49,058 research outputs found

    Generating multiple new designs from a sketch

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    AbstractWe describe a program called SketchIT that transforms a single sketch of a mechanical device into multiple families of new designs. It represents each of these families with a “BEP-Model”, a parametric model augmented with constraints that ensure the device produces the desired behavior. The program is based on qualitative configuration space (qc-space), a novel representation that captures mechanical behavior while abstracting away its implementation. The program employs a paradigm of abstraction and resynthesis: it abstracts the initial sketch into qc-space, then uses a library of primitive mechanical interactions to map from qc-space to new implementations

    A protocol study of novice interaction design behaviour in Botswana: solution-driven interaction design

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    Think aloud studies and protocol analysis are well-known in the field of HCI, but most often these studies focus on usability evaluations, or on the use of technology. Rarely are they used to investigate the behaviour of interaction designers. In this paper, we report on a protocol study with novice interaction designers in Botswana. Participants had just completed the design section of an undergraduate module on Interaction Design that actively promotes a problem-driven approach to the design of interactive products, yet the participants behaved in a way that is closer to a solution-driven approach. The module emphasizes user-centred design, prototyping methods to support design development, and evaluating design detail. Yet participants suggest solutions before exploring the context of use, use prototyping methods to capture, rather than to develop, designs, and do not produce detailed designs. In a problem-solving context, some of these behaviours are typical of novices, but in a design context they are also seen in experienced designers. The results presented here reveal the detail of the approach adopted by these students, and contribute to the wider debate concerning the internationalization of HCI education

    Categorisation of designs according to preference values for shape rules

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    Shape grammars have been used to explore design spaces through design generation according to sets of shape rules with a recursive process. Although design space exploration is a persistent issue in computational design research, there have been few studies regarding the provision of more preferable and refined outcomes to designers. This paper presents an approach for the categorisation of design outcomes from shape grammar systems to support individual preferences via two customised viewpoints: (i) absolute preference values of shape rules and (ii) relative preference values of shape rules with shape rule classification levels with illustrative examples

    Enroute flight planning: Evaluating design concepts for the development of cooperative problem-solving concepts

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    The goals of this research were to develop design concepts to support the task of enroute flight planning. And within this context, to explore and evaluate general design concepts and principles to guide the development of cooperative problem solving systems. A detailed model is to be developed of the cognitive processes involved in flight planning. Included in this model will be the identification of individual differences of subjects. Of particular interest will be differences between pilots and dispatchers. The effect will be studied of the effect on performance of tools that support planning at different levels of abstraction. In order to conduct this research, the Flight Planning Testbed (FPT) was developed, a fully functional testbed environment for studying advanced design concepts for tools to aid in flight planning

    Shape exploration in design : formalising and supporting a transformational process

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    The process of sketching can support the sort of transformational thinking that is seen as essential for the interpretation and reinterpretation of ideas in innovative design. Such transformational thinking, however, is not yet well supported by computer-aided design systems. In this paper, outcomes of experimental investigations into the mechanics of sketching are described, in particular those employed by practising architects and industrial designers as they responded to a series of conceptual design tasks,. Analyses of the experimental data suggest that the interactions of designers with their sketches can be formalised according to a finite number of generalised shape rules. A set of shape rules, formalising the reinterpretation and transformations of shapes, e.g. through deformation or restructuring, are presented. These rules are suggestive of the manipulations that need to be afforded in computational tools intended to support designers in design exploration. Accordingly, the results of the experimental investigations informed the development of a prototype shape synthesis system, and a discussion is presented in which the future requirements of such systems are explored
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