FROM THE DEFINITION OF USER EXPERIENCE TO A FRAMEWORK TO CLASSIFY ITS APPLICATIONS IN DESIGN

AbstractThe concept of User Experience (UX) dates back to the 1990s, but a shared definition of UX is not available. As design integrates UX, different interpretations thereof can complicate the possibility to build upon previous literature and develop the field autonomously. Indeed, by analysing the literature, UX emerges as a cauldron of related and closely linked concepts. However, it is possible to find recurring attributes that emerge from those definitions, which are ascribable to two foci: the fundamental elements of the interaction (user, system, context) and typologies of experience (ergonomic, cognitive, and emotional). Those are used to build a framework. We have preliminarily investigated how UX is dealt with in design by mapping a sample of UX-related experimental articles published in design journals. We classified UX case studies based on the framework to individuate the UXs that emerge most frequently and the most studied ones in the design field. The two-focus framework allows the mapping of experiments involving UX in design, without highlighting specific favorable combinations. However, comprehensive studies dealing with all elements and UX typologies have not been found

AN EYE-TRACKING SUPPORTED INVESTIGATION INTO THE ROLE OF FORMS OF REPRESENTATION ON DESIGN EVALUATIONS AND AFFORDANCES OF ORIGINAL PRODUCT FEATURES

AbstractThe paper investigates the relationship between the forms through which products are represented and the outcomes of evaluations made by observers. In particular, the study focuses on perceived affordances of creative designs, meant as the capability of capturing original elements and corresponding functions, for products presented through static images or videos. Also thanks to the use of Eye Tracking, the experimental results show how dynamic effects that involve salient aspects of products, as well as creative features, are critical to observers' capability of capturing design intentions

Fundamentals and issues of user experience in the process of designing consumer products

User experience (UX) application in the practice of engineering and product design is still limited. The present paper provides insights into research on UX design and recommendations for design practitioners by pointing out common criticalities. These outcomes are achieved through a literature review on how UX relates to design. First, issues in benefitting from UX understanding in design are identified with a specific focus on theoretical contributions. Second, experimental papers investigating UX and design are analysed in relation to previously identified issues. Although issues are present to some extent in all the contributions, the empirical studies dealing with UX in design are overall valid. The results highlight UX’s support in revealing design requirements, but its capability of steering design processes is arguable, as concrete guidelines for practitioners are not well described. Based on identified issues, the authors propose a checklist to make UX studies in design more reliable and their outcomes more comparable

Making Order in User Experience Research to Support Its Application in Design and Beyond

The term User Experience (UX) was introduced to define the dynamics of the human-product interaction, and it was thought that design would have been a main recipient of UX research. However, it can be claimed that the outcomes of UX studies were not seamlessly transferred into design research and practice. Among the possible reasons, this paper addresses the fragmentary knowledge ascribable to the field of UX. The authors reviewed the literature analyzing the conceptual contributions that interpret UX, proposing definitions and/or a theoretical framework. This allowed the authors to provide an overview of recurring elements of UX, highlighting their relationships and affecting factors. This research aims to clarify the overall understanding of UX, along with its key components (the user, interaction, the system, and context) and dimensions (ergonomic, affective, and the cognitive experiences). The authors built a semantic construction inspired by the structure of a grammatical sentence to highlight the relationship between those components. Therefore, UX is defined by a subject/user who performs an action-interaction towards an object-system. A complement-context better defines the condition(s) where the action-interaction takes place. This work is expected to lay the foundations for the understanding of approaches and methods employed in UX studies, especially in design

Observing Pictures and Videos of Creative Products: An Eye Tracking Study

The paper offers insights into people’s exploration of creative products shown on a computer screen within the overall task of capturing artifacts’ original features and functions. In particular, the study presented here analyzes the effects of different forms of representations, i.e., static pictures and videos. While the relevance of changing stimuli’s forms of representation is acknowledged in both engineering design and human-computer interaction, scarce attention has been paid to this issue hitherto when creative products are in play. Six creative products have been presented to twenty-eight subjects through either pictures or videos in an Eye-Tracking-supported experiment. The results show that major attention is paid by people to original product features and functional elements when products are displayed by means of videos. This aspect is of paramount importance, as original shapes, parts, or characteristics of creative products might be inconsistent with people’s habits and cast doubts about their rationale and utility. In this sense, videos seemingly emphasize said original elements and likely lead to their explanation/resolution. Overall, the outcomes of the study strengthen the need to match appropriate forms of representation with different design stages in light of the needs for designs’ evaluation and testing user experience

Investigating perceived meanings and scopes of Design for Additive Manufacturing

The concept of Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) is gaining popularity along with AM, despite its scopes are not well established. In particular, in the last few years, DfAM methods have been intuitively subdivided into opportunistic and restrictive. This distinction is gaining traction despite a lack of formalization. In this context, the paper investigates experts' understanding of DfAM. In particular, the authors have targeted educators, as the perception of DfAM scopes in the future will likely depend on teachers' view. A bespoke survey has been launched, which has been answer by 100 worldwide-distributed respondents. The gathered data has undergone several analyses, markedly answers to open questions asking for individual definitions of DfAM, and evaluations of the pertinence of meanings and acceptations from the literature. The results show that the main DfAM aspects focused on by first standardization attempts have been targeted, especially products, processes, opportunities and constraints. Beyond opportunistic and restrictive nuances, DfAM different understandings are characterized by different extents of cognitive endeavor, convergence vs. divergence in the design process, theoretical vs. hands on approaches

Survey workflow

Additive Manufacturing (AM) has become an established discipline in both research and education. However, to achieve its full potential AM requires a step-change in design thinking, which makes Design for AM (DfAM) education and training crucial. This document presents the workflow of an online survey aimed at investigating the uptake of DfAM in higher education. The survey collected responses from over 100 AM and DfAM educators worldwide

An investigation into the current state of education in Design for Additive Manufacturing

Additive Manufacturing (AM) has become an established discipline in both research and education. However, to achieve its full potential AM requires a step-change in design thinking, which makes Design for AM (DfAM) education and training crucial. This paper reports on results from the first attempt to investigate the uptake of DfAM in higher education. This research required the development and administration of an articulated online survey, in which educators worldwide who teach AM and DfAM have participated. The results show that DfAM is taught in a considerable number of courses. However, the survey revealed that DfAM is seldom recognised as a distinct course or topic and the relevance attributed and proportion of teaching dedicated to DfAM within wider AM is typically marginal. DfAM is being mostly taught in North America and Europe and is also typically taught in institutions that are research active in AM or specifically DfAM, suggesting the subject has not yet reached maturity or diffusion into mainstream design and engineering curricula. It was interesting to find that currently, the contents of courses do not differ significantly between engineering and design programmes.</p

C.802C>T NOD2/CARD15 SNP is Associated to Crohn’s Disease in Italian Patients

The incidence of Crohn’s Disease (CD), a complex inflammatory bowel disease, is rapidly increasing. NOD2/ CARD15 gene variants have been associated with early CD onset, terminal ileal involvement, and structuring disease. We comparatively analyzed, by PCR and direct sequencing, the exons 4, 8 and 11 of NOD2/CARD15 gene in CD Italian patients (n=42) and in healthy controls (n= 66). Our results show that the frequency of the allele T of the c.802C>T (p.P268S) SNP (rs2066842) results in linkage disequilibrium with allele T of the c.1377 C>T (p. R459R) SNP. Moreover, the frequency of the allele T of the c.802C>T (p.P268S) SNP (rs2066842) is significantly higher in CD’s patients than in control subjects (p=0.018; OR=2.02). Similarly, the frequency of the insertion c.3020insC (p.L1007fs) is significantly higher (p=0.0347; OR=14.59) in CD patients. Our results suggest that molecular analysis of the NOD2/CARD15 gene could represent a contributory tool for the identification of subjects genetically predisposed to CD