The HCDE popup gallery features rotating art exhibitions by members of the HCDE community. Work is exhibited on the fourth floor of Sieg Hall on the UW campus.
About the HCDE Gallery
Creativity, Design, and Engineering are interwoven in a rich, aesthetic tapestry that is often not merely practical but also beautiful. To showcase this, the HCDE Popup Gallery is an exhibition space for creativity within the HCDE community. Work is exhibited in the fourth-floor gallery space opposite the elevator and virtually on the HCDE website. HCDE students and faculty are invited to submit work to the gallery for exhibition.
All forms of expression are invited. Works can be in a variety of media, can incorporate interactivity, and may include the screen is mounted on the gallery wall. Submissions are reviewed and staged on an ad hoc basis. Don't be shy - express yourself!
To propose a submission, complete this submission form.
Dear Design
Cynthia Atman, Grace Barar, Kathryn Shroyer, Khadijah Jordan, Yuliana Flores
2022
Every time someone begins a design process, a tracing of each step in the process can be imagined as a “design signature.” Design signatures are inherently unique and personal, and vary across different types of design projects, with different goals, constraints, and deliverables. According to decades of research on design processes by Cindy Atman, professor in the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering, when designers have awareness of their design process, they 1) have a better understanding of the process in general, 2) stay aware of where they are in the process, 3) make informed choices for their next steps, 4) enact those choices, and 5) continue the cycle.
In Dear Design, an ongoing Directed Research Group led by Professor Atman, students reflected on their design processes and created their unique design signatures. Inspired by the book Dear Data, an analog data postcard drawing project by Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec, Atman led the students in the creation of postcards that contained their "ideal design signatures."
Each week in the 10-week research group, students created representations of the design process from projects they observed, projects they completed in the past, or projects they did and captured specifically for the seminar. The final Dear Design postcard created by each student is their "ideal design signature," a representation of the way they hope their design processes will look in the future.
Below find excerpts from the Dear Design postcard compendium. View a PDF of the full compendium currently on display in Sieg Building here.
This Directed Research Group is a part of a larger body of Professor Atman's research on design process expertise and awareness. See Design Timelines: Concrete & Sticky Representations of Design Process Expertise to read this published research.
In Spring 2022, Grace Barar (BS '21), a research scientist in HCDE, designed an interactive pop-up exhibit in Sieg Building to highlight this work. Each block within the exhibit displays two students' ideal design signatures, and two sides are painted a solid color. When the blocks are arranged in a specific manner as shown in the accompanying diagram, the blocks form an ideal design signature, identified through prior design process expertise research.
The concept of the Dear Design Directed Research group was co-created by Professor Atman and PhD student Kathryn Shroyer. HCDE Research Scientist Khadijah Jordan (BS '20) and Kathryn Shroyer helped lead the first iteration of Dear Design in 2020, and Grace Barar and HCDE PhD student Yuliana Flores helped lead two Dear Design groups in 2022.
Pleated skirt
Lily Rosencrantz, Kay Waller, Kailey Terracciano, HCDE 2019 Study Abroad in London
2020
Our team, the Canal Gal Pals, investigated the perceived personalities of various sites along London’s Regent’s Canal and synthesized our findings into an artefact in the form of a pleated skirt.
We began with research conducted at eight sites along the canal path, focusing data-collection on sounds, activities, animals, art, and our emotional connection to each place. We recorded our data through sketching, taking to canal residents, photos, sound clips, and videos.
We found that each spot on the canal had its own distinct personality, brought to life through different activities, colors, and feel. The richness of our data came from the contrast between our perceptions as outsiders versus the sense of community felt by residents of the canal.
We made a tangible form because we wanted others to experience, touch, and see what we felt on the canal. After many prototypes, we decided a skirt portrayed our data best because personality is often shown through clothes and the movement of the skirt mimicked the movement of the canal water. To convey our fashion and design decisions but also provide context, we have paired our skirt with a look book that highlights each spot on the canal.Our skirt has eight pleats, each representing a different site and decorated appropriately for that site’s personality. The inner pleats represent the positive and negative experiences of living on the canal and are decorated with quotes and feelings obtained during our research.
Following along each pleat (from left to right), we can see:
- Bethnal Green: colorful and edgy shapes (colorful, expressive, congested)
- Mile End: velvety, green strip topped with trash (active, dumpy, easy-going)
- Victoria Park: ornate border with hand painted trees (quaint, lovely, green)
- Paddington Basin: rigid patterns with embroidered flowers and sequins (manicured, disconnected, rigid)
- Little Venice: striped with an embroidered boat and flowers (private, homey, decorated)
- Regent’s Park: lined with tree decorates followed by a golden thread (tree-lined, active, regal)
- Camden: chaotic, entropic patterns that surround a braided string (overlooked, engaging, crowded)
- Lisson Grove: pipes and wire lining it (industrial, loud, cramped)
On the Streets Where We Live
Dr. Brock Craft
2019
Cities are alive with a skein of networks and systems that comprise the infrastructure of the urban environment. This image comes from a mini-study of the visible evidence of one of these systems: the power transmission network along my regular commute from Sieg Hall to my home in Green Lake. It is a recording of data I collected across the city, a transect through this urban microcontext.
The photos of all the transmission poles on this journey were processed and layered with software post-processing. The image itself is just one result of a design process of recording, editing, writing software, and printing the final picture. It is as much about the process of making the recording as the final result you see here.
What does it mean to make a recording? How might we develop a deeper understanding of the cities in which we are intertwined, and which sustain our lives, and design responses to them? What tools and methods can we create to aid our inquiries? These are some of the questions we are exploring in the Design London Study Abroad Program.
Try out the process for yourself! The software is available on github: http://bit.ly/2Er0yu3.