Evolving Experiences
Featured The Role of Technology in the Construction of Social Reality in Everyday Life: Robot Vacuum Cleaner Transforms Daily Life of House Cleaning View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ayşe Dalyanoğlu, Ozge Merzali Celikoglu
In everyday life, individuals meaning their experiences and interactions within a social activity and organise their social lives. Language plays an important role as a tool in the process of objectifying individuals' experiences and constructing reality. Individuals begin the process of interpreting symbols and meanings are generated through subject-object interaction. User comments on online shopping platforms, which are frequently preferred these days, reflect the interactions and experiences of individuals with products and contain traces of everyday life. This study investigates the position of robot vacuum cleaner technology in everyday life and its effect on the construction of social reality. The role of the robot vacuum cleaner in changing the perception, way of thinking and doing housework habits on house cleaning is investigated. Based on the experiences of users, user comments about robot vacuum cleaners on the Trendyol platform are used as a data source. The data is analysed by content analysis. The method discusses the social reality reflected by robot vacuum cleaners in everyday life in a theoretical framework. As a result of the research, the experiences made meaningful by society through robot vacuum cleaners have gone through an intersubjective journey and the reality that society constructs for house cleaning in everyday life has been discovered as an objective representation. The interactions of society with each other and with technology affect the process of interpreting and meaning the product, as well as user behaviours, social norms, routines and mundanity.
A Combination of Chinese and Western Book Design: A Case Study of Chengshu - China's First Textbook View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Wenjing Yang
This paper conducts a case study on the book design of Chengshu. It analyzes the reasons and development context of the reform of Chinese book design in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. It summarizes the book design methods combining Western and Chinese, enriching the book design research in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. It offers provides ideas for current book design.
Better Everything: Publication Design and the Fruit Industry in Early 20th Century Pacific Northwest View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Cristina de Almeida
This paper explores the strategic role of graphic design in promoting and consolidating the early 20th-century fruit industry in the Pacific Northwest. Specifically, it examines the creation of Better Fruit magazine, a publication intended to advocate for "progressive" (i.e., industrial) farming while attracting affluent European Americans to settle in the region. The magazine's exceptional typography and presswork were intentionally crafted to dispel the notion of the Northwest as a rugged frontier, instead portraying it as a prosperous and refined society. The editors' self-awareness of the publication's aesthetic choices underscores how the magazine’s design served as a proxy for the high standards the Northwest fruit industry aspired to.
Designing Accessible Social Futures with the Stylus Project: A Techno-Somatic Design Approach Towards Disability Inclusion View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Stephen Fernandez
Technology shapes how the future of society is imagined and constructed. Yet, social imaginations about the future tend to exclude disability. Amid such imaginations about social and technological futures, the accessibility of designed objects and interactive experiences continues to impact the lives of people with disabilities. Drawing on a techno-somatic design approach that uses critical making techniques and open-source digital design software to create 3D-printed assistive technology, the Stylus Project seeks to improve the quality of how people with disabilities interact with digital devices. A techno-somatic design approach foregrounds what Garth Paine describes as a “sensorial relationship” between the user’s “intentional effort” and the “pliability” of a designed object, such as a stylus. Current stylus designs require considerable hand mobility to manipulate the tool, which can be strenuous and inaccessible to people with disabilities. Building on critical insights from people with limited hand mobility, we designed a “snap-band” forearm attachment that does not require precise hand and finger movement to manipulate. By integrating this attachment into a 3D-printed stylus, users with limited hand mobility can interact comfortably with digital touchscreens and perform tasks like ordering a pizza or socializing with others online. Indeed, the Stylus Project materializes accessible social futures that include people with disabilities. By illuminating key findings from user-testing sessions that assessed how our stylus facilitates accessible interactions with digital devices, this study demonstrates that a techno-somatic design approach can advance the accessibility of interactive experiences and create accessible social futures that include disability.
