Typical hospital setups comprise units such as clinics, inpatient wards, outpatient services, casualty services, operating theatres, laboratories, medical schools (for university hospitals) and out-reach medical camps. Healthcare professionals are required to support these different units hence the need to be constantly mobile in undertaking their duties. These duties require that they frequently consult colleagues, receive handover from previous duty staff or share information on previous work undertaken. Successful use and adoption of handheld devices such as PC tablets, PDAs and smartphones integrated to health information systems can minimize the physical mobility. Information sharing using M-health solutions in complex and diverse healthcare settings draw focus beyond the spatiality gains to the coordination of the teams, processes and shared artefacts in healthcare. CSCW research abounds with various concepts that can be useful in characterizing mobility and communication amongst collaborating health workers. Design for mobile health solutions, therefore, provides an opportunity to further ground theoretical frameworks from exemplary studies on health information systems. The overall objective of the study is to propose design suggestions that target successful information sharing in the deployment and use of M-health solutions. To achieve this objective, the thesis investigates and analyses factors influencing the use and adoption of M-health solutions. A qualitative literature review is used in the study to explore significant factors in the acceptance and use of health information systems. A questionnaire developed from these key factors is used to determine the perceptions of healthcare professionals on M-health solutions based on related literature and on a field study. Finally, the findings are discussed using concepts from CSCW literature namely, mobility, common information spaces, temporality and cognitive and coordinative artefacts. As a result, a conceptual model integrating constructs from the Technology acceptance model (TAM) and IS Success model was developed that can be useful in investigating perceptions in the use of M-health solutions. Design suggestions were proposed for the development of future M-health solutions that aim to achieve successful information sharing amongst healthcare professionals.

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To achieve success in today's competitive environment, companies are realising the importance of design collaboration during new product development. The aim of this research was to develop a collaborative design tool for use by industrial designers and engineering designers. To achieve this, a literature review was undertaken to understand the working relationship among the two disciplines during new product development. Following this, empirical research through interviews and observations outlined three problem areas: conflicts in values and principles; differences in education; and differences in representational tools and methods. The latter was chosen because the problem area of design representations was found to be highly significant. In looking at bridging differences in design representations, a taxonomy comprising 35 forms of sketches, drawings, models and prototypes was generated. A second stage of empirical research was conducted to establish the popularity of each representation and the type of design / technical information that industrial designers and engineering designers communicated with. The information was indexed into CoLab cards that would enable the two disciplines to gain joint understanding and create shared knowledge when using visual design representations. Following a pilot evaluation and minor modifications, student and practitioner interviews with a case study were employed to assess the significance of CoLab. The findings revealed that 82% of the interviewees felt CoLab to have built a common ground through the use of visual design representations. 75% gave a positive rating when asked if the system would enhance collaboration and 91% gave the physical cards a positive response as it provided instant access to information and allowed easy sharing. This thesis is a step towards a greater understanding of collaboration between industrial designers and engineering designers. The use of the CoLab system provides the prospect of achieving a common ground between the two disciplines.

This thesis analyzes the application of computer aided design tools and online collaboration environments in design education. The focus of this study is the utilization of online collaboration environments in design education in order to conduct an efficient and effective virtual design studio course. The requirements of design education and online collaboration environments will be identified and the coinciding and conflicting points will be discussed. The elements of design education / the concept generation phase of design process, peer learning in design studio and design juries will be evaluated with regard to the literature survey and the findings of the case study. The findings of the case study indicated that in concept generation phase of design process the number of concepts created was not less than a similar project in a traditional design studio and publishing students&rsquo / works to public via a shared online environment motivated students in a positive way to participate in studio activities in a positive way.

Architecture both as a field of knowledge and profession had always been an outcome of multidisciplinary collaboration. The limits of this collaboration are directly effective on both the method of design and the end product itself. In contemporary modern architecture, this interaction between architecture and other disciplines reached to an altered mode where design strategies became open to transformations and the traditional understanding of design replaced with alternative approaches. This thesis aims to understand the limits of multidisciplinary collaboration and altered mode of design under the contemporary context. Architectural design competitions will be a major case study area towards understanding disciplinary transparencies and their impact on design process. Under this framework the study questions the limits of continuity between architecture and other disciplines as transformative power of each other.

This thesis presents an application-oriented theoretical framework for generalised and specific collaborative contexts with a special focus on Internet-based mass collaboration. The proposed framework is informed by the author’s many years of collaborative arts practice and the design, building and moderation of a number of online collaborative environments across a wide range of contexts and applications. The thesis provides transdisciplinary architecture for describing the underlying mechanisms that have enabled the emergence of mass collaboration and other activities associated with ‘Web 2.0’ by incorporating a collaboratively developed definition and general framework for collaboration and collective activity, as well as theories of swarm intelligence, stigmergy, and distributed cognition. (For complete abstract open document)

Thesis (doctoral)--Technische Universiteit Delft, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 175-190).

Thesis (doctoral)--Technische Universiteit Delft, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 175-190).

The aim of this research is to examine the role of practice in collaboration between designers and African craft producers in order to develop a different methodology for future exchanges that can be more sustainable and equitable. It looks to determine how craft and design practices can act as tools for communication and exchange, to examine how to foster meaningful collaboration when the relationship of those involved is inequitable and to develop a co-creation methodology for practice, capitalising on the differing skills, experiences and cultures of those involved. The research explores collaboration through making with two Cape Town based, craft businesses - Imiso Ceramics and Kunye - investigating the interactions that occur between the collaborators. A critical contextual review reveals the majority of such partnerships are instigated from the top down with an emphasis on product development. This study proposes that the focus is shifted to one that is human-centred, where the process of collaboration between the people involved is foregrounded. By strengthening the collaborative relationships and giving all participants an equal voice, the process becomes more productive, with product development an inherent result. Using a practice based, participatory design methodology, the work draws on the African notion of ubuntu, which speaks of people's interconnectedness. Applying the cross-disciplinary practices of all three collaborators, products are developed, provoking a dialogue that challenges the designer's role in the developing world. The research culminates in an exhibition of the journey, conversations, issues and outcomes that occurred throughout. The exhibition provides an opportunity to provoke a conversation with the stakeholders, listening to their experiences and gaining their feedback on the work presented. Practical exercises for participatory design in future cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary contexts are presented.

Beside traditional multitouch input, mobile devices provide various possibilities to interact in a physical, device-based manner due to their built-in hardware. Applying such interaction techniques allows for sharing content easily, e.g. by literally pouring content from one device into another, or accessing device functions quickly, e.g. by facing down the device to mute incoming calls. So-called mobile-based interaction techniques are characterized by movements and concrete positions in real spaces. Even though such interactions may provide many advantages in everyday life, they have limited visibility in interaction design due to the complexity of sensor processing. Hence, mobile-based interactions are often integrated, if any, at late design stages. To support testing interactive ideas in early design stages, we propose MilkyWay, a toolbox for prototyping collocated collaborative mobile-based interaction techniques. MilkyWay includes an API and a mobile application. It enables easily building up mobile interactive spaces between multiple collocated devices as well as prototyping interactions based on device sensors by a programming-by-demonstration approach. Appropriate sensors are selected and combined automatically to increase tool support. We demonstrate our approach using a proof of concept implementation of a collaborative Business Model Canvas (BMC) application.