DESIGNING AN AI-BASED ADVISORY PLATFORM FOR DESIGN TECHNIQUES

The usage of design techniques in design processes is an important driver for the success of digital services. However, before using design techniques, suitable techniques need to be selected. With the continuous growth of the number of design techniques, the selection of appropriate ones becomes more difficult, especially for design novices with limited knowledge and expertise. In order to support the selection process, we propose design principles for the development of an advisory platform that interacts with design novices to suggest design techniques for different design situations using artificial intelligence (AI) techniques. Specifically, we leverage conversational agents, recommender techniques, and taxonomic background knowledge to conceptualize and implement an AI-based advisory platform. Following a design science research methodology, we contribute design knowledge for the class of advanced advisory platforms. Furthermore, from a practical point of view, we help design novices with our implemented advisory platform in the contextualized selection process of design techniques

Designing Decision Aids for Digital Service Design Technique Selection

Today, people from a multi-disciplinary background are becoming involved in digital service design processes. With the increasing number of digital service design processes in organizations, it is becoming critical to quickly onboard design novices. A huge amount of design techniques is available in digital service design processes. However, too-much-choice makes the selecting process difficult. Thus, selecting appropriate techniques is a challenge, especially for design novices. This dissertation project focuses on providing decision support for design novices to select design techniques in design processes. Several artifacts in the form of different types of classifications and web-based platforms were developed as decision aids seeking to guide novices to select design techniques in digital service design processes. A design science research paradigm was followed, and three design cycles were conducted in the entire dissertation project. Artifacts were developed and evaluated in each design cycle. In design cycle 1, an expert-based taxonomy and a set of novice-based tags were derived. In design cycle 2, the taxonomy and tags were instantiated as decision aids in a web-based platform and evaluated in a lab experiment. The evaluation demonstrated that the expert-based taxonomy outperformed the novice-based tags. In design cycle 3, an extended version of the web-based platform was developed, including a natural language user interface (UI) in combination with the taxonomy to provide selection support for design techniques. The results of the experimental evaluation of cycle 3 demonstrated that novices’ performance using graphical and natural language UI was dependent on decision-making style and duration of use. The work presented in this thesis contributes to the body of knowledge in the field of digital service design. In design cycle 1, the created taxonomy represents a theory for analysis (type I theory). In design cycle 2 and 3, the proposed design principles represent the core of a theory for design and action (type V theory) to guide the design of decision aids for supporting design novices’ selection of design techniques. Besides the theoretical contribution, the developed platform for the selection of design techniques contributes practically to help design novices select design techniques under different design situations

A Taxonomy of Digital Service Design Techniques

In a digital world, service designers need to apply design techniques to meet increasing user expectations. While there are many design techniques out there, the current taxonomies of design techniques provide little guidance for designers when it comes to selecting appropriate design techniques during the design process. Hence, a well-structured taxonomy is needed. This research-in-process seeks to apply a taxonomy development method to classify design techniques and to identify important dimensions in order to provide an overview of digital service design techniques. Our preliminary results present a taxonomy with five dimensions, each of which includes mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive characteristics. In future research, we plan to evaluate the usefulness of our taxonomy and compare our taxonomy with those that are currently available. Furthermore, we expect to look into the potential interrelations among the dimensions and build a model that explains and predicts the appropriate techniques for a given situation

The Institutional Facets of Innovation Diffusion Initiating: The Case of Wal-Mart\u27s RFID Campaign

From two institutional perspectives, we discuss how an organization can initiate the diffusion of a radical IS innovation in its community by proactively exerting institutional influences. Through an in-depth historical analysis, we discuss how Wal-Mart initiated the RFID application in the retailing institutional field. From the institutional field angle, we discuss the structure, the scope, and the institutional carriers of the “RFID in retail” field in which Wal-Mart initiated the diffusion of RFID. From the institutional strategy angle, we profile Wal-Mart’s strategic concerns on RFID diffusion, its interests, and its resources. In the institutionalization processes of the RFID in retail field, we identified that an organizing vision was created, held, and evolved within the field, and played a critical role in Wal-Mart’s institutional strategy. By examining institutional perspectives of innovation fostering processes, this paper extends the literature on diffusion of radical IOS innovations in institutional fields

Public Service Reform in China

The article reviews the history of public service reform in China. It shows the special path of public service reform in a country transformed from a planned socialist mechanism to a market economy. The public service reform in China is distinctive by its incremental nature. The article is based on the theory of historical institutionalism. The analysis of path dependence of the reform is made from the perspectives of political context, economic foundation, and globalization. The qualitative research method is employed. The article concludes with a summary of current problems and prediction for the future of public service reform in China

Metal Injection Moulding of High Nb-Containing TiAl Alloy and Its Oxidation Behaviour at 900°C

High Nb-containing TiAl alloy with a nominal composition of Ti-45Al-8.5Nb-0.2W-0.2B-0.02Y (at %) was fabricated by metal injection moulding (MIM) technology with an improved wax-based binder. The critical powder loading and feedstock rheological behaviour were determined. The influence of sintering temperature on microstructures and mechanical properties of the sintered samples and their oxidation behaviour were also investigated. Results showed that a feedstock, with a powder loading of 68 vol % and good flowability, could be obtained by using the improved binder, and oxygen pick-up was lower than that of the sample prepared by using a traditional binder. The ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and plastic elongation of the sample sintered at 1480 °C for 2 h were 412 MPa and 0.33%, at room temperature, respectively. The 1480 °C-sintered sample consisted of γ/α2 lamellar microstructure with the average colony size of about 70 µm, and its porosity was about 4%. The sintered alloy showed better oxidation resistance than that of the cast alloy counterpart

Angular deviation and diffraction efficiency of Littrow-configuration ECDL for three-dimensional diffraction

We consider in this paper the angular deviation and diffraction efficiency of the reflection gratings in Littrow-configuration for applications of external cavity diode laser (ECDL) using the rigorous coupled-wave analysis (RCWA) method. We consider the three-dimensional diffraction case in general, where the incidence plane is un-parallel with the grating vector (i.e. conical diffraction). The angular tolerance of arbitrary gratings under plane and conical diffraction are thus derived and presented. A typical blazed grating is chosen as an example to calculate its diffraction efficiency (DE) using RCWA. {Furthermore}, we point out that the angular tolerance and reflection efficiency can be improved if the appropriate parameter settings are selected for Littrow-configuration ECDL, including incidence angle, diffraction order, grating period and blazed angle. Otherwise, a tiny slanting angle of the grating vector deviated from the incidence plane will {deviate the feedback light away from} entering the LD-chip and halt laser oscillation in the external cavity. Finally, a general rule for the parameter settings in Littrow-configuration is provided as a benchmark.Comment: 9 pages,11 figure

Enhanced hydrogen storage properties of LiAlH4 catalyzed by CoFe2O4 nanoparticles

The catalytic effects of CoFe2O4 nanoparticles on the hydrogen storage properties of LiAlH4 prepared by ball milling were investigated. The onset desorption temperature of the LiAlH4 + 2 mol% CoFe2O4 sample is 65 °C, which is 90 °C lower that of the as-received LiAlH4, with approximately 7.2 wt% hydrogen released at 250 °C. The isothermal desorption results show that for the 2 mol% CoFe2O4 doped sample dehydrogenated at 120 °C, 6.8 wt% of hydrogen can be released within 160 min, which is 6.1 wt% higher than that of the as-received LiAlH4 under the same conditions. Through the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and the Kissinger desorption kinetics analyses, the apparent activation energy, Ea, of the 2 mol% CoFe2O4 doped sample is calculated as 52.4 kJ mol -1 H2 and 86.5 kJ mol-1 H2 for the first two decomposition processes. This is 42.4 kJ mol-1 H 2 and 86.1 kJ mol-1 H2 lower compared with the pristine LiAlH4, respectively, indicating considerably improved dehydrogenation kinetics by doping the CoFe2O4 catalyst in the LiAlH4 matrix. From the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses, a series of finely dispersed Fe and Co species with a range of valence states, produced from the reactions between LiAlH4 and CoFe2O4, play a synergistic role in remarkably improving LiAlH4 dehydrogenation properties. The rehydrogenation properties of the LiAlH4 + 2 mol% CoFe 2O4 sample have also been investigated at 140 °C under 6.5 MPa pressure held for 2.5 hPeer ReviewedPostprint (published version