Tomas Dorta

Université de Montréal | UdeM · School of Industrial Design

Ideation is still done with traditional analog manual tools because current computer interfaces are inconsistent with the needs of designers. The Hybrid Ideation Space (HIS) was developed to respond to this lack by augmenting analog tools with digital capabilities respecting the designer's needs for uninterrupted reflective conversation with the re...

Actual 3D modelling tools and virtual reality systems are affecting creativity during the early stages of the design process. They are often used as communication tools (passive) rather than ideation tools (active) because of their interface complexity. Among other reasons, this is due to abstract commands that demand precision in the execution and...

Versión en español del artículo: "First Steps Towards the Characterization of Virtual and Physical 3D Sketches During Ideation." RESUMEN: La fase de ideación en el proceso de diseño incluye representaciones ambiguas, rápidas y exploratorias: bocetos y maquetas. Un boceto en perspectiva permite visualizar solamente una vista, carece de dimensiones...

The ideation phase in the design process includes ambiguous, quick, and exploratory representations: sketches and models. A sketch in perspective visualizes a single view, lacks dimensions, and is not to scale. Models at full scale are not always viable and printing them in 3D requires CAD models whose level of definition is premature in ideation....

A renewed interest, propelled by the European Bauhaus initiative, has sparked a re-evaluation of design education in response to the growing complexity and interdisciplinary demands of design, encompassing both craftsmanship and academic discipline. While ongoing discussions focus on school types, curriculum development, and pedagogical approaches,...

This study focuses on the activity of “co-ideation” during an interior design project. By co-ideation, we mean the active involvement of users at the front-end of the design process, characterized by the generation of design proposals. This approach aims to make (current and projected) use activity explicit, by directly engaging users with a repres...

Effective architect-client communication is crucial for the successful progress of the design process. Traditional 2D sketches may pose challenges due to the high level of uncertainty experienced by clients concerning the project. Moreover, as 3D modeling cannot be performed in real-time with clients, architects typically present concepts after con...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.2196/37009.].

This paper introduces and explores the “Collaborative” Knowledge Con- struction Activity (Co-KCA) method as means to describe design learning and teaching activities performed during codesign critiques using a collab- orative VR system. In codesign critiques, students and tutors develop to- gether a design solution. Students learn through active de...

Social VR (SVR) systems are potentially adequate to support remote collaboration by allowing multidisciplinary students to codesign through an immersive shared display and 3D sketching. These characteristics become substantial for Multidisciplinary Codesign (MC) courses with the appreciation of the skills gained as knowledge is co-constructed. In c...

Background: The mortality rate from breast cancer has been declining for many years, and the population size of working-age survivors is steadily increasing. However, the recurrent side effects of cancer and its treatment can result in multiple disabilities and disruptions to day-to-day life, including work disruptions. Despite the existing knowle...

BACKGROUND The mortality rate from breast cancer has been declining for many years and the population of working-age survivors is steadily increasing. However, recurrent side effects of cancer and its treatment (e.g., loss of arm mobility, pain, fatigue) can lead to multiple disabilities and disruption of day-to-day life, including work. Despite th...

This chapter presents the public lecture I made at Penn State Stuckeman School during the 2019 SCDC Flash Symposium.

Cet article présente une étude comparative entre l’agentivité, c’est-à-dire la puissance d’agir, d’un dispositif immersif de réalité virtuelle sociale (sans lunettes) et celle d’un environnement traditionnel (papier et crayon) en situation de codesign. Il faut dire que les dispositifs immersifs misent sur une perception spatiale inédite en projetan...

This article describes the effects of a co-design pedagogic strategy on students’ engagement in the critique. The co-design pedagogy proposes a critique setting where students are enticed to participate in a co-design activity. We aimed to describe students’ engagement in that critique setting based on two factors: how they participate in the co-id...

This paper presents a new representation mode during ideation based on the use of immersive 3D sketches and their digital fabrication. This work explores freehand immersive 3D sketches of design objects printed at real scale. Freehand 3D vectors were optimized thanks to parametric geometries generated for 3D printing. Our approach aims to take adva...

L’enseignement dans les ateliers de projet fait face à des défis d’innovation pédagogique. L’approche pédagogique la plus commune jusqu’à maintenant est la critique, laquelle se réalise dans un environnement basé sur l’apprentissage par projet. Or l’approche que nous proposons comme stratégie pédagogique innovante se base sur le codesign actif et s...

Involving laypersons in collaborative design projects faces the challenge of having an adapted representational ecosystem. There is a lack of adequate representational tools for multidisciplinary actors to graphically and physically vizualize and externalize their ideas. Using VR is a promising way of renewing participatory design, but settings wit...

OBJECTIVES The goal of this workshop is to initiate participants coming from different backgrounds to the approach of co-design in a multidisciplinary and collabora-tive context. The idea is to prepare the participants to actively support co-design activities through the appropriate Representational Ecosystem (Dorta et al. 2016a) ranging from tradi...

OBJECTIVES The goal of this workshop is to initiate participants coming from different backgrounds to the approach of co-design in a multidisciplinary and collabora-tive context. The idea is to prepare the participants to actively support co-design activities through the appropriate Representational Ecosystem (Dorta et al. 2016a) ranging from tradi...

To allow non-designers' involvement in design projects new methods are needed. Co-design gives the same opportunity to all the multidisciplinary participants to co-create ideas simultaneously. Nevertheless, current co-design processes involving such users tend to limit their contribution to the proposal of basic design ideas only through brainstorm...

There is provided a 3D virtual environment interaction system comprising: a processing unit for generating a 3D virtual environment comprising a planar reference frame for allowing a user to perform a user interaction with the 3D virtual environment; a display unit for displaying the generated 3D virtual environment; a portable input device for all...

To allow non-designers' involvement in design projects new methods are needed. Co-design gives the same opportunity to all the multidisciplinary participants to co-create ideas simultaneously. Nevertheless, current co-design processes involving such users tend to limit their contribution to the proposal of basic design ideas only through brainstorm...

This study presents an insightful explanation of designers’ experience over time during immersive co-design sessions. The data was collected through an immersive retrospection interview here used to assess a co-design activity. Three teams of two proficient designers individually self-evaluated their perceived experience by observing an immersive v...

Creativity can be studied in many ways: processes, tools, personality, etc. In this paper, we are interested in subjective emotional experience linked to creativity. People usually make rich experiences, and are more likely to be engaged in creative processes, when they face highly challenging task, and feel confident in their skills (Flow from Csi...

In the design studio, Virtual Reality (VR) has mainly been included as a visualization tool to explore pre-designed ideas developed in traditional 3D software or using pen on paper. Meanwhile, a reshaping of the design process has been taking place, bringing forward interaction/experiential concerns and co-design approaches throughout disciplines i...

The aim of this workshop is to introduce participants to the co-design approach using a Social VR system (without headsets): Hyve-3D (Hybrid Virtual Environment 3D). The system affords simultaneous multiuser co-design (local and remote) using 3D sketches (exportable as vectors) and imported 3D textured geometries, photogrammetry models and point-cl...

This paper presents an insightful explanation of designers' experience over time during immersive co-design sessions. The data was collected through an immersive retrospection interview here used to assess a co-design activity. Three teams of two proficient designers individually self-evaluated their perceived experience by observing an immersive v...

Studying interactions in museums often omits to consider the complexity of the space and the visitors`visitors`behaviors. Visitors' walking paths do not provide enough insight of their user experience (UX) since they are distant from the experiential realities. Videogrammetry can convey such dimensions of an environmental experience. Because of lim...

The main goal of Virtual Reality (VR) in cinema is to immerse the spectator inside the scene. Recent VR headsets are trying to attain this goal using 360° videos. However, the storytelling and the cinema experience can be hindered because spectators using VR headsets have to continuously look around in order to explore the scene. Moreover, VR heads...

Simulation tools available in a design studio can be named Representational Ecosystem. It exists a variety, balance, exchange and interoperability amongst the elements of this ecosystem. Due to the monolithic approach introduced by generic 3D modelling software, which neither considers the multiplicity of representations nor facilitates abstraction...

This paper presents a new method to measure designers’ experience during ideation, by using the technique of self-observation instrumented with a device and an original software. Based on the previous concept of Design Flow and the experience fluctuation model, the proposed procedure asks participants to rate their perceived challenge and skills at...

Hybrid Virtual Environment 3D (Hyve-3D) is a system that allows architectural co-design inside Virtual Reality by a new model of interaction through a 3D cursor. It augments the concept of the cursor to better interact with three- dimensional virtual spaces, rethinking it as a drawing/control plane and viewpoints inside the virtual world. Handheld...

Cultural heritage is traditionally mediated through institutional bodies that are authorised to broadcast heritage information, whereas new media technologies such as social media platforms continue to enforce individual storytelling and information sharing. Therefore GLAMs (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) have to cope with a shift of p...

Hybrid Virtual Environment 3D (Hyve-3D) is a system to actively design inside Virtual Reality by a new model of interaction through a 3D cursor that is specially envisioned to facilitate local and remote collaboration. It introduces a novel approach to the concept of the cursor inside the 3D virtual space, rethinking it as a drawing and control pla...

International audience This paper presents an exploratory empirical study on the user's context in mobile videoconferencing in order to improve the user interface of mobile video devices. Through the rich exchange of information, mobile video communication can provide a better sense of presence than other means of communication. Yet the current mob...

Cette communication étalera en détail un ensemble d'outils et méthodes développés au Hybridlab (Université de Montréal), qui permettent d'augmenter et mieux comprendre le design collaboratif, en particulier la co-conception. Cette activité complexe est étudiée par de multiples dimensions partant de l'expérience ressentie par les concepteurs, l'anal...

Les technologies d’information et de communication (TICs) ont envahi tous les secteurs de la vie quotidienne. Bien que les aspects techniques bénéficient de nombreuses recherches, leur application ne fait pas toujours l’objet d’autant d’attention et les besoins des utilisateurs finaux ne sont pas forcément pris en compte. En effet, si les contraint...

We present the Hybrid Virtual Environment 3D (Hyve-3D), a new interface for 3D content creation via embodied and collaborative 3D sketching. Hyve-3D introduces a semi-spherical immersive 3D sketching environment based on spherical panoramas and uses 2D drawing planes that are intuitively manipulated in 3D space by the help of handheld tablets that...

The collection of visual and physical simulation tools available to a design team constitutes what can be termed the Representational Ecosystem of the design studio. Current digital paradigm does not effectively support design discussions because it is limited to the pictorial-frame and scaled representations. We analyzed for the first time the lin...

This paper presents an exploratory empirical study on the user’s context in mobile videoconferencing in order to improve the user interface of mobile video devices. Through the rich exchange of information, mobile video communication can provide a better sense of presence than other means of communication. Yet the current mobile interfaces lack the...

This paper presents an exploratory empirical study on the user's context in mobile videoconferencing in order to improve the user interface of mobile video devices. Through the rich exchange of information, mobile video communication can provide a better sense of presence than other means of communication. Yet the current mobile interfaces lack the...

Cette étude porte sur l'analyse de référents de l'activité de co-design dans un contexte de réalité mixte à travers l'utilisation d'un dispositif de co-design installé au sein même de l'espace à concevoir ; le contexte de design offrant des représentations réelles et virtuelles du même espace à concevoir. Notre objectif de recherche est de comprend...

This paper documents the very first use of the interconnected HIS in a pedagogical setting. For this Augmented Design Studio, where three interconnected HIS were set up, the aim was to foster collaboration and co-design between the project participants as a new approach to teach the virtual design studio and to study the collaborative ideation proc...

This paper presents a case study comparing the HIS (Hybrid Ideation Space), a system allowing designers to be physically immersed in their sketches and physical models, and VyewTM, a whiteboard software, in local and remote design collaboration; aiming to see if immersion benefits collaborative ideation. Three methodological tools were used: Design...

Designers interact with a wide range of design tools, in a variety of ways, in order to support their work. Any attempt to produce digital tools aimed at supporting ideation raises the question of the kind of information considered account and what is appropriate to the needs and expectations of designers. We developed and implemented an assessment...

To ideate, to exteriorize a concept, designers talk and put qualitative and ambiguous mental images in external representations. Verbalization on its own or combined with these representations drives ideation and is the most common means of externalizing design intentions in collaborative settings. This paper presents in detail the different elemen...

Sketches are used in design to support ideation, communication, and collaboration because of their abstraction, ambiguity and inaccuracy. Design collaboration using freehand sketches is possible through whiteboard software over Internet. Although designers can co-design and share design referents through this tool, their sketch retains the same sca...

In a recent study, we compared two conceptual design tools supporting collaboration, a whiteboard software accessed through Internet, and a hybrid immersive system, the Hybrid Ideation Space (HIS). The result of the study appeared to favour the HIS because of its immersive qualities. In this paper, we seek possible explanations as to why immersion...

professional or school design studios are essential environ-ments for design supporting free exploration of materials and repre-sentations, analogue or digital. New technologies have moved into the studio with mixed results. paradoxically, the use of portable computers, using Internet as collaboration channel, has actually individualized the design...

To ideate, designers talk and exteriorize ambiguous mental images in external representations. Ver- balization is the most common means of externalizing design intentions during collaborative design. This paper presents the different elements of Design Conversation: Collaborative Ideation Loops, Collaborative Conversations and Collaborative Moving....

We describe the signs of Collaborative Ideation (CI) that have been observed in face-to-face design settings using two methodological tools, the CI Loop and the Design Flow pattern. The CI Loop, which includes body gestures, was first observed in this study and captures the participants' design conversation while collaborating. The Design Flow asse...

In a world where sustainability, ecology, collaboration and performance are common concerns, “joining” is a key-word, expressing the idea of an integration of knowledge, efforts and processes aimed at a better future. The CAADFutures 2009 conference thus intends to join professional and scientific reflections, with the notable input of new discipli...

This paper presents the results of a comparative study between traditional analogue tools (sketches and physical models), a CAD software (digital) and a hybrid tool (digital and analogue) that allows immersive freehand sketching and model making (the Hybrid Ideation Space), in order to assess their respective abilities to support collaborative idea...

RESUME Cet article documente une étude sur le travail d'idéation collaborative dans l'Espace hybride d'idéation. Nos ob-servations se concentrent sur la nature collaborative du design conceptuel, comme processus social fait à travers des gestes et des représentations graphiques et verbales qui permettent la négociation et la prise de décisions. Deu...

This theoretical proposition is set in the context of user experience as a new paradigm in HCI. Staying away from the work-leisure dichotomy, usability can be understood as supporting extrinsically motivated experiences, therefore identifying its complementary as a principle supporting intrinsically motivated experiences: the autotelic principle (a...

In the last year, we developed the Hybrid Ideation Space (HIS), an innovative immersive sketching and model-making system that augments analog tools with digital capabilities, for continue and direct reflective conversation with the representation. The system enables designers to sketch and make models all around them in real-time and real scale us...

This study assesses an innovative immersive sketching and model making system: the Hybrid Ideation Space (HIS). The system enables designers to sketch and make models all around them in real-time and real scale using a digital tablet (sketches), image capture (physical models) and a spherical projection device (immersion). We carried out an experim...

The research presented here intends to achieve a better understanding of the influence of the CAAD tools on the contemporary conceptual architectural design process. The overall research methodology composes of two parts: an interview study with experienced architects and a controlled design study carried out with two groups of senior college archi...

Actual 3D modeling tools and virtual reality systems are affecting creativity during the early stages of the design process. They are often used as communication tools (passive) rather than ideation tools (active) because of their interface complexity. Among other reasons, this is due to abstract commands that demand precision in the execution and...

Ideate, then represent? The design process is an evolution of different kinds of representa-tions, as stated by Goel (1995). For each step, a specific type of representation is used for specific tasks. During the ideation stage, the first kind of representation (e.g., freehand sketches and rough physical models) serves designers, individually or sy...

L'ordinador s'ha incorporat a la pràctica de les discipines de disseny sense que se n'hagi avaluat abans l'impacte sobre la creativitat i la innovació. Les eines informàtiques utilitzades en disseny han estat preses, i encara ho segueixen estant, d'altres disciplines que exigeixen més precisió i control, sense tenir en compte que l'inici de l'activ...

RESUME Un nouveau paradigme est proposé pour l'utilisation de l'informatique en design. Contrairement à l'approche ac- tuelle, ce paradigme incite à un nouvel usage de l'ordinateur qui saurait mettre en valeur les expertises et capacités du designer dans l'interaction avec le système. Vu que l'outil informatique s'adapte mal à l'idéation, surtout a...

There is a void between design and computer in ideation. Traditional tools like sketching are more appropriate for conceptual design since they can sustain abstraction, ambiguity, and inaccuracy?essentials at the beginning of the design process. Actual graphical user interface approaches, as well as hardware devices, constrain creative thinking. Co...

El ordenador se ha incorporado a la práctica de las disciplinas de diseño sin haber evaluado antes su impacto sobre la creatividad y la innovación. Las herramientas informáticas que se utilizan en diseño se han tomado y siguen tomándose de otras disciplinas en las que se requiere más precisión y control sin tener en cuenta que el comienzo de la act...

Computers have been incorporated into the practice of design disciplines without their impact on crea- tivity and innovation having been evaluated first. The computer tools used in design have been and are still being taken from other disciplines where more precision and control are required, without taking into account the fact that the start of c...

This paper proposes a new paradigm in computer-aided design: hybrid modeling. Considering, on one hand the traditional sketches and mock-ups, and digital techniques on the other, this paradigm fuses the two and proposes a new technique that uses the performance of the digital with the capacities of the analog without replacing or imitating one or t...

3D modeling software uses conventional interface devices like mouse, keyboard and display allowing the designer to model 3D shapes. Due to the complexity of 3D shape data structures, these programs work through a geometrical system and a graphical user interface to input and output data. However, these elements interfere with the conceptual stage o...

This research verifies whether 3D modeling and rapid prototyping techniques could reintegrate customization into the design process. The purpose of this work is to develop customized objects that more adequately satisfy users' needs and tastes. Customization is herein considered according to two definitions: 1. When the designer can adapt or propos...