Declaration

I hereby declare that this thesis titled “Design by Play: Playfulness and Object-Oriented Philosophy for the design of IoT” represents my research and work done during my PhD in Design at Lancaster University. The concepts and ideas resulting in my work are stated here on in my own words, and where I include the ideas of others I have cited and referenced the original sources accordingly. This body of work has not been submitted in support of an application for another degree at this or any other institution. Many of the ideas in this thesis were the product of discussions with my supervisor Professor Paul Coulton. I hereby grant complete permission for this work to be accessible online in a digital format through the institutional repository. I also declare that I have adhered to all principles of academic honesty and integrity and have not misrepresented, fabricated, or falsified any ideas/data/fact/source in this submission or the course of research. I understand that any violation of the above will be cause for disciplinary action by the University or other related sources.

— Haider Ali Akmal

Excerpts of this thesis have been published in the following manuscripts:

Akmal, H. (2019) Heterotopias. In: Coulton, C. (ed.) The Little Book of Philosophy for the Internet of Things. Lancaster University.

Akmal, H.A. & Coulton, P. (2018) Using Heterotopias to Characterise Interactions in Physical/Digital Spaces. In: Design Research Society 2018 Catalyst. Limerick, 2018. Limerick. 10.21606/dma.2017.348

Akmal, H. & Coulton, P. (2019a) Research Through Board Game Design. In: RtD 2019: Method & Critique. Delft, Netherlands, 2019. Delft, Netherlands. 10.6084/m9.figshare.7855808.v1

Akmal, H. & Coulton, P. (2019b) The Internet of Things Game: Illuminating data interactions within the Internet of Things. In: Institution of Engineering and Technology, Living in the Internet of Things (IoT 2019). London, UK, 2019. London, UK: Institution of Engineering and Technology. 10.1049/cp.2019.0156

Akmal, H. & Coulton, P. (2020a) The Divination of Things by Things. In: Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 2020. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. 10.1145/3334480.3381823

Akmal, H. & Coulton, P. (2020b) The Internet of Things Game: Revealing the Complexity of the IoT. In: DiGRA ’20 – Proceedings of the 2020 DiGRA International Conference: Play Everywhere, DiGRA 2020: Play Everywhere. Tampere, June 2020. Tampere: DiGRA ’20 – Proceedings of the 2020 DiGRA International Conference: Play Everywhere. Available at: http://www.digra.org/digital-library/publications/the-internet-of-things-game-revealing-the-complexity-of-the-iot/

Akmal, H. & Coulton, P. (2021) More-Than-Human Game Design: Playing In the Internet of Things. Acta Ludologica, 4(1). Available at: https://actaludologica.com/more-than-human-game-design-playing-in-the-internet-of-things/

Akmal, H.A. & Coulton, P. (2020c) A Tarot of Things: a supernatural approach to designing for IoT. In: Design Research Society 2020 Synergy. Brisbane, 2020. Brisbane. 10.21606/drs.2020.188

Akmal, H., Lindley, J., Coulton, P., Hay, D., Van Kleek, M., Binns, R. & Cannizzaro, S. (2019) The Little Book of Philosophy for the Internet of Things Coulton, C. (ed.). Lancaster University.

Lindley, J., Akmal, H.A. & Coulton, P. (2020a) Design Research and Object-Oriented Ontology. Open Philosophy, 3(1), 11–41. 10.1515/opphil-2020-0002

Lindley, J.G., Coulton, P., Akmal, H. & Knowles, B.H. (2017) Anticipating GDPR in Smart Homes Through Fictional Conversational Objects.

As a researcher, I have also contributed to the following manuscripts as part of different research endeavours with different colleagues and scholars. The knowledge of some of these discussions supplement the research presented in this thesis as prior and future provocations:

Akmal, H.A. (2015) Empathy Engine: Researching Through Design Fiction. Masters Dissertation. Lancaster, UK: Lancaster University.

Coulton, P., Lindley, J. & Akmal, H.A. (2016) Design Fiction: Does the search for plausibility lead to deception? In: Design Research Society 2016 Future-Focused Thinking. Brighton, 2016. Brighton.

Lindley, J., Akmal, H.A., Pilling, F. & Coulton, P. (2020b) Researching AI Legibility Through Design. In: Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 2020. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. 10.1145/3313831.3376792

Lindley, J., Akmal, H.A., Pilling, F. & Coulton, P. (2020c) Signs of the Time: Making AI Legible. In: Design Research Society 2020 Synergy. Brisbane, 2020. Brisbane. 10.21606/drs.2020.237

Lindley, J.G., Coulton, P. & Akmal, H. (2018) Turning Philosophy with a Speculative Lathe: Object Oriented Ontology, Carpentry, and Design Fiction. In: Design Research Society 2018 Catalyst. Limerick, 2018. Limerick. 10.21606/dma.2018.327

Pilling, F., Akmal, H., Coulton, P. & Lindley, J. (2020) The Process of Gaining an AI Legibility Mark. In: Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 2020. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. 10.1145/3334480.3381820

Pilling, F., Akmal, H. & Gradinar, A. (2021a) Using Game Engines to Design Digital Workshops for Design Research. In: EAD 2021. 2021. [Submitted for publication]

Pilling, F., Akmal, H.A., Gradinar, A., Lindley, J. & Coulton, P. (2021b) Legible AI by Design: Design Research to Frame, Design, Empirically Test and Evaluate AI Iconography. In: Swiss Design Network, Design as Common Good. 2021. Swiss Design Network. 10.21606/drs.2020.237

Pilling, F., Akmal, H.A., Lindley, J. & Coulton, P. (2020) Making a Smart City Legible. [Submitted for publication]

Pilling, F., Lindley, J., Akmal, H.A. & Coulton, P. (2021c) Design (Non) Fiction: Deconstructing/Reconstructing the Definitional. International Journal of Film and Media Arts, 6(1). 10.24140/ijfma.v6.n1.01