insidePhD: Design Theory, Persuasive Technologies, + Transportation

Part 2 of two events featuring IIT Institute of Design PhD Students

IIT Institute of Design was the first design school in the US to create a doctor of philosophy (PhD) in design, and it continues to have the largest doctoral program in design. The dissertation created from this work is intended to create a substantial and original contribution to design knowledge. This is a rare opportunity to get a sneak peek into the future of the field seen through the eyes of some of our most knowledgable students.

From intention and imagination to meaning: Exploring what designers do through design theory, semiotics, and systems
presented by Peter Hodges

This talk will discuss a model of design (process) based in formal design theory, semiotics, and systems. The approach to integrate these ideas is a design approach: using visualizations (diagrams). Diagrams describing formal design theories or frameworks can be mapped into each other with interpretation. The work identifies that a high level perspective on design process is a mapping from intention and imagination through communication to meaning. Here intention, imagination, communication, and meaning each have a broad sense.

Prototyping technologies for behavior change; A structured approach to unveil hidden assumptions through provocation
presented by Jaime Rivera

Prototyping for provocation is useful to unveil hidden assumptions using participatory approaches to learn how people create meaning when they interact with new information systems. However, the tradition of this scope usually works as a source of inspiration that vanishes after the first weeks of the design project. This research proposes a structured method to connect a cycle of iterative prototypes at the beginning of the project guided by Self Determination Theory and interaction attributes (how we experience time, space, and information), with the purpose to understand how technology can facilitate the process of people moving from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation in the behavior that they want to engage.

Transportation product styling design practice-based study: The design proposal and engineering implementation
presented by Yaguang Sun

Transportation product styling design is a typical cross-disciplinary subject with the characteristics of natural science and social science, it forms a unique way of thinking and solving problems. Styling design proposal and engineering implementation are creative activities that are engaging the common design communication and coordination. Design proposal and engineering implementation are two key stages of transportation product design and development. The logical relationship between the two, temporal relation and complexity of data relation caused high uncertainty and solving iterations in the design process. My research will analyze the roles relationship between styling generation and engineering application from designer's perspective, interaction model and information model. It will research on the internal cognitive logic relationship between styling and engineering to build the theory frame of information consistency between styling and engineering communication.