User-centered Method Research Articles

Design Thinking for Architects: A Critique of International Education Models

The appropriateness of teaching design thinking to architecture students in Georgia is discussed. Design thinking is a user-centered method that was developed about 60 years ago and is widely used in almost all areas of design, including architecture. Leading architectural firms embrace design thinking. This method also has many opponents, who complain about the lack of creativity, its collective work, and more. In contrast, advocates of design thinking argue that design thinking approaches do not necessarily limit creativity, and that contemporary architecture has become so complex that specialists of only one field cannot account for everything. It is interesting that the main opposition to this methodology was met in the country where it was born – the USA. As for Georgia, the survey of students conducted by the authors of the article at the International Design School of the Georgian Technical University found that the majority of them have a positive attitude and intend to use design thinking in their future activities.

A Design-Driven Approach to Develop Innovative Clinical Experiences in Dysphagia

Purpose: This clinical focus article presents a modified user-centered design framework in order to facilitate the role of pediatric clinicians who treat feeding/swallowing disorders in redesigning the clinical experience in order to improve outcomes. The article establishes a physiologically based design framework and presents a user-centered design tool that clinicians may utilize to view the patient interaction from a design mindset in their practice. Method: Two case studies are presented to demonstrate the clinical application of the user-centered design tool. Case 1 applies the tool to controlled flow drinking cups and includes a pilot study that explores prototype testing of a novel cup design and the resulting patient experience. Case 2 presents a unique pediatric patient and the application of the user-centered method to analyze a modified treatment experience. Conclusions: Clinicians who treat pediatric feeding and swallowing disorders can benefit from the utilization of a user-centered design approach to observe the patient experience from a design perspective. This approach provides a structure to guide individual clinicians to key insights that may lead to improved treatments. Furthermore, user-centered methods may facilitate the analysis of complex patient scenarios by clinician-led teams, which may result in novel solutions.

ASDesign: A User-Centered Method for the Design of Assistive Technology That Helps Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders Be More Independent in Their Daily Routines

COVID-19 has posed new physical and mental challenges for the population worldwide, establishing social and structural changes in the labor market that could be maintained and implemented permanently. This new reality will require new strategies to improve family and work conciliation, which is especially challenging for families with children suffering from psychological pathologies such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). These changes have led to more frequent and intense behavioral problems, causing stress, anxiety, and confusion for these children and their families. Thus, the need to have tools that help parents reconcile work with the care of these children, who have low autonomy, is reinforced. This work develops a method for the design of assistive technology and smart products to support children with ASD in following a routine and managing tasks autonomously. In this way, the article analyzes the design problem including the needs and preferences of children with ASD and their parents during confinement in terms of dependence and adaptability; develops a design method for interactive and smart products focused on children with ASD in confinement situations; and validates this method in a case study, in which a robot is developed that makes it easier for children with ASD to follow a routine.

The method for modelling of big data storage content

Modeling the content of big data warehouses today is done by developers for developers. The former creates the storage itself; the latter create application systems based on it. The interests of the end user of the data contained in the warehouse are not considered in the existing paradigm. This leads to the fact that, firstly, much of the information available in the storage is not used, and secondly, users experience a lack of data to solve their tasks. The paper proposes a usercentered method for modeling the content of big data warehouses. This method enriches the existing models, which allows developers to obtain more accurate requirements for the storage itself and its contents, which has a positive effect on the percentage of data used and on the efficiency of its operation.

Designing of Agricultural Product e-Marketplace by using UCD Method

The growth and era of information, communication and technology have changed and it has benefits in various sectors, one of them is the economy aspect. The current sales system has been moved from conventional sales into online sales by utilizing technology as a media for sales transactions. Then, one of them is the presence of e-commerce websites and e-marketplaces. The concept of e-marketplaces is a place where buyers and sellers meet, then they make online buying and selling transactions. However, there are still many plantations whose agricultural products have not been reached to be implemented by the marketplace. This problem is based on the cultural factors; it is called through the broker. Also, as well as the lack of education of farmers. The purpose of this study is to design the e-marketplace for farmers, especially in the Bugis Village. The user-centered method is applied where the approach is centered on users, then both consumers and partners. The website-designed is made by looking at the needs of the user side. This e-marketplaces can also be an education for businesses in the field of agricultural products. It is also to be involved in technological advancements by becoming partners in the e-marketplaces, so that they are able to market their products through online system. In addition, to minimize the use of agricultural products by broker, too. The results of this study are e-marketplace is able to provide convenient websites for users in conducting transactions by using gadgets to access agricultural products. This e-marketplaces also supports the promotion of Go Green, which has begun to implement a healthy lifestyle; by starting to consume a lot of vegetables. So, people will easily get best quality of agricultural products from farmers.

Designing a First Responders’ Emergency Response Kit for Motor-Vehicle Collisions

Fast, effective, and accurate emergency medical treatment can save lives. Quick access to the specific equipment that emergency medical personnel need facilitates more efficacious treatment during emergencies. This project focuses on designing an improved emergency response kit for medical first responders. The kit currently in use has no organizational standard for the way the medical items it contains are placed inside. With a user-centered method, we designed a kit that better fits first responders’ requirements and found that the kit – a backpack and a vest – is both easier to use and carry, based on emergency care priorities.

Applying a User-Centered Method to Develop 3D Gestural Inputs for In-Vehicle Tasks

Gestures are a natural input method for human communication and may be effective for drivers to interact with in-vehicle infotainment systems (IVIS). Most of the existing work on gesture-based human-computer interaction (HCI) in and outside of the vehicle focus on the distinguishability of computer systems. The purpose of this study was to identify gesture sets that are used for IVIS tasks and to compare task times across the different functions for gesturing and touchscreens. Task times for user-defined gestures were quicker than for a novel touchscreen. There were several functions that resulted in relatively intuitive gesture mappings (e.g., zooming in and zooming out on a map) and others that did not have strong mappings across participants (e.g., decreasing volume and playing the next song). The findings of this study suggest that user-centric gestures can be utilized to interact with IVIS systems instead of touchscreens, and future work should evaluate how to account for variability in intuitive gestures. Understanding the gesture variability among the end users can support the development of an in-vehicle gestural input system that is intuitive for all users.

Exploration of Users' Perspectives and Needs and Design of a Type 1 Diabetes Management Mobile App: Mixed-Methods Study.

BackgroundWith the popularity of mobile phones, mobile apps have great potential for the management of diabetes, but the effectiveness of current diabetes apps for type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is poor. No study has explored the reasons for this deficiency from the users’ perspective.ObjectiveThe aims of this study were to explore the perspectives and needs of T1DM patients and diabetes experts concerning a diabetes app and to design a new T1DM management mobile app.MethodsA mixed-methods design combining quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews was used to explore users’ needs and perspectives. Experts were surveyed at 2 diabetes conferences using paper questionnaires. T1DM patients were surveyed using Sojump (Changsha ran Xing InfoTech Ltd) on a network. We conducted semistructured, in-depth interviews with adult T1DM patients or parents of child patients who had ever used diabetes apps. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and coded for theme identification.ResultsThe expert response rate was 63.5% (127/200). The respondents thought that the reasons for app invalidity were that patients did not continue using the app (76.4%, 97/127), little guidance was received from health care professionals (HCPs; 73.2%, 93/127), diabetes education knowledge was unsystematic (52.8%, 67/127), and the app functions were incomplete (44.1%, 56/127). A total of 245 T1DM patient questionnaires were collected, of which 21.2% (52/245) of the respondents had used diabetes apps. The reasons for their reluctance to use an app were limited time (39%, 20/52), complicated operations (25%, 13/52), uselessness (25%, 13/52), and cost (25%, 13/52). Both the experts and patients thought that the most important functions of the app were patient-doctor communication and the availability of a diabetes diary. Two themes that were useful for app design were identified from the interviews: (1) problems with patients’ diabetes self-management and (2) problems with current apps. In addition, needs and suggestions for a diabetes app were obtained. Patient-doctor communication, diabetes diary, diabetes education, and peer support were all considered important by the patients, which informed the development of a prototype multifunctional app.ConclusionsPatient-doctor communication is the most important function of a diabetes app. Apps should be integrated with HCPs rather than stand-alone. We advocate that doctors follow up with their patients using a diabetes app. Our user-centered method explored comprehensively and deeply why the effectiveness of current diabetes apps for T1DM was poor and what T1DM patients needed for a diabetes app and provided meaningful guidance for app design.

A User-Centered Segmentation Method for Complex Historical Manuscripts Based on Document Graphs

In historical manuscripts, humans can detect handwritten words, lines, and decorations with lightness even if they do not know the language or the script. Yet for automatic processing this task has proven elusive, especially in the case of handwritten documents with complex layouts, which is why semiautomatic methods that integrate the human user into the process are needed. In this paper, we introduce a user-centered segmentation method based on document graphs and scribbling interaction. The graphs capture a sparse representation of the document's structure that can then be edited by the user with a stylus on a touch-sensitive screen. We evaluate the proposed method on a newly introduced database of historical manuscripts with complex layout and demonstrate, first, that the document graphs are already close to the desired segmentation and, second, that scribbling allows a natural and efficient interaction.

Communication of Children Symptoms in Emergency: Classification of the Terminology.

The significant part of non-urgent visits to the emergency highlight the necessity to advise people on the actions to take according to their symptoms. Although information sources are accessible through different channels their content often employs medical terminologies that are difficult to understand by laypersons. Our goal is to provide a terminology of the most common symptoms in pediatric emergency adapted to laypersons. This terminology is organized in a hierarchy by the mean of a card-sorting study. The resulting classification separates the symptoms into two main categories: "accident" and "illness" that are subdivided in 9 and 10 sub-categories. The study also revealed that some symptoms were not understood by the participants and had to be reformulated, confirming the importance of user-centered method. The classification resulting from this study will be evaluated through a tree-test.

Assessing quality of unmet user needs: Effects of need statement characteristics

We demonstrate a front-end, user-centered method to prioritize unmet needs previously generated from large groups. Several hypotheses were tested: (1) Needs submitted first will be less likely to be high quality than needs submitted after a sustained period of time; (2) Semantically similar need statements will be rated as equivalent in quality; (3) Need statements will be rated as higher quality if a detailed description of the need context was available. Over 20 000 ratings for 1697 statements across three common product areas were analyzed. The results showed needs that first come to mind are not lower quality than needs that come to mind later and can inform early design phases to balance in-depth research and size of user groups.

Definition of users’ requirements in the customized product design through a user-centered translation method

The design of customized product must correspond to users’ requirements to reach the expectations of the consumer. To include users in the design product process, we are interested in their perception of the product. We essentially realize a technical approach to guide the user for defining his personalized product. Based on the complexities of user’s profiles in order to translate his requirements, we define a systemic approach in a chain of design and additive manufacturing. The method is implemented into a web demonstrator. We defined a combinatory scheme and several illustrated scenari from Information Technology (IT) used as a template to analyze rich field data exchanges. The method provided a toolkit for leading the participation of multiple stakeholders in the design process (users, designers, advisers, community...). Finally, we determine a workflow required to product lifecycle management in the case where the user is in the center of the application to realize a customized product. The research framework shows that the community participation is central to the system so that the economic model is reliable. This paper presents the research method associated to the Internet platform creation.

Applying “Design Thinking” in the context of media management education

"Design Thinking" – a cross-disciplinary and user centered method – is an approach towards the discovery of solutions and sparks innovative thinking in many ways. It also can be argued, that designers put themselves in the place of the user rather than co-creating with the consumer. Innovation is one of the current keywords across many industries, and many attempt to find new solutions to daily problems. Design Thinking as method allows to understand user needs and understand their principle problems in daily life. The design process uses intensive collaboration in cross-disciplinary settings and is divided into the exploration of the problem space and the solution space to achieve new ways of solving existing problems. Design Thinking has to integrate into the innovation process and into organizational structures right from the beginning. It constitutes a complement to classical analytical processes for problems that require lateral, not linear thinking. This article reviews the practical application of this energetic methodology in the academic context and presents some hands-on examples. The course series has been established by the Entertainment and Media Management Lab. (EMMi Lab.) at the Tampere University of Technology (TUT) and was held in cooperation with students from the University of Tampere (UTA), and the Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK). One course has been held in cooperation with the University of Applied Sciences Magdeburg-Stendal, Germany. This article describes how to train students especially with strong technical background and analytical mind-sets in the development of innovations in the field of media, foster creative thinking, and achieve problem solutions beyond the current state of the art. We present the basic curriculum, course structure, goals & objectives, applied methods, settings, and theoretical aspects of Design Thinking. Our experience and reflections on conducting the courses concludes this article. The article shall be an introductory guide for anyone who intends to organize a similar course in the university context.

Theme E: Disabilities: Analysis models and tools

This paper presents the topics and the activity of the theme E “disabilities: analysis models and tools” within the GDR STIC Santé. This group has organized a conference and a workshop during the period 2011–2012. The conference has focused on technologies for cognitive, sensory and motor impairments, assessment and use study of assistive technologies, user centered method design and the place of ethics in these research topics. The objective of “bodily integration of technique” workshop, organized in the framework of Défi Sens (CNRS) was to develop a multidisciplinary approach (physiology, robotics and anthropology) of the relationships between body and technology taking as an example the prostheses for the compensation of sensorimotor disabilities. Efforts will focus on strengthening the development of a multidisciplinary research for the design of assistive technologies for elderly people and people with disabilities. The modelling of the user's abilities and the designing of adaptable AT to the needs of the person will be carried out with other groups of this GDR and also with other GDRs.

Avoiding Conflicting Requirements: Development of Home Healthcare Devices Through an Interdisciplinary Approach

<i>Avoiding Conflicting Requirements:</i> Development of Home Healthcare Devices Through an Interdisciplinary Approach

A User-Driven Ontology Guided Image Retrieval Model

The demand for image retrieval and browsing online is growing dramatically. There are hundreds of millions of images available on the current World Wide Web. For multimedia documents, the typical keyword-based retrieval methods assume that the user has a specific goal in mind by using accurate query keywords in searching a set of images. Whereas the users may face with a repository of images whose domain is less known and content is semantically complicated, or the users may only generally know what they search for. In these cases it is difficult to decide what exact keywords to use for the query. In this article, we propose a user-centered image retrieval method that is based on the current Web, keyword-based annotation structure, and combining Ontology guided knowledge representation and probabilistic ranking. A prototype of web application for image retrieval using the proposed approach has been implemented. The model provides a recommendation subsystem to support and assist the user modifying the queries and reduces the user’s cognitive load with the searching space. Experimental results show that the image retrieval recall and precision rates increased and therefore demonstrates the effectiveness of the model.

Patterns of tacit knowledge based on ethnography in product design

From industrial design,an approach of ethnography is proposed to study users' and designers' patterns of tacit knowledge in product design.The concepts of ethnography are introduced and the relation between ethnography and product design is explored. Taken the existed portable media center form design as an example,semantic differential,image scale and conjoint analysis etc are employed to investigate the acquiring and representing of users' and designers' tacit knowledge.The two-dimensional perceptual image spaces of the portable media center form are established,and the tacit knowledge patterns are presented.The results show that many differences exist between users' and designers' tacit knowledge representation of the same objects and their interpretations of the same image-words,and it is necessary to adopt user-centered method to study users' tacit knowledge and find out the common- ness and individualities during the product design process.

Symbol design: a user-centered method to design pen-based interfaces and extend the functionality of pointer input devices

A method called “SymbolDesign” is proposed that can be used to design user-centered interfaces for pen-based input devices. It can also extend the functionality of pointer input devices, such as the traditional computer mouse or the Camera Mouse, a camera-based computer interface. Users can create their own interfaces by choosing single-stroke movement patterns that are convenient to draw with the selected input device, and by mapping them to a desired set of commands. A pattern could be the trace of a moving finger detected with the Camera Mouse or a symbol drawn with an optical pen. The core of the SymbolDesign system is a dynamically created classifier, in the current implementation an artificial neural network. The architecture of the neural network automatically adjusts according to the complexity of the classification task. In experiments, subjects used the SymbolDesign method to design and test the interfaces they created, for example, to browse the web. The experiments demonstrated good recognition accuracy and responsiveness of the user interfaces. The method provided an easily-designed and easily-used computer input mechanism for people without physical limitations, and, with some modifications, has the potential to become a computer access tool for people with severe paralysis.

Development of the Internet Clinical Communication Centre: A Patient Centered Application for Prostate Cancer Follow-up

This project aims to provide selected follow-up healthcare services via Internet technologies. A usercentered approach and qualitative method of inquiry taken in the development of a prostate cancer Internet Clinical Communication Centre (iC3) to provide clinicians and patients access to portions of the electronic health record, illustrates the critical importance of security, privacy, and the patient-provider relationship.

Differences between User-Centered and Company-Centered Perspectives in the Design of Ecommerce Web Sites

Usability professionals have espoused the use of user-centered design since the field's inception. In the area of web site design, user-centered methods have been used to develop a site's information architecture, screen design, and other factors. However, there is a lack of quantitative data that specifies the expected benefits of using user-centered design methods. This study contrasts two site development processes, one which uses basic user-centered methods to develop the organization and labeling system of an ecommerce web site, and one which uses company-centered methods. The user-centered method used card sorts to organize the site's products and user-defined labels for each product category. The company-centered method used vendor and product categories to organize the contents and benchmarking for the labels. There are significant differences between the sites, with almost nothing in common. This paper will provide an analysis of these differences and present implications for site design.