In February 2024, the EU Commission initiated proceedings against TikTok, accusing the platform of using an «addictive design,» compounded by harmful content that poses risks to young people1. The visual design of the app, infinite scrolling, sticky content, and personalized recommendations, presents an increased risk to users. Simultaneously, the Council of the European Commission is discussing an Ecodesign Regulation2 that would prohibit the destruction of new goods. Further, the German federal government is soliciting proposals for funding social innovations that aim to «design the transformation in a way that benefits the common good, ensuring the participation and co-creation of affected actors, encouraging lifestyle changes, and balancing out conflicting goals.»3 Design, in this sense, appears twofold: on one hand, as a devious tool for subtle manipulation; on the other, as a beacon of hope, promising to bridge the gap between growth-oriented prosperity and environmentally sustainable living in the spirit of the Green New Deal4. Yet, both examples show that design as a discipline is credited with the power to effect social change, irrespective of the particular canon of values. What could possibly go wrong? – This provocative yet optimistic question serves as the core of this year’s DGTF annual conference, highlighting the role of designers and design practices in addressing current social, political, and ecological challenges. The conference encourages a self-critical examination of design: Should a systematic impact assessment become part of design research’s toolkit, akin to the environmental and sustainability sciences? A parallel discussion asks us to scrutinize design’s influence and the implications of its power. These considerations lead to the central questions of the DGTF Conference 2024: What is the actual power of design? How does design achieve impact? How do we handle the consequences of design? And is it possible to measure the impact of design at all?:Impact measurement and impact assessment in design? Governance of planned change Desing as an agent of change Overview of the contributions in this volume References

Die 20. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Designtheorie und -Forschung (DGTF) im April 2024 stand unter dem Titel 'Design als Wagnis – Risiken und Nebenwirkungen der Gestaltung'. Sie reflektierte über die Rolle von Designer:innen angesichts gesellschaftlicher, politischer und ökologischer Herausforderungen. Zentrale Diskussionspunkte waren die Wirkungsmacht des Designs sowie die Notwendigkeit einer systematischen Wirkungsmessung und Folgenabschätzung. Der Konferenzband “What could possibly go wrong?” beleuchtet die Spannung, die mit der Frage nach der Wirkung im Design einhergeht: Einerseits wird Design als potenzieller Hoffnungsträger gesehen, um eine nachhaltige, gesellschaftliche Transformationen anzustoßen. Andererseits wird der Umgang mit Ressourcen, Produktionsketten oder Erkenntnissen, die im Forschungsprozess gewonnen werden, kritisch hinterfragt, insbesondere in Bezug auf mögliche negative Auswirkungen und Abhängigkeiten und die Reproduktion von Machtstrukturen. Die Publikation kartiert aktuelle Forschungsansätze in der Designforschung, mit der Zielsetzung, die Wirkungsbezüge in Designprozessen, Methodenansätzen und Theoriebildung greifbar zu machen. Die Modellbildung innerhalb der Designforschung steht dahin gehend noch am Anfang, während in den Nachhaltigkeits-, Sozial- und Ingenieurswissenschaften bereits etablierte Modelle existieren. Daher wird die Frage aufgeworfen, wie die Wirkung von Design gemessen werden kann, sowohl in Bezug auf soziale Innovationen und gesellschaftliche Interventionen als auch im Kontext von produzierenden Unternehmen. Der Konferenzband thematisiert erste Ansätze, reflektiert die Rolle von Design in inter- und transdisziplinären Forschungs- und Praxiskooperationen und zeigt dabei die Grenzen und Herausforderungen insbesondere in Bezug auf Machtstrukturen und Ausschlüsse. Die 24 Beiträge aus 20 peer-reviewed Artikeln und drei Visual Essays bieten vielfältige Einblicke zu den Themen Shifting Perspectives, Impact and Measurement, Power and Complicity, Design Challenges, Social Innovation, Designing Governance, Managing Risk? and Exploring the Unknown. In diesem Zusammenhang wird die Designfolgenabschätzung diskutiert sowie die Etablierung einer Fehlerkultur, die Raum bietet für Lernprozesse und unterschiedlichen Perspektiven und nicht zuletzt die Verantwortung von Designer:innen, wenn es darum geht, um soziale, ökologische und wirtschaftliche Ziele zu berücksichtigen und ungehörte Stimmen zu integrieren. Zusammenfassend reflektieren die einzelnen Beiträge über die Notwendigkeit einer kritischen Auseinandersetzung mit dem modernistischen Denken, das oft mit dem Design verbunden wird und techno-optimistische Vorstellungen von der Gestaltung einer besseren Zukunft vermittelt. Es wird angeregt, eine Perspektive einzunehmen, die die Rolle des Designs in einem komplexen Netzwerk von Akteuren und Einflüssen betrachtet und dessen Auswirkungen auf die Gesellschaft, Umwelt und Zukunft kritisch hinterfragt.:What could possibly go wrong? 6 IBACH, AUGSTEN, VOGELSANG SOCIAL INNOVATION AND DESIGN CHALLENGES Incorporate agentiality into the design process for digital pain assessment using a flexible framework instead of user requirements 24 BREUER, MÜHLENBEREND, MEISSNER, ARNOLD, BAUMBACH, WILLMANN Medical Design – Zwischen Nachhaltigkeit und Sicherheit: Entwicklung einer zellstoffbasierten, ökologischeren Gesichtsmaske 38 MOOR, EGLOFF, HÜGLI Zwischen Desinfektion und Distinktion: Zur Designgeschichte der medizinischen Schutzmaske 54 LEYSIEFFER Spekulativer Geschichtsrevisionismus 66 BOHAUMILITZKY Something Wicked This Way Comes 78 A Problematic Paradigm for Design in Times of Crisis MEHL Traversing Cognitive Spaces. Material Samples for Harnessing Tacit Knowledge 88 Workshop on Experimental Negotiation Methods (Visual Essay) EGGER, LEPENIK DESIGNING GOVERNANCE – POWER AND COMPLICITY Interfacing Natural History Museums Future avenues for Natural History Collections from an Eco-Social Design Perspective 96 HARLES Design in öko-sozialen Transformationsprozessen 108 Eine explorative Betrachtung seiner Wirkung und Wirkungsmacht FINEDER, BAEDEKER, FASTENRATH, KREMSER, LIEDTKE Tacit and Situated Knowledge 120 Co-Creation Literacy für die Anschlussfähigkeit von Gestaltungsmethoden im transdisziplinären Forschungskontext KARRENBROCK, BRENDEL, POPPLOW Sustainability by Design 134 The use of design methodologies in transferring ecological and economic theories into everyday life BRÄNDLE, JÄGER, ASSADI, SCHMEER Co-designing Participation with Young People in the Smart City 146 Learning from the Early Stages of a Co-design Process with an Overlooked Group KNABE «Wer sind wir, wenn wir gestalten?» 158 Zur Ko-Konstitution von Rollenbildern im Design ERNST Ethik, Werte, Utopien 170 zum Werkzeugcharakter des Gestalterischen für Fragen nach der Zukunft (Visual Essay) UNGER-BÜTTNER, KNAPP, KINTSCHER-SCHMIDT, ECKSTEIN, LIPPERT IMPACT AND MEASUREMENT – MANAGING RISK? Designbasierte Aufstellung als emotionales Wagnis 180 Wie Gestaltung organisationale Transformationsprozesse in Bewegung bringt LUMER, SEEWALD, ZETTL, TRÜBSWETTER Wirtschaft und Nachhaltigkeit als Zielkonflikt bei der Entwicklung zirkulärer Textilien 188 Ein Beispiel aus der angewandten Designforschung TOMOVIC, HÜGLI Jenseits der Paralyse 206 Designlehre zwischen Dringlichkeit und Exploration SAMETINGER, RITZMANN If all is designed, why aren’t we done yet? 220 PLAISIER Design und Kontingenz 230 Was leisten sozialkonstruktivistische Perspektiven für Theorie und Praxis? EBERT Taking design’s impact for a walk 240 A roving panel in the Roterwald (Visual Essay) GASPAR MALLOL MELTZER SHIFTING PERSPEKTIVES – EXPLORING THE UNKOWN The Ecological Self 254 Exploring Relational Ontologies through Design WEIGAND Multispecies ways of knowing 262 How to bring Multispecies Design into practice HARLES Medien*ökologische Gestaltungsprinzipien für eine bio*inklusive Lebensraumgestaltung 274 GERLOFF, TORPUS, KÜFFER, AMBERG, SPINDLER, SCHAUER, KÜRY Untangling More-Than-Human Design Words and Worlds 288 Cautionary Insights and Considerations LÓPEZ BARBERA / The 20th annual conference of the German Society for Design Theory and Research (DGTF) in April 2024 was entitled 'Design as a risk - risks and side effects of design'. It reflected the role of designers in the face of social, political, and ecological challenges. Central discussion points were the power of design and the need for systematic impact measurement and impact assessment. The conference proceedings 'What could possibly go wrong?' shed light on the tension that goes hand in hand with the question of impact in design: on the one hand, design is seen as a potential beacon of hope for initiating sustainable, social transformations. On the other hand, handling resources, production chains, or knowledge gained in the research process is critically scrutinized, especially concerning possible negative effects and dependencies and the reproduction of power structures. The publication maps current research approaches in design research intending to make the impact relationships in design processes, methodological approaches, and theory formation tangible. In this respect, modelling within design research is still in its infancy, while established models already exist in the sustainability, social, and engineering sciences. This raises the question of how the impact of design can be measured, both concerning social innovations and social interventions, as well as in the context of manufacturing companies. The conference volume addresses initial approaches, reflects on the role of design in inter- and transdisciplinary research and practice collaborations, and shows the limits and challenges, particularly regarding power structures and exclusions. The 24 contributions from 21 peer-reviewed articles and three visual essays offer diverse insights into Shifting Perspectives, Impact and Measurement, Power and Complicity, Design Challenges, Social Innovation, Designing Governance, Managing Risk? and Exploring the Unknown. In this context, design impact assessment is discussed as well as the establishment of a culture of error that offers space for learning processes and different perspectives and, finally, the responsibility of designers when taking social, ecological, and economic goals into account and integrating unheard voices. The individual contributions reflect the need for a critical examination of modernist thinking, which is often associated with design and conveys techno-optimistic ideas of shaping a better future. It is encouraged to adopt a perspective that considers the role of design in a complex network of actors and influences and critically scrutinizes its impact on society, the environment, and the future.:What could possibly go wrong? 6 IBACH, AUGSTEN, VOGELSANG SOCIAL INNOVATION AND DESIGN CHALLENGES Incorporate agentiality into the design process for digital pain assessment using a flexible framework instead of user requirements 24 BREUER, MÜHLENBEREND, MEISSNER, ARNOLD, BAUMBACH, WILLMANN Medical Design – Zwischen Nachhaltigkeit und Sicherheit: Entwicklung einer zellstoffbasierten, ökologischeren Gesichtsmaske 38 MOOR, EGLOFF, HÜGLI Zwischen Desinfektion und Distinktion: Zur Designgeschichte der medizinischen Schutzmaske 54 LEYSIEFFER Spekulativer Geschichtsrevisionismus 66 BOHAUMILITZKY Something Wicked This Way Comes 78 A Problematic Paradigm for Design in Times of Crisis MEHL Traversing Cognitive Spaces. Material Samples for Harnessing Tacit Knowledge 88 Workshop on Experimental Negotiation Methods (Visual Essay) EGGER, LEPENIK DESIGNING GOVERNANCE – POWER AND COMPLICITY Interfacing Natural History Museums Future avenues for Natural History Collections from an Eco-Social Design Perspective 96 HARLES Design in öko-sozialen Transformationsprozessen 108 Eine explorative Betrachtung seiner Wirkung und Wirkungsmacht FINEDER, BAEDEKER, FASTENRATH, KREMSER, LIEDTKE Tacit and Situated Knowledge 120 Co-Creation Literacy für die Anschlussfähigkeit von Gestaltungsmethoden im transdisziplinären Forschungskontext KARRENBROCK, BRENDEL, POPPLOW Sustainability by Design 134 The use of design methodologies in transferring ecological and economic theories into everyday life BRÄNDLE, JÄGER, ASSADI, SCHMEER Co-designing Participation with Young People in the Smart City 146 Learning from the Early Stages of a Co-design Process with an Overlooked Group KNABE «Wer sind wir, wenn wir gestalten?» 158 Zur Ko-Konstitution von Rollenbildern im Design ERNST Ethik, Werte, Utopien 170 zum Werkzeugcharakter des Gestalterischen für Fragen nach der Zukunft (Visual Essay) UNGER-BÜTTNER, KNAPP, KINTSCHER-SCHMIDT, ECKSTEIN, LIPPERT IMPACT AND MEASUREMENT – MANAGING RISK? Designbasierte Aufstellung als emotionales Wagnis 180 Wie Gestaltung organisationale Transformationsprozesse in Bewegung bringt LUMER, SEEWALD, ZETTL, TRÜBSWETTER Wirtschaft und Nachhaltigkeit als Zielkonflikt bei der Entwicklung zirkulärer Textilien 188 Ein Beispiel aus der angewandten Designforschung TOMOVIC, HÜGLI Jenseits der Paralyse 206 Designlehre zwischen Dringlichkeit und Exploration SAMETINGER, RITZMANN If all is designed, why aren’t we done yet? 220 PLAISIER Design und Kontingenz 230 Was leisten sozialkonstruktivistische Perspektiven für Theorie und Praxis? EBERT Taking design’s impact for a walk 240 A roving panel in the Roterwald (Visual Essay) GASPAR MALLOL MELTZER SHIFTING PERSPEKTIVES – EXPLORING THE UNKOWN The Ecological Self 254 Exploring Relational Ontologies through Design WEIGAND Multispecies ways of knowing 262 How to bring Multispecies Design into practice HARLES Medien*ökologische Gestaltungsprinzipien für eine bio*inklusive Lebensraumgestaltung 274 GERLOFF, TORPUS, KÜFFER, AMBERG, SPINDLER, SCHAUER, KÜRY Untangling More-Than-Human Design Words and Worlds 288 Cautionary Insights and Considerations LÓPEZ BARBERA

Die 20. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Designtheorie und -Forschung (DGTF) im April 2024 stand unter dem Titel 'Design als Wagnis – Risiken und Nebenwirkungen der Gestaltung'. Sie reflektierte über die Rolle von Designer:innen angesichts gesellschaftlicher, politischer und ökologischer Herausforderungen. Zentrale Diskussionspunkte waren die Wirkungsmacht des Designs sowie die Notwendigkeit einer systematischen Wirkungsmessung und Folgenabschätzung. Der Konferenzband “What could possibly go wrong?” beleuchtet die Spannung, die mit der Frage nach der Wirkung im Design einhergeht: Einerseits wird Design als potenzieller Hoffnungsträger gesehen, um eine nachhaltige, gesellschaftliche Transformationen anzustoßen. Andererseits wird der Umgang mit Ressourcen, Produktionsketten oder Erkenntnissen, die im Forschungsprozess gewonnen werden, kritisch hinterfragt, insbesondere in Bezug auf mögliche negative Auswirkungen und Abhängigkeiten und die Reproduktion von Machtstrukturen. Die Publikation kartiert aktuelle Forschungsansätze in der Designforschung, mit der Zielsetzung, die Wirkungsbezüge in Designprozessen, Methodenansätzen und Theoriebildung greifbar zu machen. Die Modellbildung innerhalb der Designforschung steht dahin gehend noch am Anfang, während in den Nachhaltigkeits-, Sozial- und Ingenieurswissenschaften bereits etablierte Modelle existieren. Daher wird die Frage aufgeworfen, wie die Wirkung von Design gemessen werden kann, sowohl in Bezug auf soziale Innovationen und gesellschaftliche Interventionen als auch im Kontext von produzierenden Unternehmen. Der Konferenzband thematisiert erste Ansätze, reflektiert die Rolle von Design in inter- und transdisziplinären Forschungs- und Praxiskooperationen und zeigt dabei die Grenzen und Herausforderungen insbesondere in Bezug auf Machtstrukturen und Ausschlüsse. Die 24 Beiträge aus 20 peer-reviewed Artikeln und drei Visual Essays bieten vielfältige Einblicke zu den Themen Shifting Perspectives, Impact and Measurement, Power and Complicity, Design Challenges, Social Innovation, Designing Governance, Managing Risk? and Exploring the Unknown. In diesem Zusammenhang wird die Designfolgenabschätzung diskutiert sowie die Etablierung einer Fehlerkultur, die Raum bietet für Lernprozesse und unterschiedlichen Perspektiven und nicht zuletzt die Verantwortung von Designer:innen, wenn es darum geht, um soziale, ökologische und wirtschaftliche Ziele zu berücksichtigen und ungehörte Stimmen zu integrieren. Zusammenfassend reflektieren die einzelnen Beiträge über die Notwendigkeit einer kritischen Auseinandersetzung mit dem modernistischen Denken, das oft mit dem Design verbunden wird und techno-optimistische Vorstellungen von der Gestaltung einer besseren Zukunft vermittelt. Es wird angeregt, eine Perspektive einzunehmen, die die Rolle des Designs in einem komplexen Netzwerk von Akteuren und Einflüssen betrachtet und dessen Auswirkungen auf die Gesellschaft, Umwelt und Zukunft kritisch hinterfragt.:What could possibly go wrong? 6 IBACH, AUGSTEN, VOGELSANG SOCIAL INNOVATION AND DESIGN CHALLENGES Incorporate agentiality into the design process for digital pain assessment using a flexible framework instead of user requirements 24 BREUER, MÜHLENBEREND, MEISSNER, ARNOLD, BAUMBACH, WILLMANN Medical Design – Zwischen Nachhaltigkeit und Sicherheit: Entwicklung einer zellstoffbasierten, ökologischeren Gesichtsmaske 38 MOOR, EGLOFF, HÜGLI Zwischen Desinfektion und Distinktion: Zur Designgeschichte der medizinischen Schutzmaske 54 LEYSIEFFER Spekulativer Geschichtsrevisionismus 66 BOHAUMILITZKY Something Wicked This Way Comes 78 A Problematic Paradigm for Design in Times of Crisis MEHL Traversing Cognitive Spaces. Material Samples for Harnessing Tacit Knowledge 88 Workshop on Experimental Negotiation Methods (Visual Essay) EGGER, LEPENIK DESIGNING GOVERNANCE – POWER AND COMPLICITY Interfacing Natural History Museums Future avenues for Natural History Collections from an Eco-Social Design Perspective 96 HARLES Design in öko-sozialen Transformationsprozessen 108 Eine explorative Betrachtung seiner Wirkung und Wirkungsmacht FINEDER, BAEDEKER, FASTENRATH, KREMSER, LIEDTKE Tacit and Situated Knowledge 120 Co-Creation Literacy für die Anschlussfähigkeit von Gestaltungsmethoden im transdisziplinären Forschungskontext KARRENBROCK, BRENDEL, POPPLOW Sustainability by Design 134 The use of design methodologies in transferring ecological and economic theories into everyday life BRÄNDLE, JÄGER, ASSADI, SCHMEER Co-designing Participation with Young People in the Smart City 146 Learning from the Early Stages of a Co-design Process with an Overlooked Group KNABE «Wer sind wir, wenn wir gestalten?» 158 Zur Ko-Konstitution von Rollenbildern im Design ERNST Ethik, Werte, Utopien 170 zum Werkzeugcharakter des Gestalterischen für Fragen nach der Zukunft (Visual Essay) UNGER-BÜTTNER, KNAPP, KINTSCHER-SCHMIDT, ECKSTEIN, LIPPERT IMPACT AND MEASUREMENT – MANAGING RISK? Designbasierte Aufstellung als emotionales Wagnis 180 Wie Gestaltung organisationale Transformationsprozesse in Bewegung bringt LUMER, SEEWALD, ZETTL, TRÜBSWETTER Wirtschaft und Nachhaltigkeit als Zielkonflikt bei der Entwicklung zirkulärer Textilien 188 Ein Beispiel aus der angewandten Designforschung TOMOVIC, HÜGLI Jenseits der Paralyse 206 Designlehre zwischen Dringlichkeit und Exploration SAMETINGER, RITZMANN If all is designed, why aren’t we done yet? 220 PLAISIER Design und Kontingenz 230 Was leisten sozialkonstruktivistische Perspektiven für Theorie und Praxis? EBERT Taking design’s impact for a walk 240 A roving panel in the Roterwald (Visual Essay) GASPAR MALLOL, MELTZER SHIFTING PERSPEKTIVES – EXPLORING THE UNKOWN The Ecological Self 254 Exploring Relational Ontologies through Design WEIGAND Multispecies ways of knowing 262 How to bring Multispecies Design into practice HARLES Medien*ökologische Gestaltungsprinzipien für eine bio*inklusive Lebensraumgestaltung 274 GERLOFF, TORPUS, KÜFFER, AMBERG, SPINDLER, SCHAUER, KÜRY Untangling More-Than-Human Design Words and Worlds 288 Cautionary Insights and Considerations LÓPEZ BARBERA / The 20th annual conference of the German Society for Design Theory and Research (DGTF) in April 2024 was entitled 'Design as a risk - risks and side effects of design'. It reflected the role of designers in the face of social, political, and ecological challenges. Central discussion points were the power of design and the need for systematic impact measurement and impact assessment. The conference proceedings 'What could possibly go wrong?' shed light on the tension that goes hand in hand with the question of impact in design: on the one hand, design is seen as a potential beacon of hope for initiating sustainable, social transformations. On the other hand, handling resources, production chains, or knowledge gained in the research process is critically scrutinized, especially concerning possible negative effects and dependencies and the reproduction of power structures. The publication maps current research approaches in design research intending to make the impact relationships in design processes, methodological approaches, and theory formation tangible. In this respect, modelling within design research is still in its infancy, while established models already exist in the sustainability, social, and engineering sciences. This raises the question of how the impact of design can be measured, both concerning social innovations and social interventions, as well as in the context of manufacturing companies. The conference volume addresses initial approaches, reflects on the role of design in inter- and transdisciplinary research and practice collaborations, and shows the limits and challenges, particularly regarding power structures and exclusions. The 24 contributions from 21 peer-reviewed articles and three visual essays offer diverse insights into Shifting Perspectives, Impact and Measurement, Power and Complicity, Design Challenges, Social Innovation, Designing Governance, Managing Risk? and Exploring the Unknown. In this context, design impact assessment is discussed as well as the establishment of a culture of error that offers space for learning processes and different perspectives and, finally, the responsibility of designers when taking social, ecological, and economic goals into account and integrating unheard voices. The individual contributions reflect the need for a critical examination of modernist thinking, which is often associated with design and conveys techno-optimistic ideas of shaping a better future. It is encouraged to adopt a perspective that considers the role of design in a complex network of actors and influences and critically scrutinizes its impact on society, the environment, and the future.:What could possibly go wrong? 6 IBACH, AUGSTEN, VOGELSANG SOCIAL INNOVATION AND DESIGN CHALLENGES Incorporate agentiality into the design process for digital pain assessment using a flexible framework instead of user requirements 24 BREUER, MÜHLENBEREND, MEISSNER, ARNOLD, BAUMBACH, WILLMANN Medical Design – Zwischen Nachhaltigkeit und Sicherheit: Entwicklung einer zellstoffbasierten, ökologischeren Gesichtsmaske 38 MOOR, EGLOFF, HÜGLI Zwischen Desinfektion und Distinktion: Zur Designgeschichte der medizinischen Schutzmaske 54 LEYSIEFFER Spekulativer Geschichtsrevisionismus 66 BOHAUMILITZKY Something Wicked This Way Comes 78 A Problematic Paradigm for Design in Times of Crisis MEHL Traversing Cognitive Spaces. Material Samples for Harnessing Tacit Knowledge 88 Workshop on Experimental Negotiation Methods (Visual Essay) EGGER, LEPENIK DESIGNING GOVERNANCE – POWER AND COMPLICITY Interfacing Natural History Museums Future avenues for Natural History Collections from an Eco-Social Design Perspective 96 HARLES Design in öko-sozialen Transformationsprozessen 108 Eine explorative Betrachtung seiner Wirkung und Wirkungsmacht FINEDER, BAEDEKER, FASTENRATH, KREMSER, LIEDTKE Tacit and Situated Knowledge 120 Co-Creation Literacy für die Anschlussfähigkeit von Gestaltungsmethoden im transdisziplinären Forschungskontext KARRENBROCK, BRENDEL, POPPLOW Sustainability by Design 134 The use of design methodologies in transferring ecological and economic theories into everyday life BRÄNDLE, JÄGER, ASSADI, SCHMEER Co-designing Participation with Young People in the Smart City 146 Learning from the Early Stages of a Co-design Process with an Overlooked Group KNABE «Wer sind wir, wenn wir gestalten?» 158 Zur Ko-Konstitution von Rollenbildern im Design ERNST Ethik, Werte, Utopien 170 zum Werkzeugcharakter des Gestalterischen für Fragen nach der Zukunft (Visual Essay) UNGER-BÜTTNER, KNAPP, KINTSCHER-SCHMIDT, ECKSTEIN, LIPPERT IMPACT AND MEASUREMENT – MANAGING RISK? Designbasierte Aufstellung als emotionales Wagnis 180 Wie Gestaltung organisationale Transformationsprozesse in Bewegung bringt LUMER, SEEWALD, ZETTL, TRÜBSWETTER Wirtschaft und Nachhaltigkeit als Zielkonflikt bei der Entwicklung zirkulärer Textilien 188 Ein Beispiel aus der angewandten Designforschung TOMOVIC, HÜGLI Jenseits der Paralyse 206 Designlehre zwischen Dringlichkeit und Exploration SAMETINGER, RITZMANN If all is designed, why aren’t we done yet? 220 PLAISIER Design und Kontingenz 230 Was leisten sozialkonstruktivistische Perspektiven für Theorie und Praxis? EBERT Taking design’s impact for a walk 240 A roving panel in the Roterwald (Visual Essay) GASPAR MALLOL, MELTZER SHIFTING PERSPEKTIVES – EXPLORING THE UNKOWN The Ecological Self 254 Exploring Relational Ontologies through Design WEIGAND Multispecies ways of knowing 262 How to bring Multispecies Design into practice HARLES Medien*ökologische Gestaltungsprinzipien für eine bio*inklusive Lebensraumgestaltung 274 GERLOFF, TORPUS, KÜFFER, AMBERG, SPINDLER, SCHAUER, KÜRY Untangling More-Than-Human Design Words and Worlds 288 Cautionary Insights and Considerations LÓPEZ BARBERA

Résumé Cette recherche a débuté avec l’idée que l’Internet est en train de changer la manière dont nous créons des connaissances et du contenu culturel. Notre point de départ était d’utiliser l’Internet afin de rassembler et amplifier plusieurs points de vue dans un processus de design. Une approche complexe a exposé l’Internet comme un système et conséquemment comme une plateforme pour l’innovation. La structure ouverte de l’Internet a soutenu le mouvement participatif des usagers qui ont choisi de partager leurs besoins, leurs désirs et leurs solutions. Notre recherche a pour but d’étudier ce contenu généré par les usagers en ligne et comprendre sa valeur pour les designers. Les usagers créatifs veulent s’exprimer et participer activement dans le processus de design. Notre recherche tente de démontrer que les designers ont beaucoup à apprendre du contenu généré par les usagers car ceux-ci soumettent des éléments qui ont attrait à toutes les étapes du processus de design et révèlent des relations présentes dans la situation de design à l’étude. Pour en apprendre plus sur ce contenu nous nous demandons : Quel type d’information offre le contenu généré par les usagers pour la phase de recherche dans le processus de design. Afin de centrer la portée de l’étude, nous nous sommes aussi questionné si cette information est plus pertinente au design de produits, au design de services ou au design de système de produits et de services. Aspirant aux idéaux du design participatif, notre méthodologie fut développée afin d’apprendre comment le contenu généré par les usagers pourrait influencer le processus de design. Pour ce faire, nous avons choisi de chercher sur l’Internet pour du contenu qui concerne la mobilité via l’usage d’une automobile. Les trois différents types de média considérés étaient les vidéos sur YouTube, les images sur Flickr et les textes sur Blogger. Afin de répondre à notre première question de recherche, nous nous sommes penchés sur deux éléments lorsque l’on recherche pour le design : les espaces de design et les relations de design. Premièrement, nous avons catégorisé le contenu récolté selon l’espace problème, créatif et solution. Deuxièmement, nous avons catégorisé le contenu dépendant de laquelle des relations de design elle démontrait soit une combinaison d’usagers, objets et contextes. Dans le but de répondre à la deuxième question de cette recherche, nous avons examiné trois types V de produits de design : les automobiles privées comme produit, le partage de voiture comme système de produit et de service, et le taxi comme service. Chaque élément pertinent généré par les usagés trouvé dans cette recherche fut catégorisé jusqu’à ce que l’on récolte 50 échantillons pour chaque combinaison de ces variables. Nous en sommes arrivés avec une matrice de 50 éléments de chaque produit de design, pour chacun des médias, puis catégorisé selon les espaces de design et les relations dans le design. Cette recherche démontre que l’Internet, comme médium, produit les conditions avantageuses pour que les usagers partagent de grandes quantités de contenu original et diversifié qui est pertinent aux situations de design. À partir de nos données de recherche, nous avons identifié des tendances dans le contenu généré par les usagers. Notamment, nous sommes en mesure d’affirmer que le contenu généré par les usagers offre de l’information pertinente à la recherche pour le design, et ce dans tous les espaces de design et toutes les relations de design. Il en fut de même pour les différentes issues du design car du contenu sur les produits, les systèmes de produits et de services et les services était présent et pertinent. Bref, nous avons démontré que l’Internet supporte la créativité et conséquemment il y abonde de contenu créatif produit par les usagers. Suivant dans les traces dessinées par d’autres chercheurs en design participatif, cette étude devrait être considérée comme un nouvel exemple des moyens qu’ont les designers pour percevoir les besoins tacites des usagers en leur permettant d’exprimer leurs idées. Alors que ceux-ci créent librement et intuitivement ainsi exposant leurs besoins, solutions et idées, les designers peuvent porter un regard de tierce partie sur les résultats. Jumelant des techniques comme le crowdsourcing et le brainstorming, nous avons créé une nouvelle activité et le néologisme : brainsourcing. En demeurant dans une forme de pratique réflexive, les designers peuvent réfléchir et ajouter au contenu généré par les usagers qui lui n’est pas biaisé par une éducation ou une culture du design. Ce processus est similaire au design participatif professionnel où le brainsourcing est une activité parallèle lorsque le designer fait des recherches pour le design. C’est cette perspective sur la somme des idées des participants qui peut contribuer à comprendre la complexité de la situation de design. VI Cette recherche a aussi soulevé des questions par rapport à l’effet de démocratisation de l’Internet. Bien que les usagers n’ont pas l’éducation, ni les habiletés des designers, ils aspirent à démocratiser le processus du design en voulant participer activement et en exposant leurs besoins, idées et solutions. Nous avons pu déterminer que les usagers n’étaient pas qualifiés pour entreprendre le processus complet du design comme les designers professionnels, mais nous avons observé directement la capacité des usagers à mettre de l’avant leur créativité. À propos de la relation entre les usagers créatifs et les designers, nous avons étudié des langages communs tels les scénarios et les prototypes. Tous deux sont présents dans le contenu généré par les usagers que nous avons récolté dans nos recherches sur Internet. Ceci nous a mené vers une nouvelle perspective sur l’activité du design où des opportunités créatives ressortent d’une conversation avec les usagers. Cette recherche a dévoilé de grandes tendances dans la manière dont les usagers communiquent naturellement dans un processus de design. Nous espérons avoir offert un aperçu de comment les designers peuvent prendre avantage de tous les types de contenu généré par les usagers en ligne. Dans le futur, nous souhaitons que les designers aient la possibilité d’interagir avec les participants en prenant le rôle de facilitateur de la conversation. La responsabilité du résultat ne tombe pas sur les épaules du designer car son mandat est d’assurer le bon fonctionnement du processus. Les designers rejoignent les usagers en ne demandant plus comment les choses peuvent être créées, mais pourquoi elles devraient exister. En tant que designers, nous aspirons à générer plus à partir de nouvelles connaissances, nous aspirons à créer plus de sens. Mots clés: Recherche en design, complexité, design participatif, contenu généré par les usagers, démocratisation, Internet, créativité, crowdsourcing, brainstorming, brainsourcing, réflexion-en-action. / Abstract This research started with the idea that the Internet is changing the way we gather knowledge and create content. The Internet was used to bring multiple points of views to interact and amplify each other within the design process. A complex approach helped understand the Internet as a system and consequently a platform for innovation. The Internet’s open structure led to a rise of participative users exposing their needs, wants and solutions. Our research has studied this user generated content over the Internet and its relevance to the design process. Creative users want to express themselves and to participate directly and proactively in the design development process. This research argues that designers have much to benefit from user generated content because users submit elements pertaining to all design spaces and reveal elements of the relationships present in a design situation under study. To learn more about this new content we ask: What type of information does user-generated content provide for researching for design? To further narrow the scope of this research, we also wondered: Is this information more pertinent to product design, service design or product service systems? In a participatory like effort, our methodology was developed to learn how user generated content could influence the design process. To do so, we chose to search over the Internet for content concerning mobility via the use of an automobile. The three different media types we considered were videos on YouTube, images on Flickr and text entries on Blogger. To answer our first research question, we focused our attention on two elements when researching for design: design spaces and design relationships. Firstly, we categorized the content we gathered between problem, creative and solution spaces. Secondly, we categorized the content depending on which design relationship it portrayed, thus affecting a combination of users, objects and contexts. To answer the second question of this research, we examined design outcomes of three types: private automobiles as a product, car sharing program as a product-service system, and taxis as a service. Each element of pertinent user generated content found in our research was categorized until we collected 50 samples for every combination of variables. We ended up with a matrix where 50 II elements of each design outcome had been collected in the form of each type of media and then categorized according to both design spaces and design relationships. This study has shown that the Internet as a medium produces the right conditions for users to share a large quantity of original and diverse content pertinent to a design situation. From our data collection, we were able to identify some trends in user generated content. More importantly, we can affirm that user generated content provides pertinent information when researching for design in all design spaces and design relationships. The same results were found for the outcomes of design as content relevant to products, product-service systems and services were all available and pertinent. In summary, we found that the Internet supports creativity and thus thrives on creative user content. Following in the path laid out by researchers in participatory design, this study should be considered as another example of a means for designers to perceive tacit needs by allowing for users to express their ideas. As the users create freely and intuitively while expressing their needs, solutions and ideas, the designers can have a third person point of view on the results. By combining techniques such as crowdsourcing and brainstorming, we have created a new activity and the neologism: brainsourcing. With some perspective on the sum of the participants’ ideas, the designers can better understand the complexity of the design situation. While remaining in a form of reflective practice, the designers can then reflect and add upon the users’ generated content which is unbiased by a design education or design culture. This process is similar to the professional participatory design process where we introduce brainsourcing as a similar activity. This research also raised the question whether the Internet could be democratizing the design process. Although users might not have the education and skills to be designers, they are democratizing the design process by participating actively and by exposing their needs, solutions and ideas. We determined that users weren’t undertaking the whole design process like professional designers but we observed that they were particularly creative. In light of this relationship between creative users and designers, we reviewed common languages, like scenarios and prototypes, which are III present in the user generated creative content we collected over the Internet. This led to a new point of view on the design activity where creative opportunities come from engaging a conversation with the users. This research has revealed many trends in the way users naturally communicate within a design process. In the end, we provided some insight on how designers can take advantage of all types of user generated content. In the future, we hope designers will be able to interact with participants while taking on the role of a facilitator of conversation, assuring the creative process is right. No longer are designers asking what products and services could be created, but why users would need it in the first place. Keywords: Design research, complexity, participatory design, user generated content, democratization, Internet, creativity, crowdsourcing, brainstorming, brainsourcing, reflection-in-action.

本研究首先從文獻回顧及實際調查中深入探討影響參觀者使用博物館行動導覽系統的七大影響因素，接著據此設計並實作出在智慧型手機平台上使用之一套博物館行動導覽系統，以期有效解決現有參觀者遇到的導覽問題。研究中使用設計科學之研究方法，提出解決方案，並且依據實際環境、背景以及文獻基礎，設計整體的系統架構。接著以故宮為例，建構出本研究之博物館行動導覽系統手機應用程式。系統開發完成後，以實驗法進行設計之驗證，評估結果顯示：本研究所提出之行動導覽系統相較於傳統之紙本導覽，可提升參觀者使用博物館行動導覽系統的意願、感知價值及滿意度。本研究之博物館行動導覽系統建置過程、以及系統成效的驗證，可作為手機應用程式（APP）廠商建置行動導覽系統或使用設計科學法開發其他類別的APP之指引；亦或作為博物館策劃展覽活動與導入行動導覽系統之依據；此外本研究亦指出使用者預期實際使用系統之感知與預期系統需求之落差，以供未來相關研究參考。 / In this research, according to literature review and field observations, we first identify and discuss seven design factors affecting visitors’ usability in museum mobile navigation systems. We then design and construct a museum mobile navigation system on the basis of the seven factors. The purpose is to meet the visitors’ needs and increase the visitors’ intention and satisfaction toward using the museum mobile navigation system. Design science research method is used in this research to propose solution plans. According to actual environment, context, and literature, the complete system architecture is designed. We then build a mobile navigation application on Android for the National Palace Museum and evaluate the design to ensure this system can effectively solve the problems that the visitors encountered during navigation process. In this research, the building process of the mobile museum navigation system and the evaluation of the system performance could provide guidance to APP vendors; or a basis for museums to plan an exhibition and to implement a mobile navigation system. Moreover, the gap between users’ perception of using the real system and their expected system requirements can be identified; this could serve as the reference point of future related research.

Financial exclusion is a major developmental problem. Perception has it that financial exclusion emanates from the lack of access to banking and financial services, and the general understanding is that ICT-based access to such services is the solution. In this research, which was undertaken in Ghana, Critical Realism (CR) revealed deeper causes (generative mechanisms) that underlie financial exclusion. The research followed a mixed-method approach. The CR approach guided the research to create an initial model from which hypotheses were deduced and tested; the design science approach, guided the research to create the design theory and an instantiation of an application that uses the design theory; and the quantitative method, was used to evaluate the hypotheses. CR revealed how, in a credit economy, people have a need for credit to pursue business or education opportunities. The generative mechanisms identified have revealed how the credit market for the unbanked includes the reality that a wellfunctioning credit market is self-sustaining with two mechanisms: signalling and adoption. The signalling mechanism facilitates users’ access to credit, which they in turn are able to spend on more services. On the other hand, the adoption mechanism enables the development of more services making the market more valuable, thus attracting more users in a self-feeding loop. The key findings suggest that being banked does not necessarily lead to financial inclusion and financial wellbeing. Transactional banking only serves as an "enrichment agenda for the banks", with minimal benefit to the people. There are also other non-financial technologies such as sharing and social technologies that have an effect on the provision of credit; in addition to their main purpose of saving and/or earning income, for the unbanked, by sharing resources. In Ghana, despite having bank accounts, most of the banked do not use them, because of cost and inappropriate services. This research reveals that the unexamined notion of being banked as a fundamental requirement for financial inclusion may require further investigation. The research has found that the unbanked keeping to themselves and the use of cash creates anonymity and makes them invisible to formal financial institutions, who prefer identity over anonymity, thus contributing to their financial exclusion. The following design needs were identified: inexpensive credit and value-added services such as saving groups, financial accounting services, service to report delinquent customers and education. The research offers a conceptualization of a financial inclusion ICT artefact to draw attention to the multifaceted and complex environment financial inclusion effort is immersed. This calls for an integrated approach since the issues with financial exclusion extend beyond financials and have an effect on the broader society. The research, therefore, proposes a substantive framework for improving the design and development of financial inclusive systems, which helps build trust using obligation transactions. It offers an approach to computing an individual’s financial inclusiveness, which also helps safeguard his/her financial wellbeing. The thesis makes a contribution to Information Systems theory in proposing a framework on financial inclusion using ICT. The contribution to practice is the design of an ICT artefact. / School of Computing / Ph. D. (Computer Science)

This dissertation presents, describes and discusses an interdisciplinary study which investigated the design and development of a language learning instructional solution to address the problem of inadequate aural skills acquisition for college ESP (English for Special Purposes) students. Specifically, it focused on the use of mobile technology to expand learning beyond the classroom. The eighteen-month process of data collection and analysis resulted in a conceptual model and design principles for a Mobile-Enabled Language Learning (MELL) solution. Mobile-Enabled Language Learning Eco-System was thus designed, developed and trialled in the real-life learning context. Through the iterative process of the design, development and evaluation of the MELL system and its components, design principles were also generated. These design recommendations were refined and reformulated in a cyclical fashion with the help of more than 100 students and ten experts. The resulting MELLES design framework encompasses guidelines addressing the essential characteristics of the desired MELL intervention as well as procedures recommended to operationalize those features. The study also resulted in a better understanding of the broader context of ESP learning using mobile devices and the role of elements of environment, ultimately contributing to real-life praxis of the Ecological Constructivist framework and the complementary approach of Design-Based Research (DBR) methodology. / 2012-06

Résumé Cette recherche a débuté avec l’idée que l’Internet est en train de changer la manière dont nous créons des connaissances et du contenu culturel. Notre point de départ était d’utiliser l’Internet afin de rassembler et amplifier plusieurs points de vue dans un processus de design. Une approche complexe a exposé l’Internet comme un système et conséquemment comme une plateforme pour l’innovation. La structure ouverte de l’Internet a soutenu le mouvement participatif des usagers qui ont choisi de partager leurs besoins, leurs désirs et leurs solutions. Notre recherche a pour but d’étudier ce contenu généré par les usagers en ligne et comprendre sa valeur pour les designers. Les usagers créatifs veulent s’exprimer et participer activement dans le processus de design. Notre recherche tente de démontrer que les designers ont beaucoup à apprendre du contenu généré par les usagers car ceux-ci soumettent des éléments qui ont attrait à toutes les étapes du processus de design et révèlent des relations présentes dans la situation de design à l’étude. Pour en apprendre plus sur ce contenu nous nous demandons : Quel type d’information offre le contenu généré par les usagers pour la phase de recherche dans le processus de design. Afin de centrer la portée de l’étude, nous nous sommes aussi questionné si cette information est plus pertinente au design de produits, au design de services ou au design de système de produits et de services. Aspirant aux idéaux du design participatif, notre méthodologie fut développée afin d’apprendre comment le contenu généré par les usagers pourrait influencer le processus de design. Pour ce faire, nous avons choisi de chercher sur l’Internet pour du contenu qui concerne la mobilité via l’usage d’une automobile. Les trois différents types de média considérés étaient les vidéos sur YouTube, les images sur Flickr et les textes sur Blogger. Afin de répondre à notre première question de recherche, nous nous sommes penchés sur deux éléments lorsque l’on recherche pour le design : les espaces de design et les relations de design. Premièrement, nous avons catégorisé le contenu récolté selon l’espace problème, créatif et solution. Deuxièmement, nous avons catégorisé le contenu dépendant de laquelle des relations de design elle démontrait soit une combinaison d’usagers, objets et contextes. Dans le but de répondre à la deuxième question de cette recherche, nous avons examiné trois types V de produits de design : les automobiles privées comme produit, le partage de voiture comme système de produit et de service, et le taxi comme service. Chaque élément pertinent généré par les usagés trouvé dans cette recherche fut catégorisé jusqu’à ce que l’on récolte 50 échantillons pour chaque combinaison de ces variables. Nous en sommes arrivés avec une matrice de 50 éléments de chaque produit de design, pour chacun des médias, puis catégorisé selon les espaces de design et les relations dans le design. Cette recherche démontre que l’Internet, comme médium, produit les conditions avantageuses pour que les usagers partagent de grandes quantités de contenu original et diversifié qui est pertinent aux situations de design. À partir de nos données de recherche, nous avons identifié des tendances dans le contenu généré par les usagers. Notamment, nous sommes en mesure d’affirmer que le contenu généré par les usagers offre de l’information pertinente à la recherche pour le design, et ce dans tous les espaces de design et toutes les relations de design. Il en fut de même pour les différentes issues du design car du contenu sur les produits, les systèmes de produits et de services et les services était présent et pertinent. Bref, nous avons démontré que l’Internet supporte la créativité et conséquemment il y abonde de contenu créatif produit par les usagers. Suivant dans les traces dessinées par d’autres chercheurs en design participatif, cette étude devrait être considérée comme un nouvel exemple des moyens qu’ont les designers pour percevoir les besoins tacites des usagers en leur permettant d’exprimer leurs idées. Alors que ceux-ci créent librement et intuitivement ainsi exposant leurs besoins, solutions et idées, les designers peuvent porter un regard de tierce partie sur les résultats. Jumelant des techniques comme le crowdsourcing et le brainstorming, nous avons créé une nouvelle activité et le néologisme : brainsourcing. En demeurant dans une forme de pratique réflexive, les designers peuvent réfléchir et ajouter au contenu généré par les usagers qui lui n’est pas biaisé par une éducation ou une culture du design. Ce processus est similaire au design participatif professionnel où le brainsourcing est une activité parallèle lorsque le designer fait des recherches pour le design. C’est cette perspective sur la somme des idées des participants qui peut contribuer à comprendre la complexité de la situation de design. VI Cette recherche a aussi soulevé des questions par rapport à l’effet de démocratisation de l’Internet. Bien que les usagers n’ont pas l’éducation, ni les habiletés des designers, ils aspirent à démocratiser le processus du design en voulant participer activement et en exposant leurs besoins, idées et solutions. Nous avons pu déterminer que les usagers n’étaient pas qualifiés pour entreprendre le processus complet du design comme les designers professionnels, mais nous avons observé directement la capacité des usagers à mettre de l’avant leur créativité. À propos de la relation entre les usagers créatifs et les designers, nous avons étudié des langages communs tels les scénarios et les prototypes. Tous deux sont présents dans le contenu généré par les usagers que nous avons récolté dans nos recherches sur Internet. Ceci nous a mené vers une nouvelle perspective sur l’activité du design où des opportunités créatives ressortent d’une conversation avec les usagers. Cette recherche a dévoilé de grandes tendances dans la manière dont les usagers communiquent naturellement dans un processus de design. Nous espérons avoir offert un aperçu de comment les designers peuvent prendre avantage de tous les types de contenu généré par les usagers en ligne. Dans le futur, nous souhaitons que les designers aient la possibilité d’interagir avec les participants en prenant le rôle de facilitateur de la conversation. La responsabilité du résultat ne tombe pas sur les épaules du designer car son mandat est d’assurer le bon fonctionnement du processus. Les designers rejoignent les usagers en ne demandant plus comment les choses peuvent être créées, mais pourquoi elles devraient exister. En tant que designers, nous aspirons à générer plus à partir de nouvelles connaissances, nous aspirons à créer plus de sens. Mots clés: Recherche en design, complexité, design participatif, contenu généré par les usagers, démocratisation, Internet, créativité, crowdsourcing, brainstorming, brainsourcing, réflexion-en-action. / Abstract This research started with the idea that the Internet is changing the way we gather knowledge and create content. The Internet was used to bring multiple points of views to interact and amplify each other within the design process. A complex approach helped understand the Internet as a system and consequently a platform for innovation. The Internet’s open structure led to a rise of participative users exposing their needs, wants and solutions. Our research has studied this user generated content over the Internet and its relevance to the design process. Creative users want to express themselves and to participate directly and proactively in the design development process. This research argues that designers have much to benefit from user generated content because users submit elements pertaining to all design spaces and reveal elements of the relationships present in a design situation under study. To learn more about this new content we ask: What type of information does user-generated content provide for researching for design? To further narrow the scope of this research, we also wondered: Is this information more pertinent to product design, service design or product service systems? In a participatory like effort, our methodology was developed to learn how user generated content could influence the design process. To do so, we chose to search over the Internet for content concerning mobility via the use of an automobile. The three different media types we considered were videos on YouTube, images on Flickr and text entries on Blogger. To answer our first research question, we focused our attention on two elements when researching for design: design spaces and design relationships. Firstly, we categorized the content we gathered between problem, creative and solution spaces. Secondly, we categorized the content depending on which design relationship it portrayed, thus affecting a combination of users, objects and contexts. To answer the second question of this research, we examined design outcomes of three types: private automobiles as a product, car sharing program as a product-service system, and taxis as a service. Each element of pertinent user generated content found in our research was categorized until we collected 50 samples for every combination of variables. We ended up with a matrix where 50 II elements of each design outcome had been collected in the form of each type of media and then categorized according to both design spaces and design relationships. This study has shown that the Internet as a medium produces the right conditions for users to share a large quantity of original and diverse content pertinent to a design situation. From our data collection, we were able to identify some trends in user generated content. More importantly, we can affirm that user generated content provides pertinent information when researching for design in all design spaces and design relationships. The same results were found for the outcomes of design as content relevant to products, product-service systems and services were all available and pertinent. In summary, we found that the Internet supports creativity and thus thrives on creative user content. Following in the path laid out by researchers in participatory design, this study should be considered as another example of a means for designers to perceive tacit needs by allowing for users to express their ideas. As the users create freely and intuitively while expressing their needs, solutions and ideas, the designers can have a third person point of view on the results. By combining techniques such as crowdsourcing and brainstorming, we have created a new activity and the neologism: brainsourcing. With some perspective on the sum of the participants’ ideas, the designers can better understand the complexity of the design situation. While remaining in a form of reflective practice, the designers can then reflect and add upon the users’ generated content which is unbiased by a design education or design culture. This process is similar to the professional participatory design process where we introduce brainsourcing as a similar activity. This research also raised the question whether the Internet could be democratizing the design process. Although users might not have the education and skills to be designers, they are democratizing the design process by participating actively and by exposing their needs, solutions and ideas. We determined that users weren’t undertaking the whole design process like professional designers but we observed that they were particularly creative. In light of this relationship between creative users and designers, we reviewed common languages, like scenarios and prototypes, which are III present in the user generated creative content we collected over the Internet. This led to a new point of view on the design activity where creative opportunities come from engaging a conversation with the users. This research has revealed many trends in the way users naturally communicate within a design process. In the end, we provided some insight on how designers can take advantage of all types of user generated content. In the future, we hope designers will be able to interact with participants while taking on the role of a facilitator of conversation, assuring the creative process is right. No longer are designers asking what products and services could be created, but why users would need it in the first place. Keywords: Design research, complexity, participatory design, user generated content, democratization, Internet, creativity, crowdsourcing, brainstorming, brainsourcing, reflection-in-action.

This study focuses on student support service quality with particular reference to an Open Distance Learning (ODL) environment. Taking student support services as anchors in mainstreaming ODL, the aims of the study are to develop an instrument that can accurately measure student support service quality in an Ethiopian ODL environment. Simultaneously, it is to investigate an alleged gap between students’ expectations and experiences of service quality in the Ethiopia-UNISA context. In doing so, an attempt is made to determine the students’ level of satisfaction with the student support services provided. The study relies on quantitative methods and a design-based research strategy, which involves iterative and step-by-step processes of investigation. The theoretical framework employed in this study is Gaps Model by Parasuraman, Ziethaml and Berry (1985). Using an instrument of which the possible level of external and internal validity has been ensured, data are collected and quantitatively analysed using a standard Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The data suggest that there are five dimensions that play a cardinal role in the measurement of student support service quality in an ODL context, namely supervision support, infrastructure, administrative support, academic facilitation and corporate image. In the Ethiopian context, there appears to be a discrepancy between students’ expectations and their experiences of the quality of student support services. More than often their expectations exceed their actual experiences of quality service provision. Students’ satisfaction levels are negatively affected by the quality of four of the support services provided by UNISA as measured through expectations and experiences. In contrast, the students’ responses show that they are highly satisfied with the corporate image UNISA holds both in Ethiopia and internationally. From among the five dimensions, however, corporate image and supervision support stand out to be the most important dimensions in contributing to the students’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction, respectively. As a recommendation, this study highlights that these two dimensions must be focal areas by UNISA as more effort must be exerted to build the image of UNISA in Ethiopia and to improve the supervision support provided to students. / Educational Leadership and Management / D. Ed. (Education Management)

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Education in the Faculty of Education and Social Sciences at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology 2013 / Parental involvement in rural multigrade schools in South Africa is poor. This is mainly due to a lack of support for and insufficient knowledge regarding the development of a programme that would increase parental involvement at rural multigrade schools in South Africa. The context of multigrade education in South Africa reflects the reality of a lack of parental involvement. South African rural multigrade education is beset by a variety of internal and external challenges which have a detrimental effect on effective parental involvement. However, in the rural multigrade school context, parents have untapped potential that needs to be identified and acted upon in order to empower parents; this could provide the rural marginalised children with meaningful access to quality education. Research has proved that parental involvement has a positive effect on the quality of education. According to research, the six types of parental involvement are parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making and collaborating with the community. In this study the focus was on involving parents in learning and allowing them to become active partners in education. To increase parental involvement in learning at rural multigrade schools in South Africa, an intervention was needed. This intervention came in the form of a school, community and family partnership programme. The core elements of a school, community and family partnership programme (SCAF partnership programme) were the creation of partnerships and communication channels between the school, community and family, as well as the utilisation of existing community resources. These core elements had a specific focus on learning. This study used Bourdieu's (1986) theory on capital and Epstein's (1995) theory of overlapping spheres of influence. The purpose of this study was to determine the characteristics of an effective school, community and family partnership programme that would increase parental involvement in learning at rural multigrade schools in South Africa. Design-based research was employed in order to design, develop and test the proposed programme. Research was conducted in two phases. During the preliminary phase, a needs and content analysis, review of literature, and the development of a conceptual or theoretical framework for the study were conducted. This was followed by a prototyping phase which is an iterative design phase consisting of iterations, each being a micro-cycle of research with formative evaluation as the most important research activity, and which is aimed at improving and refining the intervention. Summative evaluation was conducted during the prototype phase in order to determine whether the solution or intervention met the pre-determined specifications. Data gathered during this study indicated: 1. The SCAF partnership programme can increase parental involvement in learning at rural multigrade schools if certain product and process characteristics are active. 2. The SCAF partnership programme allows utilising school, home and community capital through interaction and collaboration to increase parental involvement in learning. 3. A SCAF partnership programme should focus on learning through creating partnerships and opportunities for communication, and utilising community resources. 4. A SCAF partnership programme should be employed through a specific process. 5. Design research offers an appropriate and powerful approach to design, develop and implement a SCAF partnership programme that increases parental involvement in learning at rural multigrade schools. Keywords: Parental involvement, Parents, Design Research, Rural multigrade schools, Rural multigrade education