Iterative Design and Evaluation of New Rigid & Folding Commode-Shower Wheelchairs, a Case Study in Design Research

Author(s):  
Pascal Malassigné ◽  
Audrey L. Nelson ◽  
Robert P Jensen ◽  
Thomas L. Amerson ◽  
Leah P. Rathvon
Author(s):  
Melanie SARANTOU ◽  
Satu MIETTINEN

This paper addresses the fields of social and service design in development contexts, practice-based and constructive design research. A framework for social design for services will be explored through the survey of existing literature, specifically by drawing on eight doctoral theses that were produced by the World Design research group. The work of World Design researcher-designers was guided by a strong ethos of social and service design for development in marginalised communities. The paper also draws on a case study in Namibia and South Africa titled ‘My Dream World’. This case study presents a good example of how the social design for services framework functions in practice during experimentation and research in the field. The social design for services framework transfers the World Design group’s research results into practical action, providing a tool for the facilitation of design and research processes for sustainable development in marginal contexts.


Author(s):  
Pam Savage ◽  
Susan Pearsall
Keyword(s):  

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Soo Hyeon Kim ◽  
Heather Toomey Zimmerman

Purpose This paper aims to investigate how families’ sociomaterial experiences in engineering programs held in libraries and a museum influence their creative engineering practices and the creativity expressed in their products derived from their inquiry-driven engineering activities. Design/methodology/approach This research project takes a naturalistic inquiry using qualitative and quantitative analyses based on video records from activities of 31 parent–child pairs and on creativity assessment of products that used littleBits as prototyping tools. Findings Families engaged in two sociomaterial experiences related to engineering – collaborative idea exchange and ongoing generative tinkering with materials – which supported the emergence of novel ideas and feasible solutions during the informal engineering programs. Families in the high novelty score group experienced multiple instances of collaborative idea exchange and ongoing generative tinkering with materials, co-constructed through parent-child collaboration, that were expansive toward further idea and solution generation. Families in the low novelty score group experienced brief collaborative idea exchange and material tinkering with specific idea suggestions and high involvement from the parent. An in-depth case study of one family further illustrated that equal engagement by the parent and child as they tinkered with the technology supported families’ creative engineering practices. Originality/value This analysis adds to the information sciences and learning sciences literatures with an account that integrates methodologies from sociocultural and engineering design research to understand the relationship between families’ engagement in creative engineering practices and their products. Implications for practitioners include suggestions for designing spaces to support families’ collaborative idea exchange and ongoing generative tinkering to facilitate the development of creative engineering practices during short-term engineering programs.


Author(s):  
Mohit Arora ◽  
Felix Raspall ◽  
Arlindo Silva

Cities have been the focus of recent sustainability and climate change mitigation efforts primarily because of unprecedented urban growth and ever-increasing resources consumption. A worrying trend has been the ever-decreasing life of buildings in cities because of premature building obsolescence. Premature building obsolescence has been cited as the major driver of demolition waste which accounts for more than 40% of total waste generated annually. This waste stream poses a bigger challenge as the pressure on natural resources increases with urban growth. A traditional way of looking at the urban sustainability has been from the perspective of the environmental sciences and waste management methods. Analyzing urban areas with design science perspectives could provide novel insights to improve existing resource consumption patterns and transform sustainability growth in cities. This study focuses on the problem of demolition waste arising from the premature building obsolescence in cities. It applies a design research methodology framework for identifying existing problems associated with demolition waste and generating strategies to transform cities into more sustainable urban systems. In the problem clarification phase, a detailed literature review was supported with stakeholder’s interviews to identify the state-of-art for building demolition process and demolition waste. Research was further extended to descriptive study-I phase to carry out a demolition case study and generate support tools to enable transformation in the existing scenario for achieving a desired state. Singapore, a dense city state of South-East Asia has been taken as a case study in this research. Results show that applying design research methods could help open-up a new dimension to solve urban sustainability challenge for built environment. It highlights that material reuse could lead to significant improvement in the built environment sustainability but the challenge associated with realization of material reuse practice needs to be addressed. Descriptive study-I concludes with the strategies on creating a reuse market through entrepreneurial innovation and an alternative material supply chain of secondary materials for regional housing demand. These results highlight the role of design research methods for tackling complex systems level problems in cities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Luca Cardani

The architectural work of John Hejduk (1929-2000) is marked by theoretical-design research, collected in series with titles and periods. Among these series the one entitled Masques, developed since about 1979, can be considered the nucleus of his research on the architecture of the city and the place of origin of his language of construction later developed in his realized buildings. This paper analyses the dense network of references and analogies established by Hejduk to create his Masques, trying to fix its origin in the idea of the city as a theatre of characters composed of architecture. Starting from the name chosen for the title of this series, the paper tries to trace the threads that lead from the general work of the various projects of the Masques series, to the reflections and ideas that produced it. Then, it comes back again to the observation of architecture and of a case study (Security, 1989), to understand and explain its meaning and the compositional methods involved into the process of genesis of form. Through the entire work named Masques, and its recognizable link with the buildings and installation realized around the world, Hejduk has built an archive of architectural prototypes ready to construct different parts of the city, thus highlighting the strong connection that his work establishes with reality in order "to conceive it, represent it and finally realize it".


Author(s):  
Lidia Errante ◽  
Alberto De Capua

This contribution presents the meta-design research scenario of the sustainable building redevelopment of the INA Casa “Sbarre Inferiori” district in Reggio Calabria based on a twofold reflection. On the one hand, the transformative potential, both technological and formal, of the public housing stock created under the INA Casa Plan. On the other, the extension of the life cycle of the buildings and the improvement of the spatial quality of the housing according to a circular, low-tech and ecological approach. The result is an abacus of technological additions in bio-xlam conceived according to the principles of Design for Disassembly, which allows the reuse of the modules in new spatial and functional configurations, and the remanufacturing and recycling of the elements at the end of their life.


Author(s):  
Pirita Ihamäki ◽  
Mika Luimula

Geocaching is a multiplayer outdoor sports game. There is a lack of extensive research on this game, and there is a need for more academic research on this game and its application to other contexts worldwide. There are about 5 million people participating in the geocaching game in 220 different countries worldwide. The geocaching game is interesting because the players create it. The players’ role in game design increases its value in human-centred design research. Digital games are a prevalent form of entertainment in which the purpose of the design is to engage the players. This case study was carried out with 52 Finnish geocachers as an Internet survey. The purpose of this conceptual analysis is to investigate how the geocaching sports game might inform game design by looking at player experiences, devices, and techniques that support problem solving within complex environments. Specifically, this analysis presents a brief overview of the geocaching sports game, its role in popular adventure game design, and an analysis of the underlying players’ experiences and enjoyment as a structure to be used in game design.


Author(s):  
Helena Hashemi Farzaneh ◽  
Lorenz Neuner

AbstractMuch of the work in design research focusses on the development of methods and tools to support engineering designers. Many of these tools are nowadays implemented in software. Due to the strongly growing use of computers and smart devices in the last two decades, the expectations of users increased dramatically. In particular users expect good usability, for example little effort for learning to apply the software. Therefore, the usability evaluation of design software tools is crucial. A software tool with bad usability will not be used in industrial practice. Recommendations for usability evaluation of software often stem from the field of Human Computer Interaction. The aim of this paper is to tailor these general approaches to the specific needs of engineering design. In addition, we propose a method to analyse the results of the evaluation and to derive suggestions for improving the design software tool. We apply the usability evaluation method on a use case - the KoMBi software tool for bio-inspired design. The case study provides additional insights with regards to problem, causes and improvement categories.


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