Radical design processes for systemic change

To enable radical design in safety-critical collaborative workplaces, there is a need to engage a wide range of stakeholders. This paper reports on three design presentations carried out with the purpose of enabling systemic changes necessary to carry out a complete redesign of current ship bridges for advanced marine operations. The presentations showed possible future bridge designs developed from an extensive design-driven research and development project. The presentations were held inside the company commissioning the innovations and publicly at industrial meeting places where customers, sub-suppliers and regulatory authorities meet. We present the objectives, target groups, our strategy, the means of presentation and the results. Our preliminary work suggests there is a close relation between the presentations and the research and development project's ability to introduce radical innovations to marine industry. The presentations have aligned stakeholder expectations of future bridge development and as such prepared the community for systemic changes. We suggest the three presentations are examples of how design presentations can serve as systemic interventions that prime social systems so as to more easily accept and support radical innovation processes

Using operational scenarios in a virtual reality enhanced design process

Maritime user interfaces for ships’ bridges are highly dependent on the context in which they are used, and rich maritime context is difficult to recreate in the early stages of user-centered design processes. Operations in Arctic waters where crews are faced with extreme environmental conditions, technology limitations and a lack of accurate navigational information further increase this challenge. There is a lack of research supporting the user-centered design of workplaces for hazardous Arctic operations. To meet this challenge, this paper reports on the process of developing virtual reality-reconstructed operational scenarios to connect stakeholders, end-users, designers, and human factors specialists in a joint process. This paper explores how virtual reality-reconstructed operational scenarios can be used as a tool both for concept development and user testing. Three operational scenarios were developed, implemented in a full mission bridge simulator, recreated in virtual reality (VR), and finally tested on navigators (end-users). Qualitative data were captured throughout the design process and user-testing, resulting in a thematic analysis that identified common themes reflecting the experiences gained throughout this process. In conclusion, we argue that operational scenarios, rendered in immersive media such as VR, may be an important and reusable asset when supporting maritime design processes and in maritime training and education

A review of augmented reality applications for ship bridges

We present a state-of-the art analysis of Augmented Reality (AR) applications for ship bridge operation. We compiled and reviewed what type of use cases were published, what type of maritime applications have been adapted to AR, how they were prototyped and evaluated and what type of technology was used. We also reviewed the user interaction mechanisms, information display and adaptation to maritime environmental conditions. Our analysis shows that although there are many examples of AR applications in ship bridges, there is still much work that needs to be done before these solutions can be suitably adapted to commercial settings. In addition, we argue there is a need to develop design requirements and regulations that can guide the safe development of AR

Development of an augmented reality concept for icebreaker assistance and convoy operations

A vessel convoy is a complex and high‐risk operation completed during icebreaking operations in the Arctic. Icebreaker navigators need to continuously communicate with their crew while monitoring information such as speed, heading, and distance between vessels in the convoy. This paper presents an augmented reality user interface concept, which aims to support navigators by improving oversight and safety during convoy operations. The concept demonstrates how augmented reality can help to realize a situated user interface that adapts to user’s physical and operational contexts. The concept was developed through a human‐centered design process and tested through a virtual reality simulator in a usability study involving seven mariners. The results suggest that augmented reality has the potential to improve the safety of convoy operations by integrating distributed information with heads‐up access to operation‐critical information. However, the user interface concept is still novel, and further work is needed to develop the concept and safely integrate augmented reality into maritime operations

Conceptual designing and technology : short-range RFID as design material

Short-Range Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an emerging technology that interaction designers are currently embracing. There are, however, few systematic efforts to utilize the technology as a tool for the development of new design concepts. This article focuses on technology as a design material and its role in the formative process of conceptual design. My approach involves the use of activity theory and the concept of motives, used to analyze short-range RFID technology when considering the field of design. I employ practice-based research where qualitative design and research methods are used to scrutinize the use of this technology in design. A design material perspective frames the short-range RFID technology as a composite consisting of near-fields and the computational. This material is coined near-field material and is further described through six form-making qualities: Tap and Hold, Multi-Field Relations, Multi-Field Distribution, Field Shape, Context Sharing and Mediation Type. I propose that the near-field material and thus the six form-making qualities cited above, offer designers engaged in creating user-oriented experiences, a morphology of form types. I argue that by synthesizing and analyzing emerging technology in relation to designers’ motives for using them, we may further support research and practice by placing technology inside design discourse and culture

Designing tangible interaction using short-range RFID

Short-range Radio Frequency IDentification (SR-RFID) technology embedded in mobile phones offers interaction design practitioners the potential to design new forms of mobile experiences. The article presents a design oriented research study that seeks to develop affordances specifically in support of such practice. To do so the authors draw on Activity Theory. They present three levels of SR-RFID related design affordances: need related design affordances, instrumental design affordances and operational design affordances. Included also is what they label ‘RFID based Tap and Hold’; a term used so as to frame tangible interaction on SR-RFID. A generative and descriptive model of Tap and Hold is proposed, as is a set of input techniques derived from the Tap and Hold model. Overall, the study suggests opening out from functional views of SR-RFID to ones that view it as a technology applicable for designers exploring potential new interactions. This is important since such work may be used to support the generation of new designs, an area often overlooked in research on RFID

Field studies informing ship's bridge design at the ocean industries concept lab.

In this paper we discuss the use of field research in multidisciplinary design processes when designing the ship's bridge of offshore service vessels. From carrying out ten field studies at sea over a three year period we have gained considerable insight into the role which field research may play in design projects for the offshore ship industry. We have found that allowing the designers to experience the onboard environment first hand is vital when designing for such a complex domain. Building on the experience we have gained, we have developed a model for design-driven field research relevant for these kinds of design projects. Our model encourages designers to engage in design reflection while in the field. This we believe is particularly important when designing for use situations unfamiliar to most designers, like a ship's bridge

Between the tag and the screen : redesigning short-range RFID as design material

Article-based thesis. Article 3 has been excluded from this digital version due to copyright restrictions.Industrial and interaction designers are increasingly faced with new computational technologies that may be used as materials in designing. Such materials are important in design practices because they offer conditions for conceptualisation and production of new designs. However, new computational technologies are often very complex and not presented with the intention of supporting design practices. This study explores such a problem by way of a study of Short-Range RFID (SR-RFID) as design material. SR-RFID is a new computational technology that enables a transaction of information between a radio transmitter and an RFID tag when the two are within a very short range (2-5 cm). As a design material, SR-RFID crosses the traditional boundaries between industrial and interaction design by offering temporal and spatial properties that may be shaped by both disciplines. In investigating SR-RFID as a design material, we are faced with two important challenges. First, the available information concerning SR-RFID in relation to industrial and interaction design is limited and often oriented toward finished solutions rather than exposing potentials for designing. Second, it is difficult to find frameworks that show how to analyse such a technology so as to present it as a material specifically oriented toward industrial and interaction design. I meet this challenge by applying a process of research by design. In this process, a series of explorative design probes has been carried out with the purpose of exposing design-related properties of SR-RFID. The design research has been conducted by a multidisciplinary team of researchers and designers as part of a larger research project called Touch. Central to my study is the use of activity theory in building a conceptual framework that allows the analysis of computational technology as design material. This framework has been applied to SR-RFID in order to re-conceptualise it for designing. The study has found that in order to understand SR-RFID in relation to industrial and interaction design it is useful to reinterpret it as a design material. I offer three main reflections on SR-RFID as design material. First, I argue that SR-RFID may be seen as near-field material. This material is specifically oriented toward industrial and interaction designers' form-making. Second, I present how SR-RFID may be seen as a conceptual material that helps us focus on material properties that have special significance in the creation of forms. Third, I argue that when creating design materials for industrial and interaction design, we should pay particular attention to the concept of motive. Motives may help us understand what SR-RFID means in designers' activity. The results of this study offer one example of how activity theory could be used in interaction and industrial design research to understand materials. Furthermore, it expands upon current research that investigates computational technology as materials. In addition, new insights into the makeup of SR-RFID are offered that may be further appropriated and used in design and design teaching

Between the tag and the screen : redesigning short-range RFID as design material

Industrial and interaction designers are increasingly faced with new computational technologies that may be used as materials in designing. Such materials are important in design practices because they offer conditions for conceptualisation and production of new designs. However, new computational technologies are often very complex and not presented with the intention of supporting design practices. This study explores such a problem by way of a study of Short-Range RFID (SR-RFID) as design material. SR-RFID is a new computational technology that enables a transaction of information between a radio transmitter and an RFID tag when the two are within a very short range (2-5 cm). As a design material, SR-RFID crosses the traditional boundaries between industrial and interaction design by offering temporal and spatial properties that may be shaped by both disciplines. In investigating SR-RFID as a design material, we are faced with two important challenges. First, the available information concerning SR-RFID in relation to industrial and interaction design is limited and often oriented toward finished solutions rather than exposing potentials for designing. Second, it is difficult to find frameworks that show how to analyse such a technology so as to present it as a material specifically oriented toward industrial and interaction design. I meet this challenge by applying a process of research by design. In this process, a series of explorative design probes has been carried out with the purpose of exposing design-related properties of SR-RFID. The design research has been conducted by a multidisciplinary team of researchers and designers as part of a larger research project called Touch. Central to my study is the use of activity theory in building a conceptual framework that allows the analysis of computational technology as design material. This framework has been applied to SR-RFID in order to re-conceptualise it for designing. The study has found that in order to understand SR-RFID in relation to industrial and interaction design it is useful to reinterpret it as a design material. I offer three main reflections on SR-RFID as design material. First, I argue that SR-RFID may be seen as near-field material. This material is specifically oriented toward industrial and interaction designers' form-making. Second, I present how SR-RFID may be seen as a conceptual material that helps us focus on material properties that have special significance in the creation of forms. Third, I argue that when creating design materials for industrial and interaction design, we should pay particular attention to the concept of motive. Motives may help us understand what SR-RFID means in designers' activity. The results of this study offer one example of how activity theory could be used in interaction and industrial design research to understand materials. Furthermore, it expands upon current research that investigates computational technology as materials. In addition, new insights into the makeup of SR-RFID are offered that may be further appropriated and used in design and design teaching