Design and Human Wellbeing

This research group was established in 2008, completing 3 EPSRC research projects and several public engagement, innovation, design education (HEA), KTP (AgeUK) and industry projects. In the past 5 years its members have published over 50 peer-reviewed papers, and have won INCLUDE 2009 Reviewer’s Recommended Paper (Nickpour & Dong), Reviewer’s Choice awards (Evans) and 2011 IASDR Reviewers favourite paper (Dong). Members have contributed to a special issue on inclusive design (Design Journal - Evans, Dong 2013). Hosting the 2009 Inclusive Design Education Symposium (KT-EQUAL), members gave keynotes at the UD2012 Oslo and Universal Design Fukuoka 2012 conferences. The group expanded into China in 2010, setting up the inclusive design research special interest group InclusiveSIG for the Design Research Society (2012), publishing a regular research newsletter. The group continues to address the key challenge of mainstreaming inclusive design practice, and translating user data/insights into design knowledge through engaging users and designers in the research process, by pushing the boundaries of design through fundamental and applied research, and promoting inclusive design globally via international activities and collaborations.

Inclusive Design

Members: Hua Dong, Farnaz Nickpour, Graeme Evans, Gabriella Spinelli (Brunel Business School)

PhD students:

• Sanaz Shamshirsaz: Improving quality in care homes based on residents’ needs and requirements
• Bin Zhang: Design-oriented Practice Studies on the Phenomenological Philosophy of User and Artifact
• Adam Louis Strang: User-Centred Design of Geographic Data Products (Ordnance Survey)
  

This group was established in 2006 and measures and models human response to sensory stimuli. The research is multi-disciplinary involving elements of artificial intelligence, branding, cognitive psychology, design, digital signal processing, philosophy, psychophysics and receptor physiology. Researchers collaborate with numerous institutions including UCL, L’Boro and Warwick, HEIs in Denmark, Delft, Lyon, Milan, Turin, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Research has focussed on road vehicles leading to new company test standards (e.g. human perception of the idle engine, Shell), and to major system redesign (e.g. eco-driving research, Jaguar). Synergies with industrial partners have been fundamental to the development of the intellectual content and to the end-user impacts. Recent perception research has widened, with UK/EU priorities in carbon emissions and behavioural change, e.g. EU-funded design of touch sensitive luminous flexible plastics for healthcare applications (Ajovalasit).

Perception enhancement

Members: Joseph Giacomin, Marco Ajovalasit

PhD students:

• Hyunjin Kim: Design against gendered fear in public transport settings
• Hojung Kim: Human centred design of digital agents
• Simon Ramm: Naturalness framework for person-vehicle interaction
• Sebastian Fraser: Design for iconicity in automotive systems
• Andres Cervantes: Global trends and business models in human centred design
• Arber Shabani: Development of a Sensory Evaluation Methodology (SEM) for encoding human tactile perception of steering wheel vibration character in automobiles
• Massimo Micocci: Design-driven development of smart materials for care and well-being applications

• Effect of fuel content on the human perception of engine idle irregularity, sponsored by Shell Research, £128K (2007-2008) (Giacomin)
• Facilitating Wider Uptake of Inclusive Design, EPSRC, £243k (2008-2011) (Dong)
• DataMIX: exploring more inclusive means of communicating data, funded by National Endowment for Science, Technology and Arts, £12k (2009-2012) (Dong)
• Co-production of physical products and value co-creation - Scalability in the Wild, RCUK Digital Economy Programme, £365k (2010-2012) (Dong CI)
• Encouraging eco-driving, sponsored by JaguarLandRover, £10K (2011-2012) (Giacomin)
• Age friendly products and services, Technology Strategy Board and ESRC, £480K (2011-2014) (Dong CI)
• Naturalness framework for person-automobile dialogue, sponsored by JaguarLandRover , £81K (2012-2015) (Giacomin)
• Application of user-centred design to geographic data products, Ordnance Survey, £31K (2012-2015) (Dong)
• Light.Touch.Matters, EU FP7, design driven development of touch sensitive luminous flexible plastics for applications in care & well-being; novel materials and design-based solutions for the creative industries, consortium of 13 SMEs and 4 HEIs, £562K (£3.2m total) (2013-2016) (Ajovalasit CI)