Developing Digital Media Platforms for Early Design

In recent times, mobile devices are becoming an integral part of our daily life. Software applications on these handheld devices are successfully migrating the traditional paper-based activities such as reading news, books, and even navigating through maps, onto the digital medium. While these applications allow information access anywhere and anytime, there is still a necessity for repurposing these digital media to support content/information creation especially in domains such as industrial design where paper-based activities are common. To utilize direct-touch tablets for collaborative conceptual design, we studied their affordances and iteratively developed a web-based wiki system, named skWiki. In this thesis, we first report an evaluation of the impact of utilizing a capacitive stylus for tracing and sketching on direct-touch tablets. This study uncovers the differences in quantitative and qualitative performance of the tablet medium compared to the paper medium when using a stylus (pen) or finger input for both tracing and sketching. While paper performed better overall, we found that the tablet medium, when used with a capacitive stylus, performed comparably to the paper medium for sketching tasks. These findings can guide sketch application designers in developing an appropriate interaction design for various input methods. In order to explore the advantages of the ubiquity of information generated on digital media, we developed Sketchbox, an Android application for sketching and sharing ideas using Dropbox as the storage cloud. An evaluation of the usage patterns of this application in a collaborative toy design scenario provided necessary guidelines for developing the skWiki system. skWiki overcomes the drawbacks of traditional wiki software, that are used as design repositories, by providing a rich editor infrastructure for sketching, text editing, and image editing. Apart from these features, skWiki provides a higher degree of freedom in sharing (cloning, branching, and merging) different versions of a sketch at various data granularities by introducing the concept of paths for maintaining revisions in a collaborative design process. We evaluated the utility of skWiki through a user study by comparing constrained and unconstrained sharing models. Furthermore, skWiki was used by the students of toy design and product design courses for both collaborative ideation and design activities. We discuss the findings and qualitative feedback from the evaluation of skWiki, and potential features for the next version of this tool

Immersive Serious Games for Learning Physics

Gaming in Virtual Reality has been growing at a rapid pace in the last decade with the proliferation of affordable head mounted displays (HMDs) and development frameworks. There has been a lot of research regarding user’s spatial mapping, selection and orientation in VR, but so far not a lot of work has been done to measure performance on widgets used for other actions. In this document I aim to analyze two widgets, World in Miniature(WIM) and an isometric 2D display, in a common task in gaming: aiming and shooting at a long distance target. We measured performance from a quantitative perspective by measuring average aiming time and error rate between the widgets, and gathered user feedback to understand which widget the users preferred based on usability and perceived performance. The measured performance showed a significant difference in the error rate between the isometric 2D display and the baseline, but not with the WIM. The qualitative analysis showed that users were confident about their enjoyment of the WIM but more polarized about their opinion on the isometric 2D display. The results can be considered as a starting point to a broader discussion on spatial interaction. In particular we suggest that the importance of operation and manipulation ability of a widget might be more important than the information displayed on the widget itself

Impact of charrettes and their characteristics on achieved LEED certification

2013 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.Charrettes are collaborative, interdisciplinary workshops. They are a commonly used process in the design phases of sustainable building projects and are often used in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified building projects. Charrettes are implemented to increase collaboration and communication across different building professionals and stakeholders. However, it is unclear what specific outcomes of the charrette process are and what factors may contribute to the overall success of green building projects. The study seeks to answer what impact charrettes and their characteristics have on LEED certified building projects? It uses LEED points awarded as a metric. Using a focus group, characteristics of charrette processes were identified. These characteristics were presented in a qualitative survey distributed to professionals involved with 177 projects certified using LEED for New Construction (NC) v2009. Looking broadly at the charrette process and its impact on the number of LEED points achieved revealed a significant positive relationship between LEED points and the implementation of charrettes. Correlation and regression analysis were used to examine the relationship of individual charrette characteristics to LEED points achieved. A significant negative correlation (p<.05) was discovered between three separate characteristics which, in-turn, negatively impacted LEED points achieved. Results suggest the charrette process has the potential to provide significant benefits regardless of characteristics implemented, but that to fully realize this benefit, the charrette should not include factors that limit a group's ability to produce creative ideas, goals, and solutions

Tools and Methods to Analyze Multimodal Data in Collaborative Design Ideation

Collaborative design ideation is typically characterized by informal acts of sketching, annotation, and discussion. Designers have always used the pencil-and-paper medium for this activity, partly because of the flexibility of the medium, and partly because the ambiguous and ill-defined nature of conceptual design cannot easily be supported by computers. However, recent computational tools for conceptual design have leveraged the availability of hand-held computing devices for creating and sharing ideas. In order to provide computer support for collaborative ideation in a way that augments traditional media rather than imitates it, it is necessary to study the affordances made available by digital media for this process, and to study designers\u27 cognitive and collaborative processes when using such media. In this thesis, we present tools and methods to help make sense of unstructured verbal and sketch data generated during collaborative design, with a view to better understand these collaborative and cognitive processes. This thesis has three main contributions

Improving Requirements Generation Thoroughness in User-Centered Workshops: The Role of Prompting and Shared User Stories

The rise of stakeholder centered software development has led to organizations engaging users early in the development process to help define system requirements. To facilitate user involvement in the requirements elicitation process, companies can use Group Support Systems (GSS) to conduct requirements elicitation workshops. The effectiveness of these workshops for generating a valuable set of requirements for system developers has been previously demonstrated. However, a more representative measure of progress towards a system that will meet users’ needs-- the completeness of the requirements generated by such groups has not been explored. We explore two process design considerations for increasing the completeness of requirements generated by these users: increased sharing of user stories (individual electronic brainstorming groups vs. shared user stories electronic brainstorming groups), and the use of reflective inducement prompts (unprompted vs. prompted groups). Using the Search for Ideas in Active Memory model, we predict that prompted electronic brainstorming groups will outperform any other group, including prompted, shared user stories groups at generating a more thorough set of requirements. To test the hypotheses an experiment with 56 groups consisting of 197 users was conducted. The users were asked to generate requirements for a fictitious online textbook exchange website. All hypotheses received support. The study has implications for GSS-Supported workshop design and for future research on collaborative performance in requirements elicitation

Creative management: theoretical foundations

У сучасному динамічному житті нові непередбачувані події, що відбуваються все більше і більше, повалюють, або приносять успіх і процвітання, або порушують життєвий шлях та діяльність багатьох людей, організацій, країн, регіонів. Наша неспроможність сприймати випадкові непрограмовані події обумовлена ​​тим, що результатом традиційної освіти є вміння логічно відображати та аналізувати інформацію. Для успішної роботи в умовах збільшення непередбачуваності та розбіжностей соціально-економічного розвитку необхідно, крім інфологічної парадигми сприйняття навколишнього світу, оволодіти парадигмою осягнення та творчої роботи. У цьому креативному менеджменті є способи та методи переключення тренінгів менеджерів, інженерів, підприємців на рівень конструктивного креативного мислення та активності шляхом поєднання логіки та евристичності. Монографія призначена для студентів та аспірантів, докторантів, керівників інструкторів та практиків менеджменту в економічній сфері, інженерних кадрів, усіх, хто хоче активно та цілеспрямовано працювати для процвітання своєї організації та творчого розвитку особистості. Це оригінальний ключ до розуміння сучасності та бачення майбутнього сучасної організації та соціально-економічного розвитку в цілому шляхом активізації гуманної творчої діяльності людини.В современной динамичной жизни происходят новые непредсказуемые события, все более свершающие, либо приносящие успех и процветание, либо нарушающие жизненный путь и деятельность многих людей, организаций, стран, регионов. Наша неготовность воспринимать случайные непрограммируемые события обусловлена ​​тем, что результатом традиционного образования является способность логически отражать и анализировать информацию. Для того, чтобы успешно работать в условиях повышения непредсказуемости и несоответствия социально-экономического развития, помимо парадигмы восприятия окружающего мира необходимо освоить парадигму понимания и творчества. В этом креативном менеджменте есть способы и способы переключения обучения менеджеров, инженеров, предпринимателей на уровень конструктивного творческого мышления и деятельности посредством сочетания логики и эвристики. Монография, предназначенная для студентов и аспирантов, докторантов, управленческих инструкторов и практиков менеджмента в экономической сфере, инженерных кадров, всех, кто хочет активно и целенаправленно работать ради процветания своей организации и творческого развития личности. Это оригинальный ключ к пониманию настоящего и видению будущего современной организации и социально-экономического развития в целом за счет активизации гуманной творческой деятельности человека.In a modern dynamic life new unpredictable events occurring more and more, overthrowing, either bringing success and prosperity or breaking a course of life and activity of many people, organizations, countries, regions. Our unreadiness to perceive random nonprogrammable events is caused by that the result of traditional education is ability to logically reflect and analyze the information. In order to work successfully under the conditions of increase of unpredictability and discrepancy of social and economic development, it is necessary besides infological paradigm of perception of the world around to master the paradigm of comprehension and creative work. In this creative management there are ways and methods of switching over of training of managers, engineers, entrepreneurs to level of constructive creative thinking and activity by way of combination of logic and heuristicity. The monograph meant for under- and postgraduate students, doctoral candidates, management instructors and practitioners of management in the economic sphere, engineering personnel, everybody who wants to work actively and purposefully for prosperity of one’s organization and personality creative development. This is an original key to understanding of the present and vision of the future of a modern organization and socioeconomic development on the whole through activation of humane creative activity of the person

The Effects of STEM Activities Conducted with the Flipped Learning Model on Primary School Students’ Scientific Creativity, Attitudes and Perceptions towards STEM

The aim of this study is to determine the effects of STEM activities carried out with the flipped learning model within the scope of science class on the scientific creativity, perceptions about STEM, and attitudes towards STEM of 4th grade primary school students and to reveal students’ opinions about the learning process. The sample of this study consisted of 57 fourth grade students attending a public primary school in a city center in the Eastern Black Sea region in the spring semester of the 2021-2022 academic year. Mixed method was used in the study. Quasi-experimental method with experimental and control groups was used in the quantitative dimension of the study, and case study was used in the qualitative dimension. In the study, data were collected using the “Scientific Creativity Scale”, “STEM Attitude Scale”, “STEM Perception Test” and a “semi-structured interview form” developed by the researcher. SPSS 21 package program was used to analyze the collected quantitative data and content analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data. The quantitative results of the study revealed that STEM activities conducted with the Flipped Learning Model had a positive effect on students’ scientific creativity levels and STEM perceptions, but had no effect on their attitudes towards STEM. The qualitative results of the study revealed that students mostly found the activities useful, instructive and fun. In line with the results obtained from the study, the use of STEM activities supported by the Flipped Learning model is recommended at all levels of education

Idea selection in design teams: a computational framework and insights in the presence of influencers

Idea selection is crucial in design as it impacts the outcome of a project. A collaborative design activity could be considered as a social process where the interactions and individual states (such as the importance in the team and self-efficacy level) could affect decision-making. It is often seen in design teams that some individuals, referred to as 'influencers' in the article have more capacity to influence than others, hence they govern the team process for better or worse. Due to the limited work done in the past to study the effect of these influencers on design outcomes, the work aims at increasing the understanding by presenting some insights from its agent-based simulation. The simulation results show how different influencer team compositions affect design outcomes in terms of quality and exploration of the solutions. The idea selection starts with the agents who are ready with their solution in their 'mind'. The work presented in this article describes a framework for simulating decision-making during idea selection by considering the influencer and majority effect. The empirical study presented in the article verifies the model logic, that is, the presence of influencer and the majority during idea selection and supports the assumption that individuals' agreement on solutions proposed by other team members depends on the degree of influence and past agreement. The results of the simulation show that teams with well-defined influencers produced solutions with higher variety and had more uniform contributions from team members, but also produced solutions of lower quality