Andres Tellez

Tropical ecosystems and their associated human communities are considered the most vulnerable to current and future increases in temperature associated with climate change (IPCC, 2018). In the tropics, it is expected that warming causes losses in diversity, rises in sea levels, increases in the incidence of vector-borne diseases, and a considerable reduction in the supply of potable water. During the last 40 years, a transdisciplinary approach to address complex environmental-societal problems has been developed and applied by academic and non-academic communities. However, connecting these two heterogeneous groups has presented considerable challenges (Jahn et al., 2012). This paper reports how design’s integrative methods can be applied to address some of these challenges based on a series of research and educational interventions that researchers implemented to address problems related to climate change in rural communities in Colombia. In the paper, we show how a transdisciplina...

This paper explores the conditions in which Industrial Design (ID) students acquire the identity and culture associated with their profession. For this purpose, the author uses—as a framework—the concept of signature pedagogies in order to identify those conditions and explore how these mold the identity of future industrial designers. Shulman (2005) defines signature pedagogies as the particular forms of teaching and learning that preserve and transmit the culture of a profession. These pedagogies are used to instruct future practitioners in how to think, perform, and act with integrity according to the canons of their profession, and are defined by three structures: surface structure—the observable actions of teaching, deep structure—assumptions about how to best transfer knowledge and skills, and implicit structure—beliefs, attitudes, values, and dispositions held by faculty. In this paper, these structures are used to describe and analyze ID education, aiming to explain identity...

Empathy has been recognized as a fundamental ability to generate social cohesion, to facilitate conflict resolution, to foster collaboration, and to inhibit aggression. In the Design field, this ability is considered essential for designers to acquire a deep understanding of the users in order to develop products, services, and experiences that meet their needs. As a consequence, this research proposal aims to understand how empathy is expressed and developed by students in the context of an industrial design studio, through the understanding of its methodological, pedagogical and curricular conditions. The lack of literature exploring this phenomenon calls for a theory-building methodology such as grounded theory. In order to triangulate what students say, do, and make, this study proposes the use of semi-structured interviews applied to students and faculty members, participant observation of the design studio, and collection of students’ portfolios (i.e. artifacts created by the ...

This paper presents the conclusions of an empirical study aimed at (1) identifying educational practices in the academic design studio intended to promote empathy in industrial design students, and (2) identifying a broad range of expressions of student empathy for users and stakeholders. The study was motivated by the importance that current human-centered design approaches give to empathy as an ability required to understand and connect with users and by the little empirical research that examines empathy development in design education. Methodologically, a mixed methods strategy was used to collect and analyze data from faculty and students in three undergraduate and graduate courses in industrial design offered by a major land-grant public research university in the southeastern United States. The findings of the study consisted of identifying strategies used by faculty to promote empathy in the design studio and categories of students’ expressions of empathy. These findings inf...

This paper presents a literature review conducted to establish the current state of the discussion on the topic of metacognition in design education based on a review of empirical studies that present the results of educational interventions that introduced aspects of metacognition to design students. Inspired by Edwin Hutchins' seminal book "Cognition in the Wild," this paper intends to start a discovery trip to study metacognitive processes in real-world educational settings as part of a long-term research plan to investigate the intersection of metacognition and design. The paper presents the theoretical framework that contextualizes this review in which the concept of metacognition is discussed and is contextualized in design education. Likewise, the paper presents the methodology that was followed to complete this review, which consisted of four phases: search of relevant literature; sampling and selection of relevant articles; analysis and summary of each source; and synthesis of the body of research. Based on the reviewed articles, it was found that in design education metacognition is addressed as an instructional outcome, as a mechanism to promote other learning outcomes, and as a result of educational interventions. Likewise, it was found that the reviewed studies report, in general, positive results in terms of learning outcomes after conducting metacognitive interventions in design educational settings. Finally, this review identifies the field of metacognition in design education as a research opportunity for further research given the positive results that were found, and the limited body of research that has explored this topic.

In Colombia, more than 70.000 families in rural areas depend economically on the cultivation, transformation, distribution, and production of fique (Furcraea spp) and fique-based products (Peinado et al., 2006). Historically, this crop has been cultivated in regions affected by Colombia’s conflict, including extensive areas in the departments of Nariño and Cauca, where fique producers have suffered from violence, displacement, and economic lag. Additionally, the process to extract the fibers from the fique leaves—which are used for most of the fique-based products—is extremely inefficient and dangerous for workers (upper-limb amputations are common among this population). The fibers that are recovered through this process represent just 4% of the leaves, while 96% of the plant is discarded despite its potential uses for various industries. To address these challenges, since 2014 a group of researchers from a private university and a governmental research institution in Colombia part...

The adoption of computation in the design process has opened this discipline to new dynamics and challenges. Programming has impacted how designers conceive and produce form, including how corporate identity is designed, consumed and understood. A recent trend in design has introduced logo systems that use multiple iterations of a mark, usually created with a computer algorithm. This article proposes a methodology to use the potential of computation in corporate identity design and a reflection about the role of the designer in this process.

This paper introduces empathic design as a framework and a strategy that can be adopted by the emerging field of experience design (XD) to create meaningful experiences connected with people’s lives and needs. The paper presents the rationale behind the emergence of empathic design, the traits that characterize this approach to design, a collection of empathic design methods and practices, and a critical discussion of the limitations of empathy in design. Methodologically, this paper is based on a systematic literature review on empathic design, human-centred design, and empathy, which is synthesized and focused its application in experience design. Ultimately, this paper intends to contribute to the broader discussion of how traditional design practices are adapting and evolving to respond to new realities, and how new design paradigms are needed to address the very complex challenges that we face in the 21st century.

Tropical ecosystems and their associated human communities are considered the most vulnerable to current and future increases in temperature associated with climate change (IPCC, 2018). In the tropics, it is expected that warming causes losses in diversity, rises in sea levels, increases in the incidence of vector-borne diseases, and a considerable reduction in the supply of potable water. During the last 40 years, a transdisciplinary approach to address complex environmental-societal problems has been developed and applied by academic and non-academic communities. However, connecting these two heterogeneous groups has presented considerable challenges (Jahn et al., 2012). This paper reports how design’s integrative methods can be applied to address some of these challenges based on a series of research and educational interventions that researchers implemented to address problems related to climate change in rural communities in Colombia. In the paper, we show how a transdisciplinary initiative has helped to articulate rural communities and researchers in design, biology, sociology, and law. Specifically, this paper explores and proposes design-based methods to bring academics and non-academics together by leveraging the expertise of each discipline and participant involved. Our findings show how future and long-term research in climate change could use design-based methodologies to articulate various disciplines and non-academic actors. By following this transdisciplinary approach, it is possible to propose participatory adaptation strategies to mitigate the effects of climate change in rural communities inhabiting tropical ecosystems.

In Colombia, more than 70.000 families in rural areas depend economically on the cultivation, transformation, distribution, and production of fique (Furcraea spp) and fique-based products (Peinado et al., 2006). Historically, this crop has been cultivated in regions affected by Colombia’s conflict, including extensive areas in the departments of Nariño and Cauca, where fique producers have suffered from violence, displacement, and economic lag. Additionally, the process to extract the fibers from the fique leaves—which are used for most of the fique-based products—is extremely inefficient and dangerous for workers (upper-limb amputations are common among this population). The fibers that are recovered through this process represent just 4% of the leaves, while 96% of the plant is discarded despite its potential uses for various industries. To address these challenges, since 2014 a group of researchers from a private university and a governmental research institution in Colombia partnered to study and develop solutions to enhance the production and transformation of fique and improve the situation of rural families. An important outcome of this collaboration is the design of a semi-automatic system to separate the fibers, juice, and bagasse of fique leaves (España & Barbosa, 2017). This paper presents the methodology intended to transfer this technology to rural communities so that they adopt it, contribute to refine it and involve it in their practices. The methodology has been developed from a social design approach focused on involving rural communities as co-designers of the system and as adopters of this technology.

This paper explores the conditions in which Industrial Design (ID) students acquire the identity and culture associated with their profession. For this purpose, the author uses—as a framework—the concept of signature pedagogies in order to identify those conditions and explore how these mold the identity of future industrial designers. Shulman (2005) defines signature pedagogies as the particular forms of teaching and learning that preserve and transmit the culture of a profession. These pedagogies are used to instruct future practitioners in how to think, perform, and act with integrity according to the canons of their profession, and are defined by three structures: surface structure—the observable actions of teaching, deep structure—assumptions about how to best transfer knowledge and skills, and implicit structure—beliefs, attitudes, values, and dispositions held by faculty. In this paper, these structures are used to describe and analyze ID education, aiming to explain identity development in their future practitioners. The paper concludes that the interplay between these structures are partially responsible for molding the identity of the future industrial designers, but raises questions about how rigid or fluid this identity is to tackle the challenges of an uncertain and ever-changing world.

This paper presents the conclusions of an empirical study aimed at (1) identifying educational practices in the academic design studio intended to promote empathy in industrial design students, and (2) identifying a broad range of expressions of student empathy for users and stakeholders. The study was motivated by the importance that current human-centered design approaches give to empathy as an ability required to understand and connect with users and by the little empirical research that examines empathy development in design education. Methodologically, a mixed methods strategy was used to collect and analyze data from faculty and students in three undergraduate and graduate courses in industrial design offered by a major land-grant public research university in the southeastern United States. The findings of the study consisted of identifying strategies used by faculty to promote empathy in the design studio and categories of students' expressions of empathy. These findings informed the conclusions herein presented as recommendations for educators to promote student empathy in their design courses.

Empathy has been recognized as a fundamental ability to generate social cohesion, to facilitate conflict resolution, to foster collaboration, and to inhibit aggression. In the Design field, this ability is considered essential for designers to acquire a deep understanding of the users in order to develop products, services, and experiences that meet their needs. As a consequence, this research proposal aims to understand how empathy is expressed and developed by students in the context of an industrial design studio, through the understanding of its methodological, pedagogical and curricular conditions. The lack of literature exploring this phenomenon calls for a theory-building methodology such as grounded theory. In order to triangulate what stu- dents say, do, and make, this study proposes the use of semi-structured interviews applied to students and faculty members, participant observation of the design studio, and collection of students’ portfolios (i.e. artifacts created by the students in the studio). The analysis of these data will provide evidence of students’ expressions of empathy for the user, as well as evidence of the factors that might foster the development of this ability in an industrial design studio.

The adoption of computation in the design process has opened this discipline to new dynamics and challenges. Programming has impacted how designers conceive and produce form, including how corporate identity is designed, consu- med and understood. A recent trend in design has introduced logo systems that use multiple iterations of a mark, usually created with a computer algorithm. This article proposes a methodology to use the potential of computation in corporate identity design and a reflection about the role of the designer in this process.

"Este artículo es presentado a la categoría temática “Diseño + Educación” del Cuarto Encuentro Internacional de Investigación en Diseño, en el formato de ponencia. Su objetivo es establecer un marco conceptual para ubicar el Diseño, así como al Diseñador, en los campos de la educación y el aprendizaje infantil, tratando de dar respuesta a la pregunta de investigación:
¿De qué manera el diseño puede servir como medio de aprendizaje en la educación de los niños?

El propósito de establecer este marco conceptual, propuesto desde una revisión bibliográfica, es entender y promover el Diseño como una disciplina que sobrepasa sus fronteras y cuyos métodos y prácticas pueden insertarse en la acción de otras disciplinas, así como en la cotidianidad de públicos diversos como, en este caso, el aprendizaje en los niños. La definición de este contexto (la educación) y este público (los niños) obedece a una reflexión del autor sobre la riqueza de oportunidades de aprendizaje implícita en la práctica del diseño, la cual también favorece el desarrollo del pensamiento creativo, la adquisición de destrezas para la resolución de problemas, el descubrimiento de habilidades no manifiestas y el fortalecimiento de la confianza en sí.

El artículo se estructura en torno a tres ejes que cumplen las veces de secciones: el rol del diseño en el aprendizaje, el niño como diseñador, y los elementos del aprendizaje infantil. En la primera sección, se presentan diferentes concepciones del diseño desde investigadores en educación, se destaca la importancia de las actividades de diseño en el aprendizaje, y se introducen los conceptos de aprendizaje basado en diseño y de construccionismo. En la segunda sección, se establece la importancia de la manipulación de objetos en los niños, para la comprensión de conceptos concretos y abstractos, se presenta una serie de herramientas de diseño y aprendizaje para niños, y se explora el papel de dichas herramientas para el desarrollo del pensamiento científico en la infancia. En la tercera sección, se ofrece un panorama general sobre el aprendizaje infantil desde el constructivismo, haciendo un especial énfasis en la importancia del contexto para dichos procesos. Finalmente, se presenta una discusión general en la que se articulan los hallazgos presentados en cada sección, con el fin de construir una respuesta a la pregunta de investigación inicial.

En la discusión final se concluye que las actividades de diseño, articuladas con los intereses personales del niño, le ofrecen un escenario rico en oportunidades de aprendizaje significativo, ya que le motivan y le permiten construir el nuevo conocimiento sobre el preexistente. Este aprendizaje se logra mediante la manipulación física de las ideas embebidas en los artefactos que diseña o que emplea para diseñar. Sin embargo, el trabajo físico con las ideas requiere del material adecuado, capaz de contener diferente tipo de conceptos concretos y abstractos. En consecuencia, es labor del Diseñador ofrecerle al niño estos materiales ricos en posibilidades de manipulación y creación, permitiéndole construir estructuras físicas y mentales complejas. Así, el diseño en el aprendizaje infantil, visto desde el construccionismo, se convierte en un meta-diseño en el que se diseña para diseñar y aprender.


Palabras clave: Diseño, Educación, Aprendizaje basado en diseño, Aprendizaje infantil, Constructivismo, Construccionsimo, Epistemología."

This document is a transcript of a talk given in the Impact Week 2018 that introduces the Global Learning Crisis as a major issue to be addressed from multiple perspectives, including that of design. The Global Learning Crisis involves millions of children worldwide who are not acquiring the most basic skills even if they attend school for several years. It affects more than 617 million children in—mostly—low and medium-income countries.