H(ello).E.T. – Design for human enhancement
This year, the research project for the students of the third year and bridging program at MAD-faculty focuses on design in the context of human enhancement. The project “H(ello).E.T.!“ aims to explore the field of human enhancement and its implications in order to develop design outputs that relate to the debate concerning human enhancement technologies.
To trigger reflection on the difficulties of this debate, the project started off with an immersion in the world of people with a physical disability. Student teams did interviews and observations with people with a physical disability and experts in prosthetics.
This all served as a kind of extreme user experience. The aim was to bring students closer to situations in which they were confronted with a desire or a moral debate concerning enhancing – or in this case, curing – human performances and abilities. The experiences and insights that the students gained via these observations and interviews will be interpreted and translated to the field of human enhancement in the next phases of the project.
Usewell project launches with workshop at E-culture Fair
After a year of research and development, Usewell, the user-centred design roadmap, tool and website was launched with a workshop at the e-culturefair on the 17th of November. The workshop itself consisted of an introduction into the research carried out during the develpment of the project, followed by two real world UCD method case-studies presented by Usewell partners, Bert Paepen from Pyxima and Mathy Vanbeul from ATiT.
In its online form, the Usewell tool offers visitors the chance to shuffle through cards, looking for challenges their organisation is currently facing, ranging from issues around innovation to problems with existing websites, in turn, these challenges are linked with user-centred design methods which, when carried out, can lead to insight/solutions to the challenge at hand. The 15 Usewell methods; Brainstorming, Card Sorting, Checklist Review, Context Mapping, Customer Journey Map, Diary, Focus Groups, Interviews, Mapping, Personas, Prototyping, Scenarios, Shadowing, Task Analysis and User Experience Test, were selected based on their accessibility, contribution and relevance to organisations and small businesses looking to learn more about their user-based, innovate on existing services or make changes to existing products or services.
As a project, Usewell offers an easy, quick and easy way to match method to challenge. There already exists many roadmaps, toolkits, books and websites which offer many takes on user-centred design methods, but few offer users a clear means on how to prepare, execute and analyse the results. Over the coming years, Usewell intends to add further methods, casestudies and tips/tricks from users,educators and those trying these methods out for the first time.
Following the presentation of the case-studies, the Usewell workshop worked with an off-line version of the Usewell cards. This offline, tangible card-set mirrors the content online but is a tool that mediates discussion in small groups. Each small group was moderated by a Usewell partner and the participants ranged from small-business owners, people from cultural institutions to teachers in higher education. The feedback from the session confirmed the intent of Usewell, to make a clear relationship between the real issues faced and suggestion of method and to make these methods accessible.
For more information, visit: http://www.usewell.be
Download the cards, guide and worksheets: http://www.usewell.be/#/methods/
Eutropolis – Open Content Call
Eutropolis – imagine a city is an initiative of the SocialBeta Foundation in co-creation with NEIMED, Maurer United Architects and several other partners.
We challenge designers, urbanists, photographers, researchers and other disciplines to imagine a city called Eutropolis. Share with us your idea or dream about Eutropolis and it’s future. Your contribution might be a graphic design, an essay, a poem, a photoshoot or an artwork.
Want to contribute?
Send your proposal no later than 15th of December to eutropolis@ibeta.eu.
The publication will be spread throughout Eutropolis with your work included. Also, you’ll be our guest at the TEDxEutropolis conference on the 4th of February 2012 in Hasselt (B).
H o m e – S e n s e dwelling and the Internet of Things
On the 9th of December 2011 a one day conference – hosted by V2 in Rotterdam – will aggregate developments and focus on the issue: “What are the consequences for our home-environment with regard to the Internet of Things?”
More information can be found here
Social Cities of Tomorrow: New Media & Urban Design
Social Cities of Tomorrow, a conference and workshop on new media and urbanism is organised by The Mobile City, Virtueel Platform and ARCAM. The conference will take place on 17 February 2012 in the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam. Several keynote speakers such as Usman Haque and Natalie Jeremijenko will speak about the promises and challenges in this newly emerging and highly interdisciplinary field of urban design. T
They are currently welcoming proposals in the fields of urban design interventions, projects by housing corporations, media artists, citizen initiatives, technology companies, or others.
Deadline for proposals: 15 December 2011
For more information, consult the conference website.