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The article presents a study of three urban design districts, neighborhoods known for the array of design-oriented goods and services which are available there. The Avenues of Art and Design in the West Hollywood section of Los Angeles, California; the Design District in Helsinki, Finland; and SoFo (South of Folkungagatan) on the island of Södermalm, in Sweden. It focuses on the development of trade associations by local businesses to promote the identification of these areas with the design trade, and examines the economic and sociological ramifications of such trends.

In this paper, we describe a design study on how families in Los Angeles experience nature, with a particular focus on how using alternative formats for research analysis and presentation can enrich a design research inquiry. Conducted in Pasadena, CA as a part of Super Studio, the year-long design research class emphasized knowledge building and sharing through design methods of analysis, exhibition, and concept prototypes. After conducting interviews and engaging participants with probes, the class built the results into an open-ended knowledge environment. The main observation from the exhibition – that Angelenos have a limited vocabulary for describing nature and their interaction with it – helped to define the opportunity for design intervention that created connection points between Angelenos and nature. There are few attempts to describe how probe returns evolve into design concepts. Showcased is a process that depends on the unique affordances of design as the vehicle for discovery and invention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a ubiquitous computing (UbiSys) workshop held at Ubicomp 2006, the Eighth International Conference of Ubiquitous Computing. The conference was held in Orange County, California, September 17-21, 2006, and hosted by the University of California, Irvine, California. The workshop theme was pervasive image capturing and sharing. Participants used the Zone Tag camera phone application that uploads digital photos to Flickr. The wrap-up discussion revisited open questions including how to provide the most compelling image-sharing experience, and the convergence of image-sharing and social network software. Privacy issues were discussed.