Design-oriented Framework Research Articles

What is a soundscape intervention? Exploring definitions and identification criteria and a platform to gather real-world examples

Possible definitions for the concept of "soundscape intervention" and criteria that could be used to identify stages in a design-oriented framework are discussed. This is in line with the Part 4 of the ISO 12913 series on soundscape being currently developed. The long-term goal is observing frequent/recurring situations or strategies that can be collated into design toolkits and formulate design briefs that local authorities will be using to communicate with soundscape consultants. For some time already, the soundscape concept has attracted attention from policy-makers and practitioners of the built environment, as it advocates for more engagement with local communities in design processes. This is reflected in several documents published by national and international agencies calling for consultation and participation of the public in the definition of soundscape interventions. However, this intended framework did not really make any significant breakthrough in the planning and design community, possibly for the lack of conspicuous empirical evidence (i.e., case studies and success stories) showing the benefits provided by the soundscape approach, and some lack of consensus about what a "soundscape intervention" is in the first place. Therefore, an online platform will be presented that can be used for data collection of soundscape intervention examples.

Architectural Optimization Framework for Earth-Observing Heterogeneous Constellations: Marine Weather Forecast Case

Earth observation satellite programs are currently facing, for some applications, the need to deliver hourly revisit times, subkilometric spatial resolutions, and near-real-time data access times. These stringent requirements, combined with the consolidation of small-satellite platforms and novel distributed architecture approaches, are stressing the need to study the design of new, heterogeneous, and heavily networked satellite systems that can potentially replace or complement traditional space assets. In this context, this paper presents partial results from ONION, a research project devoted to studying distributed satellite systems and their architecting characteristics. A design-oriented framework that allows selecting optimal architectures for the given user needs is presented in this paper. The framework has been used in the study of a strategic use-case and its results are hereby presented. From an initial design space of 5586 potential architectures, the framework has been able to preselect 28 candidate designs by an exhaustive analysis of their performance and by quantifying their quality attributes. This very exploration of architectures and the characteristics of the solution space are presented in this paper along with the selected solution and the results of a detailed performance analysis.

Repetita Iuvant: Exploring and Supporting Redundancy in Hospital Practices

This paper discusses the role of redundancy in hospital work, especially in facilitating the cognitive and coordinative tasks of health practitioners in clinical settings. It also investigates the ways in which health information technology can preserve, support and even enhance this role by being grounded in the observations and analyses that two research groups in Italy and Norway carried out in independent studies. In the present study, this previous research is reassessed and shaped into a unified and coherent design-oriented framework. This framework considers four kinds of data redundancy and outlines their peculiarities and the typical conditions in which they occur. In particular, the paper reports how these kinds of redundancies are exploited in both written artifacts and oral communications and how they affect each other. The paper also reports the impact of redundancies on the articulation work of physicians and nurses by playing either a negative or, more often, a positive role depending on the context. A series of lessons learnt are then proposed for the design of suitable coordination mechanisms that could preserve or even utilize this neglected phenomenon, which is strongly related to the interpretative and coordinative practices that are articulated in the patient’s record.

Integrated design-oriented framework for Resource Selection in Additive Manufacturing

Resource selection (RS) is one of the prime phases of product design that have substantiating impact on the manufacturing of products. Material and manufacturing process selection are considered an important ingredient of RS and must be dealt with in early stages of design. Since, emerging technologies such as Additive Manufacturing (AM) have re-defined the potentials of manufacturing by re-orienting market drivers such as high part-complexity needs, individualization, shorter product development cycles, abundant materials and manufacturing processes, diverse streams of applications, etc., it is imperative to select the right compromise of materials, manufacturing processes and associated machines in early stages of design considering the Design for Additive Manufacturing guidelines. As several criteria, material attributes and process functionality requirements are involved for decision making in the industries today, an integrated design-oriented framework is proposed in this paper for RS in AM to structure design knowledge pertaining to each stage of design process; conceptual, embodiment and detail designs. However, more focus will be kept on the conceptual and embodiment design phases. Moreover, axioms are defined to aid in decision making and help in extracting the rules associated with each of the design criteria. The framework is aimed to act as a guideline for designers in the AM industry to provide design oriented and feasible material-machine-process combinations.

Robustness of steel-composite building structures subject to localised fire

Existing design codes and guidelines for structures subject to normal loading are relatively mature and comprehensive, while the codified treatment of structural robustness for extreme loading has tended to be less rational and based on prescriptive rules. Although some codes already incorporate guidance for the assessment and design of structural robustness, this is not immediately applicable to the fire condition, and a considerable gap therefore exists between fire resistance and structural robustness research. This paper discusses key issues that should be addressed in the robustness assessment of steel-composite structures subject to localised fire, and proposes robustness assessment approaches that offer a practical framework for the consideration of such issues. Two alternative approaches are proposed within a design-oriented framework, namely, a temperature-dependent approach (TDA) and a temperature-independent approach (TIA). The TDA requires the definition of elevated temperature scenarios and can thus predict the fire response of structures more accurately. On the other hand, the TIA corresponds more closely to typical robustness provisions, which are intended to limit the progression of local damage under unforeseen events, and can be more easily applied in design practice. While the TIA is more practical than the TDA, it is shown that its application can be overly conservative under specific conditions. Illustrative examples are presented, which demonstrate the application of the proposed robustness assessment framework for steel-composite buildings subject to localised fire.

A design-oriented framework for modelling production management systems

Design-oriented modelling frameworks are intended to support design practice, by helping designers to create models of specific design problems, within a class of design problems. This paper examines the development of a design-oriented framework for the design of production management systems (PMS). It is concluded that such a framework should encourage a holistic and integrated PMS design. A holistic design acknowledges that social and technical subsystems can achieve better management performance by collaborating with one another than one can individually. An integrated design does not artificially separate the PMS from the shop-floor it manages, but rather considers the two as intertwined and complementary parts of an organizational whole. This paper postulates four key axioms to be considered for achieving such a PMS design. A dual modelling framework is then presented that supports the envisioned PMS design approach, and that further allows the use of computer simulation. Its practical contribution is analysed in an industrial case study.

A design-oriented framework for modelling the planning and control of multiple task work in secretarial office administration

Design-oriented frameworks are a type of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) discipline knowledge. They are intended to support iterative 'specify-and-implement' design practice, by assisting designers to create models of specific design problems, within a class of design problem. This paper presents a design-oriented framework for a class of HCI design problem, expressed as a the planning and control of multiple task work in secretarial office administration. The planning and control of multiple task work refers generally to how interactive human-computer worksystems specify and select behaviours for performing multiple concurrent tasks. Secretarial office administration is a sub-class of design problem, in which the work supports communications of the organization commissioning the new worksystem. The framework is based on a conception proposed to support an engineering discipline of HCI. The framework conceptualizes the relationship between an interactive worksystem, its domain of work and the effectiveness, or performance, with which work is carried out. The framework was developed from cognitive science and HCI theory and an empirical case-study of an existing secretarial worksystem. The framework expresses the domain of secretarial work as the state transformation of hierarchies of abstract and physical objects, representing communications carried out by the organization. The description of the secretarial worksystem expresses the relationship between abstract processes of planning, controlling, perceiving and executing, and abstract representations of plans and knowledge-of-tasks. Planning heuristics and control rules reflect general properties of the dynamic work domain, such as external interruptions and temporary opportunities. The framework also expresses the relationship between these planning and control structures and performance. In its current form, the framework is incomplete, but illustrates an approach to the development of design-oriented knowledge. Using this type of knowledge, a designer may reason about potential solutions to HCI design problems concerning planning and control behaviours for carrying out multiple task work for secretarial office administration.