Conference Agenda

For a world that has been altered, edited, and re-invented over decades to satisfy human needs and demands, it is ironic that we, who brought the imbalance in the system, are now striving to ‘undo’ things. Urbanization continues to spread beyond cities into the suburbs, creating complexities in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) sector. Amidst this backdrop, the role of Design Management has emerged as a crucial catalyst for growth and innovation. Recognizing the importance of design in the AEC sector is as vital as acknowledging the need for Design Managers to drive change and ensure the successful integration of design processes.

The AEC sector faces substantial challenges due to its resource-intensive methods and increasing project complexities. The pressure to design, create, and build efficiently has never been greater. The industry finds itself at crossroads, catering to urban demands while ensuring project success. Yet, the integration of effective design management practices often falls short, leading to delays, cost overruns, and misalignment with project goals.

With the rapidly changing urban landscape, construction professionals like architects, contractors, investors, and developers now recognize that their choices and decisions significantly impact project outcomes. These choices need to be made from the inception of projects, and there must be Design Managers to ensure that relevant questions are asked, and design processes are managed effectively throughout the project lifecycle.

The author is familiar with the design process and the challenges of ensuring that design intent is met both on the drawing board and in practice. Today, the role of a Design Manager has become paramount to manage the intricate web of stakeholders, streamline design processes, and bridge gaps between design and execution. However, nearly every second construction project faces delays and cost overruns. This raises questions about whether we are effectively managing design from conception to completion and whether current practices are innovative in today's digitally driven world.

This research aims to conduct surveys and semi-structured interviews with professionals in the AEC sector to understand their perceptions of design management, the need for Design Managers, and their familiarity with the concept, both in theory and practice. The research will explore whether including a design manager early on is part of strategic planning or an afterthought. Results from the survey and discussions will guide the professional approach needed to enhance the integration of design management in the real estate and construction industries.

This research hypothesises that using Environmental Graphic Design (EGD) with Augmented Reality (AR) to communicate selfcare messages in the workplace could improve work experience and wellbeing of healthcare employees. Prior research has focused primarily on how EGD and AR may affect patient experience; less attention has been given to how these forms (EGD and AR) might impact healthcare employees' work experience and wellbeing. Research as a communication platform in a healthcare context remains limited.

This research employed a case study to generate three prototypes in a simulated healthcare work context. The prototypes were developed using insights from focus groups along with design approaches such as design thinking and adapted double-diamond processes that involve prototyping strategies. The research also employed a contextual review to evaluate existing EGD and AR studies in healthcare.

A theoretical framework, EGDAR (Environmental Graphic Design Augmented Reality), was used to consider participant experience data. Preliminary findings suggest that combining EGD and AR in transitional office areas could spark employee wellbeing discussions and choices. This study suggests that adaptive EGD-AR models can serve as work recovery interventions, and that spatial (projected) AR can be used in healthcare environments to facilitate knowledge sharing and promote selfcare practices in an inclusive environment.

Non-driving related tasks (NDTRs) and interactions may exacerbate levels of motion sickness (MS) in future passengers. The state of passengers in an autonomous bus (AB) environment presents diversity. MS is a subjective and personalized experience, posing challenges for the design of shared transportation tools. This study aims to investigate the differences in the degree and factors of MS among passengers in real bus settings with varying orientations and postures, to propose design strategies and standards for mitigating MS in passengers of ABs.

37 participants were invited to ride a bus four times on a test track, experiencing different orientations and postures (forward standing, forward sitting, sideways sitting, and backward sitting). The test track included straight and tortuous roads to expose passengers to various vehicle motion trajectories. During this period, passengers' MS indicators were assessed. Subsequently, participants underwent semi-structured interviews focusing on their specific experiences and factors of MS throughout the travel.

A thematic analysis yielded six themes: the stop-and-go motion, external environment, internal dynamic objects, posture instability and active body movement, riding habits, and others. These themes reveal the complex factors influencing the degree and symptoms of MS in real bus environments. Quantitative results showed that MS levels in backward-sitting passengers were significantly lower than those sitting forward, due to the enclosed interior environment, outdated external window visual information, and unfamiliar riding experience. No significant differences in MS scores were found between sideways sitting and forward sitting, and between forward standing and forward sitting, but the differences in their factors were non-negligible.

Finally, the study proposes three design strategies for ABs: interactive experience with associated movement, gentle cues for specific movement scenarios, and bilateral and symmetrical interior arrangement. However, the visibility of the external environment, along with the influence of active bodily balance and postural stability on motion sickness, warrants further exploration in the future. This paper initiates the direction of design research into passenger discomfort in automated shared intelligent cabins, with future studies to validate the effectiveness and application scenarios of the design strategies.