Design as Cultural Mediation between Matter and What Matters

Humanizing Information About Meaningful Activities for People with Dementia

“…The existing knowledge and guidelines can still be further investigated from a design perspective. Design -as a research approach, practice and way of thinking -deals with mediation between i) artefacts and the characteristics, needs and desires of future users; as well as ii) utility, usability, symbolic construction and aesthetics [38,39]. Moreover, through the designed artefacts, design can play a role in mediating, encouraging and supporting happiness-enhancing activities [40] and social interaction [41,42].…”

The Brand as Mediation Through Design

“…Design as a "cultural mediation activity (through artifacts, devices, and services) between the past and the future, between companies and people, between people, or even between objects" is the ontological proposal for framework the discipline, which Providência (2017;2012) defends. Under this reflection, we develop the proposal to promote Brand Design as a Territorial Mediator between scientific (Universities), economic (Industries), and political (Public Administration) agents.…”

Towards a Design Observatory: The Case of Scholarly Design Research in Portugal

“…Since then it spread throughout the country, currently forming a network of 37 Design Schools (Borges et al, 2018). Design is understood and taught as an activity of cultural mediation that results in the shaping of artefacts, devices, and services (Branco and Providência, 2018); a process of reflectionaction (Schön, 1983) in which the purpose of sense making guides problem solving (Manzini, 2015). The six PhD Design programs in Portugal have less than two decades.…”