Interrelated Design Research Articles

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.

A bending-active gridshell as falsework and integrated reinforcement for a ribbed concrete shell with textile shuttering: Design, engineering, and construction of KnitNervi

This paper presents a formwork system consisting of a bending-active gridshell that simultaneously serves as falsework and integrated reinforcement for realising a ribbed funicular concrete skeleton shell. Encased by a knitted textile shuttering, the formwork system was demonstrated through KnitNervi, an architectural-scale, funnel-shaped demonstrator measuring 9 m in diameter and 3.3 m in height. The gridshell is materialised from straight steel rebar actively bent into curvilinear, double-layered rebar cages. Regular stirrups and pairs of inclined stirrups forming triangulated shear connectors provide the necessary shape control and stiffness for the load-bearing falsework. The rebar cages define the shape of the concrete ribs by supporting a knitted closed sectional mould and stay in place to structurally reinforce the resulting ribs.The focus of this paper lies on the falsework and reinforcement system with its interrelated design drivers. The geometric design includes the funicular form finding of the target shell with Thrust Network Analysis and the incremental form finding of the bending-active gridshell with its informed assembly sequence towards the funicular target with Finite Element Analysis. The engineering of the falsework demonstrates its sufficient load-bearing capacity and deflection control to support the weight of the wet concrete at an architectural scale. Sensitivity studies reveal the effectiveness of activating the double layer through the shear-connecting stirrups, the relevance of the internal connection design, and the geometric integrity during a potential stepwise casting sequence. The construction of the demonstrator verified the shape control and fabrication design.In only 36 h, the bespoke falsework gridshell was efficiently assembled from its kit-of-parts of standard rebar elements with adequate precision, logistics, time, and material resources. It was relatively lightweight, compact for transport, and employed low-tech construction techniques common to the rebar industry. Its structural geometry and informed bending-active logic enabled its efficient construction without digital fabrication or wasteful, costly moulds, which typically present the bottleneck for custom concrete structures. The resulting funicular concrete skeleton shell saves structural mass, hence embodied carbon, compared to unarticulated bending-dominant typologies. The overarching motivation of the research is to outline a strategy that could mitigate the environmental impact of the construction sector, applicable to a broad range of technological contexts.

The Hidden Dimension of Façades: Fractal Analysis Reveals Composition Rules in Classical and Renaissance Architecture

This study uses fractal analysis to measure the detailed intensity of well-known Classical and Renaissance façades. The study develops a method to understand their interrelated design principles more comprehensively. With this evaluation tool, one can observe intrinsic connections that support the historical continuity and point out balancing composition protocols, such as the ‘compensation rule’, that regulated design for centuries. The calculations offer mathematical constants to identify Classical and Renaissance details by plasticity rates. Finally, we base this method on spatial evaluation. Our calculations involve depth, which connects planar front views with the haptic reality of the façades’ tectonic layers. The article also discusses the cultural and urban implications of our results.

Learning from Design Failures: A Virtual Mathematics Tutoring Program

In this design case, we describe our first attempt to create a virtual mathematics tutoring program for students with learning disabilities. We describe in detail how the design was motivated by the pandemic which forced schools into remote learning, how a university and school collaborated on the design, the rationale for our design decisions, and aspects of the design that did not meet the intended outcomes. Three interrelated design failures included problems with flexible scheduling, challenges seeing students’ work, and inconsistent use of a collaborative, communication tool. Pervasive to all these failures were underlying communication issues associated with being remote. We share our experience learning from and altering our design of these features for the future

Developing teacher curriculum design expertise: using the CDC Model in the music classroom

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to discuss the impact of the Curriculum Design Coherence Model (CDC Model – Rata, 2019) on the design practice of two music teachers in a middle school music class in New Zealand. The CDC Model proposes that deep learning first requires deep design coherence. This coherence is generated by three interrelated design dimensions: (i) the ‘surfacing’ of epistemic structure, (ii) the use of subject concepts and (iii) the interrelationship between ‘knowledge-that’ (knowledge of something) and ‘know-how-to’ (knowing how to do something with that knowledge of something). We discuss how the model has been put to use in the design of a song writing unit of work for students aged 10–12 years in a general music class and note the impact of the model on the developing design expertise of the two music teachers involved in a wider research project.

Multi-Objective Evolutionary formulations for design of hybrid Earth observing constellations

With the recent advances in satellite miniaturization, communication and information technologies, and the advent of affordable small satellite launch services, there has been a paradigm shift in space exploration missions involving the transition from monolithic architectures formed by a large satellite to the concept of Distributed Spacecraft Missions (DSM), which fly multiple simpler and less costly satellites to offer increased capabilities such as better temporal, spatial, and angular sampling. Despite the potential to provide higher science return and novel data products, the orbit selection problem for Earth Observation DSMs requires a much more complex constellation design process, which involves several interrelated design variables and conflicting objectives. Because of this, prior work has focused mostly on relatively simple DSM architectures consisting of a single type of constellation, such as homogeneous Walker constellations. This paper presents a novel evolutionary formulation (i.e., chromosome and operators) in the context of Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms (MOEA) that allows for the exploration of large tradespaces of non-Walker hybrid satellite constellations with diversity of orbital parameters. The idea behind this new formulation is that it allows to search through the space of different types of constellations – such as Walker formations, Sun-synchronous trains and string-of-pearls among others – and combinations thereof. This type of hybrid constellations have not been studied in detail. The methodology presented in this paper helps overcome the combinatorial explosion resulting when opening up the design space to include non-symmetrical configurations and relaxing constraints in the values of some orbital parameters (e.g. choosing a common altitude or inclination for all satellites forming the constellation). The proposed formulation is compared with a state-of-the-art evolutionary formulation using a variable-length chromosome in 5 different problems including the observation of symmetrical, asymmetrical, connected and disconnected regions of interest. Results show that the proposed formulations achieve better convergence and convergence rate than the state-of-the-art. The proposed method can reduce the effort required to design a problem formulation for each problem instance, while also reducing the risk of missing potentially good architectures due to formulations that are too restrictive and rely too much on previous experience and expertise.

The rise of GovTech: Trojan horse or blessing in disguise? A research agenda

As GovTech solutions are steadily entering the public sector, they have yet to find their way into the mainstream literature. GovTech refers to socio-technical solutions – that are developed and operated by private organisations – intertwined with public sector components for facilitating processes in the public sector. GovTech solutions promise a superior customer journey for citizens and businesses compared to current government portals and front desks. GovTech solutions can be a blessing in disguise for governments struggling in their digital transformation journey, carrying the burden of public service innovation and replacing legacy systems with modern GovTech solutions. Yet, there are also concerns that GovTech solutions are a Trojan horse, exploiting the lack of technical knowledge at public agencies and shifting decision-making power from public agencies to market parties, thereby undermining digital sovereignty and public values. This paper develops a research agenda for GovTech based on a conceptual framework. This framework reveals four interrelated design areas for GovTech: institutional, governance, technical and human-centred design. Governments can employ the conceptual framework to further align and develop their strategies by focussing on GovTech governance, referring to the ability to manage the various interdependencies between the four design areas.

Use of criterial analysis to assess the aero-gas-dynamic perfection of surface-to-air missile

The appearance of surface-to-air missiles (SAM) – in general and their control systems – in particular, should be determined by the experience embodied in the most advanced close analogues based on the main interrelated design conditions. These conditions should follow from the given functional purpose of the object: the method of guidance, the range and height of destruction of air targets, the characteristic type of targets, the method of launching the rocket, the construction of control system. A number of dimensionless complexes have been proposed, which, similarly to the efficiency, express the perfection of certain characteristics of missiles: transport, high-speed, high-altitude. As a necessary prerequisite for analyzing the perfection of the embodied technical solutions, a representative array of tactical and technical characteristics of missiles was used. A method for analyzing the aerogasdynamic perfection of known SAM samples and similar objects based on the theory of similarity and dimension with the use of criterion spaces is proposed. A number of examples of the application of the method for obtaining expert assessments to ensure design work at the stage of forming the appearance of missiles as part of the corresponding complexes and systems are given. An attempt was made to comprehend the relevance of the application and the prospects for further promotion of the “popular” today methods of controlling missiles (impulse micromotors), as well as the principles of “hit-to-kill”. The tendency of improving the copied missile samples and the development of the designated class of equipment is revealed.

DESIGNING LIGHTWEIGHT OPEN INNOVATION: A CONCEPTUALISATION OF HOW LARGE FIRMS ENGAGE WITH SMALL ENTREPRENEURIAL FIRMS

There is increasing scholarly interest in how large corporations engage in open innovation with small entrepreneurial firms, with synergies potentially producing positive outcomes for both the involved parties and the surrounding ecosystem. “Lightweight models” of open innovation (LOIs) have recently been introduced, governed by trust and relationships rather than by equity ownership and transactional control. This paper introduces a design framework and an alignment model for LOIs, based on 19 inductively generated and highly interrelated design elements associated with five design themes. The study uses empirical data from 18 LOI initiatives in Sweden, and the framework explains important differences in their motives, value propositions, innovation localizations, involved participants, and forms of interactions. Applying a value perspective to open innovation highlights two different value logics, suggesting that LOI initiatives can approach value by emphasizing either value creation or value capture. These logics may greatly influence other important design elements of LOIs.

A Holistic Strategy for Successful Photovoltaic (PV) Implementation into Singapore’s Built Environment

Based on the findings from a recent study by the authors which examined factors affecting diffusion of photovoltaics (PV), while comprehensively considering the local PV and construction industry as well as characteristics of the built environment, this paper proposes a holistic strategy for PV implementation into Singapore’s built environment. It consists of (1) a multilevel mechanism framework, encompassing eleven mechanism categories of instruments and activities and (2) a general design framework including design principles, general project instructions and the main design guidelines. Relying on a survey conducted among PV experts on established mechanisms, the present study suggests that building codes (e.g., fire safety, structural safety, etc.) and initiatives and incentives related to PV/building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) should be the highest priority for authorities, followed by assessment of BIPV/PV properties, working toward social acceptance, conducting research projects and information exchange, and education and training activities. Considering all three pillars of sustainability, the design framework is based on the following interrelated design principles: (1) compatibility and coherence with the local context, (2) technical soundness, (3) economic viability, (4) user-centered design, (5) connecting with community and socio-cultural context, and (6) adaptability and flexibility. Despite Singapore’s scarcity of land, the established design guidelines cover a wide spectrum of solutions, including PV integration into both buildings and non-building structures. The synthesis of the two interconnected and inseparable frameworks aims to create an environment conducive to long-term widespread PV integration and stimulate the deployment of BIPV, which should help Singapore and other cities reduce their dependency on imported fossil fuels, while also making them more livable and enjoyable.

ПОЛИЛИНЕЙНЫЙ ПОДХОД В СОВРЕМЕННОМ ПРЕДСТАВЛЕНИИ ИСТОРИИ ДИЗАЙНА

The rapid development over the past decades is the main difference between the history of design and the history of art and architecture. Due to the sensitive reaction to social changes, the history of design shows us evolutionary processes through the subject forms surrounding a person. The assumption that objects are a kind of cultural quintessence, demonstrating to us the level of technology development, consumer preferences, and methods of designing and shaping, reinforces the need for a comprehensive and multi-aspect consideration of evolutionary processes in the history of design. In this regard, the author refers to modern methods of considering historical and cultural processes and applies them to the history of design, taking into account the specifics of the object under consideration. As a result, the article discusses the transition from a monolinear approach to the consideration of historical processes to a multilinear one using the history of design as an example. It is proposed to study the history of design as a single multilinear process, consisting of relatively independent movements (lines) of design, linked into a single design and art system with common features (art-style, formal-compositional, etc.) and development trends. The conceptual historical and theoretical model of multilinear historical development of design reflects the specifics of design as a complex type of design and artistic activity and the features of its development at the modern post-industrial stage of society development. The article also formulates the basic principles of a multilinear representation of the history of design, such as "phenomenological principle", "historical-geographic principle", "phenomenal-geographic principle", "principle of interrelated design profiles", "principle of multilevel matrix", i.e. the principles forming the basis of the historical-theoretical model of design history.

Basic Concepts of Engineering Risk Management for Fastenings and Risk Register Based on Industry Survey

Fastenings are becoming increasingly important in modern building practice. A wide range of products cover for the great flexibility that they provide in a large variety of applications. In order to ensure the safe and economical use of the fastenings, a combined effort of manufacturing firms, practicing engineers and constructors, research organizations, and public authorities has led to the establishment of interrelated design standards, application guidance, and product approvals. It is however evident that failures, in fact even small defects, of fastenings can lead to disproportionate catastrophic events. In addition to these state-of-the-art documents, which reflect the most precise knowledge possible, a management of possible residual risks and hence causes of failure is also indispensable. Due to the great range of fastening systems with different dimensioning and assembly guidelines, load-bearing behaviour and areas of application, and the overall complexity of the subject, a coherent risk management procedure against structural risks can be very helpful in this respect. This article deals with the technical and load-bearing related risks of fastening technology in construction. The objective of the paper is to introduce fundamental concepts and significant risks met in the fastenings design specification and installation. Moreover, it provides a rating of the identified risks and it transfers recommendations for risk mitigation, based on semi-structured interviews with expert professionals who are active in the field. The results are accumulated in a dedicated risk register as a standard tool of the risk management process in civil engineering, which is the first of its kind in current scientific literature. The aim is to assist future practice and research by providing a basis for risk management considerations for fastenings, which moreover reflects actual risks indicated in the outcome of an industry survey.

Development and application of a preliminary design methodology for modern low emissions aero combustors

In this article, a preliminary design framework containing a detailed design methodology is developed for modern low emissions aero combustors. The inter-related design elements involving flow distribution, combustor sizing, heat transfer and cooling, emission and performance are coupled in the design process. The physics-based and numerical methods are provided in detail, in addition to empirical or semi-empirical methods. Feasibility assessment on the developed work is presented via case studies. The proposed combustor sizing methodology produces feasible combustor dimensions against the public-domain low emissions combustors. The results produced by the physics-based method show a reasonable agreement with experimental data to represent NOx emissions at key engine power conditions. The developed emission prediction method shows the potential to assess current and future technologies. A two-dimensional global prediction on liner wall temperature distribution for different cooling systems is reasonably captured by the developed finite difference method. It can be of use in the rapid identification of design solutions and initiating the optimisation of the design variables. The altitude relight efficiency predicted shows that the method could be used to provide an indicative assessment of combustor altitude relight capability at the preliminary design phase. The methodology is applied and shows that it enables the automatic design process for the development of a conceptual lean staged low emissions combustor. The design evaluation is then performed. A sensitivity analysis is carried out to assess the design uncertainties. The optimisation of the air distribution and cooling geometrical parameters addresses the trade-off between the NOx emissions and liner wall cooling, which demonstrates that the developed work has potential to identify and solve the design challenges at the early stages of the design process.

Scalable and Robust Fabrication, Operation, and Control of Compliant Modular Robots.

A major goal of autonomous robot collectives is to robustly perform complex tasks in unstructured environments by leveraging hardware redundancy and the emergent ability to adapt to perturbations. In such collectives, large numbers is a major contributor to system-level robustness. Designing robot collectives, however, requires more than isolated development of hardware and software that supports large scales. Rather, to support scalability, we must also incorporate robust constituents and weigh interrelated design choices that span fabrication, operation, and control with an explicit focus on achieving system-level robustness. Following this philosophy, we present the first iteration of a new framework toward a scalable and robust, planar, modular robot collective capable of gradient tracking in cluttered environments. To support co-design, our framework consists of hardware, low-level motion primitives, and control algorithms validated through a kinematic simulation environment. We discuss how modules made primarily of flexible printed circuit boards enable inexpensive, rapid, low-precision manufacturing; safe interactions between modules and their environment; and large-scale lattice structures beyond what manufacturing tolerances allow using rigid parts. To support redundancy, our proposed modules have on-board processing, sensing, and communication. To lower wear and consequently maintenance, modules have no internally moving parts, and instead move collaboratively via switchable magnets on their perimeter. These magnets can be in any of three states enabling a large range of module configurations and motion primitives, in turn supporting higher system adaptability. We introduce and compare several controllers that can plan in the collective's configuration space without restricting motion to a discrete occupancy grid as has been done in many past planners. We show how we can incentively redundant connections to prevent single-module failures from causing collective-wide failure, explore bad configurations which impede progress as a result of the motion constraints, and discuss an alternative “naive” planner with improved performance in both clutter-free and cluttered environments. This dedicated focus on system-level robustness over all parts of a complete design cycle, advances the state-of-the-art robots capable of long-term exploration.

A theory of branched situational judgment tests and their applicant reactions

PurposeBranched situational judgment tests (BSJTs) are an increasingly common employee selection method, yet there is no theory and very little empirical work explaining the designs and impacts of branching. To encourage additional research on BSJTs, and to provide practitioners with a common language to describe their current and future practices, we sought to develop a theory of BSTJs.Design/methodology/approachGiven the absence of theory on branching, we utilized a ground theory qualitative research design, conducting interviews with 25 BSJT practitioner subject matter experts.FindingsOur final theory consists of three components: (1) a taxonomy of BSJT branching features (contingency, parallelism, convergence, and looping) and options within those features (which vary), (2) a causal theoretical model describing impacts of branching in general on applicant reactions via proximal effects on face validity, and (3) a causal theoretical model describing impacts on applicant reactions among branching designs via proximal effects on consistency of administration and opportunity to perform.Originality/valueOur work provides the first theoretical foundation on which future confirmatory research in the BSJT domain can be built. It also gives both researchers and practitioners a common language for describing branching features and their options. Finally, it reveals BSJTs as the results of a complex set of interrelated design features, discouraging the oversimplified contrasting of “branching” vs “not branching.”

How to prevent medication errors: a multidimensional scaling study to investigate the distinguishability between self-injection platform device variants

ABSTRACTBackground: The importance of subcutaneous drug delivery using self-injection devices based on common device platforms continues to grow. The resulting broad adoption of potentially look-alike or similar devices, however, raises concerns over limited device distinguishability and ensuing risk of medication errors. The objective of the study is thus to understand whether and how users effectively distinguish between self-injection device variants.Methods: Seventy-four patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals were asked to pairwise rate the similarity of eight platform autoinjector variants. Multidimensional scaling was then used to convert individual ratings into spatial configurations and thereby identify the attributes that influence device distinguishability.Results: Five different device attributes driving distinguishability were identified. Three of the attributes corresponded to single design features (the label color, device size and device shape). Two device attributes (the aspect ratio and chromaticity) combined distinct yet interrelated design features.Conclusions: The study provides initial empirical evidence that users are able to distinguish between device variants and as to what device attributes drive distinguishability. Furthermore, the results highlight patterns in how various user groups distinguish between device variants. These patterns relate with the user group characteristics (e.g. age, sight or dexterity) and the context of device usage (e.g. healthcare professionals).

Efficiency improvement of technological preparation of power equipment manufacturing

Competitiveness of power equipment primarily depends on speeding-up the development and mastering of new equipment samples and technologies, enhancement of organisation and management of design, manufacturing and operation. Actual political, technological and economic conditions cause the acute need in changing the strategy and tactics of process planning. At that the issues of maintenance of equipment with simultaneous improvement of its efficiency and compatibility to domestically produced components are considering. In order to solve these problems, using the systems of computer-aided process planning for process design at all stages of power equipment life cycle is economically viable. Computer-aided process planning is developed for the purpose of improvement of process planning by using mathematical methods and optimisation of design and management processes on the basis of CALS technologies, which allows for simultaneous process design, process planning organisation and management based on mathematical and physical modelling of interrelated design objects and production system. An integration of computer-aided systems providing the interaction of informative and material processes at all stages of product life cycle is proposed as effective solution to the challenges in new equipment design and process planning.

A new image for a new profession: Self-image and representation in the professionalization of design in Britain, 1945–1960

This article explores the relationship between self-image, representation and professionalization in the formative years of the design profession in Britain between 1945 and 1960 through a focused empirical study of two independent but interrelated design organizations, the Society of Industrial Artists and the Council of Industrial Design. The article examines publications, correspondence and internal memoranda to identify attempts by both institutions to manage, steer and govern the professional image of the designer. As this material reveals, both organizations held the image of the gentleman professional as an aspirational figure for emerging designers. Attending to a gap in historical and sociological readings of the professions, the article establishes the discursive function of self-image in relation to the particular value of professionalism in design, suggesting that dress, behaviour and physical appearance can be read as sources through which to historicize and theorize the shifting status of the designer in the cultural economy.

Evaluation of optimization algorithms for the design of a magnetic cell separator for malaria-infected blood

Recently, a dialysis-like filtration device has been devised to remove the red blood cells infected with the malaria parasite from whole blood using magnetic separation techniques. The capturing efficiency of this process depends on many interrelated design variables and constraints such as magnetic pole array pitch, channel height, length and flow rate. In this study, these parameters are varied in several common optimization algorithms, so as to minimize the channel length while maximizing the capturing efficiency. The equations of motion are solved numerically to predict the trajectories of the infected cells within an idealized rectangular micro-channel incorporating periodic high gradient magnetic poles. The channel length of the optimized design is obtained, together with the associated capturing efficiency. The optimization of the channel geometry and flow rate improves the efficiency of the device.

Communities of Practice in Design Research

Based on observed changes in design focus largely due to the widespread availability of technology, design research and its role in education and practice need to be newly situated. Design itself is taking on new challenges. Former requirements for legitimate teaching of design are called into question along with the vague classification and understanding of research generally, or in relation to design specifically. Research, theory, and practice are interrelated design elements; they are not isolated; together they can form the basis for developing more useful and specific communities of practice. Related research traditions or domains of interest provide scaffolding, critique, and clear communication for such communities. Design research, as an integral part of design education at all levels, requires its own curricular scaffolding. As more collaborative work is undertaken, designers need to understand other disciplinary approaches to research; their internal presumptions, accepted processes, assessments of validity, and limitations.