.


Author(s):  
Michael D Harrison ◽  
Paolo Masci ◽  
José Creissac Campos

Abstract This paper explores the role of formal methods as part of the user-centred design of interactive systems. An iterative process is described, developing prototypes incrementally, proving user-centred requirements while at the same time evaluating the prototypes that are executable forms of the developed models using ‘traditional’ techniques for user evaluation. A formal analysis complements user evaluations. This approach enriches user-centred design that typically focuses understanding on context and producing sketch designs. These sketches are often non-functional (e.g. paper) prototypes. They provide a means of exploring candidate design possibilities using techniques such as cooperative evaluation. This paper describes a further step in the process using formal analysis techniques. The use of formal methods provides a systematic approach to checking plausibility and consistency during early design stages, while at the same time enabling the generation of executable prototypes. The technique is illustrated through an example based on a pill dispenser.


Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 422
Author(s):  
Niv Zmora ◽  
Eran Elinav

The soar in COVID-19 cases around the globe has forced many to adapt to social distancing and self-isolation. In order to reduce contact with healthcare facilities and other patients, the CDC has advocated the use of telemedicine, i.e., electronic information and telecommunication technology. While these changes may disrupt normal behaviors and routines and induce anxiety, resulting in decreased vigilance to healthy diet and physical activity and reluctance to seek medical attention, they may just as well be circumvented using modern technology. Indeed, as the beginning of the pandemic a plethora of alternatives to conventional physical interactions were introduced. In this Perspective, we portray the role of SmartPhone applications (apps) in monitoring healthy nutrition, from their basic functionality as food diaries required for simple decision-making and nutritional interventions, through more advanced purposes, such as multi-dimensional data-mining and development of machine learning algorithms. Finally, we will delineate the emerging field of personalized nutrition and introduce pioneering technologies and concepts yet to be incorporated in SmartPhone-based dietary surveillance.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dhananjay Tripathi

[Full article is in English]English: This article analyzes the role of school education as a medium for indoctrinating young minds through school textbooks within the framework of India–Pakistan relations. This fact is more pronounced in Pakistan, but even in the case of India, eff orts are not undertaken to objectively teach subjects in a way that helps sensitize students about the India–Pakistan relationship. The author argues that the young generations in India and Pakistan largely lack a shared understanding until they undergo a process of de-learning and re-learning. Hence, the borders between India and Pakistan remained intact and militarized but defi nite types of borders are also created in young minds. Unless the psychological borders melt, it is diffi cult to imagine a porous physical border between India and Pakistan. This article att empts to understand how pedagogically the image of an enemy is created in young minds serving the purpose of the state.Spanish: Este artículo analiza el papel de la educación escolar como un medio para adoctrinar mentes jóvenes a través de libros de texto en el marco de las relaciones India–Pakistán. Esta situación es más pronunciada en Pakistán, pero incluso en la India, no se llevan a cabo esfuerzos para enseñar objetivamente temas que apoyen la sensibilización de los estudiantes sobre la relación India–Pakistán. El autor argumenta que jóvenes generaciones en India y Pakistán comparten la falta de un conocimiento compartido hasta que pasen por un proceso de des-aprendizaje y re-aprendizaje. En consecuencia, las fronteras entre India y Pakistán permanecen intactas y militarizadas, pero también otros tipos de definición de fronteras son creados en las mentes jóvenes. A menos que las fronteras psicológicas se derritan, es difícil imaginar una frontera física porosa entre la India y Pakistán. Este artículo busca entender cómo la imagen del enemigo es pedagógicamente creada en las mentes jóvenes sirviendo el propósito del Estado. Los casos de los libros de texto en India y Pakistán son presentados para comprender los diferentes tipos de fronteras prevalecientes en el sur de Asia.French: Cet article analyse le rôle de l’éducation scolaire comme un moyen d’endoctrinement de jeunes esprits à travers les livres scolaires dans le contexte des relations entre l’Inde et le Pakistan. Cette situation est particulièrement marquée au Pakistan mais y compris en Inde, aucun effort n’est mené pour enseigner objectivement des thèmes qui sensibilisent les élèves sur les relations Inde-Pakistan. L’auteur argumente que les jeunes générations indiennes et pakistanaises manquent de connaissances partagées jusqu’à ce qu’elles transitent par un processus de désapprentissage et de ré-apprentissage. En conséquence, les frontières entre l’Inde et le Pakistan continuent à être intactes et militarisées et d’autres types de frontières claires son créées dans les esprits de la jeunesse. À moins que les frontières psychologiques ne disparaissent, il reste difficile d’imaginer une frontière physique poreuse entre l’Inde et le Pakistan. Cet article cherche à comprendre comment l’image de l’ennemi est créée pédagogiquement dans les jeunes esprits et sert les intérêts de l’Etat.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hendrik Engelbrecht ◽  
Nynke van der Laan ◽  
Renske van Enschot ◽  
Emiel Krahmer

BACKGROUND Serious games for the training of prevention behaviors have been widely recognized as a potentially valuable tool for adolescents and young adults across a variety of risk behaviors. However, the role of agency, as a distinguishing factor from traditional health interventions, has seldomly been isolated and grounded in persuasive health communication theory. Fear appeals have different effects on intentions to perform a prevention behavior depending on the immediacy of the consequences. Looking into how to increase self-efficacy beliefs for health behavior with distant consequences is a first step to improving game-based interventions for adverse health outcomes. OBJECTIVE The current study investigated the effect of agency on self-efficacy and intention to drink less alcohol in an interactive digital narrative fear appeal. Further, the communicated immediacy of threat outcomes was evaluated as a potential moderator of the effect of agency on self-efficacy. METHODS An experimental study was conducted among university students (N=178). Participants were presented with a fear appeal outlining the consequences of alcohol abuse in an interactive narrative format. Participants either had perceived control over the outcome of the narrative scenario (high-agency) or no control over the outcome (low-agency). The threat was either framed as a short-term or long-term negative health outcome resulting from the execution of the risk behavior (drinking too much alcohol). RESULTS Self-efficacy and intention to limit alcohol intake were not influenced by the agency manipulation. Self-efficacy was shown to be a significant predictor of behavioral intention. Immediacy of the threat did not moderate the relationship between agency and self-efficacy. CONCLUSIONS Although the agency manipulation was successful, we could not find evidence for an effect of agency or threat immediacy on self-efficacy. The implications for different operationalizations of different agency concepts is discussed, as well as the malleability of self-efficacy beliefs for long-term threats. The usage of repeated, versus single, interventions and different threat types (e.g., health and social threats) should be tested empirically to establish a way forward for diversifying intervention approaches.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Bigi

Purpose Within the context of a research program on the most relevant discourse types in chronic care medical encounters, this contribution reports on a qualitative study on the role caregivers play within the process of shared understanding occurring between health-care professionals and elderly patients. The purpose of the paper is to highlight one dimension of such complexity, by bringing to light the challenges connected to the achievement of shared understanding between health-care professionals and elderly patients when caregivers are involved in the conversation. Design/methodology/approach The paper reports on a two-step analysis of a corpus of transcripts of interactions in diabetes and hypertension settings. In the first step, caregivers’ contributions to deliberative sequences have been analyzed. In the second step, the analysis was extended to caregivers’ contributions to the whole encounter. Findings The results show that professionals’ ability to engage caregivers in deliberations during the encounter and, more generally, to assign a role to caregivers as legitimate participants in the consultation may favor the smooth development of the interaction and an effective process of shared understanding among all participants. Originality/value The paper further develops original research about the functions of the argumentative component in dialogues occurring in clinical settings.


Author(s):  
Mikael Wiberg

Interactive architecture bridges in itself two design traditions, i.e. design of interactive systems on the one hand, and architecture as the tradition of designing our built environment on the other hand. This article reports from our ongoing project focused on the design and implementation of an interactive environment for public use. The article describes the project, reviews and outlines the main design challenges as pinpointed in the literature on interactive architecture, and describes the practical challenges identified in this particular project. This article then presents the participatory design approach adopted in this project to overcome these challenges, and describes and analysis the methodological implications from this project. These implications include the lessons learned from the coordination of a geographically distributed design team, “role gliding” as the reinterpretation of the designers as users in the participatory design process, and a shift from communities of practices to mixtures of professions.


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