The feasibility of using virtual prototyping technologies for product evaluation

With the continuous development in computer and communications technology the use of computer aided design in design processes is becoming more commonplace. A wide range of virtual prototyping technologies are currently in development, some of which are commercially viable for use within a product design process. These virtual prototyping technologies range from graphics tablets to haptic devices. With the compression of design cycles the feasibility of using these technologies for product evaluation is becoming an ever more important consideration. This thesis begins by presenting the findings of a comprehensive literature review defining product design with a focus on product evaluation and a discussion of current virtual prototyping technologies. From the literature review it was clear that user involvement in the product evaluation process is critical. The literature review was followed by a series of interconnected studies starting with an investigation into design consultancies' access and use of prototyping technologies and their evaluation methods. Although design consultancies are already using photo-realistic renderings, animations and sometimes 3600 view CAD models for their virtual product evaluations, current virtual prototyping hardware and software is often unsatisfactory for their needs. Some emergent technologies such as haptic interfaces are currently not commonly used in industry. This study was followed by an investigation into users' psychological acceptance and physiological discomfort when using a variety of virtual prototyping tools for product evaluation compared with using physical prototypes, ranging from on-screen photo-realistic renderings to 3D 3600 view models developed using a range of design software. The third study then went on to explore the feasibility of using these virtual prototyping tools and the effect on product preference when compared to using physical prototypes. The forth study looked at the designer's requirements for current and future virtual prototyping tools, design tools and evaluation methods. In the final chapters of the thesis the relative strengths and weaknesses of these technologies were re-evaluated and a definitive set of user requirements based on the documentary evidence of the previous studies was produced. This was followed by the development of a speculative series of scenarios for the next generation of virtual prototyping technologies ranging from improvements to existing technologies through to blue sky concepts. These scenarios were then evaluated by designers and consumers to produce documentary evidence and recommendations for preferred and suitable combinations of virtual prototyping technologies. Such hardware and software will require a user interface that is intuitive, simple, easy to use and suitable for both the designers who create the virtual prototypes and the consumers who evaluate them

Early assessment of perceived customer value: a case study comparing a low- and high-fidelity prototype in dentistry

Perceived customer value is the measure of how customers perceive the total worth of a product or service. Providing a high perceived value is crucial for businesses to gain a competitive edge over their rivals and ensure long-term success. Prototyping has been shown to be able to measure perceived customer value and effectively collect user feedback early in the process before significant investments are made. However, the effects of prototype fidelity on assessing perceived customer value are yet to be explored. Nevertheless, the fidelity levels of a prototype should be accounted for since they significantly alter the prototype's complexity, appearance, and functionality. This paper explores such effects using a low- and a high-fidelity prototype applied to dentistry. The paper used qualitative and quantitative methods to gather feedback from dental healthcare experts and patients. Our study suggests that both low-and-high fidelity prototypes are suitable for assessing customer value. Furthermore, the fidelity levels complemented each other, improving the overall user feedback

An aesthetics of touch: investigating the language of design relating to form

How well can designers communicate qualities of touch? This paper presents evidence that they have some capability to do so, much of which appears to have been learned, but at present make limited use of such language. Interviews with graduate designer-makers suggest that they are aware of and value the importance of touch and materiality in their work, but lack a vocabulary to fully relate to their detailed explanations of other aspects such as their intent or selection of materials. We believe that more attention should be paid to the verbal dialogue that happens in the design process, particularly as other researchers show that even making-based learning also has a strong verbal element to it. However, verbal language alone does not appear to be adequate for a comprehensive language of touch. Graduate designers-makers’ descriptive practices combined non-verbal manipulation within verbal accounts. We thus argue that haptic vocabularies do not simply describe material qualities, but rather are situated competences that physically demonstrate the presence of haptic qualities. Such competencies are more important than groups of verbal vocabularies in isolation. Design support for developing and extending haptic competences must take this wide range of considerations into account to comprehensively improve designers’ capabilities

Informing Intentional Use of Prototyping in Engineering Design: Context-Specific Novice Approaches and Stakeholder Feedback

Prototypes are essential tools that can be used strategically throughout the design process to increase the likelihood that a product achieves stakeholder needs. Prototyping allows physical or visual form to be given to an idea, and research has shown that prototypes have the potential to support communication and improve product requirements elicitation and design input by enabling stakeholders and designers to engage around a “shared space” – the prototype. Despite the numerous benefits of using prototypes throughout a design process, novice designers often limit their use of prototypes to test and verify a chosen concept during the later phases of their processes. Limited studies to date have investigated novice uses of prototypes during the front-end phases of design and the effects of context, stakeholder type, and prototype type on stakeholder feedback. This research leverages approaches from multiple disciplines to characterize 1) novice designers’ uses of prototypes and 2) the effects of various factors on stakeholder design input during engagement with prototypes. We conducted interviews with engineering design students in different contexts to investigate their use of prototypes. We also developed a prototyping best practice framework to evaluate the intentionality in novice designers’ use of prototypes during design. To deepen our understanding of how prototype type can influence stakeholder feedback, we presented various prototypes of a medical device concept to diverse stakeholders, including medical doctors, medical students and nurses and asked questions to elicit feedback on the design. Research findings indicated that novice designers lacked intentionality when using prototypes. Their prototyping behaviors often occurred unintentionally to satisfy course requirements or as a response to failure or setbacks. Novice designers from different contexts favored different prototype types, and all participants underutilized prototypes, particularly during the front-end phases of design and when engaging with stakeholders. Our results further showed that nuances like prototype type, stakeholder group, and question type influenced the quality of stakeholder feedback. Since variation in prototype type, stakeholder group, and question type had a significant effect on the quality of stakeholder feedback, and since most novice designers did not use prototypes intentionally, our findings point to missed opportunities that likely impact several areas: what novice designers learn about using prototypes, the prototyping practices with which they begin professional practice, and ultimately the human-centered design solutions they create. This research leveraged, and has implications for, engineering design, design education, industrial design, design science, and design research methods. We expect that some of our findings, specifically that 1) novice designers lacked intentionality and underutilized prototypes, and 2) the types of prototypes, stakeholders, and questions influenced stakeholder feedback, are transferable to, and can have a broader impact on, other contexts in which prototypes are used. The fact that novice designers lacked intentionality in prototype use suggests that repeated and reflective practice is needed and informs pedagogical and industrial approaches throughout the engineering education and practice spectrum. We recommend that educators encourage a broader, more frequent use of prototypes during engineering design processes. By doing so, novice designers can develop the knowledge structures necessary to use prototypes intentionally, and intentionally with stakeholders, during design.PHDDesign ScienceUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/144132/1/midei_1.pd

The 1st Advanced Manufacturing Student Conference (AMSC21) Chemnitz, Germany 15–16 July 2021

The Advanced Manufacturing Student Conference (AMSC) represents an educational format designed to foster the acquisition and application of skills related to Research Methods in Engineering Sciences. Participating students are required to write and submit a conference paper and are given the opportunity to present their findings at the conference. The AMSC provides a tremendous opportunity for participants to practice critical skills associated with scientific publication. Conference Proceedings of the conference will benefit readers by providing updates on critical topics and recent progress in the advanced manufacturing engineering and technologies and, at the same time, will aid the transfer of valuable knowledge to the next generation of academics and practitioners. *** The first AMSC Conference Proceeding (AMSC21) addressed the following topics: Advances in “classical” Manufacturing Technologies, Technology and Application of Additive Manufacturing, Digitalization of Industrial Production (Industry 4.0), Advances in the field of Cyber-Physical Systems, Virtual and Augmented Reality Technologies throughout the entire product Life Cycle, Human-machine-environment interaction and Management and life cycle assessment.:- Advances in “classical” Manufacturing Technologies - Technology and Application of Additive Manufacturing - Digitalization of Industrial Production (Industry 4.0) - Advances in the field of Cyber-Physical Systems - Virtual and Augmented Reality Technologies throughout the entire product Life Cycle - Human-machine-environment interaction - Management and life cycle assessmen

ICS Materials. Towards a re-Interpretation of material qualities through interactive, connected, and smart materials.

The domain of materials for design is changing under the influence of an increased technological advancement, miniaturization and democratization. Materials are becoming connected, augmented, computational, interactive, active, responsive, and dynamic. These are ICS Materials, an acronym that stands for Interactive, Connected and Smart. While labs around the world are experimenting with these new materials, there is the need to reflect on their potentials and impact on design. This paper is a first step in this direction: to interpret and describe the qualities of ICS materials, considering their experiential pattern, their expressive sensorial dimension, and their aesthetic of interaction. Through case studies, we analyse and classify these emerging ICS Materials and identified common characteristics, and challenges, e.g. the ability to change over time or their programmability by the designers and users. On that basis, we argue there is the need to reframe and redesign existing models to describe ICS materials, making their qualities emerge

Material Visualisation for Virtual Reality: The Perceptual Investigations

Material representation plays a significant role in design visualisation and evaluation. On one hand, the simulated material properties determine the appearance of product prototypes in digitally rendered scenes. On the other hand, those properties are perceived by the viewers in order to make important design decisions. As an approach to simulate a more realistic environment, Virtual Reality (VR) provides users a vivid impression of depth and embodies them into an immersive environment. However, the scientific understanding of material perception and its applications in VR is still fairly limited. This leads to this thesis’s research question on whether the material perception in VR is different from that in traditional 2D displays, as well as the potential of using VR as a design tool to facilitate material evaluation.       This thesis is initiated from studying the perceptual difference of rendered materials between VR and traditional 2D viewing modes. Firstly, through a pilot study, it is confirmed that users have different perceptual experiences of the same material in the two viewing modes. Following that initial finding, the research investigates in more details the perceptual difference with psychophysics methods, which help in quantifying the users’ perceptual responses. Using the perceptual scale as a measuring means, the research analyses the users’ judgment and recognition of the material properties under VR and traditional 2D display environments. In addition, the research also elicits the perceptual evaluation criteria to analyse the emotional aspects of materials. The six perceptual criteria are in semantic forms, including rigidity, formality, fineness, softness, modernity, and irregularity.       The results showed that VR could support users in making a more refined judgment of material properties. That is to say, the users perceive better the minute changes of material properties under immersive viewing conditions. In terms of emotional aspects, VR is advantageous in signifying the effects induced by visual textures, while the 2D viewing mode is more effective for expressing the characteristics of plain surfaces. This thesis has contributed to the deeper understanding of users’ perception of material appearances in Virtual Reality, which is critical in achieving an effective design visualisation using such a display medium

Evaluating the benefits of product and packaging integration

The success of a company increasingly depends on the efficiency and effectiveness on its activities along the product life cycle. In the effort of optimizing its activities, companies must integrate themselves. Due to the significance packaging has within many of these activities, it is of utmost importance to integrate product and packaging development activities in order to optimize processes. It was shown in previous studies the interest that companies have on putting into practice such integration. Nevertheless, it is not clear either the possible benefits resulting from the implementation of product and packaging integration at an operational level or the appropriate manner to carry out such implementation. Through a multiple case study, several products within mechanical actual industry and which show, at some extent, product and packaging integration, are analyzed. By means of the product cases? analysis, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the advantages that companies gain by changing present activities to the suggested concept. The integration performed by the companies studied will be analyzed and connected to the development procedure model proposed by Bramkiev et al (2005). From the contributing companies? results, this study concludes that integration performance involves noticeable improvements along product life cycle processes. In particular, the distribution costs and the quality of processes in general, are the most benefited aspects by packaging integration. The results emphasize the importance of packaging in logistical activities considering help-in-distribution as maybe the most important characteristic of packaging. It is believed that taking into account earlier in the development process, packaging and other activities requirements, guarantees a more efficient product development reducing the risk of failure and consequent need of redesign. Development procedure models are declared very important tools for the companies in order to facilitate the work and organize activities. All the product development procedures for every case and company have similar structures to each other because even when things are called different the idea is the same. However, packaging development processes do not match that much to a generic model. Packaging integration has shown to be performed in a wide variety of approaches but always resulting on benefits for the companies. The results of the study show a clear support to the model proposed by Bramklev et al (2005); the higher the integration is performed, the higher the benefits are obtained

Designing individualisation of eco information via a user centred design approach

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonThis thesis stemmed from the likely future scenario that the advancement of technologies will enable new ways for information display in everyday life. Following an initial review of existing research related to sustainable behaviour change and emerging technologies, a focus group study was conducted to explore people’s expectations for a ubiquitous eco information device at the point of purchase. It was found that there was a need for eco information provision that resembles eco labelling, but provides information in an interactive manner. This led to the definition of the research aim, which was ‘to encourage sustainable individual consumer behaviour at the point of purchase by proposing the design of eco information individualisation’. A literature review was undertaken to i) identify consumer issues of existing eco labelling practice and opportunities for improvement; ii) investigate the state-of-the-art of the development of various eco information solutions; and iii) explore the opportunities for eco information provision enabled by various contextual technologies. The literature revealed that nowadays consumers are facing difficulties in perceiving and understanding eco labels, and a number of the issues can potentially be tackled using a design approach. This thesis proposed the first conceptual framework of eco information individualisation for designers. ‘Eco information individualisation’ is a concept of tailoring eco labels according to the specific needs of individual users using contextual technologies. With technologies embedded on the product and the user, both of them can act as data carriers and have a traceable record (a ‘life history’). Information can be exchanged ubiquitously. An enabled product can be intelligent enough to appeal to a user with particular preferences. A second focus group study was conducted to evaluate the framework. A card sorting study was carried out to understand user's perception towards information conveyed on existing eco labels to inform the refinement of the framework. A design tool was developed to support designers in the designing of eco information individualisation. The tool was applied and evaluated in a design workshop. A mobile app prototype was then built based on a design output generated from the workshop. Findings from these studies have provided a greater understanding of designing for eco information individualisation, in particular through the creation of the framework, the design tool and the app, as well as the identification of user requirements for eco information design