Participatory Scenario Generation: Communicating Usability Issues in Product Design through User Involvement in Scenario Generation\ud

Scenarios have proven to be a valuable tool in evaluating and communicating usability issues in consumer product design. Scenarios are explicit descriptions of hypothetical use situations. Realistic scenarios can serve as a valuable frame of reference to evaluate design solutions with regard to usability. To be able to achieve this required level of realism, involving users in scenario generation is essential. In this presentation we discuss how and where users can be involved in a scenario based product design process by means of examples of design projects that were executed by master students Industrial Design Engineering of the University of Twente. \ud \ud We distinguish direct and indirect scenario generation. In direct scenario generation the user is actively involved in a participatory scenario generation session: the scenarios are created together with users. Indirect scenario generation is an approach in which scenarios are created by designers based on common analysis techniques like observations and interviews. These scenarios are then offered to users for confirmation. Both types of user involvement in scenario generation can be aimed at either current use scenarios which describe the current situation or future use scenarios which include a new product design. \ud \ud The examples show that all strategies can be applied successfully to create realistic scenarios. Which strategy to choose depends among others upon risks and privacy issues, occurrence of infrequent events and availability of users. Furthermore, the variety of approaches shows that there is still a lot to explore with regard to benefits and limitations of the many techniques that can be applied in generating scenarios for consumer product design. We hope to contribute to this field by means of the research in our group and the work of students in the SBPD course\u

Tracing the Scenarios in Scenario-Based Product Design: a study to support scenario generation

Scenario-based design originates from the human-computer interaction and\ud software engineering disciplines, and continues to be adapted for product development. Product development differs from software development in the former’s more varied context of use, broader characteristics of users and more tangible solutions. The possible use of scenarios in product design is therefore broader and more challenging. Existing design methods that involve scenarios can be employed in many different stages of the product design process. However, there is no proficient overview that discusses a\ud scenario-based product design process in its full extent. The purposes of creating scenarios and the evolution of scenarios from their original design data are often not obvious, although the results from using scenarios are clearly visible. Therefore, this paper proposes to classify possible scenario uses with their purpose, characteristics and supporting design methods. The classification makes explicit different types of scenarios and their relation to one another. Furthermore, novel scenario uses can be referred or added to the classification to develop it in parallel with the scenario-based design\ud practice. Eventually, a scenario-based product design process could take inspiration for creating scenarios from the classification because it provides detailed characteristics of the scenario

Future user-product arrangements: combining product impact and scenarios in design for multi age success

The presence of four generations in business and organisations and the prevalence of ever-evolving technology, pose questions for technology design; a much wider range of user-product arrangements needs to be forecast and designed for. To provide a theoretical framework that accommodates the need to forecast product appeal for various age groups and contexts this paper compares and combines the dual use of scenarios from scenario based design and scenario planning with the approach of technical mediation in the philosophy of technology. It introduces ‘scenario based design’ and ‘scenario planning’ as well as ‘mediation theory’ and specifically the ‘product impact model’. In scenario based design direct product impact can be used for drawing and evaluating scenarios with a focus how ways of doing are directed and changed by products. In scenario planning indirect product impacts are helpful. Utopian/dystopian conceptions of technology help to draw extreme scenarios, while historical patterns in sociotechnical evolution guide the evaluation and definition of realistic forecasts. Our examples suggest that these effects may just as well go in the direction of augmenting the divide between generations, and full attention is called for to prevent or solve thi

Evaluation of Prototypes and the Problem of Possible Futures

There is a blind spot in HCI’s evaluation methodology: we rarely consider the implications of the fact that a prototype can never be fully evaluated in a study. A prototype under study exists firmly in the present world, in the circumstances created in the study, but its real context of use is a partially unknown future state of affairs. This present–future gap is implicit in any evaluation of prototypes, be they usability tests, controlled experiments, or field trials. A carelessly designed evaluation may inadvertently evaluate the wrong futures, contexts, or user groups, thereby leading to false conclusions and expensive design failures. The essay analyses evaluation methodology from this perspective, illuminating how to mitigate the present–future gap.Peer reviewe

Enabling the Usability Heuristics of Agile Base Systems to Improve Quality of Local Software Industry

Many agile software development practices are promoted to improve the quality of software products. In recent years agile software development overlooked the usability features that effected system productivity.Usability is a main feature of interaction. Interaction is a way of a farming relationship between people and designed objects. An interactive model provides the way to band application together to achieve target user’s need. Usability gained attention of researchers and engineers because of its own importance. Agile software methods and usability engineering played a major role for producing better and reliable products, because both of them are concepts of methods as well as practices. The purpose of this research was to highlight the need of usability practices. The proposed model demonstrates that usability heuristics were much compatible with agile methodologies and would help to improve its productivity by reducing time and cost. Action research was applied for the development of framework proposed. The framework was evaluated using case study and further results were compared with existing related work

Aplicações de IoT no contexto de uma cidade inteligente

Over the last few years, Smart City solutions mature very rapidly alongside IoT and cloud computing. These technologies made it easier to create services and incorporate applications devoted to improving citizen’s quality of life and offer ways for businesses to implement their solutions. Through rapid advances in the quality of sensors, new methods emerged, combining different types of devices to create a better picture of the environment. The purpose of this dissertation is to provide useful information thought public services, that can be accessed by people visiting or residing in the beach area of Costa Nova and Barra. It also provides a solution for the traffic classification problem that projects based on radar data tend to face. These applications take advantage of the devices implemented in the PASMO project, such as parking sensors, radars, and CCTV cameras. By making the service public, businesses have the opportunity to build applications on top of it, utilizing the sensor data without being directly connected to the data storage. The example developed in this dissertation offers a dashboard experience where users can navigate through charts that provide a variety of data and real-time maps. It also provides a public API that researchers and businesses can use to develop new applications in the context of PASMO. The other area tackled in this document is traffic classification. Although the data provided is reliable for the most part, one big issue is the accuracy of vehicle classification provided by the radar. Still, this device offers precise values when it comes to detection, with the cameras doing a good job in classifying traffic. The goal is to combine these two devices to present much precise information, using state-of-the-art object detection algorithms and sensor fusion methods. In the end, the system will enrich the PASMO project by making its data easily available to the public while correcting the accuracy problems of some devices.Nos últimos anos, as soluções Smart City amadurecem muito rapidamente em conjunto com IoT e serviços na cloud. Estas tecnologias facilitam a criação de serviços e a incorporação de aplicações direcionados á melhoria da qualidade de vida do cidadão, oferecendo formas das empresas implementarem suas soluções. Por meio de rápidos avanços na qualidade dos sensores, novos métodos surgiram, combinando diferentes tipos de dispositivos para criar uma melhor imagem da realidade. O objetivo desta dissertação é fornecer informações úteis através de serviços públicos, que podem ser acedidos por pessoas que visitam ou residem na Costa Nova e Barra. Também fornece uma solução para o problema de classificação de tráfego que projetos baseados em dados de radar tendem a enfrentar. Estas aplicações beneficiam dos dispositivos implementados no projeto PASMO, como sensores de estacionamento, radares e câmeras de CFTV. Ao disponibilizar os serviços publicamente, as empresas têm a oportunidade de construir as suas próprias aplicações em cima destes, usando os dados dos sensores sem estar diretamente conectado ao armazenamento de dados. O exemplo desenvolvido nesta dissertação oferece uma experiência de dashboard onde os utilizadores podem navegar por gráficos que fornecem uma variedade de dados e mapas em tempo real. Também fornece uma API pública que os investigadores e empresas podem usar para desenvolver novos aplicativos no contexto do PASMO. A outra área abordada neste documento é a classificação de tráfego. Embora os dados fornecidos sejam confiáveis, um grande problema provém da precisão da classificação dos veículos fornecida pelo radar. Ainda assim, este dispositivo oferece valores precisos quando se trata de detecção, com as câmeras fazendo um bom trabalho na parte de classificação do tráfego. O objetivo é combinar estes dois dispositivos para apresentar informações corretas, usando algoritmos de detecção de objetos e métodos de fusão de sensores. No final, o sistema irá enriquecer o projeto PASMO, tornando seus dados facilmente disponíveis ao público e corrigindo problemas de precisão de alguns dispositivos.Mestrado em Engenharia de Computadores e Telemátic