Design prototyping methods

textProduct development is often modeled as a cycle between phases of designing, building, and testing. This work will explore early stage build efforts of product design, which is also known as prototyping. Prototyping is a critical determinant of product success. Research shows that different approaches to prototyping can greatly affect design outcome. This work provides an integrated overview, and expansion of the existing work on design prototyping methods. Following the introduction, an extensive literature review of design prototyping tools, techniques, and methods is provided. These sources are indexed and comparatively reviewed. The capabilities of a novel hybrid prototyping technique is explored through a design case study. Next, insights from the review are integrated in a context independent prototyping strategy method. The method is developed with heuristics extracted from the literature, and additional insights from experimental studies. The technique is then experimentally evaluated. Finally, results of an extensive study of an online design repository are provided. The results include five key principles for prototype design and fabrication. The presence of these principles in the repository is validated through a novel crowd-sourced online study. The outcome effects of deploying these principles to design teams is experimentally evaluated. Overall, this research provides a guide to prototyping which includes a systematically indexed review and comparison of the existing work, as well as a novel method, and principles for design and fabrication.Mechanical Engineerin

Animating user interface prototypes with formal models

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Informatics EngineeringThe User Interface (UI) provides the first impression of an interactive system and should, thus, be intuitive, in order to guide users effectively and efficiently in performing their tasks. User interface prototyping is a common activity in UI development, as it supports early exploration of the UI design by potential users. UI quality plays a crucial role in safety-critical contexts, where design errors can poten tially lead to catastrophic events. Model-based analysis approaches aim to detect usability and performance issues early in the design process by leveraging formal analysis. They complement prototyping, which supports user involvement, but not an exhaustive analysis of the designs. The IVY Workbench emerges as a model-based analysis tool intended for non-expert usage. The tool was originally focused on supporting modelling and verification, but more recently an effort began to combine the formal model capabilities with UI mock-ups, to produce more interactive prototypes than traditional mock-up editors support. This work addresses the enhancement of the prototyping features of the IVY Workbench. The improvements of such features include the creation of a dynamic widget library that can vastly improve the quality of prototypes. Such a library, however, should be compatible with several mock-up editors to attract a broader design community. The results of this work include an analysis of alternative prototyping tools, identifying potential features that can enhance the IVY Workbench, the creation of a dynamic widget library that is compatible with several mock-up editors, and several improvements to IVY’s prototyping plugin, including the addition of code exporting functionalities. Usability tests were conducted to validate the new features of the tool, with positive results. Two mobile applications were also created, allowing users to test prototypes in their mobile devices.A UI proporciona o primeiro contacto entre um utilizador e um sistema interativo. Assim, a UI deverá ser capaz de guiar o utilizador na execução das suas tarefas, de um modo eficiente e eficaz. A prototipagem de interfaces é uma atividade comum no processo de desenvolvimento de UIs, já que permite a exploração antecipada do design de uma UI com potenciais utilizadores. A UI tem um papel bastante relevante no contexto de sistemas críticos, onde falhas no design podem gerar eventos catastróficos. As metodologias de análise baseadas em modelos procuram detetar potenciais falhas de usabilidade e desempenho, em fases iniciais do processo de desenvolvimento, através de análise formal. Estas metodologias complementam o processo de prototipagem, que suporta o envolvimento dos utilizadores mas não oferece uma análise exaustiva do design. A IVY Workbench surge como uma ferramenta de análise baseada em modelos que visa suportar utilizadores sem grandes conhecimentos de análise formal. Embora originalmente focada na modelação e verificação, surgiu recentemente um esforço para combinar as capacidades da análise formal com mock-ups da UI. O objetivo é produzir protótipos com maior nível de interação do que os produzidos pelos tradicionais editores de mock-ups. O presente trabalho apresenta melhorias das capacidades de prototipagem da ferramenta IVY Workbench. Estas melhorias incluem a criação de uma biblioteca de widgets dinâmicos, que aperfeiçoa a qualidade dos protótipos desta ferramenta. Esta biblioteca deverá ser compatível com múltiplos editores de mock-ups, de modo a atrair uma vasta comunidade de designers. Os resultados deste trabalho incluem uma análise de alternativas de ferramentas de prototipagem, onde são identificadas funcionalidades que podem aprimorar a ferramenta IVY Workbench; a criação de uma biblioteca de widgets dinâmicos, compatível com inúmeros editores de mock-ups; assim como várias melhorias efetuadas no plugin de prototipagem desta ferramenta, incluindo a adição de funcionalidades de exportação de código fonte. Foram realizados testes de usabilidade para validar as novas funcionalidades da ferramenta com utilizadores, onde foram obtidos resultados positivos. Finalmente, foram criadas duas aplicações móveis que permitem que os utilizadores testem os protótipos nos seus dispositivos móveis

Communities in new media. Digital participation in hybrid realities and communities. Proceedings of 24th conference GeNeMe

Die Pandemie hat der Digitalisierung in Wirtschaft, Wissenschaft, Bildung, privaten Netzwerken und öffentlichen Institutionen einen enormen Anschub ermöglicht und gleichermaßen innovative Ideen sowie Schwachstellen aufgezeigt. Seit 2020 wurde unser Leben und Arbeiten zu einer hybriden, auf digitaler Kommunikation und Kollaboration basierten sozitechnischen Wirklichkeit transformatiert. [...] Wir haben uns offenbar auf den permanenten technologiebasierten Wandel bei zunehmender Beschleunigung eingelassen. Aber: Wo geht die Reise tatsächlich hin? Konstituieren sich Gemeinschaften ausschließlich im Wechselspiel hybrider Realitäten? Sind große Datenmengen Bedrohung oder Chance? Können wir diese überhaupt verarbeiten oder bedarf es dafür grundlegend veränderter Werkzeuge und Methoden – wie Visual Analytics, Virtuelle Rekonstruktion, Virtual Engineering, virtueller Assistenten und kooperativer VR? Was hat digitale Innovation mit der Pandemie zu tun um umgekehrt? Kann unser Leben in hybriden Gemeinschaften auch langfristig erfüllend stattfinden oder sind die virtuellen Realitäten eher ein Escape-Room aus einem bedrohlichen Alltag? Welche Kompetenz-Frameworks zwischen DigCompEdu und Literacy benötigen wir? [...] Das Konferenzprogramm bildet eine Vielfalt an Themen ab und unterteilt sich in die folgenden acht Tracks: Lehrformate und -methoden; Qualitätskriterien für Online-Lernszenarien; Kompetenzaneignung; Digitale Strategie und Plattformökonomie; Gamification; Partizipation und Kollaboration in öffentlichen Räumen; Management von Partizipation und Kollaboration; Interaktive Formate. (DIPF/Orig.)The pandemic has given a huge boost to digitisation in business, science, education, private networks and public institutions, highlighting innovative ideas as well as vulnerabilities in equal measure. Since 2020, our lives and work have been transformed into a hybrid socio-technical reality based on digital communication and collaboration. [...] We have obviously embraced permanent technology-based change with increasing acceleration. But where is the journey really going? Are communities constituted exclusively in the interplay of hybrid realities? Are big data a threat or an opportunity? Can we process it at all or does it require fundamentally different tools and methods - such as visual analytics, virtual reconstruction, virtual engineering, virtual assistants and collaborative VR? What does digital innovation have to do with the pandemic and vice versa? Can our lives in hybrid communities be fulfilling in the long run, or are virtual realities more of an escape room from a threatening everyday life? Which competence frameworks between DigCompEdu and Literacy do we need? [...] The conference programme covers a wide range of topics and is divided into the following eight tracks: Teaching formats and methods; Quality criteria for online learning scenarios; Acquisition of competences; Digital strategy and platform economy; Gamification; Participation and collaboration in public spaces; Management of participation and collaboration; Interactive formats. (DIPF/Orig.