The user-value of rural electrification: An analysis and adoption of existing models and theories

User-value is a determining factor for product acceptance in product design. Research on rural electrification to date, however, does not draw sufficient attention to the importance of user-value with regard to the overall success of a project. This is evident from the analysis of project reports and applicable indicators from agencies active in the sector. Learning from the design, psychology and sociology literatures, it is important that rural electrification projects incorporate the value perception of the end-user and extend their success beyond the commonly used criteria of financial value, the appropriateness of the technology, capacity building and technology uptake. Creating value for the end-user is particularly important for project acceptance and the sustainability of a scheme once it has been handed over to the local community. In this research paper, existing theories and models of value-theory are transposed and applied to community operated rural electrification schemes and a user-value framework is developed. Furthermore, the importance of value to the end-user is clarified. Current literature on product design reveals that user-value has different properties, many of which are applicable to rural electrification. Five value pillars and their sub-categories important for the users of rural electrification projects are identified, namely: functional; social significance; epistemic; emotional; and cultural values. These pillars provide the main structure for the conceptual framework developed in this research paper. It is proposed that by targeting the values of the end-user, the key factors of user-value applicable to rural electrification projects will be identified and the sustainability of the project will be better ensured. © 2014 The Authors.

概念设计中基于笔式手势的交互计算研究

基于笔式手势的自然交互是支持概念设计创新的有效方式.提出了一种笔式手势的层次概念模型,结合基于约束的自由勾画和上下文感知技术描述了手势设计方式,进一步讨论了手势内部的约束建立和求解算法;基于手势应用的范式,给出了概念设计中特征手势建模的应用实例,通过与传统建模和交互方式的对比,验证了特征手势建模的方便性.给出一个自然、高效的方法,以基于手势的方式来完成概念设计构思过程,采用笔式交互快速自然地记录下设计思路,所实现的系统方便了用户的创新设计,改善了人机交互模式.

以用户为中心的场景设计方法研究

图形用户界面(GUI)的可用性在于给用户的任务提供了有用的图形表示和操作,以使用户无须分心于那些不必要的交互和领域特征.然而,当前的GUI设计通常反映了系统的状态和操作,迫使人们学习和适应预定义的系统任务.以用户为中心的GUI设计旨在提高系统可用性,但是众多的以用户为中心的设计研究只给出一些设计准则和经验性的方法,缺乏对实际软件设计的可操作指导.基于场景的设计是GUI设计的有效方法,然而,场景本身并没给出好的实现以用户为中心设计的方法.该文在研究以用户为中心的设计和基于场景的设计的基础上,提出一种以用户为中心的场景设计方法,力图给出一种提高GUI可用性的更有效的方法.该方法的核心是:用场景描述方式来体现用户为中心的设计思想,并将其贯穿到系统开发的各个阶段,真正实现从用户的角度设计系统.最后以ATM机的界面设计为例说明使用该方法进行设计的有效性.

基于手势和草图的概念设计协同交互的研究

基于手势和草图的交互模式提供了一种自然和谐的方式来支持概念设计协同操作,促进协同工作系统的发展与应用.基于以用户为中心的设计,比较了不同方式的概念设计过程,提出了基于手势和草图的协同设计方法,进一步讨论了以草图为设计过程中的信息载体,分析了草图信息模型;基于手势操作,提出了协同上下文感知的概念和协同设计上下文描述模型;最后分析并给出面向同步编辑的草图交互设计和双向约束求解方法.所提出的协同设计方法自然简便,提高了设计效率,改善了人机交互方式.

基于手绘草图的概念设计工具研究与设计

从认知心理学的角度,研究了概念设计的过程,探讨性地指出辅助设计工具应当以灵感为中心。阐述了适合概念设计过程的新的设计方法和交互技术,并介绍了基于手势的草图技术及新一代交互范式———PIBG交互范式。全面分析了约束捕捉、约束求解等关键问题,最后在此基础上给出智能图板系统的设计与实现,为用户提供了一种自然和谐的界面。

四坐标位姿测量仪设计研究与误差分析

四坐标位姿测量仪是针对某轻型汽车底盘前悬置横梁上四孔位姿测量而设计的新型仪器·该测量仪以六自由度并联机构作为执行机构 ,能够迅速准确地到达被测孔的实际位置 ,测量头具有对非测量参数误差的自适应和自调整能力·采用比较法实现参数测量·该机构结构新颖 ,测量效率高·系统分析研究了各因素造成的测量误差 ,指出了减小测量误差的措施 ,从而为精确设计测量仪提供了可靠依据·

MyRoom: A user-centred model of affective responsive architecture

Can my immediate physical environment affect how I feel? The instinctive answer to this question must be a resounding “yes”. What might seem a throwaway remark is increasingly borne out by research in environmental and behavioural psychology, and in the more recent discipline of Evidence-Based Design. Research outcomes are beginning to converge with findings in neuroscience and neurophysiology, as we discover more about how the human brain and body functions, and reacts to environmental stimuli. What we see, hear, touch, and sense affects each of us psychologically and, by extension, physically, on a continual basis. The physical characteristics of our daily environment thus have the capacity to profoundly affect all aspects of our functioning, from biological systems to cognitive ability. This has long been understood on an intuitive basis, and utilised on a more conscious basis by architects and other designers. Recent research in evidence-based design, coupled with advances in neurophysiology, confirm what have been previously held as commonalities, but also illuminate an almost frightening potential to do enormous good, or alternatively, terrible harm, by virtue of how we make our everyday surroundings. The thesis adopts a design methodology in its approach to exploring the potential use of wireless sensor networks in environments for elderly people. Vitruvian principles of “commodity, firmness and delight” inform the research process and become embedded in the final design proposals and research conclusions. The issue of person-environment fit becomes a key principle in describing a model of continuously-evolving responsive architecture which makes the individual user its focus, with the intention of promoting wellbeing. The key research questions are: What are the key system characteristics of an adaptive therapeutic single-room environment? How can embedded technologies be utilised to maximise the adaptive and therapeutic aspects of the personal life-space of an elderly person with dementia?.

Achieving continuous professional development in higher education

Traditional higher education technology emphasizes knowledge transmission. In contrast, the Community platform presented in this paper follows a social approach that interleaves knowledge delivery with social and professional skills development, engaging with others, and personal growth. In this paper, we apply learning and complex adaptive systems theory to motivate and justify a continuous professional development model that improves higher education outcomes such as placement. The paper follows action design research (ADR) as the research method to propose and evaluate design principles.

Qualitative analysis of the interdisciplinary interaction between data analysis specialists and novice clinical researchers.

BACKGROUND: The inherent complexity of statistical methods and clinical phenomena compel researchers with diverse domains of expertise to work in interdisciplinary teams, where none of them have a complete knowledge in their counterpart's field. As a result, knowledge exchange may often be characterized by miscommunication leading to misinterpretation, ultimately resulting in errors in research and even clinical practice. Though communication has a central role in interdisciplinary collaboration and since miscommunication can have a negative impact on research processes, to the best of our knowledge, no study has yet explored how data analysis specialists and clinical researchers communicate over time. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We conducted qualitative analysis of encounters between clinical researchers and data analysis specialists (epidemiologist, clinical epidemiologist, and data mining specialist). These encounters were recorded and systematically analyzed using a grounded theory methodology for extraction of emerging themes, followed by data triangulation and analysis of negative cases for validation. A policy analysis was then performed using a system dynamics methodology looking for potential interventions to improve this process. Four major emerging themes were found. Definitions using lay language were frequently employed as a way to bridge the language gap between the specialties. Thought experiments presented a series of "what if" situations that helped clarify how the method or information from the other field would behave, if exposed to alternative situations, ultimately aiding in explaining their main objective. Metaphors and analogies were used to translate concepts across fields, from the unfamiliar to the familiar. Prolepsis was used to anticipate study outcomes, thus helping specialists understand the current context based on an understanding of their final goal. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: The communication between clinical researchers and data analysis specialists presents multiple challenges that can lead to errors.

Preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis protocols (PRISMA-P) 2015: elaboration and explanation

Protocols of systematic reviews and meta-analyses allow for planning and documentation of review methods, act as a guard against arbitrary decision making during review conduct, enable readers to assess for the presence of selective reporting against completed reviews, and, when made publicly available, reduce duplication of efforts and potentially prompt collaboration. Evidence documenting the existence of selective reporting and excessive duplication of reviews on the same or similar topics is accumulating and many calls have been made in support of the documentation and public availability of review protocols. Several efforts have emerged in recent years to rectify these problems, including development of an international register for prospective reviews (PROSPERO) and launch of the first open access journal dedicated to the exclusive publication of systematic review products, including protocols (BioMed Central's Systematic Reviews). Furthering these efforts and building on the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses) guidelines, an international group of experts has created a guideline to improve the transparency, accuracy, completeness, and frequency of documented systematic review and meta-analysis protocols--PRISMA-P (for protocols) 2015. The PRISMA-P checklist contains 17 items considered to be essential and minimum components of a systematic review or meta-analysis protocol.This PRISMA-P 2015 Explanation and Elaboration paper provides readers with a full understanding of and evidence about the necessity of each item as well as a model example from an existing published protocol. This paper should be read together with the PRISMA-P 2015 statement. Systematic review authors and assessors are strongly encouraged to make use of PRISMA-P when drafting and appraising review protocols.

O designer como intérprete de cenários de equipamentos

Esta dissertação pretende contribuir para a investigação em design, validando a interpretação como método em design aplicada a meta-projectos de cenários de equipamentos no século XXI. A análise e a avaliação dos dois conceitos - interpretação e cenário - como reflexo da maneira de pensar da contemporaneidade são a base para a estruturação de um meta-projecto aplicado na epiderme da cidade, sustentado pela metodologia projectual da hermenêutica e pela competência da semiótica. Este projecto de investigação organiza-se em duas partes; cada uma desenvolvida ao longo de três capítulos. No primeiro capítulo da primeira parte averigua-se o relacionamento entre a metodologia projectual aplicada por projectistas, desde o séc. XVII até aos nossos dias, e o pensamento filosófico para fundamentar a interpretação como método em design. No segundo capítulo analisa-se o cenário enquanto superfície vertical da cidade definida por um sistema de equipamentos. Por um lado, verifica-se que o equipamento ( équipement , Le Corbusier) é a proposta de ordem construtiva dos anos 20 e que a pattern ( pattern language , Alexander) é a ordem construtiva a partir dos anos 70. Por outro lado, averigua-se que hoje a superfície da cidade é constituída por várias camadas e que a camada superior é a epiderme. Enquanto película de sistema de patterns, a epiderme revela-se apta a deixar-se afectar pela mudança e, consequentemente, a ser trabalhada pelo design. O terceiro capítulo analisa a história da cultura da superfície dos edifícios no contexto ocidental, da Grécia Clássica aos nossos dias, para interpretar a proposta do design da epiderme. Para caracterizar a complexidade do período compreendido entre a acção metodológica de Le Corbusier nos anos 20 e o séc. XXI são comentados cinco momentos temáticos distintos. No primeiro capítulo da segunda parte escolhe-se o exercício do meta-projecto como instrumento de reflexão projectual dialéctico, definidor de uma metodologia projectual. O meta-projecto é analisado na realidade ocidental diacrónica e sincronicamente para fundamentar o conceito de junkspace como nova ordem. Neste sentido, são interpretados conceitos relativos à vivência urbana, reivindicando-lhes uma nova existência: a iluminação, a zona verde como pulmão da cidade, a energia interpretada como competência do cenário envolvente e o junkspace como nova ordem arquitectónica. No segundo capítulo define-se uma estratégia meta-projectual narrativa aplicada ao projecto da epiderme da cidade, destacando a particular importância do relacionamento entre a investigação em design e as empresas como fonte de inovação e de conhecimento. O terceiro capítulo defende um exercício experimental na área do projecto da epiderme dos edifícios como uma oportunidade para desenvolver diferentes propostas, partindo do mesmo brief. São apresentados resultados dos workshops inter-disciplinares entre o contexto académico e a realidade empresarial que alimentam o meta-projecto enquanto processo dialéctico, contínuo e inovador. Conclui-se com o argumento de que o design é uma disciplina com uma participação fundamental na valorização e na transformação das cidades do século XXI.

A Designer’s Approach: Exploring how Autistic Adults with Additional Learning Disabilities Experience their Home Environment

Autistic adults with limited speech and additional learning disabilities are people whose perceptions and interactions with their environment are unique, but whose experiences are under-explored in design research. This PhD by Practice investigates how people with autism experience their home environment through a collaboration with the autism charity Kingwood Trust, which gave the designer extensive access to a community of autistic adults that it supports. The PhD reflects upon a neurotypical designer’s approach to working with autistic adults to investigate their relationship with the environment. It identifies and develops collaborative design tools for autistic adults, their support staff and family members to be involved. The PhD presents three design studies that explore a person’s interaction with three environmental contexts of the home i.e. garden, everyday objects and interiors. A strengths-based rather than a deficit-based approach is adopted which draws upon an autistic person’s sensory preferences, special interests and action capabilities, to unravel what discomfort and delight might mean for an autistic person; this approach is translated into three design solutions to enhance their experience at home. By working beyond the boundaries of a neurotypical culture, the PhD bridges the autistic and neurotypical worlds of experience and draws upon what the mainstream design field can learn from designing with autistic people with additional learning disabilities. It also provides insights into the subjective experiences of people who have very different ways of seeing, doing and being in the environment

‘To see at one glance all the centuries that have passed’ - early visualisations of historical time

This chapter focuses on the visualisation of historical time, illustrated by key examples from the eighteenth century when the modern timeline was invented. We are fortunate in having not only surviving examples of printed timelines from the period but also explanations written by their makers, revealing the ambitions they had for visualisation. An important divergence is evident, between those who want to use rhetorical visual metaphors to tell a graphical story, and those who prefer to let the data ‘speak for itself’, allowing patterns to emerge from the distribution of data points across a surface. Keywords: timeline, chronographics