Recipients of recently-funded DRS Student Research Bursary projects 2011 / 2012 included: Ariana Mihoc, Jak Spencer, David Parkinson, Emma Fisher, Verena Ziegler and Andreas Peter.
September 2011
Ariana Mihoc
Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK; awarded £500
The aim of the project is to develop new knowledge, techniques and insights concerning the potential for rapid-prototype based ethnographic appraisal techniques for application in the design development of people-centred bespoke medical devices.
The bursary will be used to participate at The Design of Medical Devices Conference, Minneapolis, April 2013.
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Jak Spencer
Loughborough University, UK; awarded £500
Cultural background is one of the key influences in people’s everyday behaviour and a huge factor in the environmental footprint of households. Despite this, relatively little primary research in a design field has been conducted into how culture affects an individual’s attitudes, behaviours and habits in relation to their use of resources. The subject is of particular importance as the growth in consumption from rapidly developing nations will have significant environmental implications for the planet.
The DRS bursary was used to part fund a qualitative user study in Bangalore, India as part of a wider study looking at the everyday behaviours and attitudes of people from different cultural contexts. A particular focus was made of the laundry process as this was identified in the literature and previous studies as a good area to focus on to reflect the cultural differences and the role that design could play. User interviews, observations, and shadowing with local participants organised through contacts in the region allowed the researcher to gain a deep understanding of the processes that make up the everyday behaviour of consumers.
The results from the study in India have been analysed along with other study data from Brazil and the UK. The development of a method for involving culture more in the design process is currently being developed with the hope of publishing it in a journal in early 2013.
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March 2012
David Parkinson
Northumbria University, UK; awarded £450
My PhD aims to develop an understanding of how designer’s storytelling impacts people in an organisation. After an organisation has worked with designers at the conceptual stage of a project, many artefacts are left behind by the designers such as sketches, renderings, models, reports, storyboards and multimedia presentations. I believe that through the stories told and embedded within these artefacts, there is an impact on the people from the organisation.
The bursary will be put towards the costs associated with presenting my preliminary findings at the DRS 2012 conference in Bangkok.
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Emma Fisher
Swinburne University, Australia; awarded £350
This project sets out to investigate the perceptions of communication designers in Australia to ascertain if, how, and why they engage with research. A mixed methods study is being planned, involving nation-wide online surveys to design professionals and academics, followed by a series of focus groups, and semi-structured interviews with experts, to explore and understand the survey findings.
The bursary will be used to fund travel for conducting focus groups and interviews.
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Verena Ziegler
Auckland University of Technology,,New Zealand; awarded £350
The research will explore new approaches to the experience and act of dwelling as a holistic experience with embedded cultural and individual values, sustaining a memorable, long-term experience for the dweller. Conceptual strategies and application-oriented prototypes for a sustainable, demountable dwelling system are envisaged as a modular textile system that informs a local interior design and makes use of developments in new materials and new technologies, in order to re-define the relation between human being and space.
The bursary will be used to attend the FAB8NZ 2012 symposium in Wellington which brings design practitioners and laboratory researchers together for a week of hands-on workshops and a one-day academic symposium on the principle and applications of digital fabrication.
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Andreas Peter
The Open University, UK; awarded £350
In a series of lab experiments, the research project investigates what role different types of prototyping play in co-located collaborative design processes. It especially focuses on how different prototyping materials inform the discussions - and influence their quality - occurring during the collaboration.
The bursary will be used to pay participants and purchase materials for a series of empirical studies.
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DRS Membership Secretary:
Prof
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Open University UK
