Tracing the Scenarios in Scenario-Based Product Design: a study to support scenario generation

Scenario-based design originates from the human-computer interaction and\ud software engineering disciplines, and continues to be adapted for product development. Product development differs from software development in the former’s more varied context of use, broader characteristics of users and more tangible solutions. The possible use of scenarios in product design is therefore broader and more challenging. Existing design methods that involve scenarios can be employed in many different stages of the product design process. However, there is no proficient overview that discusses a\ud scenario-based product design process in its full extent. The purposes of creating scenarios and the evolution of scenarios from their original design data are often not obvious, although the results from using scenarios are clearly visible. Therefore, this paper proposes to classify possible scenario uses with their purpose, characteristics and supporting design methods. The classification makes explicit different types of scenarios and their relation to one another. Furthermore, novel scenario uses can be referred or added to the classification to develop it in parallel with the scenario-based design\ud practice. Eventually, a scenario-based product design process could take inspiration for creating scenarios from the classification because it provides detailed characteristics of the scenario

Design and evaluation of a virtual gearshift application

When a customer buys a new car, he or she wants it to address personal preferences with respect to its driving behavior. By utilizing virtual reality technology, a virtual prototyping environment (VPE) can be created in which the behavior of a vehicle or part of a vehicle can be evaluated and adjusted to match the driver's desires. This paper describes the design and the evaluation of a VPE for manually operated gearboxes. The test group considered the simulated "virtual" gearshift feel to be quite similar to the "real" gearshift feel of a test vehicle. By further developing this VPE, it should become possible to define gearshift feel by customer assessment through haptic simulation, after which the physical gearbox is designed in such a way that it matches the preferred shifting behavior

Driver's situation awareness during supervision of automated control - comparison between SART and SAGAT measurement techniques

Systems enabling to drive automatically are being introduced on the market. When using this technology, drivers are in need for interfaces which support them with supervision of the automated control. Assessment of Situation Awareness (SA) which drivers are able to gain while using such interfaces, is important. Based on comparison between SART and SAGAT measurement techniques within a simulator study, the test set-up presented in this paper suggests to be successful in providing a coherent test-bed with relevant situations to assess the level of SA drivers gain when involved in supervision of automated control and while using different types of feedback

Challenges in the design of the Virtual River serious game

River management of national and regional waterways has become a complex matter involving multiple disciplines and stakeholders. The decision-making processes in river management regard issues that have a broad, wide-spread, non-transparent and frequently politically sensitive impact on a large and diverse group of stakeholders. The decisionmaking processes are therefore multidisciplinary as well as multi-actor; it can only be addressed properly by integrating these disciplines and actively involving all end users. As part of the RiverCare research programme, the project presented in this abstract focuses on communicating the results of the other RiverCare projects effectively to river managers and stakeholders by creating interactive and intuitive visualisations incorporated in a serious gaming environment: ‘Virtual River’. Ritterfeld et al (2009) define a serious game as “any form of interactive computer‐based game software for one or multiple players to be used on any platform and that has been developed with the intention to be more than entertainment”. In this project, the serious game, combined with the visualisations, aims to empower stakeholders to make informed decisions in the realisation of self-sustaining multifunctional rivers by allowing a highly usable and accessible interaction with the models and data generated in the RiverCare projects. Ultimately, the serious game aims to provide stakeholders with an environment where they can safely test management strategies together