What Are Students’ Perceptions of Design Research and Approaches?

Approaches and methods used in the design research process have been discussed over the years. Yet, most of the discussions did not take into account the perceptions of the students. While a fundamental understanding of design research may assist students in the real world, those students may fail to apply the foundations to a complex design problem or only use those methods they feel comfortable with and deem useful. To offer insight on this particular area, a paper questionnaire was distributed to more than one hundred design students in order to understand students' perceptions on design research and their habits. Findings showed that design students felt that research was important to their design process and they spent more than 40% of time on researching in their design process. In general, students believe that more research is necessary at the beginning of the design process, such as the stages of planning, defining problem and parameters. In addition, undergraduate and graduate students viewed various research methods in different regards. The understanding of the perceptions of current undergraduate and graduate students regarding design research will provide teachers with a better understanding of the influence of the students' background on the design process and how to cope with those influences. The results can be used to improve the design education

Student perceptions on future components of electronic textbook design

Electronic textbooks have been a subject of research for decades, yet student perceptions of interface components tend to be investigated in hindsight, and findings are not commonly taken into consideration for textbook design. This paper shifts the focus of electronic textbook design back toward students by identifying components that should be included in future electronic textbooks based on student perceptions in relation to the task of academic reading, as well as identifying associations with gender, experience level, academic level, and academic discipline. Findings from a university-wide online questionnaire that received more than 700 responses indicated that text, highlighting tools, bookmarks, multimedia, translation tools, dictionaries, and encyclopedias should all be incorporated in future electronic textbooks, as well as provided evidence to suggest that electronic textbooks should be tailored based on academic discipline. Understanding what students require for academic reading can facilitate the development of more suitable educational tools, and through the identification of suitable components, can enable the design of more standardized electronic textbooks

Student Views on Academic Reading and its Future in the Design and Engineering Disciplines

Electronic textbooks are becoming a common educational tool, but there is little research on the student desires, which will affect the effectiveness of this tool. This paper aims to add to the current research by outlining students’ reading habits in physical and electronic textbooks and identifying what students feel they need to study using future electronic textbooks. This paper describes a series of focus groups with a total of thirty design and engineering students. Findings illustrated the different ways in which these disciplines approach their academic readings and that future electronic textbooks require some discipline specific components. There were some similarities in views and ideas, such as being able to insert their own images into the textbooks and the desire for less text and more interactive components to facilitate their learning. Identifying design criteria based on discipline needs and including student input based on their task needs will assist in designing future electronic textbooks that will meet academic reading requirements

Reading Task Investigation of the Kindle app in Three Mediums

E-textbooks are often considered the future of textbooks but the current capabilities and implications of app-based textbooks and their corresponding technology are not well outlined. The goal in this study was to understand the effects of the change in medium on the academic reading task, student perception of the devices and components, and identify issues surrounding two in-app components. Students completed four reading tasks in three different size mobile devices and a paper control. The experiment also consisted of a between-subject study where students were asked to use the highlighting or annotation component while reading. Results showed that the devices and components actually changed the way the students interact with their reading. Also, students were generally unhappy with the in-app components and smallest sized device. This information is useful to identify the effects of e-textbook apps on reading behavior, which can be applied to improve the design of future e-textbooks

Usability Study and Redesign of the Food Tray

Food trays can be found around the world in schools, canteens, and restaurants. While useful for carrying food to a table, the design has caused frustration in countless users. The aim of the research outlined in this paper was to identify design criteria for food trays and produce a redesign to improve the user experience with an emphasis on ergonomics. The investigation focused on four areas: loading, carrying, eating from, and cleaning and storing the food tray. Areas of concern and design criteria were found through materials research, observations, questionnaires, interviews, and prototype testing. Details of the findings and the ergonomically designed prototype are presented in this paper. By investigating food trays from the user and staff perspective, design criteria and a unique design were developed which users felt was more comfortable and fit cleaning and storage requirements

Dynamic 3D shape of the plantar surface of the foot using coded structured light:a technical report

The foot provides a crucial contribution to the balance and stability of the musculoskeletal system, and accurate foot measurements are important in applications such as designing custom insoles/footwear. With better understanding of the dynamic behavior of the foot, dynamic foot reconstruction techniques are surfacing as useful ways to properly measure the shape of the foot. This paper presents a novel design and implementation of a structured-light prototype system providing dense three dimensional (3D) measurements of the foot in motion. The input to the system is a video sequence of a foot during a single step; the output is a 3D reconstruction of the plantar surface of the foot for each frame of the input. Methods Engineering and clinical tests were carried out to test the accuracy and repeatability of the system. Accuracy experiments involved imaging a planar surface from different orientations and elevations and measuring the fitting errors of the data to a plane. Repeatability experiments were done using reconstructions from 27 different subjects, where for each one both right and left feet were reconstructed in static and dynamic conditions over two different days. Results The static accuracy of the system was found to be 0.3 mm with planar test objects. In tests with real feet, the system proved repeatable, with reconstruction differences between trials one week apart averaging 2.4 mm (static case) and 2.8 mm (dynamic case). Conclusion The results obtained in the experiments show positive accuracy and repeatability results when compared to current literature. The design also shows to be superior to the systems available in the literature in several factors. Further studies need to be done to quantify the reliability of the system in clinical environment

Watching People Making Decisions: A Gogglebox on Online Consumer Interaction

This paper presents a research study, using eye tracking technology, to measure participant cognitive load when encountering micro-decision. It elaborates and improves on a pilot study that was used to test the experiment design. Prior research that led to a taxonomy of decision constructs faced in online transactional processes is discussed. The main findings relate to participants’ subjective cognitive load and task error rates

The use of 3D surface scanning for the measurement and assessment of the human foot

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A number of surface scanning systems with the ability to quickly and easily obtain 3D digital representations of the foot are now commercially available. This review aims to present a summary of the reported use of these technologies in footwear development, the design of customised orthotics, and investigations for other ergonomic purposes related to the foot.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The PubMed and ScienceDirect databases were searched. Reference lists and experts in the field were also consulted to identify additional articles. Studies in English which had 3D surface scanning of the foot as an integral element of their protocol were included in the review.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Thirty-eight articles meeting the search criteria were included. Advantages and disadvantages of using 3D surface scanning systems are highlighted. A meta-analysis of studies using scanners to investigate the changes in foot dimensions during varying levels of weight bearing was carried out.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Modern 3D surface scanning systems can obtain accurate and repeatable digital representations of the foot shape and have been successfully used in medical, ergonomic and footwear development applications. The increasing affordability of these systems presents opportunities for researchers investigating the foot and for manufacturers of foot related apparel and devices, particularly those interested in producing items that are customised to the individual. Suggestions are made for future areas of research and for the standardization of the protocols used to produce foot scans.</p