Category: PORTFOLIO

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PORTFOLIO Research

RESEARCH STUDY: DIY Tutorials & the role of designers – SFU

Simon Fraser University, SIAT, Everyday Design Studio, Summer 2013 – Summer 2014

Aiming to examine the quality of DIY tutorials, we put ourselves in the position of DIY enthusiasts, attempting to build ten DIY projects by following their tutorials. We documented this process and analyzed our experiences and observations. In the context of our study, we believe that the process of following the tutorials ourselves is a straightforward way to investigate the challenges and opportunities of DIY instructions.

We will be presenting a paper using findings from this study at CHI 2015:

Wakkary, R., Schlling, M., Dalton, M., Hauser, S., Desjardins, A., Zhang, X., & Lin, H. (2015). Tutorial Authorship and Hybrid Designers: The Joy (and Frustration) of DIY Tutorials. In Proceedings of the conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’15). ACM, New York, NY, USA, (forthcoming, April 2015). (10pgs).

Here is the abstract:

Tutorials are critical to the success and vitality of DIY practices. In this paper, we elevate the importance of tutorial authorship as one way to maintain and improve the quality of tutorials in DIY. We discuss the role interaction designers can play as hybrid designers, mediating between author and audience to contribute to the improvement of practices of tutorial authorship in DIY. We examine the quality of tutorials through the building and analysis of ten DIY projects and tutorials. We analyze key issues across three categories: 1) competences, components and tools, 2) sequencing, 3) and communication. We offer findings that are both practical guidelines for detailed improvements of tutorials and structural themes for improving tutorial authorship including the themes of accurate information, competences and tools, and tutorial format. In conclusion, we discuss the potential for interaction designers to simultaneously mediate and shape tutorials and tools in a form of hybrid design

 

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Design PORTFOLIO Research

DESIGN RESEARCH: Interactions of Guide Dog Teams – SFU

Simon Fraser University, SIAT, PhD Studies, Spring 2012 – Fall 2013

The visually impaired have been a longstanding well recognized user group addressed in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Recently, the study of sighted dog owners and their pets has gained interest in HCI. Despite this, there is a noticeable gap in the field of HCI with regards to research on and for visually impaired owners and their dogs (guide dog teams).

This research specifically focuses on guide dog teams, presenting an ethnographic study that explores the interactions of guide dog teams revealing differences between their work and off-work relationship. Some of our findings promote design interventions that address issues of awareness, pride, confidence, and trust present in guide dog teams at work but absent in off-work scenarios. We uncover potential for the design of new computer-mediated technologies that can better support the needs of guide dog owners; specifically, enhanced play-interaction through accessible dog toys utilizing smart sensor technologies and mobile apps.

The study has been an incredible experience and taught me a lot about Guide Dogs and their handlers and ethnographic fieldwork. BC Guide Dogs has been a very helpful partner in this work.

 

We published several works on this project:

Hauser, S., Wakkary, R., & Neustaedter, C., (2014). Understanding guide dog team interactions: design opportunities to support work and play. In Proc. of the 2014 conference on Designing interactive systems (DIS 14). ACM, NY, USA, pp. 295-304.

Hauser, S., Wakkary, R., & Neustaedter, C. (2014). Improving guide dog team play with accessible dog toys. In Proc. of CHI EA‘14. ACM, NY, USA, pp. 1537-1542.

Hauser, S., Wakkary, R., and Neustaedter, C., (2013) Work vs. Play: A Study of Guide Dog Team Interactions, GRAND NCE Conference, Research Notes, Grand’13.

I have picked up this work in my doctoral dissertation work and taken it a step further by using the lens of postphenomenology to complement human-centered ways of studying these human-non-human teams.

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Design PORTFOLIO Research

RESEARCH AND DESIGN: Speculative Design, AGO, Toronto – SFU

Simon Fraser University, SIAT, Everyday Design Studio, Spring 2013 – present

We began working on a project in collaboration with Art Gallery Ontario (AGO) in 2013. The overall longterm goal will be to design futuristic prototypes (design fictions, speculative designs) for the AGO.  So far, we have visited the AGO 4 times and conducted a participants workshop at the AGO, analyzed parts of the workshop data and have engaged in a first part of an rather unconventional design process.

The workshop was conducted to gather data that can stimulate and inspire the design of future prototypes known in this case as design fictions that will be presented in the AGO as a reflective installation that encourages visitors to construct their own interpretation of the Canadian collection.

 

Design Workshop

The core goal of this workshop (which we named Eclipse) is to shift the focus of workshop participants to the edges of their experience of a known public place. For example, our workshop aims to elicit memories of smell and qualities of light. How mundane objects like furniture, electrical outlets, motion sensors or ceiling textures influence our participants’ experiences of place. How these qualities shape the memories, perceptual experiences, and public and personal stories that people bring to or create within a public place. Our workshop guides the participants to sequentially explore their memories, sensations, sense of place, and stories.

We published a pictorial, in which we explain this workshop we held at the AGO in its Canadian Art Collection with 13 participants.

Wakkary, R., Desjardins, A., Odom, W., Hauser, S., & Aflatoony, L., (2014). Eclipse: eliciting the subjective qualities of public places. In Proc. of DIS 14. ACM, NY, pp. 151-160. (10pgs, Pictorial)

 

Next Phase in the Design Process

For our last visit, I and another team member prepared Non-human storyboards telling the story of something non-human living at the AGO. With those storyboards we began filming footage for short films about those things. A rather unconventional but very interesting and fun process.

 

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PORTFOLIO Research

RESEARCH STUDY: Community & Practices of Skateboarding – SFU

Simon Fraser University, SIAT, PhD Studies, Summer 2012 – Present

As an ex-skateboarder, I’ve been interested in skateboarding for a while. When I came to the Everyday Design Studio in 2011/2012 I was introduced to research studies on everyday design that had been done. Everyday design qualifies and defines the types of actions that people do to creatively transform and adapt objects in their daily lives. It highlights a form of creativity that we all take part in and one that helps us negotiate our daily lives through design-in-use and appropriation. Everyday design also includes the work of hobbyists and amateurs who make and reuse design artifacts in their practice. When it came to picking a first topic to explore from a research and everyday design perspective, I immediately thought about looking at how skateboards have been appropriated. Since then, I conducted two studies.

 

Skateboards and Everyday Design – First Study

My first study was looking at the appropriation of (broken) skateboards surveying how everyday designer reuse, transform, adapt and appropriate (broken or old) skateboards. People, most of them somehow involved in the skateboarding culture, make art, furniture, accessories, jewelry and other things out of old or broken skateboards. See some examples in the images. I interviewed 5 people that were upcycling skateboards to learn about the specifics of their intentions and processes. This study can be seen as a pilot study. We published a WiP (Work-in-Progress paper and poster) about this study. In the paper we used the study findings to reveal a new lens on mobile technology by seeing the skateboard itself as a mobile technology.

Hauser, S., Desjardins, A., & Wakkary, R. (2013). Skateboards as a mobile technology. In Proc. of  CHI EA‘13. ACM, NY, USA, pp. 1419-1424. (5 pgs)

 

The Practice of Skateboarding and Technologies – Second Study

My second study followed up on looking at the skateboard with the developed technology lens. Skateboards can be seen as a personal technology as well and reveal insight into this type of technology as well. Looking also at the practice of skateboarding with this lens reveals interesting facts around technology design and practice-oriented design. In this study I interviewd 12 Skateboarders about their practice and experience of skateboarding, which revealed extremely interesting insight into the phenomenon of skateboarding as a practice, a subculture, an activity, an embodied practice etc. I’m working on another publication with study findings from my second study, in which I interviewed and observed several skateboarders.

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Design PORTFOLIO Research Teaching

RESEARCH & DESIGN PROJECT: CityStudio – Local Foodsteps – SFU, City of Vancouver

CityStudio Cohort Fall 2013, Supervised by Duane Elverum, Janet Moore, Lena Soots.

I was an observing participant of the CityStudio cohort in Fall 2013 investigating different experiential learning models concerned with making practices. CityStudio is a project school and energetic hub of learning and leadership inside Vancouver City Hall and helps students gain hands-on experience with complex real world problems, while co-creating solutions on the ground with City staff.

My project team worked on ‘Local Foodsteps’, a wayfinding project that aims to increase the awareness of local food assets in Vancouver’s neighbourhoods. Signs attached on poles in the city point to a range of places including urban farms, grocery stores, restaurants, and community gardens. See our documentation HERE.

This project was done in collaboration with Colette Cartier, Larry Ho, & Lihwen Hsu.

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PORTFOLIO Research

RESEARCH STUDY: Practices of Repair & Green DIY – SFU

Simon Fraser University, SIAT, PhD Studies, Summer 2012 – Fall 2013

At the Everyday Design Studio we conducted two different studies of green practices: the practice of everyday repair and the practice of green-DIY. These two studies show the range and differences between practices of sustainability. The Everyday Repair Study was conducted prior to me coming to SIAT. The Green-DIY study, which I was part of, aims at understanding the motivations, objects, tools, and skills used by green enthusiasts (individuals who create projects that support a sustainable lifestyle).

We were mostly interested in understanding the underlying practices of green enthusiasts, using green blogs  as an entryway to observe how people make green projects. We narrowed the results to 5 Web sites: Crafting a Green World, Green Upgrader, Instructables, Planet Green, and Simple Organic.

We then looked at the study data with a framework of Theories of Social Practice differenciating between three practice elements: Competences, Material, Meaning. It showed that in Green DIY practices meaning plays a stronger role than competences, for instance, often enthusiasts are willing to learn new skills if that will enable them to make a sustainable project. More on those studies can be read in the article below.

We published this article on this project:

Wakkary, R., Desjardins, A., Hauser, S. & Maestri, L. (2013) A Sustainable Design Fiction: Green Practices. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI). 20, 4, Article 23 (2013). (34pgs)

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PORTFOLIO Teaching

STUDIO COURSE: Portfolio Design Studio Workshop – SFU

Together with Markus Lorenz Schilling I taught a studio course on Portfolio Design at SIAT, Summer 2013. Undergraduates and graduate students took the studio class.

See our initial course proposal for the course outline mapped to a design process as a PDF HERE or in the images below. And here are slides from our first two sessions: (1), (2).

 

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PORTFOLIO Teaching

BA DESIGN STUDIO COURSE: Capstone Team Mentoring – SFU

In the Spring term 2013 I mentored a project team in their capstone project. I met with them every other week and tried mentor them throughout their design process.

 

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PORTFOLIO Research Teaching

CLASSROOM RESEARCH: Design Activism & HCI Education – SFU

Simon Fraser University, SIAT, PhD Studies, Fall 2012 – Spring 2013

Design activism has a recognized role in design disciplines such as graphic design, sustainable design and architecture. Yet, it has less prominence within HCI (Human-Computer Interaction). Although, design activism has been present in HCI work, it has not been articulated as such. For instance, sustainable HCI and Sustainable Interaction Design are well-known research areas in HCI that involve design activism. In a paper published in 2013, we present two case studies that show design activism in the classroom as examples from which to learn. We highlight themes and observations to encourage future articulation and practice of design activism in HCI and HCI education.

Hauser, S., Desjardins, A. & Wakkary, R. (2013). Design Activism in the HCI Classroom. In Proc. of CHI EA’13. ACM, NY, USA, pp. 2119-2128. (9 pgs, alt.chi)

One of our Case Study is the course Change Lab, which Audrey and I took as participant observers. Audrey and I also co-authored a book chapter, in which we share our experience of that.

Desjardins, A., Hauser, S., McRae, J. A., Ormond, C. G., Rogers, D., & Zandvliet, D. B. (2015). Harnessing Youth Activism with/in Undergraduate Education: A Case Study of Change Lab. In EcoJustice, Citizen Science and Youth Activism (pp. 349-361). Springer International Publishing.

Project in collaboration with Audrey Desjardins and Ron Wakkary at Simon Fraser University, SIAT.

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PORTFOLIO Research

RESEARCH STUDY: car2go EcoScore, Before-After-Control-Impact Study – SFU

Simon Fraser University, SIAT, Course on quantitative research methods. Instructor: Professor Bernhard Riecke

I got the chance to collaborate with the carsharing company car2go in Vancouver. I conducted a Before-After-Control-Impact (BACI) Study investigating the impact of car2go’s Eco-Score on members driving behaviour.

The Eco-Score monitors the efficiency of the members driving style by measuring the accelerations, the breaking maneuvers, and the overall driving style for the most efficient fuel economy. It calculates Eco-Scores and presents them to the driver. The displays in the cars show how efficient the driving style is by showing percentage values of the three categories acceleration, evenness of driving, the vehicles roll-out. Each value is illustrated with a picture of a tree, which gets bigger with better values.

Here is the final class paper of this work.