Innovation, creativity and new product development: a human central design case study

Innovation as been changing through the years and companies are continuously seeking for enhanced processes to achieve competitive advantage. Innovation is now seen as an open and collaborative process with the entering of different players in the ecosystem. Universities are relevant candidates to change innovation landscape and contribute to the reality of a learning economy. The present work explores a university-industry collaboration based on a case study of an innovation project under the ME310 program. Porto Design Factory (P.Porto) and IKEA Industry joined forces to tackle a problem using the Human-Centred Design (HCD) approach. The case study methodology provides an understanding the outcomes that revealed the potential of the HCD to solve a technical problem while enhancing the customer experience. Also, it’s possible to recognize the benefits that each institution had by collaborating. Research, prototypes and comprehensive documentation with all the knowledge generated through the process, were some of the results that contributed to the company’s innovation effort. PDF also benefited by providing differentiating learning conditions and employment opportunities to its students. The outcomes show that companies do benefit from building interfaces with external partners and that universities are relevant players in the innovation ecosystem satisfying its third mission. Further investigation may look for the level of implementation of the concepts coming from this kind of partnerships as well as it impacts in company’s culture and work process in the long term

The User Value of Speech Recognition at Home

Humans have interacted using speech for thousands of years. Since the middle of last century, humans have been able to interact with computers using speech. Recent investments in speech recognition have resulted in the technology making its way into the homes of mainstream consumers. However, little is known about the user value of this target group using speech recognition in the home environment. The user value is relevant to IKEA for determining how, or if, the technology can deliver to their vision of creating a better everyday life for the many people. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the user value for the broader audience using speech recognition in the home environment. Further, the aim is to understand if, and how, speech recognition is relevant to IKEA. To reach the purpose, an exploratory, mixed method design, combining qualitative and quantitative strategies has been used. The primary approach of this study is a market research approach for identifying user value called means-end chain. Derived values are triangulated with feedback from experts and compared to existing literature. Aspects of implementation, such as product design and business have been excluded from the thesis. Four user values of speech recognition in the home environment are concluded; facilitate daily life, everyday efficiency, comfort and increased calmness. All four values refer to tasks complementing, not replacing, already existing interfaces. Moreover, a scepticism towards the new technology of speech recognition is identified. Speech recognition is also concluded to, entirely or partly, fulfil the IKEA product development criteria for smart products, namely; convenience, easy to understand, clear use case and solving a user need. Therefore, speech recognition can contribute to the IKEA vision of creating a better life for the many people.Människan har interagerat genom att använda sin röst i årtusenden. I mitten av förra seklet började datorer förstå människans röst. På senare år har stora investeringar för röststyrning i hemmet gjort att teknologin börjat nå en bred konsumentmarknad. Användarvärdet för röststyrning i hemmiljö för denna målgrupp är varken välkänt eller väldokumenterat. Användarvärdet är intressant för IKEA för att avgöra hur, eller om, teknologin kan bidra till deras vision om att en bättre vardag för de många människorna. Syftet med denna uppsats är att utforska användarvärdet av röststyrning i IKEA-kundens hemmiljö. Utifrån detta avgörs om röststyrning är relevant för IKEA. Syftet uppnås med en explorativ ansats som utgår från en flerstegsmetod vilken kombinerar kvalitativa och kvantitativa data. Uppsatsens primära ansats utgörs av en marknadsanalysmetod för att förstå användarvärde som kallas means-end chain. De framtagna värdena trianguleras med feedback från experter och jämförs med befintlig litteratur. Aspekter som har med implementering att göra, såsom marknadsstrategi, affärsstrategi och funktionalitet ingår inte i denna uppsats. Fyra användarvärden identifieras för röststyrning i hemmiljö; underlätta vardagen, vardagseffektivitet, bekvämlighet och ökad avkoppling. Samtliga värden syftar på aktiviteter som kompletterar, inte ersätter, redan existerande gränssnitt. Det framkommer även en viss skepsis mot den nya teknologi som röststyrning representerar. Utöver detta dras slutsatsen att röststyrning, helt eller delvis, uppfyller IKEAs kriterier för utveckling av smarta produkter, nämligen; bekvämlighet, lätt att förstå, tydligt användningsfall, och lösa ett användarproblem. Därmed anses röststyrning kunna bidra till syftet att skapa en bättre vardag för de många människorna

Studies on user control in ambient intelligent systems

People have a deeply rooted need to experience control and be effective in interactions with their environments. At present times, we are surrounded by intelligent systems that take decisions and perform actions for us. This should make life easier, but there is a risk that users experience less control and reject the system. The central question in this thesis is whether we can design intelligent systems that have a degree of autonomy, while users maintain a sense of control. We try to achieve this by giving the intelligent system an 'expressive interface’: the part that provides information to the user about the internal state, intentions and actions of the system. We examine this question both in the home and the work environment.We find the notion of a ‘system personality’ useful as a guiding principle for designing interactions with intelligent systems, for domestic robots as well as in building automation. Although the desired system personality varies per application, in both domains a recognizable system personality can be designed through expressive interfaces using motion, light, sound, and social cues. The various studies show that the level of automation and the expressive interface can influence the perceived system personality, the perceived level of control, and user’s satisfaction with the system. This thesis shows the potential of the expressive interface as an instrument to help users understand what is going on inside the system and to experience control, which might be essential for the successful adoption of the intelligent systems of the future.<br/

The Co-operative Model in Practice : International Perspectives

Published with the support of the Scottish Government and the Economic & Social Research CouncilPublisher PD