Dissertation at TU Chemnitz 2013

From 2007 to 2013 during my doctorate at TU Chemnitz I was usually the only non-engineer in the room. A strain that never really left me and that lead to writing a book about prototype materiality and interdisciplinary design research. From this dissertation I am taking away a love for taxonomies, a better understanding of the transformative power of collaborative design methods and the urge to embrace diversity in computing.

Prototypes in Interaction Design: a Vocabulary of Prototype Dimensions for Improved Collaboration

Which material manifests a house? A sketch of the house? A car? A model of the car? Answering those questions is relatively simple because architecture and product design cultivate a rich and tangible tradition of prototyping and an adequate design theory. Which material manifests an interactive system? Is it the glas of the touch screen or is it the color of the buttons? Interaction design is an emerging discipline and its accompanying design theory is even more so in its early days.

The dissertation contemplates questions of materiality in interaction design. What are interactive prototypes and how can they be sufficiently described? Which properties are inscribed and interpreted by designers, engineers, users and the environment alike? How can this knowledge be utilized for a meaningful transdisciplinary collaboration and equal participation in design processes?

Arne Berger and Michael Heidt. 2015. Exploring Prototypes in Interaction Design – Qualitative Analysis & Playful Design Method. In Proceedings of IASDR2015, the 6th World Conference on Design Research, 2487–2494. Retrieved from https://eprints.qut.edu.au/91449/