▼ This study discusses the importance of improving communication between university students and the administration, as related to university sustainability initiatives. The Ohio State University was used as a case study. At the beginning of the study Ohio State had several sustainability initiatives in place on campus but it was hypothesized that the students were not being fully informed about the initiatives. To investigate this matter, several participatory design research activities were conducted with the intent to determine the students’ views and their unmet needs in terms of sustainability initiatives at Ohio State. Participatory research methods were chosen due to the involvement of the students in the research and design process, ensuring that the final result will meet the unmet needs of the students in a way that is appropriate to the student lifestyle.The goal of this project was to design an improved system of communication to bridge the gap between the administration and the students. During the course of the study it became apparent that social media played a significant role in how students communicate with one another (for social and academic reasons), thus directing the project’s focus to the use of social media as a tool to improve communication between administrators and students. This study presents background information on: The Ohio State University; recent sustainability issues and ‘green’ trends in society, and at the university level; and social media, including case studies of unexpected but positive ways in which social media has improved communication, in society and at the university level. Advisors/Committee Members: Gill, Carolina.

▼ The visual design phase in computer-animated film production includes all decisions that affect the visual look and emotional tone of the film. Within this domain is a set of choices that must be made by the designer which influence the viewer's perception of the film’s space, defined in this paper as “spatial design.” The concept of spatial design is particularly relevant in digital animation (also known as 3D or CG animation), as its production process relies on a virtual 3D environment during the generative phase but renders 2D images as a final product. Reference for spatial design decisions is found in principles of various visual arts disciplines, and this thesis seeks to organize and apply these principles specifically to digital animation production. This paper establishes a context for this study by first analyzing several short animated films that draw attention to spatial design principles by presenting the film space non-traditionally. A literature search of graphic design and cinematography principles yields a proposed toolbox of spatial design principles. Two short animated films are produced in which the story and style objectives of each film are examined, and a custom subset of tools is selected and applied based on those objectives. Finally, the use of these principles is evaluated within the context of the films produced. The two films produced have opposite stylistic objectives, and thus show two different viewpoints of applying the toolbox. Taken together, the two films demonstrate application and analysis of the toolbox principles, approached from opposing sides of the same system. The organization of existing spatial design principles and the application of those principles to digital animation practice will benefit student and amateur filmmakers by providing reference and examples for spatial design decisions. Combining precedents from multiple visual arts disciplines, the proposed toolbox of principles presents seemingly instinctual knowledge of designers and filmmakers as an organized, visible resource for digital animation filmmakers. Advisors/Committee Members: Palazzi, Maria.

▼ This study discusses the importance of rigorous design research in the development of an educational game for an academic research project sponsored by an established non-profit diabetes association. The goal of this project was to create a board game to engage children with diabetes, their friends and parents in the diabetic’s daily personal health management, the self-management requirements of which are hard to understand and maintain. The board gameformat was perceived as a highly appropriate form of communication because of its capacity to simplify large concepts, making them appropriate for the experiential learning required to master complex information. Research and design process of this case study involved collaborations with graduate student researchers, sponsor clients, subject experts, and faculty advisors. The design team collaborated during several stages of research, and developed a research model for educational board game design encompassing many design research methods, starting with a data gathering stage including interviews and literature review, a creative stage including participatory research methods and generative tools, and an evaluative stage including usability testing and pilot testing. The research model is designed to follow an iterative design process, allowing for the most informative participation from all participants. This study summarizes the collaborative and rigorous research process used in the identification and development of relevant content that informed the design development of an emotionally connective and engaging game that was fun, educational, and significant to the management of diabetes. Advisors/Committee Members: Chan, Peter.

▼ This thesis presents an analysis and documentation of the process of creating an animated biography where the filmmaker has a personal relationship to the film’s subject.As a contextual foundation for making the film, three existing animated biographies in which their filmmaker has a personal relationship with their film’s subject are analyzed. These works are examined for their use of animation and graphic techniques in strengthening the storytelling aspect of the film. Also examined is how the relationship and tension between the filmmaker and each film’s subjects influenced their design processes. Following each film analysis is a summary of their relationship to the author’s filmmaking process for this projects film Alone in the 475th. A methodology for creating the animated biography is then detailed and includes how the visual design of the animated film is developed to express the discovery of found artifacts and to support the filmmaker’s story intent. Each of the six sections in the film are detailed to demonstrate how journal entries written by the film’s subject, Sam Cerra, are matched with the visual design choices of the filmmaker. The thesis document concludes with a summary of the filmmaking process, next steps for the filmmaker and a short discussion of the current state of the animated biography and the context of Alone in the 475th within that film category. Advisors/Committee Members: Palazzi, Maria.

▼ The complexity of today's design problems, the global economy, rate of change in new technologies, the challenges of sustainability development requires diverse design teams, comprised of multiple disciplines as well as multiple cultures, to look at broader and different perspectives and larger scopes of investigation. Due to the multilayered and multifaceted interactions between team members, effective communication and collaboration among people in multidisciplinary design teams becomes critical to ensure a project's success. Research shows that one of the most important aspects of collaboration is effective information sharing,shared knowledge and shared understanding among all team members. Design teams traditionally share information verbally as well as visually through representations such as drawings and sketches, three-dimensional models, project walls, or conceptual maps. Consequently, an important aspect of communication is the role that visual thinking and visual communication practices play in the success of the design team. The exploration and finding of a current frame of reference for creating and utilizing visual tools for communication, capable of serving as a common means of expression for multidisciplinary teams, is the purpose of this thesis research. Advisors/Committee Members: Gill, Carolina.

▼ Role-playing is an essential component to social skills training in early childhood education. Current programs are either not interactive enough or confrontational and frightening. Combining virtual reality and performance animation can provide an environment for children's learning that is non-threatening, yet interactive enough for authentic, constructive interaction. This study begins with a review of literature and contemporary applications of early childhood education, performance animation, and virtual reality. The question of how performance animation and virtual reality can contribute to a lesson that uses role-play was explored through prototyping components of an immersive environment for role-play with digital characters. Early childhood educators evaluated a prototype and discussed its implications in the field of early childhood education. Conclusions are drawn based on focus group feedback and the designer's experience in combining these fields. Future work in combining performance animation and virtual reality to benefit early childhood education is proposed. Advisors/Committee Members: Price, Alan.

▼ Gestures play important roles as facilitators of language development, temporal-spatial learning, and non-verbal communication. Gesture-based interaction design seeks to capitalize on this natural method of human communication by using gestures as a means of interfacing with digital content. While technological factors address important issues related to sensing gestural input, design factors are the most critical factors relate to developing useful and approachable gesture-based interactivity. The goal of this research is to articulate more clearly some intrinsic characteristics of gesture that are significant to gestural interface designers, while providing methodologies that designers can use to gather and implement this information in a fashion that suits their unique design processes. Gesture researchers have published a great deal of research that has significant implications related to gestural interface design, but most research in the field of gesture studies relates to gestures that are produced in combination with speech or in place of speech. Directly applying this research to visual interface design is difficult because many of the examples of gestures provided by these researchers analyze gesture in terms their linguistic characteristics. Because interface designers are seeking gestures that can be incorporated into interactive scenarios, there is a need for example of gestures produced in response to visual-spatial cues. The aim for this study and beyond is to create a library of gestures that can serve as a reference to designers who are seeking visual-spatial representations of a broad range of gestural expression. This study presents methods of visual and spatial contextualization that can be applied or expanded upon by gestural interface designers who are seeking to build unique gestural vocabularies on a project-by-project basis. This document outlines a pragmatic approach to gestural interface design that aims to inspire designers toward further investigation. This thesis documents the development processes for several interactive prototypes. Each of these prototypes helped to define specific research questions that may be important issues as gesture-based interaction design moves forward as a field of research. Discussion of interactive prototypes is followed by documentation of a user centered research study. This study presents new strategies for provoking, documenting, analyzing and contextualizing gestures within specialized visual-spatial scenarios. The results of this study include documentation of an approach that can be used to generate libraries of interactive gestures. Several categorical patterns of gestural expression emerged from this research study, which reaffirms the potential for standardization of gestural interaction. Because gestures have recognizable visual and formal relationships to the things that they represent, their interpretation is closely tied to the context in which they are used. Through a process of contextualization, interaction designers can create visual-spatial frameworks for understanding the intended meaning of the gestures that a user produces. This thesis discusses best practices for applying gestures within interactive scenarios by defining many characteristics of gesture that represent a broad range of gestural expression. Advisors/Committee Members: Price, Alan.

▼ Street Art is an illicit sub-cultural activity that has permeated into various design applications in recent years. These ranges from design motifs on products to themes on television commercials. In 2008, Barack Obama commissioned Street Artist Shepard Fairey to design the posters for his presidency campaign. Barack Obama was elected as the president of United States in 2009 and Fairey’s HOPE poster has since been acquired by the U.S National Portrait Gallery; it was also officially made a permanent collection. This thesis intent to use the framework of the Blue Ocean Strategy to identify characteristics that have facilitated Street Art’s translation into mainstream design applications. Understanding these characteristics can provide designers with foresight to similar emerging cultural phenomena. In addition, this thesis attempts to contribute to the existing body of work on Street Art. Advisors/Committee Members: Arnold, Jim.

▼ The activity of designing characters for computer animation demands a great deal of complex problem-solving and decision-making techniques. It requires combining aspects from the story, subjective ideas and abstract visual elements, such as lines, shapes, colors, in order to generate a character that can be understood and believable. There is a lack of comprehensive documentation and shared knowledge about the process in literature. This presents a setback for new designers seeking in-depth information on character design, since having a thorough understanding of this process is the first step in developing expertise in the field of character design. This practice-led research establishes a cohesive framework as well as a systematic approach to the process of designing characters for computer animation, aiding novice designers in their process of developing expertise. This research organizes the information about the process of character design into a model – referred to as the Character Design Process Model – based on problem-solving and form generation processes. It was tested and refined using a constructivist approach in the creation of the main character, from “The Fox and the Grapes” animated short film. The model was also used as a framework for analysis of three applied studies of projects developed at the Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design. The organization of information about character design within a systematic approach presents the interrelationships to new designers in a way that furthers their understanding of concepts and procedures related to the character design process. The analysis of practical applications of this body of knowledge consolidates that understanding and represents a set of references that will inform and enrich future experiences of novice designers. Advisors/Committee Members: Palazzi, Maria.

▼ This study proposes Selective Media Leveraging as an ideation strategy for designing three-dimensional form. Selective Media leveraging involves the use of creative media actions in an integrated way that utilizes the strengths of each media at precise moments for answering design questions that a particular media can best address. The strategy integrates both traditional and digital 2D and 3D actions using exploratory techniques in form reduction which then are used to assist in the re-establishment of form complexity with improved understanding of the underlying reasoning of the form. Selective Media Leveraging has the potential to fully develop ideas toward becoming unique and impactful design solutions. Applied studies will show examples of Selective Media Leveraging employed for 3D animation character development to inform decisions about the establishment of character traits, communicative shapes, and parameters for abstraction and simplification of form. In support of the strategy are descriptions and analysis of process and the purposes for using each media type for generating solutions. This is followed by a review of basic volumetric structure and the creative interpretation of form by artists and 3D animation designers for a distillation of form that delineates clearly. Possible implementation of Selective Media Leveraging within a design course that focuses on developing personal ideation processes for students is addressed in conclusion. Advisors/Committee Members: Palazzi, Maria.

▼ In a highly interconnected world, the design challenges faced by design professionals,engineers, and individual users are growing increasingly difficult due to multiple objectives that one must attempt to satisfy across multiple scales. Accordingly, the effectiveness and fit of a particular design solution is often dependent upon the ability to balance competing constraints for which there exists no optimal solution. In instances where user needs and relevant solutions are dynamic, why not attempt to leverage the knowledge, information, and sharp-end expertise of all of a product’s users distributed throughout the product system? In order to facilitate a better understanding of both product systems and the heterogeneous users who comprise them, this thesis looks to ideas from the diverse and growing body of complex systems research, and attempts to synthesize an understanding of complex product systems. In order to design for the complex environments in which products will be used, we must acknowledge the scale, scope, and complexity of the design problem, and then look to distributed information regarding users’ needs, goals, and desires in order to gain a more complete perspective. By capturing, transferring, and integrating relevant information from multiple contexts of use, information can be tailored to the current understandings and goals of specific users. Accordingly, a system of specifically tuned products and information has great potential to maintain the relevance of both products and information across multiple iterations and over longer periods of time, all while helping users to more effectively accomplish dynamic goals and incorporate products into their own local contexts. Advisors/Committee Members: Gill, Carolina.

▼ This research is an exploration of virtual environments as it relates to presenting spatial design, specifically focusing on the use of autonomous behavior in virtual characters for simulation purposes. The characters in motion gives the viewer of this environment an understanding of circulation routes, traffic density and space usage (function) among other aspects. Since the characters can ‘think’ by themselves through the programmed artificial intelligence, the resulting simulation may be unexpected. Flaws or miscalculations in the design may be highlighted due to the chaos that arises from the virtual crowd.To conduct the research, two virtual environments were produced and examined. These were modified through an iterative process based on analysis and review by groups of peers, academics, as well as designers in the field. My documentation includes the necessary steps taken prior to production, an analysis of the environments, as well as possible future directions. The existing uses of this technology were also analyzed and compared. Similar to the impact on the design field by the introduction of perspective drawings, the use of virtual environments has the potential of creating a new method of designing, one where design is conceived and experimented on a computer, as opposed to orthographic drawings and perspective vignettes. This is due to the ability of real-time spatial manipulation which allows one to see the direct effect of any proposed change upon the characters in the simulation. One could experience the environment through these autonomous beings, giving us a dimension of sight we could never see otherwise. The functionality of designed space could now be ‘discovered’ by the virtual characters, thus enabling the most ambiguous forms to take on roles we may not have conceived ourselves. Advisors/Committee Members: Haase, Jeffrey.