Agents, artifacts and environment together constitute an interconnected, and interdependent socia... more Agents, artifacts and environment together constitute an interconnected, and interdependent social system beleaguered with complex palimpsest of concerns. How can design thinking visualize the contradictory and controversial nature of matters of concern, where perspectives and stakes are unequal, contesting and conflicting, but with inter dependencies, not all of which are entirely predictable? Prompted by advancing technology and increasing complexity of the design inquiry, role of the user in negotiating such contestations has lately been in flux. Increasingly, the user is perceived not as a mere consumer driven by immediate self-serving gains, but as an inter-dependent actor negotiating for an empowering and equitable solution for all. This necessitates the exploration of how blurring of strict boundaries between user, designer, and a social agent is diluting dichotomies between user/designer, social-worker/capitalist, consumer/producer, use/profit, or need/desire. Hence, this paper is an epistemic inquiry into the trajectory of user participation in responsible decision-making through the analysis of six design frameworks holding different kinds and extents of social accountability. Thereby seeking, twofold objectives: (a) to establish the theoretical antecedents of user participation in design for social responsibility, and (b) to assess the future of responsible design decisions in discourse and practice .
The article explores how the quality of life within a deprived urban environment might be improve... more The article explores how the quality of life within a deprived urban environment might be improved through the ‘gamification’ of and interaction with, more-than-human elements within the environment. It argues that such quality may be achieved through the community’s multicentered value from the bottom up. This is shown through the case study of the Co-De|GT urban mobile application that was developed in the Synergetic Landscapes unit through real-life research by design experimental studio teaching. Complimentary experimentation took place during the Relating Systems Thinking and Design 10 symposium in the Co-De|BP workshop, where experts were able to be collocated for interactive real-time data gathering. This application addresses the need for collective action towards more-than-human synergy across an urban ecosystem through gamification, community collaboration and DIY culture. It intends to generate a sustainable, scalable token economy where humans and non-humans play equal r...
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
One of the basic problems of user on manual wheelchair is overcoming architectural barriers (kerb... more One of the basic problems of user on manual wheelchair is overcoming architectural barriers (kerbs, stairs etc.) on its way. Even though many research studies have been reported in different fields to increase the independence of wheelchair users, the question of overcoming obstacles by a wheelchair always remains as topic of discussion for many researchers. In this paper, the author has proposed a manual stair climbing wheelchair concept which can overcome the architectural barriers to a considerable extent. Major part of the paper focuses on the proposed creative design concept and concludes by discussing upon the physical working model developed for the proposed design solution.
Agents, artifacts and environment together constitute an interconnected, and interdependent socia... more Agents, artifacts and environment together constitute an interconnected, and interdependent social system beleaguered with complex palimpsest of concerns. How can design thinking visualize the contradictory and controversial nature of matters of concern, where perspectives and stakes are unequal, contesting and conflicting, but with inter dependencies, not all of which are entirely predictable? Prompted by advancing technology and increasing complexity of the design inquiry, role of the user in negotiating such contestations has lately been in flux. Increasingly, the user is perceived not as a mere consumer driven by immediate self-serving gains, but as an inter-dependent actor negotiating for an empowering and equitable solution for all. This necessitates the exploration of how blurring of strict boundaries between user, designer, and a social agent is diluting dichotomies between user/designer, social-worker/capitalist, consumer/producer, use/profit, or need/desire. Hence, this paper is an epistemic inquiry into the trajectory of user participation in responsible decision-making through the analysis of six design frameworks holding different kinds and extents of social accountability. Thereby seeking, twofold objectives: (a) to establish the theoretical antecedents of user participation in design for social responsibility, and (b) to assess the future of responsible design decisions in discourse and practice .
The article explores how the quality of life within a deprived urban environment might be improve... more The article explores how the quality of life within a deprived urban environment might be improved through the ‘gamification’ of and interaction with, more-than-human elements within the environment. It argues that such quality may be achieved through the community’s multicentered value from the bottom up. This is shown through the case study of the Co-De|GT urban mobile application that was developed in the Synergetic Landscapes unit through real-life research by design experimental studio teaching. Complimentary experimentation took place during the Relating Systems Thinking and Design 10 symposium in the Co-De|BP workshop, where experts were able to be collocated for interactive real-time data gathering. This application addresses the need for collective action towards more-than-human synergy across an urban ecosystem through gamification, community collaboration and DIY culture. It intends to generate a sustainable, scalable token economy where humans and non-humans play equal r...
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
One of the basic problems of user on manual wheelchair is overcoming architectural barriers (kerb... more One of the basic problems of user on manual wheelchair is overcoming architectural barriers (kerbs, stairs etc.) on its way. Even though many research studies have been reported in different fields to increase the independence of wheelchair users, the question of overcoming obstacles by a wheelchair always remains as topic of discussion for many researchers. In this paper, the author has proposed a manual stair climbing wheelchair concept which can overcome the architectural barriers to a considerable extent. Major part of the paper focuses on the proposed creative design concept and concludes by discussing upon the physical working model developed for the proposed design solution.
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