Physicality in technological interface design

This research explores emotional response to gesture in order to inform future product interaction design. After describing the emergence and likely role of full-body interfaces with devices and systems, the importance of emotional reaction to the necessary movements and gestures is outlined. A gestural vocabulary for the control of a web page is then presented, along with a semantic differential questionnaire for its evaluation. An experiment is described where users undertook a series of web navigation tasks using the gestural vocabulary, then recorded their reaction to the experience. A number of insights were drawn on the context, precision, distinction, repetition and scale of gestures when used to control or activate a product. These insights will be of help in interaction design, and provide a basis for further development of gestural vocabularies

The role of the vocal stream in telepresence communication

This paper helps in developing a new telepresence TP that will capture the vocal stream, and allow users to relate to natural behaviours that spontaneously arise during speech. Most of the work in affective computing within telepresence robot platforms adds to current research and knowledge generation as opposed to application. Consequently, users do not get clear benefits from them in the real world. The main reason behind this lack of benefit is that most research does not represent reality, and the actual capabilities we have in the real world do not match the capabilities that are used in research. Therefore, contemporary telepresence robot design should be based on an understanding of different aspects of human-human interaction (HHI) in regard to that which can be feasibly implemented in TP. Thus, this study will provided step by step guidelines to govern the creation of practical natural user interfaces using the vocal stream

Interactive Digital Support for Concept Design Teams

This thesis develops a design method, the ICR (Inform, Create, Reflect) Grid, for improved utilisation of information during concept design. Although concept design is information intensive and critical to project direction, the effective management and use of digital information has not been adequately addressed. The ICR Grid is a prescriptive method which requires design teams to find and build information resources in parallel with creating solutions. As a solution-based approach it allows designers to freely explore ideas, while encouraging flexible thinking by using different modes of conceptual working (analysis, synthesis and evaluation). The output of the method is a linked grid of concepts and information sources. The exploratory phase of the research examined current design process models and concept design methods, with team information use patterns explored through protocol analyses of a design task. This was followed by an examination of literature relating to digital information and a class study on technological support for student designers. The outcome of these explorations was an understanding that to enhance digital information use in concept design, a new approach was necessary. Development began by correlating characteristics of computer games to concept design, with a view to applying new techniques to the structure and management of information. A number of scenarios were subsequently outlined, with one selected and developed using paper-based prototyping. This was eventually formalised as the ICR Grid. Initial evaluation of the new method was carried out through a comparative study with the 6-3-5 Method, which revealed that although fewer concepts were produced with the ICR Grid, they were of a higher quality, variety and detail. Three different companies then used the ICR Grid to address relevant industrial problems, with generally positive feedback obtained on its performance. Several areas are identified for future work and the further enhancement of information use

A framework for design engineering education in a global context

This paper presents a framework for teaching design engineering in a global context using innovative technologies to enable distributed teams to work together effectively across international and cultural boundaries. The DIDET Framework represents the findings of a 5-year project conducted by the University of Strathclyde, Stanford University and Olin College which enhanced student learning opportunities by enabling them to partake in global, team based design engineering projects, directly experiencing different cultural contexts and accessing a variety of digital information sources via a range of innovative technology. The use of innovative technology enabled the formalization of design knowledge within international student teams as did the methods that were developed for students to store, share and reuse information. Coaching methods were used by teaching staff to support distributed teams and evaluation work on relevant classes was carried out regularly to allow ongoing improvement of learning and teaching and show improvements in student learning. Major findings of the 5 year project include the requirement to overcome technological, pedagogical and cultural issues for successful eLearning implementations. The DIDET Framework encapsulates all the conclusions relating to design engineering in a global context. Each of the principles for effective distributed design learning is shown along with relevant findings and suggested metrics. The findings detailed in the paper were reached through a series of interventions in design engineering education at the collaborating institutions. Evaluation was carried out on an ongoing basis and fed back into project development, both on the pedagogical and the technological approaches

Face pareidolia in products : the effect of emotional content on attentional capture, eagerness to explore, and likelihood to purchase

Face‐like configurations can be perceived in everyday products. This perceptual phenomenon is known as face pareidolia. However, few studies have investigated the perception of pareidolic emotion in such products and the effect it could have on consumer behaviour. Therefore, in this study, across two experiments, we test the extent to which participants perceive core human emotions in products with pareidolic configurations (Experiment 1), and how this affects key consumer metrics (i.e., likely attentional capture, eagerness to explore, likelihood to purchase; Experiment 2). The findings show that these products do elicit the full range of affective content, with variation in perceived emotional intensity. Products with ‘happy’, ‘angry’ and ‘surprise’ configurations were likely to capture attention/promote product exploration, but only ‘happy’ products retained this advantage for purchasing decisions. Individual differences in mood and level of loneliness predicted likely engagement with these products. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed

Influence of sketch types on distributed design team work

Product development is a collaborative activity more often than ever carried out by distributed design teams. It is critical to determine how sketches are used in such environments in order to improve the design process. Sketches produced by students participating in a collaborative design project of three European Universities are classified according to the intention of the designer when producing a sketch, the level of detail shown in the sketch and the phase when the sketch was produced. The adapted classification system used in this paper helps to analyse type of sketches with most variety of ideas. Furthermore, this paper reviews which type of sketches offers the most potential to be further developed. Results show that persuasive sketches offer the broadest range of ideas since they are produced as a combination of ideas from brainstorming sessions. Shared sketches help to achieve consensus in decision-making since the sketches are most likely to be produced by the entire group rather than individually

A training strategy for managing distributed conceptual design work

This paper reviews how sketching can support distributed student design teams in the early phases of concept design. When working in the limited communication channels of distributed teams, sketches can form an important way for teams to build a rapport that would otherwise be difficult. This work reviews the performance of ten distributed student design teams made up of participants from Scotland and Malta who were required to undertake a conceptual design task – the design of cardboard packaging for a wine glass. Issues relating to the creation, use and development of sketches were analyzed for a sample of three teams, and correlated to the communication patterns, team satisfaction and quality of output. It was subsequently found that the team who shared the most ‘talking sketches’, resulted in a higher degree of satisfaction compared to the other teams. Results also suggest that those teams who generated the most ‘thinking sketches’ developed a more robust design solution. These findings form the basis for a strategy to train students to manage distributed concept design work.peer-reviewe

Interactive digital support for concept design teams

This thesis develops a design method, the ICR (Inform, Create, Reflect) Grid, for improved utilisation of information during concept design. Although concept design is information intensive and critical to project direction, the effective management and use of digital information has not been adequately addressed. The ICR Grid is a prescriptive method which requires design teams to find and build information resources in parallel with creating solutions. As a solution-based approach it allows designers to freely explore ideas, while encouraging flexible thinking by using different modes of conceptual working (analysis, synthesis and evaluation). The output of the method is a linked grid of concepts and information sources. The exploratory phase of the research examined current design process models and concept design methods, with team information use patterns explored through protocol analyses of a design task. This was followed by an examination of literature relating to digital information and a class study on technological support for student designers. The outcome of these explorations was an understanding that to enhance digital information use in concept design, a new approach was necessary. Development began by correlating characteristics of computer games to concept design, with a view to applying new techniques to the structure and management of information. A number of scenarios were subsequently outlined, with one selected and developed using paper-based prototyping. This was eventually formalised as the ICR Grid. Initial evaluation of the new method was carried out through a comparative study with the 6-3-5 Method, which revealed that although fewer concepts were produced with the ICR Grid, they were of a higher quality, variety and detail. Three different companies then used the ICR Grid to address relevant industrial problems, with generally positive feedback obtained on its performance. Several areas are identified for future work and the further enhancement of information use

The impact of head movements on user involvement in mediated interaction

Communication takes place not only through speech, but also through gestures such as facial expressions, gaze, head movements, hand movements and body posture. Although developing rapidly, current communication platforms do not facilitate the types of behaviour we believe are needed to fully support non-verbal communication and make interactions more engaging and efficient. In this paper, we decided to focus our research specifically on the head rather than any other body part as it is a rich source of information for speech-related movement. Thus we aim in this study to investigate the value of incorporating head movements into the use of telepresence robots as communication platforms; by means of investigating a system that manually reproduces head movement as closely as possible. The essential quantitative results revealed no significant differences on any of the measures we used. However, the qualitative information from the experiment indicates of further research will be useful in this area. These findings suggest that an enclose body language are required for a real-time communication beside the head noddin