The importance of a general public being informed about science and technology has never been greater. Research institutions add to informal science communication with face-to-face events, during which the public interacts with scientific prototypes, functioning as science exhibits, in order to learn about science. The relevance of these out-of-the-lab science exhibits, for enabling the visitor to actively learn through experiences, has neither been explored nor recognised. This article illuminates this relevance, context and background, concluding with a research procedure.

In der Produktentwicklung ist eine interdisziplinäre, cross-funktionale Herangehensweise zwingend notwendig, um die komplexen Rahmenbedingungen der Produktentwicklung zu beherrschen. Insbesondere an der Schnittstelle zwischen Technik und Industriedesign kommt es jedoch durch die Heterogenität im Team immer wieder zu Problemen bei der Zusammenarbeit. Eine wichtige Rolle spielen dabei die funktionale Heterogenität, die sich aus der Zugehörigkeit zu Funktionseinheiten ergibt, sowie die fachliche Heterogenität, die durch Unterschiede bezüglich Wissen, Kompetenzen oder der (Aus-)Bildung entsteht. Die Forschungslage zu diesen berufsbezogenen Heterogenitätsmerkmalen wird als ambivalent beschrieben, weshalb sie in diesem Beitrag näher beleuchtet wird.

Materialien geben Produkten ihre Hülle, werden vom Betrachter unterschiedlich wahrgenommen und sind maßgeblich für die Akzeptanz oder Ablehnung eines Produktes verantwortlich. Obschon die Überprüfung der Akzeptanz von Materialen aus ökologischer und ökonomischer Sicht Sinn macht, beschränken sich Akzeptanzmodelle bislang weitgehend auf Technikinnovationen. Im Rahmen der Dissertation soll deshalb ein Akzeptanzmodell zur Überprüfung der Akzeptanzbereitschaft von Materialien entstehen. Aus der Perspektive des Designs werden am Beispiel Ledersubstitution Einflussfaktoren und Akzeptanzbarrieren definiert, ein neues Akzeptanzmodell zur Optimierung oder Gestaltung von Materialien entwickelt und mit bestehenden Ledersubstituten erprobt. Kurz gefasst lässt sich die Arbeit wie folgt beschreiben: Methodisch fokussiert sich die Arbeit auf die Entwicklung eines Materialakzeptanzmodells um das Ziel der Arbeit, die Optimierung und Gestaltung von akzeptierten Lederalternativen, zu erreichen. Warum sich die Arbeit auf Leder und seine Substitute beschränkt wird im folgenden Abschnitt erläutert.

Der Zuwachs an Textile Waste ist eine zentrale Herausforderung der Textilbranche. Der Bedarf nach Textilien steigt und Textilien werden in Ausgestaltung und Funktionalität zunehmend komplexer. Oft werden dabei unterschiedliche Eigenschaften verschiedener Materialien genutzt. Dies führt zu einem Materialmix, der das Textil-Recycling vor zusätzliche Herausforderungen stellt. Das Projekt verbindet die Herausforderung steigender Mengen an Textile Waste mit dem Anspruch, komplexe textile Produkte zu schaffen.

Hohe Produktivität und niedrige Kosten sind zentrale Kriterien von Produktionsmaschinen. Doch auch die Qualität und Leistungsfähigkeit der Mensch-Maschine-Schnittstelle (humanmachine interface – HMI) gewinnt an Relevanz bei der Gesamtbewertung einer Maschine. Das liegt auch daran, dass der Mensch als Maschinenbediener oder -überwacher in digitalisierten und Hochgeschwindigkeitsproduktionsprozessen schnell zum Flaschenhals der Informationsverarbeitung und damit ein limitierender Faktor für die Produktivität werden kann. Denn mit der Digitalisierung der Produktionssysteme erweitert sich die Menge an verfügbaren Informationen drastisch und neue Komplexfunktionalitäten wie Assistenzsysteme und dezentrale Überwachungsaufgaben führen zu neuen vielschichtigen Bedienfunktionen. Moderne HMIs müssen dabei nicht nur ergonomisch, sondern auch intuitiv und leistungsfähig sein und mit den richtigen Bedienfunktionen ein reibungsloses und sicheres Bedienen der Maschinen unterstützen.

The current prevailing take-make-waste economy has caused the global climate crisis, operating outside the Planetary Boundaries of our planet (Rockström et al., 2009), disrupting nature's balance and affecting all life on earth (WWF and Global Footprint Network, 2019). Both the European Commission and the European Environmental Agency (EEA) sees the transition to a circular economy (CE) within the product category: textiles, apparel and fabrics as a priority to address the climate impact of the textile and clothing industry (Manshoven et al., 2019). Even though there is much research done on how design and products can help companies transition to a CE, there is still an unexplored dimension of the role that consumers play in this transition. Thus, this master thesis aims to fill this research gap by exploring consumer behaviour in different consumption phases as well as the role of consumers in the circular textiles economy and investigate how sustainable clothing companies can design to engage consumers in a circular behaviour and role. By doing so, it is hoped to contribute to a better understanding of the dimension of the consumer in the circular textiles economy and to identify ways to fulfill the CE principle - keep products and materials in use. The study was conducted through a novel implementation of Research through Design in combination with Interactive Research by using the Design Thinking framework as a research process. The research was executed in close collaboration with the Swedish outdoor clothing company Houdini Sportswear.  The results show that a number of Circular Consumer Behaviours are desired to be acted out in four identified phases of a Circular Clothing Consumption Process: Lifestyle Creation, Product Acquisition, Product Use and Product Dispossession. Furthermore, it was found that the role of the Circular Consumer is very complex and consists of various sub-roles on four layers: Functional, Emotional, Life Changing and Social Impact. On the basis of this knowledge, the theoretical concept of Design for Circular Consumers was developed. On the basis of this theory, the Design for Circular Consumers Tool was created as the key contribution of this thesis. This tool facilitates the design of experiences that engage consumers in the circular textiles system and subsequently support clothing companies in their transition to circular business models as a way to address the climate impact of the textiles industry.

My inquiry, centered on the applied practice of teaching, confronts the detachment that often disassociates the intellectual study of music theory from the physical experience of music. This pedagogical detachment, perceived as a split between opposing views of knowledge, privileges positivist science over interpretive art (Aróstegui, 2003), producing written competencies that have little or no musical meaning (Rogers, 2004). Endeavouring to re-attach music theory and the music it was initially intended to explain (Dirié, 2014), I constructed four Listening Guides to align with the intermediate-level theory curriculum of the Royal Conservatory of Music. Their construction incorporates elements of design research along with an underlying framework derived from the Kodály Method’s four-step instructional process. Given my multi-faceted personal/professional interactions with music theory, my research project is presented in the form of a quest narrative that weaves together my story and the stories of participant teachers who established the Listening Guides’ potential usefulness through reviewing and implementing interactions. This narrative, as a creative representation of arts-based research practices (Leavy, 2015), is derived from the blurring of specific cognitive findings and less definable aesthetic knowings (Greenwood, 2012). My data, both the prototypical data I designed and the empirical data I collected from focus group discussions with my participants, are filtered through an a/r/tographic lens that acknowledges the coexistence of my artist/researcher/teacher identities. The analysis of our aggregate narrative, as an exploration of music theory pedagogy with, about, in, and through music, relies on the evaluative tools of educational criticism (Eisner, 1991). Unfolding in a mostly linear climb, my quest for a fully integrated music/theory (art/science) pedagogy reaches its apex in the understanding that a music-logic organization confounds the subject-logic of traditional teaching approaches. Thus, my inquiry challenges the customary practices of scientific knowledge-building with a model for artistic “ways-of-knowing” in music theory pedagogy.

Infografik har blivit en populär metod för att visualisera information i det digitala samhället. Tidigare forskning har fokuserat på hur användare med normal synförmåga på webben uppfattar infografik, men det finns ett behov av att undersöka infografik utifrån ett tillgänglighetsperspektiv för att inkludera användare med synvariationer. I denna studie presenteras designkonceptet “IFA”, som står för “Infografik För Alla”, som är framtaget i syfte att ta reda på hur ett designkoncept för infografik mot en synvarierad målgrupp kan konceptualiseras för att stödja dessa. Konceptet tas fram i enlighet med konceptdriven designforskning. I konceptet presenteras ett eget bidrag i form av färg, nämligen violett, något som författarna inte stött på tidigare inom ämnets forskningsfält. Tidigare rekommenderade färger som turkos och magenta testades och visade sig vara otillgängliga för målgruppen. I övrigt bekräftade konceptet även befintliga teorier, som vikten av hög kontrast mellan text och bakgrund och en lagom stor typgrad. Förslag på framtida forskning kan vara att testa konceptet “IFA” i en verklig kontext, samt att ta fram en version av konceptet som bygger på motsatsen till vad som rekommenderas i denna studie, detta för att kunna jämföra effekterna i en verklighetskontext. / Infographics has become a popular method for displaying information in the digital society. Previous research have mainly focused on how people with normal visual ability perceive infographics on the web, but there is a certain need to examine infographics from a perspective that focuses on accessibility to include people with visual impairment. This paper presents the design concept “IFA”, which stands for “Infographics For All”. The concept was developed with the aim of finding out how a design concept for infographics for the visually impaired can be designed, and was developed by concept-driven design research. The design concept presents a color contribution, the color violet, which the authors have not encountered in the research field of the subject before. Previously recommended colors such as turquoise and magenta were tested and proved inaccessible to the target group. The research of the design concept also confirmed existing theories, such as the importance of high contrast between text and background and fairly large font sizes. Suggestions for future research may contain to test the concept, “IFA”, in a real-life user context, as well as to develop a version of the concept that is based on the opposite of what is recommended in this thesis, to compare the effects of the concepts in a real-life user context.

Människor använder sig allt mer av digitala hälsoplattformar, vilket gör att det genereras mängder av hälsodata från användarnas digitala aktiviteter. Syftet med detta examensarbetet är att med hjälp av en konceptdriven designforskning framställa ett designkoncept för att hantera denna stora mängd hälsodata. Målet med konceptet är att det ska skapa en möjlighet för individer att själva hantera och få tillgång till sin hälsodata som genereras, för att i sin tur även kunna utnyttja det till något meningsfullt.  Med hjälp av en metodologisk guide har konceptet utvecklats, för att ta fram teoretiskt förankrade egenskaper och sammanställa dem till ett koncept i form av en modell. För att få in extern kritik av konceptet involverades tio användare, vilket i sin tur ledde till revidering och kontextualisering av HealthLab. I resultatet presenteras slutgiltligt koncept av Healthlab. Konceptet ska fungera som en multiplattform vars syfte är att samla in externa hälsodata, för att användarna ska få in flera aspekter i deras träning, som ska i sin tur hjälpa till att bidra till en bättre träningsupplevelse. Det slutgiltiga resultatet av HealthLab är tänkt att vara en framtidsvision för att vägleda och väcka nya tankesätt hos forskare och designers. / People are increasingly using digital health platforms, which means that lots of health data is generated from users' digital activities. The purpose of this paper is to develop a design concept to manage this large amount of health data, with the help of concept-driven design research. The goal of the concept is to create an opportunity for individuals to manage and access their generated health data, in order to use it for something meaningful.  With the aid of a methodological guide, the concept has been developed, to create theoretically anchored qualities and to compile them into a concept in the form of a model. To get external criticism of the concept, ten users were involved, which in turn led to revision and contextualisation of HealthLab. In the result, a final concept model is presented of HealthLab. The concept will serve as a multiplatform whose purpose is to collect external health data so that users can get several aspects of their training, which in turn will contribute to a better training experience. The final result of HealthLab is intended to be a vision for the future to guide and awaken new ways of thinking among researchers and designers.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This work is focused on developing viable self-healing coatings, especially considering the viability of the coating in a commercial context. With this in mind, finding low cost healing agents, with satisfactory healing and mechanical properties as well as adapting the healing system for use in coatings was required. Seven potential healing agents were evaluated and an air-drying triglyceride (linseed oil) was identified as the candidate healing agent. Different encapsulation techniques were evaluated and ureaformaldehyde microcapsules were chosen as the candidate encapsulation technique. Self-healing coatings were fabricated using urea-formaldehyde encapsulated linseed oil. EIS, SEM and TGA technologies were used to evaluate mechanical performance, corrosion resistance, and self-healing performance.