Dr Michael Smyth's Outputs (95)

Has the collective experience of the pandemic reset our relationship with the future? (2022)
Journal Article
Smyth, M. (2022). Has the collective experience of the pandemic reset our relationship with the future?. DOC - Design and Society, 1(1),

The fusion of architecture and cultures that comprised the cityscape of Blade Runner (1982) was a key part in how the narrative humanised the vision of the future, it provided a backdrop in which characters displaying human emotions played out a stor... Read More about Has the collective experience of the pandemic reset our relationship with the future?.

Speculative and Critical Design: approaches and influences in education (2022)
Journal Article
Helgason, I., Encinas, E., Mitrovic, I., & Smyth, M. (2022). Speculative and Critical Design: approaches and influences in education. Interaction Design and Architecture(s) IxDetA, 5-7. https://doi.org/10.55612/s-5002-051-001psi

As guest editors of this special edition we are delighted to present this selection of papers responding to our call about Speculative and Critical Design in education. The response to the call demonstrates that interest in this approach is increasin... Read More about Speculative and Critical Design: approaches and influences in education.

The Tree and The Room: Co-Designing DIY WiFi Networks with Emergent Local Metaphors (2021)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Smyth, M., Helgason, I., Lapidge, L., & Hausel, K. (2021, June). The Tree and The Room: Co-Designing DIY WiFi Networks with Emergent Local Metaphors. Presented at Design Culture(s) | Roma 2020, Cumulus Conference, Rome, Italy

The use of metaphor for communicating conceptual models of interactive systems has a well-documented history in Interaction Design practice. Although metaphors can primarily be understood as linguistic devices, designers incorporate t... Read More about The Tree and The Room: Co-Designing DIY WiFi Networks with Emergent Local Metaphors.

Echoes of Futures Past - Speculations and Fictions from History (2021)
Book Chapter
Smyth, M., Auger, J., & Helgason, I. (2021). Echoes of Futures Past - Speculations and Fictions from History. In I. Mitrović, J. Auger, J. Hanna, & I. Helgason (Eds.), Beyond Speculative Design: Past-Present-Future (24-67). SpeculativeEDU, Arts Academy, University of Split

Speculative Design in Education: Mapping the Landscape (2021)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Helgason, I., Mitrović, I., Hanna, J., Auger, J., Encinas, E., & Smyth, M. (2021, June). Speculative Design in Education: Mapping the Landscape. Presented at Design Culture(s) | Roma 2020, Cumulus Conference, Rome, Italy

This paper presents findings from a recent European-wide study on the use of Speculative Design approaches within education. The study included a survey of design educators and interviews with Speculative Design practitioners. This data has contribut... Read More about Speculative Design in Education: Mapping the Landscape.

The value of mass-digitised cultural heritage content in creative contexts (2021)
Journal Article
Coleman, S., Terras, M., Thornton, P., Smyth, M., Schafer, B., Drost, S., Pegado, B., Panneels, I., Elsden, C., Osborne, N., Lechelt, S., Helgason, I., & Speed, C. (2021). The value of mass-digitised cultural heritage content in creative contexts. Big Data and Society, 8(1), https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517211006165

How can digitised assets of Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums be reused to unlock new value? What are the implications of viewing large-scale cultural heritage data as an economic resource, to build new products and services upon? Drawing up... Read More about The value of mass-digitised cultural heritage content in creative contexts.

Creative Informatics Guide for Online Events (2020)
Preprint / Working Paper
Elsden, C., Chan, K., Erskine, P., Helgason, I., Lechelt, S., Osborne, N., Panneels, I., Smyth, M., Warren, K., Terras, M., & Speed, C. Creative Informatics Guide for Online Events

Creative Informatics is a research and development programme based in Edinburgh, which aims to bring the city’s world-class creative industries and tech sector together. We are a collaboration between University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Napier Univers... Read More about Creative Informatics Guide for Online Events.

Speculative and Critical Design in Education: Practice and Perspectives (2020)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Helgason, I., Smyth, M., Encinas, E., & Mitrović, I. (2020, July). Speculative and Critical Design in Education: Practice and Perspectives. Presented at DIS '20: Designing Interactive Systems Conference 2020, Eindhoven Netherlands

This full-day, interdisciplinary workshop will address the use of Speculative and Critical Design (SCD), Design Fiction, and related practices, including those that use provocation, ambiguity and activism, within undergraduate, postgraduate and profe... Read More about Speculative and Critical Design in Education: Practice and Perspectives.

Ethnographic Fictions: Research for Speculative Design (2020)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Helgason, I., & Smyth, M. (2020, July). Ethnographic Fictions: Research for Speculative Design. Presented at DIS '20: Designing Interactive Systems Conference 2020, Eindhoven Netherlands

Ethnographically informed research that investigates people's lived experiences, emotions, attitudes and behaviours inevitably draws primarily on current and past situations. Design practice is naturally concerned with using research to inform the cr... Read More about Ethnographic Fictions: Research for Speculative Design.

UrbanIxD: From Ethnography to Speculative Design Fictions for the Hybrid City (2019)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Stals, S., Smyth, M., & Mival, O. (2019, November). UrbanIxD: From Ethnography to Speculative Design Fictions for the Hybrid City. Presented at The Halfway to the Future Symposium 2019, Nottingham, UK

This paper presents research in the field of Urban Interaction Design which seeks to understand how people's personal, emotional relationships with urban places could potentially inform the design of new technological devices and services. A Speculat... Read More about UrbanIxD: From Ethnography to Speculative Design Fictions for the Hybrid City.

How Can We Balance Research, Participation and Innovation as HCI Researchers? (2019)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Lechelt, S., Elsden, C., Helgason, I., Panneels, I., Smyth, M., Speed, C., & Terras, M. (2019, November). How Can We Balance Research, Participation and Innovation as HCI Researchers?. Presented at The Halfway to the Future Symposium 2019, Nottingham, UK

This paper reflects upon the growing expectation for HCI research projects to collaborate closely with partners in industry and civil society. Specifically, we suggest that this type of engagement is often prefigured around the agendas, needs and cap... Read More about How Can We Balance Research, Participation and Innovation as HCI Researchers?.

DIY Community WiFi Networks: Insights on Participatory Design (2019)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Smyth, M., & Helgason, I. (2019, May). DIY Community WiFi Networks: Insights on Participatory Design. Presented at CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Glasgow

This paper presents a first version of a set of insights developed collaboratively by researchers during a three-year participatory design project spread across four European locations. The MAZI project explored potential uses of a "Do-It-Yourself" W... Read More about DIY Community WiFi Networks: Insights on Participatory Design.

Capturing, Exploring and Sharing People's Emotional Bond with Places in the City using Emotion Maps (2018)
Journal Article
Stals, S., Smyth, M., & Mival, O. (2018). Capturing, Exploring and Sharing People's Emotional Bond with Places in the City using Emotion Maps. Airea: Arts and Interdisciplinary Research, 1, 47-62. https://doi.org/10.2218/airea.2799

The vision of ubiqitous computing is becoming increasingly realized through smart city solutions. With the proliferation of smartphones and smartwatches, alongside the rise of the quantified-self movement, a new technological layer is being added to... Read More about Capturing, Exploring and Sharing People's Emotional Bond with Places in the City using Emotion Maps.

Democratic Participation through Crocheted Memes. (2018)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Taylor-Smith, E., Smith, C. F., & Smyth, M. (2018, July). Democratic Participation through Crocheted Memes. Presented at 9th International Conference on Social Media and Society - SMSociety '18

In a UK city, various crocheted protest banners have appeared, containing political statements concerning planned developments in their locations. Photos of these banners are shared across social media, raising awareness and potentially playing a rol... Read More about Democratic Participation through Crocheted Memes..

Maker Movements, Do-It-Yourself Cultures and Participatory Design: Implications for HCI Research (2018)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Smyth, M., Helgason, I., Kresin, F., Balestrini, M., Unteidig, A. B., Lawson, S., Gaved, M., Taylor, N., Auger, J., Hansen, L. K., Schuler, D. C., Woods, M., & Dourish, P. (2018, April). Maker Movements, Do-It-Yourself Cultures and Participatory Design: Implications for HCI Research. Presented at 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI '18, Montreal, Canada

Falling costs and the wider availability of computational components, platforms and ecosystems have enabled the expansion of maker movements and DIY cultures. This can be considered as a form of democratization of technology systems design, in alignm... Read More about Maker Movements, Do-It-Yourself Cultures and Participatory Design: Implications for HCI Research.

Making and Unfinishedness: Designing Toolkits for Negotiation (2017)
Journal Article
Smyth, M., & Helgason, I. (2017). Making and Unfinishedness: Designing Toolkits for Negotiation. Design Journal, 20(sup1), S3966-S3974. https://doi.org/10.1080/14606925.2017.1352899

The diffusion and democratisation of computing technologies and physical prototyping systems has supported the rise of Do-It-Yourself culture. In the context of design innovation, this shift has undoubtedly blurred the lines between the roles of amat... Read More about Making and Unfinishedness: Designing Toolkits for Negotiation.

Exploring People's Emotional Bond with Places in the City: A Pilot Study (2017)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Stals, S., Smyth, M., & Mival, O. (2017, June). Exploring People's Emotional Bond with Places in the City: A Pilot Study. Presented at DIS '17 Companion Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference Companion Publication on Designing Interactive Systems: Space, Place and Interface, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

This paper outlines a thesis that seeks to understand how people's experiences of places in the urban environment that are meaningful to them on a personal level, and in particular their stories and emotions connected to those personally significant... Read More about Exploring People's Emotional Bond with Places in the City: A Pilot Study.

Designing digital urban interactions industry landscape and market analysis. (2015)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Zaffiro, G., Melissa, B., Brynskov, M., & Smyth, M. (2015, March). Designing digital urban interactions industry landscape and market analysis. Presented at 13th International Conference on e-Society 2015

Urban Interaction Design addresses the question of how we, as physical beings, will interact with the technologically augmented, data-rich urban environments that increasingly characterize cities. As an emergent field very little analysis has been co... Read More about Designing digital urban interactions industry landscape and market analysis..

DIY networking as a facilitator for interdisciplinary research on the hybrid city. (2015)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Andriotis, P., Apostol, I., Gaved, M., Smyth, M., & Unteidig, A. (2015, September). DIY networking as a facilitator for interdisciplinary research on the hybrid city. Presented at Hybrid City 2015: Data to the People

DIY networking is a technology with special characteristics compared to the public Internet, which holds a unique potential for empowering citizens to shape their hybrid urban space toward conviviality and collective awareness. It can also play the r... Read More about DIY networking as a facilitator for interdisciplinary research on the hybrid city..

Patterns of place: an integrated approach for the design and evaluation of real and virtual environments. (2015)
Book Chapter
Smyth, M., Benyon, D., McCall, R., O’Neill, S., & Carroll, F. (2015). Patterns of place: an integrated approach for the design and evaluation of real and virtual environments. In M. Lombard, F. Biocca, J. Freeman, W. IJsselsteijn, & R. J. Schaevitz (Eds.), Immersed in Media (237-260). Springer Science + Business Media. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10190-3_10

This chapter describes an approach to the development of virtual representations of real places. The work was funded under the European Union’s €20 m Future and Emerging Technologies theme of the 5th Framework Programme, “Presence”. The aim of the pr... Read More about Patterns of place: an integrated approach for the design and evaluation of real and virtual environments..