Family in Focus: On Design and Field Trial of the Dynamic Collage [DC]

In this paper we present the design and field trial of the Dynamic Collage. The Dynamic Collage was designed to facilitate and to stimulate participation of family members in the informal care of an elderly person. The Dynamic Collage enabled relatives to update their current activity by sending a photo to a digital collage at the elderly person's living space. The service is triggered when a family member visits the elderly person. The field trial revealed that all family members valued this type of communication and that they became more aware of informal care. This shows there are opportunities to support informal care in a broader circle than current practices allow. Apart from informal care, our design case contributes to the field of social awareness systems, which we will discuss in the paper

Pragmatic Research Tactics for Starting IT Engineers

Peer reviewed research paper SEFI Engineering Education congress 2018 Within higher engineering education, students have to learn to close knowledge gaps that arise in professional assignments, such as capstone projects. These knowledge gaps can be closed through simple inquiry, but can also require more rigorous research. Since professionals work under tight constraints, they face constant trade-offs between quality, risk and efficiency to find answers that are acceptable. This means engineers use pragmatic research tactics that aim for the highest chance to find answers that fit sufficiently to close knowledge gaps in order to solve the problem with optimal use of time and resources. The problem is that research and problem-solving literature richly supplies solid strategies suitable to plan the research in projects as a whole, but hardly supplies flexible tactics to search for information within a project. This paper reports pragmatic tactics that starting bachelor engineering professionals use to acquire sufficiently good answers to questions that arise in the context of their assignments. For this, we conducted semi-structured interviews among computer science engineers with three to five years of work experience. The study reveals three pragmatic tactics: concentric, iterative and probe-response. The ambition level of the project determines when questions are sufficiently answered, and we distinguish tree sufficiency levels: check for viable answer, boost critical demand and change the game. The aim of this research is to add a view that makes pragmatic research choices for novice engineers more open to discussion and realistic

A systematic analysis of mixed perspectives in empathic design: not one perspective encompasses all

Although it is common for designers to base design decisions on own experiences, the specific utility, and legitimacy, validity of this first-person perspective in design is currently not sufficiently understood and recognized. In particular, wisely applying the first-person perspective in projects that require great sensitivity can be a major contributor to design outcomes. As such, a better understanding of the relative value of the first-person perspective compared to—and combined with—other fundamental perspectives (introduced as perspective transitions and clusters) can contribute to enrich and develop design methodologies. In this paper we report on a case study targeting mourning. We describe when and how junior designers employed the first-, second-, and third-person perspectives and how they were combined. This leads to new insights. First, we improve the current understanding of perspectives. Second, we identify the specific value of transitions between perspectives. Third, we introduce perspective clusters and highlight how these—as building blocks—can give flexible guidance to design. These insights, in turn, support a mixed-perspectives approach. This approach supports empathic design by enabling designers to be receptive, inclusive, and committed toward users. Moreover, it supports designers in employing (relevant) personal experiences and intuition in a more credible and intentional way