Exploring design trade-offs for achieving social inclusion in multi-tiered design problems

ABSTRACT

The digital age of the future is ‘not out there to be discovered’, but it needs to be ‘designed’. The design challenge has to address questions about how we want to live, work, and learn (as individuals and as communities) and what we value and appreciate, e.g.: reflecting on quality of life and creating inclusive societies. An overriding design trade-off for the digital age is whether new developments will increase the digital divide or will create more inclusive societies. Sustaining inclusive societies means allowing people of all ages and all abilities to exploit information technologies for personally meaningful activities. Meta-design fosters the design of socio-technical environments that end-user developers can modify and evolve at use time to improve their quality of life and favour their inclusion in the society. This paper describes three case studies in the domain of assistive technologies in which end users themselves cannot act as end-user developers, but someone else (e.g.: a caregiver or a clinician) must accept this role requiring multi-tiered architectures. The design trade-offs and requirements for meta-design identified in the context of the case studies and other researchers’ projects are described to inform the development of future socio-technical environments focused on social inclusion.     

Design trade-offs in self-management technology: the HeartMan case

ABSTRACT

Health self-management technology has the potential to significantly improve the Quality of Life of patients suffering from chronic diseases. However, designing the technology involves numerous highly context-dependent design decisions. In this paper, we analyse a case study of self-monitoring technology in the field of congestive heart failure. We analyse the design process of the technology from the perspective of design trade-offs. Three important trade-offs related to health self-monitoring technology are described in detail, related to patient autonomy, technology appropriation, and patient well-being. For each of the trade-offs, various mediating factors that influence design decisions are described in detail. On a practical level, this analysis can inform future developments in self-management technology. In addition, this design trade-off analysis provides intermediary knowledge that can contribute to a better theoretical understanding of health self-management technology.     

Relative importance of evaluation criteria for enterprise systems: a conjoint study

Abstract.  While a large body of research exists on the development and implementation of software, organizations are increasingly acquiring enterprise software packages [e.g. enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems] instead of custom developing their own software applications. To be competitive in the marketplace, software package development firms must manage the three-pronged trade-off between cost, quality and functionality. Surprisingly, prior research has made little attempt to investigate the characteristics of packaged software that influence management information system (MIS) managers' likelihood of recommending purchase. As a result, both the criteria by which MIS managers evaluate prospective packaged systems and the attributes that lead to commercially competitive ERP software products are poorly understood. This paper examines this understudied issue through a conjoint study. We focus on ERP systems, which are among the largest and most complex packaged systems that are purchased by organizations. In a conjoint study, 1008 evaluation decisions based on hypothetical ERP software package profiles were completed by managers in 126 organizations. The study represents the first empirical investigation of the relative importance that managers ascribe to various factors that are believed to be important in evaluating packaged software. The results provide important insights for both organizations that acquire such systems and those that develop them. The results show that functionality, reliability, cost, ease of use and ease of customization are judged to be important criteria, while ease of implementation and vendor reputation were not found to be significant. Functionality and reliability were found to be the most heavily weighted factors. We conclude the paper with a detailed discussion of the results and their implications for software acquisition and development practice.     

A dynamical framework to understand performance trade-offs and interference in dual tasks.

This study demonstrated that the dynamic pattern approach may reconcile resource and outcome conflict theories to explain performance in dual tasks. Participants performed a bimanual coordination task and a reaction time task with different conditions of attentional priority. Results showed a trade-off between pattern variability and reaction time when priority was given to the coordination task. Such a trade-off was indicative of resource allocation. An analysis of perturbation in the bimanual coordination revealed interference, a reputed sign of outcome conflict. Moreover, interference diminished substantially when priority was given to the bimanual task. The coexistence of performance trade-off and outcome conflict suggests that these two phenomena are not mutually exclusive. Rather, both may follow from modifying the coupling between the limbs through attention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

建筑检测成本与质量风险的权衡

从质量风险与检测成本应匹配的原则入手,将工业生产检测与建筑行业检测联系起来,讨论当前建筑行业存在的检测与风险不对称的问题,提出从风险控制角度评估质量风险,有针对性地设置建筑检测项目、范围和参数,实现以更小的检测成本有效控制质量风险。并设想打破壁垒,实现工业生产与建筑施工的检测统一,全过程地实现质量风险与检测成本的权衡。     

Trade-offs between design and control in chemical reactor systems

This paper presents two basic ideas. First, some simple but insightful examples are given of direct conflicts between steady-state economic design and dynamic process control in jacket-cooled continuous stirred-tank reactor systems. Second, a design methodology is proposed that provides a quantitative approach to resolving these conflicts. The essential element of the method is to specify the ratio of the maximum heat-removal rate to the normal design heat removal rate. It is shown that this is equivalent to setting the ratio of the heat-transfer temperature difference (reactor temperature minus jacket temperature) at design conditions to the maximum possible temperature difference (reactor temperature minus coolant supply temperature). Several typical kinetic systems are simulated to illustrate the significant improvement in temperature control and disturbance rejection that is achievable when controllability is specifically incorporated into the design of the reactor. The cost of this improved controllability is increased capital investment in some kinetic systems, i.e., larger reactors or additional heat-transfer area. With other reaction systems, the cost can be reflected in both higher capital investment and lower yield unless the process is modified to improve controllability.     

The Theory of Zero-Suppressed BDDs and the Number of Knight's Tours

Zero-suppressed binary decision diagrams (ZBDDs) have been introduced by Minato [14–17] who presents applications for cube set representations, fault simulation, timing analysis and the n-queens problem. Here the structural properties of ZBDDs are worked out and a generic synthesis algorithm is presented and analyzed. It is proved that ZBDDs can be at most by a factor n + 1 smaller or larger than ordered BDDs (OBDDs) for the same function on n variables. Using ZBDDs the best known upper bound on the number of knight's tours on an 8 × 8 chessboard is improved significantly.     

Developing Negotiation Decision Support Systems that Support Mediators: A Case Study of the Family_Winner System

Negotiation Support Systems have traditionally modelled the process of negotiation. They often rely on mathematical optimisation techniques and ignore heuristics and other methods derived from practice. Our goal is to develop systems capable of decision support to help resolve a given dispute. A system we have constructed, Family_Winner, uses empirical evidence to dynamically modify initial preferences throughout the negotiation process. It sequentially allocates issues using trade-offs and compensation opportunities inherent in the dispute.     

Biodiversity in rubber agroforests,carbon emissions,and rural livelihoods: An agent-based model of land-use dynamics in lowland Sumatra

Rubber agroforests in the mostly deforested lowlands of Sumatra, Indonesia are threatened by conversion into monoculture rubber or oil palm plantations. We applied an agent-based model to explore the potential effectiveness of a payment for ecosystem services (PES) design through a biodiversity rich rubber eco-certification scheme. We integrated conditionality, where compliance with biodiversity performance indicators is prerequisite for awarding incentives. We compared a PES policy scenario to ‘business-as-usual’ and ‘subsidized land use change’ scenarios to explore potential trade-offs between ecosystem services delivery and rural income. Results indicated that a rubber agroforest eco-certification scheme could reduce carbon emissions and species loss better than alternative scenarios. However, the suggested premiums were too low to compete with income from other land uses. Nevertheless, integrating our understanding of household agent behavior through a spatially explicit and agent-specific assessment of the trade-offs can help refine the design of conservation initiatives such as PES.     

Cumulative manufacturing capabilities: an extended model and new empirical evidence

There has been intense debate in the manufacturing strategy literature on the way in which firms work on different manufacturing capabilities, with two opposing approaches considered – the trade-off model and the sand cone model. Analysis of these models has essentially been based on study of the links amongst four classic manufacturing capabilities (quality, delivery, flexibility, and cost efficiency) and has obviated the need to consider environmental protection as an important manufacturing capability. This study analyses the theoretical arguments and the prior empirical evidence on the two models, and proposes and tests an extended sand cone model which includes the environmental protection objective alongside the four traditional ones. The research uses structural equation modelling and data from a sample of 274 manufacturers to contribute additional empirical evidence on the existence of cumulative effects amongst manufacturing capabilities. It is observed that the predominant strategic model in these firms is one of multiple, non-incompatible capabilities with cumulative effects according to the following sequence: quality, delivery, flexibility, environmental protection, and cost efficiency.