Virtual versus physical prototypes : development and testing of a prototyping planning tool

This thesis documents the development of a heuristics-based decision-making tool to guide a designer’s choice between virtual or physical prototypes, based in part upon published prototyping strategies, as well as the design, implementation, and results of a pilot experimental study used to test this virtual-vs-physical decision-making tool for prototypes. Eighty undergraduate mechanical engineering students volunteered for a pilot experiment to test the decision-making tool. They were given the choice of physically or virtually prototyping a four-bar linkage. Forty participants in this pilot study were instructed to use a Likert-scale instrument to choose their prototyping technique, and an additional 40 participants, who did not use the instrument, served as a control group for evaluating the effectiveness of the instrument. Analysis of participants’ performance metrics undeniably shows that virtual prototyping is the optimal technique for this design problem, as virtual prototypers on average across both test groups achieved performance metrics almost five times higher in about half the time compared to physical prototypers. With the aid of a heuristics-based decision-making tool, 10% more participants in the experimental group picked the best technique versus those who did not use the tool in the control group (32 of 40, and 28 of 40, respectively). The prototyping choices of participants among each test group were analyzed using the comparison of two population proportions, and results from a two-tailed z-test yielded p = 0.303, thus the null hypothesis cannot be rejected with statistical significance for the test of two population proportions. Although the difference in choice of the optimal prototyping technique between test groups of this pilot study is not statistically significant, it serves as a preliminary model for a systematic approach that incorporates consideration of type of prototype as a strategic decision. Although the findings of this four-bar linkage study cannot be extrapolated to a generic prototyping process, this work provides a paradigm for thinking critically about virtual vs. physical prototyping decisions using a heuristics-based, structured prototyping strategy. The pilot results provide a template and motivation for conducting a larger scale experiment for generic prototyping applications.Mechanical Engineerin

The PISHI Concept: A Technique for Increasing Inclusion in the Design of Open-Source Assistive Technologies

This thesis addresses how to make Open-Source (OS) Assistive Technology (AT) more inclusive. The thesis employs a Research Through Design (RtD) methodology on a particular case study: the Switch Activated Writing System (SAWS) that is in transition to an Open-Source project (OSSAWS). Analysis of the literature reveals the potential to leverage persona representations into OS AT. This thesis includes three RtD iterations which focus on successive modifications of persona representations and markdown templating, converging on a final design concept called Persona Inclusion for open Source assistive tecHnology Innovation (PISHI). The PISHI concept centers on the representation of family-level dynamics, crucial in the AT domain and design innovation. The thesis develops persona representations for the users of OSSAWS following the PISHI Concept. This thesis presents a rationale for the generalizability of the PISHI concept, which will provide a crucial means for increasing inclusion in Open-Source (OS) Assistive Technology (AT)

The PISHI Concept: A Technique for Increasing Inclusion in the Design of Open-Source Assistive Technologies

This thesis addresses how to make Open-Source (OS) Assistive Technology (AT) more inclusive. The thesis employs a Research Through Design (RtD) methodology on a particular case study: the Switch Activated Writing System (SAWS) that is in transition to an Open-Source project (OSSAWS). Analysis of the literature reveals the potential to leverage persona representations into OS AT. This thesis includes three RtD iterations which focus on successive modifications of persona representations and markdown templating, converging on a final design concept called Persona Inclusion for open Source assistive tecHnology Innovation (PISHI). The PISHI concept centers on the representation of family-level dynamics, crucial in the AT domain and design innovation. The thesis develops persona representations for the users of OSSAWS following the PISHI Concept. This thesis presents a rationale for the generalizability of the PISHI concept, which will provide a crucial means for increasing inclusion in Open-Source (OS) Assistive Technology (AT)

The configuration and experience mapping of an accessible VR environment for effective design reviews

This paper presents a new VR interaction environment for the evaluation of digital prototypes, specifically in designer-client review sessions, and documents its implementation via experience mapping. Usability of VR controllers and basic manipulation remains a barrier for lay users, and a range of typical implementations are reviewed, highlighting the need for an easily accessible interface for this setting. The resulting interface configuration – the Control Carousel – demonstrates how the appropriate use of familiar mechanisms can increase VR accessibility. Three case studies using the Carousel in commercial design projects are described, and the subsequent interface refinements outlined. Finally, the development of an experience map describing the logistical, interactive and emotive factors affecting the Carousel’s implementation, is documented. This provides insights on how experience mapping can be used as part of a human-centred design process to ensure VR environments are attuned to the requirements of users, in this instance delivering improved collaborative reviews

MONUMENTAL-IT: A \u27ROBOTIC-WIKI\u27 MONUMENT FOR EMBODIED INTERACTION IN THE INFORMATION WORLD

ABSTRACT Conventional monuments are concrete manifestations of memories without the capacity to reflect individual interpretations of history. In an increasingly digital society, however, there is a need for configurable monuments reflecting our contemporary, open and complex community. “Monumental-IT” reflects the dynamic and inclusive character of our time. Rather than static, Monumental-IT is a dynamic, robotic, intelligent environment reconfigured or “retuned” by citizens and by historical information accumulating on the World Wide Web. This information is periodically “coded,” altering the multi-sensorial physical-digital “Robotic-Wiki” components of Monumental-IT. Monumental-IT is designed to embody a new form of human-robotic interaction evolving from the monument typology. This research is a response to three questions: What is the monument for a world that is increasingly digital and \u27free\u27?; How can intelligent systems \u27creatively\u27 reconcile current conceptualizations of history with monument‐making?; and, What role can intelligent systems and Human Centered Computing (HCC) play in creating significant, meaningful, physical, urban places for collective memories?. This research involves designing, prototyping, and empirically evaluating Monumental-IT. The research employs a mixed-methodological research design which includes: quasi-experimental design, usability, heuristic evaluations, and cognitive walkthroughs as its research methods; and multivariate statistics to validate significance and usability with real users and experts in the domain fields of \u27architectural-robotics\u27 and human factors psychology. Results strongly suggest that the four distinct configurations of the robotic, multi-sensorial Monumental-IT evoke four distinct emotions in users. As well, users interacting with the Monumental-IT prototype evaluate the design as strongly aiding their recollection of human events (here, the history of slavery in the testbed, Charleston, South Carolina, USA). Finally, users overwhelmingly evaluated the Monumental-IT design to be more apt for our increasingly digital society than conventional monument design. Key contributions are: the identification of metrics for evaluating complex digital-physical environments; the advancement of human-robotic interaction via environmental-scaled robotics and multi-sensorial features (colors, sounds and motions); and, the conceptualization of the monument as a cybernetic system

Design prototyping methods

textProduct development is often modeled as a cycle between phases of designing, building, and testing. This work will explore early stage build efforts of product design, which is also known as prototyping. Prototyping is a critical determinant of product success. Research shows that different approaches to prototyping can greatly affect design outcome. This work provides an integrated overview, and expansion of the existing work on design prototyping methods. Following the introduction, an extensive literature review of design prototyping tools, techniques, and methods is provided. These sources are indexed and comparatively reviewed. The capabilities of a novel hybrid prototyping technique is explored through a design case study. Next, insights from the review are integrated in a context independent prototyping strategy method. The method is developed with heuristics extracted from the literature, and additional insights from experimental studies. The technique is then experimentally evaluated. Finally, results of an extensive study of an online design repository are provided. The results include five key principles for prototype design and fabrication. The presence of these principles in the repository is validated through a novel crowd-sourced online study. The outcome effects of deploying these principles to design teams is experimentally evaluated. Overall, this research provides a guide to prototyping which includes a systematically indexed review and comparison of the existing work, as well as a novel method, and principles for design and fabrication.Mechanical Engineerin

Digital Co-Creation: An Early Stage Product Personalization Methodology to Bridge the User-Designer Void

Modern product development is a complex combination of multidisciplinary processes ranging from market research to design, engineering analysis, and logistics. The product development process has a significant impact on the success or failure of new product launches. The majority of consumer product launches fail, resulting in significant sunk cost in research and development. These failures are commonly due to poor product-market fit which can occur when there is a lack of user involvement in the design process. This background research identified a void between consumer and company which is referred to as the user-designer gap. Mass customization is a form of modern product development that aims to deliver customizable products in an attempt to close the user-designer gap. With a model like this, customers can change material, color, logos, and other modular features on existing products. However, these current mass customization practices fall short of true personalization as they are incapable of adapting form or function of the product to match customer needs. A methodology to address this shortcoming is proposed and is called Digital Co-Creation. Digital Co-Creation aims to harness state-of-art product development tools to create an efficient framework where the user and designer can collaborate to produce a truly personalized product. It does this through two-way communication surrounding results of digital sketching, computer renders, virtual simulations, and augmented reality. This combination of tools to evaluate form and function of the product allow for streamlined development of products with continuous customer feedback. The end result is a product that has been specifically designed and manufactured for the customer at a lower price point than typical bespoke production. A case study was conducted to evaluate the viability of the proposed methodology. For the case study, two contrasting users were presented, and their individual needs were taken into consideration as a unique prosthetic limb was designed for each of them. Finally, the findings were discussed and conclusions about the wider viability of the methodology were made.Key Words: Design Engineering, User-Designer Gap, Product Design, Product Development, Mass Customization, Prostheti

Interactive Machine Learning for User-Innovation Toolkits – An Action Design Research approach

Machine learning offers great potential to developers and end users in the creative industries. However, to better support creative software developers' needs and empower them as machine learning users and innovators, the usability of and developer experience with machine learning tools must be considered and better understood. This thesis asks the following research questions: How can we apply a user-centred approach to the design of developer tools for rapid prototyping with Interactive Machine Learning? In what ways can we design better developer tools to accelerate and broaden innovation with machine learning? This thesis presents a three-year longitudinal action research study that I undertook within a multi-institutional consortium leading the EU H2020 -funded Innovation Action RAPID-MIX. The scope of the research presented here was the application of a user-centred approach to the design and evaluation of developer tools for rapid prototyping and product development with machine learning. This thesis presents my work in collaboration with other members of RAPID-MIX, including design and deployment of a user-centred methodology for the project, interventions for gathering requirements with RAPID-MIX consortium stakeholders and end users, and prototyping, development and evaluation of a software development toolkit for interactive machine learning. This thesis contributes with new understanding about the consequences and implications of a user-centred approach to the design and evaluation of developer tools for rapid prototyping of interactive machine learning systems. This includes 1) new understanding about the goals, needs, expectations, and challenges facing creative machine-learning non-expert developers and 2) an evaluation of the usability and design trade-offs of a toolkit for rapid prototyping with interactive machine learning. This thesis also contributes with 3) a methods framework of User-Centred Design Actions for harmonising User-Centred Design with Action Research and supporting the collaboration between action researchers and practitioners working in rapid innovation actions, and 4) recommendations for applying Action Research and User-Centred Design in similar contexts and scale