Design For Meaning
We are recruiting new Doctoral Researchers to our EPSRC funded Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) PhD studentships starting 1 October 2024. Applications are invited for the project title Design For Meaning.
Successful applicants will receive an annual stipend (bursary) of £21,237 including inner London weighting, plus payment of their full-time home tuition fees for a period of 42 months (3.5 years).
You should be eligible for home (UK) tuition fees there are a very limited number (no more than three) of studentships available to overseas applicants, including EU nationals, who meet the academic entry criteria including English Language proficiency.
You will join the internationally recognised researchers in the Department of Brunel Design School research and PhD programmes | Brunel University London
The Project
With the increasing availability of affordable products, systems and services the attention of architects, designers and engineers is turning more-and-more to the properties of “experience” and “meaning”. Characteristics which are lower in the “Maslow Hierarchy of Needs” such as safety, functionality and comfort are increasingly seen as “minimum requirements” rather than areas which provide “competitive advantage”. Internationally, there is a growing awareness that design can no longer concentrate on functionality or even interaction, but must focus instead strongly on matters of “meaning”.
One approach is to conceive products, systems and services based on their intended meaning during the very first stage of the design process. Preliminary research has been performed to define the essential components of the “design for meaning” approach and a small number of artefacts have been the subject of “design for meaning”. Nevertheless, much of the basic machinery and most of the strengths and weaknesses of the approach still need to be explored. Research is required to define formal methods for applying “design for meaning” in an efficient and economically viable manner. The proposed research will investigate the area of “design for meaning” and will focus strongly on the key issues of “categories of meaning”, “contextual constraints” and “existing versus new meanings”.
The research activities will include:
- Literature review of the sources of human meaning (psychological, sociological and economic).
- Literature review of the current state-of-the-art in “design for meaning”.
- Development of taxonomies under the umbrella categories of “function”, ritual” and “myth”.
- Development of measurement scales under the umbrella categories of “function”, ritual” and “myth”.
- Testing of the measurement scales with individuals of varying gender, age and nationality.
- Case history application of the “design for meaning” approach to an urban mobility system.
The proposed research will substantially extend the knowledge of the issues involved in “design for meaning” and is expected to produce important clarifications regarding how, when and why the approach might be applied. The research will also provide a first comprehensive case history of the application of “design for meaning” in the real-world context of urban mobility.
Please contact Professor Joseph Giacomin at joseph.giacomin@brunel.ac.uk for an informal discussion about the studentships.
Eligibility
Applicants will have or be expected to receive a first or upper-second class honours degree in an Engineering, Computer Science, Design, Mathematics, Physics or a similar discipline. A Postgraduate Masters degree is not required but may be an advantage.
Skills and Experience
Applicants will be required to demonstrate the following;
- A basic understanding of ergonomics and human factors.
- A basic understanding of design methods.
- An interest in human psychology, behaviour and sociology.
- An interest in urban mobility systems.
You should be highly motivated, able to work independently as well as in a team, collaborate with others and have good communication skills.
How to apply
There are two stages of the application:
1.Applicants must submit the pre-application form via the following link
https://brunel.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/epsrc-dtp-24-25-pre-application-form-brunel-university-lon
by 16.00 on Friday 5th April 2024.
2.If you are shortlisted for the interview, you will be asked to email the following documentation in a single PDF file to cedps-studentships@brunel.ac.uk within 72hrs.
- Your up-to-date CV;
- Your Undergraduate degree certificate(s) and transcript(s) essential;
- Your Postgraduate Masters degree certificate(s) and transcript(s) if applicable;
- Your valid English Language qualification of IELTS 6.5 overall (minimum 6.0 in each section) or equivalent, if applicable;
- Contact details for TWO referees, one of which can be an academic member of staff in the College.
Applicants should therefore ensure that they have all of this information in case they are shortlisted.
Interviews will take place in April/May 2024.