Verifying the X for design framework capabilities in improving user experience evaluation activities

The literature offers methods and tools for user experience (UX) evaluation. Among them, the irMMs-based method exploits mental models related to specific situations of interaction. The literature also proposes frameworks and models to describe product development activities. One of these, the X for Design framework (XfD), allows modeling different activities and suggests modifications in order to improve them. This research aims at verifying the capabilities of the XfD in improving the irMMs-based method. Once improved thanks to the XfD, the irMMs-based method is adopted together with the original release of it and with the well-known Think Aloud usability evaluation method in evaluating the UX of a CAD software package. The comparison of the results starts demonstrating the capabilities of the XfD in improving UX evaluation activities. The research outcomes can be of interest for researchers who can exploit the XfD suggestions to deepen their knowledge about human cognitive processes and for industrial practitioners who can apply the suggestions proposed by the XfD to their own evaluation activities to make them more effective

Exploiting TRIZ Tools in Interaction Design

Abstract Current market laws ask for new product development methods and tools dealing with both technological and interaction related issues. Starting from this, the research described in this paper aims at finding and exploiting some TRIZ tools in interaction design field of practice. TRIZ theory offers well defined and structured methods and tools, and allows generation of generic guidelines for innovative design of a huge variety of products. Interaction design focuses on studying and developing a correct interaction between users and products, in order to maximize cognitive compatibility. Real goal of this research is developing a new design method where systematic approach to innovation of TRIZ compensates for some lacks of the user centered interaction design process. Starting from similarities and differences between tools currently used in these two domains, the research considers the TRIZ thirty-nine features, the forty inventive principles, and the contradiction matrix. These elements are adapted to the requirements of the interaction design field of practice, obeying to classic usability rules. These new elements contribute to the definition and development of a new design framework named interaction design guidelines - IDGL. The effectiveness of these elements has started to be tested in a case study focused on the interaction design of a new DVD recorder

Influence of Personality on Shape-Based Design Activities

As the literature demonstrates, designers\u2019 personality influences design activities like different ways to represent environments and/or products, technological advances, etc.. Nevertheless, an exhaustive analysis on the influence of personality on design activities involving different representations is missing.This research explores this gap by studying this influence on specific design activities, the shape-based ones (i.e., analysis of specific shapes and highlighting of functions suggested by them). People showing different personalities undergo tests where they carry out design activities exploiting several representations.The results confirm the influence of personality on shape-based design activities and allow highlighting different keys to interpret and exploit these results. Thanks to the results of this study, researchers can increase their knowledge about subjective aspects of design as well as about how these aspects coexist with classic and emerging representations. As well, designers can try tomaximize the effectiveness of their efforts by selecting the best combinations of personality, representations, and characteristics of the expected design results time by time

Metodi innovativi per la progettazione dell'interazione uomo-macchina

Today's market laws push companies to create products innovative enough to amaze users on one hand, and easy to use to be accepted on the other. In helping to achieve this goal, the PhD research described in this thesis deals with the generation and validation of a new method for interaction design. It leads the designer towards the generation of design solutions that produce innovative and usable products without the need of further redesign activities. At the beginning, the research analyses and improves two existing design methods: the Interaction Design GuideLines \u2013 IDGL \u2013 for interaction design, and the Usability Evaluation Multi-Method \u2013 UEMM \u2013 for usability evaluation. The next step is the generation of a new method for the management of evolution in interaction named Interaction Trends of Evolution \u2013 ITRE. It suggests the best direction to follow, to create innovative products and beat competitors. The adoption in the field of these three methods needs too much time and too many resources. To solve the problem, they are integrated into a new complete method for interaction design, evaluation and forecasting named Interaction Design Integrated Method \u2013 IDIM. It leads the designer from the user needs\u2019 recognition to the definition of innovative and usable design solutions. Once developed, IDIM is validated regarding database content, architecture and processes. IDIM database is tested and improved thanks to two case studies. The first case study regards the design of a new gas/energy station; the second focuses on the interaction improvement between maxillo-facial surgeons and surgical devices. IDIM architecture is validated thanks the comparison with a well-known design method, widely accepted in the academic literature. From this comparison, some IDIM processes are modified and new ones are added, in order to make IDIM more intuitive and automated. The updated release of IDIM is then exploited in two real situations. The first one is the redesign of a professional system for label die-cutting and digital finishing. The achieved design solutions both fulfill the company's expectations and enrich the IDIM database. The second real situation consists in the IDIM exploitation to generate interaction Functional Mock-Up - FMUi. These simulate the dialogue between users and products, without the need of real users and real products; everything is virtual. They are derived from the FMU focused on technology. Thanks to IDIM, some components of the interaction Functional Mock-Up are created easier and faster. These two situations highlight the completeness and flexibility of IDIM components and processes from both the academic and the industrial point of view.Le odierne leggi del mercato spingono le aziende a creare prodotti che siano da un lato innovativi per stupire e attrarre gli utenti, dall\u2019altro facili da usare per essere subito accettati. Per ottenere tale obiettivo, la ricerca descritta in questa tesi, svolta durante i tre anni di dottorato, tratta la generazione e validazione di un nuovo metodo per l\u2019interaction design. Esso guida il progettista verso la creazione di soluzioni progettuali che rendono il prodotto innovativo e usabile senza bisogno di ulteriori redesign. Inizialmente la ricerca si \ue8 concentrata sull\u2019analisi e sul miglioramento di due metodi di progettazione esistenti: Interaction Design GuideLines \u2013 IDGL \u2013 per la progettazione dell\u2019interazione e Usability Evaluation Multi-Method \u2013 UEMM \u2013 per la valutazione dell\u2019usabilit\ue0. Il secondo passo \ue8 stato quello di generare un metodo che gestisca l\u2019evoluzione dell\u2019interazione chiamato Interaction Trends of Evolution \u2013 ITRE. Questo metodo suggerisce la direzione migliore da seguire per creare prodotti innovativi e anticipare i concorrenti sul mercato. L\u2019applicazione separata dei tre metodi richiede troppo tempo e troppe risorse. Per ovviare a questo problema, i tre metodi sono stati integrati in un unico metodo completo di progettazione, valutazione e previsione dell\u2019evoluzione dell\u2019interazione chiamato Interaction Design Integrated Method \u2013 IDIM. Questo metodo guida il progettista dall\u2019individuazione delle necessit\ue0 degli utenti alla definizione di soluzioni progettuali usabili e innovative. IDIM \ue8 stato successivamente validato nei contenuti del database, nell\u2019architettura e nei processi. Il database \ue8 stato testato e migliorato grazie a due casi di studio. Il primo riguarda il design di un distributore di carburante/energia; il secondo si focalizza sul miglioramento dell\u2019interazione tra chirurghi maxillo-facciali e la strumentazione utilizzata durante gli interventi. L\u2019architettura e i processi di IDIM sono stati validati attraverso il confronto con un metodo di progettazione molto noto e ampiamente accettato nel mondo accademico. Grazie a tale confronto \ue8 stato possibile migliorare alcune attivit\ue0 e inserirne di nuove per rendere IDIM pi\uf9 intuitivo e automatizzato. La versione aggiornata di IDIM \ue8 stata poi sfruttata in due situazioni reali. La prima \ue8 l\u2019applicazione di IDIM in un caso aziendale di redesign di una macchina per la finitura e il taglio di etichette. Le soluzioni progettuali ottenute hanno permesso da un lato di soddisfare le richieste dell\u2019azienda e dall\u2019altro di arricchire il database del metodo con nuove informazioni. La seconda situazione consiste nell\u2019utilizzo di IDIM per la generazione dei Functional Mock-Up rivolti all\u2019interazione - FMUi. Essi consentono di simulare il dialogo tra utente e prodotto senza avere a disposizione n\ue9 i bisogni dell\u2019utente, n\ue9 il prodotto poich\ue9 tutto \ue8 virtuale. Essi sono stati derivati da quelli dedicati alla tecnologia. Grazie agli strumenti di IDIM, alcuni componenti dei FMUi sono stati creati pi\uf9 velocemente e facilmente. Questi due casi di studio sottolineano la completezza e flessibilit\ue0 dei componenti e dei processi di IDIM sia dal punto di vista accademico che industriale

Generation, Adoption and Tuning of Usability Evaluation Multimethods

The selection and customization of usability evaluation methods, given the peculiarities of their application domains, still remains a critical issue; this especially when dealing with complex products and/or nonexpert usability evaluators. Moreover, as time goes by, the quality of the evaluation results has a heavier impact on the product design process. Starting from classic usability evaluation methods, the research described in this article generates multimethods semiautomatically. It allows quantitative characterization of these multimethods before their application in the field and exploits the comparison between this prior assessment and a final estimate, made after adoption, to update the information used by the method selection process. The most critical issue related to usability, subjectivity, is considered and dealt with throughout the entire research. A case study, done at the end of the development phase, helps validate the proposed approach to usability evaluation

Involving Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) affected people in design

This research aims at moving from design for disabled people to design led by disabled people. This is achieved by defining a roadmap suggesting how to involve people affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in design. These people could represent an added value given their uncommon reasoning mechanisms. The core of the roadmap consists of tests involving groups of ASD and neurotypical people. These tests are performed using shapes; the testers are asked for interacting with these shapes and highlighting aroused functions, meanings and emotions. The outcomes are analyzed in terms of variety, quality, frequency and originality, and elaborated in order to pursue unforeseen, innovative design solutions

IDGL, an interaction design framework based on systematic innovation and quality function deployment

Concerns about human-machine interaction are becoming one of the most important thrusts for the development of innovative and successful products. Interaction design methods and tools are already described in literature and available for designers, and the analysis of their characteristics suggests the synergy with other research fields aimed at developing an interaction design framework as complete as possible. The complementary aspects of the inventive problem solving theory named TRIZ were considered, and the linking was done thanks to the structured approach to information gathering of the house of quality, one of the data structures in the quality function deployment (QFD) design method. The result is the interaction design guidelines (IDGL), a framework implemented in a Microsoft access database that supports designers starting from collecting users\u2019 needs up to the generation of design solutions. This paper describes the IDGL development, together with a first adoption in the field and a validation of the process and results. \ua9 2014, Springer-Verlag France

Influence of representations on shape-based design activities

Shape-based design activities analyse specific shapes to highlight functions that products shaped that way could implement. These design activities encompass a clearly interactive approach; designers have direct, personal confrontations with shapes. It is not to say that the effectiveness of these interactions depends on the way the shapes, along with the environments where their evaluations take place, are represented. Different representations may imply different interaction paradigms that, in turn, could be more or less suitable to highlight implicit problems to solve or foster innovative design solutions. The research described in this paper exploits an existing classification of representations to examine in depth the influence of representations on shape-based design activities. Metrics like quantity, novelty, variety, etc., are involved to analyse the results of these activities from the quantitative point of view. All of this confirms the existence of the influence and allows highlighting some direct relationships between representations and design results. These relationships, in turn, are available to select the best representations to lead design efforts towards specific targets time by time

Definition and quantification of innovation in interaction

A method for determining which product is more innovative than others and for determining the degree of innovation could be useful. Furthermore, such determination could focus on human-machine interaction. Based on a set of trends of evolution in interaction and on existing methods for the definition and quantification of innovation and related concepts, this research defines and quantifies innovation in interaction. This approach can help designers select the most innovative solution concepts and can help marketing experts establish their selling strategies; in addition, final users can be aided when choosing the best product to buy. This paper describes the definition of new metrics that focus on interaction in conjunction with a computational pipeline that uses these metrics to assess the presence and degree of innovation in interaction. An early validation of the results in the field is reported as well