Grid-enabled Workflows for Industrial Product Design

This paper presents a generic approach for developing and using Grid-based workflow technology for enabling cross-organizational engineering applications. Using industrial product design examples from the automotive and aerospace industries we highlight the main requirements and challenges addressed by our approach and describe how it can be used for enabling interoperability between heterogeneous workflow engines

Towards a Design Methodology for Decision Support Systems

The authors propose the use of process models for DSS design. The kind of process models suggested are task structures and decision structures with simple graphical syntax and semantics. The process models form the basis for a coherent DSS design methodology, based upon the bounded rationality paradigm. The history of DSS and DSS design is discussed to form a theoretical position. The resulting methodology has been tested and evaluated in a laboratory experiment. The results of this evaluation will be used for continuous improvement of the methodolog

Modelling electronic service systems using UML

This paper presents a profile for modelling systems of electronic services using UML. Electronic services encapsulate business services, an organisational unit focused on delivering benefit to a consumer, to enhance communication, coordination and information management. Our profile is based on a formal, workflow-oriented description of electronic services that is abstracted from particular implementation technologies. Resulting models provide the basis for a formal analysis to verify behavioural properties of services. The models can also relate services to management components, including workflow managers and Electronic Service Management Systems (ESMSs), a novel concept drawn from experience of HP Service Composer and DySCo (Dynamic Service Composer), providing the starting point for integration and implementation tasks. Their UML basis and platform-independent nature is consistent with a Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) development strategy, appropriate to the challenge of developing electronic service systems using heterogeneous technology, and incorporating legacy systems

Physicality and Cooperative Design

CSCW researchers have increasingly come to realize that material work setting and its population of artefacts play a crucial part in coordination of distributed or co-located work. This paper uses the notion of physicality as a basis to understand cooperative work. Using examples from an ongoing fieldwork on cooperative design practices, it provides a conceptual understanding of physicality and shows that material settings and co-worker’s working practices play an important role in understanding physicality of cooperative design

A human factors methodology for real-time support applications

A general approach to the human factors (HF) analysis of new or existing projects at NASA/Goddard is delineated. Because the methodology evolved from HF evaluations of the Mission Planning Terminal (MPT) and the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite Mission Operations Room (ERBS MOR), it is directed specifically to the HF analysis of real-time support applications. Major topics included for discussion are the process of establishing a working relationship between the Human Factors Group (HFG) and the project, orientation of HF analysts to the project, human factors analysis and review, and coordination with major cycles of system development. Sub-topics include specific areas for analysis and appropriate HF tools. Management support functions are outlined. References provide a guide to sources of further information

Collaborative Practices that Support Creativity in Design

Design is a ubiquitous, collaborative and highly material activity. Because of the embodied nature of the design profession, designers apply certain collaborative practices to enhance creativity in their everyday work. Within the domain of industrial design, we studied two educational design departments over a period of eight months. Using examples from our fieldwork, we develop our results around three broad themes related to collaborative practices that support the creativity of design professionals: 1) externalization, 2) use of physical space, and 3) use of bodies. We believe that these themes of collaborative practices could provide new insights into designing technologies for supporting a varied set of design activities. We describe two conceptual collaborative systems derived from the results of our study

Randomised controlled trials of complex interventions and large-scale transformation of services

Complex interventions and large-scale transformations of services are necessary to meet the health-care challenges of the 21st century. However, the evaluation of these types of interventions is challenging and requires methodological development. Innovations such as cluster randomised controlled trials, stepped-wedge designs, and non-randomised evaluations provide options to meet the needs of decision-makers. Adoption of theory and logic models can help clarify causal assumptions, and process evaluation can assist in understanding delivery in context. Issues of implementation must also be considered throughout intervention design and evaluation to ensure that results can be scaled for population benefit. Relevance requires evaluations conducted under real-world conditions, which in turn requires a pragmatic attitude to design. The increasing complexity of interventions and evaluations threatens the ability of researchers to meet the needs of decision-makers for rapid results. Improvements in efficiency are thus crucial, with electronic health records offering significant potential

Underdogs and superheroes: Designing for new players in public space

We are exploring methods for participatory and public involvement of new 'players' in the design space. Underdogs & Superheroes involves a game-based methodology – a series of creative activities or games – in order to engage people experientially, creatively, and personally throughout the design process. We have found that games help engage users’ imaginations by representing reality without limiting expectations to what's possible here and now; engaging experiential and personal perspectives (the 'whole' person); and opening the creative process to hands-on user participation through low/no-tech materials and a widely-understood approach. The methods are currently being applied in the project Underdogs & Superheroes, which aims to evolve technological interventions for personal and community presence in local public spaces