Diversity in product familiarity across younger and older adults

This paper reports on the findings of a completed experiment examining levels of familiarity in younger and older adults. Research has shown that older adults use products less intuitively than younger adults, and that familiarity is an essential element of intuitive interaction. This finding influenced the decision to focus on familiarity and to investigate why older adults use products less intuitively than younger adults. By identifying and understanding the differences in familiarity, it is hypothesised that designers will be able to design more usable products for older adults. An empirical study was conducted, investigating the differences in familiarity between younger and older adults with contemporary products. Younger adults demonstrate significantly higher levels of familiarity compared to older adults, and the three groups of older adults demonstrated no significant differences between them. The implications of this finding is discussed.

Grocery product pricing and Australian supermarket consumers : gender differences in perceived importance levels

Grocery shopping is an essential and routine activity. Although long regarded the responsibility of the female spouse, modern social and demographic shifts are causing men to become more engaged in this task. This is the first study to analyse gender differences with respect to the criterion of grocery product price within an Australian supermarket retail environment. A stratified sample of 140 male and 140 female grocery shoppers was surveyed. Results showed that men considered price attributes of products as being significantly lower in importance than did women. Additionally, men displayed lower levels of price nvolvement, reported referencing shelf price to a lesser extent, and gave lesser consideration to promotional tactics focusing on low price. Although men on average buy fewer items than do women, they spend more money for each item they purchase. This higher expenditure per item appears to be driven, at least in part, by a lack of price referencing. This research has implications for gender studies and consumer behaviour disciplines in relation to grocery shopping.

Subjective and Objective Indicators of Recovery in Severe Mental Illness: a Cross-Sectional Study

Background: This study aimed to determine whether subjective dimensions of recovery such as empowerment are associated with self-report of more objective indicators such as level of participation in the community and income from employment. A secondary aim was to investigate the extent to which diagnosis or other consumer characteristics mediated any relationship between these variables. Methods: The Community Integration Measure, the Empowerment Scale, the Recovery Assessment Scale, and the Camberwell Assessment of Needs Short Appraisal Schedule were administered to a convenience sample of 161 consumers with severe mental illness. Results: The majority of participants had a primary diagnosis of schizophreniform, anxiety/depression or bipolar affective disorder. The Empowerment Scale was quite strongly correlated with the Recovery Assessment Scale and the Community Integration Measure. Participants with a diagnosis of bipolar affective disorder had signifi cantly higher recovery and empowerment scores than participants with schizophrenia or depression. Both empowerment and recovery scores were significantly higher for people engaged in paid employment than for those receiving social security benefits. Conclusions: The measurement of subjective dimensions of recovery such as empowerment has validity in evaluation of global recovery for people with severe mental illness. A diagnosis of bipolar disorder is associated with higher scores on subjective and objective indicators of recovery.

Recovery-based practice: do we know what we mean or mean what we know?

The concept of recovery is now widely promoted as the guiding principle for the provision of mental health services in Australia and overseas. While there is increasing pressure on service providers to ensure that services are recovery oriented, the way in which recovery-based practice is operationalized at the coalface presents a number of challenges. These are discussed in the context of five key questions that address (i) the appropriateness of recovery as a focus for service delivery, (ii) the distinction between recovery as a process and an outcome, (iii) the assessment of recovery initiatives, (iv) the alignment of recovery with current service delivery models, and (v) the risks associated with recovery-based practice. It is argued that these questions provide a framework for a debate that must extend beyond patients and providers of mental health services to the broader public, whose attitudes will ultimately determine the possibilities and limits of recovery-oriented practice.

The association between leisure motivation and recovery: A pilot study

Background and aims: Recovery from mental illness may be facilitated by participation in activities that provide meaning and purpose in the lives of consumers. Leisure participation can be a major source of enjoyment as well as mental and physical well-being. Methods and results: This study examined the association between consumers’ motivation to engage in leisure and their self-reported perception of recovery in a sample of 44 Clubhouse members. The Leisure Motivation Scale and the Recovery Assessment Scale were used to measure the association between leisure motivation and recovery. The results indicated a statistically significant association between leisure motivation and recovery. Conclusion: These findings have implications for service delivery within mental health settings, as occupational therapists may be able to design leisure-based programs more effectively if they can understand the needs and motives for participation. More emphasis should be placed on supporting consumers to re-integrate and be socially included within the community through leisure-based initiatives.

Feasibility of using health data sources to inform product safety surveillance in Queensland : a report for the Queensland Injury Prevention Council

This report provides an evaluation of the current available evidence-base for identification and surveillance of product-related injuries in children in Queensland. While the focal population was children in Queensland, the identification of information needs and data sources for product safety surveillance has applicability nationally for all age groups. The report firstly summarises the data needs of product safety regulators regarding product-related injury in children, describing the current sources of information informing product safety policy and practice, and documenting the priority product surveillance areas affecting children which have been a focus over recent years in Queensland. Health data sources in Queensland which have the potential to inform product safety surveillance initiatives were evaluated in terms of their ability to address the information needs of product safety regulators. Patterns in product-related injuries in children were analysed using routinely available health data to identify areas for future intervention, and the patterns in product-related injuries in children identified in health data were compared to those identified by product safety regulators. Recommendations were made for information system improvements and improved access to and utilisation of health data for more proactive approaches to product safety surveillance in the future.

Product labelling can confer sustained increases in expected and actual satiety

Expected satiety has been shown to play a key role in decisions around meal size. Recently it has become clear that these expectations can also influence the satiety that is experienced after a food has been consumed. As such, increasing the expected and actual satiety a food product confers without increasing its caloric content is of importance. In this study we sought to determine whether this could be achieved via product labelling. Female participants (N=75) were given a 223-kcal yoghurt smoothie for lunch. In separate conditions the smoothie was labelled as a diet brand, a highly-satiating brand, or an ‘own brand’ control. Expected satiety was assessed using rating scales and a computer-based ‘method of adjustment’, both prior to consuming the smoothie and 24 hours later. Hunger and fullness were assessed at baseline, immediately after consuming the smoothie, and for a further three hours. Despite the fact that all participants consumed the same food, the smoothie branded as highly-satiating was consistently expected to deliver more satiety than the other ‘brands’; this difference was sustained 24 hours after consumption. Furthermore, post-consumption and over three hours, participants consuming this smoothie reported significantly less hunger and significantly greater fullness. These findings demonstrate that the satiety that a product confers depends in part on information that is present around the time of consumption. We suspect that this process is mediated by changes to expected satiety. These effects may potentially be utilised in the development of successful weight-management products.

Ageing and use of complex product interfaces

This paper presents an experiment designed to investigate if redundancy in an interface has any impact on the use of complex interfaces by older people and people with low prior-experience with technology. The important findings of this study were that older people (65+ years) completed the tasks on the Words only based interface faster than on Redundant (text and symbols) interface. The rest of the participants completed tasks significantly faster on the Redundant interface. From a cognitive processing perspective, sustained attention (one of the functions of Central Executive) has emerged as one of the important factors in completing tasks on complex interfaces faster and with fewer of errors.

Using visuals to explore the contextual aspects of user-product interactions

Experience underlies all kinds of human knowledge and it is dependent on context. People’s experience within a particular context-of-use determines how they interact with products. Methods employed in this research to elicit human experience have included the use of visuals. This paper describes two empirical studies that employed visual representation of concepts as a means to explore the experiential and contextual component of user- product interactions. One study employed visuals that the participants produced during the study. The other employed visuals that the researcher used as prompts during a focus group session. This paper demonstrates that using visuals in design research is valuable for exploring and understanding the contextual aspects of human experience and its influence on people’s concepts of product use.

A human capital framework : designed for convergence

The 21" century business environment is dominated by unprecedented change across a broad spectrum of social, economic, technological and cultural factors (Nowotny, Scott & Gibbons 2001). Among these, two broad trends -economic globalisation and rising knowledge intensity (Hart 2006)have come to distinguish organisational life. Under the weight of these transformational influences, the developed world, it seems, has arrived at a transformational moment. The far-reaching effects of the global financial crisis and its shadowy twin: the threat of a double dip recession, continue to exert an unsteadying influence on global and corporate finances. Growth in developed economies has slumped, share prices have declined, the market value of corporations has slipped and unemployment rates, in the vast majority of developed economies, have risen. Gross domestic product (GDP) growth has retreated from the strong growth experienced in the late 1990s to negative growth in 2009 and a sluggish and unsteady recovery in 2010. In response, the reach of Government in terms of its participation in markets has been extended, bringing with it the need to transition to new governance and regulatory arrangements. Ongoing concerns regarding the pace and sustainability of the recovery remains a front-of-mind concern with bailouts, buybacks, borrowings and BP dominating news services: 'We are witnessing the reweaving of the social, political and economic fabric that binds our planet, with long-term consequences that are as or more profound than those of the industrial era' (Tapscott & Williams 2006, p. 59).

Comparative study of DFSS in product and service innovation

Six sigma has proven itself as a major quality initiative in the last two decades. It is a philosophy which provides a systematic approach to applying numerous tools in the framework of several quality improvement methodologies. The most widely used six sigma methodology is DMAIC, which is best suited for improving existing processes. In order to build quality into the product or service, a proactive approach like Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) is required. This paper provides an overview of DFSS, product innovation, and service innovation. The emphasis is on comparing how DFSS is applied differently in product and service innovation. This paper contributes by analysing the existing literature on DFSS in product and service innovation. The major findings are that the DFSS approach in services and products can be differentiated along the following three dimensions: methodology, characteristics, and technology.

Managing product quality and reliability under new challenges

This paper presents the findings of an investigation of the challenges Australian manufacturers are currently facing. A comprehensive questionnaire survey was conducted among leading Australian manufacturers. This paper reports the main findings of this study. Evidence indicates that product quality and reliability (Q & R) are the main challenges for Australian manufacturers. Design capability and time to market came second. Results show that there is no effective information exchange between the parties involved in production and quality control. Learning from the past mistakes is not proving to have significant effects on improving product quality. The technological innovation speed is high and companies are introducing as many as 5 new products in a year. This technological speed has pressure on the Q & R of new products. To overcome the new challenges, companies need a Q & R improvement model.

A design approach to teaching new product development

The educational unit new product development, taught within the industrial design program at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) introduces the relationship between product design and commercialisation to third year industrial design undergraduate students. In which, they are exposed for the first time to product strategy development aimed at meeting consumer expectations, whilst at the same time achieving corporate objectives. Delivered content such as intellectual property, market opportunities, competitor analysis and investor requirements are taught within the thirteen week semester timeframe. New product development theory is not a new field. However, the design approach to teaching this theory and more importantly how designers can use it in the design process is novel. This paper provides an overview of the curriculum design of this unit as well as its incremental development over the past four year duration period. Student project outcomes and more importantly the process and tools from this unit are also discussed and presented.