Decision support system for the long-term city metabolism planning problem

A Decision Support System (DSS) tool for the assessment of intervention strategies (Alternatives) in an Urban Water System (UWS) with an integral simulation model called “WaterMet²” is presented. The DSS permits the user to identify one or more optimal Alternatives over a fixed long-term planning horizon using performance metrics mapped to the TRUST sustainability criteria (Alegre et al., 2012). The DSS exposes lists of in-built intervention options and system performance metrics for the user to compose new Alternatives. The quantitative metrics are calculated by the WaterMet² model and further qualitative or user-defined metrics may be specified by the user or by external tools feeding into the DSS. A Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) approach is employed within the DSS to compare the defined Alternatives and to rank them with respect to a pre-specified weighting scheme for different Scenarios. Two rich, interactive Graphical User Interfaces, one desktop and one web-based, are employed to assist with guiding the end user through the stages of defining the problem, evaluating and ranking Alternatives. This mechanism provides a useful tool for decision makers to compare different strategies for the planning of UWS with respect to multiple Scenarios. The efficacy of the DSS is demonstrated on a northern European case study inspired by a real-life urban water system for a mixture of quantitative and qualitative criteria. The results demonstrate how the DSS, integrated with an UWS modelling approach, can be used to assist planners in meeting their long-term, strategic level sustainability objectives

Anthropometrics without numbers!

(Anthropometrics without Numbers! An Investigation of Designers' Use and Preference of People Data By Nickpour F and Dong H) There is still missing knowledge to encourage and support designers in adoption and implementation of inclusive design. Some of this missing knowledge comes in the form of anthropometric data which provides accessible information on users' capabilities and limitations. Support and resources for designers on this type of data seems to be limited and exclusive. This study focuses on evaluating the existing use of anthropometric data by professional designers, aiming to explore means of presenting such data more effectively. Ten UK-based design consultancies were interviewed and completed questionnaires collecting information on designer’s current use of anthropometric data, their suggestions on presentation of that data and their preferences on data tools. It is concluded that the use of anthropometric data sources by designers is very limited and minimal; experienced designers tend to rely mainly on experimental methods such as physical prototyping and engagement with people. The results provide insights into designers' existing approaches to data collection and use. This study highlights the need for development of a highly visual, simple and intuitive data tool based on the interviewed designers’ preferences and suggestions. This has to be done by carefully adopting the designers’ existing approaches to data collection and use and by adapting existing data into that

Selecting projects in a portfolio using risk and ranking

There are three dimensions in project management: time, cost and performance. Risk is a characteristic related to the previous dimensions and their relationships. A risk equation is proposed based on the nature of the uncertainty associated to each dimension as well as the relationship between the uncertainties. A ranking equation that is able to prioritise projects is proposed and discussed. The problem solved here is which projects to select in a given portfolio of projects. The model is implemented in a group decision support system (GDSS) which can guide decisionmakers in their decision process. However, the system is not intended as a substitution of the decisionmaker task, but merely as an aid. The methodology used is analysis of the equations proposed and trial and error based on examples. This paper’s main contribution is the risk equation and the ranking equation

Semantic Service Substitution in Pervasive Environments

A computing infrastructure where everything is a service offers many new system and application possibilities. Among the main challenges, however, is the issue of service substitution for the application execution in such heterogeneous environments. An application would like to continue to execute even when a service disappears, or it would like to benefit from the environment by using better services with better QoS when possible. In this article, we define a generic service model and describe the equivalence relations between services considering the functionalities they propose and their non functional QoS properties. We define semantic equivalence relations between services and equivalence degree between non functional QoS properties. Using these relations we propose semantic substitution mechanisms upon the appearance and disappearance of services that fits the application needs. We developed a prototype as a proof of concept and evaluated its efficiency over a real use case

Customer perception of switch-feel in luxury sports utility vehicles

Successful new product introduction requires that product characteristics relate to the customer on functional, emotional, aesthetic and cultural levels. As a part of research into automotive human machine interfaces (HMI), this paper describes holistic customer research carried out to investigate how the haptics of switches in luxury sports utility vehicles (SUVs) are perceived by customers. The application of these techniques, including an initial proposal for objective specifications, is addressed within the broader new product introduction context, and benefits described. One-hundred and one customers of SUVs assessed the feel of automotive push switches, completing the tasks both in, and out of vehicles to investigate the effect of context. Using the semantic differential technique, hedonic testing, and content analysis of customers’ verbatim comments, a holistic picture has been built up of what influences the haptic experience. It was found that customers were able to partially discriminate differences in switch-feel, alongside considerations of visual appearance, image, and usability. Three factors named ‘Affective’, ‘Robustness and Precision’, and ‘Silkiness’ explained 61% of the variance in a principle components analysis. Correlations of the factors with acceptance scores were 0.505, 0.371, and 0.168, respectively