Knowledge exchange methods in practice:knowing how to design for older adults

Complex design challenges exist in designing for a dynamic and ageing world. Designing for older adults is a timely and important issue. Understanding user requirements is vital and the appropriate exchange of this knowledge is crucial in the pursuit of supportive, sustainable buildings and the longevity of built-environment design. Capturing reflections from Built Environment Professionals (BEPs) in the UK, this paper investigates the practitioners’ viewpoint on knowledge exchange by specifically focusing on the scenario of designing for the requirements of older people. Thematic analysis of BEP conversations (n=10) and the results from a questionnaire (N=35) are presented. Findings uncover recommendations towards the enhancement of knowledge exchange. They highlight the fundamentals of good communication, the desire for structured knowledge, the value of contextual guidance, the importance of a visual format for BEPs, and the need for forms of guidance to support client motivations. The design process can be enabled by equipping practitioners with information about user requirements. Interestingly, it was also found that BEPs find value in direct user-engagement although further support tools for these engagements with building users was desired. Appropriate exchange of knowledge is essential for effective ‘real-world’ design impact. These findings, built from the scenario of designing for older adults, also apply to the broader context of all guidance used by Built Environment Professionals

Towards a Flexible User-Centred Visual Presentation Approach

Leveraging the power of flexible visual presentations has become an effective way to aid information interpretation, decision making and problem solving. It is indispensable to address the high complexities with visualization problems and relieve the impact from the intrinsic limitations of human cognitive capacity. Addressing these problems raises demanding requirements for information presentation flexibility. However, many existing visualization systems tend to provide weak support for such flexibility due to the issue of closely coupled information representation and presentation in system designs. This issue limits their support for rich presentation options, flexible presentation integration and reusability, and vivid storytelling of data. To help with addressing these problems, issues and requirements, this paper generalizes typical presentation models to provide paradigm level support for achieving presentation flexibility, and identifies key requirements for presentation development to accomplish the flexibility at a system level. With articulating the requirements at both paradigm and system levels, the paper proposes a user-centred process to realize presentation flexibility by meeting both functional and cognitive requirements for information presentation. The proposed theory is validated against a real-world business case and applied to guide the development of a prototypical system, which is demonstrated through a sequence of scenario-driven illustrations

Towards a Framework for Visual Intelligence in Service Robotics:Epistemic Requirements and Gap Analysis

A key capability required by service robots operating in real-world, dynamic environments is that of Visual Intelligence, i.e., the ability to use their vision system, reasoning components and background knowledge to make sense of their environment. In this paper, we analyse the epistemic requirements for Visual Intelligence, both in a top-down fashion, using existing frameworks for human-like Visual Intelligence in the literature, and from the bottom up, based on the errors emerging from object recognition trials in a real-world robotic scenario. Finally, we use these requirements to evaluate current Knowledge Basesfor Service Robotics and to identify gaps in the support they provide for Visual Intelligence.These gaps provide the basis of a research agenda for developing more effective knowledge representations for Visual Intelligence

Assessing User Requirements for an Automated System to Support Programmed Depot Maintenance through Use of a Rapid Prototype in a Group Support System Environment

The purpose of this thesis was to assess user requirements for an automated information system to support programmed depot maintenance (PDM). To accomplish this, the Integrated Technical Information for the Air Logistics Centers (ITI-ALC) program\u27s rapid prototype was evaluated. The evaluation focused on users\u27 perception of how well the prototype met system and human computer interface requirements for PDM technicians and managers. A group support system (GSS) was used as an analysis tool to evaluate the prototype and collect evaluation data. Using the prototype as a requirements baseline for the ITI-ALC system, this thesis had three objectives: to perform an assessment of the prototype and illicit modifications; to determine prototype compatibility with user\u27s needs; and to investigate using OSS for prototype analysis. A total of seven users composed of PDM technicians and supervisors evaluated the prototype by following a scenario, and documenting their ideas using the GSS. Results indicate the prototype functionally meets user\u27s requirements, however suggested modifications to enhance the prototype and gain more user acceptance. Results also indicate that a 055 is effective and efficient for performing prototype analysis. The primary recommendation was to make suggested changes and perform further tests to refine the ITI-ALC system baseline

SMA -- The Smyle Modeling Approach

This paper introduces the model-based software development lifecycle model SMA -- the Smyle Modeling Approach -- which is centered around Smyle. Smyle is a dedicated learning procedure to support engineers to interactively obtain design models from requirements, characterized as either being desired (positive) or unwanted (negative) system behavior. Within SMA, the learning approach is complemented by so-called scenario patterns where the engineer can specify clearly desired or unwanted behavior. This way, user interaction is reduced to the interesting scenarios limiting the design effort considerably. In SMA, the learning phase is further complemented by an effective analysis phase that allows for detecting design flaws at an early design stage. Using learning techniques allows us to gradually develop and refine requirements, naturally supporting evolving requirements, and allows for a rather inexpensive redesign in case anomalous system behavior is detected during analysis, testing, or maintenance. This paper describes the approach and reports on first practical experiences

SMA -- The Smyle Modeling Approach

This paper introduces the model-based software development lifecycle model SMA -- the Smyle Modeling Approach -- which is centered around Smyle. Smyle is a dedicated learning procedure to support engineers to interactively obtain design models from requirements, characterized as either being desired (positive) or unwanted (negative) system behavior. Within SMA, the learning approach is complemented by so-called scenario patterns where the engineer can specify clearly desired or unwanted behavior. This way, user interaction is reduced to the interesting scenarios limiting the design effort considerably. In SMA, the learning phase is further complemented by an effective analysis phase that allows for detecting design flaws at an early design stage. Using learning techniques allows us to gradually develop and refine requirements, naturally supporting evolving requirements, and allows for a rather inexpensive redesign in case anomalous system behavior is detected during analysis, testing, or maintenance. This paper describes the approach and reports on first practical experiences

Plate-like Buckling Resistance of Longitudinally Stiffened Plates Subjected to Pure Compression

Plate buckling resistance calculation of orthotropic plates and the determination of the effective width is highly important in the design of bridges. The current effective width calculation method provided by the EN 1993-1-5 [1] is developed for I-sections subjected to bending. Previous research results proved that the application of the plate buckling curve can overestimate the buckling resistance in case of square box sections subjected to pure compression. It means, that the required safety level of the Eurocode is not fulfilled for buckling resistance of plates in compression. Several previous studies proved the unconservatism of the EN 1993-1-5 for this special case, where the plate has no support coming from the adjacent plates. The question arises, if the above mentioned calculation process also leads to unsafe resistances for other structural details, or this is the specialty of the analyzed worst case scenario. Longitudinally stiffened plates (bottom flange of steel box sections) subjected to pure compression could be also a worst case scenario, because they are not supported by adjacent plates and they are loaded by pure compression. Therefore, the current research focuses on the investigation of longitudinally stiffened orthotropic plates loaded by pure compression and investigates (1) the plate-like buckling resistance, (2) the applicability of the Winter curve and (3) determines the necessary partial safety factor according to the safety requirements of the Eurocode. In the present paper the results of an extensive numerical research program are introduced and the applicability of the Winter curve is evaluated based on the safety requirements of the Eurocode