Mind and Body
The Designer’s Expert Eye: From the Structure of Visual Relationship to Design Thinking View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Claudio Magalhães, Leslie Welch
Experiencing physical and digital configurations of objects is an essential part of design education and practice. This exploratory work investigates whether designers develop a particular way of seeing through training. In particular, it examines the extent to which college education gives designers a specific way of seeing a three-dimensional object. In this study we recruited design students from Pratt Institute, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and Dept. of Art & Design (D.A.D./PUC-Rio) and compared freshman (F) and senior (S) design students’ patterns of free visual exploration while looking at a rectilinear volume composition, designed according to visual relationships proposed by Rowena Kostellow (Hannah, 2002). To measure the number and duration of fixations, the study considered four areas of interest: the external area (i.e., the “negative spaces” around the volume), the dominant form area, the subdominant form area, and the subordinate form area, i.e., the three forms joined in the object composition. Heat maps of visual inspection, total fixation durations, and visit counts were analyzed (ANOVA), and have shown a dispersion pattern between freshman and senior students and reveal a broad number of fixation points in the negative area. The number (visit count) and duration of fixations varied according to view angles. This work’s results pave the way to the hypotheses in which the influence of expertise is decisive to eye movements (Gegenfurtner, Lehtinen, & Säljö, 2011) and in which a tacit design thinking flourish to support project decisions and system thinking.
Multi Sensory Experience : Applying Inclusive Design into Museums Focusing on People Who Are Blind
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Shouaa Alrajeh
Visually impaired people explore their environments in a unique way. Many art museums are primarily focused on the visual arts; therefore, the experience is limited for some visitors. A museum offering a full sensory experience specifically created for the blind results in a heightened experience for all. The intent of this project is to explore alternative methods of interpretation with the architecture spaces and improve the effective experience within the museum. By introducing innovative technologies, methods and thorough code analysis and investigation this museum creates a multi-sensory experience. My design and spaces planning focuses on the disabled, specifically blind people and people with sight problems. By design explores ways blind people can interact and learn about art and history and enjoy the entertainment as well.
