Seasonality as a consideration, inspiration and aspiration in food design

While over the last century food systems have become more controlled, standard-ized and globalized, the plants and animals that form the basis of our food production still show seasonal fluctuation. The growth and reproductive cycles of these organisms follow seasonal weather patterns, including changes in rainfall, light exposure and...

Between attraction and aversion: How designers can use the concept of disgust to influence food consumption

Disgust is a strong emotion of aversion. In the context of food, it is often referred to as a guardian of the mouth, preventing close contact with pathogens and the accidental consumption of poisons. However, disgust can also create a certain level of attraction and be part of positive experiences, even in the context of food. In this article,...

Playscapes: Creating Space for Young Children's Physical Activity and Play

Young children often lack opportunities to play in a physically active way. This is particularly the case for children with cancer and other chronic diseases, who regularly undergo periods of hospitalization. Promoting their physical activity and play can contribute to their health, wellbeing, and development. This thesis develops ‘Playscapes’ –...

Grappling with Diversity in Research Through Design

Since its introduction, Research through Design (RtD) has taken on a wide variety of forms. Currently, there is a lack of clarity about what connects and separates different RtD approaches. Several attempts have been made to clarify these matters, often in the form of a top-down categorization. Here we start on a different path, one that is open...

Design Strategies for Promoting Young Children’s Physical Activity: A Playscapes Perspective

This paper develops a set of design strategies for promoting young children’s physical activity. These strategies are developed by taking the design perspective of Playscapes as a starting point. Playscapes suggests that three play qualities are key in promoting young children’s physical activity: free, bodily, and dispersed play. We present two...

Objects with intent: Designing Everyday Things as Collaborative Partners

In HCI there is an increasing trend to approach computing artifacts as agents. In this article, we make a case for "Objects with Intent" (OwI's) as an emerging type of agents that take advantage of the meaning of everyday things as the site for their intelligence and agency. After reviewing relevant existing research in HCI and related fields...

Challenges for design researchers in healthcare

Design research in healthcare can be demanding. We report on eight challenges that designers and design researchers face when working on healthcare projects. We conducted four workshops with design researchers active in healthcare: six PhD candidates, a mixed group of thirteen design researchers, twelve design students, and eight design...

Ambiguity and Open-Endedness in Behavioural Design

Design is increasingly concerned with changing people’s behaviours. A common characteristic to behavioural design approaches is their directionality: products<br/>provide clarity about or guidance towards the designer’s intended behavioural outcome. In this paper we propose an alternative perspective that emphasizes<br/>ambiguity (i.e. affording...