Necessary skills and practices required for effective participation in high bandwidth design team activities

Technology is continually changing, and evolving, throughout the entire construction industry; and particularly in the design process. One of the principal manifestations of this is a move away from team working in a shared work space to team working in a virtual space, using increasingly sophisticated electronic media. Due to the significant operating differences when working in shared and virtual spaces adjustments to generic skills utilised by members is a necessity when moving between the two conditions. This paper reports an aspect of a CRC-CI research project based on research of ‘generic skills’ used by individuals and teams when engaging with high bandwidth information and communication technologies (ICT). It aligns with the project’s other two aspects of collaboration in virtual environments: ‘processes’ and ‘models’. The entire project focuses on the early stages of a project (i.e. design) in which models for the project are being developed and revised. The paper summarises the first stage of the research project which reviews literature to identify factors of virtual teaming which may affect team member skills. It concludes that design team participants require ‘appropriate skills’ to function efficiently and effectively, and that the introduction of high band-width technologies reinforces the need for skills mapping and measurement

An investigation into the interaction between potential building clients and construction professionals

This research investigates the interaction process between building clients and construction professionals. The context of the interaction is the first meeting between the parties to discuss a potential construction project. The objective of the research was to determine whether clients, with differing levels of construction experience, and construction professionals, from different disciplines (architects, quantity surveyors, consulting engineers and contractors), exhibit distinctive interaction characteristics, both in terms of how they interact and the subject matter of their interactions. In order to test a number of hypotheses about the interactions an experimental procedure was developed. This involved arranging a series of interviews between the different client types and the construction professionals. 44 interviews were conducted with each one being recorded and then transcribed. Additional data was collected in the form of participant questionnaires and personality tests. Transcripts were coded using systems developed for this investigation, using measures of nature of interaction and subject matter. Processing and analysis of the data was conducted using ethnographic computer software and programs written specifically for this research project. A database was created from the interview data which allows selective retrieval of segments of interviews. The database comprises of approximately 215,000 words, with 58,000 codes assigned to text segments. The results of the analysis are presented in both quantitative and qualitative forms, and show that there are significant differences in the interactions. In interviews between inexperienced clients and professionals the professionals make the greater contributions, dominating the clients. There is a reversal of the roles when experienced clients interact with professionals, with the clients assuming the dominant position. In addition the results show that in interviews between inexperienced clients and professionals, the four professional disciplines emphasis different factors. All professionals raise issues relating to primary factors such as time, cost and quality. However, the discussion of other building factors was more specific to a particular professional discipline. Finally, the research also concluded that the element of personality differences in interviews was an influential factor in determining whether their outcome was perceived as successful by the participants

Constructing a flexible model of integrated professional practice part: 3 - the model in practice

This is the third in a series of papers exploring the Constructionist Model of Informed Reasoned Action (COMOIRA). The first two papers articulated the theoretical and conceptual issues underpinning the model and explored some important process and practice issues associated with it. Initially, this paper discusses two important concepts that contextualise the model. Firstly, that the model is in an ongoing process of development, and, secondly, that the model is a heuristic, providing a template to guide the professional work of an applied psychologist, rather than a prescriptive process in which actions must follow in a particular, unchanging order. This paper then illustrates applications of the model in working with individuals and groups within the Cardiff University training programme for educational psychologists (EPs) and also in the work of the authors with service users, including joint work at an organisational level with two Educational Psychology Services (EPSs). Moving from a theoretical perspective to a practical, day‐to‐day application of any model, or even simply contemplating such a move, inevitably generates challenges for individuals and organisations and these are discussed from a constructionist perspective. This paper also addresses the issue of providing detailed worked examples of the model in practice, especially when there are expectations and assumptions that doing so will inevitably be positive and helpful. Whilst the model has been exported from the training programme and has been taken up in a variety of ways by some individual EPs and some EPSs, there is a need to explore more systematically its impact and value beyond the training programme. The next phase of development needs to involve some structured monitoring and evaluation of the model in the field. However, it will be critical also to explore the contextual and systemic factors that might encourage, enable and support the use of a new model, as well as those that might discourage, oppose and/or inhibit its application and development

Designing a mobile augmented memory system for people with traumatic brain injuries

Augmented memory systems help people remember events in their lives. Individuals with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) often have memory impairments. We conducted a user study to learn about strategies individuals with TBI use to remember events in their lives. We explored what characteristics individuals with TBI expect of an augmented memory system. We then investigated these aspects in an initial mobile app design, and propose here a concept for a rehearsal application that addresses the issues found in our studies

Human Visual Field and Navigational Strategies

In this study we use a particular virtual reality environment to investigate spatial navigation in human adults in two viewing conditions. In the first, participants could simultaneously see both landmarks of the virtual environment which inform about the location of the goal (simultaneous vision). In the second, participants could see only one landmark at a time (sequential vision). Basically, conditions differed with regard to the amplitude of the visual fields, which might influence the strategy adopted by the participant to navigate in the virtual space and locate the goal. When people have visual access to both landmarks, they can use all relevant information to navigate. However, when people see only one landmark at a time, they need to integrate the partial viewings of the environment in order to reconstruct the visual space. Consequently, simultaneous and sequential vision tasks involve different cognitive demands..