Design Disciplines Research Articles

In the studio with virtual reality: Student perceptions and potential integrations into art and design curriculum

The use of virtual reality (VR) to create immersive experiences through the principles taught in art and design curricula has been studied over the past two decades while, at the same time, demonstrating positive correlations between learning outcomes and the technology. Not surprisingly, the creation of 3D models within a virtual environment leads to a better understanding of 3D workflow. Yet, despite these developments, few studies have been conducted specifically on the application within a studio context for art and design disciplines and how VR might benefit artists and designers. This study confirms that the use of VR in art and design courses is perceived to promote a better understanding of three-dimensional spaces, design and to improve student-centred activities and student–student interactions. At the same time, integrating VR into curriculum should be strategic and aligned with learning outcomes for impactful learning experiences.

New Design Knowledge and the Fifth Order of Design

Abstract In this article, I examine the foundations of design knowledge and how they have been disrupted as the design discipline moves progressively away from industrial production. I consider design knowledge as a collection of different cognitive processes for developing artifacts for the human-made world. Adopting David Kolb's (1984, p.38) definition of learning as “the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience,” I discuss the change in design knowledge by examining how the characteristics of designed items have changed. Building on theories by Neri Oxman and Richard Buchanan, I identify relevant areas of design practice in which creativity is breaking free from disciplinary silos to flow between physical, digital, metaphysical, and biological layers. I then propose an updated map of the orders of design as a thinking tool and compass. I read the evolutions of design as it enters the Fifth Order of concerns, characterized by the centrality of data both as input and as output to a design process. Today, design deals with relationships and perceptions; it dialogues with people and all species ranging from machines to micro-organisms, all of which actively participate in reaching objectives. Here, design creates conversations to achieve several goals, including engagement, discovery, and decision making. Finally, I propose a shift in the traditional principles of designing, moving away from the idea of perfect solutions and toward learning systems that are good enough for now.

Qualitative Research as a Tool to Carry out Architectural and Industrial Design Projects: A Vision from the Academic Perspective

Abstract In recent years, qualitative research has gained ground as one of the main tools to analyze reality and propose innovation projects. This qualitative methodology has strengthened an innovative pedagogical structure, within the teaching of design disciplines. This is the specific case of our educational activity in the Modular System (UAM X), which facilitates the application of these tools in the design process. Reviewing the data in the analysis in a more qualitative way, promotes a more credible, reliable and valid vision to propose solutions to the problems detected. Thus, achieving a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon and considering the factors involved in order to generate more relevant solutions. Within architecture, some projects that are addressed, such as the historical and cultural heritage of spaces and cities, use qualitative research techniques to discover and interpret the real vision of the inhabitant/visitor of these spaces. It is essential to understand how the city is lived from the point of view of the different actors that interact in the space, in order to generate plans and projects that reinforce and enrich social interaction. In industrial design, the students take these tools and apply them to the first phase of their project in search of insights that will allow them to bring forward innovative products with a real impact on society. This paper addresses these two cases, highlighting the importance of these tools being internalized by our students completing their training with a research profile focused on design.

Design Perspectives for the New Normal in the Healthcare System

This paper aims to investigate the current role of design in healthcare and reflect on its mandate in defining products, services, strategies, and policies, proposing perspectives toward a person-centred healthcare. Today, design research in healthcare reflects on scenarios and challenges affecting innovation and change, considering the potentially disruptive effect of technological innovation on personal care and social, economic, ethical, and political aspects. Through a literature review and case studies analysis, the paper focuses on the current criticalities of the healthcare system, exacerbated by the pandemic situation, and presents a first taxonomy of the trajectories for design-led intervention. It reflects on top-down actions proposed by the government, activities of co-design and the cross-fertilisation between design and other disciplines, and bottom-up actions of social innovation, to present near future perspectives for design-led actions in healthcare.

Research on Collaborative Design of Performance-Refined Zero Energy Building: A Case Study

Building Information Modeling (BIM), as an auxiliary design platform, is increasingly adopted in construction projects. However, it is not widely applied in the collaborative design of zero energy buildings (ZEBs), due to the cross-discipline and complex features of ZEB projects and lack of research on the procedure and method of collaborative design in this field. This paper introduces a BIM-based collaborative design method for ZEBs. From the perspective of the technical requirements of ZEBs, the study elaborates the application of a BIM-based collaborative design method among specialists from different disciplines in passive design, renewable energy utilization and active design. The feasibility of this method is verified by the actual design and construction of the T&A House in Solar Decathlon China (SDC) competition. The research results show that the BIM-based collaborative design method can facilitate the completion of a construction project and achieve the expected goal of zero energy consumption in ZEBs.

Can we put a Number on it? Design Education Under Capitalism, Science, and Technology

In contemporary media contexts, graphic design work no longer focuses solely on the aesthetic or representational functionality of 2-dimensional design artefacts. In response to public expectations, economic imperatives, and dominant STEM narratives embracing technical innovation, design education is gradually reshaping and retooling itself in line with techno-capitalist purposes. Design education is becoming more science-driven, introducing more data-driven research methodologies and positivist approaches such as behaviourism, computer science, design engineering, and interactive design. As the discipline of design continues to evolve, there is a growing debate over whether design-making should fully embrace technology and digital media, displacing traditional design work and curriculum with data science epistemologies that align design education with corporate interests, big data, algorithmic culture, and ‘surveillance capitalism’ (Couldry & Mejias, 2019; Crawford 2021; Zuboff, 2019).
 This essay provides a critical perspective on current trends in design education sectors that embrace tech-oriented methodologies and design practices. I argue that uncritically translating the discipline of design for digital culture risks exacerbating these equity issues and power relations. Furthermore, this essay discusses what priorities in design education foster critical and even activist forms of creativity alongside building essential design skills as well as technical and aesthetic competences.

Exploration and Application of Graphic Design Language Based on Artificial Intelligence Visual Communication

Graphic design is one of the design disciplines with the longest history in the history of human design. As a marginal discipline, it integrates science and art organically. Graphic design has three basic characteristics: information, art, and economy. Information refers to the fact that graphic design is a carrier of information communication, and graphic design works have the practical function of specific information transmission. Among them, graphic design language is the direct form of information communication, but there is a relative lack of research on the intelligent recognition of graphic design language. To address this problem, this paper focuses on the analysis method of graphic design language based on artificial intelligence visual communication. First, in order to segment different parts of the image more accurately, this paper improves a deep learning-based image segmentation method. The method uses a three-branch network structure to learn semantic information, detail information, and fusion information, respectively. The coding network uses a lightweight convolutional neural network and adds an attention mechanism in the branches to weight the importance of image feature channels, and the features extracted from different perceptual fields of the image are multiscale fused to fuse the features extracted from different stages of the coding network. Then, the salient target regions are detected on the basis of segmented images, the salient target emotions are analyzed by using feature pyramids to improve the convolutional neural network, the emotions expressed by graphic design language are analyzed by constructing a weighted loss convolutional neural network on a multilayer supervised module, and the salient target emotions are fused to obtain the final emotion classification results. The experimental results show that our proposed method outperforms traditional segmentation methods in the dataset, and the sentiment analysis based on segmented images can obtain higher sentiment classification accuracy than the sentiment analysis method that directly identifies the whole image, which is beneficial to the research and application of graphic design language.

TYPOGRAPHIC IMAGE AS A VISUAL COMMUNICATION INSTRUMENT

Writing is one of the main communication tools that has been widely used since the Sumerian civilization discovered it. While it had a symbolic attitude in its form in the first periods of its discovery, it was simplified over time and brought to the basic form we use today. With the discipline of typography, which allows us to use writing, which is one of the main constituent of visual communication and graphic design, both aesthetically and functionally, graphic designers visualize writing in variety of different forms, traditional and contemporary. Today, visual communication is one of the most important concepts encountered in every aspect of human life. People are now trying to meet their communication needs faster by looking and seeing instead of reading. In this study, rather than recording the verbal language, which is the main function of writing, it is explained by giving examples how writing is used as an imaginary language of expression in different art and design disciplines, especially in the graphic design discipline. In this direction, the typographic image style is defined in the study and the concept of typographic image is explained by giving examples in the disciplines of sculpture, architecture, interior architecture, textile and fashion design, and industrial design, especially in the discipline of graphic design. Keywords: Writing, Typography, Typographic Image

Sense of Place and Sound: Revisiting from Multidisciplinary Outlook

This study revisits the sense of place and sound nexus in the literature. Along with that, it seeks to explore the approaches that influential urban theorists, landscape architects, and planners have recommended. How these concepts converge within the allied disciplines of urban planning, urban design, geography, and landscape architecture remains at the forefront of this investigation. This research proposes a conceptual framework by identifying sounds in three key categories—auditory experience, sound, and silence—to address the gap between sound and urban studies. The study reveals decisive patterns in urban studies’ interface between the sense of place and the sound context.

The use and measurement of communication self-efficacy techniques in a UK undergraduate accounting course

ABSTRACT This research contributes to helping educational establishments across the world develop self-efficacy techniques to improve communication skills within an accounting course design and other disciplines. This paper asks the research question: Does self-efficacy enhances accounting students’ communication ability? Previous research has identified the business community requiring accountants to display high levels of communication ability. However, despite many deliberate pedagogical interventions over the years, communication skills are lacking in graduating accounting students. This paper describes a new approach of deliberate self-efficacy interventions in one UK university’s undergraduate accounting curriculum to improve accounting students’ communication ability. In addition, a self-efficacy framework of Stone and Bailey [(2007). Team conflict self-efficacy and outcome expectancy of business students. Journal of Education for Business, 82(5), 258–266. https://doi.org/10.3200/JOEB.82.5.258-266.] is developed to model communication self-efficacy, outcome expectancy and behavioral intentions of the students. The data consists of the results of 131 first-year accounting students, and this paper contributes by helping to pinpoint two self-efficacy techniques to improving students’ communication skills: ‘personal mastery’ and ‘mentor support’.

SPDIAM: Methodology for Describing and Solving Spatial Problems in Territorial Planning

Spatial pattern (SP) helps to analyze the tasks and provisions that arise in the spatial planning and design disciplines examining a complex spatial system (CSS). The aim of this article is to present a territorial planning process and how SP description, identification, and application methodology (SPDIAM) can help to work with it using a CSS model. First, the quantitative spatial analysis methods and spatial network analysis tools that can be used to identify SP are compared with SPDIAM. Then, the main concepts of SPDIAM and created IT artefacts are explained. In the experiment section, the SP is identified using spatial metapatterns in different North American, European, and African cities and the correlation results of SP and statistics are calculated to show a medium to close relationship. Then, the territorial planning cycle and SPDIAM application use case using the data of Kaunas city (Lithuania) are presented. The results of SPDIAM can be used to associate the shape of the territory with the geographer models and Alexander patterns using the bottom-up modelling principle and allows us to standardize urban planning solutions.

All-At-Once formulation integrating pseudo-spectral optimal control for launch vehicle design and uncertainty quantification

Launch vehicle design is a multidisciplinary process involving different disciplines such as aerodynamics, structure, propulsion and trajectory. This latter is a key discipline in the design process as it is used to assess the overall performance of the vehicle by solving of an optimal control problem involving a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. Usual Multidisciplinary Design Optimization methods for launch vehicle design consider the trajectory design discipline as an auxiliary embedded optimization problem to find the optimal trajectory control. In this paper, a multidisciplinary approach is proposed relying on an All-At-Once formulation by using Gauss–Lobatto collocation technique to solve the optimal control problem. The problem is solved using a gradient-based optimizer. Furthermore, based on this framework, an uncertainty quantification technique using post-optimality analysis is derived to perform sensitivity analysis. This allows to analyze the influence of modeling uncertainty on the optimal launch vehicle performance in the early design phases. The efficiency of the proposed approach is illustrated on the optimization and uncertainty quantification of a representative Two-Stage-To-Orbit launch vehicle design problem.

Covid-19 and its impact on Technical Education in India with Specific Reference to Fashion and Interior Design Disciplines

The Covid-19 pandemic that struck the world in December 2019 has connected people globally through the media. Now man is more aware of the surroundings and happenings worldwide. And the age group that is taking the most advantage of the virtual world is the youth.Before the pandemic the youth was engaged in the traditional methods of classroom studies, whereas the imposed lockdowns have opened new windows for their overall development. The study highlights that, in the time of Covid-19 the students of technical education were made aware of the different ways of learning methods other than the traditional classroom method. They were exposed to the internet and hence came across the different ways and methods of learning. Frequent virtual seminars, conferences, trainings and workshops were organized for the students by their respective educational institutes where they were given guidance not only from local experts but also from international experts too. This phenomenon brought positive changes in the overall development of the learners and also provided a broader spectrum to the teachers. This research lays emphasis on the two different streams of technical education which are 1) Fashion Design and 2) Interior Design. These streams are more practical oriented streams of technical education.The impact of the online teaching and learning on these fields is discussed in detail in this research. In this pandemic period the students of these disciplines got more insight of the designs acclaimed not only at national levels but also at the international levels.But on the other hand, due to the online classes the students were deprived of the practical knowledge and finesse that they gain in their subject related laboratories. The study deals with the effect of the pandemic on the overall academics of these design students.

Design Empathy on Digital Radio Platforms

Breakdowns experienced in the media field due to technology and digitalization highlight some concepts. Concepts such as speed, mobility, screen, connectivity and interaction are rapidly finding application in digital media environments. When viewed from this perspective, it is seen that many new media production areas with technology references have emerged. One of these new digital media production areas is digital radios. With the traditional radio broadcasting being replaced by digital over time, it has become much more efficient to broadcast radio in the virtual environment. From now on, radios are no longer a media tool that is listened to, but also a communication environment that can be watched and interacted with. Thanks to the web technology that transforms the radio into a watchable platform, it is seen that the radio reaches the listener and the audience through the screens. For this reason, it can be said that the area of influence of radio broadcasting has expanded and radio broadcasting has taken a much more active position in the media sector. In this study, the subject was discussed descriptively and a design analysis of popular digital radios was carried out through the sample. The popular digital radio platforms in the sample were evaluated through various categories and sub-categories in terms of design discipline, and it was tried to analyze how the platforms went into fiction with design. By applying the Design Empathy technique in the study, it has been tried to reveal how the design transforms these platforms technically and semantically. In addition, the development adventure of digital radio platforms was handled with a design perspective, and the point of radio broadcasting was tried to be examined.

Teaching Sustainability in Planning and Design Education: A Systematic Review of Pedagogical Approaches

Sustainable development principles are being increasingly incorporated into university planning and design education. This paper evaluates how university planning and design programs teach sustainability and how these various approaches may influence future planners and designers. This systematic review quantitatively analyzes 5639 empirical research documents published from 2011 to 2020, including peer-reviewed papers and reports related to planning and design disciplines in higher education institutions. Key findings include differences in how planning and design curricula include and emphasize sustainability topics, as well as how various modes and teaching approaches correlate with sustainability values. This research offers a comprehensive understanding of how sustainable development approaches and teaching methods may influence how students and emerging professionals approach complex planning and design problems.

Responsive Interior: Tactics for Adaptation and Resilience

Design disciplines continuously face challenges to demonstrate resilience in responding to rapid changes and complex issues in our contemporary world. The idea of responsive interior highlights the ability to respond appropriately to a particular context through various tactics to ensure its relevance and resilience for the present and future. Interior practices deal with intervention, adaptation, and alteration of existing conditions, as well as finding new uses and programmes that can be added to existing spaces. Behind such attempts, a series of responsive tactics has become necessary to gather knowledge and understanding of the existing qualities, which should be an important basis for appropriate interior programming as a tactical response. This issue of Interiority presents a collection of ideas and explorations that demonstrate various acts of adaptation performed in different interior contexts, as well as various tactical interior approaches to reuse and repurpose the existing. While the world is changing quickly, the interior design discipline must strengthen its capability to respond and adapt. Finding more tactics for new interior programming, reading thoroughly into the existing, exploring various forms of adaptability, and establishing more creative design thinking become crucial steps towards interior resilience in a constantly changing world.

Fashion and game design as hybrid practices: approaches in education to creating fashion-related experiences in digital worlds

ABSTRACT Collaborations between fashion and digital game design practitioners are intended to provide new fashion-related experiences in digital worlds, yet often result in garment designs that resemble physical equivalents rather than constituting innovative experiences. This research aimed to investigate possible criteria for developing digital design practices in higher education in fashion design that are informed by industry experts’ experiences of fashion and digital game design. Specialists from both industries were interviewed to investigate how fashion design practices can create meaningful content for digital worlds. The findings suggest that fashion design practitioners in higher-education need to better understand the technical and socio-dynamic peculiarities of digital worlds to create meaningful fashion-related outcomes, rather than recreating physical fashion in the digital realm. The findings further suggest that fashion designers would benefit from learning about digital software, tools, and methods that are shared by digital-native design disciplines to allow for connected workflows.

The BEE Model with Live Virtual Classroom to Enhancing Creative Works

Online learning is recognized as an effective teaching method and tool, widely integrated into different teaching and learning strategies to provide quality education at different levels. However, the field of design education does not have extensive research into online learning, delivery, and assessment. This study developed an online learning model for design disciplines to improve creative work effectively. This paper describes an empirical study to test the BEE model outcomes developed following previous research. This present study has focused on the intensity of the live virtual classroom in every step to compare differences in the scores of creative works. Therefore, the assumption was that Thai undergraduate design students who learned with the BEE model through live classroom learning (experimental group) would have at least one element of the creative work scores compared to the group learning through the traditional online teaching method (control group). Furthermore, we conducted a multistage randomized sample of 66 participants, divided into an experimental group of 33 participants and a control group of 33 subjects. To compare the scores of creative works, the test of creative works assessment rubric was used to collect the data. Then, they were analyzed using the MANOVA statistical test. The results found at least one element of them, and the average creative work scores of the experimental group showed that they were significantly higher than the control group (p<0.05). Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2022-SIED-08 Full Text: PDF

World-Class Electrical Design Tool for Shipbuilding

Electrical aspects of complex vessels are significantly relevant within the overall design and production, but it is a fact that shipyards and technical offices still don’t have this discipline completely integrated within the rest of CAD disciplines. The consequence of this lack of electrical capability is the need of very costly manual intervention to achieve the quality expected. The efficient management of the typical electrical items, such as cables, electric devices, hangers, trays, and their connections leverage the design. But even more, the advanced capability for clash detection or intelligent engineering advices, such as the critical distance from high power cables to sensitive equipment or transits in structure elements could reduce dramatically costly errors in production. This paper describes a CAD System electrical solution, which is fully capable and totally integrated with the rest of the design disciplines. Apart from the description of its core capability, including intelligent diagrams connected to the 3D model, advanced standards management or the user-friendly 3D environment for equipment and cable layout, there will be described the newest functionality added to the tool in the last versions. Among others, it is remarkable the conduits management with cables in electrical trays, drawings with smart cable interconnection, advanced penetrations management, reuse of electrical diagrams from external sources, and the ability for cable installation planning. The convenience of using a suitable tool to handle the electrical aspects in all design and production stages, is especially critical in naval vessels and submarines, in which the solution described has been successfully used for years. Electrical CAD design can be used in a standalone version too, as it offers capability to interchange data with other potential CAD tools and it is integrated with some of the most important Product Lifecycle Management solutions in shipbuilding.

Urban design as a specialised, evidence-based, coordinated educational and professional endeavour

Urban environments are complex, impacting on climate change, social justice and health globally and locally. Their spatial, social, economic, environmental dimensions are interlinked and must be studied from a complexity viewpoint. Yet, whilst complexity has successfully entered urban scholarship and practice in many fields, urban form, a key component of urban environments, is not yet studied in these terms and consequently they are not yet designed as complex. This paper argues that the discipline of urban design should be (re)defined as the understanding and design of urban environments as places of organised complexity. It can become the discipline best placed to manage a useful global overview of sustainable placemaking. It does so by tracing urban design's historical relationships and attitudes towards the evolution of the city, contrasting definitions of complexity in science, with the deterministic way in which the early urban design practitioners viewed design. It then looks at urban design's relationship with other design professions in the UK and suggest its lack of clarity and efficiency is an enduring consequence of this historic trajectory. Finally, it proposes urban design as the discipline concerned with the understanding and design of complex-adaptive urban environments and advocate its establishment as an independent profession.