publications

@inproceedings{Toombs2025-al,

title = {The Ambiguity Amoeba and other Metaphors: Teaching Students to  Sketch and Prototype Through Uncertainty},

author = {Austin L Toombs and Paul C Parsons and Colin M Gray and Jenny El-Shamy and Anastasia K Ostrowski},

url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3742901.3742916},

doi = {10.1145/3742901.3742916},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-07-30},

urldate = {2025-01-01},

booktitle = {EduCHI 2025: 7th Annual Symposium on HCI Education (EduCHI '25)},

publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},

abstract = {In this Teachable Moment article, we demonstrate how Austin 

 Toombs uses a whiteboard drawing of an amoeba with chaotic 

 borders to help students understand the role of sketching and 

 pro- totyping as tools for thinking, rather than as polished 

 representa- tions of finalized ideas. Many HCI graduate students 

 come from disciplines where exploratory thinking through 

 sketching or other approaches was not emphasized. As a result, 

 they often misinter- pret requests for sketches and prototypes as 

 calls for high-fidelity mock-ups rather than as invitations to 

 create provisional artifacts. The amoeba metaphor provides a 

 visual and conceptual scaffold to illustrate how iterative 

 sketching and prototyping help students navigate and refine 

 uncertain design spaces. We present classroom examples, student 

 reflections, and insights into how this approach encourages 

 greater comfort with ambiguity. Paul Parsons, Colin Gray, 

 Jennifer El-Shamy, and Anastasia Ostrowski, who also teach 

 students how to engage with uncertainty, describe how they would 

 adapt this technique for their own classrooms and share 

 additional metaphors they use to support students’ tolerance for 

 ambiguity. By sharing this approach, we hope to contribute to 

 broader con- versations about fostering flexible, exploratory 

 mindsets in HCI education.},

keywords = {Design Knowledge, Design Methods, Design Theory, Expertise, HCI Education, Studio Pedagogy},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Henriques2025-cb,

title = {A Feminist Care Ethics Toolkit for Community-Based Design:  Bridging Theory and Practice},

author = {Ana O Henriques and Anna R L Carter and Beatriz Severes and Reem Talhouk and Angelika Strohmayer and Ana Cristina Pires and Colin M Gray and Kyle Montague and Hugo Nicolau},

url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3706598.3713950},

doi = {10.1145/3706598.3713950},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

urldate = {2025-01-01},

booktitle = {CHI '25: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 

 Proceedings},

publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},

abstract = {Existing ethics frameworks for participatory engagement in HCI 

 of- ten overlook the nuanced ethical challenges of dynamic 

 community- based contexts given the latter’s relational nature. 

 We hope to bridge this gap by grounding feminist care ethics in 

 actionable tools for community-based projects to enhance ethical 

 engagement in these settings. Prior research advocates for 

 adaptable, context- sensitive ethics in participatory research, 

 informed by feminist care ethics. To address this need, we 

 developed and iteratively re- fined a toolkit embodying the 

 underlying principles of feminist care ethics through workshops 

 with participants working in aca- demic and non-academic 

 community-based settings. Our findings suggest that the toolkit 

 fosters ethical reflection aligned with the feminist care ethics 

 ethos while facilitating meaningful experiences for participants. 

 This work contributes to the field by offering a practical design 

 artefact that not only embodies feminist care ethics but also 

 supports researchers and communities in navigating com- plex 

 ethical landscapes in participatory engagements, together or 

 independently.},

keywords = {Critical Theory, Design Methods, Design Theory, Digital Civics, Research Methods},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Henriques2024-lk,

title = {Fostering Feminist Community-Led Ethics: Building Tools and  Connections},

author = {Ana O Henriques and Hugo Nicolau and Anna R L Carter and Kyle Montague and Reem Talhouk and Angelika Strohmayer and Sarah Rüller and Cayley MacArthur and Shaowen Bardzell and Colin M Gray and Eleonore Fournier-Tombs},

url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3656156.3658385

https://colingray.me/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024_Henriquesetal_DIS_Workshop_FeministCommunityLedEthics.pdf},

doi = {10.1145/3656156.3658385},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-07-01},

urldate = {2024-07-01},

booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Conference Companion Publication 

 on Designing Interactive Systems},

publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},

abstract = {This workshop proposal advocates for a dynamic, community-led 

 approach to ethics in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) by inte- 

 grating principles from feminist HCI and digital civics. 

 Traditional ethics in HCI often overlook interpersonal 

 considerations, result- ing in static frameworks ill-equipped to 

 address dynamic social contexts and power dynamics. Drawing from 

 feminist perspectives, the workshop aims to lay the groundwork 

 for developing a meta-toolkit for community-led feminist ethics, 

 fostering collaborative research practices grounded in feminist 

 ethical principles. Through pre-workshop activities, interactive 

 sessions, and post- workshop discussions, participants will 

 engage in dialogue to advance community-led ethical research 

 practices. Additionally, the workshop seeks to strengthen the 

 interdisciplinary community of researchers and practitioners 

 interested in ethics, digital civics, and feminist HCI. By 

 fostering a reflexive approach to ethics, the workshop 

 contributes to the discourse on design's role in shaping future 

 interactions between individuals, communities, and technology.},

keywords = {Care Ethics, Critical Theory, Design Methods, Ethics and Values, Research Methods},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Gray2024-fq,

title = {DDPCHI 2024 Mobilizing Research and Regulatory Action on Dark  Patterns and Deceptive Design Practices 2024},

editor = {Colin M Gray and Johanna Gunawan and René Schäfer and Nataliia Bielova and Lorena Sánchez Chamorro and Katie Seaborn and Thomas Mildner and Hauke Sandhaus},

url = {https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3720/},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-07-01},

urldate = {2024-07-01},

publisher = {CEUR Workshop Proceedings},

abstract = {Proceedings of the Workshop Mobilizing Research and Regulatory 

 Action on Dark Patterns and Deceptive Design Practices (DDPCHI 

 2024) co-located with the CHI Conference on Human Factors in 

 Computing Systems (CHI 2024) Hybrid Event, Honolulu, HI, USA, May 

 11-16, 2024.},

keywords = {Dark Patterns, Design Methods, Legal and Policy Perspectives, Practice-Led Research, Regulation, Research Methods, UX Practice},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Chivukula2024-dd,

title = {Envisioning Transformation Structures to Support Ethical  Mediation Practices},

author = {Shruthi Sai Chivukula and Colin M Gray},

url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.178

https://colingray.me/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2024_ChivukulaGray_DRS_TransformationStructures.pdf},

doi = {10.21606/drs.2024.178},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-06-01},

urldate = {2024-06-01},

booktitle = {Proceedings of the Design Research Society},

publisher = {Design Research Society},

abstract = {Ethics is complex and situated, involving many stakeholders that 

 impact the design of technology systems. Numerous methods and 

 tools have been proposed to enable practitioners to address 

 ethical issues in the workplace. However, little work has 

 described how designers themselves understand and seek to 

 respond to that ethical complexity. In this short paper, we 

 present five transformation structures that visually and 

 relationally depict how ethics might be addressed in a workplace 

 setting. We base these structures on analysis of plans that 39 

 practitioners and students created in a co-design workshop to 

 address an ethical concern in their job role. We evaluated the 

 diagrams of these workshop plans and identified five different 

 types of structures that could lead to potential transformation 

 of ethical practices: parallel, linear, top-down, loopy, and 

 gordian. We identify how these transformation structures 

 differently inscribe expectations of ethical mediation and 

 action, leading to opportunities for further support of ethical 

 practices by practitioners.},

keywords = {Design Methods, Ethics and Values, Practice-Led Research, UX Practice},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Gray2024-lq,

title = {Themes, Lenses, and Materials: Three Perspectives on HCI  Program Development},

author = {Colin M Gray and Austin L Toombs},

url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3658619.3658622

https://colingray.me/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2024_GrayToombs_EduCHI_ThemesLensesMaterials.pdf},

doi = {10.1145/3658619.3658622},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-06-01},

urldate = {2024-06-01},

booktitle = {EduCHI 2024: 6th Annual Symposium on HCI Education},

publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},

series = {EduCHI '24},

abstract = {As an inter-discipline or trans-discipline, HCI includes or 

 references many different sources of knowledge in which students 

 are expected to be conversant. The education of HCI 

 practitioners requires exposure to an increasingly large number 

 of these perspectives. However, how should this exposure be 

 structured, with what level of depth, and through what 

 metaphors? In this unsolved challenge, we outline the complex 

 range of perspectives required and the limitations of typical 

 curriculum and program design techniques. We then illustrate how 

 HCI educators might use three different perspectives to consider 

 and communicate program complexity to students: 1) content 

 themes; 2) transdisciplinary lenses; and 3) design materials. We 

 conclude with opportunities for HCI educators to leverage these 

 insights to build courses, projects, and other program 

 structures.},

keywords = {Design Education, Design Knowledge, Design Methods, HCI Education, Transdisciplinarity, Transdisciplinary Education, UX Knowledge},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Gray2024-pt,

title = {Building an Ethics-Focused Action Plan: Roles, Process Moves,  and Trajectories},

author = {Colin M Gray and Ike Obi and Shruthi Sai Chivukula and Ziqing Li and Thomas Carlock and Matthew Will and Anne C Pivonka and Janna Johns and Brookley Rigsbee and Ambika R Menon and Aayushi Bharadwaj},

url = {https://colingray.me/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2024_Grayetal_CHI_EthicsFocusedActionPlan.pdf},

doi = {10.1145/3613904.3642302},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-05-01},

urldate = {2024-05-01},

booktitle = {CHI'24: Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human 

 Factors in Computing Systems},

publisher = {ACM Press},

abstract = {Design and technology practitioners are increasingly aware of 

 the ethical impact of their work practices, desiring tools to 

 support their ethical awareness across a range of contexts. In 

 this paper, we report on findings from a series of co-design 

 workshops with technology and design practitioners that 

 supported their creation of a bespoke ethics-focused action 

 plan. Using a qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis 

 approach, we identified a range of roles and process moves that 

 practitioners employed and illustrate the interplay of these 

 elements of practitioners' instrumental judgment through a 

 series of three cases, which includes evolution of the action 

 plan itself, the ethical dilemmas or areas of support the action 

 plan was intended to support, and how the action plan represents 

 resonance for the practitioner that created it. We conclude with 

 implications for supporting ethics in socio-technical practice 

 and opportunities for the further development of ethics-focused 

 methods that are resonant with the realities of practice.},

keywords = {Design Judgment, Design Knowledge, Design Methods, Design Theory, Ethics and Values, Practice-Led Research},

pubstate = {forthcoming},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Gray2023-ek,

title = {Scaffolding Ethics-Focused Methods for Practice Resonance},

author = {Colin M Gray and Shruthi Sai Chivukula and Thomas Carlock and Ziqing Li and Ja-Nae Duane},

url = {https://colingray.me/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/2023_Grayetal_DIS_ScaffoldingEthicFocusedMethodsResonance.pdf},

doi = {10.1145/3563657.3596111},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-07-01},

urldate = {2023-07-01},

booktitle = {DIS'23: Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive 

 Systems Conference},

abstract = {Numerous methods and tools have been proposed to motivate or 

 support ethical awareness in design practice. However, many 

 existing resources are not easily discoverable by practitioners. 

 One reason being that they are framed using language that is not 

 immediately accessible or resonant with the felt complexity of 

 everyday practice. In this paper, we propose a set of 

 empirically-supported ``intentions'' to frame practitioners' 

 selection of relevant ethics-focused methods based on interviews 

 with practitioners from a range of technology and design 

 professions, and then leverage these intentions in the design 

 and iterative evaluation of a website that allows practitioners 

 to identify supports for ethics-focused action in their work 

 context. Building on these findings, we propose a set of 

 heuristics to evaluate the practice resonance of resources to 

 support ethics-focused practice, laying the groundwork for 

 increased ecological resonance of ethics-focused methods and 

 method selection tools.},

note = {Awarded Best Paper, Top 1%},

keywords = {Design Methods, Ethics and Values, Practice-Led Research},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Gray_undated-nk,

title = {Building Student Capacity to Engage with Design Methods},

author = {Colin M Gray and Paul C Parsons},

url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3587399.3587415

https://colingray.me/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/2023_GrayParsons_EduCHI_MasterclassDesignMethods.pdf},

doi = {10.1145/3587399.3587415},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-04-28},

urldate = {2023-04-28},

booktitle = {EduCHI 2023: 5th Annual Symposium on HCI Education 

 (EduCHI '23)},

address = {Hamburg, Germany},

abstract = {Knowledge of design methods is critical for careers in 

 User Experience (UX) design and other fields commonly 

 served by HCI programs. In this masterclass, we will seek 

 to bring together the knowledge contained in key texts 

 commonly used in HCI education and the evident pedagogical 

 challenges that underlie codified methods knowledge. Such 

 fundamental questions at this intersection include: What 

 kind of knowledge do methods contain? How do students 

 learn about methods? and How do we know when students have 

 sufficient knowledge of methods to continue engaging in 

 adaptation, use, and creation in the future? We will 

 collaboratively address these questions, laying the 

 groundwork for participants to consider the following 

 issues in their own curriculum.},

keywords = {Design Education, Design Knowledge, Design Methods, HCI Education, Studio Pedagogy},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Gray2022-es,

title = {Defamiliarization and Intercultural Learning in Cross-Cultural HCI Education},

author = {Colin M Gray and Wei Liu and Xin Xin and Daniel Chin and Jacqueline Marks and Sadie Bunting and Jerry Anglin and Becky Hutzel and Samruddhi Kokate and Yushu Yang},

url = {https://colingray.me/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/2022_Grayetal_EduCHI_DefamiliarizationInterculturalLearning.pdf},

year  = {2022},

date = {2022-04-01},

urldate = {2022-04-01},

booktitle = {EduCHI'22: 4th Annual Symposium on HCI Education},

abstract = {HCI and UX work is increasingly global, and students have the 

 potential to benefit from building their globalization 

 competence. However, little research has described the unique 

 opportunities and challenges of intercultural project work in 

 the context of HCI education, including the ways in which design 

 knowledge is leveraged in a cross-cultural setting. In this 

 research paper, we describe the experiences of a Collaborative 

 Online International Learning (COIL) project team with 

 participants from China and the United States as they worked to 

 identify design opportunities to create ``charmful'' 

 semi-autonomous driving experiences for the Chinese market. 

 Through our analysis of focus groups, synchronous group 

 meetings, and artifacts created over one academic semester, we 

 describe how students engaged design knowledge through the lens 

 of culture and identify strategies that the teams used to 

 constructively defamiliarize their understanding of the design 

 context and potential outcomes. We conclude with opportunities 

 and challenges in coordinating cross-cultural design work and 

 describe new ways in which defamiliarization might be a 

 productive lens to acknowledge and build upon cultural 

 knowledge.},

keywords = {Cross-Cultural Education, Design Education, Design Knowledge, Design Methods, Design Theory, HCI Education, UX Knowledge},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Pivonka2022-nm,

title = {Organizing Metaphors for Design Methods in Intermediate HCI  Education},

author = {Anne Pivonka and Laura Makary and Colin M Gray},

url = {https://colingray.me/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/2022_PivonkaMakaryGray_EduCHI_OrganizingMetaphorsDesignMethods.pdf},

year  = {2022},

date = {2022-04-01},

urldate = {2022-04-01},

booktitle = {EduCHI'22: 4th Annual Symposium on HCI Education},

abstract = {Design students must develop competence in a wide range of areas 

 in order to be successful in their future practice. 

 Increasingly, knowledge of design methods is used to frame both 

 a designer's repertoire and their overall facility as a 

 designer. However, there is little research on how students 

 build cognitive schema in relation to design methods or how 

 these schema relate to specific epistemological patterns of 

 engagement. In this research paper, we report a multiple case 

 study, capturing the experiences of four advanced undergraduate 

 UX design students at a large research-intensive institution. 

 Through an interview study and subsequent analysis, we describe 

 the wide variety of organizing metaphors that these students 

 used to frame their understanding and performance of design 

 methods, including both principles they used to consider methods 

 as knowledge, and the ways in which these organizing principles 

 impacted their practice of design. We conclude with 

 recommendations for further research on the uptake of 

 methods-focused competence in HCI education and practice.},

keywords = {Design Education, Design Knowledge, Design Methods, HCI Education, Studio Pedagogy, UX Knowledge},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Light2022-cj,

title = {Designing Transformative Futures},

author = {Ann Light and Colin M Gray and Kristina Lindström and Laura Forlano and Dan Lockton and Chris Speed},

url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.896

https://colingray.me/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/2022_Lightetal_DRS_DesigningTransformativeFutures.pdf},

doi = {10.21606/drs.2022.896},

year  = {2022},

date = {2022-01-01},

urldate = {2022-01-01},

booktitle = {Proceedings of the Design Research Society Conference},

address = {Bilbao, Spain},

abstract = {What makes the design of futures sufficiently transformative? 

 Worldwide, people are aware of the need to change and keep 

 changing to address eco-social challenges and their fall-out in 

 an age of crises and transitions in climate, biodiversity, and 

 health. Calls for climate justice and the development of 

 eco-social sensibilities speak to the need for dynamic and 

 provisional engagements. Such concerns raise age-old issues of 

 inequality and colonialist destruction. Our designs carry the 

 imprint of this current politics, wittingly or unwittingly, into 

 worlds to come. This conversation asked how might we respond 

 fluidly to coming uncertainties, questioning our own practices 

 to sow the seeds of more radical transformation, while 

 recognizing the structural forces that can limit or temper 

 opportunities for design activism. It was organized in three 

 quadrant exercises, which we also reflect upon.},

keywords = {Critical Theory, Design Methods, Ethics and Values, Research Methods},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Gray2021-so,

title = {Iterating Overnight: Using Cardboard to Teach Audio During a Pandemic},

author = {Colin M Gray and Christopher Wolford and Davin Huston},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-01-01},

booktitle = {Proceedings of the Mudd Design Workshop XII: Designing Through Making: 2-D and 3-D Representations of Designs In Campus Facilities and Remotely},

publisher = {Harvey Mudd College},

address = {Claremont, CA},

abstract = {Prototyping is a key competency in engineering and technology 

 disciplines, bridging abstract and often-technical design 

 requirements and the realization of these requirements in the 

 physical world. While many approaches have historically been 

 used to encourage the development of prototyping competence in 

 engineering education, rapid fabrication techniques are 

 increasingly available both to students and the general public 

 as part of the ``maker movement.`` However, the development of 

 prototyping competence has been considered to be understudied, 

 particularly with regard to the appropriate levels of fidelity 

 through which a prototype might be most beneficial to 

 problematize the design situation, allow exploration of the 

 problem space, and facilitate iteration. In this paper, we 

 describe the tensions among technologically and pragmatically 

 different approaches to prototyping. We focus our inquiry on a 

 traditionally in-person multidisciplinary engineering/technology 

 lab course which was confronted with two difficulties: a 

 building construction project that caused the lab to be 

 relocated off of the main campus with limited fabrication 

 equipment availability and a mid-semester shift to online-only 

 instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the context of 

 these two instructional tensions, we describe the outcomes of a 

 student project to design and fabricate a functioning 

 loudspeaker in cardboard, providing a detailed account of the 

 design outcomes and process moves that resulted from this shift 

 in fabrication approach.},

keywords = {Design Education, Design Methods, Design Theory, Prototyping},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Murdoch-Kitt2019-sw,

title = {Developing Students' Instrumental Judgment Capacity for Design  Research Methods},

author = {Kelly Murdoch-Kitt and Colin M Gray and Paul Parsons and Austin L Toombs and Marti Louw and Elona Van Gent},

url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11688977},

doi = {10.3998/mpub.11688977},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-01-01},

booktitle = {Dialogue: Proceedings of the AIGA Design Educators Community Conferences},

volume = {(Decipher, Vol. 1)},

pages = {108--115},

publisher = {AIGA Design Educators Community},

institution = {Üniver},

abstract = {How are we currently teaching design research? How can we do 

 it better? How are educators fostering students' development 

 of "instrumental judgment"? This activity group encourages 

 participants to explore the ways that educators teach 

 research-through-making and research-informed making at 

 multiple curricular levels. For example, students seeking 

 advanced degrees in design are grappling with "rigor" and 

 "distinction," learning how these characteristics of 

 research are defined and understood in other disciplines as 

 well as in relation to creative practice. Meanwhile, educators 

 at K-12 and undergraduate levels struggle to incorporate 

 creative inquiry processes in meaningful ways, grasping for 

 resources and leaning on others' "design thinking"

 approaches.},

keywords = {Design Education, Design Methods, Transdisciplinary Education},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Strahm2018-ep,

title = {Generating Mobile Application Onboarding Insights Through Minimalist Instruction},

author = {Brendan Strahm and Colin M Gray and Mihaela Vorvoreanu},

url = {https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=3196709.3196727},

doi = {10.1145/3196709.3196727},

isbn = {9781450351980},

year  = {2018},

date = {2018-06-01},

booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2018 Designing Interactive Systems Conference},

pages = {361--372},

publisher = {ACM},

keywords = {Design Methods},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Gray2016-pa,

title = {It's More of a Mindset Than a Method: UX Practitioners'  Conception of Design Methods},

author = {Colin M Gray},

url = {http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=2858036.2858410},

doi = {10.1145/2858036.2858410},

isbn = {9781450333627},

year  = {2016},

date = {2016-05-01},

booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors 

 in Computing Systems},

pages = {4044--4055},

publisher = {ACM},

address = {Santa Clara, California, USA},

abstract = {There has been increasing interest in the work practices 

 of user experience (UX) designers, particularly in 

 relation to approaches that support adoption of 

 human-centered principles in corporate environments. This 

 paper addresses the ways in which UX designers conceive of 

 methods that support their practice, and the methods they 

 consider necessary as a baseline competency for beginning 

 user experience designers. Interviews were conducted with 

 practitioners in a range of companies, with differing 

 levels of expertise and educational backgrounds 

 represented. Interviewees were asked about their use of 

 design methods in practice, and the methods they 

 considered to be core of their practice; in addition, they 

 were asked what set of methods would be vital for 

 beginning designers joining their company. Based on these 

 interviews, I evaluate practitioner conceptions of design 

 methods, proposing an appropriation-oriented mindset that 

 drives the use of tool knowledge, supporting designers' 

 practice in a variety of corporate contexts. Opportunities 

 are considered for future research in the study of UX 

 practice and training of students in human-computer 

 interaction programs.},

keywords = {Design Knowledge, Design Methods, Practice-Led Research, UX Knowledge},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Gray2016-yv,

title = {What is the Nature and Intended Use of Design Methods?},

author = {Colin M Gray},

url = {https://colingray.me/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/2016_Gray_DRS_NatureUseofDesignMethods.pdf},

year  = {2016},

date = {2016-01-01},

booktitle = {Proceedings of the Design Research Society},

pages = {14 pp.},

publisher = {Design Research Society},

address = {Brighton, United Kingdom},

abstract = {Interest in the codification and application of design methods is rapidly growing as businesses increasingly utilize “design thinking” approaches. However, in this uptake of design methods that encourage designerly action, the ontological status of design methods is often diffuse, with contradictory messages from practitioners and academics about the purpose and desired use of methods within a designer’s process. In this paper, I explore the paradoxical nature of design methods, arguing for a nuanced view that includes the (often) conflicting qualities of prescription and performance. A prescriptive view of methods is drawn from the specification of methods and their “proper” use in the academic literature, while a performative view focuses on in situ use in practice, describing how practitioners use methods to support their everyday work. The ontological characteristics and practical outcomes of each view of design methods are considered, concluding with productive tensions that juxtapose academia and practice.},

keywords = {Design Methods, Design Theory, Translational Science},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Gray2014-fk,

title = {Reprioritizing the relationship between HCI research and  practice: bubble-up and trickle-down effects},

author = {Colin M Gray and Erik Stolterman and Martin A Siegel},

url = {https://colingray.me/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/2014_GrayStoltermanSiegel_DIS_ReprioritizingRelationshipHCI.pdf

http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=2598510.2598595},

doi = {10.1145/2598510.2598595},

isbn = {9781450329026},

year  = {2014},

date = {2014-01-01},

urldate = {2014-01-01},

booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2014 Conference on Designing Interactive Systems},

pages = {725-734},

publisher = {ACM},

address = {Vancouver, BC, Canada},

series = {DIS '14},

abstract = {There has been an ongoing conversation about the role and relationship of theory and practice in the HCI community. This paper explores this relationship privileging a practice perspective through a tentative model, which describes a “bubble-up” of ideas from practice to inform research and theory development, and an accompanying “trickle-down” of theory into practice. Interviews were conducted with interaction designers, which included a description of their use of design methods in practice, and their knowledge and use of two common design methods—affinity diagramming and the concept of affordance. Based on these interviews, potential relationships between theory and practice are ex- plored through this model. Disseminating agents already common in HCI practice are addressed as possible mecha- nisms for the research community to understand practice more completely. Opportunities for future research, based on the use of the tentative model in a generative way, are considered.},

note = {Awarded Best Paper, Top 1%},

keywords = {Design Knowledge, Design Methods, Translational Science, UX Knowledge},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}