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    Civic circle : empowering young New Zealanders to volunteer with local non-profit organisations : a thesis submitted by Ross Patel in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Design, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2018) Patel, Ross
    The most common comment made by volunteer-involving organisations in both 2015 and 2016 State of Volunteering in New Zealand reports was that “the majority of volunteers are older (aging) and there aren’t enough young people stepping up” (Volunteering New Zealand, 2017, p. 26). Another common observation was that volunteers are less committed and are ‘time poor’. This is in contrast to the research that shows millennials (people born between the 1980s and 1990s) are upbeat about their ability to have a positive impact on the world (Green, 2003). Millennials can offer many skills and qualities to help non-profit organisations, although such organisations are currently inadequately prepared to welcome them (Fine, 2008). This design-led research sets out to explore how to empower young New Zealanders to volunteer with local non-profit organisations. Participatory design methods were employed to engage 27 representatives from 21 organisations and 19 young New Zealanders in the design process. Keywords: Volunteering, non-profit organisations, volunteering-involving organisations, young New Zealanders, millennial engagement, generation-y, civic engagement, design thinking, co-design.
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    Pilot : navigating personhood within science fiction : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Design in Illustration at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2016) Moore, Bo
    Representations of the 'other' in media often exist only to further the narratives of the 'dominant' for the benefit of an assumedly-dominant audience, and are otherwise unseen or misrepresented. This results in the other being denied genuine reflections of themselves at a social and cultural level (Diaz as cited in Donahue, 2009). Through visual analysis and design, this research explores the nature of the term personhood - defined as character and qualities regarding who can be a ‘person’ - through media representations of both the human other and the fictional alien other. The alien within science fiction is visible as a reaction to our very human history of colonialism (Diaz, 2014) and in particular to the categorization of the human and non-human other. The resulting characterisation, relationships and narratives of the alien become limited by its adherence or lack thereof to the features of the dominant human. This manifests in how personhood is ascribed in media (according to gender performance, sexuality, race, physicality and other categories) to both aliens and their real-life reflection, the human other. Pilot culminates in an interactive intervention blending film, game and literature within a two-player character-driven narrative that discusses settler-colonialism, relationships and personhood through the lens of both the alien and the human other.
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    A mobile game world for Māori language learning : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Information Sciences at Massey University, Albany Campus, Auckland, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2015) Crow, Tyne V H
    This project involves the research, development and evaluation of a mobile assisted language learning tool that teaches some aspects of the Maori language within a virtual game world. The Maori language has been going through a process of rejuvenation since the mid-1900s. A wide range of multimedia resources have been created to support the process of language rejuvenation and there have been some effective digital resources created. Despite the ubiquity of modern games, computer games are a form of media that is under-represented in the wealth of Maori language resources and there are only a small handful of existing software tools for Maori language learning, of which few are game based. There is growing interest in the application of modern game mechanics to other areas; popularly termed as gamification. This project aims to use the more dynamic features of modern games within a simulated game world to structure Maori language learning experiences. While globally there have been many computer assisted language learning tools and there is some research on virtual worlds and language learning, there have been few language learning tools developed within purpose built simulated game worlds. The project is structured around the Design Science Research Process in which short iterative design cycles are applied to the development phase with prototypes being developed and tested with teachers, students and academics as design partners. The implementation of techniques in human centred design ensures that design partners are involved in the whole design and research process. In practice this involved testing early prototypes with educators then subsequently whole classes of students. In between testing the software was redeveloped based on the observations and feedback collected.
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    "The Four Arts" : a prototype interactive game for engaging and interacting with Chinese culture using touch screen interfaces : an exegesis to be presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Design in Visual Communication Design, at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2011) Wang, Li
    The main objective of this project is to explore the possibilities of digital media, to help users understand traditional Chinese culture through an immersive virtual experience. Through playing an interactive game one experiences and explores Chinese culture. Chinese culture is rooted in an ancient history, which might be difficult for other cultures to understand clearly and fully (Moore, 1967). Chinese language is poetic but it can even be obscure to even native Chinese speakers. Full understanding of traditional Chinese philosophy can take many years of learning, reflection and instruction. “The Four Arts” aims to introduce Chinese culture through music (“Qin”), the Chinese traditional board game (“Qi”), Chinese traditional calligraphy (“Shu”), and Chinese traditional brush painting (“Hua”). The single-player game is based on the “Four Arts” and has been designed in Adobe Flash for a touch screen display. Users can experience traditional Chinese culture through play, which will help them to learn about key features of traditional Chinese culture and related philosophical concepts. To evaluate the effectiveness of the design, a qualitative methodology was applied for user testing. The results suggest that interactive computer game can help users appreciate and understand aspects of Chinese culture. The open-ended conversations with the participants have provided useful feedback on future design improvements for “The Four Arts”.