Browsing by Subject "Co-design"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4

Aligning data with organization's and workers' goals: designing data labeling systems for social service case notes
(2023-08) Gondimalla, Apoorva; Lee, Min Kyung, Ph. D.
In the era of data-driven approaches in non-profit and social service government organizations, prevailing data collection methods for performance and funding reports are ineffective and unsatisfactory for both workers and organizational leaders. Within social service provision, evaluating outcomes necessitates intricate subjective assessments, resulting in social workers equipped with profound insights into services and outcomes shouldering the burden of manual record-keeping. Simultaneously, organizational leaders grapple with insufficient data for reporting. While existing research explores data collection challenges, there is a dearth of studies that delve into solutions for enhancing these systems. This study examines data labeling systems that encapsulate client interaction outcomes, focusing on caseworkers aiding those experiencing homelessness. Despite advances in domains such as crowd-sourced data labeling, their approaches often fail to consider the unique values and contexts of social workers who intertwine data labeling with their caregiving work. By employing interviews, ideation, and a speed-dating approach, we scrutinize preferences, potential solutions, and challenges in crafting efficient data labeling systems. We evaluate 15 diverse design ideas across four dimensions: alignment with case management objectives, comprehensive portrayal of caseworker contributions, clarity in data labels, and enhancements in labeling process usability. Our findings highlight the collective aspiration for data labeling systems that cater to varied stakeholder information goals while effectively capturing nuanced casework details, streamlining data labeling into a seamless, efficient task. Leveraging our insights, we offer design implications for enhancing data labeling systems, aligning them with the objectives of both organizations and workers.
The impotent toolkit : challenges and limitations of co-design for societal value in Southeast Louisiana's landscapes of African American dispossession
(2015-05) McDowell, Robin Boeun; Lee, Gloria; Tang, Eric, 1974-; Lewis, Randolph
This report details a reflexive practice that lies in the emerging field of co-design for societal value. This territory marks a move from user participation to equal empowerment of stakeholders--that is, designers, users, and other project constituents defining objectives and working through design processes together via a shared vision for more just and sustainable ways of living. The body of design work examined in this report is a combination of traditional products of graphic design, participatory design methods, and ethnography. Initiated around a physically demolished and institutionally repressed history of enslaved Africans in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana, the value of this work is not found in formal qualities of designed objects or in a groundbreaking process model, but in detailed documentation of consistent reflection on the role of the designer as outsider. This broadened analysis offers an expansion of the repertoire of co-design case studies.
Objects of empathy : understanding anorexia through design
(2023-05-04) Duran Garibi, Rosana; Catterall, Kate; Gorman, Carma R; Perez, Jose M; Sokol, Christoph
Anorexia nervosa is surrounded by stigma and misinformation. Research shows strong support networks provide long-term support that improves the chances of recovery and reduces the odds of relapsing. However, love is not enough; knowledge is essential. As a graphic designer, I am well-versed in using images and text to communicate information clearly and persuade audiences to act. I undertook the MFA in design to extend my reach as a designer and communicator by bolstering my research, product development, and 3D design skills, and I used all three to develop a series of provocative objects intended to facilitate more and better communication between those experiencing anorexia and their partners, family, friends, and healthcare providers. My discursive design interventions—a table runner, two plates, and a cutlery set—use familiar utensils from mealtime rituals to explain how food intake relates to cognitive shifts in the brain of someone with anorexia and to highlight myths about anorexia that often deter people from identifying, communicating about, and seeking treatment for anorexia. These designs are intended to help cultivate empathy, understanding, and open conversation among partners, children, parents, friends, and even health providers who may not know how best to support people with anorexia in their journey toward recovery. The provocative and, at times, wryly humorous objects I designed are meant to give non-anorexic people an entry point for talking about the internal and external conflicts that people with anorexia face at the dinner table in hopes that talking about these challenges will help facilitate better mealtime experiences both for people with anorexia and those who support them.
Technological doodling as a learning and design practice
(2015-05) Dixon, Brent Ritchie; Gorman, Carma; Park, Jiwon
The work documented in this report is an outgrowth of hands-on, educational science, technology, and art workshops I have run with and for children over the past two years. Blending low-cost, upcycled materials with emerging technology, these workshops encourage kids to tinker, invent, make messes, and explore. In schools, therapy centers, hacker spaces, and hospitals, I've learned about the developmental power of curious, happy hands. In these moments I've observed children "doodling" with technology just like we might with pencil and paper. In this report, I argue that this kind of doodling is a necessary form of practice for designers who work in an era of rapid technological change. The projects presented at the end of this report are my own technological doodles. They are investigative, playful, and rough around the edges. I consider this report, like the projects it describes, a thoughtful and imperfect beginning.