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In the context of knowledge management, the challenge for organizations is to convert individual human knowledge into structural capital so that the knowledge becomes persistent in the organization, making it more accessible and hence more usable. How to codify the knowledge of a workforce, including the tacit knowledge of experts, and how to apply that codified knowledge with success are unresolved issues. The conversion of individual knowledge into structural capital is of particular relevance in the field of design. Design is a complex activity that creates valuable knowledge. However, that knowledge is often implicit, unstructured, and embedded in procedures, methods, documentation, design artifacts, and of course in the minds of designers and other project stakeholders. In addition, design teams are often multidisciplinary and include experts who apply tacit knowledge to arrive at solutions. Design projects extend over time so that the risk of losing design knowledge increases. Information in itself is not knowledge for the purposes of structural capital. A user interface (UI) design specification for example, does not capture the knowledge used to create that design. The specification tells us what the artifact should be, but it does not tell us how the design came to be or why it is the way it is. Design rationale (DR) is a field of study surrounding the reasoning behind design decisions and the reasoning process that leads to the design of an artifact. The objective of creating a design rationale is to make the reasons for design decisions explicit. Design space analysis (DSA) is one perspective on design rationale that explores alternative design solutions and the assessment of each against design objectives. The rationale behind design decisions provides insight about the design knowledge that was applied and is therefore, of interest to the structural capital of organizations. Moreover, the process of making the rationale explicit is of interest to the domain of user interface design. The challenge for UI designers and the question addressed in this research is how to make the design rationale explicit and use it to effectively support the design process? The proposed solution is to conduct design space analysiS as part of the process of de.slgn. To. test this solution it is important to explore the implications of generating design rationale in practice and to explore whether DSA reflects the knowledge that expert deSigners apply. The "DSA study" demonstrated and examined the use of design space analysis by UI experts in a long-term, practical, design setting. The findings suggest that design space analysis supports communication and the reasoning process, and it provides context around past design decisions. It was also found that conducting design space analysis encourages designers to accumulate design ideas and develop an understanding of design problems in a systematic way. In addition, the study showed that designers are capable of producing and using the notation, but that the effort to conduct DSA is an obstacle to its use in practice. Conclusions are drawn that DSA can structure the reasoning aspect of design knowledge. The "design skills study" identified the skills that user interface experts apply in practice. The findings indicate that many of the skills of UI experts correspond to the skills that are emphasized by DSA. The study emphasized the pervasiveness and importance of the communication activity in design, as well as the role of reasoning in communication and decision making. The study also identified design activities that receive comparatively little attention from UI experts and design skills that may be comparatively poor. Conclusions are drawn that DSA reflects in part the knowledge that designers apply in practice. Findings from the above studies point to two approaches that maximize the positive effects of DSA and minimize the effort to conduct a design space analysis. I describe these approaches as coaching and heuristics. Informal evaluations indicate that coaching and heuristics warrant further investigation. The findings from each of the studies have implications for design space analysis. These are discussed around several themes: the tension between the processes of designing and structuring design knowledge, the trade-off in effort between structuring design knowledge and interpreting unstructured design knowledge, design knowledge and the complementary roles of communication and documentation, and DSA as it pertains to expert and novice designers. It is inevitable that where there are new findings and solutions there are also new questions to be explored. Several interesting questions raised by these investigations suggest an agenda for future work.

This case study described how a simple, low cost survey of library users was conducted at the Engineering Library of the University of Saskatchewan in order to better understand user needs and prepare for the service and space planning. The results show that students wanted more computers, more group and individual study space, and longer library hours. Based on the results, quick actions have been taken. The results also provided valuable information for the planning of the rejuvenation of the Engineering Library. Allowing each member of the team to showcase their talents, this project was a great team building exercise, and resulted a stronger , more cohesive working environment.

As smartphones become more ubiquitous, increasing amounts of information about smartphone users are created, collected, and shared. This information may pose privacy and security risks to the smartphone user. The risks may vary from government surveillance to theft of financial information. Previous work in the area of smartphone privacy and security has both identified specific security flaws and examined users’ expectations and behaviors. However, there has not been a broad examination of the smartphone ecosystem to determine the risks to users from smartphone data sharing and the possible mitigations. Two of the five studies in this work examine the smartphone data sharing ecosystem to identify risks and mitigations. The first study uses multi-stakeholder expert interviews to identify risks to users and the mitigations. A second study examines app developers in order to quantify the risky behaviors and identify opportunities to improve security and privacy. In the remaining three of five studies discussed in this work, we examine one specific risk mitigation that has been popular with policy-makers: privacy notices for consumers. If done well, privacy notices should inform smartphone users about the risks and allow them to make informed decisions about data collection. Unfortunately, previous research has found that existing privacy notices do not help smartphone users, as they are neither noticed nor understood. Through user studies, we evaluate options to improve notices. We identify opportunities to capture the attention of users and improve understanding by examining the timing and content of notices. Overall, this work attempts to inform public policy around smartphone privacy and security. We find novel opportunities to mitigate risks by understanding app developers’ work and behaviors. Also, recognizing the current focus on privacy notices, we attempt to frame the debate by examining how users’ attention to and comprehension of notices can be improved through content and timing.

ServiceSketch is a collaborative tabletop tool for service design. It was developed to address some of the challenges designers face when developing service systems, including the dynamic, intangible nature of service and the complexity of coordinating multiple stakeholders over time and space. The concept for the tool draws from literature on service design, tangible user interfaces, and co-creation. It was also informed by user research sessions with graduate design students. The interface of ServiceSketch consists of a large multi-touch surface display that reacts to finger touches and a provided set of physical objects. Both the hardware and software development of ServiceSketch are described in this document. ServiceSketch was evaluated with groups of graduate design students who were asked to perform small group service design activities using the tool. These sessions showed that ServiceSketch was successful in supporting common service design processes and even inspired many participants to suggest possible future developments for the tool. ServiceSketch also seemed to encourage a playful, collaborative approach to service design. The results of the project hint at the possibilities for a new breed of service design tool, one that focuses on facilitating conversations about service through an engaging, interactive medium.

Session ID: TH-G3-5 / Joint 4th International Conference on Soft Computing and Intelligent Systems and 9th International Symposium on advanced Intelligent Systems, September 17-21, 2008, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan

This thesis presents an exercise-based edutainment system intended for children. It is designed to enhance their cognitive development by encouraging movement in a fun way. The main idea behind the system is that children will have fun constructing a physical, tangible user interface. In addition, they will learn how to spell many words that represent objects and entities by stepping on a collection of coloured pads and receiving responses through a set of multimedia outputs related to these entities. For this purpose we have designed and implemented a tangible user interface that facilitates interaction with the system. This tangible user interface is called "SmartPads" and is composed of coloured tiles that can be physically connected to each other to form any shape. The pads are mapped onto a computer screen in real-time. A user interacts with the interface by stepping on the pads. We have incorporated two games that allow children of different ages to benefit from the system's functionalities and encourage them to interact with it. This thesis provides detailed information about the proposed system and its related components, discusses the design and development of the two games, and measures the system's performance when used by the children.

This investigation starts from the hypothesis that a new approach to new product development is required to meet the future requirements and expectations of customers and consumers and product and service providers. The investigation focuses upon domestic food refrigeration and its position within the retail food supply chain, with the domestic refrigerator as an example of a mature product, the future development of which, it is argued, may depend upon a new approach to new product development. A review of established and emerging new product development strategies suggests that such future requirements might be met through collaboration between organisations from different industrial sectors and across supply chains, and that existing strategies would not support such collaborations. A new methodology, Collaborative Envisioning is proposed which engages the business of academia and the tools of the designer to facilitate multidisciplinary trans-sectoral collaboration. It is further proposed that a demonstration project, Beyond the Fridge, is the most effective test for the methodology. Key participants in Beyond the Fridge are Sainsbury's, Electrolux, 3M, University College Northampton and University of East London. Results from Beyond the Fridge suggest that the Collaborative Envisioning methodology is effective in bringing together partners from different industrial sectors and uniting them around a shared and mutually supported vision of future business. However, the low start-up cost and high level of concept realisation inherent in the methodology have led to some overestimation of the tactical deliverables from an essentially strategic process. In the light of Beyond the Fridge it is recommended that structures are established at the initiation of a Collaborative Envisioning project so that tactical solutions which may be derived from the strategic objective are differentiated and separately funded from the core project. The reflection upon Beyond the Fridge, and the recommendations for future work derived from it, is followed by reviews of evolving consumer demographics and perceptions of food storage and preparation in the home, and recent initiatives to integrate new technologies into domestic and personal products, thus establishing the historical and social context for Beyond the Fridge.