48,565 research outputs found
Mediating Cognitive Transformation with VR 3D Sketching during Conceptual Architectural Design Process
Communications for information synchronization during the conceptual design phase require designers to employ more intuitive digital design tools. This paper presents findings of a feasibility study for using VR 3D sketching interface in order to replace current non-intuitive CAD tools. We used a sequential mixed method research methodology including a qualitative case study and a cognitive-based quantitative protocol analysis experiment. Foremost, the case study research was conducted in order to understand how novice designers make intuitive decisions. The case study documented the failure of conventional sketching methods in articulating complicated design ideas and shortcomings of current CAD tools in intuitive ideation. The case studyâs findings then became the theoretical foundations for testing the feasibility of using VR 3D sketching interface during design. The latter phase of study evaluated the designersâ spatial cognition and collaboration at six different levels: âphysical-actionsâ, âperceptualac onsâ, âfunctional-actionsâ, âconceptual-actionsâ, âcognitive synchronizationsâ, and âgesturesâ. The results and confirmed hypotheses showed that the utilized tangible 3D sketching interface improved novice designersâ cognitive and collaborative design activities. In summary this paper presents the influences of current external representation tools on designersâ cognition and collaboration as well as providing the necessary theoretical foundations for implementing VR 3D sketching interface. It contributes towards transforming conceptual architectural design phase from analogue to digital by proposing a new VR design interface. The paper proposes this transformation to fill in the existing gap between analogue conceptual architectural design process and remaining digital engineering parts of building design process hence expediting digital design process
Deer in the headlights: Towards an understanding of how journalism students engage with complex academic research methods modules
Journalism is at a crossroad. The rise of populist governments with accusations of fake news against what has always been considered to be Fourth Estate journalism means journalists face significant challenges to produce compelling, truthful, and accurate news at a time when reality is altered by those who do not agree with what journalists say. The current journalistic climate means journalists must move beyond the lexical meanings of what it means to be a journalist to a more critical one where they have to verify and analyse the news for the audience. One of the key ways in which journalists can respond to significant challenges to practice is by becoming more critically aware practitioners. A significant step in that direction occurs in journalism programmes at the university level where students are required to produce a critically researched dissertation as part of their conditions of earning a degree. However, with journalism being a traditionally vocational programme, challenges arise because students have difficulties drawing correlations between academic research and journalism practice. Our research aims to understand how students engage with academic research method modules. Based on our findings, we argue that students can use interactive learning methods and online resources to help engage with more complex and unfamiliar content
Trends in qualitative research in language teaching since 2000
This paper reviews developments in qualitative research in language teaching since the year 2000, focusing on its contributions to the field and identifying issues that emerge. Its aims are to identify those areas in language teaching where qualitative research has the greatest potential and indicate what needs to be done to further improve the quality of its contribution. The paper begins by highlighting current trends and debates in the general area of qualitative research and offering a working definition of the term. At its core is an overview of developments in the new millennium based on the analysis of papers published in 15 journals related to the field of language teaching and a more detailed description, drawn from a range of sources, of exemplary contributions during that period. Issues of quality are also considered, using illustrative cases to point to aspects of published research that deserve closer attention in future work, and key publications on qualitative research practice are reviewed
Designing and evaluating mobile multimedia user experiences in public urban places: Making sense of the field
The majority of the worldâs population now lives in cities (United Nations, 2008) resulting in an urban densification requiring people to live in closer proximity and share urban infrastructure such as streets, public transport, and parks within cities. However, âphysical closeness does not mean social closenessâ (Wellman, 2001, p. 234). Whereas it is a common practice to greet and chat with people you cross paths with in smaller villages, urban life is mainly anonymous and does not automatically come with a sense of community per se. Wellman (2001, p. 228) defines community âas networks of interpersonal ties that provide sociability, support, information, a sense of belonging and social identity.â While on the move or during leisure time, urban dwellers use their interactive information communication technology (ICT) devices to connect to their spatially distributed community while in an anonymous space. Putnam (1995) argues that available technology privatises and individualises the leisure time of urban dwellers. Furthermore, ICT is sometimes used to build a âcocoonâ while in public to avoid direct contact with collocated people (Mainwaring et al., 2005; Bassoli et al., 2007; Crawford, 2008). Instead of using ICT devices to seclude oneself from the surrounding urban environment and the collocated people within, such devices could also be utilised to engage urban dwellers more with the urban environment and the urban dwellers within. Urban sociologists found that âwhat attracts people most, it would appear, is other peopleâ (Whyte, 1980, p. 19) and âpeople and human activity are the greatest object of attention and interestâ (Gehl, 1987, p. 31). On the other hand, sociologist Erving Goffman describes the concept of civil inattention, acknowledging strangersâ presence while in public but not interacting with them (Goffman, 1966). With this in mind, it appears that there is a contradiction between how people are using ICT in urban public places and for what reasons and how people use public urban places and how they behave and react to other collocated people. On the other hand there is an opportunity to employ ICT to create and influence experiences of people collocated in public urban places. The widespread use of location aware mobile devices equipped with Internet access is creating networked localities, a digital layer of geo-coded information on top of the physical world (Gordon & de Souza e Silva, 2011). Foursquare.com is an example of a location based 118 Mobile Multimedia â User and Technology Perspectives social network (LBSN) that enables urban dwellers to virtually check-in into places at which they are physically present in an urban space. Users compete over âmayorshipsâ of places with Foursquare friends as well as strangers and can share recommendations about the space. The research field of Urban Informatics is interested in these kinds of digital urban multimedia augmentations and how such augmentations, mediated through technology, can create or influence the UX of public urban places. âUrban informatics is the study, design, and practice of urban experiences across different urban contexts that are created by new opportunities of real-time, ubiquitous technology and the augmentation that mediates the physical and digital layers of people networks and urban infrastructuresâ (Foth et al., 2011, p. 4). One possibility to augment the urban space is to enable citizens to digitally interact with spaces and urban dwellers collocated in the past, present, and future. âAdding digital layer to the existing physical and social layers could facilitate new forms of interaction that reshape urban lifeâ (Kjeldskov & Paay, 2006, p. 60). This methodological chapter investigates how the design of UX through such digital placebased mobile multimedia augmentations can be guided and evaluated. First, we describe three different applications that aim to create and influence the urban UX through mobile mediated interactions. Based on a review of literature, we describe how our integrated framework for designing and evaluating urban informatics experiences has been constructed. We conclude the chapter with a reflective discussion on the proposed framework
What is open design for ethnography?:an open discussion
Ethnography has been adopted in other fields for years, but the integration process has been a significant learning curve for both the ethnographers and practitioners from other fields. This wide adoption has created various subfields such as Design Ethnography, Urban Ethnography, and Anticipatory Ethnography etc. These ethno-fusions represent different interpretations of ethnography under the influence of other disciplinary nuances. Ethnography has shown us its potential flexibility and fluidity and the discussion continues: how and where will ethnography make its next big leap? In this research paper, we open a discussion with the Cumulus community by exploring the following three questions: 1. What could open design mean to Ethnography? 2. What are some challenges when applying ethnography in multi-/inter- disciplinary context? 3. What is the future of the openly designed ethnography
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Organizational Ethnography and the Art of Judgment in-the-Moment
This paper responds to the convenersâ call on exploring and advancing Organizational Ethnography (OE) as a paradigm for the organizational sciences. This sub-theme is linked through my empirical study of senior managers in international development organizations and how they make sense of using their judgment âin-the-momentâ in the context of their leadership roles and work environments. I adopt an âethnographic orientationâ (Watson, 2011, p.216) and emphasize the need for a highly reflexive approach in an ethnographerâs role as making judgments throughout the challenging processes of doing âfieldwork, headwork and textworkâ (Van Maanen, 2011, p.218). Theoretically, this study contributes to the existing judgment and decision making literature from a social constructionist perspective by drawing linkages to judgment as a co-constructed phenomenon. How senior managers understand their judgment-making in situations âin-the-momentâ is an understudied area thus far and even scarcer in the context of international development organizations. Methodologically, the ethnographic and radically reflexive approach taken addresses a gap in the literature, builds awareness and raises in importance examining the âmultiple selvesâ (Reinharz, 1997) of the ethnographer. How I influenced my research and was influenced by it as both subject and object were key to my findings.
In addition to the sub-theme call, this paper also links to the overarching Colloquium theme, âBridging Continents, Cultures and Worldviewsâ, by connecting the cultures and co- constructed views of the researcher and practitioners. The collaborative, ethnographic approach taken was a unique way to get âup close and personalâ in understanding what judgment meant to senior leaders in the two participating UK-headquartered organizations. With international development missions in African nations, the senior leaders continuously constructed their own bridges across borders in their financing, operations and communications between their team members and external stakeholders located in multiple countries, reliant on virtual offices and mobile and Internet technology to stay connected. My judgment as an ethnographer was necessary to determine how to best embrace this way of âworkingâ during fieldwork and become another type of stakeholder to them.
I will begin with a brief theoretical and methodological background of my exploratory study, identifying the gap in the literature and how my study fills it. Then I will outline the methodology, methods, data collection and analysis and findings. Finally, I will conclude with the challenges of âdoing organizational ethnographyâ inside small international development organizations and the contributions made to advance OE as a unique way to study the social phenomenon of judgment âin-the momentâ
Trends and Emerging Areas of Agile Research: the Report on XP2014 PhD Symposium
The PhD symposium of XP2014, the 15th International Conference on Agile Software Development, was organized as a half-day event prior to the main conference program. Seven PhD candidates came from different research institutes across the globe to present their own research proposals at the symposium. The symposium was run in a lively and interactive manner. The candidates received constructive feedback on their proposals from all the symposium participants. In this report we describe the presented proposals, focusing on the content and feedback. Through them we can take a peek at the trends and emerging areas of agile research in the coming years
Practical Strategies for Integrating a Conversation Analyst in an Iterative Design Process
We present a case study of an iterative design process that includes a
conversation analyst. We discuss potential benefits of conversation analysis
for design, and we describe our strategies for integrating the conversation
analyst in the design process. Since the analyst on our team had no previous
exposure to design or engineering, and none of the other members of our team
had any experience with conversation analysis, we needed to build a foundation
for our interaction. One of our key strategies was to pair the conversation
analyst with a designer in a highly interactive collaboration. Our tactics have
been effective on our project, leading to valuable results that we believe we
could not have obtained using another method. We hope that this paper can serve
as a practical guide to those interested in establishing a productive and
efficient working relationship between a conversation analyst and the other
members of a design team.Comment: 11 page
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