scholarly journals Usability Evaluation of Software Tools for Engineering Design

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1303-1312
Author(s):  
Helena Hashemi Farzaneh ◽  
Lorenz Neuner
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Evaluation Method ◽  
Software Tool ◽  
Software Tools ◽  
Usability Evaluation ◽  
Smart Devices ◽  
Design Software ◽  
Support Engineering

AbstractMuch of the work in design research focusses on the development of methods and tools to support engineering designers. Many of these tools are nowadays implemented in software. Due to the strongly growing use of computers and smart devices in the last two decades, the expectations of users increased dramatically. In particular users expect good usability, for example little effort for learning to apply the software. Therefore, the usability evaluation of design software tools is crucial. A software tool with bad usability will not be used in industrial practice. Recommendations for usability evaluation of software often stem from the field of Human Computer Interaction. The aim of this paper is to tailor these general approaches to the specific needs of engineering design. In addition, we propose a method to analyse the results of the evaluation and to derive suggestions for improving the design software tool. We apply the usability evaluation method on a use case - the KoMBi software tool for bio-inspired design. The case study provides additional insights with regards to problem, causes and improvement categories.

Applying the WDP Technique to Usability Inspections in Web Development Organizations

2010 ◽  
pp. 324-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tayana Conte ◽  
Verônica T. Vaz ◽  
Jobson Massolar ◽  
Andrew Bott ◽  
Emilia Mendes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Web Application ◽  
Web Applications ◽  
Evaluation Method ◽  
Web Design ◽  
Usability Evaluation ◽  
Heuristic Evaluation ◽  
Web Development ◽  
Industrial Case Study ◽  
Development Organizations

This chapter presents the WDP (Web Design Perspectives-based Usability Evaluation), an inspection technique specifically designed to assess the usability of Web applications. This technique combines Web design perspectives and the heuristic evaluation method proposed by Nielsen (1994b). In addition to describing the components of the WDP technique this chapter also illustrates its use in practice by means of an industrial case study where the technique is applied to inspect a real Web application. In this case study, developers and requirement assessment staff applied the WDP technique to evaluate the usability of modules developed from scratch for a Web application. The results of this case study indicate the feasibility of performing usability inspections with the participation of a software project’s stakeholders, even when stakeholders are not usability experts.

scholarly journals Demand Response Model Development for Smart Households Using Time of Use Tariffs and Optimal Control—The Isle of Wight Energy Autonomous Community Case Study

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 541 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sourav Khanna ◽  
Victor Becerra ◽  
Adib Allahham ◽  
Damian Giaouris ◽  
Jamie M. Foster ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Demand Response ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Energy Transport ◽  
Model Development ◽  
Software Tool ◽  
Load Flow ◽  
Smart Devices ◽  
Smart Meters ◽  
Isle Of Wight

Residential variable energy price schemes can be made more effective with the use of a demand response (DR) strategy along with smart appliances. Using DR, the electricity bill of participating customers/households can be minimised, while pursuing other aims such as demand-shifting and maximising consumption of locally generated renewable-electricity. In this article, a two-stage optimization method is used to implement a price-based implicit DR scheme. The model considers a range of novel smart devices/technologies/schemes, connected to smart-meters and a local DR-Controller. A case study with various decarbonisation scenarios is used to analyse the effects of deploying the proposed DR-scheme in households located in the west area of the Isle of Wight (Southern United Kingdom). There are approximately 15,000 households, of which 3000 are not connected to the gas-network. Using a distribution network model along with a load flow software-tool, the secondary voltages and apparent-power through transformers at the relevant substations are computed. The results show that in summer, participating households could export up to 6.4 MW of power, which is 10% of installed large-scale photovoltaics (PV) capacity on the island. Average carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) reductions of 7.1 ktons/annum and a reduction in combined energy/transport fuel-bills of 60%/annum could be achieved by participating households.

scholarly journals Management of multi-method engineering design research: a case study

2002 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Green ◽  
Paul Kennedy ◽  
Alistair McGown
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Method Engineering

Towards an Approach for Evaluating the Quality of Requirements

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faisal Mokammel ◽  
Eric Coatanea ◽  
Francois Christophe ◽  
Mohamed Ba Khouya ◽  
Galina Medyna
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Engineering Design ◽  
Software Tool ◽  
Quality Measures ◽  
Requirement Model ◽  
Requirements Quality ◽  
Holistic Assessment ◽  
Requirements Documents

In engineering design, the needs of stakeholders are often captured and expressed in natural language (NL). While this facilitates such tasks as sharing information with non-specialists, there are several associated problems including ambiguity, incompleteness, understandability, and testability. Traditionally, these issues were managed through tedious procedures such as reading requirements documents and looking for errors, but new approaches are being developed to assist designers in collecting, analysing, and clarifying requirements. The quality of the end-product is strongly related to the clarity of requirements and, thus, requirements should be managed carefully. This paper proposes to combine diverse requirements quality measures found from literature. These metrics are coherently integrated in a single software tool. This paper also proposes a new metric for clustering requirements based on their similarity to increase the quality of requirement model. The proposed methodology is tested on a case study and results show that this tool provides designers with insight on the quality of individual requirements as well as with a holistic assessment of the entire set of requirements.

Field Evaluation of Collaborative Mobile Applications

2008 ◽  
pp. 997-1013
Author(s):  
Adrian Stoica ◽  
Georgios Fiotakis ◽  
Dimitrios Raptis ◽  
Ioanna Papadimitriou ◽  
Vassilis Komis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Mobile Technology ◽  
Mobile Applications ◽  
Evaluation Method ◽  
Field Evaluation ◽  
Usability Evaluation ◽  
Context Aware ◽  
Mobile Interaction ◽  
Data Collection And Analysis

This chapter presents a usability evaluation method for context aware mobile applications deployed in semi-public spaces that involve collaboration among groups of users. After reviewing the prominent techniques for collecting data and evaluating mobile applications, a methodology that includes a set of combined techniques for data collection and analysis, suitable for this kind of applications is proposed. To demonstrate its applicability, a case study is described where this methodology has been used. It is argued that the method presented here can be of great help both for researchers that study issues of mobile interaction as well as for practitioners and developers of mobile technology and applications.

scholarly journals The Design of Application-Specific Heuristics for the Usability Evaluation of the Digital Doorway

2012 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Funmi Adebesin ◽  
Paula Kotze
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Interaction Design ◽  
Computer Literacy ◽  
Formative Evaluation ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Evaluation Method ◽  
Usability Evaluation ◽  
Accessibility Evaluation ◽  
Application Developers ◽  
Application Specific

The Digital Doorway (DD) is a joint initiative between the South African Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Meraka Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). The DD is a non-standard computer system deployed amongst underprivileged communities in South Africa with the objective to promote computer literacy. Since its inception, there has been no usability or accessibility evaluation of the software installed on the DD, mainly due to lack of usability engineering or interaction design expertise within the development team. The goal of the research presented in this paper was to design a solution to this problem by developing a suitable instrument that could guide DD application developers in the design and development of more usable DD software and interfaces. Design research was used as a research methodology. We first investigated the applicability of the standard usability and accessibility evaluation methods for evaluating the software installed on the DD. During the first cycle of design research, we established that a heuristic-like evaluation method would be an appropriate method for evaluating the usability and direct accessibility support provided by the DD. During a second cycle of design research, embedded in the first, we also developed a set of multi-category heuristics as the ‘instrument’ that could guide the developers during design of applications as well as in the first-level (formative) evaluation thereof. To verify the heuristics, we conducted a usability evaluation of the DD and triangulated the results with a direct field observation at a natural environment of DD use, together with user-administered questionnaires.

Makerspaces in Engineering Education: A Case Study

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lasse Skovgaard Jensen ◽  
Ali Gürcan Özkil ◽  
Krestine Mougaard
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Knowledge Generation ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Maker Movement ◽  
Development Education ◽  
Engineering Design Education ◽  
Support Engineering ◽  
New Generation

The recent years have witnessed a new generation of Makers working with new ways of knowledge generation for creation and sharing of digital and physical products. While this development has started within collaborative and grass roots organised networks; educational institutions have also embraced it by opening makerspaces and adopting elements of the Maker Movement in their offerings. This paper investigates how university driven makerspaces can affect engineering design and product development education trough a case study. We provide our findings based on interviews and data collected from educators, students the administrative and workshop staff of the makerspace. The findings are used to outline the challenges in incorporating the offerings of makerspaces. By discussing these challenges we identify opportunities for turning university makerspaces into innovation hubs and platforms that can support engineering design education.

scholarly journals From the Extraction of Currently Fulfilled Requirements to Value Curves: A Case Study in the Field of Harvesting Machines for Shell Fruits and Lessons Learnt in Engineering Design

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 3809
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Maccioni ◽  
Marco Bietresato ◽  
Yuri Borgianni
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Product Life Cycle ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Ground Surface ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
A Value ◽  
Value Propositions ◽  
Degree Of Maturity ◽  
High Degree

The market for agricultural machinery is characterized by products with a high degree of maturity in the product life cycle. Consequently, current improvements in new machinery are predominantly incremental and new projects basically use solutions that are already consolidated. This makes this domain appropriate for benchmarking existing systems and envisioning new value propositions. The present paper deals primarily with the former and uses the value curves as a means to structure the comparison among different families of technical systems; in particular, harvesting machines for shell fruits from the ground surface, e.g., chestnuts, walnuts, and hazelnuts, were investigated here. The process of building value curves requires the identification of currently fulfilled requirements. Despite the attention paid by engineering design research to requirements, a structured process is lacking to extract relevant information and create value curves or other representations useful for benchmarking. The present paper approaches this problem and presents how the authors have individuated relevant knowledge for characterizing different categories of harvesting machines. Namely, after an extensive search of the scientific literature and patents, a critical review of existing machines, aimed at individuating their functioning principles, architecture, and attitude in fulfilling specific design requirements, was performed. Then, existing machines were classified in 8 main categories, and their strengths and weaknesses were identified with reference to 11 competing factors. The consequent construction of value curves enabled the identification of possible points of intervention by hypothesizing possible future evolutions of such machinery, both in a structural and in a value-based perspective. Limitations about the repeatability of the followed approach and possible repercussions on design research are discussed.

scholarly journals Designing Design Prompts: A Systematic Approach to Support Engineering Design Research

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Joshua D. Summers ◽  
Apurva Patel ◽  
Maria Vittoria Elena
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Systematic Approach ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Support Engineering
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