Lighting, well-being and work performance: A review of the literature

Commissioned White Paper Report for Philips International

Communication: key factor in multidisciplinary system design

System design research often looks at ways to model the system that is developing. Many modelling techniques and model representations exist. Another aspect these models can be used for is to enable, facilitate and improve communication among the developers during the process. The young System Design Group at the faculty of Engineering Technology of the University of Twente, the Netherlands, aims at focusing on this communication aspect in system design.\ud In the paper, a few finished and running projects undertaken in close cooperation with industry are described concisely. From these projects three research themes are derived. These are: creation of high-level models, combining model representations and condense information. The paper ends with plans for future research

Error by design: Methods for predicting device usability

This paper introduces the idea of predicting ‘designer error’ by evaluating devices using Human Error Identification (HEI) techniques. This is demonstrated using Systematic Human Error Reduction and Prediction Approach (SHERPA) and Task Analysis For Error Identification (TAFEI) to evaluate a vending machine. Appraisal criteria which rely upon user opinion, face validity and utilisation are questioned. Instead a quantitative approach, based upon signal detection theory, is recommended. The performance of people using SHERPA and TAFEI are compared with heuristic judgement and each other. The results of these studies show that both SHERPA and TAFEI are better at predicting errors than the heuristic technique. The performance of SHERPA and TAFEI are comparable, giving some confidence in the use of these approaches. It is suggested that using HEI techniques as part of the design and evaluation process could help to make devices easier to use

The Design of a new NICU Patient Area: Combining Design for Usability and Design for Emotion

In the design of medical products both usability and emotional experience are important to be considered. Usability can enhance the work situation of medical staff and ensure patient safety. Emotion related product aspects, on the other hand, influence the recovery pace of patients as well as the work satisfaction of staff. For an optimal medical design both aspects should receive well-balanced attention during the design process. Usability and emotional experience are currently related in literature. However, about the relation between these two aspects in practical design projects little information is available. Therefore we will discuss the exploration of the practical relation between Design for Usability and Design for Emotion in a design process. We explored the relation during concurrent application of both design approaches to the design of a patient area for a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Our aim was not to develop a new design method, but to explore in practice how both design approaches could be addressed concurrently. This paper describes the applied design approach, its strength and weaknesses as well as the design results. Overall, the NICU design case has proven that the concurrent application of Design for Emotion and Design for Usability is feasible in practice and results in a satisfactory design. Keywords: Usability; Design For Emotion; Medical Appliance; Participatory Design; Case Study</p

Knowledge sharing in technology alliances

knowledge, alliance, technology

Behaviour change at work: Empowering energy efficiency in the workplace through user-centred design

Copyright @ 2011 University of California eScholarship RepositoryCO2 emissions from non-domestic buildings - primarily workplaces - make up 18 percent of the UK's carbon footprint. A combination of technology advances and behavioural changes have the potential to make significant impact, but interventions have often been planned in ways which do not take into account the needs, levels of understanding and everyday behavioural contexts of building users - and hence do not achieve the hoped-for success.This paper provides a brief introduction to the Empower project, a current industrial-academic collaboration in the UK which is applying methods from user-centred design practice to understand diverse users' needs, priorities, mental models of energy and decision-making heuristics - as well as the affordances available to them - in a number of office buildings. We are developing and trialling a set of low-cost, simple software interventions tailored to multiple user groups with different degrees of agency over their energy use, which seek to influence more energy efficient behaviour at work in areas such as HVAC, lighting and equipment use. The project comprises an ethnographic research phase, a participatory design programme involving building users in the design of interventions, and iterative trials in a large office building in central London

Robust multi-clue face tracking system

In this paper we present a multi-clue face tracking system, based on the combination of a face detector and two independent trackers. The detector, a variant of the Viola-Jones algorithm, is set to generate very low false positive error rate. It initiates the tracking system and updates its state. The trackers, based on 3DRS and optical flow respectively, have been chosen to complement each other in different conditions. The main focus of this work is the integration of the two trackers and the design of a closed loop detector-tracker system, aiming at achieving superior robustness at real-time operation on a PC platform. Tests were carried out to assess the actual performance of the system. With an average of about 95% correct face location rate and no significant false positives, the proposed approach appears to be particularly robust to complex backgrounds, ambient light variation, face orientation and scale changes, partial occlusions, different\ud facial expressions and presence of other unwanted faces

Biosignals as an Advanced Man-Machine Interface

As is known for centuries, humans exhibit an electrical profile. This profile is altered through various physiological processes, which can be measured through biosignals; e.g., electromyography (EMG) and electrodermal activity (EDA). These biosignals can reveal our emotions and, as such, can serve as an advanced man-machine interface (MMI) for empathic consumer products. However, such an MMI requires the correct classification of biosignals to emotion classes. This paper explores the use of EDA and three facial EMG signals to determine neutral, positive, negative, and mixed emotions, using recordings of 24 people. A range of techniques is tested, which resulted in a generic framework for automated emotion classification with up to 61.31% correct classification of the four emotion classes, without the need of personal profiles. Among various other directives for future research, the results emphasize the need for both personalized biosignal-profiles and the recording of multiple biosignals in parallel

Do structured methods help eco-innovation: An evaluation of the product ideas tree diagram

This paper reports on the first test of the Product Ideas Tree diagram (PIT): a structured method aimed to help Eco-innovation. The PIT diagram structures ideas output from chaotic idea generating sessions. This study compared four ways of conducting an Eco-innovation workshop. The results show that structured methods help Eco-innovation by improving the constructive communication between the participants. Further development of the PIT diagram promises to contribute several new approaches to sustainable product and process design