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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Hum. Dyn.
Sec. Digital Impacts
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fhumd.2024.1406974
This article is part of the Research Topic Data-Centric Design: Data as a Human-Centred Material View all articles

Rollercoasters and Research: Applying Data-Enabled Design to a Semi-Public Context

Provisionally accepted
Sujithra Raviselvam Sujithra Raviselvam 1*Peter Lovei Peter Lovei 1,2Renee Noortman Renee Noortman 1Thomas Olsson Thomas Olsson 3Kaisa Väänänen Kaisa Väänänen 3Mathias Funk Mathias Funk 1
  • 1 Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, Netherlands
  • 2 Philips Healthcare (Netherland), Eindhoven, North Brabant, Netherlands
  • 3 Tampere University, Tampere, Pirkanmaa, Finland

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Data-enabled design (DED) is a design approach where research data is integrated with design praxis in an iterative and hands-on fashion, and it has been successfully applied to design for people in the healthcare domain. However, how to utilise DED as a more broadly applicable approach that facilitates design for larger populations in semi-public spaces remains an open question. Understanding the advantages and challenges of applying DED in various contexts is crucial to guide design researchers further and prevent methodological mismatch. In this article, we report on applying DED in an open, semi-public context with a large population of visitors. Here, DED was applied in projects with student design researchers who had limited control over the data gathered from people in the context. We share the results of a two-week design workshop that involved sixteen student design researchers and was organised in collaboration with Särkänniemi, one of Finland's largest theme parks. Using design proposals and reflections from five teams, we investigate the use of DED in this context, reporting on perceived challenges, barriers, successes and future directions for taking the DED approach into similar (semi-)public contexts. We conclude with reflections from the workshop organisers' point of view and share the feedback from our industry collaborator, highlighting challenges and opportunities in translating the DED approach to a new domain.

    Keywords: Data-enabled design, Design innovation, prototypes, Design methodology, collaboration

    Received: 25 Mar 2024; Accepted: 19 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Raviselvam, Lovei, Noortman, Olsson, Väänänen and Funk. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Sujithra Raviselvam, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, Netherlands

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.