This thesis sets out a theoretical premise for design research into the space of the designer, working inside the design system or context. The designer is understood as actor, as active agency looking inwards in a comprehensive way to examine where ideas are located and then, how these new insights or perspective might be meaningfully introduced. In order to develop this research, personal journal writing is employed as to develop an understanding about how the designer/actor can actively engage with being at once participant, and observer, of their own design practice. A series of design case studies are carried out, where the role of the designer as actor is critically examined through forms of personal journal writing. What this entails is the establishment of a form of autopoetic system for writing in several voices of the self, and self-as-other working in, and through as design project case studies. I critically evaluate these journal case studies to inform my understanding about the design of dialogic visual communication, where multiple perspectives of self, and self-as-other may be interwoven into the visual design artifact. As a result of conducting this research, I propose the existence of what I term the 'conversational self' as a means for developing new knowledge and knowing through conversational story-telling as design research. My research introduces the 'conversational self' as a generalisable theory for design research which addresses the ways in which the designer might effectively engage with the workings of personal tools and patterns of practice, thus building greater objectivity through recognition of local contexts, and the role of the designer as actor and as a situated self within the design process. My research findings describe a space for the 'conversational self' as the coming together of three linked knowledge systems for creation and learning. I describe this theory as 'agency-centred' design for research about design and experiential knowledge contexts through research into the development of project case studies where individual styles and approaches to learning and thinking which are recognised and valued as implicit tools of and for design practice. Firstly, the conversational journal writing format which I develop situates the designer/ researcher as both participant and observer within their design decision-making. As a result of the uses of the journal format as a practice-based research methodology through case studies, I observe the effect of producing what I term an 'autopoetic' (Maturana and Varela) self-producing system, which enables me to introduce both rational and intuitive content that works in my journal through a range of thinking styles and journal forms. My research strategy involves the writing of several concurrent and interacting levels of internal conversation across 'I', 'You', 'Me' and 'We' as parallel and interactive experiential voices of self through uses of a journal format where a range of experiences are documented as design project narratives. The conversational contexts which this approach offers provide a means for introducing multiple perspectives from self, and selfas- other (as designer, author, subject, agent, person) to explore topics and social knowledge themes through a range of creative conversational learning contexts (Pask, Glanville). In the course of developing this approach I draw on theories about personal constructs (Kelly, Thomas and Harri-Augustein); the self as forms as agency (Archer); about experiential learning and knowledge creation through learning conversations (Baker, Jensen and Kolb) ; and social knowledge as networks, flows and exchange processes (Boisot). Secondly, as a finding from my usage of this journal format, I propose the workings of what I describe as my 'unity of self' system construct as an enabling and generative system for working with social knowledge and the 'self' as forms of agency through internal conversations. Margaret Archer's theory describes the social self as forms of causal agency active in everyday social and experiential contexts. In my case studies I trace the internal dynamics and interactions of 'voices' of self in the journal text, which I evaluate as the workings of conversational levels and layers which engage with a range of details and perspectives for each project using written and non-verbal forms. The design case study projects each describes a particular context for design practice; including institutional, corporate, experimental, and personal design projects. In using this methodology for journal writing, I show how I am able to explore the social interplays of personal/public and individual/collective frameworks for design practice contexts. Thirdly, through my evaluations of the design project case study journals, I observe the emergence of topics and themes in each project around my understanding of the role of context for defining the social and experiential 'materials' (Schon) of the situation. The topics noted from conversations in design case inform what I term my 'contextual field' as the third learning system in my findings from this research. This 'contextual field' is a kind of topical map which provides signposts for working with social and experiential contexts, to design 'ecological narratives' (Krippendorff) as forms of language which are crafted as intentional and strategic design approaches, as responses to the research process of internal reflection about the materials of the situation (Schon) Through usage with my journal format, and unity of self construct, my contextual field topical map provides a framework for developing topics and themes for internal conversations to inform my design production in both 'service' and 'hand' craft project contexts. What results are rich use case studies documented as forms of conversational story-telling where new knowledge emerges as questions and possibilities around the design of visual artifacts and service contexts.

The U. S. Navy needs a medium-caliber (5-inch) ship-mounted gun that can deliver a payload to a range five times farther than the present capability. Such an increase in performance requires major design changes to both the gun and its ammunition. A gun which can shoot beyond the visible horizon needs additional support from subsystems which provide targeting information and assessment of battle damage to the intended target. <p>A system engineering approach to the fulfillment of this need is presented. The gun weapon system is characterized through a functional analysis of its component subsystems. From this analysis, an allocation of design requirements is made to the various subsystems. Of particular interest to this project were the gun itself, and the sophisticated ammunition which it fires. Trade studies involving the design alternatives for the gun and its ammunition were carried out within the context of the total system involving also the fire control and targeting subsystems. These design capabilities are compared to the top-level system requirements, then iteratively improved where necessary. The objective of this project was the establishment of the top-level design requirements for the gun and its ammunition. Additionally, a life-cycle cost appraisal was developed for the proposed design. / Master of Science

No description available.

The problem encountered in this study was threefold: 1. To analyze the field of engineering models used in design studies and identify and define the way in which they are applied to product development. 2. To determine the degree and extent of skills and knowledge necessary for constructing engineering models. 3. To compare the skills and knowledge associated with model building to course content offered in industrial arts.

Der folgende Text beruht auf einer subjektiven Auffassung, auf empirischen Erkenntnissen, ist nicht wissenschaftlich fundiert, aber stützt sich dennoch auf messbare Ergebnisse – zumeist in den Auftragsbüchern unserer Kunden. Es soll hier um die Darlegung einer Herangehensweise, einer Denkauffassung gehen. Wir bezeichnen dies nicht unbedingt als Methode oder unseren Prozess, denn dafür fehlt es an klar umrissenen, immer gleichen Parametern. Da wir keine Wissenschaftler sind, möge man uns dies verzeihen. [... aus dem Text]

No description available.

The transition of students with disabilities into adult life is an area of education which is receiving increasing emphasis. The importance of transition services was emphasized by the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. That statute requires a transition statement in the individualized education program of each student with disabilities by the age sixteen. The development of appropriate, practical service delivery models is quickly becoming a major concern of education agencies throughout the country. Developing Transition Service Delivery Models is a manual to facilitate the development of transition services delivery models designed specially to meet the needs of the individuals and local school districts. Research and development methods used in this study include: (l) initial product development based on review of current research literature and governmental regulations, (2) review by knowledgeable professionals in education and individuals with no prior knowledge of the subject, (3) case studies of applicability to two school districts - one small (fewer than 5000 students) and one large (10,000 or greater students), and (4) qualitative and descriptive analysis of data obtained in the case studies. Everyone makes transitions throughout their life. There are certain pervasive commonalities in the transition process. A simple quasi-formal procedure for the design and development of transition services delivery models can provide the tools necessary to identify and implement appropriate outcome oriented goals and objectives for students with disabilities. This should help them in this progress towards successful transition into adult life. / Ed. D.

Computer games are considered as powerful tools to learning and they have a potential for educational use. However, the lack of available comprehensive design paradigms and well-designed research studies about the question of &ldquo / how to&rdquo / incorporate games into learning environments is still a question, despite more than 30 years&rsquo / existence of computer games and simulations in the instructional design movement. Setting off from these issues, a formative research study is designed to propose an instructional design/development model, which may be used for creation of game-like learning environments. Eighteen undergraduate students from Computer Education and Instructional Technology Department in METU participated to the study. Data collection lasted for three months and data were collected through interviews, observations and the artifacts that the participants produced. After the data analysis, it was found that the phases of the instructional design/development process should not be separate, strictly bounded, and processing a linear manner. Depending on these results and with the inspiration from fuzzy logic, an instructional design/development model for creating game-like environments, which is called as &ldquo / FID&lt / sup&gt / 2&lt / /sup&gt / GE model&rdquo / is proposed.

Background: The production of textile crafts requires resources and skilled artisans. In modern times, textile crafts sold in the global market are often made through collaboration involving artisans and profit, social and non-profit enterprises with aim to globalize the aesthetic or styling, structural aspects, and marketability of the crafted product. Collaboration is understood here as two or more enterprises working together towards common profit ideologies, values or goals. Textile craft producer Jordan River Foundation’s (JRF) and IKEA’s Social Entrepreneurship Initiative; collaboration creates home furnishing collections through design and product development, that aim to promote and develop so called local crafts-based economy. Need: In a collaboration, the textile craft producer plays the role of leveraging its resources, and keeps the capability to test its making in the design development and implementation process of craft products. It is thus this need to know of how these collaborative relationships function from a producer’s perspective, emphasizing on the most value adding factor of the design development process. Purpose: The purpose of the study was to investigate and understand primarily from the craft producer Jordan River Foundation’s point of view, the collaborative design development and implementation process with IKEA. Method: The study is a qualitative, narrative, analysing the data and experience from a two-week participatory field study at Jordan River Foundation. Conclusion: As exposed through the collaboration, with IKEA, JRF is challenged with working with cost efficient process of the usage of materials and techniques in design development and methods of craft production, and at the same time maintains its niche as a craft producer. The study concludes that collaborative design efforts in textile crafts, uplifts and enhances, tangible and intangible values. Within the perspective of textile management, the knowledge of collaborative design development in textile crafts interconnects new spaces and turns skill knowledge into a force of competitive advantage for the participating organisations.

Current trends in society and technology make interruption a central human computer interaction problem. Many intelligent computer systems exist, but one that determines when best to interact with a user at appropriate times as s/he performs computer-based tasks does not. In this work, an Interaction Algorithm was designed, developed and evaluated that draws from a user model and real-time observations of the user’s actions as s/he works on computer-based tasks to determine ideal times to interact with the user. This research addresses the complex problem of determining the precise time to interrupt a user and how to best support him/her during and after the interruption task. Many sub-problems have been taken into account such as determining the task difficulty, the intent of the user as s/he is performing the task and how to incorporate personal user characteristics. This research is quite timely as the number of interruptions people experience on a daily basis has grown considerably over the last decade and this growth has not shown any signs of subsiding. Furthermore, with the exponential growth of mobile computing, interruptions are permeating the user experience. Thus, systems must be developed to manage interruptions by reasoning about ideal timings of interactions and determining appropriate notification formats. This research shed light on this problem as described below: 1. The algorithm developed uses a user model in its’ reasoning computations. Most of the research in this area has focused on task-based contextual information when designing systems that reason about interruptions. Researchers support additional work should be done in this area by including subjective preferences. 2. The algorithm’s performance is quite promising at 96% accuracy in several models created. 3. The algorithm was implemented using an advanced machine learning technology—an Adaptive Neural-Fuzzy Inference System—which is a novel contribution. 4. The algorithm developed does not rely on any user involvement. In other systems, users laboriously review video sessions after working with the system and record interruption annotations so that the system can learn. 5. This research shed light on reasoning about ideal interruption points for free-form tasks. Currently, this is an unsolved problem.