Enhancing Creativity in Interaction Design: Alternative Design Brief

This paper offers a critique of the design brief as it is currently used in teaching interaction design and proposes an alternative way of developing it. Such a design brief requires the exploration of alternative application domains for an already developed technology. The paper presents a case study where such a novel type of design brief has been offered to the students taking part in a collaborative design project and discusses how it supported divergent thinking and creativity as well as helped enhancing the learning objectives

The role of design thinking and physical prototyping in social software engineering

Social Software Engineering (Social SE), that is SE aiming to promote positive social change, is a rapidly emerging area. Here, software and digital artefacts are seen as tools for social change, rather than end products or ‘solutions’. Moreover, Social SE requires a sustained buy-in from a range of stakeholders and end-users working in partnership with multidisciplinary software development teams often at a distance. This context poses new challenges to software engineering: it requires both an agile approach for handling uncertainties in the software development process, and the application of participatory, creative design processes to bridge the knowledge asymmetries and the geographical distances in the partnership. This paper argues for the role of design thinking in Social SE and highlights its implications for software engineering in general. It does so by reporting on the contributions that design thinking— and in particular physical design—has brought to (1) the problem space definition, (2) user requirements capture and (3) system feature design of a renewable energy forecasting system developed in partnership with a remote Scottish Island community

Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Challenges in Latin America for the Next Decade

A decade after a 1999 World Bank-sponsored meeting of Latin American water and sanitation experts, there has been progress in rural sanitation in that region. Nonetheless, the Millennium Development Goals for improved sanitation services may be out of reach. Looking toward the next ten years, important challenges for rural water and sanitation will include: ensuring long-term sustainability of sanitation services and monitoring systems, improving the contribution of municipal government, and establishing appropriate legal and financial policies

Development of an evidence-based medicine mobile application for the use in medical education

BACKGROUND: Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is a methodology that is being incorporated into more medical school curricula. Boston University School of Medicine was one of early adopters of Evidence Based Medicine in the United States. A growing concern in the medical community was that the complexities of applying EBM might be lost when students enter into their clinical rotations, thus there is a need for development of a tool to help reinforce the EBM principles. METHODS: The research team in collaboration with the designers of the Finding Information Framework, a custom-made EBM finding information tool, worked to develop a mobile application to help reinforce the framework for medical students. The app was designed with both Apple and PC operating systems in mind. Key features that were identified from current literature to provide the most user-friendly mobile application. Thus, the research team specifically utilized iOS and Android platforms as both platforms have a centralized app store, possess the highest volume of medical apps available, and are most widely used in the United States by medical students. RESULTS: The Finding Information Framework was a custom-made tool developed to guide new users of EBM, and help them to apply the principles in practice. The mobile application served an added convenience by allowing easy access and fast utilization of the EBM tools. The app was designed on an Android platform first due to its open-source OS and ease in app development to new programmers. Initially, the user-friendly web-based tool, App Inventor (AI), powered by Massachusetts Institute of Technology was evaluated to program the pilot Android app. Using both the AI Component Designer and the Block Editor, several problems were encountered in AI, such as the simplicity of the program and the lack of freedom in design. This moved the project to create the app natively and with a collaborative effort with the BU's Global App Initiative club. Initially, a wireframe was built using Balsamiq. Subsequently, the Android app was built using Android SDK and the iOS app was built in XCode with Objective C; both platforms had design sections prepared in Sketch, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. The last and final step was to obtain Boston University branding privileges for the app. CONCLUSION: The research team identified necessary features based on research to build a user-friendly, professional mobile application of an information mastery framework that can be used off-line. The app is called FIF as it is the title of the information mastery tool designed by BUSM EBM-VIG. With a clear mobile interface, it will be beneficial to the learning and training of medical students in EBM

How Participatory is Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM)? A Study of Water User Associations (WUAs) in Andhra Pradesh

It is argued that the reason for the ills of irrigation management is the alienation of farmers from the process of planning and implementation. Often 'lack of political will' is identified as the main reason for the tardy progress in irrigation reforms at the state level. Andhra Pradesh has demonstrated the political will by initiating widespread irrigation reforms through legislation. This paper, based on the situation after six years of WUAs in existence, makes an attempt to provide a comprehensive view on the status and functioning of the Water Users' Associations in the State. It is argued that while substantial amounts of money were spent on the reform process, the money was used mainly for improving the ailing irrigation systems rather than strengthening the formal institutional structures. Though some benefits in terms of increased area under irrigation in canal systems and improved quality of irrigation is evident, the sustainability of these benefits is rather uncertain in the absence of efficient institutional structures. Despite the fact that WUAs are promoted as non-political institutions, 'elite capture' and political involvement dominate their functioning. And the present trend appears to be towards further politicization of these institutions. More importantly, even after six years of their existence devolution of powers to WUAs has not taken place, as most of the important functions like assessment, collection of water charges, sanctioning of works, etc., are still in the hands of the irrigation department. In the absence of devolution of powers the WUAs are aiming for political gains rather than improving the systems. It is argued that political will is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for making the WUAs autonomous and self-sufficient. Restructuring and reforming of the State irrigation departments and the bureaucracy is critical for effective and sustainable irrigation institutions.participatory, Irrigation Management, water, Andhra Pradesh