scholarly journals Using Operational Scenarios in a Virtual Reality Enhanced Design Process

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 448
Author(s):  
Katie Aylward ◽  
Joakim Dahlman ◽  
Kjetil Nordby ◽  
Monica Lundh
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Design Process ◽  
User Interfaces ◽  
End Users ◽  
Concept Development ◽  
User Centered Design ◽  
User Testing ◽  
Training And Education ◽  
Design Processes ◽  
User Centered

Maritime user interfaces for ships’ bridges are highly dependent on the context in which they are used, and rich maritime context is difficult to recreate in the early stages of user-centered design processes. Operations in Arctic waters where crews are faced with extreme environmental conditions, technology limitations and a lack of accurate navigational information further increase this challenge. There is a lack of research supporting the user-centered design of workplaces for hazardous Arctic operations. To meet this challenge, this paper reports on the process of developing virtual reality-reconstructed operational scenarios to connect stakeholders, end-users, designers, and human factors specialists in a joint process. This paper explores how virtual reality-reconstructed operational scenarios can be used as a tool both for concept development and user testing. Three operational scenarios were developed, implemented in a full mission bridge simulator, recreated in virtual reality (VR), and finally tested on navigators (end-users). Qualitative data were captured throughout the design process and user-testing, resulting in a thematic analysis that identified common themes reflecting the experiences gained throughout this process. In conclusion, we argue that operational scenarios, rendered in immersive media such as VR, may be an important and reusable asset when supporting maritime design processes and in maritime training and education.

An Interactive Tool for the Participatory Design of Product Interface

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loris Barbieri ◽  
Agostino Angilica ◽  
Fabio Bruno ◽  
Maurizio Muzzupappa
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
User Interfaces ◽  
Participatory Design ◽  
Mixed Reality ◽  
End Users ◽  
User Centered Design ◽  
Accurate Analysis ◽  
Usability Tests ◽  
Interactive Tool ◽  
Novel Approach

The importance of participatory design (PD) is progressively increasing thanks to its capacity to explore a wide variety of concepts, thus increasing the opportunity to create a successful product. In fact the design process should not be a solo activity, as designers often need inputs and other points of view, especially from end-users. According to the ultimate idea of PD, end-users are actively involved in the various activities of the product development to ensure that their needs and desires are satisfied. This paper presents a novel approach to the participatory design of product interfaces in a user-centered design (UCD) process. The approach is based on an interactive tool that allows end-users to design custom user interfaces of household appliances taking advantage of their own needs and experiences. The tool incorporates the analytical and more abstract knowledge of the designers codified in the form of aesthetical, technological and manufacturing constraints (i.e., limitations in the number and geometry of interface components, a limited number of colors, a discretization of the area where interface widgets are placed). This solution allows the end-users to directly design their favorite interface without the interference of any other subject. Through an accurate analysis of the choices done by the users, the designers are able to access to the deepest level of the users’ expression in order to catch their latent needs and tacit knowledge. The tool has been designed in order to make possible to immediately perform usability tests on the designed interface by using a Mixed Reality prototype. The paper describes the development of the tool and proposes a methodology that has been specifically addressed to include this tool in a design process based on UCD principles. Both the tool and the methodology are presented through the description of a case-study related to the redesign of a washing machine dashboard. Experimental results show that the proposed tool can be an effective support to design product interfaces during PD sessions.

scholarly journals Virtual reality-based cognitive healthcare interventions: User-centered design considerations, guidelines and framework

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebeca I. García-Betances ◽  
María Fernanda Cabrera-Umpiérrez ◽  
María Teresa Arredondo Waldmeyer
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Substantial Improvement ◽  
Design Guidelines ◽  
User Centered Design ◽  
General Acceptance ◽  
Road Map ◽  
Healthcare Interventions ◽  
The One ◽  
User Centered

Design of computer-based non-pharmacological cognitive healthcare interventions for people afflicted by chronic neurodegenerative impairments must be soundly informed by and clearly centered on users’ distinctive disabilities. In this article we present a use-oriented analysis of those cognitive interventions intended for healthcare of patients with Alzheimer’s dementia and related disorders that use human-computer interaction based on virtual reality technology. The analysis identifies the most important strengths and weakness, and describes and assesses the main key opportunities and challenges inherent to the use of this type of cognitive healthcare interventions. The most critical specific usability concerns that considerably affect these interventions are described in order to be directly addressed during a user-centered design process. Significant evaluation issues that still trouble these interventions’ general acceptance are also included. On the basis of this analysis, appropriate actions are recommended to help minimize accessibility and usability issues. Finally, concrete design guidelines, and a framework with its road map are proposed to direct the design process. The proposed framework’s more outstanding features and functionalities are described in relation to user-centered design conceptualization, implementation and assessment. The use of a consistent user-centered design methodology, such as the one proposed here to tackle the main critical obstacles, could turn out to become the key that allows to achieve a substantial improvement of VR-based cognitive healthcare interventions effectiveness.

scholarly journals A Virtual Reality Interface for the Design of Compliant Mechanisms

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Utkarsh Seth ◽  
Hai-Jun Su ◽  
Judy M. Vance
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Compliant Mechanisms ◽  
Compliant Mechanism ◽  
Current Method ◽  
Motion Path ◽  
User Centered Design ◽  
Design Algorithm ◽  
Constraint Sets ◽  
User Centered

The objective of this research is to develop an immersive interface and a design algorithm to facilitate the synthesis of compliant mechanisms from a user-centered design perspective. Compliant mechanisms are mechanical devices which produce motion or force through deflection or flexibility of their parts. Using the constraint-based method of design, the design process relies on the designer to identify the appropriate constraint sets to match the desired motion. Currently this approach requires considerable prior knowledge of how non-linear flexible members produce motion. As a result, the design process is based primarily on the designer’s previous experience and intuition. A user-centered methodology is suggested where the interface guides the designer throughout the design process, thus reducing the reliance on intuitive knowledge. This methodology supports constraint-based design methods by linking mathematical models to support compliant mechanism design in an immersive virtual environment. A virtual reality (VR) immersive interface enables the designer to input the intended motion path by simply grabbing and moving the object and letting the system decide which constraint spaces apply. The user-centered paradigm supports an approach that focuses on the designer defining the motion and the system generating the constraint sets, instead of the current method which relies heavily on the designer’s intuition to identify appropriate constraints. The result is an intelligent design framework that will allow a broader group of engineers to design complex compliant mechanisms, giving them new options to draw upon when searching for design solutions to critical problems.

scholarly journals Design of a Virtual Reality Software to Promote the Learning of Students with Dyslexia

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8425
Author(s):  
Sonia Rodríguez-Cano ◽  
Vanesa Delgado-Benito ◽  
Vanesa Ausín-Villaverde ◽  
Lucía Muñoz Martín
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Educational Achievement ◽  
End Users ◽  
Learning Difficulty ◽  
User Centered Design ◽  
European Project ◽  
Intervention Specialists ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
Educational Inclusion ◽  
User Centered

The research conducted is part of the European project Erasmus+ FORDYSVAR, whose main objective is to contribute to the educational inclusion of students with dyslexia, aged between 10 and 16 years old, through the use of technology, specifically virtual reality (VR), to improve the access, participation, and educational achievement of students with this learning difficulty. This is a qualitative and interpretative study with a descriptive character. The objective of this work is to design a VR application that contributes to the learning of students with dyslexia based on user-centered design as a methodology. The developmental lines to be addressed in the application have been defined, the features to be included have been determined, and the activities that make up the software have been designed. All this is based on the analysis of the needs and interests of the end users (students with dyslexia) as well as the vision of professionals (teachers and dyslexia intervention specialists). The results obtained allow us to conclude that VR technology is an interesting avenue of treatment, as it offers a ludic, safe, controlled, and motivating environment for students with dyslexia.

scholarly journals A User Centered Methodology for the Design of Smart Apparel for Older Users

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (8) ◽  
pp. 2804
Author(s):  
Silvia Imbesi ◽  
Sofia Scataglini
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Quality Function Deployment ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Comparison Method ◽  
User Centered Design ◽  
Smart Clothing ◽  
Older Users ◽  
Smart Garments ◽  
General Response ◽  
User Centered

Smart clothing plays a big role to foster innovation and to. boost health and well-being, improving the quality of the life of people, especially when addressed to niche users with particular needs related to their health. Designing smart apparel, in order to monitor physical and physiological functions in older users, is a crucial asset that user centered design is exploring, balancing needs expressed by the users with technological requirements related to the design process. In this paper, the authors describe a user centered methodology for the design of smart garments based on the evaluation of users’ acceptance of smart clothing. This comparison method can be considered as similar to a simplified version of the quality function deployment tool, and is used to evaluate the general response of each garment typology to different categories of requirements, determining the propensity of the older user to the utilization of the developed product. The suggested methodology aims at introducing in the design process a tool to evaluate and compare developed solutions, reducing complexity in design processes by providing a tool for the comparison of significant solutions, correlating quantitative and qualitative factors.

Developing Clinical Decision Support System for Sleep Staging Tasks by Formulating Explanations from Artificial Intelligence: User-Centered Design and Evaluation. (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeonghwan Hwang ◽  
Taeheon Lee ◽  
Honggu Lee ◽  
Seonjeong Byun
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Decision Support ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Clinical Decision Support ◽  
User Study ◽  
Clinical Decision ◽  
Sleep Staging ◽  
User Centered Design ◽  
Iterative Design ◽  
User Centered

BACKGROUND Despite the unprecedented performances of deep learning algorithms in clinical domains, full reviews of algorithmic predictions by human experts remain mandatory. Under these circumstances, artificial intelligence (AI) models are primarily designed as clinical decision support systems (CDSSs). However, from the perspective of clinical practitioners, the lack of clinical interpretability and user-centered interfaces block the adoption of these AI systems in practice. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to develop an AI-based CDSS for assisting polysomnographic technicians in reviewing AI-predicted sleep staging results. This study proposed and evaluated a CDSS that provides clinically sound explanations for AI predictions in a user-centered fashion. METHODS User needs for the system were identified during interviews with polysomnographic technicians. User observation sessions were conducted to understand the workflow of the practitioners during sleep scoring. Iterative design process was performed to ensure easy integration of the tool into clinical workflows. Then, we evaluated the system with polysomnographic technicians. We measured the improvements in sleep staging accuracies after adopting our tool and assessed qualitatively how the participants perceived and used the tool. RESULTS The user study revealed that technicians desire explanations relevant to key electroencephalogram (EEG) patterns for sleep staging when assessing the correctness of the AI predictions. Here, technicians could evaluate whether AI models properly locate and use those patterns during prediction. Based on this, information in AI models that is closely related to sleep EEG patterns was formulated and visualized during the iterative design process. Furthermore, we developed a different visualization strategy for each pattern based on the way the technicians interpreted the EEG recordings with these patterns during their workflows. Generally, the tool evaluation results from the nine polysomnographic technicians were positive. Quantitatively, technicians achieved better classification performances after reviewing the AI-generated predictions with the proposed system; classification accuracies measured with Macro-F1 scores improved from 60.20 to 62.71. Qualitatively, participants reported that the provided information from the tool effectively supported them, and they were able to develop notable adoption strategies for the tool. CONCLUSIONS Our findings indicate that formulating clinical explanations for automated predictions using the information in the AI with a user-centered design process is an effective strategy for developing a CDSS for sleep staging.

scholarly journals User-centered design of a patient’s work station for haptic robot-based telerehabilitation after stroke

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Ivanova ◽  
Michael Minge ◽  
Henning Schmidt ◽  
Manfred Thüring ◽  
Jörg Krüger
Keyword(s):  
Hospital Discharge ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Neurological Rehabilitation ◽  
User Centered Design ◽  
Work Station ◽  
Rehabilitation Training ◽  
Robotic Therapy ◽  
Rehabilitation Hospitals ◽  
Early Phases ◽  
User Centered

Abstract:Robotic therapy devices have been an important part of clinical neurological rehabilitation for several years. Until now such devices are only available for patients receiving therapy inside rehabilitation hospitals. Since patients should continue rehabilitation training after hospital discharge at home, intelligent robotic rehab devices could help to achieve this goal. This paper presents therapeutic requirements and early phases of the user-centered design process of the patient’s work station as part of a novel robot-based system for motor telerehabilitation.

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