In light of today's technological developments, the world has become more interested in everything that is quantifiable. In the field of architecture, this phenomenon has affected the design process, in terms of neglect human requirements related to the lived experience. This research is concerned with studying the intersection between what is quantifiable and what could contribute to improve the living experience. Research in disciplines such as art, architecture, and psychology assert that geometries with pure mathematical expression are visually pleasing. The present research aims to integrate these geometric relationships with daylight when formed by the edge of light and shadow, resulting from direct sunlight entering a room through roof openings and presenting on a northern wall. The goal of this research is to develop an initial prototype for a proof of concept that enables architects to consider humanistic, aesthetic criteria for geometry and daylight. The research progresses through three stages. First, the researcher describes a method to assess the geometry of lines resulting from the boundary between light and shadow when falling on a sunlit wall. Second, the researcher applies the described method to a random sample of roof opening configurations using digital modeling and a simulation of the sun's movement. Thirdly, the researcher extracts a regression equation that describes the relationship between the resulting shadow lines on the walls and the configuration of the roof openings. This regression analysis will form an initial step to developing a decision-support tool that predicts the purity of shadow lines during the early stages of the design process. / Doctor of Philosophy / Many architects acknowledge that the buildings we design today lack beauty. This research discusses the possibility of creating a program that considers visual beauty in architectural design. Many disciplines have offered praise about pure geometric shapes. The aim of this research is to develop a prototype that helps architects use these geometric shapes in architectural design specifically in the use of daylight inside rooms. To elaborate, when the sun moves, in its rising and setting, lines of shadows appear within the space that belong to pure geometric shapes. These pure forms are a source of visual beauty because they are derived from nature; as a result, our bodies have a physiological and psychological response when seeing them. The study is based on testing a hypothesis that asserts the higher the degree of purity of the lines used in the design of a room, namely the north-facing wall and roof openings, the higher will be the purity of the shadow lines resulting from the movement of the sun.

The literature presents a number of advantages regarding companies’ strategic focus on product design, arguing that the dimension of visual aesthetics in products may help a company to create commercial success, e.g. through product differentiation and as a means of company brand recognition. However, developing new products that have visual aesthetics as an important dimension is not without difficulty, and may lead to a number of managerial challenges. The purpose of this doctoral thesis is to describe and analyse how companies develop products that have visual aesthetics as an important dimension. The thesis describes and analyses: how the dimension of visual aesthetics affects the characteristics of the new product development process; how companies strike a balance between commercial and creative imperatives during new product development; and how companies source and collaborate using artistic design resources during new product development. Based on findings from five new product development projects and from interviews with managers at twelve Swedish designer furniture manufacturers, the thesis concludes that the dimension of visual aesthetics in products affects new product development in different ways. First, companies’ development of visual aesthetics calls for a more creative, artistic development process whereby, for example, idea generation and evaluation are often flexible in relation to plans made. Moreover, the different and subjective judgement of the aesthetic value of products has implications for new product development, e.g. that the company needs to address and balance imperatives stemming from different audiences, i.e. the designer’s self, peers, and the mass market, during product development. Also, it is concluded that the sourcing of designer resources and the composition of designer portfolios are both critical and related to companies’ desired brand image. A close and trustful working relationship between the designer and the manufacturer is a basis for companies’ successful product development. Theoretically, this research contributes to the product development literature through its findings on companies’ new product development processes in a seldom researched context, i.e. the development of designer products. Additionally, it contributes to the literature on design outsourcing by presenting new findings on the interplay between artistic design resources and managers. Moreover, it also contributes to the marketing literature by providing fresh insights into how companies balance their commercial and creative interests when developing new products. / Design och dess relation till företags marknadsföring är något som diskuteras både i akademisk litteratur och i samhället i övrigt. Genom att förstå och utnyttja design kan företaget skapa kommersiella fördelar, t ex genom att differentiera produkten från konkurrenternas och skapa igenkänning för företagets varumärke. Dock är utveckling av produkter med design som en viktig dimension inte oproblematisk utan kan leda till stora utmaningar för företaget. Tre sådana utmaningar i företag beskrivs och analyseras i denna avhandling. För det första behandlar avhandlingen hur ett fokus på design påverkar företagets produktutvecklingsprocess. Vidare studeras hur företaget balanserar kreativa och kommersiella intressen under produktutvecklingsprocessen. Dessutom behandlar avhandlingen hur företaget införskaffar och samarbetar med formgivare. Den industriella kontext som valts för denna avhandling är den svenska designmöbelindustrin. Avhandlingens slutsatser bygger på fallstudier inom väletablerade och framgångsrika företag inom denna industri. Avhandlingen visar att dimensionen av design påverkar företagens utvecklingsarbete på olika sätt. Först visar studien att de studerade företagens utveckling av designmöbler innebär en kreativ utvecklingsprocess där t.ex. idé-generering och ‑urval sällan grundas i strikta produktplaner utan i stället präglas av flexibilitet och tillvaratagande på uppkomna möjligheter. Vidare är bedömningen av en produkts designvärde subjektiv och svår att formulera i ord. Urvalet av lovande produktidéer grundas därför i hög grad på ledningens goda kunskap om design och erfarenhet inom branschen. Utöver detta påverkas företagens produktutveckling på olika sätt av det faktum att designvärde också skapas genom uppmärksamhet och uppskattning av exempelvis press, mässor och utmärkelser. Det visas också att företagens urval av formgivare är kritiskt och basen för ett framgångsrikt utvecklingsarbete. I de studerade företagen sker utveckling av produkter i nära och förtroendefullt samarbete mellan managers och formgivare. Dessutom kan företag påverka sitt varumärke genom att skapa en genomtänkt strategi för urval av formgivare och samarbetsformer med dessa.

Enterprises utilize information and communication technology, including websites, to market themselves and expand their businesses. However, employing this technology is not always a guarantee of success, especially for small enterprises. This is often due to limited resources and to the extent of having web skills present within the enterprise. Deciding who will design the website for a small enterprise is therefore of importance since a well designed website is a requirement to attract interest in visitors. The design of a website is also a main factor for the first impression to a visitor, a website that is visually appealing tends to give a greater confidence at first glance. This thesis is based on the interest of small enterprises considerations about what website design development characteristics and objective characteristics is generating more positive first impressions. To find this out, interviews together with subjective and objective measures of visual aesthetics were conducted to immerse in the aesthetics of small enterprise websites. The methods implemented gave variables to test in a correlation analysis. This correlation analysis showed that two web development characteristics had strong correlations with users' perception of visual aesthetics. None of the objective aesthetic attributes based on previous theories gave any strong correlations. These characteristics were therefore supplemented with other objective characteristics, which gave two strong correlations. / Företag använder sig informations- och kommunikationsteknik, inklusive hemsidor, för att marknadsföra sig själva och för att växa som företag. Användandet av denna teknik är dock inte alltid en garanti för framgång, särskilt inte för småföretag. Detta beror ofta på begränsade resurser och i den utsträckning att det finns kompetens inom webbprogrammering i företaget. Beslutet att bestämma vem som ska design hemsidan för ett litet företag är därför av stor betydelse, eftersom en väl designad hemsida är ett krav för att locka intresse för besökare på hemsidan. En hemsidas design är också en viktig faktor för det första intrycket hos en besökare av en hemsida. Hemsidor som är visuellt tilltalande tenderar att ge större förtroende vid första anblicken. Denna masteruppsats bygger på intresset hos småföretags överväganden om vilka webutvecklingsegenskaper och objektiva estetiska egenskaper i en webbdesign som genererar mer positiva första intryck. För att ta reda på detta, genomfördes intervjuer samt subjektiva och objektiva mätningar av visuell estetik för att fördjupa sig i estetiken hos småföretags hemsidor. De genomförda metoderna gav variabler att testa i en korrelationsanalys. Denna korrelationsanalys visade att två utvecklingsegenskaper hade starka korrelationer med användares perception av visuell estetik. Ingen av de objektiva estetiska egenskaperna baserade på tidigare teorier gav starka korrelationer. Därför kompletterades dessa med andra objektiva egenskaper där två av dem gav starka korrelationer.

By conducting interviews, prototyping and user tests this thesis aims to explore the question how not-thought-trough interaction design can be improved by implementing thoughtful interaction design. To explore this is a cancer therapy software presented and investigated with the intention to improve the current interface and user experience. The study presents findings based on the methods used that highlights the importance of interaction aesthetics and thoughtful interaction design when designing cancer therapy software. This is followed by the designer implementing improvements based on the feedback from the test subjects. The final results show that interaction aesthetics and thoughtful interaction design is of high importance in designing cancer therapy software.

No description available.

Denna undersökning diskuterar virtual reality (VR) spel i förhållande till lärande och underhållning. Gestaltningen kommer ske genom det existerande spelet GROW’em från företaget Okay Games där vi undersökte effekten av virtual reality på lärande i just spel. Målet är att förse spelaren med engagerande uppgifter för att sköta ett växthus tillsammans med lekfulla VR-interaktioner och möjligheten att kunna påverka den egna omgivningen. Syftet är att spelaren ska lära sig om genuin flora och kanske en dag framöver byta ut sin virtuella växt till en riktig planta. Med denna undersökningen vill vi lyfta fram spel och virtual reality som ett verktyg för lärande, där kroppens del i lärandet syftar på hur inlärning sker genom ens handlingar. / This study discusses virtual reality (VR) games in relation to learning and entertainment. The digital portrayal will take place through the existing game GROW’em from the company Okay Games, where we examined how the effect on learning in a virtual reality game. The goal is to provide the player with engaging tasks in order to manage their greenhouse together with playful VR-interactions and the ability to influence their own environment. The purpose is for the player to learn about genuine flora and maybe one day replace their virtual plant with an actual plant. With this study we want to highlight games and virtual reality as a tool for learning, where the body's part in learning refers to how learning takes place through one's actions.

Submitted by Maicon Juliano Schmidt (maicons) on 2015-07-07T18:24:03Z No. of bitstreams: 1 André Campos Silva.pdf: 2838135 bytes, checksum: 2872728d2a874e2b7e29377031d7f44d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-07T18:24:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 André Campos Silva.pdf: 2838135 bytes, checksum: 2872728d2a874e2b7e29377031d7f44d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-01-31 / CNPQ – Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / A pesquisa busca problematizar o uso do clichê no cinema, entendendo-o como um processo comunicacional que ajuda contribuir com a compreensão da forma e do conteúdo dos filmes. O foco do estudo recai sobre os clichês, presentes no subgênero de terror slasher, por meio de conexões com o arquétipo da sombra. Três eixos conceituais basilares organizam o trabalho: filmes terror, forma e conteúdo estéticos, processo de construção e narrativas dos personagem dos filmes de terror. As poucas pesquisas específicas sobre os clichês no cinema nos levaram à utilização de autores de diversas vertentes, entre eles estão os pesquisadores do campo da comunicação e do audiovisual como Eco, Mcluhan, Xavier, Aumont, Bordwell. Também participaram da construção teórica estudiosos de narrativa como Candido, Mckee, Campos, Field. O campo da filosofia em sua ligação com a vertente estética foi igualmente importante com Kant, Szondi e Burke. A pesquisa empírica se deu sobre uma coleção de seis filmes do subgênero slasher produzidos entre 1979 e 1984, a partir dos quais foi realizada uma análise em três etapas que visaram um mapeamento dos clichês de medo encontrados no corpus. A tese afirma que o clichê faz parte da instituição cinema, bem como, constitui a linguagem cinematográfica e se compõe a partir de certo grau de mobilidade. No que se refere às lógicas que constituem o clichê de medo em filmes de terror slasher fica evidenciada a presença do sublime nos 18 clichês encontrados. Eles se organizam na forma-conteúdo de maneira a estabelecer uma forte característica de valorização do espaço-tempo de incerteza dentro da estrutura dramática, colocando em destaque a ideia de ameaça. / The research aim problematize the use of cliché in film , considering it as a communication process that helps contribute to understanding the form and content of the films . The focus of the study is on the clichés present in the slasher subgenre of horror, through connections with the archetype of the shadow. Three basic conceptual axes organize work: horror movies, fashion and aesthetic content, the construction process of the characters and narratives of horror movies. The few specific studies on the clichés in movies led us to the use of authors from various aspects, among them are researchers in the field of communication and audio visual as Eco, McLuhan, Xavier, Aumont, Bordwell. Also participated in the theoretical construction of narrative as Candido, Mckee, Fields, Field. The field of philosophy in its connection with the aesthetic aspect was also important to Kant, Burke and Szondi. The empirical research took place over a collection of six films of the subgenre slasher produced between 1979 and 1984, from which performed was analysis in three steps aimed at mapping the clichés of fear found in the corpus. The thesis argues that the cliché movie is part of the institution as well, is the cinematic language and is composed from a certain degree of mobility. With regard to the logic that constitute the cliché of fear in horror movies slasher is evident the presence of the sublime in the 18 cliches found. They are organized in the form-content in order to establish a strong feature of appreciation of space - time uncertainty within the dramatic structure, highlighting the idea of threat.

Submitted by Daniella Santos (daniella.santos@ufma.br) on 2017-08-18T12:46:40Z No. of bitstreams: 1 WaldeilsonDaSilva.pdf: 9938649 bytes, checksum: d65a75afde6abd5651e6de9a693b7baa (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-18T12:46:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 WaldeilsonDaSilva.pdf: 9938649 bytes, checksum: d65a75afde6abd5651e6de9a693b7baa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-04-26 / FAPEMA, CAPES / Aesthetics has long awakened discussions about the perception of beauty. This involves both objective and subjective questions. Such uneasiness has arisen from the object of art, but nowadays there is a much wider range of objects that produce feelings of satisfaction in people. In the studies of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), aesthetics is among the different factors that influence satisfaction and, consequently, the users' experience. Such relationships are well understood through subjective evaluations, which provide data on the characteristics and nature of the subjects' aesthetic perceptions. Scientific research in this area chooses different categories of web pages as objects for evaluation. The category of Management of Educational Activities Systems (SiGAEs), is still a category little investigated when it relates aesthetics and user experience. Thus, this research is a case study, which is intended to understand the characteristics and nature of aesthetic perceptions in a SiGAE system, and how they relate to UX. For this, two different profiles of participants were considered: users and non-users of the tool. The research performs an experiment in the form of a visual interaction test. This experiment was organized from a systematic study, which was conducted to locate a specific questionnaire for data collection and to enable the construction of a typology of evaluation. Once structured the experiment, three visual stimuli were extracted from the system pages. Two distinct evaluations followed: (1) collection of aesthetic perceptions through the questionnaire; and (2) collection of verbal reports, with the purpose of obtaining details and elucidating the participants' aesthetic perceptions. In the analysis of the data, the results pointed out negative perceptions in both profiles. However, the users of the tool presented the greatest dissatisfaction with the aesthetics of the system when compared to non-users. Two aesthetic facets of the questionnaire, Simplicity and Diversity, stood out, the first being less critical, and the second more problematic in the perception of both profiles. The Attendance page presented controversy: real users scored the lowest scores while non-users rated this as the least critical page. The difference is accentuated when the perceptions of the veteran are analyzed. Among the conclusions, it was observed that the time of use factor has a negative relation with the analyzed system´s visual aesthetics. / A Estética há muito desperta discussões sobre a percepção de beleza. Isso envolve tanto questões objetivas quanto subjetivas. Tais inquietações surgiram a partir do objeto de arte, mas atualmente há um leque bem maior de objetos que produzem sentimentos de satisfação nas pessoas. Nos estudos de Interação Humano-Computador (HCI), a estética está entre os diferentes fatores que influenciam a satisfação e, por consequência, a experiência dos usuários. Tais relações são bem compreendidas por meio de avaliações subjetivas, que fornecem dados sobre as características e a natureza das percepções estéticas dos sujeitos. As pesquisas científicas nessa área de investigação, escolhem diferentes categorias de páginas de Web como objetos para avaliação. A categoria dos Sistemas de Gestão de Atividades de Ensino (SiGAEs), ainda é uma categoria pouca investigada quando se relaciona estética e experiência do usuário. Assim, esta pesquisa é um estudo de caso, que se destina a compreender as características e a natureza das percepções estéticas em um sistema SiGAE, e como elas se relacionam com a UX. Para isso, dois diferentes perfis de participantes foram considerados: usuários e não-usuários da ferramenta. A pesquisa realiza um experimento no formato de um ensaio de interação visual. Este experimento foi organizado a partir de um estudo sistemático, que foi conduzido para localizar um questionário específico de coleta de dados e facilitar a construção de uma tipologia de avaliação. Estruturado o experimento, três estímulos visuais foram extraídos a partir das páginas do sistema. Duas avaliações distintas seguiram: (1) coleta das percepções estéticas por meio do questionário; e (2) coleta de relatos verbais, com o intuito de obter detalhes e elucidar melhor as percepções estéticas dos participantes. Na análise dos dados, os resultados apontaram percepções estéticas negativas nos dois perfis. No entanto, os usuários da ferramenta apresentaram as maiores insatisfações com a estética do sistema se comparados aos não-usuários. Duas facetas estéticas do questionário, Simplicidade e Diversidade, se sobressaíram, sendo a primeira menos crítica, e a segunda a mais problemática na percepção dos dois perfis. A página de Lançamento de diários apresentou controvérsias: usuários experientes anotaram as menores pontuações enquanto que não-usuários apontaram esta como a página menos crítica. A diferença se acentua quando analisadas as percepções dos usuários com mais tempo de uso da ferramenta. Entre as conclusões, notou-se que o fator tempo de uso possui relação negativa com a estética visual do sistema analisado.

In peoples hyperconnected lives, a price to pay is their internet privacy and the different risks it faces the second their browser connects to the web. One such risk comes from how web tracking collect and analyze users information. This paper explores an approach to how web browsers can inform its users about the web tracking technique Fingerprinting, and through the concept presentation of this approach see: what key key aspects of visual aesthetics that affects the users experience when being informed; and to what extent differences in technological interest and knowledge affect users reception of Fingerprinting information, and the implementation implications the differences leads to. For this purpose a high fidelity prototype was created to: represent the concept of web browsers having integrated educational pages meant to inform its users on topics such as Fingerprinting, and to; be used in a user test. The results showed: a lack of knowledge on the existence of Fingerprinting; that differences in technological interest and knowledge among users affected what aspects of visual aesthetics they valued; and that those with less technological interest and knowledge to a higher degree had their attitudes towards Internet Privacy affected by the prototype’s information. It also showed that the differences affects users approach and interactions with software, and that the design implications this brings are to be considered for future browser functionality implementations. / <p>Självständigt Examensarbete (Forskningsartikel)</p>

In this thesis, the restorative effects of exposure to nature are examined through the lens of existing restoration theories. Limitations of existing theories, such as Attention Restoration Theory and Psycho-evolutionary Restoration Theory, are highlighted. To address the limitations of existing theories, an expanded theoretical framework is proposed: The expanded framework introduces a newly proposed neural mechanism and theory of restoration that build on existing theories by proposing a link to recently discovered reward systems in the ventral visual pathway. Results from six experiments provide consistent evidence to suggest that positive and negative responses to visual scenes are related to the low-level visuospatial properties of the scenes. Specifically, a discovery is made to suggest that the power of a limited visual spatial frequency range can consistently predict responses to natural, urban, and abstract scenes on measures of restoration (blink-rates, number of fixations, self-reported stress and pleasantness). This provides the first evidence to suggest that low-level visual properties of scenes may play an important role in affective and physiological responses to scenes. Furthermore, this newly discovered relationship provides a new way to objectively predict the relative restorative value of any given scene.