scholarly journals Revealing Insights of Users’ Perceptions: An Approach to Evaluate Wearable Products Based on Emotions

Author(s):  
Ting Liao ◽  
Kesler Tanner ◽  
Erin MacDonald

AbstractThe wearable products market is growing rapidly. Engaging users on an emotional level may be the key to long-term use and attracting new customers. While researchers have proposed various design approaches to realize design qualities for wearable devices, emotional needs are overlooked in the design process. To bridge this gap, we developed an approach with an online tool that uses a two-axis interactive collage for users to compare and evaluate wearable products with targeted emotion-related descriptive words. This approach enabled us to explore how users perceive products and identify types of emotions that were associated with their preferences for and perceptions of the product's form and visible characteristics. The study demonstrated this design approach to reveal insights into the relationships between product characteristics and design goals, such as user comfort, user delight, and perceived product usefulness. The results showed that products that resemble clothes were perceived as more delightful and comfortable. This study suggests that the approach can be further used to explore other design concepts or goals.

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ting Liao ◽  
Kesler Tanner ◽  
Erin Faith MacDonald

The wearable product market is growing rapidly and is full of products with similar functions and features. Engaging users at an emotional level may be the key to differentiating a product and encouraging long-term use. While researchers have proposed various design approaches to realize design qualities for wearable devices, emotional needs are often extracted by analysis-heavy methods and disconnected in the design process. To bridge this gap, we developed a new approach that uses a two-axis interactive collage tool for users to compare and evaluate wearable products with targeted emotion-related descriptive words. This approach enabled designers to explore how users perceive products and identify types of emotions that were associated with users’ preferences for and perception of the product’s form and visible characteristics. The example study demonstrated this approach by exploring the relationships between product characteristics and design goals, such as user comfort, user delight, and perceived product usefulness. The results showed that products that resemble clothing were perceived as more delightful and comfortable. The approach can be further used to explore other design concepts or goals.


Design Issues ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 80-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liesbeth Huybrechts ◽  
Katrien Dreessen ◽  
Ben Hagenaars

Designers are increasingly involved in designing alternative futures for their cities, together with or self-organized by citizens. This article discusses the fact that (groups of) citizens often lack the support or negotiation power to engage in or sustain parts of these complex design processes. Therefore the “capabilities” of these citizens to collectively visualize, reflect, and act in these processes need to be strengthened. We discuss our design process of “democratic dialogues” in Traces of Coal—a project that researches and designs together with the citizens an alternative spatial future for a partially obsolete railway track in the Belgian city of Genk. This process is framed in a Participatory Design approach and, more specifically, in what is called “infrastructuring,” or the process of developing strategies for the long-term involvement of participants in the design of spaces, objects, or systems. Based on this process, we developed a typology of how the three clusters of capabilities (i.e., visualize, reflect, and act) are supported through democratic dialogues in PD processes, linking them to the roles of the designer, activities, and used tools.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karla Straker ◽  
Erez Nusem

Organizations feel compelled to tell us ‘what’ they do, without first explaining ‘why’ they do it. Part of the design process is first understanding the need (the why) before focusing on the outcome (the what). An organization’s ‘why’, if successful, can inspire employees and customers to buy-in long term, by resonating on a deeper, emotional level. Sinek’s ‘Golden Circle’ concept has been used to analyse 100 organization’s value propositions across sixteen industries to understand how they are currently communicating their what, how and why. Findings revealed that only 24 per cent of organizations expressed their ‘why’ explicitly compared to the how and what results. This article provides organizations with the tools to better understand their value through an iterative design process, providing an opportunity for organizations to develop their ‘why’ from the inside out. This article explains why the analysis of an organization’s value proposition should be the focus of what should be driving strategy decisions and communicated throughout the organization.


Author(s):  
Andrea CAPRA ◽  
Ana BERGER ◽  
Daniela SZABLUK ◽  
Manuela OLIVEIRA

An accurate understanding of users' needs is essential for the development of innovative products. This article presents an exploratory method of user centered research in the context of the design process of technological products, conceived from the demands of a large information technology company. The method is oriented - but not restricted - to the initial stages of the product development process, and uses low-resolution prototypes and simulations of interactions, allowing users to imagine themselves in a future context through fictitious environments and scenarios in the ambit of ideation. The method is effective in identifying the requirements of the experience related to the product’s usage and allows rapid iteration on existing assumptions and greater exploration of design concepts that emerge throughout the investigation.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cassandra R. Davis ◽  
Sarah R. Cannon ◽  
Sarah C. Fuller

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify and describe the long-term impacts of hurricanes on schools and discuss approaches to improving recovery efforts.Design/methodology/approachInterviews with 20 school districts in Texas and North Carolina after Hurricanes Harvey (2017) and Matthew (2016). In total, 115 interviews were conducted with teachers, principals, district superintendents and representatives from state education agencies. Interview questions focused on the impact of storms and strategies for recovery.FindingsThe authors uncovered three long-term impacts of hurricanes on schools: (1) constrained instructional time, (2) increased social-emotional needs and (3) the need to support educators.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper focuses on two storms, in two states, in two successive years. Data collection occurred in Texas, one academic year after the storm. As compared to the North Carolina, data collection occurred almost two academic years after the storm.Practical implicationsThis paper illuminates strategies for stakeholders to implement and expedite hurricane recovery through; (1) updating curricula plans, (2) providing long-term counselors and (3) supporting educators in and out of school.Originality/valueTo date, very few studies have explored the ways in which schools face long-term impacts following a disaster. This paper provides insight to the challenges that prolong the impacts of disasters and impede recovery in schools. With hurricanes and related disasters continuing to affect schooling communities, more research is needed to identify the best ways to support schools, months to years after an event.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang-Cheng Lin ◽  
Chung-Hsing Yeh ◽  
Chen-Cheng Wang ◽  
Chun-Chun Wei

How to design highly reputable and hot-selling products is an essential issue in product design. Whether consumers choose a product depends largely on their perception of the product image. A consumer-oriented design approach presented in this paper helps product designers incorporate consumers’ perceptions of product forms in the design process. The consumer-oriented design approach uses quantification theory type I, grey prediction (the linear modeling technique), and neural networks (the nonlinear modeling technique) to determine the optimal form combination of product design for matching a given product image. An experimental study based on the concept of Kansei Engineering is conducted to collect numerical data for examining the relationship between consumers’ perception of product image and product form elements of personal digital assistants (PDAs). The result of performance comparison shows that the QTTI model is good enough to help product designers determine the optimal form combination of product design. Although the PDA form design is used as a case study, the approach is applicable to other consumer products with various design elements and product images. The approach provides an effective mechanism for facilitating the consumer-oriented product design process.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 402-411
Author(s):  
L. A. Sachenko

The purpose of this article is to identify possible approaches to the development of the “sustainability-by-design” process, which consists in synchronizing the organization's strategy with the trends of sustainable development. For this purpose, a process of “sustainability-by-design” is proposed on the basis of the “safety-by-design” process applied in practice. As a key link in the process, it is proposed to use a system of sustainability indicators, supplemented by indicators of risk and resilience. To strengthen the adaptive capacity of companies in the field of sustainable development, the process of building “sustainability-by-design” is complemented by the inclusion of democratic procedures through structured stakeholder participation. As a result, the proposed process combines a rigid structure of values and goals with a “soft setup” in the form of democratic procedures. This will allow companies not only to reduce the uncertainties inherent to the pacing problem, but also to create an environment for the promotion of the most effective alternatives to the development of companies in the field of sustainability.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-79
Author(s):  
Elton Cristovão da Silva Lima ◽  
Cristina Matsunaga ◽  
Leticia Teixeira Mendes

This research proposes an experimental design approach to design an ephemeral pavilion located at the Serpentine Gallery in London. The Serpentine Pavilions Programme functions as an experimentation laboratory and, at the same time, public and event spaces, enabling architects to expose their projects and work methodologies. Thus, the methods of Biomimicry and Parametric Design were combined to develop the pavilion. While the first one was used to create an ephemeral pavilion based on the Sartorius muscle, the second was responsible for generating the parametric model from a fast and intuitive manipulation code capable of exploring shape variations. This work explores the solution-based method approached by Badarnah (2012) based on a predefined problem (the pavilion project) and only after that seek some natural inspiration. Firstly, it was investigated the anatomy of the Sartorius muscle. Subsequently, with the domain of the solution, the parametric insertion of the shape was computationally performed. The anatomical study of the sartorius muscle revealed functions such as flexion, abduction, lateral rotation of the thigh, and medial rotation of the knee. Thus, the architectural choices reflect both its narrow and elongated morphology of the muscle and flexibility and rotation aspects. The pavilion also considered the previous Serpentine Pavilions regarding attributes such as area, height, and materials, which with other parameters may be changed using the code implemented in Grasshopper.


Author(s):  
Sittha Sukkasi ◽  
Pattrarat Tunnukit ◽  
Sarawut Lerspalungsanti

Objectives: This work endeavored to design and develop a tool to assist surgical patients with postoperative mobilization in a hospital. Background: Early postoperative mobilization after surgery can effectively help prevent complications, but it is difficult to achieve in practice. Method: An attentive empathetic design approach was used to gain insights into the users’ functional needs, characteristics, contexts, as well as their emotional needs, behaviors, and psychology. The insights led to a design that leveraged psychological heuristics and habit-building principles to effect necessary mindset and behavioral changes of the stakeholders. Over four iterations, design ideas were prototyped, tested, and improved with participation of 30 patients and 30 nurses. Results: Valuable insights were discovered. Most importantly, besides the medically critical need to avoid postoperative complications, the patients also had emotional needs for independence, confidence, and self-worthiness, while the nurses needed the patients’ trust. Consequently, assistive bedside furniture prototypes were designed to enable the patients to move around safely by themselves. Feedback on the prototypes showed that the patients sat up more often, enjoyed doing more activities, became more confident and less fearful of moving around, and felt less burdening on the care providers. Moreover, the nurses appreciated that the prototypes reduced their patient-mobilization workload, facilitated patient empowerment, and improved their relationship with the patients. Conclusions: An attentive empathetic design approach can comprehend complex challenges of and subsequently design an effective solution for healthcare contexts, in which the stakeholders’ medical necessities intertwine with emotional, psychological, behavioral, and sociocultural needs.


2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matt Garner ◽  
Norbert Doerry ◽  
Adrian MacKenna ◽  
Frank Pearce ◽  
Chris Bassler ◽  
...  

In 2014, the Small Surface Combatant Task Force completed an innovative study on alternate proposals to procure a capable and lethal small surface combatant. Modified Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) concepts, new design concepts, and existing design concepts were examined. This paper describes the set-based design approach employed to conduct this study.


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