User kansei modeling and eco-design

The use of day-to-day life artifacts is a key phase in the lifecycle of products. Indeed it has a great impact on our environment. User centered methods are not yet taken into account in eco-design approaches. These methods are being developed in two ways, by building new user models encompassing complex dimensions such as Kansei and experience, including values and moods, and by integrating the user himself in the design process. This paper deals with setting-up a new theoretical framework associating user-centered design advanced approaches such as experience design, Kansei studies, or participative design and eco-design methods. The final goal is to support product design by providing some guidelines according to environmental issues linked to the users and their abilities

Include 2011 : The role of inclusive design in making social innovation happen.

Include is the biennial conference held at the RCA and hosted by the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design. The event is directed by Jo-Anne Bichard and attracts an international delegation

Why not empower knowledge workers and lifelong learners to develop their own environments?

In industrial and educational practice, learning environments are designed and implemented by experts from many different fields, reaching from traditional software development and product management to pedagogy and didactics. Workplace and lifelong learning, however, implicate that learners are more self-motivated, capable, and self-confident in achieving their goals and, consequently, tempt to consider that certain development tasks can be shifted to end-users in order to facilitate a more flexible, open, and responsive learning environment. With respect to streams like end-user development and opportunistic design, this paper elaborates a methodology for user-driven environment design for action-based activities. Based on a former research approach named 'Mash-Up Personal Learning Environments'(MUPPLE) we demonstrate how workplace and lifelong learners can be empowered to develop their own environment for collaborating in learner networks and which prerequisites and support facilities are necessary for this methodology

The functions of visual management

Visual Management has been evolving and effectively employed in some manufacturing and service organisations for a long time. In order to facilitate a cross-industrial learning process and to advance in detailed research the understanding of how the Visual Management concept may serve in an organisation is necessary. The aim of this paper is to identify Visual Management functions and the theoretical base for the construction industry. A detailed literature review and an analysis of the findings were performed accordingly. The necessity of a holistic approach in order to make more use of the Visual Management process and some research opportunities were identified

The Hankie Probe: A Materialistic Approach to Mobile UX Research

Mobile user experience (UX) research can benefit from unexplored opportunities from theory and practice. Contemporary sociology has developed sophisticated understandings of mobilities that can expand the scope of mobile HCI research. At the same time, we need to extend the scope of mobile experience beyond its current main foci on the portable device and moments of experience. We report the interim results of exploratory pilot studies of a fabric based probe that has been developed to extend the scope of mobile experience research both theoretically and in the range of insights that can be collected in mobile user studies. We report our initial experiences with a 'hankie' (handkerchief) probe that aims to gather rich usage and experience insights for early stages of design

Which user interaction for cross-language information retrieval? Design issues and reflections

A novel and complex form of information access is cross-language information retrieval: searching for texts written in foreign languages based on native language queries. Although the underlying technology for achieving such a search is relatively well understood, the appropriate interface design is not. The authors present three user evaluations undertaken during the iterative design of Clarity, a cross-language retrieval system for low-density languages, and shows how the user-interaction design evolved depending on the results of usability tests. The first test was instrumental to identify weaknesses in both functionalities and interface; the second was run to determine if query translation should be shown or not; the final was a global assessment and focused on user satisfaction criteria. Lessons were learned at every stage of the process leading to a much more informed view of what a cross-language retrieval system should offer to users

Limits of Kansei – Kansei unlimited

This article discusses momentary limitations of the Kansei Engineering methods. There are for example the focus on the evaluation of colour and form factors, as well as the highly time consuming creation of the questionnaires. To overcome these limits we firstly suggest the integration of word lists from related research fields, like sociology and cognitive psychology on product emotions in the Kansei questionnaires. Thereafter we present a study on the wide range of Kansei attributes treated in an industrial setting. Concept words used by designers are being collected through word maps and categorized into attributes. In a third step we introduce a user-product interaction schema in which the Kansei attributes from the study are positioned. This schema unfolds potential expansion points for future applications of Kansei engineering beyond its current limits

Paradigm Innovation through the Strategic Collaboration between TORAY & UNIQLO : Evolution of A New Fast Fashion Business Model

The key purpose of this study is to examine the remarkable context within the evolution of the paradigm innovation in fashion product development, in the case of Japanese fashion apparel, UNIQLO, created by Fast Retailing Corp in 1998. The key theme hereby concerns innovation, and this perspective surely necessitates Fast Retailing's strategic collaboration with a Japanese new material and artificial textile powerhouse, TORAY: as TORAY's technological provision was an essential source for the dynamic product and process innovation behind the extraordinary growth of UNIQLO. Furthermore, the technological superiority also entailed its innovative positioning in market competition. It is crucial to examine how and why the two brought about their core competences together through new combinations of concepts. This should impart a few promising research perspectives regarding their innovative model of unchallenged value creation, strong market competitiveness, and sustainable corporate growth.Paradigm Innovation, Product Development, Business Model, Japanese Apparel Industry, Fashion Apparel, Fast Fashion, Fast Retailing, UNIQLO, TORAY, Alliance, Virtual Vertical Integration