Bridging designers' intentions to outcomes with constructivism

Abstract

This exploratory study investigates the value of constructivist theory for the field of interaction design. In this paper we explore how designer intentions and outcomes can be expressed in constructivist terms, and how constructivism can describe the relationship of design intentions to outcomes. This study's findings point to the potential of an emerging constructivist framework. The authors present the findings of two case studies of designer intentions and outcomes from two museum design projects. The paper presents themes drawn from the analysis that include designing for personal experience, play, and social interaction.

Micro Culture: Interactive Storytelling and Learning in the Museum

“…The case of Kurio is particularly inspiring for my project, as it introduces play in the form of shared problem-solving so to enhance children and adults interaction during families' museum tours [14]. Interacting through a hybrid system composed of a PDA, tangibles, and a tabletop display, the family is invited to play the role of time travelers, who are stuck in another time and have to collect information about their current time so to be able to go back to their own [14].…”

“…Interacting through a hybrid system composed of a PDA, tangibles, and a tabletop display, the family is invited to play the role of time travelers, who are stuck in another time and have to collect information about their current time so to be able to go back to their own [14]. In this way the family is supposed to gain knowledge about the exhibition, through their active participation to the role-play.…”

Designing Context-Aware Mobile Systems for Self-guided Exhibition Sites

“…Studies show that digital technologies can substantiate knowledge acquisition [13][14][15][16]; however, knowledge about the educational effect of digital technologies is limited [17], and that about how visitors understand, apply, and respond to new digital technologies, even more so [18,19]. The research arena for digital mediation in museum exhibitions is expanding, and with novel and emerging technologies, existing mediation, facilitation, and communication strategies are being re-evaluated and explored, thereby indicating the growing interest for knowledge about communication strategies via emerging digital technologies [11,20,21].…”