Inclusive Design Process Research Articles

Exploring operating room staff engagement in the planning and design of the built environment in Australia: Development of a constructivist grounded theory.

This study aimed to explore Australian health professionals' perceptions and experiences regarding built environment planning for operating rooms. We conducted semi-structured interviews and a focus group using exploratory qualitative methods, involving 16 participants: anaesthetists, surgeons, nurses, theatre technicians and designers of operating rooms. Four core concerns of participants were analysed: Engagement, Respect & Collaboration; Foreseeing & Responding to Safety Concerns; Enhancing Design Planning to Minimise Internal & External Consequences; and Ambiguous Application of Standards in Operating Room Design Planning. Health professionals highlighted safety impacts related to patients and staff due to the built environment and emphasised the need for improved engagement, respect and collaboration in design processes. Consideration needs to be given to the lived experiences of health professionals in design planning to address safety concerns effectively. Hierarchies and cultural factors were identified as barriers to inclusive design processes.

Jane Drew and Minnette De Silva Pioneering Participatory Architecture in Mid-Century India and Sri Lanka

Jane Drew and Minnette De Silva made significant contributions to the architectural field, namely to the broader frameworks of the mid‑twentieth-century Modern Movement and tropical architecture. They also pioneered inclusive design processes, in line with the discussion of human factors that was just starting to fuel the architectural agenda. Peons’ Village in Chandigarh and Watapuluwa in Kandy are housing schemes resulting from participatory methodologies where both architects promoted dialogue with the populations and integrated regional specificities. The collective engagement, which occurred at different project stages, effectively involved future inhabitants in decision-making and is reflected in the outcome of the projects. Drew and De Silva’s socially engaged architecture envisioned project design as a co‑creation process, contributing to redefining the architect’s role, and aiming to foster a more equitable urban environment toward a better society.

Technoeconomic Analysis of a Wind Power Generation System and Wind Resource Mapping Using GIS Tools: The Case of Twelve Locations in the Commune of Evodoula, Cameroon

This paper performs a technoeconomic analysis of the wind power potential and evaluates the cost of wind power generation in Evodoula, comparing two methods, the conventional method and the uncertainty method based on a comparative spatiotemporal approach using the geographic information system (GIS) software tool. This study is based on satellite wind data measured at 10 m above ground level (AGL) over a 40-year period (1980-2019), by the meteorological service NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)/Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). The main objectives are to obtain an appropriate design for a proven optimal location and to assess the viability of wind power at Evodoula. For this type of study, there is little literature available. The optimization of an onshore wind farm and deployment in the wind energy development interest area (ZIDEE) is carried out to obtain a minimum and parsimonious discounted cost production unitary (CPU) of the electricity produced. The results showed that in Okok, a location with a large energy deficit, an onshore wind farm with an electricity generation capacity of 12.5 MW with 5 NORDEX N100-2.5MW wind turbines would have a total energy production (TEP) of about 64.0254825 TWh and a selling price of electricity that would be 0.0034 CAD$/kWh, which is very low compared to the utility price (about 98% cheaper). The total cost of the wind farm would be about $11 million, with a net present cost of about $218 million. The annual profit generated by the wind farm would be over $6 billion. The return on investment (ROI) of the project is estimated at 2880.882%. The constructed onshore wind farm would avoid CO2 emission at over 11 MtCO2,eq/year as the energy generated is from the atmosphere. The wind farm would realize an average annual cash flow estimated at nearly $30 million after 20 years of operation. These savings would allow the installation of CO2 capture systems in conventional power plants. In addition, the analysis of uncertainties and risks was identified and quantified to estimate the confidence levels of the project development results. The risks have been assessed, and we recommend that the total uncertainty of the project is around 15%. The energy values in P75 and P90 are 10.08% and 19.22%, respectively, lower than the energy value in P50 of 11.60 GWh/An. Finally, the main policy recommendations for an inclusive design process are highlighted. The contribution of this study is to assist policy makers in making appropriate decisions in the development and implementation of energy and environmental policy in Cameroon and in many continental areas.

Unravelling open innovation determinants and firm performance relationships in CEE and SEE countries

Purpose Open innovation (OI), by now one of the major concepts for the analysis of innovation, is seen as a methodology for collaboratively designing and implementing solutions by engaging stakeholders in an iterative and inclusive service design process. This paper aims to empirically investigate OI capacities, defined as a cooperative, knowledge-sharing innovation ecosystem, and to explore how it can lead to improved performance of firms in Central and Eastern European (CEE) and Southeastern European (SEE) countries.Design/methodology/approach The study builds on the World Bank/European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD’s) Business Environment Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) dataset for 2009, 2013 and 2019. Primarily, the research model was estimated using log-transformed ordinary least squares (OLS). Taking into consideration that this method might produce substantial bias, yielding misleading inferences, this study is fitting Poisson pseudo maximum likelihood estimators with robust standard errors and instrumental variable/generalized method of moments estimation (IV/GMM) approach for comparative results. Secondarily, the research model was tested using structural equation modelling (SEM) to investigate the relationship between five OI capacities and firm performance.Findings The findings indicate that there is a significant positive relationship between most OI capacities and firm performance, except for innovation, which did not show a statistically significant relationship with firm performance. Specifically, research and development (R&D), knowledge and coopetition are statistically significant and positively associated with firm performance, whereas transformation is statistically significant but negatively associated with firm performance. The IV/GMM estimations’ findings support the view that the firm performance is significantly affected by OI capacities, together with some control variables such as size, age, foreign ownership and year dummy to have a significant impact on firm performance.Originality/value This paper fills an identified gap in the literature by investigating the impact of OI on firm performance executed in the specific CEE and SEE country context.

Methods for inclusive design processes at the early stages of a research project in School Environments

This paper explores the use of participatory methods prior to designing interventions within a research project at a primary school in central Sweden. The approach presented in the paper is based on the principles of participatory design (PD), to enhance the use of these methods within the areas of educational research (ER), lighting, and architecture. This approach aims to include participants of educational spaces and incorporate their views prior to design interventions. Two workshops were designed to support teachers’ participation through hands-on activities. Twenty-eight teachers participated in the workshops. Scale models corresponding to two of the school’s classrooms were used to initiate discussions regarding the interconnection between spatial layouts, lighting, and learning activities. The workshops’ data collection analysis assisted the research group in understanding the school’s spatial and learning characteristics. The information gathered from the workshops provided additional knowledge and informed the research project in a way that allowed for further development and changes within the project related to the additional variables measured along with light. According to the analysis, there is a correlation between the activity and the desired layout of the space, while the type of equipment also varies according to the task.

Motivational design for inclusive digital learning: Women college engineering students’ motivation for online STEM learning

This study identifies women college engineering students’ perception of online Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning and factors that influence their learning motivation during the COVID-19 period. By conducting interviews with ten women engineering students and applying attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction (ARCS) model, this study aims to answer two questions: (1) How did women college engineering students perceive their experience with online STEM learning during the pandemic? (2) What category/categories based on ARCS motivational design model primarily account for women college engineering students’ learning motivation with online STEM learning during the pandemic?<br /> The results show that the online learning format influenced women college engineering students’ perception regarding their academic plans, learning styles, learning environments, peer learning, and learning satisfaction. The most influential categories from ARCS model were ‘confidence’ and ‘attention’. Findings suggest that the online STEM learning format influenced women college engineering students’ learning motivation. The online format led to (1) low expectations for attention category when analyzed using ARCS model, (2) anticipation of more self-control, and (3) a desire for more peer interactions in their online STEM learning.<br /> As students would have new expectations for the role of online learning due to their experience during the pandemic, assessing women students’ emerging motivational needs for STEM online learning is critical in developing a more inclusive instructional system design process in the future.

Equivalent experience

I87 million European citizens have some form of disability. In an ideal world, every product should be accessible to everyone through an inclusive design process that ensures an equivalent experience for all. Designing web and mobile applications with accessibility as a priority means designing interaction systems that are "interoperable", i.e. always reliable in different contexts of use and in the presence of different methods of navigation, data entry and exchange. For this reason, the UX/UI designer must acquire specific skills in the field of web standards and thus learn the basics of HTML semantics, essential for the design of accessible web components. So don't stop at the surface, but go deeper to meet everyone's needs. The article aims to address the issue of accessibility in the design of mobile applications and websites according to current Web Standards, through the analysis of case studies and best practices, in order to delineate the role of the designer within the whole development process in relation to the other figures involved.

Co-Design of a Virtual Reality Multiplayer Adventure Game for Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Mixed Methods Study.

Virtual reality (VR) adventure games can offer ideal technological solutions for training social skills in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), leveraging their support for multisensory and multiplayer interactions over distance, which may lower barriers to training access and increase user motivation. However, the design of VR-based game environments for social skills training is still understudied and deserves the deployment of an inclusive design approach to ensure its acceptability by target users. We aimed to present the inclusive design process that we had followed to develop the Zentastic VR adventure game to foster social skills training in adolescents with ASD and to investigate its feasibility as a training environment for adolescents. The VR game supports multiplayer training sessions involving small groups of adolescents and their therapists, who act as facilitators. Adolescents with ASD and their therapists were involved in the design and in an explorative acceptability study of an initial prototype of the gaming environment, as well as in a later feasibility multisession evaluation of the VR game final release. The feasibility study demonstrated good acceptability of the VR game by adolescents and an enhancement of their social skills from baseline to posttraining. The findings provide preliminary evidence of the benefits that VR-based games can bring to the training of adolescents with ASD and, potentially, other neurodevelopmental disorders.

How do interventions for energy poverty and health work?

We review the existing evidence on interventions for energy poverty and health with a novel and distinctive focus on how interventions work to produce health outcomes. There is a substantial literature on the impacts of interventions for energy poverty on health, most of which is concerned with substantial energy renovations, and focused on measuring health outcomes. Here we offer a distinctive analysis of this material: using a combination of realist review and process evaluation we use the evidence to articulate the ways in which interventions work. We focus on substantial energy renovations for health, given most of the existing evidence refers to these. Our analysis allows us to identify the logic of intervention design, showing how the practicalities of implementation are shaped by causal assumptions, as well as documenting how participants respond to these interventions. The analysis reveals gaps between intervention design and participant response, which suggest that interventions must work closely with participants to ensure success. Policy recommendations include: energy poverty interventions should take account of how people will respond to technical change, fund support for households to adapt to new technology, offer opportunities for inclusive design processes, and be flexible in delivery.

Cyclic inclusive fashion design process based on an FEA model for inclusive fashion education

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to develop an inclusive fashion design (IFD) process using digital tools for educational purposes. The study consisted of three stages: development of IFD process prototypes 1 and 2 with different phases for incorporating diverse users’ information (before and after the ideation phase), conducting an experiment on ten undergraduate students using two types of IFD process prototypes, and analysing the IFD process prototypes through protocol analysis, statistical analysis, and experts’ assessment. The study found that the timing of incorporating user information can have a significant impact on inclusive fashion design. The user-centered Type 1 prioritised social and symbolic expressions and functional aspects over other design elements. Type 2, which focused more on aesthetics, better reflected users’ expressive needs and allowed for more adaptable designs based on diverse users. The study proposed a cyclic IFD process that encourages students to consider the needs of diverse consumers.

‘Formal Adoption – Informal Subversion’: Limits of International Constitutional Assistance

ABSTRACT Peace processes involve reforming or rewriting constitutions as a pathway to establishing an inclusive state, often with international constitutional assistance (ICA). Examining Nepal’s post-conflict constitution-writing process, this article explores why ICA fails to deliver on inclusion. It argues that ICA’s prioritisation of formal aspects – inclusive institutional design and participatory process – makes it unable to influence informal politics through which elites informally subvert formal commitments on inclusive institutions in a bid to retain their power. This ‘formal adoption-informal subversion’ of inclusion-related commitments by elites is enabled by elites adopting four strategies, namely neglect, overwrite, trade-off, and exploit of formal commitments.

An “ultimate partnership”: Older persons’ perspectives on age-stereotypes and intergenerational interaction in co-designing digital technologies

AimThere is often a gap between the ideal of involving older persons iteratively throughout the design process of digital technology, and actual practice. Until now, the lens of ageism has not been applied to address this gap. The goals of this study were: to voice the perspectives and experiences of older persons who participated in co-designing regarding the design process; their perceived role in co-designing and intergenerational interaction with the designers; and apparent manifestations of ageism that potentially influence the design of digital technology. MethodsTwenty-one older persons participated in three focus groups. Five themes were identified using thematic analysis which combined a critical ageism ‘lens’ deductive approach and an inductive approach. ResultsAgeism was experienced by participants in their daily lives and interactions with the designers during the design process. Negative images of ageing were pointed out as a potential influencing factor on design decisions. Nevertheless, positive experiences of inclusive design pointed out the importance of “partnership” in the design process. Participants defined the “ultimate partnership” in co-designing as processes in which they were involved from the beginning, iteratively, in a participatory approach. Such processes were perceived as leading to successful design outcomes, which they would like to use, and reduced intergenerational tension. ConclusionsThis study highlights the potential role of ageism as a detrimental factor in how digital technologies are designed. Viewing older persons as partners in co-designing and aspiring to more inclusive design processes may promote designing technologies that are needed, wanted and used.

Learning lab as a utopian methodology for future making: decolonizing knowledge production toward racial justice in school discipline

ABSTRACT Students from minoritized communities in US public schools face harsher exclusionary discipline, leading to negative academic, social, and emotional outcomes. Racial disproportionality in school discipline is a critical inequity that requires ecologically valid solutions with local stakeholders. The Indigenous Learning Lab (ILL) was implemented to address racial disproportionality that American Indian students experience at a rural high school serving a band of an Anishinaabe nation in the United States. ILL is an inclusive systemic design process informed by cultural historical activity theory and decolonizing methodology. This study explores how ILL facilitated local stakeholders’ utopian future-making by means of Ruth Levitas's (2013) three modes of utopian methodology–utopia as archeology, architecture, and ontological becoming–to dismantle an oppressive settler-colonial school discipline system.

Expanding Access to Ocean Science Through Inclusively Designed Data Sonifications

Look at a graph of oceanographic data. How would you convey the information only using sound? This is the challenge addressed by the US National Science Foundation-funded “Accessible Oceans” project, which seeks to increase access to ocean data in informal learning environments like museums, science centers, and aquariums. Quantitative information in these settings is almost always conveyed with visual displays. For audience members who are blind or have low vision, or those with data illiteracy or innumeracy, these displays remain inaccessible. In this article, we discuss our interdisciplinary project using an inclusive human-centered design process to develop auditory displays that support learning and understanding of ocean science in informal learning environments. We share information about our project and takeaways for inclusive auditory display design, hoping to inspire others to examine the accessibility of their own work.

Matri-Archive, Creativity, and Beadwork: Toward an Inclusive Design Process

This article focuses on the work of Thuli Princess Sebenzise Khoza, one of over 350 bead artists from a community-based arts and crafts project called Woza Moya, which is located in Hillcrest, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. In this article, I use the concepts of the matri-archive, informed largely by Annalisa Piccirillo (2014), and creativity drawn from the work of Vlad Glăveanu (2011 ) and Glăveanu and Sierra (2015 ) to analyze the design and creation process for Khoza’s beaded works: the Princess earrings and Christmas tree angels. I use observations, photographs, and interviews taken over an eleven-month period to formulate the description and analysis. This study shows that conceptualization of these beaded works includes Woza Moya’s director, Paula Thomson, and marketer. Analyzing Khoza’s creation process, however, discloses how she retrieves and adapts fragments of matri-archival resources to inform her design process, as well as how she transmits knowledge by including her daughter, niece, and husband in the process. In this article, I argue that an organization such as Woza Moya employs an inclusive design process in which diverse forms of knowledges – such as those drawn from the matri-archive – are given value and appropriately incorporated into product development.

Innovative Accesibility Data Inventory Tools for Urban Environments in Historic Sites.

The development of the cognitive framework regarding the current performances of the historic built environment in physical accessibility plays a key role in the definition of inclusive design strategies. To this end, this paper presents the comparison between two survey methodologies: one based on an on-site investigation, and one based on a semi-automatic process, using artificial intelligence. The presentation of the two methods aims at describing the processes, underlining their potential outcomes, and the procedures for presenting and interpreting the data. The result is a set of observations to propose a strategy that integrates both the approaches, to exploit ICT in managing inclusive design processes.

Can I Get There? Can I Play? Can I Stay? Creating an Inclusive Playspace Guide in Australia.

Playspaces bring children and adults together for fun and social interaction but are rarely designed for the inclusion of all community members. In Australia, local government authorities (councils) are responsible for parks and playspaces. The New South Wales state government launched their inclusive playspaces policy in 2017. A guideline document was proposed but a guideline does not guarantee implementation. Consequently, an inclusive design process for developing the guide became the strategy. The task was to develop a guide that explained the concepts of inclusion and universal design within the playspace context. The project took an iterative and collaborative approach to the design of the guide. Intended users were those involved in creating playspaces, not playspace users per se. The participatory governance structure involved three levels of collaboration: a small steering group of experts, a larger group with key stakeholders, and a wider group of stakeholders and interested persons. This collegial and participative process consisted of a series of meetings and workshops which fostered learning and ideation for all participants. Through this process three underpinning concepts emerged: Can I get there? Can I play? Can I stay? The process educated and informed stakeholders, encouraged participants to contribute to the outcomes and provided community-led guidance for those contracted to design the guideline. The result was an inclusive playspace guide that recognized the design guidance required by council personnel in the context of universal design. The process and governance structure provides a good working model to build on. The success of the guideline was recognized with a national award from the Institute of Landscape Architects for Community Contribution. The purpose of this paper is not to comment on or evaluate the outcome of the guidelines. Rather, it is to document the inclusive and participatory governance structure and iterative process from a professional participant perspective.

Inclusive Design Intervention during COVID-19: Reflective mirror therapy rehabilitation

The emergence of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has posed significant challenges in occupational therapy rehabilitation practice prior to the level of contact with patients. This paper discussed the inclusive design process and intervention procedure in developing a design of home-setting rehabilitation products, self-occupational therapy practice and the challenges involved through the ongoing care of patients by occupational therapists, caregivers, and patients during this pandemic. The case study of Personal Reflective Mirror Therapy (P-REMIT) is premeditated as a pilot study tool, designed, and developed through patients’ experience (user-centered) for Diplegia (Upper Limb Stroke) patients. Keywords: Inclusive; Design; Intervention; COVID-19; Clinical; Therapy; Procedure eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2022. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v7iSI7%20(Special%20Issue).3809

To support or oppose renewable energy projects? A systematic literature review on the factors influencing landscape design and social acceptance

The local implementation of renewable energy projects often faces opposition. The landscape transformation that comes with the transition to renewables is one of the key counter-arguments of local stakeholders. In this article, we examine the relation between research on ‘designing landscape transformations’ and ‘acceptance of renewable energy projects’; whether and how these bodies of knowledge may complement each other. The systematic literature review revealed that acceptance studies and landscape design studies describe 25 similar factors that influence acceptance. The majority of these factors are somewhat general in nature, such as economic benefits, visual impact, and aesthetics. Additionally, we found 45 unique factors in acceptance studies and sixteen unique factors in landscape design studies. Furthermore, we found differences in distribution of factors when categorizing and comparing them by means of two conceptual frameworks. Moreover, the emphasis in peer-reviewed literature differs significantly from laypersons, which is challenging the current research agenda on landscape transformation and acceptance of renewable energy. The findings and the knowledge lacunas provide clear avenues for a shared research agenda. Future research needs to examine the influence of involving landscape designers on the acceptance of renewable energy projects and the effects of more inclusive design processes on factors such as trust.

Contradictions as an entry into inclusive systemic design: Addressing racial disparities in the discipline at an urban middle school

In the United States, school disciple has been racialized. Youth from racially minoritized backgrounds receive exclusionary discipline more frequently and severely for more subjective reasons such as disrespect, excessive noise, and dress code violation in U.S. schools. The study presents how an urban school community in Wisconsin engaged in inclusive knowledge-production and systemic design process, Learning Lab, to collectively examine and address racial disparities in school discipline. Learning Lab members (school staff, parents, and community representatives) engaged in root cause analysis behind disproportionality in their local context and identified the manifestations of the systemic contradiction (racial disproportionality) as dilemmas, conflicts, critical conflicts, and double binds in everyday practices of the school community. They collectively designed a new culturally responsive school-wide behavioral support system to address the systemic contradiction. We identified 194 discursive manifestations of contradictions in the 14 meetings of the Learning Lab. These manifestations stemmed from three main contradictions as tensions between components in the school activity system related to classroom management, school-community partnership, and behavioral support tools.