Documenting Downloadable Assistive Technologies

This major research project explores Downloadable Assistive Technologies (DAT) and the possibilities as well as the limitations of publishing and fabricating DAT through online 3D printing communities. A design probe was used for this research within the context of Thingiverse, in the form of a 3D printed dog wheelchair design probe – the FiGO Dog Wheelchair. FiGO enabled an exploration of issues of design and communication of DAT. Through research involving both end users as well as a health professional, as well as interactions within the FiGO project page on Thingiverse, criteria for communicating DAT published on Thingiverse were developed, and a second FiGO project page reflecting these criteria was prototyped and evaluated. It is concluded that DAT could potentially benefit most greatly from a structured set of guidelines of use and communication of risks in the form of a design brief, and that there are specific considerations to developing a meaningful design brief for DAT including: 1) Tell the story of the design, 2) Do not make assumptions about the end user, 3) Clear instruction about the design use, 4) Inclusion of source files to enable user participation and extension of the design

Analysis and Comparison of Representative Locations in the General Makerspace Panorama

The present thesis analyzes and compares a selection of different makerspaces and provides a measurement system to assess the effect of MakerSpace and its community on its users. Chapter 1 presents the goals and motivations of the study. It also describes the overall structure of the work. Chapter 2 introduces the concept of maker movement. It tackles the triggers of the maker movement, its growth and the impact it has on different areas. Chapter 3 defines the figure of the maker and distinguishes between the existing types of makers. The chapter closes with the presentation of three characteristic maker personas. Chapter 5 studies the existing types of makerspaces and explains the differences between them. The chapter also includes the analysis of a selection of nine representative makerspaces with different characteristics, and develops a system to compare said spaces qualitatively within a common background. It is followed by Chapter 6, which presents the questionnaires prepared and delivered in order to measure the overall effect of MakerSpace on its users.The obtained results of Chapters 5 and 6 are discussed in Chapter 7. This chapter also summarizes the difficulties encountered during the realization of the investigation