IM-sgi an interface model for shape grammar implementations

This research arises from the interest in computing as offering new paradigms in the design practice. Information technologies are the driving force for progress in the processes of design, enabling new forms of creativity. The increasing sophistication of computer applications, their easier access, and lower cost have had a significant impact on design practices and can be regarded as a paradigm shift. The invention and creativity are thus seen as knowledge processing activities and can, at least partially, be carried out with the support of computer applications. In this context Shape Grammars (SG) as production systems of designs through rules have the potential to create designs with variable user input and the ability to evaluate a large number of alternatives that may lead to innovative designs. Most architects and designers use computers on their daily practice as a representation tool for their projects, but not as a facilitator or increaser of the creative process. SG computational implementations have the potential to enhance creativity with the test of a wide range of design options, helping the appearance of new solutions, either through the emergence of new shapes or by stimulating the designer’s creativity with the possibilities presented. As Architects and Designers haven't adopted existing SG computational implementations, that take advantage of computation to facilitate and enhance their work, could the problem be on the communication between the applications and the user? If the interface of the SG implementation does not allow the user to understand how to use it or how to control and make use of its results, it can’t be successfully used. With interest in SG implementations as creative partners in the creative process, our research starts with the analysis of existing SG implementations, trying to understand if they had the potential to be adopted by architects and designers in their practice and, if not, what could be done to lead to that objective. User Interface Inspection Methods were used to perform this analysis and allowed us to understand that there are interactions and communication issues that need to be addressed for SG implementations to be adopted by designers. Taking this direction, we understood that models of interaction between the user and SG implementations have already been developed. The present research proposal started from the analysis of the interaction model of Scott Chase, where he defines the different levels of interaction between the user and SG implementation, with more or less input from the user, establishing different ways to combine synergies to obtain new creative solutions. Taking this interaction model as a starting point, next, we must assure the correct communication between user and implementation occurs. The means of communication between these two agents is the computational interface. Understanding the importance of the interface to allow the user to know how to use the computational implementation and be able to produce results, our research presents the development of an interface model for SG implementations to help to take a step towards the adoption of SG for creative projects. For this, we used methods from Human-Computer Interaction discipline, and we also took Bastien & Scapin's "List of Ergonomic Criteria Guidelines" as guiding lines to define the Criteria of our interface model, called IM-sgi, Interface Model for Shape Grammar Implementations. Thus, IM-sgi, an interface model for SG Implementations, has the purpose of helping SG implementations developers to address the interface on the right path to a correct communication with the particular type of user that architects and designers are. Interface prototypes following IM-sgi criteria are finally developed and presented to test the suitability of the IM-sgi Model to SG implementations and validate the objectives we propose.A presente pesquisa surge do interesse na computação por oferecer novos paradigmas na prática do design. As tecnologias da informação são a força motriz para o progresso nos processos de design, permitindo novas formas de criatividade. A crescente sofisticação das aplicações computacionais, o acesso mais fácil às mesmas e menor custo associado tiveram um grande impacto nas práticas de projeto e podemos considerar estar perante uma mudança de paradigma. A invenção e a criatividade são, portanto, vistas como atividades de processamento de conhecimento e podem, pelo menos parcialmente, ser realizadas com o suporte do computador. Nesse contexto, As Gramáticas de Forma, como sistemas de produção de designs através de regras, têm o potencial de criar projetos com entradas com níveis variáveis de intervenção do utilizador e apresentam a capacidade de avaliar um grande número de alternativas que podem levar a designs inovadores. A maioria dos arquitetos e designers usa o computador na sua prática diária como uma ferramenta de representação para seus projetos, mas não como um facilitador ou potenciador do processo criativo. As implementações computacionais de Gramáticas de Forma têm o potencial de aumentar a criatividade com o teste de uma ampla gama de opções de design, ajudando no surgimento de novas soluções, seja pela emergência de novas formas ou estimulando a criatividade do designer com as opções desenvolvidas. Uma vez que as implementações computacionais de Gramáticas de Forma existentes não foram adotadas por Arquitetos e Designers, que claramente tiram proveito de aplicações computacionais para facilitar e aperfeiçoar o seu trabalho, poderá o problema estar na comunicação entre as implementações e o utilizador? Se a interface da implementação não permitir que o utilizador entenda como usá-la ou como controlar e utilizar os seus resultados, ela não poderá ser utilizada com sucesso. Com interesse nas implementações de Gramáticas de Forma como parceiros criativos no processo criativo, a nossa investigação começa com a análise das implementações de Gramáticas de Forma existentes, tentando entender se estas têm potencial para ser adotadas pelos criativos na sua prática e, se não, o que poderia ser feito para chegar a este objetivo. Foram usados métodos de inspeção para realizar esta análise para nos permitir compreender que há interações e problemas de comunicação que precisam de ser resolvidos para que as implementações de Gramáticas de Forma sejam adotadas pelos projetistas. Seguindo essa direção de investigação, percebemos que foram já desenvolvidos modelos de interação entre o utilizador e as implementações de Gramáticas de Forma. A presente proposta de pesquisa surgiu a partir da análise do modelo de interação de Scott Chase, onde este define os diferentes níveis de interação entre utilizador e implementação de Gramáticas de Forma, com maior ou menor input do utilizador, estabelecendo diferentes formas de combinar sinergias para obter novas soluções criativas. Tomando esse modelo de interação como ponto de partida, devemos assegurar que a comunicação correta entre o utilizador e a implementação ocorra. O meio de comunicação desses dois agentes é o interface computacional. Entendendo a importância do interface para permitir que o utilizador entenda como usar a implementação computacional e seja capaz de produzir resultados, a nossa pesquisa apresenta o desenvolvimento de um modelo de interface para implementações de Gramáticas de Forma para ajudar a dar um passo na direção da adoção das Gramáticas de Forma para projetos criativos. Deste modo, aplicámos métodos da disciplina de HCI e também adotámos a Lista de Diretrizes e Critérios Ergonómicos de Bastien & Scapin como linhas de orientação para definir os Critérios do nosso modelo de interface, denominado IM-sgi. O IM-sgi, um modelo de interface para Implementações de Gramática de Forma, tem a finalidade de ajudar programadores de implementações de Gramáticas de Forma a endereçar a interface no sentido de atingir uma comunicação correta com o tipo particular de utilizador que são os arquitetos e designers. Protótipos de interface seguindo os critérios IM-sgi são finalmente desenvolvidos e apresentados para testar a adequação do modelo IM-sgi e validar os objetivos que propomos

Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Gestalt Principles of Perceptual Observation for Virtual Reality User Interface Design

There is a lot of interest and excitement surrounding the areas of Virtual Reality and Head-Mounted Displays with the recent releases of devices such as the Oculus Rift, Sony PSVR and the HTC Vive. While much of the focus for these devices has been related to sectors of the entertainment industries, namely the cinema and video game industries, there are many more practical applications for these technologies, with potential benefits in educational, training/simulation, therapeutic and modelling/design software. Developing a set of reliable guidelines for Virtual Reality User Interface Design could play a crucial role in whether the medium successfully integrates into the mass market. The Gestalt Principles of Perceptual Organisation offer a psychological explanation of human perception, with particular reference to pattern recognition and how we subconsciously group entities together. There are seven Principles of Perceptual Organisation, nearly all of which are currently widely used in User Interface design, offering designers guidelines on what the size, shape, position and colour the different components of an interface should be. This study presents an analysis on the effects that the employment of the Gestalt Principles has on the usability and mental workloads of Virtual Reality applications

Understanding and Evaluating User Interface Visibility

Technology dominates our lives, mobile technology in particular. In 2016 Apple sold their billionth iPhone. By 2018 they had sold their 2 billionth device based on the same underlying operating system. We access such technology through the user interface (UI) and concerns have been raised about the usability of such devices. The situation has been described by some as a “usability crisis”. One of the key issues raised is the lack of visibility of user interface elements, which is deemed to be a critical component of an effective UI. An initial investigation highlighted that UI visibility can be broken down into three key aspects: Firstly; some user interface elements are effectively ‘missing’; Secondly, they are ‘missed’ because they are not seen by the user; and thirdly, they are seen but ‘misunderstood’. Further analysis of the home screen of an iPhone revealed that only 8% of the available functions were visible at the top level, in other words, 92% were effectively ‘missing’. This raises key questions about how UI visibility can be evaluated, and such evaluation adopted into design practice. This research took a psychophysical perspective to better understand UI visibility. This led to the development of an evaluation framework and associated tool called vis-UI-lise. The tool represents UI visibility as a series of 5 hurdles between the user and the interface that have to be overcome for a successful interaction. This tool was applied to an everyday task on a mobile phone which resulted in highlighting a range of possible usability problems. Comparison of the predicted versus observed problems showed that the vis-UI-lise tool had predicted 74% of them, a score that compares well with other usability evaluation tools. A training and support package was also developed for the vis-UI-lise tool and evaluated with four different organisations. This provided key insights into how the tool could be improved to fit in with typical design practice. This thesis brings a new perspective to the understanding and evaluation of UI visibility that could have a real impact on the design of everyday user interfaces

UsaGame – A new methodology to support user- centered design of touchscreen game applications

Dissertação para Obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia e Gestão IndustrialTouchscreen mobile devices growth resulted in an explosion of the mobile applications. Focusing on touch mobile game applications this study aims to fulfill a research gap, creating appropriate usability guidelines for these applications. Concerns about usability, touch technologies, mobile devices and game testing, provided the background needs for this study. Initial game application tests allowed for the creation and implementation of such proposed usability guidelines into a support checklist (UsaGame), designed to help applications developers. An evaluation test was performed with 20 users in order to assess the validity of the proposed guidelines. Results from the test of the two builds from the same game application allowed comparisons that led to the assessment of the importance of some of the guidelines implemented into the application. Results suggested a usability improvement on the game application implemented with the guidelines. Furthermore results allowed commenting on all proposed usability guidelines

Enhancing the Performance Of Instrumental Tasks In Construction Through Immersive Augmented Reality Technology

This thesis dives into instrumental immersion to better understand and improve the user experience of augmented reality (AR) devices and their interfaces. This is spesific to the usage of AR devices in the domain of construction. The thesis is devided into two parts. An academic texts that discusses what level of immersion that is most optimal for AR in construction, and an evaluation of the device known as Trimble SiteVision. The evaluation is the practical component of this thesis. Here, experts are interviewed about their experiences and together we have worked out what works well and what does not. We have also proposed solutions through co-design.Masteroppgave i medie- og interaksjonsdesignMIX350MASV-MI

Value Creation with Extended Reality Technologies - A Methodological Approach for Holistic Deployments

Mit zunehmender Rechenkapazität und Übertragungsleistung von Informationstechnologien wächst die Anzahl möglicher Anwendungs-szenarien für Extended Reality (XR)-Technologien in Unternehmen. XR-Technologien sind Hardwaresysteme, Softwaretools und Methoden zur Erstellung von Inhalten, um Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality und Mixed Reality zu erzeugen. Mit der Möglichkeit, Nutzern Inhalte auf immersive, interaktive und intelligente Weise zu vermitteln, können XR-Technologien die Produktivität in Unternehmen steigern und Wachstumschancen eröffnen. Obwohl XR-Anwendungen in der Industrie seit mehr als 25 Jahren wissenschaftlich erforscht werden, gelten nach wie vor als unausgereift. Die Hauptgründe dafür sind die zugrundeliegende Komplexität, die Fokussierung der Forschung auf die Untersuchung spezifische Anwendungsszenarien, die unzu-reichende Wirtschaftlichkeit von Einsatzszenarien und das Fehlen von geeigneten Implementierungsmodellen für XR-Technologien. Grundsätzlich wird der Mehrwert von Technologien durch deren Integration in die Wertschöpfungsarchitektur von Geschäftsmodellen freigesetzt. Daher wird in dieser Arbeit eine Methodik für den Einsatz von XR-Technologien in der Wertschöpfung vorgestellt. Das Hauptziel der Methodik ist es, die Identifikation geeigneter Einsatzszenarien zu ermöglichen und mit einem strukturierten Ablauf die Komplexität der Umsetzung zu beherrschen. Um eine ganzheitliche Anwendbarkeit zu ermöglichen, basiert die Methodik auf einem branchen- und ge-schäftsprozessunabhängigen Wertschöpfungsreferenzmodell. Dar-über hinaus bezieht sie sich auf eine ganzheitliche Morphologie von XR-Technologien und folgt einer iterativen Einführungssequenz. Das Wertschöpfungsmodell wird durch ein vorliegendes Potential, eine Wertschöpfungskette, ein Wertschöpfungsnetzwerk, physische und digitale Ressourcen sowie einen durch den Einsatz von XR-Technologien realisierten Mehrwert repräsentiert. XR-Technologien werden durch eine morphologische Struktur mit Anwendungsmerk-malen und erforderlichen technologischen Ressourcen repräsentiert. Die Umsetzung erfolgt in einer iterativen Sequenz, die für den zu-grundeliegenden Kontext anwendbare Methoden der agilen Soft-wareentwicklung beschreibt und relevante Stakeholder berücksich-tigt. Der Schwerpunkt der Methodik liegt auf einem systematischen Ansatz, der universell anwendbar ist und den Endnutzer und das Ökosystem der betrachteten Wertschöpfung berücksichtigt. Um die Methodik zu validieren, wird der Einsatz von XR-Technologien in zwei industriellen Anwendungsfällen unter realen wirtschaftlichen Bedingungen durchgeführt. Die Anwendungsfälle stammen aus unterschiedlichen Branchen, mit unterschiedlichen XR-Technologiemerkmalen sowie unterschiedlichen Formen von Wert-schöpfungsketten, um die universelle Anwendbarkeit der Methodik zu demonstrieren und relevante Herausforderungen bei der Durch-führung eines XR-Technologieeinsatzes aufzuzeigen. Mit Hilfe der vorgestellten Methodik können Unternehmen XR-Technologien zielgerichtet in ihrer Wertschöpfung einsetzen. Sie ermöglicht eine detaillierte Planung der Umsetzung, eine fundierte Auswahl von Anwendungsszenarien, die Bewertung möglicher Her-ausforderungen und Hindernisse sowie die gezielte Einbindung der relevanten Stakeholder. Im Ergebnis wird die Wertschöpfung mit wirtschaftlichem Mehrwert durch XR-Technologien optimiert

Designing an effective user interface for the Android tablet environment

With over 1.3 million applications on the Android marketplace, there is increasing competition between mobile applications for customer sales. As usability is a significant factor in an application’s success, many mobile developers refer to the Android design guidelines when designing the user interface (UI). These principles help to provide consistency of navigation and aesthetics, with the rest of the Android platform. However, misinterpretation of the abstract guidelines may mean that patterns and elements selected to organise content of an application do not improve the usability. Therefore, usability tests would be beneficial to ensure that an application meets objectives efficiently and improve on user experience. Usability testing is an important and crucial step in the mobile development process Many freelance developers, however, have limited resources for usability testing, even though the advantages of usability feedback during initial development stages are clear and can save time and money in the long-run. In this thesis, we investigate which method of usability testing is most useful for resource constrained mobile developers. To test the efficacy of Android guidelines, three alternate designs of a unique Android tablet application, Glycano, are developed. High-fidelity paper prototypes were presented to end-users for usability testing and to usability experts for heuristic evaluations. Both usability and heuristic tests demonstrated that following the Android guidelines aids in user familiarity and learnability. Regardless of the different UI designs of the three mockups, Android guidelines provided an initial level of usability by providing familiarity to proficient users and an intuitiveness of certain patterns to new users. However, efficiency in building Glycano schematics was an issue that arose consistently. Testing with end-users and experts, revealed several navigational problems. Usability experts uncovered more general UI problems than the end-user group, who focused more on the content of the application. More refinements and suggestions of additional features to enhance usability and user experience were provided by the experts. Use of usability experts would therefore be most advantageous in initial design stages of an application. Feedback from usability testing is, however, also beneficial and is more valuable than not performing any test at all