Design Brief Research Articles

AI assistance in enterprise UX design workflows: enhancing design brief creation for designers

The study explores the impact of AI tools on the daily tasks of designers in corporate environments, with a focus on the creation and evaluation processes of design briefs. Given ChatGPT’s advanced natural language processing capabilities and its potential to meet the complex communication and analysis needs of design work, this tool was selected to investigate its application in designers’ workflows. Through expert interviews, experimental testing, and third-party expert evaluations, we collected and analyzed data to understand the impact of AI on work processes. The findings indicate that AI tools significantly enhance both operational experience and subjective perceptions across most tasks. Additionally, the study provides a visual comparison of the testing process through a user experience map, highlighting AI’s positive influence on work efficiency, information retrieval, verification, analysis, communication, and decision-making. However, challenges remain in ensuring information authenticity, protecting content copyright, and maintaining professional identity. The primary objective is to gain a comprehensive understanding of the current state of AI application in business contexts and its impact on designers’ roles. By analyzing real-world feedback, the research aims to identify the strengths and weaknesses of AI solutions in enterprises and offer practical recommendations. The study underscores the importance of integrating AI thinking into workflows and adopting a human-centric approach for the future development of corporate work environments.

A shape grammar-based design for modular buildings based on the Vitruvian triad: The case of Mächtig Kiosk K67

The kiosk K67 is a known example of mass-produced modular architecture designed in the 60s. Although these modules allow many design solutions, the designer Saša Mächtig did not guide the generation of such designs so that the final composition of elements could fit a specific design purpose. This study has two aims. The first is the development of a shape grammar for the kiosk K67, which enables a deep analysis and synthesis of this paradigmatic design. The study’s second aim is to combine the kiosk K67 shape grammar with design principles to guide the generation of design solutions. To do so, the Vitruvian triad dimensions – firmitas, utilitas and venustas – are combined with the developed kiosk K67 shape grammar to generate design solutions based on specific design briefs. The study identifies how each dimension of the triad can impact architecture and then correlates these impacts with the kiosk K67 shape rules. Finally, shape grammar and design alternatives are presented. Each Vitruvian dimension is taken with different priorities in the design alternatives to test the concept. Such an approach enables us not just to analyse the design of Mächtig but also to use the developed shape grammar in a pedagogical way to explore how balancing design principles and constraints impact design outcomes.

Integration and Promotion: Integrating Sustainability Research into Computer Science Teaching through Serious Games Assignments

“Serious Games” is a final-year 20 credit point module, undertaken as the default optional module for students on Undergraduate courses entitled BSc Computing and BSc Computer Science (Games Technology) at Nottingham Trent University, UK. The module focuses on developing students’ critical evaluation skills, enhancing their ability to design and implement solutions for a real-world design brief, working with clients and making final products accessible to a broad target audience. Historically this was achieved through engagement with a single client, often via a wider research project or local educational establishment of some sort. More recently, the module has retained two client project briefs, which the students are then empowered to choose between. With each client brief the module team has sought to add extra value for the students. For the previous two academic years, the module team has partnered with Green Academy, a strategic team within the University whose priorities include stimulating pedagogical innovation and practice sharing within the area of sustainability and pioneering a shared understanding of sustainability education. The resulting partnership has introduced a brief for students which combines vital industry skills with sustainability literacy. Working with and alongside the students who are undertaking the module, the module has developed Serious Games on a diverse range of local and global sustainability issues and has exposed students to university research culture and our sustainability research specialisms. It has also necessitated that students engage with and contextualise the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the UNESCO ESD competencies which they are tasked with integrating into their design solutions. The long-term intent of this partnership is for these design decisions to be utilised in the Green Academy’s ongoing strategy to further enhance the University’s pedagogical framework and sustainability education offer, and to improve the provision of Serious Games for use by clients outside the University. This report is a synoptic overview of the module design and insights from the two-year partnership as well as how these observations have been leveraged to improve the design and delivery of the module for future clients and students.

Envisioning scenarios in designs for Networked Learning

This article presents an application of a design methodology to envision implicit value hierarchies in the design process of a digital learning platform meant to encompass learning processes and activities conducive to experiential collaborative learning (ECL). The authors argue that many technologies for the field of education fall short of their purposes and neglect intended underpinning pedagogy and didactics. Previous research efforts in networked learning have primarily focused on conceptual critiques of the implementation of EdTech and warned of technological euphoria undermining relevant caution. This means, that when a design team tries to conceptualize technological artefacts into a script the more ethical and value-oriented parts of the learning process tend to be ignored. While we agree with the conceptual critiques, our approach has instead been to engage with the design process and implement appropriate methodologies in an attempt to highlight implicit value hierarchies in the underlying learning theory. When using technologies in Networked learning we thus emphasize that both designers and stakeholders should engage in a systematic discussion and reflection of values and related judgements while constructing a value hierarchy. Through a Value-based design methodology based on semantic zooming we thus present 7 interconnected envisioning scenarios developed in the UnFoLD project to demonstrate how it is possible to operationalize values into detailed design briefs or technological scripts. This article will through presented experiences from a design process, show how the methodology of envisioning scenarios can be applied to mitigate the risks of implementation technology in a learning situation. We argue that an awareness and mapping of values as a part of the design process is essential and that an increased focus on the ethical and moral responsibilities of designers and involved researchers are important as technologies should not be seen as isolated, value-neutral, or uncomplicated translations of analogue teaching activities. The purpose of the article is to inspire other researchers and designers to implement value hierarchies, envisioning scenarios, or other similar methods to ensure that pedagogical and didactic priorities are not lost in accommodating marketability, practicalities, or technological constraints.

Evaluation of design properties of electric and combustion cars based on eye tracking

The current transition to the electric car by all users is advancing steadily, and hence the design of these products occupies a prominent place in the car design sector. Likewise, the user experience is one of the determining aspects for the choice of a model. The main objective of this work is to determine, through eye tracking, which areas of an image (in this case, images of the front of cars) are more influential in the perception of the vehicle as either electric or combustion-powered, by segmenting the most important areas of a vehicle and users’ perceptions thereof according to gender and other socio-demographic variables. This work provides an experimental design and a way to analyse and draw conclusions from an oculometry study for vehicles, as well as an initial design briefing for the generation of the visual identity of electric vehicles based on the perception of users for different elements of the vehicle. A methodology is proposed that includes the use of tools such as ANOVAs, eye-tracking, heat maps, tracking maps and fixation times. Through this data it is possible to develop optimal designs aligned with the user's perception.

Using Generative AI Midjourney to enhance divergent and convergent thinking in an architect’s creative design process

Architects use a range of tools, from the traditional pencil to Virtual Reality technologies to prototype and articulate their creative designs. In recent years, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) software has reached the mainstream and there is an exponential appearance of GenAI images that portray architectural designs. This article documents an architectural design methodology that uses Midjourney, a text-to-image GenAI software, as a design tool that enhances architects’ creativity. Prompted by a design brief, we used Midjourney to accelerate (1) the identification and refinement process of developing a prospective user and (2) the ideation process of creating different desirable spaces for the designed user.

HCI Contributions in Mental Health: A Modular Framework to Guide Psychosocial Intervention Design.

Many people prefer psychosocial interventions for mental health care or other concerns, but these interventions are often complex and unavailable in settings where people seek care. Intervention designers use technology to improve user experience or reach of interventions, and HCI researchers have made many contributions toward this goal. Both HCI and mental health researchers must navigate tensions between innovating on and adhering to the theories of change that guide intervention design. In this paper, we propose a framework that describes design briefs and evaluation approaches for HCI contributions at the scopes of capabilities, components, intervention systems, and intervention implementations. We show how theories of change (from mental health) can be translated into design briefs (in HCI), and that these translations can bridge and coordinate efforts across fields. It is our hope that this framework can support researchers in motivating, planning, conducting, and communicating work that advances psychosocial intervention design.

Absence of Structure

In mainstream design practice, the disciplines of interior design and landscape architecture most commonly come together in the context of an architectural project. In a typical project team, the two professions will not readily intersect or overlap as the architecture is always in-between, and although they may consult with each other, the two disciplines may not necessarily collaborate. Collaboration is more than simply teamwork and the necessary consultation that takes place amongst members of a project team. True collaboration between disciplines occurs when practitioners consciously step beyond their professional boundaries and engage in a new process of design that is informed by their collaborators from other professional areas. Focusing on the experiences of the interior design and landscape architecture members of two teams in a recent design competition the paper investigates what can occur when interior and landscape practitioners work together as members of multi-disciplinary team to address a series of design briefs that are not necessarily architectural, but are deliberately open, experimental and address a multitude of scales.

AI for conceptual architecture: Reflections on designing with text-to-text, text-to-image, and image-to-image generators

In this paper we present a research-through-design study where we employed text-to-text, text-to-image, and image-to-image generative tools for a conceptual architecture project for the eVolo skyscraper competition. We trained these algorithms on a dataset that we collected and curated, consisting of texts about and images of architecture. We describe our design process, present the final proposal, reflect on the usefulness of such tools for early-stage design, and discuss implications for future research and practice. By analysing the results from training the text-to-text generators we could establish a specific design brief that informed the final concept. The results from the image-to-image generator gave an overview of the shape grammars of previous submissions. All results were intriguing and can assist creativity and in this way, the tools were useful for gaining insight into historical architectural data, helped shape a specific design brief, and provoked new ideas. By reflecting on our design process, we argue that the use of language when employing such tools takes a new role and that three layers of language intertwined in our work: architectural discourse, programming languages, and annotations. We present a map that unfolds how these layers came together as a contribution to making machine learning more explainable for creatives.

Upcycling Classics—Sustainable Design Development through Fabric Manipulation Techniques in Fashion Design Education

AbstractAs the sustainable fashion movement gains momentum, there is a growing need to introduce such concepts to the next generation of fashion designer. One approach to produce sustainable designs is upcycling, defined as the salvage and reuse of discarded or found items into new products. This study examines a pedagogical approach for engaging 2nd year undergraduate textile and fashion design students in sustainable fashion design practice. Working in groups, students are challenged to upcycle old clothing into a little black dress, using a keyword as direction for concept, design development, and garment construction techniques. To elevate value in post‐consumer textile waste, it is necessary to develop high‐quality contemporary design outcomes. This teaching approach aims to encourage the revaluation of recyclable resources, the exploration of the creative potential of fabric manipulation techniques, experimental design development, and professional production techniques. This is achieved through the implementation of a design brief that establishes original approaches to upcycling, contrary to the arbitrary processes that are typically used.

The Catalogue of Soundscape Interventions (CSI) project—A tool to bridge soundscape research and practice

The Catalogue of Soundscape Interventions (CSI) project addressed the growing interest in urban soundscapes by establishing a comprehensive taxonomy for soundscape design. The project development is described, emphasizing its role in connecting soundscape research with practical applications. The proposed concepts for soundscape design interventions and other soundscape interventions are discussed, which seek to inform the creation of “soundscape design briefs.” These briefs, intended for use by local authorities, aim to enhance communication among soundscape consultants and researchers, and other relevant stakeholders. This work also presents the intersection of the CSI project with the technical specifications outlined in the ISO/AWI TS 12913-4 Acoustics Soundscape Part 4: Design and Intervention, currently in development. By aligning with emerging standards, the CSI project seeks to contribute to a unified framework for soundscape practices, and to establish a model to describe phases and necessary action points in the life cycle of a soundscape design intervention.

Sustainability-oriented stimuli and their effects on circularity and novelty in conceptual design

ABSTRACT The controlled provision of stimuli during idea generation is considered effective to boost creativity in early design phases. As the interest for sustainable product development and circular design is growing, this paper represents a first attempt to explore the use of inspiration sources in sustainable design. The provision of stimuli ascribable to sustainability and the introduction of environmental objectives in design briefs were supposed to increase novelty and compliance with Circular Economy principles in generated ideas. A design experiment involving 34 junior designers was set up to the scope; the participants’ individual creativity was assessed too. The outcomes reveal that the sustainability clues present in stimuli and design briefs failed to increase the circularity and novelty of the generated ideas; the same applies to the combination of novelty and creativity. A role is seemingly played by individual creativity, although no significant effects could be demonstrated statistically. A possible reason for these results could be the spontaneous orientation of the youth toward sustainable principles, which makes the inclusion of environment-related hints unnecessary. While creative and sustainable design have not found a shared strategy despite the expected benefits, the use of stimuli was unsuccessful in this research to find a common ground.

Doing Good Business? Design Leaders' Perspectives on Ethics in Design

Design is not neutral but involves ethical aspects, from addressing power dynamics to enabling broader accessibility and inclusion. In industry settings, design leaders can play an essential role in promoting ethical design by, for instance, setting visions, developing and advocating values, and providing guidance for design. Through co-design workshops with ten design leaders working in Sweden, we investigated how these professionals envision the cultivation-that is, the development, promotion, and dissemination-of ethically responsible design. Our study outlines what the participants regard as the main problems that stifle ethical design and designing, and how to practically address them. The findings highlight that design leaders consider the lack of awareness about the ethical dimensions of design to be one of the main problems. Additionally, they point to various strategies for addressing the problems, such as communicating compelling reasons for prioritizing ethics, creating inclusive and welcoming spaces for collaborative problem-solving and learning about ethics, and folding ethics into current practices. This could involve, for instance, adding the dimension of ethics to 'design critique' sessions, or re-evaluating portfolio reviews to prioritize diversity in recruitment. We conclude by discussing design leaders' potential for furthering ethically responsible design, and provide a practical tool, a design brief, to support this endeavor.

Specialized Urban Planning Chatbot: A Participatory Approach for Evaluating Efficiency

This research investigates the use of a specialized Chatbot tool in the field of urban planning as a participatory approach and how efficient it is in handling concerns related to this domain. This specialized urban Chabot was prepared during an exhibition at the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka in 2023. We argue that specialized chat-bots, which are trained on a dataset including text and code, exclusively involved in urban planning, have the potential to offer more pertinent and useful insights and suggestions compared to conventional chat-bots. It is also suggested that a transition from standard Chatbots to specialized urban Chatbots is essential because AI (Artificial Intelligence) Chatbots possess the capability to comprehend and address a broader spectrum of inquiries and prompts while also exhibiting the capacity to acquire knowledge and adjust their responses over time. Accordingly, we developed a special urban planning Chatbot and tested the results with the general public from different fields. The findings of our study indicate that almost 65% of the total respondents have emphasized the suitability of this application for planning purposes and its importance in the future. The majority of respondents also highlighted the use of specialized Chatbots, designed for urban planning would be beneficial for city planners. Citizens may use them as a means to collect input, suggest prospective solutions to urban planning challenges, and formulate design briefs for upcoming urban development initiatives. The use of Chatbots in the field of urban planning displays considerable potential for study, and we anticipate that our findings will catalyze further advancements in this domain.

Discovering and Mapping Aspects of Spatial Publicness

The value of public spaces and their social function in cities has been the source of numerous writings. The questions posed in our undergraduate architecture studio at the University of Cyprus are: “What core design aspects create successful public places, and how do they constitute conscious design processes?” and “What are core values that create successful public places and how are they consciously integrated in a design process?”. This paper will attempt to address the topic of spatial publicness within a framework of translating observations of the above into design strategies and tools. These aspects have formulated the basis for recent design briefs, tested within an architectural studio context from 2nd year coursework, while at the same time being translated into transferable values, such as diagnostic and synthetic tools, appropriate for an undergraduate architectural studio. They formulate the basis of an ongoing research project tested within the studio context and utilizing case studies from the output of students’ work to draw conclusions that guide the pedagogical approach.

The aesthetics of more-than-human design: speculative energy briefs for the Chthulucene

ABSTRACT This paper is a theoretical contribution to HCI that considers the more-than-human (MTH) as an intrinsic part of human–computer interaction design. In particular, it focuses on MTH as central to responses to the climate crisis as manifested in energy-demand reduction and smart meters. This is explored by expanding on the notion of the ‘design event’, defined aesthetically as the patterns or conformation of unfolding and becoming of heterogenous human and non-human elements. It is with this version of the design event that the MTH can be more directly and effectively engaged. We do this with reference to environmental problems as signaled by Haraway’s speculative future ‘the Chthulucene’ – a worlding for liveable futures. The paper views design briefs in HCI, and design more broadly, as problematics for exploring and determining aesthetic-possible pathways for invention, which necessarily involves MTH elements. Three interrelated design briefs are presented that propose how practitioners might go about addressing energy-demand reduction and metering and provide a set of guidelines on how to devise and write speculative more-than-human briefs. This, the paper argues, involves becoming sensitive to speculative MTH compositions where novel forms of ‘sense making’ orient alternative possibilistic – idiotic – relations to energy.

Perspectives on Assessing the Flexibility of Hospitals for Crisis Mode Operations: Lessons From the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Netherlands.

The COVID-19 pandemic placed healthcare design at the heart of the crisis. Hospitals faced challenges such as rapidly increasing their intensive care unit capacity, enabling physical distancing measures, quickly converting to telehealth and telework practices, and above all, keeping patients and staff safe. Improving flexibility in hospital facility design and adaptability of hospital operations to function in "crisis mode" can be seen as ways of future-proofing for pandemics. In a design brief, flexibility is typically mentioned as an important target. Meanwhile, robustness of technical infrastructure is called for, and standardization at unit level with single-occupancy inpatient accommodation may be considered a way to enhance flexibility and adaptability in dealing with a surge in infectious patients. To future-proof facility design with pandemic preparedness and resilience in mind, this study evaluated what kinds of interventions were taken in Dutch hospital facilities and what perspectives need to be considered when hospitals operate in crisis mode. We have collected data from facility and estate professionals from 30 Dutch hospitals. Using a practice-based approach, in-depth interviewing helped uncover and compare successful operational strategies and design elements that provided the flexibility needed in the early stages of the recent crisis. As we looked at existing facilities and alterations made to allow hospitals to operate during the COVID-19 pandemic, we discovered that staff availability and adaptability were deemed crucial. We add the perspective of staff as an essential factor to be considered when future-proofing hospital facility desigr crisis mode operation.

Harmony behind bars: Unravelling the impacts of acoustic design in prisons

Design briefs for prisons often include criteria regulating noise from mechanical plant or break-in, partition performance and reverberation times. However, criteria are often taken (without modification) from non-carceral related standards used for design of residential or health-care projects. While carceral spaces are used for sleeping and health care, this paper will show the acoustic needs (and wants) of people inside prisons can be significantly different from those of people outside. This paper provides insights from the emergent field of sensory criminology into what makes the acoustic environment inside prisons different from other residential or health care contexts. It highlights the role that acoustics plays in the lived experience for the occupants, including incarcerated individuals and corrections staff. In prisons, acoustics facilitates communication and information gathering for incarcerated individuals, and corrections staff rely on auditory cues to gauge the prevailing tension, or “heat.” The intricate dynamics of prison cultures and insights from sensory criminology can readily evade the purview of acousticians. By leveraging complementary disciplines, acousticians can more effectively design acoustics which foster pro-social communication while mitigating risks associated with undesirable social dynamics. This approach ensures the acoustic design becomes well-informed and purposeful, yielding benefits for incarcerated individuals and corrections staff.

An Experimental Comparison of Analogy Representation Effects on Creative Outcomes

ABSTRACTThis study delved into the structuring of design briefs and investigated the impact of employing visual analogies compared to text analogies. We aimed to contribute to the growing body of research investigating the role of analogies in design problem‐solving. To do this, we conducted a controlled experiment at a university with 135 undergraduate students exploring analogical reasoning under various conditions, with a particular emphasis on identifying the negative aspects of the design problem. The first goal was to explore the potential of visual and text analogies to enhance design creativity outcomes generated in each condition, focusing on the novelty and usefulness of design solutions. The second goal was to verify whether statistical differences occur between the creative outcomes in visual and text analogy conditions. According to our findings, design briefs containing specific instructions for using text or visual analogies yielded highly novel outcomes. However, when text or visual analogies were prompted by statements concerning negative issues of the design problem, more useful outcomes were generated. Finally, negative statements should be considered when the design aims to improve the features of existing solutions.

Human-centred health-care environments: a new framework for biophilic design.

Increasing research corroborates that the qualities of the setting in which a patient receives healthcare positively influence health outcomes. Therefore, it has become progressively important to review the concept of therapeutic environments, as places where patients are treated with the most advanced medicine and technology, but also support their users in psychological, emotional and social terms. This quest for the optimal healing environment brings to the forefront the need to include other parameters in our design briefs, where the application of biophilic design proves to be paramount, as exposure to nature is associated with multiple health benefits. However, current biophilic design frameworks fail to provide efficient guidance, as their design recommendations don't differentiate the level of value of each design parameter for each building programme and context. Our position is that a biophilic design framework can only be efficient if it is adapted to specific building functions and is geographically and culturally contextualized. This study assessed the application of biophilic design in therapeutic environments for cancer patients in the UK, and provided a revised conceptual framework that can more efficiently guide designers and policies in future interventions. This framework was informed by synthesised analyses from healthcare environments on the user's experiences, and primary data obtained from semi-structured interviews with architects and managers, which was then benchmarked against scientific data about the impact of biophilic design on humans. This comprehensive approach helped to identify and rank those biophilic design parameters that appear the most critical for promoting and supporting health and wellbeing in cancer healthcare settings and provided an up-to-date compilation of crucial design actions to enact the necessary change in future research and design practice.