Within the field of Human-Computer Interaction, researchers and designers have increasingly focused on collaborating with users across the design process. Researchers have explored various approaches to stakeholder engagement such as providing feedback on design concepts, need finding, envisioning, and prototype evaluation. Collaborative design as a method brings together individuals from various disciplines, backgrounds, and areas of expertise to co-create and ideate on current and developing technologies or experiences. These insights from community members are essential in creating and effectively implementing designs in different contexts and communities. This dissertation aims to expand the current scope of collaborative design methods within the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) by implementing design fiction techniques to inspire future-oriented ideation. By integrating storytelling and crowd-driven ideation within collaborative design methods, participants can ideate beyond what is currently feasible and communicate their desires and needs within their community. This research also utilizes two online platforms to support my collaborative design methods: Dream Drone and The Dream Collective. These platforms, inspired by creativity support tools, enable stakeholders to envision, re-mix, and iterate upon future products, spaces, and services at a larger scale. I present my research focusing on using and expanding collaborative design methodologies within two different time frames. The first examines different methods to collaborate with local communities through workshops that aim to inspire actionable design interventions within shorter time frames (e.g., iteration over the course of a year). The second explores incorporating design fiction methods within co-design to inspire participants, both in person and online at scale, to envision future designs and their potential applications in the upcoming 5-20 years. Through these explorations I highlight the broader implications of utilizing collaborative design methodologies, augmented by design fiction, and online creativity support tools, to inform design.

How can we understand and pursue sustainability transitions that disrupt everyday practices and social norms? This dissertation finds potential answers to this fundamental sustainability governance question in Arizona utilities’ efforts to legitimate wastewater as a drinking water source. Due to widespread public concern regarding the direct potable reuse of wastewater (DPR), utilities and other stakeholders have developed innovative governance approaches. By offering tastings of DPR water (often in the form of beer), utilities create spaces for deliberation within a traditionally top-down policy planning paradigm, and furthermore, invite feelings—emotions and bodily sensations—into policymaking. This dissertation explores and advances Arizona's emerging transition to deliberative water governance through three distinct investigations. The first of these, an institutional analysis based on interviews with 34 regional stakeholders and observations at 56 water industry meetings, identifies direct experiences with DPR (e.g., tastings) as a pivotal strategy to institutionalize new wastewater practices. The second investigation examines utility-sponsored initiatives to promote DPR and finds that, instead of assuming that consumers behave as rational choice or bounded rationality would predict, water utilities’ use of drinking water tastings reflects a new normative assumption, termed embodied rationality. The third investigation applies embodied rationality in action research with skeptical consumers and reuse industry stakeholders to co-design an exhibit about DPR that engaged more than 1,100 people. Drawing insights from the literatures of embodied and enacted cognition, practice theory, organizational institutionalism, sustainability transitions management, and design research, this dissertation proposes an analytical approach, normative framework, and practical tools for collaboratively addressing real-world sustainability challenges.

Olfactory perception is a complex and multifaceted process that involves the detection of volatile organic compounds by olfactory receptor neurons in the nasal neuroepithelium. Different odorants can elicit different perceived intensities at the same concentration, while direct intensity ratings are vulnerable to framing effects and inconsistent scale usage. Odor perception is genetically determined, with each individual having a unique olfaction "footprint" and sensitivity levels. Genetic factors, age, gender, race, and environmental factors influence olfactory acuity. The olfactory system's complexity makes it challenging to create a standardized comparison system for olfactory perception tests. The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of olfactory dysfunction, particularly the loss of smell and taste as common symptoms. Research has demonstrated the widespread occurrence of olfactory impairment in various populations, often stemming from post-viral origins, which is the leading cause of permanent smell loss. Utilizing quantitative ranking on a qualitative scale enhances the precision and accuracy when evaluating and drawing conclusions about odor perception and how to mitigate problems caused by external factors. Pairwise comparisons enhance the accuracy and consistency of results and provide a more intuitive way of comparing items. Such ranking techniques can lead to early detection of olfactory disorders and improved diagnostic tools. The COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on the significance of olfactory dysfunction, emphasizing the need for further research and standardized testing methods in olfactory perception.

Good food, or food that is good for people and planet, demands a different worldview and approach than the current industrial food system. As an ecofeminist researcher who values reciprocity, justice, and a holistic approach, my research investigates varying good food perspectives by integrating scientific evidence and practical experience. Specifically, I explore the opportunities climatic change have created for innovative and solutions-oriented small-scale food systems techniques in arid regions to define, identify, regulate and communicate good food and its related practices. A significant gap exists between current small-scale good food practices and how they can fit and be valorized into a wider food system. This dissertation combines social science and arts-based methodologies with the intention of digging deeper to understand what is required to support a food system that produces good food. This dissertation is broken down into three deliverables, bound by this introduction and a conclusion: (1) a theoretical research framework for regenerative food systems, grounded in biomimicry and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) defining and identifying good food and the systems that produce it, (2) a research paper that follows three traditional fermented foods in Arizona to contextualize their socio-cultural aspects within a regulatory framework and propose a way to make food governance more inclusive, and (3) an analytical autoethnographic exploration of the normative aspect of sustainability, and how it can be more regenerative. The narrative is an exploration through the author's past, present, and future in finding ways to instill more regenerative practices in their life in Arizona, as well as amplify the voices of others using podcasts. The dissertation aims to expand the field of food system sustainability to be more inclusive of diverse knowledge systems and arts-based methods in creating an understanding of good food in arid regions.

With an ever-increasing diagnosis rate and no universal cure, eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) lacks conclusive data regarding the onset of its autoimmune response and its preferred relation to assigned sex males. This thesis seeks to analyze the effects that assigned sex and determinants of health have on EoE diagnosis through previous research and survey development. Upon constructing a Qualtrics survey to collect data patterns and trends of subjects diagnosed with this autoimmune disorder, COVID-19 created a halt in its distribution and data collection. This unexpected event led to the collection and compilation of pre-existing research to be implemented into this thesis as a substitute. The key results of this thesis revealed that in twenty research studies regarding sex differences in EoE, at least 70% of patients diagnosed with EoE were male (Liacouras, 2005). With inconclusive results as to why males are diagnosed at a higher rate, results have not confirmed if this percentage ratio is due to social or genetic factors. To conclude, males are predominately diagnosed with EoE in comparison to the female and intersex population, however, with no data currently available on the effects that EoE has on intersex humans, it cannot be determined what factors create this recurring pattern.

Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE) is a chronic autoimmune disease that causes inflammation of the esophagus due to food allergy. In pediatric EoE, remission can be reduced by 95% through the use of hypoallergenic amino acid formulas (AAF), however its bitter taste gives it poor palatability, making nutrition difficult. This thesis highlights the problem of poor palatability of AAF's and explores the idea of prototyping a new flavor enhanced recipe to minimize bitterness for EoE patients and how to evaluate it through sensory evaluation practices. Along the way, I also discovered that quail egg homogenate has novel therapeutic potential to reduce EoE symptoms.