Theme 5: Design research - prior

Comics, Robotics, Fashion and Programming: outlining the concept of actDresses

The paper Comics, Robotics, Fashion and Programming: outlining the concept of actDresses by Fernaeus and Jacobsson (2009) explores the basic theories of semiotics represented in comics and fashion and how they can be used in the development of new physical languages. In the paper the authors draws upon how robotic consumer products can be accessorized by different signs to control the functionality of the robot. The methods being used are first an investigation in current approaches to physical programming and semiotic theory before developing their own design concept, which they apply to three different cases. The developed design makes use of physical markings attached to a digital artifact, and that signifies some property, action or behavior of that artifact.

Since the theme for this week are design research I tried to get the perception of what it means, by learning from this paper, since I did not really understand just by looking at the term. The research should of course be about design but that can be a rather broad concept in my opinion. What I can draw from the paper when it comes to design research is the use of creating your own design concept. Making use of example cases could be a way of illustrating the concept, as they did in the paper, but also I think it can be a good way of evaluating the design. Mixing design research with quantitative and qualitative methods could, in my opinion, be a good way to evaluate a design concept.

The question I want to discuss on the lecture is: when is it needed to do design research?

Your Mobile Into the Ball: Rendering Live Football Game Using Vibration

The paper Turn Your Mobile Into the Ball: Rendering Live Football Game Using Vibration by Li et al (2008) addresses rendering of live football games on mobile phone by using vibrations.

As we have seen in the paper by Li et al (2008) and as I have discussed to some extent above, a proof of concept prototype can be developed to evaluate a certain concept or a theory. The evaluation can give evidence of whether the concept has the potential for a real-world application. In the paper a questionnaire is used to investigate if the testing subjects are willing to buy such a product. Their result was that only the proof of concept prototype was not enough to convince the users to buy, but the interest of such a concept was very high. So I think that it could be necessary to develop a proof of concept prototype in order to better understand the concept, evaluate it and to create an interest in it for the possible future buyers. In the evaluation I think it is important to determine the feasibility of the concept.

In my opinion a prototype can take its form in many different ways and thus have a variety of characteristics. I think it depends very much on which research field you are talking about. A common denominator for all prototypes, in my opinion, is that they are developed to test and evaluate a concept or a design. A characteristic of a prototype is that they represent some compromise from the final design. I think that a limitation of using prototypes is that the evaluating subjects can get stuck on the prototype and not get the concept or design behind it. Thus the evaluation is concentrated more on the flaws of the prototype than the concept in general. If this is good or bad depends although maybe on the purpose of the evaluation. A prototype can be used to reduce the risk that a design does not perform as intended, but I think that in many cases all risks cannot be eliminated. This is due to the practical limitations to the ability of the prototype to match the final design. For example in the mobile vibration prototype, they were not able to use live video streaming but instead they used a short recorded video of 10 minutes. In my opinion, this is something that may have affected the feeling of using the prototype since maybe you have watched the game before.