Robots and humans as co-workers? The human-centred perspective of work with autonomous systems

The design of work organisation systems with automated equipment is facing new challenges and the emergence of new concepts. The social aspects that are related with new concepts on the complex work environments (CWE) are becoming more relevant for that design. The work with autonomous systems implies options in the design of workplaces. Especially that happens in such complex environments. The concepts of “agents”, “co-working” or “human-centred technical systems” reveal new dimensions related to human-computer interaction (HCI). With an increase in the number and complexity of those human-technology interfaces, the capacities of human intervention can become limited, originating further problems. The case of robotics is used to exemplify the issues related with automation in working environments and the emergence of new HCI approaches that would include social implications. We conclude that studies on technology assessment of industrial robotics and autonomous agents on manufacturing environment should also focus on the human involvement strategies in organisations. A needed participatory strategy implies a new approach to workplaces design. This means that the research focus must be on the relation between technology and social dimensions not as separate entities, but integrated in the design of an interaction system.

Child-centred design supported by comprehensive child application use analysis

Since children already use and explore applications on smartphones, we use this as the starting point for design. Our monitoring and analysis framework, BaranC, enables us to discover and analyse which applications children uses and precisely how they interact with them. The monitoring happens unobtrusively in the background so children interact normally in their own natural environment without artificial constraints. Thus, we can discover to what extent a child of a particular age engages with, and how they physically interact with, existing applications. This information in turn provides the basis for design of new child-centred applications which can then be subject to the same comprehensive child use analysis using our framework. The work focuses on the first aspect, namely, the monitoring and analysis of current child use of smartphones. Experiments show the value of this approach and interesting results have been obtained from this precise monitoring of child smartphone usage.

Examining human-centered design practice in the mobile apps era

Human-Centered Design (HCD) is a well-recognized approach to the design of interactive computing systems that supports everyday and professional lives of people. To that end, the HCD approach put central emphasis on the explicit understanding of users and context of use by involving users throughout the entire design and development process. With mobile computing, the diversity of users as well as the variety in the spatial, temporal, and social settings of the context of use has notably expanded, which affect the effort of interaction designers to understand users and context of use. The emergence of the mobile apps era in 2008 as a result of structural changes in the mobile industry and the profound enhanced capabilities of mobile devices, further intensify the embeddedness of technology in the daily life of people and the challenges that interaction designers face to cost-efficiently understand users and context of use. Supporting interaction designers in this challenge requires understanding of their existing practice, rationality, and work environment. The main objective of this dissertation is to contribute to interaction design theories by generating understanding on the HCD practice of mobile systems in the mobile apps era, as well as to explain the rationality of interaction designers in attending to users and context of use. To achieve that, a literature study is carried out, followed by a mixed-methods research that combines multiple qualitative interview studies and a quantitative questionnaire study. The dissertation contributes new insights regarding the evolving HCD practice at an important time of transition from stationary computing to mobile computing. Firstly, a gap is identified between interaction design as practiced in research and in the industry regarding the involvement of users in context; whereas the utilization of field evaluations, i.e. in real-life environments, has become more common in academic projects, interaction designers in the industry still rely, by large, on lab evaluations. Secondly, the findings indicate on new aspects that can explain this gap and the rationality of interaction designers in the industry in attending to users and context; essentially, the professional-client relationship was found to inhibit the involvement of users, while the mental distance between practitioners and users as well as the perceived innovativeness of the designed system are suggested in explaining the inclination to study users in situ. Thirdly, the research contributes the first explanatory model on the relation between the organizational context and HCD; essentially, innovation-focused organizational strategies greatly affect the cost-effective usage of data on users and context of use. Last, the findings suggest a change in the nature of HCD in the mobile apps era, at least with universal consumer systems; evidently, the central attention on the explicit understanding of users and context of use shifts from an early requirements phase and continual activities during design and development to follow-up activities. That is, the main effort to understand users is by collecting data on their actual usage of the system, either before or after the system is deployed. The findings inform both researchers and practitioners in interaction design. In particular, the dissertation suggest on action research as a useful approach to support interaction designers and further inform theories on interaction design. With regard to the interaction design practice, the dissertation highlights strategies that encourage a more cost-effective user- and context-informed interaction design process. With the continual embeddedness of computing into people’s life, e.g. with wearable devices and connected car systems, the dissertation provides a timely and valuable view on the evolving humancentered design.

Human factors design of automated highway systems: first generation scenarios. Final report.

Federal Highway Administration, Office of Safety and Traffic Operations Research and Development, McLean, Va.

Human factors design standards for the fleet ballistic missile weapon system.

At head of title: NAVWEPS OD 18413A.

Process integration and improvement using systemic diagrams and a human-centred approach

If product cycle time reduction is the mission, and the multifunctional team is the means of achieving the mission, what then is the modus operandi by which this means is to accomplish its mission? This paper asserts that a preferred modus operandi for the multifunctional team is to adopt a process-oriented view of the manufacturing enterprise, and for this it needs the medium of a process map [16] The substance of this paper is a methodology which enables the creation of such maps Specific examples of process models drawn from the product develop ment life cycle are presented and described in order to support the methodology's integrity and value The specific deliverables we have so far obtained are a methodology for process capture and analysis, a collection of process models spanning the product development cycle, and, an engineering handbook which hosts these models and presents a computer-based means of navigating through these processes in order to allow users a better understanding of the nature of the business, their role in it, and why the job that they do benefits the work of the company We assert that this kind of thinking is the essence of concurrent engineering implementation, and further that the systemigram process models uniquely stim ulate and organise such thinking.

GiveMe Shelter: a people-centred design process for promoting independent inquiry-led learning in engineering

It has become increasingly common for tasks traditionally carried out by engineers to be undertaken by technicians and technologist with access to sophisticated computers and software that can often perform complex calculations that were previously the responsibility of engineers. Not surprisingly, this development raises serious questions about the future role of engineers and the education needed to address these changes in technology as well as emerging priorities from societal to environmental challenges. In response to these challenges, a new design module was created for undergraduate engineering students to design and build temporary shelters for a wide variety of end users from refugees, to the homeless and children. Even though the module provided guidance on principles of design thinking and methods for observing users needs through field studies, the students found it difficult to respond to needs of specific end users but instead focused more on purely technical issues.

Chicken Run: A Chicken-Centred Design Research Project

Chicken Run, an experimental project still in development, sees designers and scientists working together to explore ideas to improve poultry welfare in commercial facilities, applying user-centred design to all key stakeholders: farmer, consumer and chicken. Exploring various aspects of the chicken’s journey from egg to plate, the process has allowed researchers to better understand their needs and to maximise joined-up positive impact. The paper describes the ongoing process where Initial proposals including perches, bales and an app to enable consumers to make the right chicken purchase choices have been developed and tested. Co-authored by leaders of the design and scientific communities involved in the project, the paper describes the issues, design methods used, as well as some of the learning from the cross-disciplinary process. It also provides an update on progress of selected design ideas that are currently being developed with a commercial poultry farm, drawing out the challenges and successes encountered.

Evaluation of Auditory Displays Supporting Aircraft Approach and Landing

Abstract: The paper describes an auditory interface using directional sound as a possible support for pilots during approach in an instrument landing scenario. Several ways of producing directional sounds are illustrated. One using speaker pairs and controlling power distribution between speakers is evaluated experimentally. Results show, that power alone is insufficient for positioning single isolated sound events, although discrimination in the horizontal plane performs better than in the vertical. Additional sound parameters to compensate for this are proposed.

Pequenas deficiências, deficientes profundos

Design para a deficiência, Design de reabilitação, Accessible Design, human-centred Design, usar-centred Design, Design Universal, Design para todos, Design Inclusivo – estes termos têm, ao longo dos últimos trinta anos, vindo a caracterizar uma tendência na abordagem do Design que passou de tentar compreender os problemas de acessibilidade em design a pessoas com deficiência e definir estratégias para aumentar a sua usabilidade (Vanderheiden & Vanderheiden, 1992) para a necessidade de compreender a forma como os produtos excluem utilizadores e procurar formas de eliminar essa exclusão e assim produzir produtos e serviços mais acessíveis. É um movimento que busca centrar o Design na pessoa humana, procurando incluir todos.

Nòmasi: un servizio per nuove comunità nomadi sinergiche e cooperative.

Lo scenario contemporaneo con il dirompente progresso tecnologico, i considerevoli mutamenti socio-sanitari post-pandemici, politici e culturali in atto è pervaso dall’impellente esigenza di ricercare e sperimentare stili di vita alternativi, più liberi e autonomi. Il nomadismo è un fenomeno in crescente aumento. Alla base del nomadismo riscontriamo tematiche trasversali quali la semplicità volontaria e il minimalismo, una maggiore capacità di ascolto e di attenzione verso il prossimo, queste si pongono in opposizione ai condizionamenti sociali e all’omologazione che caratterizzano lo scenario contemporaneo. La ricerca di tesi pone le basi sulla comprensione del nomadismo nella storia dell’evoluzione umana, degli aspetti socio-culturali e antropologici della figura nomade, dell’evoluzione dell’architettura mobile e infine trattando il recente fenomeno dei nomadi digitali. Il progetto di servizio è il risultato dell’applicazione delle metodologie del Service Design, di Design Thinking e di Human Centred Design applicate all’ambito di ricerca degli stili di vita nomadi. Nòmasi si propone come un servizio per nuove comunità nomadi sinergiche e cooperative. Con il seguente progetto di servizio si propone di soddisfare, in maniera innovativa, i bisogni emersi durante la fase di ricerca a sostegno di stili di vita che spesso vengono ritenuti marginali ed erroneamente associati a scenari di degrado, poichè distanti dalle dinamiche di incasellamento sociale caratteristiche della società stanziale. Nòmasi consiste in una rete di orti sinergici radicata in maniera diffusa sul territorio Italiano che permetta, attraverso le tecniche di coltura sinergica e la conversione del tempo dedicato a questi spazi in monete virtuali, di aumentare l’autonomia alimentare degli utenti creando sinergia tra gli utenti. L’elaborato di tesi si conclude con la definizione dei touchpoint, stabilendo il funzionamento della piattaforma digitale e l’interazioni degli attori.

Human performance modelling as an aid in the process of manufacturing system design

Manufacturing system design is an ongoing activity within industry. Modelling tools based on Discrete Event Simulation are often used by practitioners during this design cycle. However, such tools do not adequately model the behaviour of 'direct' workers in manufacturing environments. There is an important need to expand the capability of modelling to include the relationships between human centred factors (demography, attitudes, beliefs, etc), their working environment (physical and organizational), and their subsequent performance in terms of productive routines. Therefore, this paper describes research that has formed a pilot modelling methodology that is an important first step in providing such a capability.

User interface design support for the development of knowledge-based systems

The present scarcity of operational knowledge-based systems (KBS) has been attributed, in part, to an inadequate consideration shown to user interface design during development. From a human factors perspective the problem has stemmed from an overall lack of user-centred design principles. Consequently the integration of human factors principles and techniques is seen as a necessary and important precursor to ensuring the implementation of KBS which are useful to, and usable by, the end-users for whom they are intended. Focussing upon KBS work taking place within commercial and industrial environments, this research set out to assess both the extent to which human factors support was presently being utilised within development, and the future path for human factors integration. The assessment consisted of interviews conducted with a number of commercial and industrial organisations involved in KBS development; and a set of three detailed case studies of individual KBS projects. Two of the studies were carried out within a collaborative Alvey project, involving the Interdisciplinary Higher Degrees Scheme (IHD) at the University of Aston in Birmingham, BIS Applied Systems Ltd (BIS), and the British Steel Corporation. This project, which had provided the initial basis and funding for the research, was concerned with the application of KBS to the design of commercial data processing (DP) systems. The third study stemmed from involvement on a KBS project being carried out by the Technology Division of the Trustees Saving Bank Group plc. The preliminary research highlighted poor human factors integration. In particular, there was a lack of early consideration of end-user requirements definition and user-centred evaluation. Instead concentration was given to the construction of the knowledge base and prototype evaluation with the expert(s). In response to this identified problem, a set of methods was developed that was aimed at encouraging developers to consider user interface requirements early on in a project. These methods were then applied in the two further projects, and their uptake within the overall development process was monitored. Experience from the two studies demonstrated that early consideration of user interface requirements was both feasible, and instructive for guiding future development work. In particular, it was shown a user interface prototype could be used as a basis for capturing requirements at the functional (task) level, and at the interface dialogue level. Extrapolating from this experience, a KBS life-cycle model is proposed which incorporates user interface design (and within that, user evaluation) as a largely parallel, rather than subsequent, activity to knowledge base construction. Further to this, there is a discussion of several key elements which can be seen as inhibiting the integration of human factors within KBS development. These elements stem from characteristics of present KBS development practice; from constraints within the commercial and industrial development environments; and from the state of existing human factors support.