Lessons from Green Lanes: Evaluating Protected Bike Lanes in the U.S.

This report presents finding from research evaluating U.S. protected bicycle lanes (cycle tracks) in terms of their use, perception, benefits, and impacts. This research examines protected bicycle lanes in five cities: Austin, TX; Chicago, IL; Portland, OR; San Francisco, CA; and Washington, D.C., using video, surveys of intercepted bicyclists and nearby residents, and count data. A total of 168 hours were analyzed in this report where 16,393 bicyclists and 19,724 turning and merging vehicles were observed. These data were analyzed to assess actual behavior of bicyclists and motor vehicle drivers to determine how well each user type understands the design of the facility and to identify potential conflicts between bicyclists, motor vehicles and pedestrians. City count data from before and after installation, along with counts from video observation, were used to analyze change in ridership. A resident survey (n=2,283 or 23% of those who received the survey in the mail) provided the perspective of people who live, drive, and walk near the new lanes, as well as residents who bike on the new lanes. A bicyclist intercept survey (n= 1,111; or 33% of those invited to participate) focused more on people's experiences riding in the protected lanes. A measured increase was observed in ridership on all facilities after the installation of the protected cycling facilities, ranging from +21% to +171%. Survey data indicates that 10% of current riders switched from other modes, and 24% shifted from other bicycle routes

Shadow TUAV Single Operator Consolidation : Display Assessment

Currently, Shadow UAV operations require two people: the Air Vehicle Operator (AVO) and the Mission Payload Operator (MPO). A previous workload study demonstrated that it is possible to combine these two positions such that one person can assume both roles (Appendix A). However, to achieve this consolidation, improved displays in terms of usability and increased automated functionality will be necessary to keep the workload of the single operator to acceptable levels. To demonstrate the types of changes that will need to occur for successful AVO and MPO consolidation, this report focuses on display and automation improvements in the following three areas: systems management, vehicle situation awareness, and payload operations. For each of these areas, a previous display has either been designed or improved upon, always applying human factors design principles. Each of these display redesigns exemplifies how operator workload can be decreased, as well as improve overall mission capability

Encouraging Engagement with Therapeutic Landscapes: Using Transparent Spaces to Optimize Stress Reduction in Urban Health Facilities

Large hospitals are being built in the way that divorces patients from the natural environments (i.e., daylight, natural ventilation and therapeutic landscapes) (Verderber & Fine, 2000). Empirical research on this subject suggests that patients experience physical environment-related stress in such settings due to lack of control and insufficient connectivity with the exterior world (Ulrich et al., 2004). On the other hand, nature has been proven therapeutic in many ways, such as in reducing mental fatigue (Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989), reducing stress (Ulrich, 1999), reducing pain (Vincent, 2009). Although gardens are seeing a revival in hospitals in the recent decade, issues of the inadequate usability of healing gardens in general hospitals are emerging, primarily yields to twofold aspects: low visibility, and difficulties of accessibility (Pasha, 2010; Cooper-Marcus, 2007). This study aimed to reappraise landscape and architectural design patterns that can be used to address the current disconnect existing between therapeutic landscapes and architectural interiors within urban healthcare environments. The theory of transparency, initially presented by architecture theorists (Rowe & Slutzky, 1997; Hoesli, 1997), that expressed a type of continuous space with blurred boundaries between interiors and exteriors, was operationalized in this investigation to describe a continuum of flow between architecture and therapeutic landscapes within healthcare environments. Twelve patterns of design considerations that can encourage such an experience were derived and reshaped from the pattern language of town, buildings and construction (Alexander et al, 1977) and the typology study of hospital outdoor environments (Cooper-Marcus & Sachs, 2013). Then, the stress-reducing effects of one selected pattern, \u27therapeutic viewing place\u27, were rigorously tested using Evidence-Based Design strategies. It tested and compared the stress-reducing effects of transparent hospital waiting area with two other typical design patterns - total exclusion of nature, and with limited window views of nature. Methodologically, the study developed an integrative method for exploring and quantifying the stress-reducing effect of transparent spaces by combining psychophysiological measurements, mood states survey and preference study in a quasi-experimental study. Furthermore, the potential links between environmental perception, people\u27s stress levels, and mood states were also explored by using the mixed method. Eventually, this study contributed to a larger body of literature that discussed the people-nature relationship within healthcare environments, and presented preliminary design guidelines in correspondence to the selected design patterns of transparent space

Communication with motion in user interface

Motion communication makes better user experiences. Animations in user interfaces are not just a visual experience. Motion has a lot of power over where the user is looking and it should be used to guide the user. This thesis is for graphic designers or anyone who wants to understand the user and therefore make better design and communication. This thesis includes topics like human computer interaction, user psychology, user experience and animation that form the basis of motion communication.Liikkeellä kommunikointi parantaa käyttäjäkokemusta. Käyttöliittymässä olevat animaatiot eivät ole vain visuaalinen kokemus. Liikkeellä on ennen kaikkea suuri vaikutus siihen, mihin käyttäjä kiinnittää huomiota. Liikkeen tarkoitus on ohjata käyttäjää käyttöliittymissä. Tämä tutkielma on suunnattu graafisen alan suunnittelijoille tai niille, jotka haluavat ymmärtää paremmin käyttäjää ja lisäksi samalla tehdä parempia kommunikaatioratkaisuja. Tämän tutkielman sisältöön kuuluvat myös ihmisen ja koneen välinen kommunikointi, käyttäjäpsykologia, käyttäjäkokemus sekä animaatio. Nämä aiheet ovat liikekommunikaation pohja-aineistoa

The Economics of Color: A Null Result

Color research has a long tradition in psychology, consumer behavior, and marketing research. The literature suggests that exposure to colors influences mood and emotions of humans as well as their attitudes towards products. This paper makes two contributions. First, we review the existing literature in science and psychology on the effects of environmental colors (red and blue) on physiological functions, mood, and consumer/economic decision-making, insofar it may be potentially relevant to experimental and behavioral economists. Second, we conduct a laboratory experiment with a typical experimental economics subject pool testing the effects of environmental colors red and blue on decision-making in an incentivized Ultimatum Game experiment. We find no statistically significant effect. However, we also cannot replicate previous results of exposure to colors red and blue on mood as measured by established questionnaire instruments. Our results suggest that experimental economists do not need to worry about the potential confound of colors in economic decision-making.Series: Department of Strategy and Innovation Working Paper Serie

Polymorphic computing abstraction for heterogeneous architectures

Integration of multiple computing paradigms onto system on chip (SoC) has pushed the boundaries of design space exploration for hardware architectures and computing system software stack. The heterogeneity of computing styles in SoC has created a new class of architectures referred to as Heterogeneous Architectures. Novel applications developed to exploit the different computing styles are user centric for embedded SoC. Software and hardware designers are faced with several challenges to harness the full potential of heterogeneous architectures. Applications have to execute on more than one compute style to increase overall SoC resource utilization. The implication of such an abstraction is that application threads need to be polymorphic. Operating system layer is thus faced with the problem of scheduling polymorphic threads. Resource allocation is also an important problem to be dealt by the OS. Morphism evolution of application threads is constrained by the availability of heterogeneous computing resources. Traditional design optimization goals such as computational power and lower energy per computation are inadequate to satisfy user centric application resource needs. Resource allocation decisions at application layer need to permeate to the architectural layer to avoid conflicting demands which may affect energy-delay characteristics of application threads. We propose Polymorphic computing abstraction as a unified computing model for heterogeneous architectures to address the above issues. Simulation environment for polymorphic applications is developed and evaluated under various scheduling strategies to determine the effectiveness of polymorphism abstraction on resource allocation. User satisfaction model is also developed to complement polymorphism and used for optimization of resource utilization at application and network layer of embedded systems

The effects of math anxiety on consumer price perception and purchase decision

Mathematics anxiety is an emotional state resulting in a negative reaction to numerical information and math problems. Therefore, it has been studied by education research to explain its effects on academic performance. However, the marketing literature has failed to notice the role of math anxiety in consumer behavior. As retailers offer various price promotions to increase product sales, buyers need to compare prices and calculate the final price after sales. The success of promotions depends on the way that the sellers frame the promotions, as consumers may react to promotions that offer gains differently than those that reduce their loss. In addition, difficulty of price computation affects consumer response to price promotions since math anxiety limits the capacity of working memory when buyers deal with difficult arithmetic. Subsequently, this study focuses on the interaction effect of math anxiety and promotion framing on consumer price perception by explaining how it creates lower perceived price satisfaction, which in turn decreases perceived emotional value of the product and perceived savings, and leads to lower purchase intention. To answer research questions, this study developed six hypotheses and used experimental research designs, while measuring math anxiety by the MARS-Brief scale, a shorter edition of the MARS scale. The result of data collected from 890 college students and online consumers supported research hypotheses, showing that math-anxious consumers perceive higher price satisfaction and purchase intention when promotion frames are simpler, e.g., gain-framed promotions, dollar-off discounts, a single discount, and bundles with a single price. Low math anxiety buyers responded positively to complex promotion frames, e.g., reduced loss-framed promotions, percentage-off discounts, multiple discounts, and bundles with a price list of items. The study also found that perceived emotional value and perceived savings mediate the effect of price satisfaction on purchase intention. The study discusses and justifies research findings with regard to existing theories. Finally, implications for marketing practice and directions for future research are provided