Design for communication: how do demonstrators demonstrate technology?

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Abstract

The importance of inter- and transdisciplinary research for addressing today's complex challenges has been increasingly recognised. This requires new forms of communication and interaction between researchers from different disciplines and nonacademic stakeholders. Demonstrators constitute a crucial communication tool in technology research and development and have the potential to leverage communication between different bodies of knowledge. However, there is little knowledge on how to design demonstrators. This research aims to understand how demonstrators from the fields Internet of Things and Robotics are designed to communicate technology. The goal is to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of demonstrator practice with readily implemented design knowledge and to advance theoretical knowledge in the field of communicating artefacts. We thematically analysed 28 demonstrator design cases, which led to a typology that assists in categorising and understanding 13 key design principles. The typology is built from three perspectives: First, in terms of the overall goal communication, second, in terms of visitor engagement goals (attraction, initial engagement, deep engagement) and third, in terms of resource-related goals (low effort in development and operation). With this typology, we have taken a significant step towards understanding demonstrator design principles for effective technology communication between different stakeholders.

Details

Original languageEnglish
JournalDesign Science
Volume9
Issue number9
Publication statusPublished - 23 Feb 2023
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

Scopus 85149045115
Mendeley f445c308-c10f-33cf-a63d-af033c65ff1b
ORCID /0000-0001-7033-7870/work/142238502
ORCID /0009-0001-4069-3062/work/142251805
ORCID /0000-0003-2862-9196/work/142254867
ORCID /0000-0003-0390-4841/work/142255941
ORCID /0009-0002-3849-036X/work/159608912

Keywords

Keywords

  • boundary object, demonstrator design, interdisciplinary research, science communication, technology transfer

Library keywords