For Inspiration Only; Designer interaction with informal collections of visual material

For Inspiration Only; Designer interaction with informal collections of visual material

Keller, A.I.

Stappers, P.J. (promotor)
Hennessey, J.M. (promotor)

Design, Engineering and Production

2005-11-11

Designers surround themselves with visual material as a source of inspiration. The images are used in collages and moodboards to define and communicate the direction of a design project at an early stage of the design process. This thesis describes how designers interact with their collections of visual material and how new tools can support this interaction. During the research two field studies were conducted and several working prototypes were built. During the field studies and from theory it was found that the activity of collecting and organizing is in itself a creative act. Furthermore, in practice the designers were found to keep two separate collections. A physicial collection of snippets, photos and advertisements that are gathered, shared and organized as a collection and another goal-oriented collection of digital images on computers, cd-roms and internet, which are used to find images to be used in collages or moodboards. The final prototype in the research, called Cabinet, is a tool that brings these two collections together, allowing the designers to interact with physical and digital visual material equally and simultaneously. Cabinet does this by providing a physical interaction with digital images using direct manipulation on a large table surface using expressive gestures. Furthermore with Cabinet designers can easily and fluently add physical material to their collections, using a camera that records visual material placed on the table. The working prototype of Cabinet was used as an apparatus in the final field study, in which three designers at three design agencies used Cabinet for a period of four weeks in their regular work practice. During this experiment Cabinet was both evaluated and used as a means to get insights into how designers interact with visual material.

inspiration
tools
interaction
collection
visual material
collecting
organizing
aesthetics
usability
design
industrial design
product design
physical material
prototypes
prototyping
doctoral design

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:3b83d2c1-64a3-4f5f-8a28-d768715f8da5

90-515-5026-X

Institutional Repository

doctoral thesis

(c) 2005 A. I. Keller