Legally binding targets set by the UK government to reduce carbon emissions by 2050 mean it is imperative that the efficiency of the UK housing stock is improved. Housing currently contributes over 30% of the UK s total carbon emissions and a large proportion of the current stock will still exist in 2050. There is therefore a need to retrofit this existing stock with energy saving measures, as the savings from new builds will not be adequate to meet the stringent carbon reduction targets. Whilst technologies to facilitate energy saving retrofit are available, there has been a low uptake from householders in the UK, in part due to the lack of consideration of user requirements within the design of these technologies. To investigate this issue further, this thesis considers two main questions: How can the design of energy saving measures and the process of retrofit of the existing UK housing stock be improved through the use of user centred design (UCD) and How can UCD methods be applied to the research and development process for energy saving measures in order to improve the outcome? Through the research, it became clear that in order to answer these questions, it would be necessary to work across disciplines and therefore a third Research Question was posed; How can UCD facilitate working across disciplines in the context of an energy research project? The results provide evidence of how UCD can effectively improve the design and development process of energy saving technologies, the process of retrofit and the practice of cross-disciplinary working within a research environment. The research is novel in several ways: firstly, the UCD process has been applied in the area of domestic retrofit, giving new insights into the barriers and opportunities to retrofit; secondly, home improvement has been investigated by viewing the home as a complete, interacting system, using novel methods; thirdly, a set of UCD specifications have been created to inform the design of heat pumps, a specific domestic energy saving technology, and finally, enhancements to the UCD process are made for use within an energy technology project, together with the development of six principles for effective cross-disciplinary working and conceptualisation of the bridge building role which the UCD practitioner fulfills.

Master of Science / Department of Apparel, Textiles & Interior Design / Sherry J. Haar and Kim Y. Hiller Connell / Many sustainable garments do not engage wide consumer interest, nor encourage eco-conscious purchasing. Meanwhile, mass consumption of unsustainable apparel contributes to environmental degradation (Black, 2008). However, Niinimäki (2010) suggests that engaging consumers in the design and development of environmentally sustainable products could improve the balance between environmental design decisions and functional, aesthetic, and emotional qualities (Lamb & Kallal, 1992). The purpose of this practice-based research was to (a) identify apparel and environmental attitudes and consumption behaviors of potential sustainable apparel consumers, (b) generate sustainable apparel design concept and product through use of participatory design methods, and (c) evaluate the sustainable concept, product, and participatory method. The sample was 10 female university students. Consumer data was collected through an online (i.e., Facebook) ethnographic journal and a focus group. Qualitative analysis generated the target market’s ideal apparel characteristics and ideal environmental apparel characteristics as apparel offering versatility and variety within their existing wardrobes; elements expressive of their personalities; simple and inexpensive maintenance; organic or recycled materials; and less textile waste at disposal. Additionally, it was determined that participants had low knowledge of the apparel and textile industry and its environmental impacts. Generation of sustainable apparel design ideas occurred through a second focus group session. Analysis of the focus group data, combined with the researcher’s tacit sustainable design knowledge, formed a design concept. The sustainable apparel design concept was comprised of three characteristics reflective of the target market’s ideals and design suggestions: be versatile through various temperatures; social settings, and environments; be convertible through temporary adjustment of functional and aesthetic elements; and be transitional allowing the garment to be layered for greater thermal insulation without detracting from the appearance. The sustainable apparel concept was an application of the pre-existing Design for User Interaction sustainable design strategy. The sustainable apparel design concept was then applied to the development of an outerwear garment and presented to the participants and mentors as a digital sketch. The design addressed the sustainable design concept through interchangeable envelope-style shell layers, an insertable thermal core layer, a buttoned closure at the hemline and interconnecting button points for added alignment between layers. In this garment, the researcher applied participants’ suggestions of style, materials, and inclusion of a core layer. Following sketch refinement, two prototypes were constructed. The first prototype consisted of a thermal core layer and outer coat layer. Due to challenges with the core layer fabric, the second prototype modified the core layer material and style. Additionally, in the second prototype, the shell was made sleeveless and both a bolero style jacket and lining were added. Dual button fasteners connected the layers. During the third focus group session, participants evaluated the design concept, second garment prototype, and the participatory design methods. Participants noted that the design concept provided increased ease of garment care (which could potentially increase the frequency of laundering); ease of garment storage; and increased versatility through varying temperatures. Participants’ suggestions for prototype refinement included the addition of a kick-pleat and reduction of button alignment points. Prototype development did not reach completion during this study. Further refinement of the garment’s pattern and fit, implementation of additional aesthetic/functional elements, and development of an intuitive transformation are necessary. Participant evaluation of participatory methods and study participation were the use of Facebook as an online ethnographic journal made daily participation easy and allowed the researcher to become familiar with their personalities, increasing their comfort at later stages of the research. Participants felt their suggestions were evident in the garment prototype and were as involved as their experience and knowledge allowed. The only participant suggestion regarding the participatory design experience was the addition of updates informing participants of the design progress between focus group sessions. Though the concept and resulting garment were not exceedingly original, participants were pleased with the fruition of their ideas. This finding indicates a willingness to participate in the design process, supportive of participatory design.

Digitization of data offers more opportunities for future health and medicine care due to the availability of information technology in our everyday lives. Several studies have provided us with insights in designing persuasive eHealth services, but only a few studies have investigated the design of a persuasive eHealth application by using presently available smartphones and while including the target group. By pursuing an iterative design process, three smartphone application prototypes were created and tested with senior citizens by using cognitive walkthroughs, use case scenarios and semi-structured interviews. The results indicated that the target group involvement had positive influences on the design of the prototypes, with user insights uncovering setbacks and opportunities in the design. Thus, the study presents a set of primary characteristics for designing a persuasive eHealth application to be usable with smartphones and how the iterative design process with the involvement of senior citizens shaped the design.

Lawrence Halprin foi um arquiteto paisagista norte-americano que atuou profissionalmente entre 1945 e 2009. Sua prática holística, multifacetada, experimentalista e transdisciplinar aplicada ao processo de pensar a paisagem e projetar os ambientes humanos resultaram numa abordagem compreensiva e inovadora ao design.Assumindo a relevância de suaprática na paisagem, esta dissertação procurou entender e discutir sua trajetória profissional sob o ponto de vista do processo de design. O recorte abrange o período de transição entre os anos 1950 e a primeira metade da década de 1960. O trabalho foi organizado de forma que se compreenda o objeto da pesquisa, que também é sujeito, frente as suas origens, influências, referências e contextos, para então percorrer seu processo de design, cujos temas abordados por este trabalho correspondem aos subsídios que servem para embasar a discussão entre discurso e prática em duas de suas principais obras: o condomínio de veraneio SeaRanch, no condado de Sonoma (Califórnia), e a Sequência de Espaços Abertos da cidade de Portland (Oregon). / Lawrence Halprin was an american landscape architect professionally active for more than sixty years. His holistic,multifaceted, experimentalist and transdisciplinarypractice offers a way of thinking landscape and design in the human environment as a result of a comprehensive and innovative approach. Assuming his relevance under the field of landscape practice worldwide this thesis seeks to understand and discuss Halprin\'s professional lifewith an emphasis on his creative process or design process. The research focus was narrowed to the years of Halprin\'s first discoveries that lead him to developthe themes that characterize his comprehensive approach, which correspond to the beginnings of the fifties and the first decade of the sixties. The thesis\'s structure was organized to situate Halprin under the historical, artistic and social context of the fifties and sixties providing an insight in his origins and influences to then explore his design process with which are used to discuss the interface between his discourse and his practice using as case studies two of his major works: Sea Ranch, located in Sonoma Couny, California, and Portland Open Space Sequence, in Portland, Oregon.

O presente trabalho demonstra a infuência dos processos de design no desenvolvimento de games no final dos anos 1970 e início dos anos 1980 e como isso pode ter funcionado como catalisador no processo de evolução da mídia videogame, levando-a da condição de atividade de recreação baseada em habilidades motoras para condição de mídia expressiva capaz de contar histórias. Para isto foi levantado o que seria um processo de design, tanto como metodologia associada a uma prática laboral quanto como estratégia cognitiva, conseguindo assim uma estrutura formal do processo. Dez jogos foram eleitos e analisados extensivamente tanto por seu conteúdo quanto pelos processos usados em seu desenvolvimento, usando-se de pesquisa bibliográfica e também de nove entrevistas com desenvolvedores envolvidos no projeto de games no período do recorte pro posto, para termos um panorama do contexto sociocultural em soma aos processos usados por eles à época. Nessas análises, critérios do processo de design foram utilizados para conseguimos um quadro geral de sua infuência nos games. / The present work demonstrates the influence of design processes in game development in the late 1970s and early 1980s and how this may have functioned as a catalyst in the evolution process of video game media, leading it from the condition of recreational activity based in motor skills for expressive media condition able to tell stories. For this, what was a design process was raised, both as a methodology associated with a work practice and as a cognitive strategy, thus achieving a formal process structure. Ten games were chosen and analyzed extensively both for their content and for the processes used in their development, using bibliographical research and also nine interviews with developers involved in the game design in the period of the proposed cut, in order to have a panorama of the sociocultural context in addition to the processes used by them at the time. In these analyzes, criteria of the design process were used to obtain a general picture of their influence in games.

Cette recherche porte sur l’exploration et la qualification des dispositifs évolutionnaires appliquées à la conception architecturale. Ici, ce sont les qualités environnementales et plus particulièrement les qualités solaires passives de l’enveloppe de l’édifice qui guideront le processus évolutionnaire. Nous nous attachons plus particulièrement aux phases initiales de la conception, et nous cherchons à spécifier un outil d’assistance favorisant et stimulant une conception créative. Après avoir établi et structuré une connaissance sur les processus de conception, sur la créativité, sur les qualités thermiques et sur les méthodes évolutionnaires, nous proposons un outil prototypal, fondé sur un algorithme génétique et implanté dans un logiciel de type modeleur. Celui-ci a été expérimenté dans le milieu pédagogique, et nous a conduit à caractériser les modalités de création et de conceptualisation de la forme architecturale dans le cadre d’une instrumentation évolutionnaire.Ainsi nous notons le basculement cognitif d’une pensée implicite vers une pensée explicite comme caractéristique fondamentalement de l’instrumentation générative. De plus nous insistons sur l’importance de l’indétermination signifiante comme composante essentielle de la création. Enfin nous proposons la notion de « trans-forme » comme élément caractéristique d’une pensée du processus et de la multiplicité. Cette « meta-forme » serait issue de la description des conditions de mise en forme à travers la paramétrisation des comportements aux limites et des modalités d’émergence / This research tackles the exploration and the qualification of evolutionary mechanisms applied to the architectural design. Here, it is the environmental qualities and more particularly the passive solar qualities of the envelope of the building that will guide the evolutionary process. We become attached more particularly to the initial phases of the conception, and we try to specify a aided digital tool of facilitating and stimulating a creative design. Having established and structured the knowledge on the processes of conception, on the creativity, on the thermal qualities and on the evolutionary methods, we propose a prototypal tool, based on an genetic algorithm and implanted in a modeller software. This one was experimented in the educational environment, and led to us to characterize the modalities of creation and conceptualization of the architectural shape within the framework of an evolutionary instrumentation.So we note the cognitive fall of an implicit thought towards an explicit thought as a main characteristic of the generative tools. Furthermore we insist on the importance of the significant indecision as essential constituent of the creation. Finally we propose the notion of "transform" as characteristic element of a thought of the process and the multiplicity. This "meta-shape" would arise from the description of the conditions of shaping through the parameterisation of the behaviours at the limits and from modalities of emergence

Esse trabalho visa entender o processo de design a partir da complexidade e estabelecer princípios claros para o processo específico que utiliza de procedimentos advindos do design paramétrico e da fabricação digital para o desenvolvimento de objetos arquitetônicos que possuem superfícies complexas. Entendemos que o pensamento complexo, que considera a rede em contraponto a lógica linear, integra, aproxima e possibilita entender o uno composto por múltiplos e a leitura do processo de design a partir da lente da complexidade é um caminho para seu entendimento. / This work aim to understand the design process from the complexity and establish clear principles for the design process that uses procedures arising from parametric design and digital fabrication for the development of architectural objects that have complex surfaces. We understand that complex thinking, which considers the network as opposed to linear logic, integrates approaches and enables understand one composed of multiple and the reading of the design process as from the complexity is a way for your understanding.

Esse trabalho visa entender o processo de design a partir da complexidade e estabelecer princípios claros para o processo específico que utiliza de procedimentos advindos do design paramétrico e da fabricação digital para o desenvolvimento de objetos arquitetônicos que possuem superfícies complexas. Entendemos que o pensamento complexo, que considera a rede em contraponto a lógica linear, integra, aproxima e possibilita entender o uno composto por múltiplos e a leitura do processo de design a partir da lente da complexidade é um caminho para seu entendimento. / This work aim to understand the design process from the complexity and establish clear principles for the design process that uses procedures arising from parametric design and digital fabrication for the development of architectural objects that have complex surfaces. We understand that complex thinking, which considers the network as opposed to linear logic, integrates approaches and enables understand one composed of multiple and the reading of the design process as from the complexity is a way for your understanding.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo apresentar uma proposta de uso do CAD 3D para o desenvolvimento de projetos para produção de vedações verticais, sendo a compatibilização parte intrínseca do processo de projeto. A pesquisa foi organizada adotando-se três estratégias, com a finalidade de buscar sucessivas validações em relação às vantagens do uso do CAD 3D proposto quando comparado ao CAD 2D. As estratégias utilizadas foram: um estudo de caso piloto, um levantamento de dados e um experimento exploratório. O estudo de caso piloto e o experimento exploratório, nos quais foi utilizado o método proposto, possibilitaram concluir que o CAD 3D possui vantagens sobre o CAD 2D, sendo mais rápido e mais eficaz na verificação de interferências espaciais, especialmente em situações complexas. Através do levantamento de dados em projetos representados em CAD 2D, concluiuse também que esse tipo de representação possui características que lhe conferem limitações e podem gerar erros de análise. Foram identificadas cinco características básicas da representação em 2D, que podem induzir a erros: ambigüidade, simbolismo, simplificação, omissão e fragmentação. Estas conclusões validaram a proposta usando o CAD 3D para o desenvolvimento de projetos de vedações. A proposta deste trabalho apresenta vantagens em relação ao método corrente de desenvolvimento de projetos com o CAD 2D. Estas vantagens estão relacionadas principalmente à maior facilidade de visualização e uso efetivo de recursos automáticos disponíveis nos pacotes CAD de identificação de interferências, reduzindo os problemas da representação em 2D. Desta forma, a compatibilização torna-se um processo muito mais preciso e rápido. O método proposto está baseado em modelos de gestão mais modernos, como a engenharia simultânea, incluindo a redução de tempo gasto em atividades que não agregam valor, além de preparar para o uso de ferramentas mais avançadas como o BIM (Building Information Modeling). / This work aims to present a proposal for 3D CAD use for production design of partition walls, including the design coordination as an inherent part of the design process. The research was organized adopting three strategies to obtain successive validations regarding the advantages of 3D CAD compared to 2D CAD use. The strategies used were: a pilot case study, data collection and an exploratory experiment. The case study and the exploratory experiment, which were carried out using the proposed method, allowed the conclusion that 3D CAD has advantages over 2D CAD, the former being faster and more effective for spacial interference checking , specially in complex situations. By using a data collection from designs developed with 2D CAD, the research also concluded that the two-dimensional representation has limiting characteristics that may produce analysis errors. It was identified five basic characteristics of the 2D representation that may lead to error: ambiguity, symbolism, simplification, omission and fragmentation. These conclusions have validated the proposal for a method using 3D CAD for production design of partition walls. This proposal presents advantages over the current 2D CAD -based design method. These advantages are related mainly to better visualization and effective use of the automatic tools of CAD packages for interference identification , reducing the representation problems of 2D. Therefore, compatibility analysis becomes more precise and faster. The proposed method is based on modern management models, such as concurrent engineering, decreasing time spent on non-value adding activities, as well as preparing for using of advanced tools like BIM (Building Information Modeling).

Esta pesquisa estuda o processo de design envolvido no desenvolvimento de proposições pautadas pelos conceitos do design para experiência. O intuito é elaborar abordagens possíveis sobre a relação entre indivíduo e objeto interativo, ou seja, aquele acrescido de instância digital de processamento de dados. Tais abordagens poderão se constituir no processo de design como posturas projetuais para o designer. Desenvolvimentos teóricos e práticos são aliados para se alcançar os fins almejados por essa pesquisa. A investigação teórica, por um lado, contextualiza e fornece conceitos relevantes a serem considerados na relação entre o indivíduo e o objeto interativo. A partir dos conceitos trabalhados, é realizada uma leitura sobre processos de design que exploram essa condição dos objetos. A prática possibilita a aplicação das considerações teóricas levantadas, permitindo o esclarecimento de dúvidas e incertezas sobre o processo. A associação de teoria e prática se constitui como procedimento fundamental para a construção do conhecimento sobre o assunto. / This research studies the design process involved in the development of proposals guided by the concepts of design for experience. It aims elaborate possible boardings on the relation between subject and interactive object, that is, that one increased with a digital instance for data processing. Such boardings would be able to consist in the process of design as projective positions to designer. Theoretical and practical developments are allied to reach the aims of this research. The theoretical inquiry, on one hand, contextualizes and supplies relevant concepts to be considered in the relation between the subject and the interactive object. From the worked concepts, a reading is carried through processes of design that explore this condition of objects. The practice makes it possible to apply the raised theoretical considerations, allowing the clarification of doubts and uncertainties on the process. The association of practice theory constitutes a basic procedure for the construction of the knowledge on this subject.