Kin Wai Michael Siu

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University | PolyU · School of Design

Using the pedestrian system in Hongqiao Airport’s New Village in Shanghai as a case study, this study uses participatory research and co-creation workshops to explore the elements of community-based pedestrian systems and design strategies. The study shows that a people-oriented pedestrian system should enhance mobility at the physical level, safet...

Design synthesis is the most challenging stage of the design process because the problem and solution need to be linked to discover the best solution. Designers need to use convergent thinking to ensure the usefulness and practicality of the ideas generated by divergent thinking in other stages. Handling the pressure of an argumentative and judgmen...

The e-market is prosperous in China, but the factors that stimulate or deter its development remain unclear. This study focuses on designers (interaction, user interface, product, and user experience designers) in the Chinese e-marketplace to examine the relationship between creative self-efficacy (CSE), achievement motivation (including motivation...

Many researchers and scholars have focused on designs of products, services and social systems that increase comfort, happiness and satisfaction. Profound experiences are those that produce feelings of extreme intensity. Emotions such as joy, cognition, pride and connection are commonly elicited in various social service interactions. In community...

Recycling activities are common in Hong Kong households because of the establishment of different campaigns and promotions organized by the Government and non-government organizations. However, wheelchair users are excluded from the recycling activities, and the current facilities do not cater for their needs. To address the issues of wheelchair us...

Rapid urban development is inseparable from technological advances, and the application of artificial intelligence in community life is becoming widespread, affecting residents’ lifestyles and psychological well-being. This study investigated a variety of factors that affect the well-being of urban community residents. Environmental and emotional p...

Spatial justice, specifically accessibility, Universal Design and the fulfilment of human rights for vulnerable groups are increasingly deemed relevant issues in urban research and city-level agendas concerning public spaces. Although the development of older adult-friendly urban environments is part of the agenda to promote healthy ageing societie...

Northern China has experienced unprecedented urbanization over the past several decades, with younger Chinese moving to cities while leaving the lion's share of the older population in rural areas. This study explores how this structural change creates unique opportunities and challenges for older adults living in rural houses, which informs their...

The community-based embedded comprehensive elderly center (CECEC) was proposed in 2015 to address ageing population issues in China in existing communities. However, there is as yet no satisfactory solution for how to design the CECEC to properly integrate resources and create social inclusion. Synthesizing the social design and architectural desig...

In this study, we develop an intervention to promote communities’ social innovation activities. We apply the methodology and theory of co-creation and take an intergenerational perspective. Our aim is to promote communication, encourage role switching, build trusting relationships, and change the inherited perceptions of elderly groups and other ge...

In the market, once producers of a particular product category become mature in their production technology, their products will have few functional differences. Thus, the greatest challenge for designers today lies in developing an appropriate design language that fits the tastes of target users. Designers use many user-study methods (interviews,...

In this study, we review and explore the critical barriers affecting design-led small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) of China. Eight in-depth interviews are conducted with key decision-makers in the innovation process, representing a range of SMEs. The results show that collectivism, hierarchy, and market factors...

Bathing elderly residents with assistance is a daily service provided in the Nursing Home (NH). However, it has been widely discussed that assisting bathing is one of the most challenging tasks in caregivers’ service process, and bathing experiences are closely related to the residents’ Quality of Life (QoL). Based on the findings from previous erg...

1. IntroductionA report by the United Nations has revealed the number of older adults in the world is projected to reach 1.4 billion by 2030, and this number is expected to increase to 2.1 billion by 2050. This development will place enormous pressure on current healthcare and social protection systems. If life expectancy continues to rise while fe...

Ever since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic in early 2020, it has had an impact on all industries globally, especially the tourism and hotel sector. China’s hotel industry was one of the first to experience the challenge related to COVID-19. However, due to early interventions, Chinese hotels are on a faster recovery route...

In recent years, electric mobility devices (EMDs) have become popular in major cities across the globe. Whereas many cities have embraced and integrated this new form of urban green mobility into their public transport systems, in Hong Kong, the growing popularity of EMDs is being met with growing public and government concern about their safety. T...

The design of public space and facilities in a country park aims to serve a wide scope of people with diverse needs and interests. Research on human factors should include users of different ages and capabilities. Children are often a forgotten category of users for collecting views and preferences in public design. Their voices and ideas are seldo...

Tactile guild paths (TGP) have got changes in designs and constructions all the times. In the recent years, meaning and function of the urban area have got changes too. Hong Kong is a densely populated city. Taking Hong Kong as a case study, this paper presents a comprehensive review on the design, construction and using of TGP in the city. It furt...

In recent years, researchers, urban planners and local authorities have more actively made tremendous efforts to improve the quality of open spaces. Policy strategies for inclusive and barrier-free environments have been promulgated, however, most of the inclusive open space policies and standards are catered for the newly built constructions. The...

With the gradual popularity of television (TV) sets in China in the 1980s. TV sets have become the entertainment center in almost every Chinese family. However, as time changed, intelligent electronics such as smartphones, tablets, laptops provide people with more flexible interaction because of the difference in ergonomics. People are spending mor...

After the implementation of the one-child policy in the 1980s, most Chinese families consist of parents and one child. This phenomenon is along with an increasing special group of elder parents who lost their only child. They are not the elderly in a general sense but have special demands in terms of social support and participation in society. Thi...

Due to the changes of lifestyles brought by COVID-19, people have spent most of their time in residential communities for the past about one year, which makes people pay more attention to their psychological feelings and emotional needs in their living environments. This study aimed to explore the relationship between multiple influencing factors a...

Owing to population explosions, many developing cities are experiencing rapid and chaotic urbanization processes filled with undefined urban transport systems that can’t respond to the growing demand. This study aims at examining how Street-infrastructure supports and encourages NMT in Developing cities. The survey highlights the role of the ‘Walka...

Generating creative ideas is critical in the design process. Currently, massive amounts of design data are existing and effective use of data can stimulate inspiration. However, there has been relatively little research on large-scale design image materials and creative knowledge mining. Here we report a creative idea generation method based on dee...

Local governments and scholars in China have recently proposed and developed community-based comprehensive service facilities for older adults in response to population aging and greater service needs of older adults in urban areas. This study proposes a method to identify the ideal distribution of such facilities by combining the nested ecological...

In densely populated cities, rapid urbanization has accelerated the development of the built environment, which may change residents’ lifestyles and have a great impact on their mental health. As pointed out by many researchers, the built environment is designed to make residents get more happiness, not just physically but also psychologically. Tak...

Rebuilding inclusive facilities in old districts in metropolitan cities with high population density encounters a number of problems. It is necessary to find a solution to renew the city with minimal interruption of people’s everyday life. Through a case study of Hong Kong, the paper addresses the conditions of the public facilities provided for th...

Under the rapid growth of population and the advancement of technology, human life has started to invade nature. The expansion inevitably affects wildlife, and sometimes wild raids are frequent among the households. Based on a serious of basic research and field studies, this paper puts forward two of the new designs, named roller-fence and two-fol...

Recent decades, as the rapid development of urbanization in China, there is a lot of evidence showing that people living in high-density urban spaces are experiencing increased rates of stress and depression, and the living environment takes an important role in this situation. Based on this context, the identification of comprehensive community de...

Country parks in Hong Kong are often located close to residential areas. The waste produced by people living in village houses has affected park wildlife, and animals such as wild boars (Sus scrofa; feral pigs, wild swine, wild pigs) have attacked people for food. Wild boars have destroyed waste management and collection points. Using Hong Kong as...

Researchers and designers are increasingly advocating wider and fairer participation in recycling. However, many people are still excluded from this meaningful social participation. For example, visually impaired persons (VIPs) still face many barriers to participating in recycling independently. Since 2015, a series of studies has been conducted t...

The first volume in the Encyclopedia of Asian Design series, The Encyclopedia of East Asian Design is the first comprehensive publication to focus on East Asian design and its histories. Addressing the histories and contexts of design in China, China’s Autonomous Regions, Hong Kong, Japan, North and South Korea, Macao, Mongolia, and Taiwan, the Enc...

Urban challenges are multi-dynamics and are associated with several factors including urbanization, urban poverty, social exclusion, social injustice, urban informality, inadequate infrastructure and socio-cultural factors (Tam, 2012 and Tanasescu, Wing-tak, & Smart, 2010). Urban informality and infrastructure challenges are identified significant...

Researchers, economists and policymakers have made tremendous efforts to improve the quality of life (QOL) in many cities. While many researchers point out that open space is particularly essential in providing recreation and leisure zones in densely populated areas, it is challenging to enable high quality open space experiences (QOSE) for people...

Given the importance of recycling to ensuring an environmentally sustainable future, it is imperative that children be taught to recycle at home. Yet in major metropolises such as Hong Kong, household recycling is still uncommon and relevant knowledge is not passed between generations. Based on a Hong Kong case study, the study reveals the importan...

The Chinese government encourages the promotion of community-based older people centres as a way to use space rationally, improve social inclusion and support older residents’ everyday lives. This exploratory study is the first to examine in depth the contradictory and consistent attitudes and suggestions of residents of different age groups for th...

Purpose This study aims to address policy, implementation and management, the three stages of inclusive open space. It compares both the level of design and implementation of open space in Beijing, Hong Kong and Taipei by following the inclusive guidelines. It also identifies recommendations for policy, implementation and management of inclusive o...

Over the past few years, researchers, designers and policymakers have made tremendous efforts to move towards a barrier-free society for all by enhancing the accessibility of public space. Barrier-free legislation and design guidelines for built environments have been developed in many cities. However, compared with design for individuals with mobi...

Play provides children with fun, enjoyment, and opportunities to develop their cognitive, physical, and interpersonal skills. Most children in densely populated cities, such as Hong Kong, visit public playgrounds, as there is often limited space to play at home. Among the many issues related to public playgrounds, safety is an important concern amo...

With an increasing number of working couples and a growing elderly population, young children are often taken care of by their grandparents or housemaids from the Philippines and Indonesia. The interaction between children and caregivers has thus changed to accommodate urban life. Yet public facilities for children have not kept pace with contempor...

Adopting a case study methodology with mixed methods data collection and analysis, this study investigates causes and mitigation strategies related to urban informal settlement and infrastructure (UISI) in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), Seattle, Washington, United States and Lagos metropolis, Nigeria. The study indicates that inform...

Interdisciplinarity refers to the process of addressing a topic or problem from the angle of different disciplines or sciences, not just one. Typically, those who promote interdisciplinarity argue that the complexity of modern societies demands an interdisciplinary approach to problem-solving. This claim has gained traction in the field of Product...

The community-based embedded comprehensive elderly center (CECEC) was proposed in 2015 to address ageing population issues in China in existing communities. However, there is as yet no satisfactory solution for how to design the CECEC to properly integrate resources and create social inclusion. Synthesizing the social design and architectural desig...

This chapter discusses the difficulties of CAD assessment through examining and reviewing existing CAD examination questions in Hong Kong. Based on the review, limitations of the current assessment are highlighted. It is argued that the existing method is inconsistent with the problem-solving nature of the software and is unable to assess students...

The challenges of developing and maintaining open space are global. Open space affects the quality of the environment for working, living, and recreation. The open space challenges in Hong Kong are uniquely related to landmass development patterns, city densities, and city structures. All these factors interplay differently to affect open space ava...

Rising urbanism is both a global challenge and a sustainable development challenge. This study investigates urban informality and infrastructure planning in Hong Kong and the city of Lagos to develop urban design principles for sustainable development. It adopts a case-study methodology and a triangulation method of data collection with multistage...

Aging population comprises 12% of the global population in 2015 constitutes a deep pressure on existing social protection and health care system. There is no doubt that prevalence of dementia will continue to accelerate alongside the world’s ageing population and even more quickly in Asian countries. Government reports shown that the proportion of...

The paper applies the Inclusive Design Cube (IDC) and the Socially Inclusive Design Cube (SIDC) to examine the current design of one of the largest inclusive playgrounds in Hong Kong. The three dimensions of the IDC (i.e., motion, sensory and cognitive capabilities) and the social dimension of the SIDC are used to evaluate how the play facilities a...

Social interventions emerging from the field of social psychology have drawn attention to the social dimension of behaviour change for meeting sustainability objectives. Gamified Behaviour Change Programmes (GBCPs) are one such example, which have been quite effective in stimulating a positive change in behaviour and in establishing a culture of su...

This study assesses the professional perspective of urban informality and infrastructure planning in Hong Kong and Lagos metropolis so as to develop a strategy for sustainable urban development and ameliorate the challenges of urban informal settlement and infrastructure planning globally. The study adopts case study methodology with the qualitativ...

Swing Compass is a configurable recommendation system that turns tablet computers into a compass-like device whose interface shows recommended items at different directions. Turning the compass 90 degrees results in different sets of options. Based on the concept of embodied metaphor and choice architecture theory, the design aims to prompt people...

The challenge of sustainable urban development is a global one and it affects the quality of livelihoods. This study investigates urban informality, housing insecurity, and social exclusion (UHS) in Hong Kong and Lagos metropolis to understand the concept and the characteristics of this threat for sustainable development. The aim of this study is t...

Urban insecurity, loss of life and property are global challenges that affect the living conditions and the geomorphology of urban centers. This study assesses the use of closed-circuit television (CCTV) inclusive design to promote urban safety and security for sustainable urban development. The objectives are to examine the socioeconomic character...

In recent decades, various studies on policy, management, behaviour, norms and economic incentives related to food waste issues have been conducted. Many of the studies are from a quantitative perspective which has given a wider but general coverage of study and analysis on the matters. However, the impacts of context, such as living environments a...

Design education is interdisciplinary by nature and provides a platform for students to learn different knowledge and skills and then apply them to solve design problems. It is inspirational and innovative at many different educational levels. However, the curricula of design education may not be aligned at different levels. To investigate this iss...

The purpose of this study was to explore the design requirements for interactive games and leisure activities for visually impaired young adults that promote social inclusion and ensure equal opportunities for disadvantaged and vulnerable people. Two visually impaired young adults participated in a focus-group interview. A twenty-eight-year-old tot...

The challenges of developing and maintaining open space are global. Open space affects the quality of the environment for working, living, and recreation. The open space challenges in Hong Kong are uniquely related to landmass development patterns, city densities, and city structures. All these factors interplay differently to affect open space ava...

Public play spaces are designed for children to develop their social and physical abilities and enrich their experience. Through play, children can learn various cognitive skills in a relaxing environment. All children should have the same right to play in play spaces. However, many existing playgrounds lack inclusive facilities to facilitate the n...

The growth of urban centres all over the world creates major concerns for the designers, architects and environmentalist. But the growth of Chinese cities, Hong Kong in particular is of greater concern considering the rapid population and economic growth of the country. Considering the challenge of Hong Kong city as one of the recent metropolitan c...

In Hong Kong, the population is incontestably expected to remain on an ageing trend. Longer life expectancy has resulted in a rapid increase in aging population. In 2014, more than 70,000 aged 70 and above were diagnosed as dementia patient, expecting to have a substantial increase to 250,000 in 2036. This paper discusses the role of researcher as...

Online social networks have permeated into people’s daily lives. An increasing number of people from diverse backgrounds have expressed their viewpoints, feelings, and needs through the internet. Data from social network is widely used in every kind of academic social science. This study aims to apply data from online social networks into subway de...

While many researchers have pointed out that public design can increase users’ sustainable practices, how to achieve good public designs is challenging. To explore the current public design barriers and solutions to household recycling in Hong Kong, our research group, in collaboration with two Caritas Community Centres, adopted participatory actio...

Color has been more identified as a key consideration in ergonomics. Color conveys messages and is an important element in safety signs, as it provides extra information to users. However, very limited recent research has focused on children and their color association in the context of safety signs. This study thus examined how children use colors...

The challenges of sustainable urban development increases daily and the usual planning approaches to ameliorate these challenges are ineffective. This study assesses the applicability of ‘smart infrastructure’ to achieve sustainable urban development in Lagos metropolis. The study theoretical framework is based on ‘smart’ principles. The study adop...

Design has become an indispensable part of any business today. While the designers deliver creative solutions to enable the businesses to survive in the highly competitive market, their unique “designerly” style of thinking and working potentially poses several challenges to management in the corporate environment. Designers are right-brainers (cre...

Urban railway transit (URT) space is becoming a primary urban space. It permeates people's everyday lives. How URT space works and how URT space is produced are important questions for designers and planners. Th is study adopts a qualitative research method, using the Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway (MTR) as a case study. On the basis of our one yea...

The use of emoticons, particularly on smart mobile devices, has become increasingly popular among young people in recent years. The emoticon is not just a form of information transmission; it also represents a new way of life and a new trend among young people. The aim of this study was to understand the role of emoticons in the daily lives of Chin...

In the post-industrial era, the cultural and creative cluster raises the concern for policy makers and researchers. The setup of creative space in the city associates with wealth generation, job creation and urban revitalization. Many governments recite the formula in the setup of cluster but the one-size-fit-all strategy could not guarantee the su...

With the rapid development of information and communication technologies at the beginning of the 21st century terms like 'Cloud Learning,' 'Mobile Learning,' 'e-Learning,' and 'MOOCS' have been added to the long list of 'disruptive' technologies expected to revolutionize education forever. But while it is easy to see how ICT's have put unimaginable...

To maintain their status in the global marketplace, it is imperative for emerging economies to focus on the creation of high quality products in order to compete with organizations worldwide. To increase their economic momentum, it is necessary to utilize innovative and creative strategies to discovery and produce desirable goods. Design Education...

For the past 50 years, the School of Design of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University has been a pioneer in nurturing design education in Asia. It is also one of the first schools in the region to grant PhDs in “Design” serving as a role model for other universities in the region. Since the 1990s, the school has produced tens of PhD degree holders ac...

Stable, unstable and neutral are three key states of equilibrium to explain a situation. Densely populated urban areas cannot be sufficiently and adequately understood and described by using the only two extreme states of equilibrium, stable and unstable. Instead, there is a middle or third sphere that exists between two poles: neutral. Using Hong...

Seemingly messy and chaotic, the landscapes and urban life of cities in Asia possess an order and hierarchy which often challenge understanding and appreciation. With a cross-disciplinary group of authors, Messy Urbanism: Understanding the “Other” Cities of Asia examines a range of cases in Asia to explore the social and institutional politics of u...

This article explores the pedestrian bridges in Hong Kong and the idea of pedestrian bridges as everyday places in a high-density city. On the basis of a physical survey of pedestrian bridges and intensive observations of people’s everyday use of such bridges, this study reveals people’s everyday bridge use, the multiple roles of pedestrian bridges...

In recent decades, greenways have been the focus of an international movement to improve urban environment quality. In metropolitan areas, more greenways are interconnected, forming a greenway network (GN). A GN is considered to encourage physical activities, but verifying this statement is difficult, as traditional social survey methods do not obt...

Smart city infrastructure planning is a global strategy for sustainable urban development. It is an urban development principles and practices that promote efficient land use pattern, efficient transportation system and technological viable cities. The application and effectiveness of smart infrastructures in both the developed and the developing u...

Through a case study of Hong Kong, the paper presents how the Inclusive Design Cube (IDC) can be referenced to develop and evaluate inclusive play space in practice. While social activities take place frequently in play space, the paper advocates that it is essential to include social aspect in public design. Consequently, based on the IDC, the pap...

The setup of cultural and creative cluster became a trendy practice for generating economic revenue in the post-­-industrial era. Many state governments imitates those successful prescription in the setup of cluster, however, it could not guarantee the sustainable development of the cluster. This paper endeavors to identify the fundamental factors...

This data presents the distribution of physical activities in the Shenzhen greenway network (GN) in January, April and July, 2014. The volunteered geographic on physical activity is overlaid with the greenways data, to describe the distribution of physical activities in the greenways. The data are summarized to show the distribution characteristics...

Purpose This paper aims to address convenience as a prominent feature of a scheduled society and examines the nature of convenience, identifies the waste collection system and recycling programmes in some densely populated areas in Asia and discusses the existing barriers to enhancing the convenience of the recycling facilities in Hong Kong. The p...

Over the past 20 years, an increasing number of emergency aid products for personal and family purposes have become available on the market. However, little attention has been focused on public facilities. This article is based on a joint design research project conducted by teams from Hong Kong, the United States, and the Chinese mainland. It is r...

Recycling is considered to be one of the most effective measures for tackling imminent environmental problems. Over the past few decades, environmentalists, researchers, designers, and policymakers have made great efforts to reduce and recycle waste. However, compared to other developed cities, Hong Kong’s household waste recycling rate is still lo...

Social interventions emerging from the field of social psychology and sociology have been quite effective in encouraging a positive change in environmental behaviour under the influence of a social setting. They also provide a suitable social environment for learning, adopting, incubating, and nurturing the new behaviour. The study analyzes several...

Gender differences exist in color preference. However, most sign designs and research on signs nowadays seldom consider the issues of color preference and the gender differences. This paper serves as a preliminary study and explores children's use of colors on designing signs and examines the differences of boys and girls in choosing colors for dif...

The main objective of this study is to reveal the modernist production of space in relation to the everyday life of people in Hong Kong. Governments usually consider modernist urban planning to be an active force, and assume that this is the only proper means of directing the community towards the ideal of social harmony. As a result, the everyday...

With the rapid development of information and communication technologies at the beginning of the 21st century terms like ‘Cloud Learning,' ‘Mobile Learning,' ‘e-Learning,' and ‘MOOCS' have been added to the long list of ‘disruptive' technologies expected to revolutionize education forever. But while it is easy to see how ICT's have put unimaginable...

Many researchers, environmentalists and economists have made tremendous efforts to enable polices and measures for waste recycling, to improve the quality of the public living environment and to achieve a better quality of everyday life. This study examined the quality of life (QOL) in high-rise buildings in relation to sustainability. It investiga...