Tench, B (2022) Designing restoration: Protecting and restoring our attention through participatory design. PhD thesis, University of Washington, USA.
Abstract
We live in an attention economy where many of our interactions are mediated by technologies incentivized to exploit our attention. The consequences of this exploitation, so far as they are known, affect how we spend our time, and also our capacity for reflection and self-awareness, which can have lasting effects across our life and relationships. This dissertation looks to attention restoration theory (ART) and participatory design (PD) for help in addressing the harms of the attention economy. ART is an empirically validated theory that addresses how attention can be depleted and also restored. PD gives us an experiential and democratic framing for helping people have a say in the technology that affects their lives. In three qualitative research studies across two populations of co-designers—undergraduates (n=86) and library workers (n=38)—ART and PD were used to explore and understand the effects of designing for restoration. In the first study, students in an undergraduate design methods course found the work of designing restorative environments personally restorative. It helped them connect with one another, be more self-aware, slow down and notice the world around them, see their campus with new eyes, and, in some cases, use technology differently. In the second study, undergraduate students describe how the class, itself, restored them. They describe a generous classroom culture that foregrounded their humanity and modeled care. In the third study, library workers used the design curricula and findings from the first two studies to co-create a set of library-specific tools for engaging the restorative potential of their libraries. These tools— a guidebook, set of design activity cards, and companion website—are available at http://restorativelibrary.org. Across these studies, this dissertation provides insights for addressing the resignation we can feel at the end of an hour, or day, lost to technology. It stretches the idea of what a “restorative environment” can be and shows that what we make when we design from a place of wholeness has the potential to change us as individuals and as a collective.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Levy, D |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | culture; qualitative research; population; designer |
| Index terms: | dissertation, design method, interaction, reflection, undergraduate, exploitation, designer, restoration, population, participatory design, qualitative research, classroom, framing |
| Subjects: | profession, research design and methodology, design methods, renovation and retrofit, management, professional development, research dissemination and communication, construction type, curriculum development, conceptual models, demography, behavioral psychology |
| Topics: | Roles and Professions, Construction Technology, Business Strategy, Information Management, Research Practice, Urban Studies, Design Practice, Engineering Principles, Education |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here