1,372 research outputs found

    Formal modelling as a component of user centred design

    Get PDF
    User centred design approaches typically focus understanding on context and producing sketch designs. These sketches are often non functional (e.g., paper) prototypes. They provide a means of exploring candidate design possibilities using techniques such as cooperative evaluation. This paper describes a further step in the process using formal analysis techniques. The sketch design of a device is enhanced into a specification that is then analysed using formal techniques, thus providing a systematic approach to checking plausibility and consistency during early design stages. Once analysed, a further prototype is constructed using an executable form of the specification, providing the next candidate for evaluation with potential users. The technique is illustrated through an example based on a pill dispenser.We are grateful to Nuno Rodrigues, João Vilaça and Nuno Dias from IPCA (Polytechnic Institute of Cavado and Ave) who developed the first prototypeof the pill dispenser. José C. Campos, Paolo Masci and Michael Harrison werefunded by project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000016, financed by the North Por-tugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL2020 Partnership Agreement, and through the European Regional DevelopmentFund (ERDF)

    Balancing the formal and the informal in user-centred design

    Get PDF
    This paper explores the role of formal methods as part of the user-centred design of interactive systems. An iterative process is described, developing prototypes incrementally, proving user-centred requirements while at the same time evaluating the prototypes that are executable forms of the developed models using ‘traditional’ techniques for user evaluation. A formal analysis complements user evaluations. This approach enriches user-centred design that typically focuses understanding on context and producing sketch designs. These sketches are often non-functional (e.g. paper) prototypes. They provide a means of exploring candidate design possibilities using techniques such as cooperative evaluation. This paper describes a further step in the process using formal analysis techniques. The use of formal methods provides a systematic approach to checking plausibility and consistency during early design stages, while at the same time enabling the generation of executable prototypes. The technique is illustrated through an example based on a pill dispenser.This work is financed by National Funds through the Portuguese funding agency, FCT -- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, within project UIDB/50014/2020

    Responsible AI Pattern Catalogue: A Collection of Best Practices for AI Governance and Engineering

    Full text link
    Responsible AI is widely considered as one of the greatest scientific challenges of our time and is key to increase the adoption of AI. Recently, a number of AI ethics principles frameworks have been published. However, without further guidance on best practices, practitioners are left with nothing much beyond truisms. Also, significant efforts have been placed at algorithm-level rather than system-level, mainly focusing on a subset of mathematics-amenable ethical principles, such as fairness. Nevertheless, ethical issues can arise at any step of the development lifecycle, cutting across many AI and non-AI components of systems beyond AI algorithms and models. To operationalize responsible AI from a system perspective, in this paper, we present a Responsible AI Pattern Catalogue based on the results of a Multivocal Literature Review (MLR). Rather than staying at the principle or algorithm level, we focus on patterns that AI system stakeholders can undertake in practice to ensure that the developed AI systems are responsible throughout the entire governance and engineering lifecycle. The Responsible AI Pattern Catalogue classifies the patterns into three groups: multi-level governance patterns, trustworthy process patterns, and responsible-AI-by-design product patterns. These patterns provide systematic and actionable guidance for stakeholders to implement responsible AI

    Model-Driven Automatic Question Generation for a Gamified Clinical Guideline Training System

    Get PDF
    Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) are a cornerstone of modern medical practice since they summarize the vast medical literature and provide care recommendations based on the current best evidence. However, there are barriers to CPG utilization such as lack of awareness and lack of familiarity of the CPGs by clinicians due to ineffective CPG dissemination and implementation. This calls for research into effective and scalable CPG dissemination strategies that will improve CPG awareness and familiarity. We describe a model-driven approach to design and develop a gamified e-learning system for clinical guidelines where the training questions are generated automatically. We also present the prototype developed using this approach. We use models for different aspects of the system, an entity model for the clinical domain, a workflow model for the clinical processes and a game engine to generate and manage the training sessions. We employ gamification to increase user motivation and engagement in the training of guideline content. We conducted a limited formative evaluation of the prototype system and the users agreed that the system would be a useful addition to their training. Our proposed approach is flexible and adaptive as it allows for easy updates of the guidelines, integration with different device interfaces and representation of any guideline.acceptedVersio

    Spimes:A Multidimensional Lens for Designing Future Sustainable Internet Connected Devices

    Get PDF
    There are numerous loud and powerful voices promoting the Internet of Things (IoT) as a catalyst for changing many aspects of our lives for the better. Healthcare, energy, transport, finance, entertainment and in the home – billions of everyday objects across all sorts of sectors are being connected to the Internet to generate data so that we can make quicker and more efficient decisions about many facets of our lives. But is this technological development completely benign? I argue that, despite all their positive potential, IoT devices are still being designed, manufactured and disposed of in the same manner that most other ‘non-connected’ consumer products have been for decades – unsustainably. Further, while much fanfare is made of the IoT’s potential utility for reducing energy usage through pervasive monitoring, little discourse recognises the intrinsically unsustainable nature of the IoT devices themselves. In response to this growing unsustainable product culture, my thesis centres on the role that sustainability can potentially play in the design of future IoT devices. I propose the recharacterisation of IoT devices as spimes in order to provide an alternative approach for facilitating sustainable Internet-connected product design practice. The concept of spimes was first introduced in 2004 by the futurist Bruce Sterling and then outlined further a year later in his book Shaping Things. When viewed simply, a spime would be a type of near future, internet-connected device which marries physical and digital elements with innate sustainable characteristics. Whereas the majority of sustainable design theory and practice has focused on the development of sustainable non-connected devices, a credible strategy for the design of environmentally friendly Internet-connected physical objects has yet to be put forward. In light of this, I argue that now is the right time to develop the spimes concept in greater depth so that it may begin to serve as a viable counterpoint to the increasing unsustainability of the IoT. To make this case, my thesis explores the following three key questions: • What are spimes? • Can we begin to design spimes? • What does spime-orientated research mean for unsustainable Internet-connected design practice? I outline how, in order to explore these important questions, I utilised a Research through Design approach to unpack and augment the notion of spimes through three Design Fiction case studies. Each case study concretises different key design criteria for spime devices, while also probing the broader implications that could arise as a result of adopting such spime designs in the near future. I discuss the significance of reflecting upon my Spime-based Design Fiction Practice and how this enabled me to develop the spimes concept into a multidimensional lens, which I contend, other designers can potentially harness as a means to reframe their IoT praxis with sustainability baked-in. The key aspects of my process and its outputs are also summarised in form of a design manifesto with the aim of inspiring prospective designers and technologists to create future sustainable Internet-connected devices

    From Palm to Arm

    Get PDF
    The number of people diagnosed with diabetes is increasing at an alarming rate. However, strong evidence shows that health information technology has improved medical outcomes, especially within the field of diabetes research. This thesis investigates how to motivate people with diabetes to perform self-management activities with the help of a smartwatch application. The work is grounded in a literature review, discovering how people manage diabetes with smartwatches today and the lack of existing motivational features on existing solutions. As a result, a system design of a smartwatch application is presented, including a graphical user interface (UI). The system aims to manage and monitor the essential diabetes metrics: nutrition, blood glucose, and physical activity while generating motivation through goal setting. In addition, the presented system is oriented on a standalone architecture, removing the need to pair a smartphone to the smartwatch and introducing novel features for smartwatch diabetes management. Finally, a proof of concept is implemented using Android studio to solidify the systems requirements. Furthermore, a descriptive analysis of a survey presents that among people with diabetes, simplicity is the most crucial factor in smartwatch applications. Based on this, the presented UI is evaluated according to the simplicity of other systems and the impact the motivational features have on the system’s complexity. Then, the potential of a standalone architecture for diabetes management is discussed. Finally, it is concluded that goal-setting features should be more widely used among smartwatch applications due to their low impact on the application. The future work of the thesis is to test the system on people with diabetes. Both to evaluate the system useability scale and observe the impact goal-setting has on performing diabetes self-management. Furthermore, in this thesis, it is assumed that there is a communication channel between diabetes devices and the smartwatch. This must be further investigated with the next generation of diabetes devices

    On the Roles of External Knowledge Representations in Assessment Design

    Full text link

    Design as Inquiry: A Manual

    Get PDF
    Concepts such as design thinking, knowledge creation, or open-ended problem-solving have become popular in recent years as they hold promise to generate innovation and prepare ourselves for the challenges we are facing at the beginning of the 21st Century. What these approaches have in common is that they build on a creative and transformational under-standing of learning and inquiry. They mark a shift from a belief mode, focused on the plausibility and justification of ideas towards a design mode, oriented towards the utility and promissingness of ideas (cf. Bereiter, 2010). While a lot has been written about these new forms of learning and inquiry there is no commonly agreed upon model on its methodological and epistemological foundations. Additionally there are only limited resources available for students and teachers on how to make use of these approaches in education. Against this background this manual introduces Design as Inquiry as a common conceptual denominator and provides practical guidance for teachers and students. Yet, rather than providing a full-fledged methodology, the manual comprises a set of evolving ideas. The presentation therefore is intentionally fragmentary and unfinished, aiming to stimulate the readers’ curiosity, reflection and response. In this sense, this manual provides a snapshot of its authors’ ideas at the time of writing, but we are eager to learn about your questions and ideas regarding the matters tackled and are willing to discuss them with you
    • …
    corecore