The application of manufacturing culture to the design of Asian region oriented machine tools

During the last years the demand for regionally and culturally harmonised machine design is increasingly on the agenda. The problem of localising products like machine tools instantly poses the question for new procedures that allow including the regional and cultural adaptations into the design processes of machine tool companies. How to transform the general insight into the necessity of culture- and region-adapted technologies and how to embed it into a design procedure comprising applicable design attributes is the crucial problem addressed. The paper shows in an exemplary way how ambiguous design attributes can eventually be embodied in a prototype design.     

Design information retrieval: a thesauri-based approach for reuse of informal design information

Information is integral to the engineering design process, and gaining access to design knowledge is critical to effective design decision-making. This paper considers the indexing and retrieval of informal, unstructured information captured from electronic design logbooks. One of the key observations of informal design information is its evolutionary nature over time. While this characteristic makes informal information a rich source for reuse, it also makes it difficult to employ traditional information retrieval (IR) approaches. The work described in this paper is based on a framework developed specifically for the information handling requirements of designers. This manual method for indexing information is adapted to meet the evolutionary nature of design through the development of thesauri for design context. Several approaches to building thesauri are examined, including manual and automated methods. It is found that manual methods provide a high level of IR performance, but also have high overhead requirements. Machine methods, however, may provide a viable, low overhead alternative.

Work design and analysis for space-based manufacturing: a case analysis of initial design issues

The purpose of the present research was to investigate the nature of potential manufacturing tasks humans may execute in a space environment. The success of space-based manufacturing (SBM) is suggested to be a precursor to permanent human presence in space. A working hypothesis for this study was that human work in the SBM environment would be substantially different from terrestrial manufacturing work. To investigate this hypothesis, a case analysis approach was developed that employed a function allocation and task analysis of a representative SBM process: the production of tailored industrial crystals. This research approach was chosen as the current state of engineering design for SBM is in the conceptual and early flow sheeting phases of a system life cycle. Results of the task analysis and function allocation process suggest response to corrective maintenance functions and to abnormal system conditions should be allocated to humans as opposed to automation. These results are discussed in relation to human factors engineering challenges associated with long-duration human presence in an SBM environment.     

Design exemplars for synchronous e-learning: A design theory approach

Synchronous e-learning has received much less research attention, as compared with asynchronous e-learning. Practitioners that consider using and designing synchronous e-learning are in urgent need of guidance. In order to address this need, we propose design exemplars for synchronous e-learning. They are directed towards a primary constituent community of teachers, administrators, managers and developers of e-learning. The exemplars have been theoretically as well as empirically grounded through cross-case analyses of studies conducted between 2003 and 2006. Moreover, the exemplars have been evaluated by conducting focus group sessions with experienced practitioners having experience of using and developing e-learning. Strong support was identified for each design exemplar. The exemplars can be used as research hypotheses and be tested in future design research.     

QFD: a methodological tool for integration of ergonomics at the design stage

As a marked increase in the number of musculoskeletal disorders was noted in many industrialized countries and more specifically in companies that require the use of hand tools, the French National Research and Safety Institute launched in 1999 a research program on the topic of integrating ergonomics into hand tool design. After a brief review of the problems of integrating ergonomics at the design stage, the paper shows how the "Quality Function Deployment" method has been applied to the design of a boning knife and it highlights the difficulties encountered. Then, it demonstrates how this method can be a methodological tool geared to greater ergonomics consideration in product design.     

Entrepreneurship as design: A design process for the emergence and development of entrepreneurial opportunities

Although firms constantly seek opportunities to launch new products, services, or business models, little is known about the way opportunities emerge and develop. In particular, despite current ontological and epistemological knowledge of entrepreneurial opportunities, the process that drives their emergence and development remains understudied. To enrich our understanding, we conduct an exploratory multiple-case study of six design agencies that supported firms in developing their entrepreneurial endeavours by leveraging design sprint, a hybrid method combining design and entrepreneurship. A primary contribution of our study is the conceptualization of a process model illustrating how design (sprint) can support the emergence and development of entrepreneurial opportunities. The model advances four actions that enable translating insights into opportunities: defining, framing, experimenting, and learning. Our findings also offer interesting insights on the role of third-party agents in this process. Indeed, design agencies can act as facilitators in enacting entrepreneurship as design by supporting the emergence and development of entrepreneurial opportunities. Our research also contributes to the debate on the timing of entrepreneurial endeavours, offering an empirical portrayal of their chronology. In this sense, our model also contributes to managerial practice, providing a sequence of actions that can guide the emergence and development of entrepreneurial opportunities.     

Development and application of a framework for comparing early design methods for young children

When designing with young children, designers usually select user centred design methods based on the children’s required level of engagement and the inspiration expected to be created according to the designer. User centred design methods should be selected for their suitability for children and for the quality of the output of the design method. To understand the suitability of design methods, a framework was developed to describe design methods in terms of required design skills as identified by the Theory of Multiple Intelligences. The proposed framework could provide the basis for a tool to compare design methods and to generate hypotheses about what design method would work optimally with children in a specific school grade. The initial examination of the viability of the framework is a comparison of design methods by the number of skills involved; earlier work showed that the involvement of more skills (as with, e.g. low-fi prototyping) could result in more options for a design problem than the involvement of fewer skills (as with e.g. brainstorming). Options and Criteria were counted to understand the quality of the method in terms of the amount of design-information. The results of the current paper indicate that 8-to-10-year-old children generate significantly more options in prototyping sessions than when they are involved in sessions applying a Nominal Group Technique. The paper indicates that (a) with the framework we can generate hypotheses to compare design methods with children and (b) that the outcome of various design methods, which might lead to very different representations, can be compared in terms of Options and Criteria. Further usage of the framework is expected to result in empirical support for selecting a design method to be applied with young children.     

Survey instrument for the universal design of consumer products

Universal design is a process intended to include all user groups in product or environmental design. The objective of this study was to develop a usability testing survey instrument to inform how well consumer products complied with established principles of universal design. Thirty-six adults, aging adults and adult wheelchair users performed standardized tasks with pens, food storage containers, pliers and calculators, and for each task responded to a preliminary set of survey items and rated task difficulty. Factor analysis of the survey responses produced an eleven-factor solution that accounted for 67% of the variance in scores and corresponded fairly closely to the principles of universal design. Analysis of scale scores developed from each factor showed that some of the scales were sensitive to product feature and user group differences, and were negatively associated with perceived task difficulty. Such a tool may aid designers who intend their products for user groups of diverse abilities and preferences.     

Empowered participation of users with disabilities in universal design

This paper provides an introduction to empowered user participation and its relevance for the universal design process. It highlights the benefits of user participation and proposes a way to implement it in projects. The paper is based on the experiences of the European project FORTUNE [3]. As an introduction, some basic considerations of the concepts of design for all and universal design are presented. The value of user participation in general and of users with disabilities in particular is discussed. Experience with the state of the art of user involvement in European Research and Development (R&D) projects is reported. The FORTUNE concept of user participation in projects is introduced as a reference model for participation of users with disabilities, and a set of criteria for the assessment of user participation is provided as a practical tool. A brief overview of methodologies for user participation and potential organisational frameworks is also presented. Published online: 18 September 2001     

Generative methods and the design process: A design tool for conceptual settlement planning

This paper implores the possible intervention of computers in the generative (concept) stage of settlement planning. The objective was to capture the complexity and character of naturally grown fishing settlements through simple rules and incorporate them in the process of design. A design tool was developed for this purpose. This design tool used a generative evolutionary design technique, which is based on multidisciplinary methods. Facets of designing addressed in this research are:

• •allocation of each design element's space and geometry,
• •defining the rules, constraints and relationships governing the elements of design,
• •the purposeful search for better alternative solutions,
• •quantitative evaluation of the solution based on spatial, comfort, complexity criterions to ensure the needed complexity, usability in the solutions.

Generative design methods such as geometric optimization, shape grammars and genetic algorithms have been combined for achieving the above purposes.The allocation of space has been achieved by geometric optimization techniques, which allocate spaces by proliferation of a simple shape unit. This research conducts an analysis of various naturally grown fishing settlements and identifies the features that would be essential to recreate such an environment. Features such as the essential elements, their relationships, hierarchy, and order in the settlement pattern, which resulted due to the occupational and cultural demands of the fisher folk, are analysed. The random but ordered growth of the settlement is captured as rules and relations. These rules propel and guide the whole process of design generation.These rules and certain constraints, restrictions control the random arrangement of the shape units. This research limits itself to conducting exhaustive search in the prescribed solution search space defined a priori by the rules and relationships. This search within a bounded space can be compared to the purposeful, constrained decision making process involved in designing.The generated solutions use the evolutionary concept of genetic algorithms to deduce solutions within the predefined design solution search space. Simple evolutionary concepts such as reproduction, crossover and mutation aid this search process. These concepts transform by swapping/interchanging the genetic properties (the constituent data/material making up the solution) of two generated solutions to produce alternate solutions. Thus the genetic algorithm finds a series of new solutions. With such a tool in hand various possibilities of design solutions could be analysed and compared. A thorough search of possible solutions ensures a deeper probe essential for a good design.The spatial quality, comfort quality of the solutions are compared and graded (fitness value) against the standard stipulations. These parameters look at the solution in the context of the whole and not as parts and most of these parameters could be improved only at the expense of another. The tool is able to produce multiple equally good solutions to the same problem, possibly with one candidate solution optimizing one parameter and another candidate optimizing a different one. The final choice of the suitable solution is made based on the user's preferences and objectives.The tool is tested for an existing fishing settlement. This was done to check for its credibility and to see if better alternatives evolved. The existing settlement is analysed based on the evaluation parameters used in the tool and compared with the generated solutions. The results of the tool has proved that simple rules when applied recursively within constraints would provide solutions that are unpredictable and also would resonate the qualities of the knowledge from which the rules were distilled from. The complex whole generated has often exhibited emergent properties and thus opens up new avenues of thinking.     

Constructing design representations using a sortal approach

Supporting the early phases of design requires, among others, support for the specification and use of multiple and evolving representations, and for the exchange of information between these representations. We consider a complex adaptive system as a model for the development of design representations, and present a semi-constructive algebraic formalism for design representations, termed sorts, as a candidate for supporting this approach. We analyze sorts with respect to the requirements of a complex adaptive system and compare it to other representational formalisms that consider a constructive approach to representations. We demonstrate the advantages of sorts in various examples, illustrate its use to support the specification of design queries and the recognition of emergent information, and consider sorts in relationship to integrated product models.     

The `adequate' design of ethnographic outputs for practice: some explorations of the characteristics of design resources

The community of `appliance design' rests generally upon a successful use of multidisciplinary user-centred design and often draws on an ethnographic component. Much has been made of the need for a multidisciplinary team and of the difficulties of making good use of ethnographic outputs in such a team. Discussions often centre upon the precise placement of the boundary between ethnography and design and the possibilities of hybridisation of these disciplines. Another way of looking at the issues of multidisciplinary teams is to look at the nature of the representational devices used to encapsulate and aid the communication of the ethnographic work in coherent and useful ways. Taking lessons from existing design practice, we look at how such representational devices actually work and propose some possible features important in the realisation of future best practice.     

DMS系统图形绘制软件架构模型的研究与设计

文章简单介绍了文中涉及的统一建模语言UML的概念,论述了配电自动化系统中图形绘制软件主要的功能需求和非功能需求,通过对这些需求的研究和分析,提出了一个基于模型-视图-控制设计模式、符合面向对象思想的图形绘制软件架构模型,详细分析了组成该模型的类,用UML的类图和时序图描述了模型的静态和动态架构,以开发原型系统的方式验证了该模型的合理性和可用性。     

Towards a design code of practice for universal access in health telematics

This paper presents a brief overview of the European Commission funded Thematic Network (Working Group) “Information Society for All”-IS4ALL (IST-1999-14101). IS4ALL aims to establish a wide, interdisciplinary and closely collaborating network of experts to provide the European Health Telematics industry with a comprehensive code of practice on how to appropriate the benefits of universal design. This paper outlines the project’s main objectives and technical approach in the context of universal access. Published online: 9 April 2002     

公园导向标识系统设计的需要心理研究及实践

随着城市化进程的加快,生活水平不断提高,城区建设也日趋完善,其中大型公园以及城市休闲广场渐渐成为人们娱乐放松的好去处。这对公园导向标识系统也提出了更高的要求,本文着重从心理学角度进行研究来指导实际设计。     

What design education tells us about design theory: a pedagogical genealogy

ABSTRACT

In design theory, we often come across scholarly efforts that seek to define design as a unique discipline and to characterize it as a distinct category of practice, with its own epistemology in that it differs from sciences, arts and humanities (Cross, N. 2011. Design Thinking: Understanding How Designers Think and Work. Oxford: Berg.; Dorst, K. 2015. Frame innovation: Create New Thinking by Design. Cambridge: The MIT Press. Nelson, H. G., and E. Stolterman. 2012. The Design Way: Intentional Change in an Unpredictable World. The MIT Press.; Redström, J. 2017. Making Design Theory. MIT Press.). Although such efforts are helpful in teasing forward the nature of design epistemologies and practices, we question them by critically engaging with epistemic paradigms informing design education, its structural forms, origins and purposes, historically, while suggesting the time has come to reevaluate design’s relationships with other epistemological traditions, including the sciences and humanities. We unpack history of design education, in order to problematize what we have come to view as overly schematized epistemological distinctions, most notably the asserted opposition between (what Schön calls) technical rationality and an alternative epistemology broadly linked to pragmatism and/or phenomenology. We do so by offering a genealogy of design education showing that since the nineteenth century, design programmes have continuously, if diversely, taught novice designers, methods, crafts, and attitudes that reflect diverse epistemological traditions. Theorists and educators of design have a shared interest in balancing the needs to appreciate and help develop that which is distinctive of design and also to build upon design’s rich epistemological connections to the sciences and humanities. Whereas the former helps the field improve its abilities to contribute to society, the latter provides many of the theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical resources that make such contributions possible.