Analyzing the factors influencing the successful design and uptake of interactive systems to support social networks in urban neighborhoods

In urban residential environments in Australia and other developed countries, Internet access is on the verge of becoming a ubiquitous utility like gas or electricity. From an urban sociology and community informatics perspective, this article discusses new emerging social formations of urban residents that are based on networked individualism and the potential of Internet-based systems to support them. It proposes that one of the main reasons for the disappearance or nonexistence of urban residential communities is a lack of appropriate opportunities and instruments to encourage and support local interaction in urban neighborhoods. The article challenges the view that a mere reappropriation of applications used to support dispersed virtual communities is adequate to meet the place and proximity-based design requirements that community networks in urban neighborhoods pose. It argues that the key factors influencing the successful design and uptake of interactive systems to support social networks in urban neighborhoods include the swarming social behavior of urban dwellers; the dynamics of their existing communicative ecology; and the serendipitous, voluntary, and place-based quality of interaction between residents on the basis of choice, like-mindedness, mutual interest and support needs. Drawing on an analysis of these factors, the conceptual design framework of a prototype system — the urban tribe incubator — is presented.

Process based synthesis to evaluate design flexibility in airport terminal layout

Flexible design concept is a relatively new trend in airport terminal design which is believed to facilitate the ever changing needs of a terminal. Current architectural design processes become more complex every day because of the introduction of new building technologies where the concept of flexible airport terminal would apparently make the design process even more complex. Previous studies have demonstrated that ever growing aviation industry requires airport terminals to be planned, designed and constructed in such a way that should allow flexibility in design process. In order to adopt the philosophy of ‘design for flexibility’ architects need to address a wide range of differing needs. An appropriate integration of the process models, prior to the airport terminal design process, is expected to uncover the relationships that exist between spatial layout and their corresponding functions. The current paper seeks to develop a way of sharing space adjacency related information obtained from the Business Process Models (BPM) to assist in defining flexible airport terminal layouts. Critical design parameters are briefly investigated at this stage of research whilst reviewing the available design alternatives and an evaluation framework is proposed in the current paper. Information obtained from various design layouts should assist in identifying and defining flexible design matrices allowing architects to interpret and to apply those throughout the lifecycle of the terminal building.

The architecture of children’s use of language and tools when problem solving collaboratively with robotics

This paper demonstrates, following Vygotsky, that language and tool use has a critical role in the collaborative problem-solving behaviour of school-age children. It reports original ethnographic classroom research examining the convergence of speech and practical activity in children’s collaborative problem solving with robotics programming tasks. The researchers analysed children’s interactions during a series of problem solving experiments in which Lego Mindstorms toolsets were used by teachers to create robotics design challenges among 24 students in a Year 4 Australian classroom (students aged 8.5–9.5 years). The design challenges were incrementally difficult, beginning with basic programming of straight line movement, and progressing to more complex challenges involving programming of the robots to raise Lego figures from conduit pipes using robots as pulleys with string and recycled materials. Data collection involved micro-genetic analysis of students’ speech interactions with tools, peers, and other experts, teacher interviews, and student focus group data. Coding the repeated patterns in the transcripts, the authors outline the structure of the children’s social speech in joint problem solving, demonstrating the patterns of speech and interaction that play an important role in the socialisation of the school-age child’s practical intellect.

Design and ethics in digital mental health promotion

This chapter presents a case study of Participatory Design as a design framework for developing interactive digital tools for promoting children’s resilience. The author argues for a participatory methodology as an ethical approach that involves children as co-designers in the process from which they are traditionally excluded, namely the creative design process and the process of mental health promotion.

Instructional objectives to core-gameplay : a serious game design technique

This paper explores a gap within the serious game design research. That gap is the ambiguity surrounding the process of aligning the instructional objectives of serious games with their core-gameplay i.e. the moment-to-moment activity that is the core of player interaction. A core-gameplay focused design framework is proposed that can work alongside existing, more broadly focused serious games design frameworks. The framework utilises an inquiry-based approach that allows the serious game designer to use key questions as a means to clearly outline instructional objectives with the core-gameplay. The use of this design framework is considered in the context of a small section of gameplay from an educational game currently in development. This demonstration of the framework brings shows how instructional objectives can be embedded into a serious games core-gameplay.

Exploring the relationships between design & public libraries through the lens of service design

Design is ubiquitous to the life of contemporary societies and key to their progress, but for some, it is an elitist concept. This thesis investigates the role of public libraries contribution to the general public's understanding of 'Design'. This study compared participants views in the context of State Libraries in two cities: Brisbane and Curitiba. Findings revealed that exploring four new aspects in the Development and Deliver Stages of a service design framework for public libraries can be an effective tool to enhance people's access and experiences of Design, and ultimately, it can contribute to the democratization of design.

Exploring the relationships between design and public libraries through the lens of service design

Design is ubiquitous to the life of contemporary societies and key to their progress, but for some, it is an elitist concept. This thesis investigates the role of public libraries contribution to the general public's understanding of "Design". This study compared participants views in the context of State Libraries in two cities: Brisbane and Curitiba. Findings revealed that exploring four new aspects in the Development and Deliver Stages of a service design framework for public libraries can be an effective tool to enhance people"s access and experiences of Design, and ultimately, it can contribute to the democratisation of design.

A novel concept for airport terminal design integrating flexibility

The current research proposed a conceptual design framework for airports to obtain flexible departure layouts based on passenger activity analysis obtained from Business Process Models (BPM). BPMs available for airport terminals were used as a design tool in the current research to uncover the relationships existing between spatial layout and corresponding passenger activities. An algorithm has been developed that demonstrates the applicability of the proposed design framework by obtaining relative spatial layouts based on passenger activity analysis. The generated relative spatial layout assists architects in achieving suitable alternative layouts to meet the changing needs of an airport terminal.

Expert elicitation and its interface with technology : a review with a view to designing Elicitator

Expert knowledge is valuable in many modelling endeavours, particularly where data is not extensive or sufficiently robust. In Bayesian statistics, expert opinion may be formulated as informative priors, to provide an honest reflection of the current state of knowledge, before updating this with new information. Technology is increasingly being exploited to help support the process of eliciting such information. This paper reviews the benefits that have been gained from utilizing technology in this way. These benefits can be structured within a six-step elicitation design framework proposed recently (Low Choy et al., 2009). We assume that the purpose of elicitation is to formulate a Bayesian statistical prior, either to provide a standalone expert-defined model, or for updating new data within a Bayesian analysis. We also assume that the model has been pre-specified before selecting the software. In this case, technology has the most to offer to: targeting what experts know (E2), eliciting and encoding expert opinions (E4), whilst enhancing accuracy (E5), and providing an effective and efficient protocol (E6). Benefits include: -providing an environment with familiar nuances (to make the expert comfortable) where experts can explore their knowledge from various perspectives (E2); -automating tedious or repetitive tasks, thereby minimizing calculation errors, as well as encouraging interaction between elicitors and experts (E5); -cognitive gains by educating users, enabling instant feedback (E2, E4-E5), and providing alternative methods of communicating assessments and feedback information, since experts think and learn differently; and -ensuring a repeatable and transparent protocol is used (E6).

Orientation passport : using gamification to engage university students

Adding game elements to an application to motivate use and enhance the user experience is a growing trend known as gamification. This study explores the use of game achievements when applied to a mobile application designed to help new students at university. This paper describes the foundations of a design framework used to integrate game elements to Orientation Passport, a personalised orientation event application for smart phones. Orientation Passport utilises game achievements to present orientation information in an engaging way and to encourage use of the application. The system is explained in terms of the design framework, and the findings of a pilot study involving 26 new students are presented. This study contributes the foundations of a design framework for general gamified achievement design. It also suggests that added game elements can be enjoyable but can potentially encourage undesirable use by some, and aren't as enjoyable if not enforced properly by the technology. Consideration is also needed when enforcing stricter game rules as usability can be affected.

A sustainable tourism development in Alacati, Turkey : (Re)invention of public space with clean energy

Although there is an increasing recognition of the impacts of climate change on communities, residents often resist changing their lifestyle to reduce the effects of the problem. By using a landscape architectural design medium, this paper argues that public space, when designed as an ecological system, has the capacity to create social and environmental change and to increase the quality of the human environment. At the same time, this ecological system can engage residents, enrich the local economy, and increase the social network. Through methods of design, research and case study analysis, an alternative master plan is proposed for a sustainable tourism development in Alacati, Turkey. Our master plan uses local geographical, economic and social information within a sustainable landscape architectural design scheme that addresses the key issues of ecology, employment, public space and community cohesion. A preliminary community empowerment model (CEM) is proposed to manage the designs. The designs address: the coexistence of local agricultural and sustainable energy generation; state of the art water management; and the functional and sustainable social and economic interrelationship of inhabitants, NGOs, and local government.

Using real-time authentic online learning scenarios to teach criminal intelligence

Criminal intelligence is an area of expertise highly sought-after internationally and within a variety of justice-related professions; however, producing university graduates with the requisite professional knowledge, as well as analytical, organisational and technical skills presents a pedagogical and technical challenge to university educators. The situation becomes even more challenging when students are undertaking their studies by distance education. This best practice session showcases the design of an online undergraduate unit for final year justice students which uses an evolving real-time criminal scenario as the focus of authentic learning activities in order to prepare students for graduate roles within the criminal intelligence and justice professions. Within the unit, students take on the role of criminal intelligence analysts, applying relevant theories, models and strategies to solve a complex but realistic crime and complete briefings and documentation to industry standards as their major summative assessment task. The session will demonstrate how the design of the online unit corresponds to authentic learning principles, and will specifically map the elements of the unit design to Herrington & Oliver’s instructional design framework for authentic learning (2000; Herrington & Herrington 2006). The session will show how a range of technologies was used to create a rich learning experience for students that could be easily maintained over multiple unit iterations without specialist technical support. The session will also discuss the unique pedagogical affordances and challenges implicated in the location of the unit within an online learning environment, and will reflect on some of the lessons learned from the development which may be relevant to other authentic online learning contexts.

Using real-time authentic online learning scenarios to teach criminal intelligence : presentation

Criminal intelligence is an area of expertise highly sought-after internationally and within a variety of justice-related professions; however, producing university graduates with the requisite professional knowledge, as well as analytical, organisational and technical skills presents a pedagogical and technical challenge to university educators. The situation becomes even more challenging when students are undertaking their studies by distance education. This best practice session showcases the design of an online undergraduate unit for final year justice students which uses an evolving real-time criminal scenario as the focus of authentic learning activities in order to prepare students for graduate roles within the criminal intelligence and justice professions. Within the unit, students take on the role of criminal intelligence analysts, applying relevant theories, models and strategies to solve a complex but realistic crime and complete briefings and documentation to industry standards as their major summative assessment task. The session will demonstrate how the design of the online unit corresponds to authentic learning principles, and will specifically map the elements of the unit design to Herrington & Oliver’s instructional design framework for authentic learning (2000; Herrington & Herrington 2006). The session will show how a range of technologies was used to create a rich learning experience for students that could be easily maintained over multiple unit iterations without specialist technical support. The session will also discuss the unique pedagogical affordances and challenges implicated in the location of the unit within an online learning environment, and will reflect on some of the lessons learned from the development which may be relevant to other authentic online learning contexts.

A sustainable tourism development in Alacati, Turkey: (Re) invention of public space with clean energy

Although there is an increasing recognition of the impacts of climate change on communities, residents often resist changing their lifestyle to reduce the effects of the problem. By using a landscape architectural design medium, this paper argues that public space, when designed as an ecological system, has the capacity to create social and environmental change and to increase the quality of the human environment. At the same time, this ecological system can engage residents, enrich the local economy, and increase the social network. Through methods of design, research and case study analysis, an alternative master plan is proposed for a sustainable tourism development in Alacati, Turkey. Our master plan uses local geographical, economic and social information within a sustainable landscape architectural design scheme that addresses the key issues of ecology, employment, public space and community cohesion. A preliminary community empowerment model (CEM) is proposed to manage the designs. The designs address: the coexistence of local agricultural and sustainable energy generation; state of the art water management; and the functional and sustainable social and economic interrelationship of inhabitants, NGOs, and local government.

State-of-the-art : track degradation at bridge transitions

Transition zones between bridge decks and rail tracks suffer early failure due to poor interaction between rail vehicles and sudden changes of stiffness. This has been an ongoing problem to rail industry and yet still no systematic studies appear to have been taken to maintain a gradually smoothening transmission of forces between the bridge and its approach. Differential settlement between the bridge deck and rail track in the transition zone is the fundamental issue, which negatively impacts the rail industry by causing passenger discomfort, early damage to infrastructure and vehicle components, speed reduction, and frequent maintenance cycles. Identification of mechanism of the track degradation and factors affecting is imperative to design any mitigation method for reducing track degradation rate at the bridge transition zone. Unfortunately this issue is still not well understood, after conducting a numbers of reviews to evaluate the key causes, and introducing a wide range of mitigation techniques. In this study, a comprehensive analysis of the available literature has been carried out to develop either a novel design framework or a mitigation technique for the bridge transition zone. This paper addresses three critical questions in relation to the track degradation at transition zone: (1) what are the causes of bridge transition track degradation?; (2) what are the available mitigation techniques in reducing the track degradation rate?; (3) what are the factors affecting on poor performance of the existing mitigation techniques?. It is found that the absence of soil-water response, dynamic loading response, and behaviour of geotechnical characteristics under long-term conditions in existing track transition design frameworks critically influence on the failures of existing mitigation techniques. This paper also evaluates some of the existing design frameworks to identify how each design framework addresses the track degradation at the bridge transition zone.