Master of Fine Arts, Miami University, 2018, Art

79% of warehouse and third-party logistics providers report they are unprepared for the skilled shortage, and additional sources suggest this may keep getting worse. (Labor Shortages in the Warehouse, 2017). 2 to 4 in every 1,000 people in United States suffer from a particular type of deafness which includes complete deafness, partial deafness, deafness due to age and veterans of military services who have experienced deafness during their time in war zones (Callis, L. L., 2015). Hard-of-hearing individuals are well acquainted and comfortable with the haptics with the sense of touch for communication (Harkins, J. et al., 2010). This thesis aimed at understanding the opportunities in how the hard-of-hearing employees can be a part of the skilled labor force of the warehouses which might require design intervention through haptics. The researcher conducted a field visit to the warehouse and interviewed the hard-of-hearing employees and the subject matter experts on the subject. With safety and communication emerging as the biggest hurdle for the hard-of-hearing a universal design intervention of push notification system using vibrotactile technology has been proposed so that the hard-of-hearing employees can be aware about the work environment and emergency situations in the warehouse. This social innovation not only makes hard-of-hearing more independent and safe but also help them explore different roles in warehouses.

Committee: Dennis Cheatham (Advisor); James Coyle (Committee Member); James Porter (Committee Member) Subjects: Design; Labor Relations; Welfare

Master of Fine Arts, Miami University, 2024, Art

The goal of this research was to develop a pathway for improving audience experience within playable theatre by defining and intentionally sequencing audience interactions within this genre of interactive and immersive performance. With the performing arts industry facing a crisis marked by dwindling ticket sales post-pandemic, theatre artists have an opportunity to attract new audiences by producing playable theatre productions that offer audience experiences that are as engaging of the senses and mind as popular immersive entertainment today. The development of the Audience Interaction Taxonomy for Playable Theatre, which defines and describes specific audience interaction modes, allows for the strategic design of the audience experience for game-based performance through sequencing and pacing of such interactions, ensuring heightened psychological engagement and narrative comprehension. Centered around the production of I Wish: A Theatrical Escape Room, an audience interaction model is developed on the foundation of the new taxonomy, designed to reduce cognitive load by limiting concurrent audience interaction modes to two. The study employed a pragmatic qualitative approach, utilizing observations, surveys, and interviews to understand participant experiences and behaviors in this context to refine and build upon the taxonomy and the sequencing of audience interactions. Understanding and defining audience interactions and experience within a playable theatre context is the first step in developing evaluation and design tools so that theatre artists feel empowered to confidently create immersive and interactive performance that delivers the intended audience experience.

Committee: Zack Tucker (Committee Chair); Geoffrey Long (Committee Member); Matt Omasta (Committee Member) Subjects: Design; Performing Arts; Theater; Theater Studies

MDES, University of Cincinnati, 2013, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Design

Medication is one of the most important treatment methods for COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) patients. Whether they properly use their medication has great influence on the effectiveness of the treatment. Thus, the education on how to use their medicine and the related device is quite important. However, it is often observed that the drugs are not appropriately and efficiently used. Due to this misuse, the efficiency of the treatment is diminished and the hospital costs are increased. This thesis aims at defining problems in the current education process with respect to COPD treatment methods. It generates a new interactive education experience that provides effective solutions to help patients use their medicine and the related device appropriately, thus improving the provider's work efficiency and decreasing medicine abuse.

Committee: Craig Vogel M.I.D. (Committee Chair); Ralph Panos M.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Design

Master of Fine Arts, Miami University, 2024, Art

This study addresses a critical issue facing John Carroll University (JCU): the potential shortcomings in its on-site campus visit experience, which may not effectively foster engagement among traditional-aged prospective students. The research seeks to identify specific elements within the visit experience that, if changed, could boost students' post-visit engagement scores and increase their likelihood of enrolling. Grounded in experience, service, and interior design principles and framed by the concept of radical hospitality, this study explores how an intentionally crafted visit experience can distinguish JCU from competitors. The research also examines the role of technology, people, personalization, and impactful first impressions. Using a mixed methods approach, the study produced findings that led to a real-world project of redesigning the JCU campus visit service design blueprint. When portions of the new blueprint were implemented, post-visit prospective student engagement scores were measured and compared to a baseline, controlling for student cohort, time of year, and other factors. The study found that by improving the campus visit service design through tailored, immersive, and distinctive experiences, post-visit engagement scores did, in fact, increase. JCU can leverage these insights to foster deeper connections with prospective students, driving enrollment growth and long-term institutional success.

Committee: Dennis Cheatham (Advisor); Rachel Beech (Committee Member); Zack Tucker (Committee Member) Subjects: Higher Education; Higher Education Administration

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2024, Design

Today, in the world of exhibition design, designers are challenged to employ technologies to enhance learning experiences by considering embodied learning possibilities, which emphasize learners' bodily and sensory engagement in their learning process. One prominent challenge lies in translating high-level pedagogical principles of embodied cognition into effective design practices that can be implemented in educational settings and can accommodate specific educational topics (Macrine & Fugate, 2022). To address this issue, this research explores and proposes a conceptual, process-oriented design framework to aid designers in creating embodied learning experiences to deliver on learning objectives that often originate from those outside of the design team (e.g., educator, exhibit curator). This conceptual design framework draws insights from secondary research across education and design domains, incorporating design considerations from existing frameworks related to embodied learning (e.g., Horst, 2008; Black, et al., 2012; Antle & Wise, 2013; Melcer & Isbister, 2021; Tancredi, et al., 2022; Wiggins & McTighe, 2005) as well as the Double Diamond design process by the UK Design Council (Design Council, n.d.). This framework was further tested and refined by applying it to two design projects: “Sun & Earth” and “Dinosaur Explore”. This research-through-design approach (Frayling, 1993) helped the researcher to explore potential design challenges and map out the problem-solving process. Through these two design applications, the researcher describes how this design framework aids in the generation and specification of design ideas for embodied and interactive learning experiences. In addition to the framework, a set of design principles was generated, drawing from insights into embodied learning and reflections on the design process. The final deliverable of this research is a website housing the Design for Embodied Learning Experiences (D4E) Framework along with (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Elizabeth Sanders (Advisor); Maria Palazzi (Committee Member); William Nickley (Committee Member) Subjects: Design

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2024, Design

It can be mind-boggling to understand how one can end up being absorbed in anti-science conspiracy theories, especially those that contradict the core facts of our world that we have known since we were young. These conspiracy theorists, especially flat earthers, are often labeled as “insane” or “crazy” due to their beliefs. This thesis dives into the mindset of anti-science conspiracy theorists and flat earthers to understand the headspace they are in that drives them into these communities. The Minds of Conspiracy is a website designed and developed by synthesizing the research done by psychologists, sociologists, historians, and communication scholars. It is an exploration into providing a holistic and empathetic introduction to the complex topic of conspiracy theory with flat earthers as the case study through the use of visuals and concise language. With individuals who are non-experts in these fields as the target audience, the website is designed to effectively deliver the research findings in an easily digestible format through the principles of information design. Readers can educate themselves about the flat earth community, its impact, methods of disseminating the theory, current and potential interventions, and the importance of collaboration between relevant stakeholders to bring change for our future.

Committee: Paul Nini (Advisor); David Staley (Committee Member); Yvette Shen (Committee Member) Subjects: Design

MDES, University of Cincinnati, 2023, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Design

As working remotely is becoming a new social norm, more people are working from home. Without the need to commute to the workplace, seamless integration of work and private life causes work overspill and leads to the mixture of work and personal life roles, especially for younger generations who have limitations in creating a physically separated workspace. To better understand the problem, surveys, interviews, and observations were conducted with young remote workers. Based on the insights from these studies, concepts for building a system that helps work-life separation were developed and tested through an online survey. This resulted in the design of a software application for a simulated at-home commute experience, along with the ability to control smart home products that prompt indoor living environment changes to simulate a transition process between work and personal life. This study lays a foundation for future work in terms of building work-life boundaries at home.

Committee: Yong-Gyun Ghim M.Des. M.S. (Committee Chair); Elaine Hollensbe Ph.D. (Committee Member); Steven Doehler M.A. (Committee Member) Subjects: Design

MDES, University of Cincinnati, 2023, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Design

The Opioid Overdose (OD) epidemic has been recognized as a public health issue in the United States. Harm reduction organizations, syringe service programs and safe use sites have been developed, while products such as mobile applications and devices are being proposed for various community needs. Despite the research and effort going into digital and technological innovation for OD prevention, there is a gap in access to care, support, and resources to ensure safety at any given location and time. NarConnect is a community-based and human-centered interface and systems design developed for saving lives from an opioid OD. NarConnect provides its primary users with a physiological monitor to measure vitals, and a mobile application that helps its users to convert any place into a safe use site. The objective of this thesis is to utilize participatory research methods to evaluate the usability of the NarConnect application for further development. The outcome of this thesis is a robust mobile application prototype that is rooted in user-centered design. Additionally, this thesis aims to report research findings that can be utilized by prospective applications and interventions supporting harm reduction needs.

Committee: Daniel Arendt Pharm.D. (Committee Member); Claudia Rebola Ph.D. (Committee Chair) Subjects: Design

BA, Kent State University, 2023, College of Architecture and Environmental Design

In the spirit of Jun'ichiro Tanizaki's In Praise of Shadows (1933, translated 1977), this thesis investigates the relationship between light in interior space and human existence and perception. It is an attempt to better understand lighting design on a humanistic, experiential level. Part memoir, part historical account, and part phenomenological meditation, “Atmospheres of Light” aims to capture the elusivity of light, to make sense of the influence it has on human beings in the built environment, and to inspire more thoughtful lighting design.

Committee: Ronn Daniel (Advisor); Steven Rugare (Committee Member); Jill Lahrmer (Committee Member); Brett Tippey (Committee Member) Subjects: Architectural; Architecture

Master of Science (MS), Wright State University, 2022, Computer Science

Education about implicit bias in clinical settings is essential for improving the quality of healthcare for underrepresented groups. Such a learning experience can be delivered in the form of a serious game simulation. WrightLIFE (Lifelike Immersion for Equity) is a project that combines two serious game simulations, with each addressing the group that faces implicit bias. These groups are individuals that identify as LGBTQIA+ and people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The project presents healthcare providers with a training tool that puts them in the roles of the patient and a medical specialist and immerses them in social and clinical settings. WrightLIFE games are distributed on both mobile and desktop devices and go through the entire cycle of providing healthcare professionals with experiential learning, which starts with defining the goals of the simulation and ends with collecting feedback. In this thesis work, cross-platform software frameworks like the Unity Engine have been used to develop survey scenes to comprehensively document users' pre- and post-simulation experience and attitudes towards implicit bias. Life course scenes were designed to convey an enhanced user experience that bridges the socio-technical gap between the real and virtual worlds. By applying existing user-experience design methodologies to design the survey scenes and life course scenes, it was possible to create an immersive experiential-learning assessment tool that has the potential to deliver data-driven and targeted learning.

Committee: Ashutosh Shivakumar Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Yong Pei Ph.D. (Committee Co-Chair); Paul J. Hershberger Ph.D. (Committee Member); Thomas Wischgoll Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Computer Engineering; Computer Science

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2022, Design

This is a scholarly personal narrative about the author's three-year journey leading to the development of the Recycling Distraction, a website designed to raise awareness of the shortcomings of municipal recycling. Based on research by environmental historians, sociologists, and economists, the Recycling Distraction presents a critical perspective on America's reliance on municipal recycling for managing post-consumer waste. Through the website, the author challenges the longstanding corporate practice of individualizing environmental responsibility to avoid anti-litter regulations, and argues that companies should be held responsible for their proportionate share of environmental damage caused by single-use disposable products. This paper documents the author's experience learning the fundamentals of user-experience (UX) research as an MFA candidate in the Department of Design. During the journey, the author navigates the landscape of sustainability programs at The Ohio State University, and searchers for opportunities to conduct UX research to support the development of circular-economy initiatives at the institution. Following a series of exploratory design activities, including: (1) conducting user-experience inquiries into recycling-related problems; (2) designing digital solutions aimed at improving recycling participation; (3) reviewing recycling and circular-economy literature; and (4) reflecting upon on his experiences, the author redirects his efforts toward raising awareness of recycling's failure to reduce waste and prevent pollution, which culminates with the development of the Recycling Distraction project.

Committee: Yvette Shen (Advisor); Bartow J. Elmore (Committee Member); Paul J. Nini (Committee Member) Subjects: Design

MDES, University of Cincinnati, 2022, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Design

Medical personal protective equipment (PPE) garment designs usually use male data. However, the primary users of PPE garments are women. This research aims to take a user-centered design approach for redesigning PPE suites based on data of female healthcare professionals and addressing their unique needs in the design process. The main methods used in this study include Empathic Experience: Role-play Ideation, Storyboard Research Design Methodology, Experiments on design and defect testing of protective clothing, Ethnographic Interviews, Ethnographic Observations, stakeholder Value Web, and Prototyping and prototype testing. This study found that the improved design of the medical PPE garment will 1) significantly improve the user experience of female healthcare workers, 2) address the issue of medical PPE garments not conforming to Chinese female anthropometric data, 3) address the exposure of healthcare workers to viral environments and elevated risk of infection due to back fabric displacement, and 4) address the problem of hand skin damage due to prolonged wearing of medical rubber gloves. For future research, this study will provide reference and support for developing PPE garments focusing on female users' needs.

Committee: Craig Vogel M.I.D. (Committee Member); Brigid O'Kane MFA (Committee Member); Zachary Hoh (Committee Member) Subjects: Design

MDES, University of Cincinnati, 2022, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Design

Purpose: This study aims to discover the trust factors between robotaxis and passengers and then propose an in-vehicle interactive design solution that can be referenced in future studies. Design/methodology/approach: The study utilizes data collected from 12 participants using a semi-structured interview. This study's design proposals will be based on interview-based research, literature review, and a case study of modern vehicle cockpit designs. The validation process includes mock-up interaction tests and prototype screen size tests. Findings: According to this study, a reliable robotaxi system should always notify and explain its features to passengers. Meanwhile, passengers should be provided with clear traffic information and control options. The robotaxi should be able to adapt to current and future traffic circumstances while prioritizing journey efficiency. Other findings suggest that passengers may trust the robotaxi more if the vehicle allows them to transfer previous HVI experience to the new environment, particularly if physical buttons are used. Lastly, giving passengers a customized experience through the design of the space would make them more likely to trust the robotaxi. Originality/value: This study examines ways of building trustworthiness between the robotaxi and passengers through an in-vehicle interface system and provides the design guidelines and principles. To reach this goal, the system logic design, the interaction framework, and the user operation hierarchy were all investigated.

Committee: Craig Vogel M.I.D. (Committee Member); Yong-Gyun Ghim M.Des. M.S. (Committee Member) Subjects: Design

MFA, Kent State University, 2022, College of Communication and Information / School of Visual Communication Design

This project investigates UXD research practices through various critical-making methodologies and analytical frameworks. The physical space and location of user testing research provide opportunities in which to gather user feedback on over-arching issues facing design professionals involved in experience design, interaction design, and data management. Using speculative and critical making as guiding principles, the prototype UXD testing environment is an exploration into how end-users understand, participate, and view technological innovation as it relates to user experience with communication technologies and data. The exhibition serves as user-centric laboratory and a prototype for continued inquiry into designing sustainably and ethically for a complex global population.

Committee: Jessica Barness (Committee Chair); Ken Visocky O'Grady (Committee Member); Aoife Mooney (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Criticism; Design; Fine Arts; Technology

MDES, University of Cincinnati, 2021, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Design

Machine Learning (ML) plays an increasingly important role in modern user experience (UX) design practice. Being one of the fastest evolving tech phenomena within the `AI boom,' ML stands out as a field that could significantly benefit from more creative and critical thinking. Simultaneously, UX design students can benefit from increased literacy and competency in the already pervasive, highly relevant technology. However, contemporary UX design education fails to sufficiently empower young designers to work with cutting-edge technologies such as ML. A considerable amount of research has been conducted around designers' (lack of) comprehension of ML. These prior studies focus on identifying and discussing the challenges faced by UX design practitioners in designing for ML; not much research exists to propose and/or evaluate solutions for designers' lack of comprehension of ML. Further, none of the research in the UX design for ML space has focused on UX design students or education so far, though much of it identifies the lack of education of designers about ML as a major issue. Based on an analytical review of 88 introductory educational resources on UX design for ML, this thesis establishes a starting point for design educators to incorporate ML into undergraduate design curricula. It makes three primary contributions: 1) a set of guidelines for introductory education on UX design for ML, 2) a taxonomy of ML capabilities, use cases, and exemplars, and 3) a sample course proposal that demonstrates the application of (1) and (2) in undergraduate design education.

Committee: Matthew Wizinsky M.F.A. (Committee Chair); Renee Seward (Committee Member); Craig Vogel M.I.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Design

MDES, University of Cincinnati, 2020, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Design

"Retail community" has been defined as curated shopping experiences that build relationships with "an engaged customer base" (Creating Community, n.d.) beyond mere product purchases and transactions. To cultivate local communities by facilitating dialogue amongst shopkeepers and shoppers, and by networking retail community assets, this thesis project explores design opportunities for formulating a communication platform in a retailing district of small scale brick-and-mortar stores. The design intervention taps into the shopper's journey, examines the needs and desires of small-scale retailers, and proposes a digitally-enhanced retail community (Chung, 2000) that engages, interacts with, and brings together individual shopping experiences into a network of collective communications, narratives, and information to promote social interactions and physical engagement in the district.

Committee: Matthew Wizinsky M.F.A. (Committee Chair); Heekyoung Jung Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Design

MDES, University of Cincinnati, 2019, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Design

The student experience at educational institutes is affected by a variety of factors – academic as well as non-academic. Certain key factors related to uncertainties during a student's time at the Institute play an outsized role in determining the quality of the student experience. In spite of knowing the factors affecting student experience and developing solutions to tackle the issues, the problem of stress affecting student experience remains endemic across college campuses. Resources provided by educational institutes to address the problem remain under-advertised and under-utilized among students. The data collected by the University of Cincinnati (UC) Student Wellness Center and the Counseling and Psychological Services show that within the previous year 57.4% of the students felt overwhelming anxiety, 49.9% felt things were hopeless, 36.3% felt so depressed that they difficulty functioning and 59.1% felt very lonely. These statistics point to a problem which is also existent on UC campus. This thesis developed tools to help undergraduate design students at UC deal with stress through interventions focused on positive coping mechanisms. The system is a wellness tool-kit which can be adapted or tailored by students to deal with various other stresses in different situations. The data gathered for this research study was derived from two primary sources, undergraduate Communication Design (CODE) students and experts from wellness experts across campus. Student data for identifying the source of the stress was collected from observations, surveys, focus groups, and poster studies. Data for understanding stress factors came from expert interviews with undergraduate CODE professors, representatives from the UC Student Wellness Center, and researchers and psychologists from the UC Counseling and Psychological Services. Tool development was rooted in understanding how stress affects the students, based on insights derived from the research data. To help student (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Claudia Rebola Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Renee Seward (Committee Member) Subjects: Design

MDES, University of Cincinnati, 2018, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Design

Food Stories is a proposed design research methodology to help designers from all creative fields to collect insights about peoples' cultures, by identifying how people see themselves, what experiences are meaningful for them and what emotions inspire them to give meaning to things. For many years social fields have considered food as a signifying element that communicates meaning. Moreover little has been done in the design field to explore food as a source of information. Food Stories is an emerging tool that reviews the background from food studies as a frame of reference for informing the design field. The purpose of this research is to incorporate peoples' cultures and values into the design process to create meaningful objects that people genuinely care about.

Committee: Samantha Krukowski Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Claudia Rebola Ph.D. (Committee Member); Matthew Wizinsky M.F.A. (Committee Member) Subjects: Design

MDES, University of Cincinnati, 2018, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Design

The pictures that give designers ideas are inspirational pictures. It is important for them in terms of generating new ideas and gaining knowledge. The inspirational pictures are mostly in digital format at present. But the current experience of annotating, organizing and managing inspirational digital pictures are found unpleasant. This thesis concentrates on how to develop a tool that can help product design students with collecting and managing inspirational pictures and associated inspirations. Secondary research was done to understand the relevant knowledge regarding collecting and managing inspirational pictures and associated inspirations. Based on this, interviews are conducted to understand why and how product design students currently collect and manage the inspirational picture and associated inspirations. According to these, insights were uncovered and transformed into design requirements, which led to the design of a web application Capiration. After the building of prototypes, user tests were conducted to evaluate the design and to find aspects that need to be improved in the future.

Committee: Craig Vogel M.I.D. (Committee Chair); Ian Bellomy M.F.A. (Committee Member); Gerald Michaud M.A. (Committee Member) Subjects: Design

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2018, Mechanical Engineering

APEX, Alternative Perspective for the User Experience, is a two-year collaboration between Ohio State University, ArtCenter College of Design, and Honda R&D Americas, Inc. The purpose of this project was to determine the millennial vision of the future of mobility. Honda tasked student teams at ArtCenter and OSU to design the user experience of an autonomous vehicle interior for millennial women in 2030. The final output of the project was a full-scale functional interior prototype. Honda will validate user experience concepts from this project with millennial women to ensure the APEX experience meets target customer needs and to guide future research. Out of the six project phases, OSU led the latter three which involved the design, implementation, and validation of the high-level interior prototype. The OSU team utilized principles of design thinking and lean startup, as well as project frameworks such as scrum and the V-model, throughout the project. This paper discusses the design, implementation, and testing of the APEX autonomous vehicle interior prototype. The paper will especially focus on management of the resources and technical partners involved in the project, and the integration of the vehicle subsystems into a functioning prototype.

Committee: Shawn Midlam-Mohler (Advisor); Annie Abell (Committee Member) Subjects: Design; Engineering; Mechanical Engineering