As we move towards a sustainable future, designing technology plays a key role. Over the last few decades, the role of design has been steadily expanding from a purely economic benefit for products to a discipline that contributes to positive change for humanity. While the recognition of this responsibility is growing, there is a knowledge gap for design practice. What is a contemporary design approach and how does it translate into practice? We briefly review three major design movements (human-centred design, participatory design, design for sustainability) and introduce the human-driven design approach, which integrates all three perspectives into the design of technology. To explore the gap between human-centred design theory and design practice, we reflect on three use cases. Finally, this paper provides insights into how human-driven design can be implemented in practice and presents four key issues that require action: Stakeholder management, faster horses, prototyping for disruptive scenarios and methods for sustainability.

Die Konferenz »Entwerfen – Entwickeln – Erleben« bietet ein be­sonderes Podium zum Austausch von Wissenschaftlern und Praxis­vertretern aus den zentralen Bereichen der Produktentwicklung. Der vorliegende Band enthält Beiträge der EEE2014 unter anderem zu Innovationsstudien und Zukunftskonzepten für verschiedenste Bran­chen, zu Design Thinking und Designprozessen von frühen Phasen bis zum Qualitätsmanagement, Methoden und Werkzeugen von Mindcards bis Eye-Tracking sowie zu den Themen User Experience und Nutzererleben, Öko-Design, Universal Design und partizipative Gestaltung. Die Technischen Universität Dresden und technischesdesign.org er­möglichten in Kooperation mit der Gruppe Virtuelle Produktentwick­lung der Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft für Produktentwicklung (WiGeP), dem Mathematisch-Physikalischen Salon der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden und der Hochschule für Bildende Küns­te Dresden die fachübergreifende Diskussion des Schwerpunkt-The­mas inmitten der Dresdner Altstadt. In diesem Band sind die Bei­träge zum Technischen Design enthalten, ein weiterer Band (http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-144963, herausgegeben von Ralph Stelzer) fasst die Beiträge zur Konstruktionstechnik und zur Virtuellen Produktentwick­lung zusammen.

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.

Les travaux de cette thèse en informatique s’inscrivent dans le domaine de l’interaction homme-machine (IHM). Le sujet de ce mémoire concerne l’utilisation d’une nouvelle forme d’ordinateur appelée table interactive. Il s’agit d’une table dont le plateau est à la fois un écran et une surface de détection multi-tactile. Les tables interactives ouvrent de nouveaux usages de l’informatique en permettant des applications multi-utilisateurs en coprésence. Les utilisateurs d’une même table interactive ont naturellement envie d’interagir simultanément sur la surface partagée. Cette simultanéité est toutefois difficile à observer dans un contexte collaboratif et non artificiel. Les études existantes n’ont pas suffisamment analysé les problèmes rencontrés ni cherché comment le système peut aider à gérer les accès simultanés.Notre approche a consisté à étudier les interactions simultanées en nous orientant vers des situations originales où la couche applicative du système exerce une forte pression sur le rythme d’utilisation. Nous justifions ainsi l’utilisation d’un jeu vidéo comme outil d’exploration et d’expérimentation. Ce mémoire retrace la conception et le développement de RealTimeChess, un jeu pour 2 à 4 joueurs, adapté aux caractéristiques des tables interactives, et inspiré des échecs dans une version s’affranchissant du tour par tour. Nous rapportons les résultats d’expériences menées sur des groupes de 2 à 4 participants en situations de coopération et de compétition, qui ont permis de mettre en évidence des problèmes de gênes physiques et d’accessibilité aux objets distants ; de perception des informations importantes en contexte dynamique ; et de contrôle du rythme de l’interaction.Ce mémoire expose en outre les leçons apprises au niveau de l’interaction simultanée de plusieurs utilisateurs, des aspects de territorialité, des comportements collaboratifs et enfin en proposant des recommandations de Game Design pour tables interactives. / This thesis presents our work in computer science in human-computer interaction (HCI). The subject concerns the use of a new kind of computer called the interactive tabletop display. It is a table whose top is both a screen and a multi-touch detection device. Interactive tabletops open up new uses of computer applications by allowing several co-located users to work or play together on the same system. Tabletop’s users naturally want to interact simultaneously on the shared surface. This simultaneity is difficult to observe in a collaborative and not artificial environment. Existing studies have not sufficiently analyzed the problems nor sought how the system can help manage concurrency.Our approach was to exploring simultaneous interactions by studying original situations where the system puts pressure on users. We explain how we used a video game as an exploration and experimentation tool. This thesis traces the design and development of RealTimeChess, a game for 2-4 players, a real-time version of Chess adapted to tabletops. We report the results of experiments on groups of 2 to 4 participants in situations of cooperation and competition, which helped to highlight problems and physical discomfort of access to remote objects, awareness in dynamic context, and control the pace of interaction.This thesis also presents lessons learned on simultaneous interactions of multiple users, territoriality aspects, collaborative behavior, and finally gives tabletop Game Design guidelines.

A modalidade de Educação a Distância (EAD) ocupa atualmente um lugar importante no desenvolvimento e expansão da Educação no Brasil. A EAD a partir de novas tecnologias, teve um grande impulso, principalmente aquela que envolve a rede Internet. O uso das tecnologias digitais em espaços educativos permitiu que a comunicação, interação, armazenamento e distribuição de conteúdos para o processo educativo, fossem realizados de maneira mais eficiente. Em meio à diversidade de mídias e tecnologias na atualidade, a IPTV surge como uma nova proposta, um veículo de comunicação interativo que possibilita novas perspectivas para a modalidade de EAD. Neste contexto, a IPTV torna-se fundamental, pois possibilita através de seu alto índice de interatividade e qualidade na entrega de conteúdos síncronos e assíncronos oferecer uma gama cada vez maior de opções para seus usuários. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo apresentar elementos visando o uso da IPTV como modalidade de Educação no sistema a distância, para a entrega de conteúdos no Ensino de Engenharia, buscando reduzir as distâncias no processo de ensino-aprendizagem. Dessa forma, são apresentados os benefícios da integração da IPTV e a Educação em Engenharia, dentro de uma estratégia de Educação a Distância na IPTV. / Distance Education (DE) plays an important role nowadays on the development and expansion of education in Brazil. Due to new technologies, DE had a great propulsion, mainly on those which involve the Internet. The use of digital technologies in educational spaces allowed that communication, interaction, storage and distribution of content became more efficient. In between the diversity of medias and technologies, IPTV arises as a new proposal; an interactive communication tool which enables new perspectives for DE. In this context, IPTV is paramount, since its high rates of interaction and synchronous and asynchronous content delivery quality enables a great range of options for its users. This work aims at presenting elements of IPTV use as a modality of DE in the content delivering for Engineering Teaching and Learning, focusing the reduction of distances in the teaching and learning process. Thus, it is presented benefits of the integration between IPTV and Engineering Education through a strategy of DE in IPTV.

A modalidade de Educação a Distância (EAD) ocupa atualmente um lugar importante no desenvolvimento e expansão da Educação no Brasil. A EAD a partir de novas tecnologias, teve um grande impulso, principalmente aquela que envolve a rede Internet. O uso das tecnologias digitais em espaços educativos permitiu que a comunicação, interação, armazenamento e distribuição de conteúdos para o processo educativo, fossem realizados de maneira mais eficiente. Em meio à diversidade de mídias e tecnologias na atualidade, a IPTV surge como uma nova proposta, um veículo de comunicação interativo que possibilita novas perspectivas para a modalidade de EAD. Neste contexto, a IPTV torna-se fundamental, pois possibilita através de seu alto índice de interatividade e qualidade na entrega de conteúdos síncronos e assíncronos oferecer uma gama cada vez maior de opções para seus usuários. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo apresentar elementos visando o uso da IPTV como modalidade de Educação no sistema a distância, para a entrega de conteúdos no Ensino de Engenharia, buscando reduzir as distâncias no processo de ensino-aprendizagem. Dessa forma, são apresentados os benefícios da integração da IPTV e a Educação em Engenharia, dentro de uma estratégia de Educação a Distância na IPTV. / Distance Education (DE) plays an important role nowadays on the development and expansion of education in Brazil. Due to new technologies, DE had a great propulsion, mainly on those which involve the Internet. The use of digital technologies in educational spaces allowed that communication, interaction, storage and distribution of content became more efficient. In between the diversity of medias and technologies, IPTV arises as a new proposal; an interactive communication tool which enables new perspectives for DE. In this context, IPTV is paramount, since its high rates of interaction and synchronous and asynchronous content delivery quality enables a great range of options for its users. This work aims at presenting elements of IPTV use as a modality of DE in the content delivering for Engineering Teaching and Learning, focusing the reduction of distances in the teaching and learning process. Thus, it is presented benefits of the integration between IPTV and Engineering Education through a strategy of DE in IPTV.

<p>When duties are documented, new ideas are often created regarding how the work should be carried out. Writing is an important source of development, but unfortunately the possibilities are limited when it comes to transferring new ways of thinking to personnel. As with organizational change in general, employees tend to neglect new instructions. On the basis of their personal ways of thinking, they might find that the new order is incorrect, requires more resources, lacks contact with reality, or cannot be understood. The people who have prepared the new directives think they are surely justified and easy to understand. In their eyes, those who stick to what used to be correct and reasonable seem resistant to change.</p><p>The aim of this dissertation is to understand the influence of self-assessment on service cognition and to propose how this influence can be utilized to attain strategic aims. The term self-assessment refers here to the activity whereby employees, in a structured manner, collectively assess and document their own instructions. The concept of service cognition refers to individual employee’s conceptions on how to carry out their own tasks, on how colleagues carry out theirs, and on connections between activities in the common workflow. The object of study is self-assessment as business process modeling at the local offices of the Swedish Employment Service.</p><p>What is explored is the crass but fruitful understanding that new ways of thinking more easily arise among those who define organizational design than among those who are expected to change. Using socio-cognitive theory as well as longitudinal and extensive action research, the reasons are investigated behind the inevitable development of units which are trusted to write their own instructions and, in so doing, start to talk about the way work is done. Despite the independence needed to coordinate by consensus, it seems that the collective mind thereby induced actually enhances opportunities for central control and change: Units designing their own routines surely become better coordinated, but also more controllable and adaptive to strategic change. Furthermore, some principles are presented to support self-assessment regarding organization and change.</p>

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 practicum focuses on developing a deeper knowledge about stress and our external environments. It is directed towards the profession of Landscape Architecture, and healthcare facilities including professionals. It outlines critical information about stress: how stress affects people’s physical, emotional, mental health and well-being, and how landscape architects are able to mitigate different types of stress through the design and use of our exterior environments, offering respite and healing in times of great need. Stress reveals and manifests itself in numerous ways. It has become a major problem within our society, much bigger than people care to acknowledge or believe. Landscape Architects have the ability to help people reflect upon the stress that they are under by creating spaces that inevitably sooth their ‘selves’. Through the profession and subsequent work of Landscape Architects the awareness of stress can be addressed, helping bring respite and relieve tension and stress, whether large or small, which is extremely critical in today’s society. Through the use of gardens and exterior spaces designed with stress-relief in mind, we will be able to decrease hospital stays, drug use and the overall amount of money used by medical institutions and governments, while decreasing the progression and succession of illness and diseases related to and accentuated or propagated by, or due to stress. Through this document I will discuss ideas and theories that influence and/or are pertinent to Landscape Architecture and stress, as well as natural elements that should be taken into consideration when starting to design or when planning a design that will be situated within medical institutions and healthcare facilities, but not limited to, and including any other exterior environment (such as a backyard). It will also outline design elements which emphasize appropriate ways to design these spaces and places responsibly and sensitively. By understanding how people respond to stress, Landscape Architects may be able to design appropriate, beautiful spaces. Initially this practicum was directed towards designing beautiful, meaningful gardens for the sick and/or dying, as well as for the families, visitors, and employees within healthcare settings. It has evolved, to include how our brains and bodies are physiologically affected by spaces and places that we encounter, and how these spaces either reduce or increase stress responses within us, therefore, increasing or decreasing our ability to heal, be healthy, and feel well. Stress is a major condition that is often “down-played”, ignored, or not understood within society. It is in fact a very serious condition / illness that has the ability to dictate the outcome of our physical and mental performances, and especially our health and well-being. Landscape Architects have the ability and responsibility to contribute positively to people’s bodily reactions to spaces: exterior and interior.

In South Africa, many young children from poor social and economic backgrounds are cared for at home by parents or guardians who are themselves illiterate. This leads to poor educational outcomes later in life. Yet there are many privileged teenagers with access to mobile technologies who spend a greater portion of their spare time interacting on ubiquitous social media platforms. This presents an opportunity whereby the poor educational outcomes referred to previously could be addressed by applying a technology solution providing social media-based homework support by privileged teenagers to underprivileged younger children. However, most applications designed for use by children are designed by adults, with little understanding of the user requirements of the target end users. This research explores the following question: How can a cross-age tutoring system be designed for implementation on a social networking platform to support numeracy and literacy skill acquisition? The main contribution of this research was the definition of the Cooperative design by Children for Children (CD2C) Design Framework, a blueprint of how a cross-age tutoring system could be co-designed by children of different age groups and life circumstances. The CD2C Design Framework was derived as an abstraction of the second contribution of this research, the TitanTutor, an artifact designed using co-operative inquiry method and the Design Science Research approach. The third novelty of this research was contribution to Design Science Research theory, with the addition of new theory that states that cooperative design by children from different age groups and life circumstances is tempered by socio-environmental context and power relations between the co-design partners. This work provided important contributions to researchers in the areas of Cooperative Inquiry (CI), Human Computer Interaction (HCI), and Design Science Research (DSR). Future researchers could extend the CD2C Design Framework to make it even more abstract, thereby making it universally applicable to any co-design scenario. / Computing / Ph. D. (Information Systems)