Managing by design

This editorial written by myself and Marc Gruber of EPFL. It explores the role of design thinking in the management of large organisations, and focuses on how design principles can be applied to the design of the workplace and the nature of work itself. As Head of Service Design at the RCA, my contribution is on how to apply design thinking methods for managers and the 6 key elements described in this approach In the last decade the importance of design and the value of design thinking as a tool for innovation has been recognized by both business and government. Design has become a strategic tool for business helping to translate technological innovation into user value, connecting with consumer needs and creating compelling product and service experiences that create new business value. In this paper we consider a further application of design thinking by considering how managers can apply it to the design of the workplace experience. Many enterprises, especially those in the knowledge economy, are defined by their human resources and their capacity to attract and retain talent. In this competitive environment the design of the employee experience and the services that support them and enable them to deliver value to the clients and colleagues, is a key differentiator. Applying design thinking to the design of work itself, the systems that support it, and the physical and virtual environments in which it takes place can help business and organizational leaders to attract and retain top talent, as well as to enhance productivity and operational effectiveness. In this paper we explore the key factors and principles by which leaders and managers can apply design thinking to transform the workplace experience and we propose 6 key elements for managers to enable that transformation and enhance social capital and business and organisational performance

Understanding touch screen mobile phone users by Taxonomy of Experience (ToE)

This seminar was delivered on 25th January 2011 by Wen-Chia Wang, a PhD researcher in the School of Engineering and Design at Brunel University. During her PhD, Wen-Chia worked on several projects with the telecommunication company 3 in the UK to understand user experience with mobile phones. Her PhD research addresses the importance of understanding users before conducting design; especially how individual differences of cognitive styles (holistic - serialistic) affect human operational behaviour with mobile phone interfaces. More importantly, her research seeks to establish the linkage between psychology and design, and to provide design guidelines that are based on individual differences. The presentation was hosted at Brunel University as part of the Human Centred Design Institute (HCDI) Research Seminar Series. HCDI is a University Research Centre (URC) that brings together expertise in Human-centred Design which combines methodologies and technologies from design, engineering, computer science, artificial intelligence and philosophy. Human-centred Design leads to machines, systems and products which are physically, cognitively and emotionally intuitive to their users. The Human Centre Design seminar series are events designed to encourage communication and teamwork with colleagues across the university and experts leaders in human-centred related topics.The aim of this study is to understand user experience of touch screen mobile phones and to provide design principles from users’ perspectives. The importance of user experience in the product design process has been discussed in recent decades. Diverse quantitative methodologies attempt to understand users by evaluating their attitudes, expectations, emotion, concept of the object, judgment of the product and so forth. However, user experience is subjective and difficult to measure. Whilst many researchers tend to transform user experience to quantitative data, Coxon’s (2007) Taxonomy of Experience (ToE), and its analytic approach of SEEing, uncover an understanding of the user experience through qualitative analysis. The term ‘SEEing’ attempts to differentiate from the processes of thinking, but still associates with the thinking process. The nine steps of the SEEing process aim to clarify the user’s experience. It begins by transforming the user’s verbal commentary and ends in a synthesis of super-ordinary metaphors. This study thus applies ToE-SEEing to deeply understand mobile phone users, especially their interaction experience with touch screen mobile phones. The outcomes of this research study provide alternative design elements from the users’ perspectives whilst designing the interface for the touch screen mobile phone

Planning strategically, designing architecturally : a framework for digital library services

In an era of unprecedented technological innovation and evolving user expectations and information seeking behaviour, we are arguably now an online society, with digital services increasingly common and increasingly preferred. As a trusted information provider, libraries are in an advantageous position to respond, but this requires integrated strategic and enterprise architecture planning, for information technology (IT) has evolved from a support role to a strategic role, providing the core management systems, communication networks, and delivery channels of the modern library. Further, IT components do not function in isolation from one another, but are interdependent elements of distributed and multidimensional systems encompassing people, processes, and technologies, which must consider social, economic, legal, organisational, and ergonomic requirements and relationships, as well as being logically sound from a technical perspective. Strategic planning provides direction, while enterprise architecture strategically aligns and holistically integrates business and information system architectures. While challenging, such integrated planning should be regarded as an opportunity for the library to evolve as an enterprise in the digital age, or at minimum, to simply keep pace with societal change and alternative service providers. Without strategy, a library risks being directed by outside forces with independent motivations and inadequate understanding of its broader societal role. Without enterprise architecture, it risks technological disparity, redundancy, and obsolescence. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, this conceptual paper provides an integrated framework for strategic and architectural planning of digital library services. The concept of the library as an enterprise is also introduced

Designing Enterprise Resources Planning Application for Integrating Main Activities in a Simulator Model of SCM Network Distribution

Collaborative supply chain is a specific topic in supply chain management and studied by industrial engineering students in supply chain management course. Unfortunately, conventional learning media cannot explain the phenomenon of collaborative supply chain to the students. This study aimed to design a dynamic learning media so that inter-company collaboration and information sharing on the activities of Supply Chain entities can be explained effectively to the students. The problem was solved using 3 (three) steps. First, the distribution network was described using mock up. It consists of miniature trucks, miniature network and miniature of the manufacturer-distributor-retailer embedded with tag and reader of RFID. Second, the Enterprise Resources Planning application was developed for supporting business activities. Third, we developed the integrator consists of monitor’s user interface and practice modules. The result of the research - an SCM-Simulator – will be able to improve learning skills of industrial engineering graduates, especially abilities to identify, formulate, and solve the activities of tactical plan & operational routines of Supply Chain entities. However, distribution module designed is for limited scale laboratory study of simple objects. Keywords: Distribution Network, Enterprise Resource Planning, Industrial Engineering Education, SCM Simulator,and Learning Media

Random Access in DVB-RCS2: Design and Dynamic Control for Congestion Avoidance

In the current DVB generation, satellite terminals are expected to be interactive and capable of transmission in the return channel with satisfying quality. Considering the bursty nature of their traffic and the long propagation delay, the use of a random access technique is a viable solution for such a Medium Access Control (MAC) scenario. In this paper, random access communication design in DVB-RCS2 is considered with particular regard to the recently introduced Contention Resolution Diversity Slotted Aloha (CRDSA) technique. This paper presents a model for design and tackles some issues on performance evaluation of the system by giving intuitive and effective tools. Moreover, dynamic control procedures that are able to avoid congestion at the gateway are introduced. Results show the advantages brought by CRDSA to DVB-RCS2 with regard to the previous state of the art.Comment: Accepted for publication: IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting; IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting, 201

MOBILE APPLICATION DESIGN FOR PROCUREMENT ON XYZ COMPANY

Procurement of goods in Indonesia continues to experience rapid growth. In 2022, the Indonesian government has allocated a budget of Rp. 2,714 trillion to fulfill government spending. Procurement of goods is almost carried out every month, to meet office needs and support operational facilities. Document storage is one of the important things in every company, however, until now there is no mobile application that can help archiving documents online. This is a problem where files are created and stored manually, so it is still difficult to find files and in transparating data. From the existing problems, there needs to be an innovation that can facilitate the process of managing and storing matching files. One of the innovations was carried out by designing a mobile application using the Design Thinking method. The Design Thinking method can be used to solve problems by rearranging problems into user perspectives that produce design ideas. The results of this study are in the form of a procurement mobile application design. It is hoped that the design and development of the mobile application will be able to provide convenience for Company XYZ in storing procurement documents. So that procurement can be done appropriately, effectively, efficiently, and the procurement documentation process can be carried out quickly

Generic approach for deriving reliability and maintenance requirements through consideration of in-context customer objectives

Not all implementations of reliability are equally effective at providing customer and user benefit. Random system failure with no prior warning or failure accommodation will have an immediate, usually adverse impact on operation. Nevertheless, this approach to reliability, implicit in measurements such as ‘failure rate’ and ‘MTBF’, is widely assumed without consideration of potential benefits of pro-active maintenance. Similarly, it is easy to assume that improved maintainability is always a good thing. However, maintainability is only one option available to reduce cost of ownership and reduce the impact of failure. This paper discusses a process for deriving optimised reliability and maintenance requirements through consideration of in-context customer objectives rather than a product in isolation

The development of a rich multimedia training environment for crisis management: using emotional affect to enhance learning

PANDORA is an EU FP7-funded project developing a novel training and learning environment for Gold Commanders, individuals who carry executive responsibility for the services and facilities identified as strategically critical e.g. Police, Fire, in crisis management strategic planning situations. A key part of the work for this project is considering the emotional and behavioural state of the trainees, and the creation of more realistic, and thereby stressful, representations of multimedia information to impact on the decision-making of those trainees. Existing training models are predominantly paper-based, table-top exercises, which require an exercise of imagination on the part of the trainees to consider not only the various aspects of a crisis situation but also the impacts of interventions, and remediating actions in the event of the failure of an intervention. However, existing computing models and tools are focused on supporting tactical and operational activities in crisis management, not strategic. Therefore, the PANDORA system will provide a rich multimedia information environment, to provide trainees with the detailed information they require to develop strategic plans to deal with a crisis scenario, and will then provide information on the impacts of the implementation of those plans and provide the opportunity for the trainees to revise and remediate those plans. Since this activity is invariably multi-agency, the training environment must support group-based strategic planning activities and trainees will occupy specific roles within the crisis scenario. The system will also provide a range of non-playing characters (NPC) representing domain experts, high-level controllers (e.g. politicians, ministers), low-level controllers (tactical and operational commanders), and missing trainee roles, to ensure a fully populated scenario can be realised in each instantiation. Within the environment, the emotional and behavioural state of the trainees will be monitored, and interventions, in the form of environmental information controls and mechanisms impacting on the stress levels and decisionmaking capabilities of the trainees, will be used to personalise the training environment. This approach enables a richer and more realistic representation of the crisis scenario to be enacted, leading to better strategic plans and providing trainees with structured feedback on their performance under stress