Zugl.: Rostock, Univ., Diss., 2008.

Zugl.: Augsburg, Universiẗat, Diss., 2008.

The aim of this study is to take a closer look at how customization, or the lack thereof, affectsthe player to character emotional bond and identification in a digital game. Examining previousarticles and studies with similar aim, the lack of study pertaining to a certain game formatsurfaced and sparked a research interest. To gain some clarity into how character customization,and the identification and bond it inspires in players, would be affected by a non-audiovisualbranching stories digital game the researcher created a small game for this study. This paperexplores if previous research results on RPGs can be transferred to the format of a text-basednon-audiovisual branching story game. For this qualitative study, ten people, divided in twogroups, played a version of the game and answered follow-up questions in the form of aquestionnaire. In addition, some observations were carried out of the game play sessions. Theseanswers were studied to give the individuals perspective, as well as allowing for the study of thephenomena by reviewing multiple perspectives to distinguish patterns. The results indicate thatcaring for a character takes longer if the player is not allowed to customize it. It was also indicated that the actual customization was more important than the character created.

Sustainability has become a major concern of contemporary product design. Whether it's furniture, appliances, apparel, or technology designers of every field must now consider the ecological impact of the products that they create. Sustainability of material resources, impact and by products of manufacturing processes, energy using in production, product lifespan, and disposal are all things that must be carefully considered to maximize product sustainability. Strategies for reducing negative environmental impact include maximizing material usage, using recycled and or biodegradable materials, minimizing product weight and transportation, reducing energy consumption, and dematerialization. In more recent years the idea of increasing product lifespan has received a lot of attention from design theorists. This doesn't just mean making goods that can physically last a lifetime and have superior performance. The consumer must have an attachment to the object. This attachment comes from an emotional connection. Contemporary designers must find innovative ways of creating an emotional bond between product and consumer. How can mass produced goods achieve this goal? I believe the answer is involving the consumer in the design process in order to personalize and customize the products they buy. Made to order goods offer the customer the opportunity to co-design the products that they desire so that they suit particular needs and wants. Instead of selecting pre-manufactured goods from a store or website consumers can now personalize and customize an increasing number and range of products. Companies like Longchamp, Nike, Levis, Addidas, and Ralph Lauren are capitalizing on the fact that consumers want to personalize and customize the products they consume without having to lift a finger. By allowing customers to choose colors, sizes, styles, and even adding personalized logos these companies are capitalizing on the fact that consumers want customization. People become more invested and more attached to objects that they have spent effort in creating, allow for self-expression, and that are unique to the user. The consumer is allowed to be creative but this is only from a limited amount of choices available to them. My research involves taking the concept of customization further to make products that are completely unique to an individual. Nothing is more personal and individualized than the human fingerprint. I am exploring how the fingerprint can be abstracted and used as texture on the surface of furniture. By making objects that are personalized to the user it is my goal to deepen the connection between owner and object to increase product lifespan.

Software agents are well-suited to assisting users with routine, repetitive, and time-consuming tasks in various educational environments. In order to achieve complex tasks effectively, humans and agents sometimes need to work together. However, some issues in human agent interaction have not been solved properly, such as delegation, trust and privacy. The agent research community has focused on technologies for constructing autonomous agents and techniques for collaboration among agents. Little attention has been paid to supporting interactions between humans and agents. p* The objectives of this research are to investigate how easy it might be for a user to program his/her agent, how users behave when given the ability to program their agents, whether access to necessary help resources can be improved, and whether such a system can facilitate collaborative learning. Studying users concerns about their privacy and how an online learning environment can be built to protect users privacy are also interesting issues to us. <p>In this thesis two alternative systems were developed for programmable agents in which a human user can define a set of rules to direct an agents activities at execution time. The systems were built on top of a multi-agent collaborative learning environment that enables a user to program his or her agent to communicate with other agents and to monitor the activities of other users and their agents. These systems for end user programmable agents were evaluated and compared. The result demonstrated that an end-user programming environment is able to meet users individual needs on awareness information, facilitate the information exchange among the users, and enhance the communication between users within a virtual learning environment. This research provides a platform for investigating concerns over user privacy caused by agent programmability.

Software agents are well-suited to assisting users with routine, repetitive, and time-consuming tasks in various educational environments. In order to achieve complex tasks effectively, humans and agents sometimes need to work together. However, some issues in human agent interaction have not been solved properly, such as delegation, trust and privacy. The agent research community has focused on technologies for constructing autonomous agents and techniques for collaboration among agents. Little attention has been paid to supporting interactions between humans and agents. p* The objectives of this research are to investigate how easy it might be for a user to program his/her agent, how users behave when given the ability to program their agents, whether access to necessary help resources can be improved, and whether such a system can facilitate collaborative learning. Studying users concerns about their privacy and how an online learning environment can be built to protect users privacy are also interesting issues to us. <p>In this thesis two alternative systems were developed for programmable agents in which a human user can define a set of rules to direct an agents activities at execution time. The systems were built on top of a multi-agent collaborative learning environment that enables a user to program his or her agent to communicate with other agents and to monitor the activities of other users and their agents. These systems for end user programmable agents were evaluated and compared. The result demonstrated that an end-user programming environment is able to meet users individual needs on awareness information, facilitate the information exchange among the users, and enhance the communication between users within a virtual learning environment. This research provides a platform for investigating concerns over user privacy caused by agent programmability.

Lean production has taken root in Taiwan for many years, but with the rapid environmental changes in this shortening product life cycles, many goods emphasize on customization, Manufacturing in Taiwan need to convert their competitiveness, taking into account manufacturing performance such like quality, cost, speed and flexibility. In this study, the survey respondents on the concept of lean production level of acceptance, and the use of lean manufacturing practices in the degree of implementation. Collected data using SPSS statistical analysis to summarize the discussion, some conclusions of this study are as follows: First, the flow of production is the most important issue in operating performance. Second, statistical process control is proved to be an important tool for the study. It is highly involved in product quality and speed-related performance. Third, flexible industries pay more attention on modular and lead time. Fourth, when resources are limited, companies need to choose the more resources into the environment in which to do to improve. When the verification needs of operating performance of the different properties of different lean techniques to do investment, companies can be more concentrated in certain blocks and techniques have reached multiplier effects.

Theoretical research on mass customization of consumer products/services has emphasized the importance of consumers embracing customized products as a prerequisite for this strategy to be successful. It seems obvious that if final consumers are not interested in customization there is no need to pursue customization strategies. Although an important body of literature on mass customization has recently emerged, there is a need to know more about customization from the consumer’s point of view. In that sense, this research examines consumers’ attitudes toward customized products/services in the context of high technology. Focusing on high-tech products that can be customized by consumers, this study proposed an empirical model combining the Technology Acceptance Model (Davis, 1986) with other critical variables (technology readiness, perceived customization, and customer customization sensitivity) that would help to understand consumers’ attitudes toward these types of products. To evaluate the model an experiment-based research design with a single-factor between subjects study was utilized. Based on the context of high-technology products, several scenarios of cellular phones were developed and tested. Participants were then asked about their perceptions of the cellular phones as well as measures of technology readiness, attitudes toward using the product, and intention to use the product. Utilizing linear regression, the hypothesized model was largely validated. As expected, the more positive the attitude toward using the product, the greater the intention to use the product. The study also showed that consumers need to believe that the product would be easy to use and useful in order for them to develop an interest in using it. In addition, results indicated that a product’s customization capabilities seem to have an impact on the perception of how easy to use that product is. At the same time, if a product is perceived as being very customizable it would also be perceived as very useful. Results did not support the hypothesized relationship of customer customization sensitivity and perceived usefulness and perceived customization and new alternative relationships were explored in the study. Finally, the analysis also confirmed the role of technology readiness as a moderator between perceived ease of use and perceived customization.

Zugl.: Siegen, Univ., Diss., 2007

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 126-137). Also available in electronic version.