Guide Design Decisions Research Articles

Avaliação dos efeitos microclimáticos de diferentes zonas climáticas locais em cidade de clima temperado

O clima urbano é influenciado por características morfológicas e de uso e ocupação do solo. Aspectos como grau de verticalização, presença de vegetação e adensamento urbano influenciam diretamente sobre variáveis climáticas, gerando microclimas diferenciados na área urbana. Em relação ao conforto ambiental humano, a possibilidade de se prever fenômenos do clima urbano orienta decisões projetuais arquitetônicas e urbanísticas. Esta pesquisa teve por objetivo analisar diferenças térmicas intraurbanas a partir de dados meteorológicos coletados em estações amadoras participantes da rede Weather Underground, localizadas em diferentes zonas climáticas locais (Local Climate Zones - LCZs) em Londres, Inglaterra. Utilizaram-se dados meteorológicos de dez estações distribuídas nos eixos leste-oeste e norte-sul. Avaliou-se se as variações nos microclimas são significativas o bastante para suprir a demanda de energia para aquecimento e resfriamento de edificações, por meio do somatório de graus-hora de aquecimento e resfriamento para cada ponto. Pela análise do perfil longitudinal das temperaturas, a pesquisa constatou a formação de ilhas de calor nos locais com maior intensidade de uso e ocupação e menor cobrimento vegetal. Com relação à demanda por climatização artificial, notaram-se diferenças consideráveis em função da LCZ de cada ponto.

The great typography bake-off: comparing legibility at-a-glance

Typography plays an increasingly important role in today’s dynamic digital interfaces. Graphic designers and interface engineers have more typographic options than ever before. Sorting through this maze of design choices can be a daunting task. Here we present the results of an experiment comparing differences in glance-based legibility between eight popular sans-serif typefaces. The results show typography to be more than a matter of taste, especially in safety critical contexts such as in-vehicle interfaces. Our work provides both a method and rationale for using glanceable typefaces, as well as actionable information to guide design decisions for optimised usability in the fast-paced mobile world in which information is increasingly consumed in a few short glances. Practitioner summary: There is presently no accepted scientific method for comparing font legibility under time-pressure, in ‘glanceable’ interfaces such as automotive displays and smartphone notifications. A ‘bake-off’ method is demonstrated with eight popular sans-serif typefaces. The results produce actionable information to guide design decisions when information must be consumed at-a-glance. Abbreviations: DOT: department of transportation; FAA: Federal Aviation Administration; GHz: gigahertz; Hz: hertz; IEC: International Electrotechnical Commission; ISO: International Organization for Standardization; LCD: liquid crystal display; MIT: Massachusetts Institute of Technology; ms: milliseconds; OS: operating system

User preferences for a contraceptive microarray patch in India and Nigeria: Qualitative research on what women want.

BackgroundA new contraceptive microarray patch (MAP) for women is in development. Input on this method from potential end-users early in the product development process is important to guide design decisions. This paper presents the qualitative component of a broader study exploring initial acceptability of the MAP and selected product features. The qualitative research was intended to identify product features that are most salient to end-users and to contextualize preferences around them with subsequent research planned to assess quantitatively the relative importance of those features.MethodsWe conducted 16 focus group discussions and 20 in-depth interviews with women and 20 IDIs with family planning providers in New Delhi, India, and Ibadan, Nigeria. Input from the MAP developer served to identify plausible features of the MAP to include in the focus group discussions and in-depth interviews. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed into English, coded, and analyzed to examine key dimensions of MAP features.ResultsMany participants viewed the MAP as potentially easy to use. Interest in self-application after learning correct use was high, especially in India. Participants favored formulations affording protection from pregnancy for three or six months, if not longer. Interest in a shorter-acting MAP was particularly low in Nigeria. Non-desirable MAP features included a potential localized skin rash and pain at application. Views on patch size and location of application were related to the potential for rash and pain, with a desire to permit discreet use and minimize pain. Results indicate that the side effect profile, effectiveness, and pricing are also important factors for acceptability and uptake of a future product.ConclusionStudy findings indicate that a contraceptive MAP is of potential interest to women and that specific MAP attributes will be important to acceptability.

Decentralized Nurse Stations: A Methodology for Using Research to Guide Design Decisions.

The purpose of this methodology is to define a process for facility planning teams to use to ensure research findings are used to guide decision making in the design process. Over the past decade and a half, research in health facility design has developed and the body of knowledge has grown significantly, but at the same time, the process for incorporating these findings into the design process has been less defined. This methodology evolved out of the desire to develop a structured process to integrate recent research findings into the planning and programming process at the user group and planning team level. This two-phase methodology consists of, first, reviewing recent, relevant research on the topic, classifying the findings into positive and negative attributes and, then, summarizing the attributes by category on a summary table and in a brief narrative. The second phase consists of reviewing the research to identify operational and facility strategies that can be used to mitigate the inconsistent and negative attributes identified. In the case study, as a result of this process, one inconsistent attribute and three negative attributes were identified. In the second phase, potential research-based operational and facility strategies were identified to mitigate the inconsistent and negative attributes identified. This information served as the basis for making design decisions. This methodology presents an organized, efficient process for organizing and providing relevant research findings to a facility planning team to use in evaluating a new healthcare design concept and making research-based design decisions.

Population Stereotypes for Objects and Representations: Response Tendencies for Interacting With Everyday Objects and Interfaces.

The objective of the study is to replicate and extend population stereotypes from a broad range of users for display-control relations of common interfaces using pictures/images of the objects. Population stereotypes for display-control configurations refer to people's tendencies to associate certain control actions with display properties. An interface will benefit by being designed in a manner that is consistent with the stereotypes. The stimuli used in the present study include conceptual replications of objects that have been examined previously and new ones. An online survey was designed to collect data about participants' natural response tendencies or interpretations of the meaning associated with objects, representations, and colors. Participants were obtained through MTurk from the United States, India, and UK. We replicated 76% and partially replicated an additional 16% of the stereotypic responses found in prior studies. Considering the full data set, we found stereotypic responses for 62% of the stimuli that are consistent across the three countries in which the participants were located, although the strength of these stereotypes may differ by location. For the remaining 38% of the stimuli, population stereotypes still emerged for some locations. Few gender differences were found. Cross-cultural stereotypic responses exist for many objects, representations, and display-control configurations. However, because stereotypes can be limited to specific regions or change over time, we recommend that they be captured periodically to ensure design guidelines based on the stereotypes remain valid. Designers can use the stereotypic responses to guide design decisions.

User-centered, interaction design research approaches to inform the development of health risk behavior intervention technologies

BackgroundComputers have tremendous potential for helping people change behaviors that put their health at risk. This potential has led to the development of a variety of health behavior intervention technologies (BITs) in recent years. While many of these BITs have been informed by scientific theories on behavior change, poor design can fail to engage intended users. User-centered, interaction design (IxD) research can help BIT developers create tools that are intuitive and enjoyable and that align with intended users' goals. In this manuscript, we describe an IxD research process we used to inform the development of a tablet-optimized web application designed to help heavy drinking gay and bisexual men reduce their risk for HIV when they seek HIV testing. MethodsWe conducted focus groups with subject matter experts (SMEs, N = 10) and intended users (N = 25). In the SME group, HIV test counselors were recruited to provide an understanding of the priorities and challenges of post-test counseling. In focus groups with intended users, participants created detailed, personalized models of two “typical” users of the proposed app (“personas”) that could be used to guide design decisions. ResultsSMEs emphasized the importance of putting patients at ease, and suggested that interventions should prioritize identifying personal risks and provide options for change. Personas created by intended users provided important details about users' attitudinal and emotional contexts, and their possible motivations and goals for using the app. These suggested that users might be most motivated to use the app in order to understand their personal risks, compare their behavior with others like them, help them decide whether they want to change to reduce their risk, and see all their options for doing so. Personas also provided insights about the aesthetic experience that might be most appealing to users. ConclusionsInteraction design research can provide BIT development teams with personal models of likely users to help guide decisions about the allocation of design resources and the overall form and spirit of the software. These insights can help teams build BITs that are more engaging and interesting to intended users.

Guidelines and considerations for designing field experiments simulating precipitation extremes in forest ecosystems

AbstractPrecipitation regimes are changing in response to climate change, yet understanding of how forest ecosystems respond to extreme droughts and pluvials remains incomplete. As future precipitation extremes will likely fall outside the range of historical variability, precipitation manipulation experiments (PMEs) are critical to advancing knowledge about potential ecosystem responses. However, fewPMEs have been conducted in forests compared to short‐statured ecosystems, and forestPMEs have unique design requirements and constraints. Moreover, past forestPMEs have lacked coordination, limiting cross‐site comparisons. Here, we review and synthesize approaches, challenges, and opportunities for conductingPMEs in forests, with the goal of guiding design decisions, while maximizing the potential for coordination.We reviewed 63 forestPMEs at 70 sites world‐wide. Workshops, meetings, and communications with experimentalists were used to generate and build consensus around approaches for addressing the key challenges and enhancing coordination.Past forestPMEs employed a variety of study designs related to treatment level, replication, plot and infrastructure characteristics, and measurement approaches. Important considerations for establishing new forestPMEs include: selecting appropriate treatment levels to reach ecological thresholds; balancing cost, logistical complexity, and effectiveness in infrastructure design; and preventing unintended water subsidies. Response variables in forestPMEs were organized into three broad tiers reflecting increasing complexity and resource intensiveness, with the first tier representing a recommended core set of common measurements.Differences in site conditions combined with unique research questions of experimentalists necessitate careful adaptation of guidelines for forestPMEs to balance local objectives with coordination among experiments. We advocate adoption of a common framework for coordinating forestPMEdesign to enhance cross‐site comparability and advance fundamental knowledge about the response and sensitivity of diverse forest ecosystems to precipitation extremes.

A Taxonomy of Construction Material Reuse and Recycling: Designing for Future Disassembly

The construction and demolition industry accounts for approximately one third of all material waste in the industrialised nations of the world. This material and energy waste can however be reduced through increased levels of material and component reuse. A strategy of design for disassembly has been well implemented in product design and manufacture, but the construction industry has failed to adopt such approaches, largely due to the more bespoke nature of architectural projects. This paper explores the technological options for material and component disassembly in buildings. The research projects utilises inductive reasoning to conduct a number of architectural case studies, observing the reoccurring patterns of design that have facilitated material disassembly, then proposes a model or taxonomy of recycling and reuse strategies. The case studies reveal a hierarchy of recycling potentials, each facilitated by different strategies of design for disassembly. This hierarchical taxonomy of recycling can be used to guide design decisions at the early stages of architectural projects; thus increasing the potential for material and component recovery, and reduce negative environmental impact at the future stage of building obsolescence. The paper concludes with design principles, linked to the taxonomy of reuse and recycling.

Measurement and Characterization of Link Quality for IEEE 802.15.4-Compliant Wireless Sensor Networks in Vehicular Communications

IEEE 802.15.4 is a promising standard that can provide efficient communication quality at low cost and low data rates. This standard has been studied for vehicle-to-infrastructure (V-I) communication in wireless sensor network (WSN)-based vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) applications. To adopt this standard for vehicular communications, link quality metrics must be investigated for topology design and network optimization. In this study, a series of measurements were made with IEEE 802.15.4 radios to identify wireless channel characteristics with regard to antenna height, vehicle velocity, and distance in various vehicular scenarios. The empirical behavior of link communication quality was also investigated in terms of received signal strength, packet error rate (PER), and packet loss distribution (PLD). The empirically measured and experimental results, which have been validated through appropriate analytical modeling, provide valuable insights, as well as guide design decisions and tradeoffs for WSN-based VANET applications.

Eco-Audit and Environmental Impacts of Products

Eco-audit is a tool to find the environmental impact of the product across all life cycle stages and for identify the problems in all aspects of a supply chain, from extraction of raw materials to manufacturing, distribution, use and disposal. The purpose of an analysis of a product is to establish the embodied energy, water usage, annual CO2 to atmosphere, carbon foot print, recycle fraction in current supply, toxicity, approximate processing energy and sustainability criteria. Knowledges to guide design decisions are needed to minimize or eliminate adverse eco-impacts. In eco-audit analysis, will be created material charts, processes selection and life cycle analysis allowing alternative design choices to meet the engineering requirements and reduce the environmental impact. The application presented in this paper uses only environmentally friendly properties of Ashby's database.

Design Features of Explicit Values Clarification Methods: A Systematic Review.

Values clarification is a recommended element of patient decision aids. Many different values clarification methods exist, but there is little evidence synthesis available to guide design decisions. To describe practices in the field of explicit values clarification methods according to a taxonomy of design features. MEDLINE, all EBM Reviews, CINAHL, EMBASE, Google Scholar, manual search of reference lists, and expert contacts. Articles were included if they described 1 or more explicit values clarification methods. We extracted data about decisions addressed; use of theories, frameworks, and guidelines; and 12 design features. We identified 110 articles describing 98 explicit values clarification methods. Most of these addressed decisions in cancer or reproductive health, and half addressed a decision between just 2 options. Most used neither theory nor guidelines to structure their design. "Pros and cons" was the most common type of values clarification method. Most methods did not allow users to add their own concerns. Few methods explicitly presented tradeoffs inherent in the decision, supported an iterative process of values exploration, or showed how different options aligned with users' values. Study selection criteria and choice of elements for the taxonomy may have excluded values clarification methods or design features. Explicit values clarification methods have diverse designs but can be systematically cataloged within the structure of a taxonomy. Developers of values clarification methods should carefully consider each of the design features in this taxonomy and publish adequate descriptions of their designs. More research is needed to study the effects of different design features.

Effects of Newly Designed Hospital Buildings on Staff Perceptions: A Pre-Post Study to Validate Design Decisions.

This study investigates effects of the newly built nonpatient-related buildings of a large university medical center on staff perceptions and whether the design objectives were achieved. The medical center is gradually renewing its hospital building area of 200,000 m.(2) This redevelopment is carefully planned and because lessons learned can guide design decisions of the next phase, the medical center is keen to evaluate the performance of the new buildings. A pre- and post-study with a control group was conducted. Prior to the move to the new buildings an occupancy evaluation was carried out in the old setting (n = 729) (pre-study). Post occupation of the new buildings another occupancy evaluation (post-study) was carried out in the new setting (intervention group) and again in some old settings (control group) (n = 664). The occupancy evaluation consisted of an online survey that measured the perceived performance of different aspects of the building. Longitudinal multilevel analysis was used to compare the performance of the old buildings with the new buildings. Significant improvements were found in indoor climate, perceived safety, working environment, well-being, facilities, sustainability, and overall satisfaction. Commitment to the employer, working atmosphere, orientation, work performance, and knowledge sharing did not improve. The results were interpreted by relating them to specific design choices. We showed that it is possible to measure the performance improvements of a complex intervention being a new building design and validate design decisions. A focused design process aiming for a safe, pleasant and sustainable building resulted in actual improvements in some of the related performance measures.

Contemporary Computer Supported Collaboration: Systems, Technologies, Algorithms, and Applications

Contemporary Computer Supported Collaboration: Systems, Technologies, Algorithms, and Applications

A frequency-based substructuring approach to efficiently model position-dependent dynamics in machine tools

Structural deformations of machine tool components that translate and/or rotate relative to each other to realize tool motion results in tool point dynamics varying along the tool path. These changing dynamics interact with the cutting process and the control loop of the drives to limit machine performance, making it necessary to virtually characterize these interactions such as to guide design decisions. To facilitate rapid evaluation of these varying dynamics, this paper describes a generalized frequency-based substructuring approach that combines the position-invariant component level receptances at the contacting interfaces between substructures to obtain the position-dependent tool point response. Receptances at the contacting interfaces are approximated by projecting them to a point to facilitate a multiple point receptance coupling formulation. Complete machine behavior is represented by just a few sets of receptances, making the model computationally more efficient than full-order finite element models and other dynamic substructuring methods. Position-dependent dynamic behavior for a representative three axis milling machine is simulated and numerically verified. Rapid investigations of the varying dynamics assist in virtually characterizing machine performance before eventual prototyping.

Bringing Psychosocial Support to Headache Sufferers Using Information and Communication Technology: Lessons Learned from Asking Potential Users What they Want

Headaches are a major concern for which psychosocial interventions are recommended. However, headache sufferers do not always have ready access to these interventions. Technology has been used to improve access, especially in young people. To examine user preferences to inform the development of an Internet-based psychosocial intervention including smartphone technology, referred to as the Wireless Headache Intervention. The methodology followed a participatory design cycle, including 25 headache sufferers (14 to 28 years of age) who informed the prototype design. All participants were familiar with smartphones and the Internet. Through two iterative cycles of focus groups stratified according to age, qualitative data were collected by asking user preferences for the different planned components of the intervention (ie, smartphone pain diary, Internet-based self-management treatment, social support) and other relevant aspects (ie, smartphone versus computer delivery, and ways of reaching target audience). NVivo 8 with content analysis was used to analyze data and reflect themes as guided by the thematic survey. Participants reported a preference for completing the smartphone pain diary on a daily basis. Participants believed that the program should facilitate easy access to information regarding headaches and management strategies. They also wanted access to other headache sufferers and experts. Participants believed that the program should be customizable and interactive. They reinforced the need and value of an integrated smartphone and Internet-based application. The results provide insight into a participatory design to guide design decisions for the type of intervention for which success relies largely on self-motivation. The results also provide recommendations for design of similar interventions that may benefit from the integration of mobile applications to Internet-based interventions. The present research contributes to the theoretical frameworks that have been formulated for the development of Internet-based applications.

Designing mobile LMS interfaces: learners' expectations and experiences

PurposeThis paper aims to present findings of a study that was carried out to identify strategies of enabling learners in developing countries to fully exploit the potential of learning management systems (LMSs). The study set out to: identify the services of learning management systems that are most needed and desired by university learners in developing countries; and identify appropriate access strategies that would guide design decisions on how to effectively and satisfactorily deliver such services to the university students in developing countries.Design/methodology/approachA total of 144 students from two African universities participated in the study by responding to an online survey questionnaire. The questionnaire asked students: how often they accessed LMSs to obtain, create and exchange information and knowledge; their preference for the different devices used for accessing the LMS; the LMS services they are most often required to access; and the services they most desire to use.FindingsThe findings of the survey indicate that the most desired and most accessed LMS services by the students include: assignments, announcements, resources, course outlines and the chat room. At the same time, mobile phones are rated the least used devices for accessing the LMS services, mainly due to inadequate design of LMSs for mobile interaction.Originality/valueThe paper also presents mobile LMS interface designs and ideas achieved through a participatory design process for enhancing the accessibility of the most needed and desired LMS services on mobile phones.

Advantages and challenges in using LCA-based environmental impact assessment for guiding design decisions

Owing to the increased awareness of environmental issues along with tighter regulatory norms, there is greater emphasis among manufacturers to lower the environmental impacts of their products and solutions. Many organisations are seeking to adapt the life cycle assessment (LCA) method to estimate impact during the design stage and guide the development of sustainable products. In this research, four case studies, involving different types of design scenarios and choices typically faced by designers, were used to study the application of such an approach. The case studies include choice of alternate materials, manufacturing process, design configurations and joining methods. The analysis of these case studies indicated that such an approach can provide valuable insights to designers. However, considerable experience and expertise is required to understand the inaccuracies and limitations introduced by assumptions inherent in the inventory databases as well as by the selected scope of analysis. This paper details the advantages and challenges that designers may encounter in this approach, and suggests directions for further research to enable seamless and effective integration of LCA-based methods in the conventional design process.

Coherent communications in snapping-shrimp dominated ambient noise environments

The additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) model is commonly used in the development of communication systems, and adequately models many noisy environments. However the impulsive noise from snapping shrimp is poorly approximated by this model. The mismatch in model has an adverse impact on the performance of conventional communication systems operating in warm shallow waters. The AWGN model may be replaced by the more general additive white symmetric α-stable noise (AWSαSN) model, which better approximates the heavy tailed noise due to snapping shrimp. When converted to the complex baseband representation, the resulting noise for the AWSαSN case is radically different from its Gaussian counterpart. In this talk some properties of baseband noise for the general AWSαSN case are investigated. These properties can be used to guide design decisions for coherent communication systems operating in warm shallow waters. The baseband noise is generally not isotropic and furthermore the real and imaginary components may be dependent. By varying certain physical parameters different non-isotropic distributions may be attained. The resulting properties can be exploited to design communication systems that are able to provide robust performance in the presence of snapping shrimp noise.

Parallel application characterization with quantitative metrics

SUMMARYWhen computer architects reinvented parallelism through multi‐core processors, application parallelization became a problem. Now that multi‐cores have penetrated from handhelds to supercomputers, parallelization becomes a large‐scale challenge. A lot of research is going into compiler improvements, language extensions, frameworks and application/platform case studies. Whereas fairly successful, these solutions are based on experimental tools, trial‐and‐error, and expert knowledge, and do not bring multi‐core programming into reach for the whole software industry. We believe that the challenge of “mass parallelization” must be tackled more systematically. Development begins at application specification and algorithm design, followed by application characterization with trade‐offs in parallelization strategies and data layouts. Only with a proper software design, implementation and optimization can start. In this article, we focus on quantitative application characterization for such a systematic approach. We introduce a set of metrics to characterize applications and show how they can be used. We present our interpretation of the results and suggest ways to use them to guide design decisions. We conclude that metrics can be used to understand applications and design decisions early on. Therefore, this characterization brings us closer to effective parallel applications development for multi‐core processors. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Delay-sensitive and multimedia communication in cognitive radio sensor networks

Multimedia and delay-sensitive data applications in cognitive radio sensor networks (CRSN) require efficient real-time communication and dynamic spectrum access (DSA) capabilities. This requirement poses emerging problems to be addressed in inherently resource-constrained sensor networks, and needs investigation of CRSN challenges with real-time communication requirements. In this paper, the main design challenges and principles for multimedia and delay-sensitive data transport in CRSN are introduced. The existing transport protocols and algorithms devised for cognitive radio ad hoc networks and wireless sensor networks (WSN) are explored from the perspective of CRSN paradigm. Specifically, the challenges for real-time transport in CRSN are investigated in different spectrum environments of smart grid, e.g., 500kV substation, main power room and underground network transformer vaults. Open research issues for the realization of energy-efficient and real-time transport in CRSN are also presented. Overall, the performance evaluations provide valuable insights about real-time transport in CRSN and guide design decisions and trade-offs for CRSN applications in smart electric power grid.