Flourishing Trim tabs Designing business models that catalyze strongly sustainable enterprises: An exploration of Design variety using tools for collaborative modelling modes.

Business models are designed - intentionally and/or by default - by factors that affect the way in which the firm operates in relationship to business’ actors, purpose, place and definition of success over time. The business model, when reviewed as a single unit framework, is effective in providing a lens of experimentation for innovation within that firm (Weiller and Neely, 2013). Part of the research being done in business model innovation is how to develop and use a growing library of visualization tools, participatory design methods and systemic design frameworks in combination with well-researched ontologies. In the context of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the pursuit of designing business models with the mission to do good to do well, the tools we use to design with, matter. The tools must allow for the inclusion of participants by adapting to a variety of inquiry modes and cognitive abilities, and support participants in re-framing profit-normative narratives to strongly sustainable business model narratives. In this research I looked to examine the design and development of a dialogic design tool, specific to the Flourishing Business Canvas v2.0 (FBC v2.0), that compliments its use from the perspective of different user cognitive abilities and modes of inquiry. The research questions asked relate to exploring what might be a human centred, systemic design approach to Sustainable Business Model Innovation, and how might we explore the variety of collaborative modelling modes in designing Strongly Sustainable (Flourishing) enterprises? This research frames the Business Model Canvas and aforementioned dialogic design tool as a Graphic User Interface (GUI) in the process of Business Model Innovation. It further hints at the act of modelling, using the tools, as a nascent inquiry into how second-order cybernetics plays out in the exploration of design variety using tools for collaborative modelling modes in the discussion. This is a systemic design research project conducted as design action research. It was enacted via a collaboration between Halmstad University in Sweden and Ghent University in Belgium. It was conducted with the support of the Strategic Innovation Lab (sLab) at OCAD University

e-Archeo. A pilot national project to valorize Italian archaeological parks through digital and virtual reality technologies

Commissioned to ALES spa by the Ministry of Culture (MiC), the e-Archeo project was born with the intention of enhancing and promoting knowledge of some Italian archaeological sites with a considerable narrative potential that has not yet been fully expressed. The main principle that guided the choice of the sites and the contents was of illustrating the various cultures and types of settlements present in the Italian territory. Eight sites were chosen, spread across the national territory from north to south, founded by Etruscans, Greeks, Phoenicians, natives and Romans. e-Archeo has developed multimedia, integrated and multi-channel solutions for various uses and types of audiences, adopting both scientific and narrative and emotional languages. Particular attention was paid to multimedia accessibility, technological sustainability and open science. The e-Archeo project was born from a strong synergy between public entities, research bodies and private industries thanks to the collaboration of MiC and ALES with the CNR ISPC, 10 Italian Universities, 12 Creative Industries and the Italian National Television (RAI). This exceptional and unusual condition made it possible to realise all the project’s high-quality contents and several outputs in only one and a half years

Usability criteria for searching or creating digital educational resources

Con la gran cantidad de recursos educativos digitales disponibles en Internet, el docente se ve obligado a enfrentarse a la búsqueda y selección de recursos educativos, para posteriormente proceder a la adaptación, modificación o mejora de recursos educativos para aplicarlos en el aula según su estrategia didáctica. El docente también podrá optar por crear sus propios recursos educativos. La usabilidad será un criterio esencial para la selección y creación de buenos recursos educativos digitales. El uso intuitivo será un concepto clave para la usabilidad. En este artículo se muestran varias dimensiones relacionadas con la usabilidad de recursos educativos digitales.Due to the growing number of digital educational resources available on the Internet, teachers face the task of searching and selecting educational resources in order to adapt, modify or improve them according to their teaching strategy. Teachers can also choose to create their own educational resources. Usability is an essential criterion for the selection and creation of good digital educational resources. Intuitive use will be a key to usability. This article discusses several dimensions related to usability of digital educational resources

Investigation and development of a tangible technology framework for highly complex and abstract concepts

The ubiquitous integration of computer-supported learning tools within the educational domain has led educators to continuously seek effective technological platforms for teaching and learning. Overcoming the inherent limitations of traditional educational approaches, interactive and tangible computing platforms have consequently garnered increased interest in the pursuit of embedding active learning pedagogies within curricula. However, whilst Tangible User Interface (TUI) systems have been successfully developed to edutain children in various research contexts, TUI architectures have seen limited deployment towards more advanced educational pursuits. Thus, in contrast to current domain research, this study investigates the effectiveness and suitability of adopting TUI systems for enhancing the learning experience of abstract and complex computational science and technology-based concepts within higher educational institutions (HEI)s. Based on the proposal of a contextually apt TUI architecture, the research describes the design and development of eight distinct TUI frameworks embodying innovate interactive paradigms through tabletop peripherals, graphical design factors, and active tangible manipulatives. These computationally coupled design elements are evaluated through summative and formative experimental methodologies for their ability to aid in the effective teaching and learning of diverse threshold concepts experienced in computational science. In addition, through the design and adoption of a technology acceptance model for educational technology (TAM4Edu), the suitability of TUI frameworks in HEI education is empirically evaluated across a myriad of determinants for modelling students’ behavioural intention. In light of the statistically significant results obtained in both academic knowledge gain (μ = 25.8%) and student satisfaction (μ = 12.7%), the study outlines the affordances provided through TUI design for various constituents of active learning theories and modalities. Thus, based on an empirical and pedagogical analyses, a set of design guidelines is defined within this research to direct the effective development of TUI design elements for teaching and learning abstract threshold concepts in HEI adaptations

Instructional eLearning technologies for the vision impaired

The principal sensory modality employed in learning is vision, and that not only increases the difficulty for vision impaired students from accessing existing educational media but also the new and mostly visiocentric learning materials being offered through on-line delivery mechanisms. Using as a reference Certified Cisco Network Associate (CCNA) and IT Essentials courses, a study has been made of tools that can access such on-line systems and transcribe the materials into a form suitable for vision impaired learning. Modalities employed included haptic, tactile, audio and descriptive text. How such a multi-modal approach can achieve equivalent success for the vision impaired is demonstrated. However, the study also shows the limits of the current understanding of human perception, especially with respect to comprehending two and three dimensional objects and spaces when there is no recourse to vision

Context-aware gestural interaction in the smart environments of the ubiquitous computing era

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyTechnology is becoming pervasive and the current interfaces are not adequate for the interaction with the smart environments of the ubiquitous computing era. Recently, researchers have started to address this issue introducing the concept of natural user interface, which is mainly based on gestural interactions. Many issues are still open in this emerging domain and, in particular, there is a lack of common guidelines for coherent implementation of gestural interfaces. This research investigates gestural interactions between humans and smart environments. It proposes a novel framework for the high-level organization of the context information. The framework is conceived to provide the support for a novel approach using functional gestures to reduce the gesture ambiguity and the number of gestures in taxonomies and improve the usability. In order to validate this framework, a proof-of-concept has been developed. A prototype has been developed by implementing a novel method for the view-invariant recognition of deictic and dynamic gestures. Tests have been conducted to assess the gesture recognition accuracy and the usability of the interfaces developed following the proposed framework. The results show that the method provides optimal gesture recognition from very different view-points whilst the usability tests have yielded high scores. Further investigation on the context information has been performed tackling the problem of user status. It is intended as human activity and a technique based on an innovative application of electromyography is proposed. The tests show that the proposed technique has achieved good activity recognition accuracy. The context is treated also as system status. In ubiquitous computing, the system can adopt different paradigms: wearable, environmental and pervasive. A novel paradigm, called synergistic paradigm, is presented combining the advantages of the wearable and environmental paradigms. Moreover, it augments the interaction possibilities of the user and ensures better gesture recognition accuracy than with the other paradigms

Identifying core knowledge and skill sets for model curricula: update

This deliverable presents state of the art in curriculum development work, and compares IDCnet to it. Next it discusses the methodology followed to identify key knowledge and skill sets for Design for All. The categories of knowledge thus identified are organised into a taxonomy with examples given for each category and subcategory along with a set of learning outcomes. The purpose of the taxonomy is to structure the knowledge. As this deliverable was a ‘living’ document, and as further activities have taken place since this deliverable was first submitted, this version includes a substantially expanded chapter 5, incorporating comments from: the project review process; the new members of IDCnet; the second IDCnet workshop; as well as comments received from colleagues in response to dissemination activities at conferences. The categories and subcategories of the taxonomy remain unchanged, but further topics and examples have been added to illustrate and clarify the use and range of each category. Finally, the next steps in the IDCnet WP3 strategy are briefly described

Gamification of assembly planning in virtual environment

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of the gamification of virtual assembly planning on the user performance, user experience and engagement. / Design/methodology/approach: A multi-touch table was used to manipulate virtual parts and gamification features were integrated into the virtual assembly environment. An experiment was conducted in two conditions: a gamified and a non-gamified virtual environment. Subjects had to assemble a virtual pump. The user performance was evaluated in terms of the number of errors, the feasibility of the generated assembly sequence and the user feedback. / Findings: The gamification reduced the number of errors and increased the score representing the number of right decisions. The results of the subjective and objective analysis showed that the number of errors decreased with engagement in the gamified assembly. The increase in the overall user experience reduced the number of errors. The subjective evaluation showed a significant difference between the gamified and the non-gamified assembly in terms of the level of engagement, the learning usability and the overall experience. / Research limitations/implications: The effective learning retention after training has not been tested, and longitudinal studies are necessary. The effect of the used gamification elements has been evaluated as a whole; further work could isolate the most beneficial features and add other elements that might be more beneficial for learning. / Originality/value: The research reported in this paper provides valuable insights into the gamification of virtual assembly using a low-cost multi-touch interface. The results are promising for training operators to assemble a product at the design stage

Human-Computer Interaction

In this book the reader will find a collection of 31 papers presenting different facets of Human Computer Interaction, the result of research projects and experiments as well as new approaches to design user interfaces. The book is organized according to the following main topics in a sequential order: new interaction paradigms, multimodality, usability studies on several interaction mechanisms, human factors, universal design and development methodologies and tools