An employed individual will spend between a quarter and a third of his or her waking life at the workplace. An estimated 40% of those in South Africa who are employed full-time work in offices. With the amount of time spend in buildings, the physical conditions in the workplace are important determinants of satisfaction, comfort, well-being, and effectiveness and can even play a role in mental health. The physical environment in offices should therefore be carefully planned, designed, and managed. This qualitative study, sought to develop an inter-cultural office design framework for South Africa combining Eastern and Western design principles. Specifically, it sought to obtain a better insight into design principles which can enhance the well-being of office workers; inter-cultural, gender neutral and age neutral design principles which can be applied in a South African context. To be able to answer these questions an intensive literature review was undertaken investigating both the Eastern design principles as expressed in feng shui and Western design principles as expressed in Environmental Social Science. The design principles of these two traditions were compared and all aspects where the two traditions did not support each other were included in the in-depth interviews. Twenty-five in-depth interviews were conducted By relying on various design cultures (e.g. Eastern and Western) an environment can be created which are pleasing and can enhance the well-being of the users. Underlying design principles are universal, but the symbolic expression thereof can differ from culture to culture. One of the conclusions from this study is that three quarters of design principles are v universal. There is no one size fits all solution and compromise is necessary from all involved. The compromise applies to the roughly a quarter of design aspects where subgroup differences have been detected. Any design should take individual and group difference into account. The only way to do this is to get proper input from all stakeholders at all stages of the design. It is critically important that the input starts before the design process commences. There are many design principles which can be implemented to improve the quality of work life of office workers in the South African context. Design can for example play a very important role in encouraging and facilitating formal and informal interaction in the workplace – bridging the gap between heterogeneous groups. Without forcing relationships, design can assist in naturally integrating heterogeneous groups. The physical environment must support the image and identity which needs to be communicated, facilitate communication and enable task accomplishment. Most of all it must become a place with which employees can identify and where they can develop a sense of place. From this study it can be concluded that not only form follows function but also that aesthetics follow function – a principle that design should be based on the primary purpose of the building, the workspace based on the needs of the stakeholders and from this starting point aesthetics will flow. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Consulting Psychology)

Current design models, approaches and theories are highly fragmented, have seldom been compared with one another, and rarely attempted to be consolidated. Novelty is a measure of creativity of engineering products and positively influences product success. Using physical laws and effects for designing can improve the chances of creativity but they cannot be used directly owing to their inadequate current representations. It is important to address activities, outcomes, requirements and solutions in designing. Conceptual design is an early phase in engineering design and needs to be supported better. A systematic approach for designing often increases effectiveness and efficiency. Thus, the broad objective of this thesis is to develop and validate a comprehensive understanding of how designing occurs during the conceptual phase of engineering design, and to support variety and novelty of designs during this phase. The approach followed is: (a) formulate and validate an understanding of novelty and its relationships to the designing constructs, in current designing, and(b)develop and validate a support, founded on the current designing, to improve novelty. The understanding and the support are addressed, respectively, through an integrated model and a systematic framework for designing; the model and the framework comprise activities, outcomes(including laws and effects), requirements and solutions. An integrated model of designing, GEMS of SAPPhIRE as req-sol is developed by combining activities(Generate, Evaluate, Modify, Select– GEMS), outcomes (State change, Action, Parts, Phenomenon, Input, oRgans, Effect–SAPPhIRE), requirements (req) and solutions (sol), identified from a comprehensive survey of existing design models and approaches. Validation of SAPPhIRE model with existing systems indicates that the model can be used to describe analysis and synthesis, both of which together constitute designing. Validation of the integrated model using existing videos of design sessions, to check if all its constructs are naturally used in designing, reveals that:(a) all the constructs are naturally used;(b) not all the outcomes are explored with equal intensity;(c) while high numbers of action and parts are observed, only low numbers of phenomenon, effects and organs are found. Empirical study using another set of design sessions to study the relationships between novelty and the outcomes reveals that novelty of a concept space depends on the variety of the concept space, which in turn depends on the variety of the idea space explored. Novelty and variety of a concept space also depend on the number of outcomes explored at each abstraction level. Thus, phenomena and effects are also vital for variety and novelty. Based on the above, GEMS of SAPPhIRE as req-sol framework for designing is proposed. The framework is divided into: Requirements Exploration Stage(RES) and Solutions Exploration Stage(SES). In RES and SES, requirements and solutions respectively at all the abstraction levels including SAPPhIRE are generated, evaluated, modified and selected. The framework supports task clarification, conceptual and early embodiment phases of designing, and provides process knowledge. Comparison of the framework against existing design models, theories and approaches reveals that:(a) not all existing models, theories and approaches address activities, outcomes, requirements and solutions together;(b) those that address all these constructs together do not make a distinction between requirements and solutions; and(c) no model or approach explicitly addresses novelty. The usability of the framework and Idea-inspire is assessed by applying them in an industrial project for designing novel concepts of lunar vehicle mobility system. The use of this combined support enables identification of critical requirements, development of a large variety of ideas and concepts. One of these concepts is physically and virtually modelled, and tested, and is found to satisfy all the requirements. A catalogue of physical laws and effects is developed using SAPPhIRE model to provide assistance to designers, especially for phenomena, effects and organs. Observations found during this development are reported. A comparative validation of the framework and the catalogue for their support to design for variety and novelty is done using comparative observational studies. Results from the observational studies reveal that the variety and the novelty of concept space improve with the use of the framework, or with the frame work and the catalogue, as compared to variety and novelty with no support.

An employed individual will spend between a quarter and a third of his or her waking life at the workplace. An estimated 40% of those in South Africa who are employed full-time work in offices. With the amount of time spend in buildings, the physical conditions in the workplace are important determinants of satisfaction, comfort, well-being, and effectiveness and can even play a role in mental health. The physical environment in offices should therefore be carefully planned, designed, and managed. This qualitative study, sought to develop an inter-cultural office design framework for South Africa combining Eastern and Western design principles. Specifically, it sought to obtain a better insight into design principles which can enhance the well-being of office workers; inter-cultural, gender neutral and age neutral design principles which can be applied in a South African context. To be able to answer these questions an intensive literature review was undertaken investigating both the Eastern design principles as expressed in feng shui and Western design principles as expressed in Environmental Social Science. The design principles of these two traditions were compared and all aspects where the two traditions did not support each other were included in the in-depth interviews. Twenty-five in-depth interviews were conducted By relying on various design cultures (e.g. Eastern and Western) an environment can be created which are pleasing and can enhance the well-being of the users. Underlying design principles are universal, but the symbolic expression thereof can differ from culture to culture. One of the conclusions from this study is that three quarters of design principles are v universal. There is no one size fits all solution and compromise is necessary from all involved. The compromise applies to the roughly a quarter of design aspects where subgroup differences have been detected. Any design should take individual and group difference into account. The only way to do this is to get proper input from all stakeholders at all stages of the design. It is critically important that the input starts before the design process commences. There are many design principles which can be implemented to improve the quality of work life of office workers in the South African context. Design can for example play a very important role in encouraging and facilitating formal and informal interaction in the workplace – bridging the gap between heterogeneous groups. Without forcing relationships, design can assist in naturally integrating heterogeneous groups. The physical environment must support the image and identity which needs to be communicated, facilitate communication and enable task accomplishment. Most of all it must become a place with which employees can identify and where they can develop a sense of place. From this study it can be concluded that not only form follows function but also that aesthetics follow function – a principle that design should be based on the primary purpose of the building, the workspace based on the needs of the stakeholders and from this starting point aesthetics will flow. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Consulting Psychology)

No description available.

This master’s thesis investigates the usability challenges in current booking systems and proposes a new design framework to address these challenges. The research encompasses an in-depth analysis of the usability issues associated with booking systems used to create the design guidelines for the framework. The framework is evaluated using a heuristic evaluation approach for evaluation. 25 individual booking systems were individually assessed by a single evaluator, with a focus on finding usability issues using the framework. The heuristic evaluation process took approximately 30 minutes to an hour per system evaluation, following the heuristic evaluation methodology. Identified issues and corresponding recommendations were compiled in a diagram, while the comprehensive testing document is included in the appendix of this paper. The heuristic evaluation revealed a total of 438 identified issues across the 25 booking systems, with the identified issues per system ranging from 3 to 9. The average number of issues identified using the new framework stood at 6.08.  The research answers the first research question: ”What are the key usability challenges in current booking systems?” by conducting an extensive literature review and creating a comprehensive list of 13 distinct usability challenges in booking systems. The amount of identified challenges demonstrates the necessity for a dedicated framework. The challenges encompass a wide spectrum, spanning from user adoption of the interface to practical aspects like booking cancellation and customer service.  Addressing the second research question, which describes the utilization of the new design framework to tackle usability challenges, the study employs the heuristic evaluation results to determine the efficacy of the framework. An average of 6.08 identified usability issues per system validates the framework’s usefulness for evaluators of booking systems. The discussion also underscores the potential for increased effectiveness with the recommended three to five evaluators.  Despite certain limitations, including the lack of detailed evaluation results due to confidentiality agreements, and the inability to complete booking procedures due to resource constraints, the framework’s effectiveness is established. The framework proves to be a valuable addition to existing design guidelines, serving as a comprehensive tool for evaluating booking systems. In conclusion, this master’s thesis completely addresses the research questions, underscoring the need for dedicated design guidelines for booking systems and demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed framework in enhancing usability. The study also identifies areas for future work and recommends enhancements for a more holistic evaluation of booking systems. / Denna masteruppsats undersöker användbarhetsutmaningarna i nuvarande bokningssystem och föreslår ett nytt designramverk för att bemöta dessa utmaningar. Forskningen omfattar en djupgående analys av nuvarande användbarhetsutmaningar hos bokningssystem vilka sedan används för att skapa designriktlinjer för ett nytt designramverk. Det nya designramverket för bokningssystem utvärderas sedan med hjälp av en heuristisk utvärderingsmetod. 25 individuella bokningssystem utvärderades individuellt av en utvärderare, med fokus på att hitta användbarhetsproblem med hjälp av ramverket. Den heuristiska utvärderingsprocessen tog cirka 30 minuter till en timme per systemutvärdering, utförda enligt den heuristiska utvärderingsmetoden. Identifierade problem och motsvarande rekommendationer sammanställdes i ett diagram, medan det omfattande testdokumentet finns med i bilagan till detta dokument. Den heuristiska utvärderingen resulterade i totalt 438 identifierade problem hos de 25 bokningssystemen, där identifierade problem per system varierade från 3 till 9. Det genomsnittliga antalet identifierade problem med hjäp av det nya ramverket var 6,08.  Den första forskningsfrågan: ”Vilka är de viktigaste användbarhetsutmaningarna i nuvarande bokningssystem?” besvarades genom en omfattande litteraturundersökning som resulterade i en lista innehållande 13 distinkta användarvänlighetsutmaningar hos bokningssystem. Mängden identifierade utmaningar visade på noödvändigheten av ett dedikerat ramverk för bokningssystem. Utmaningarna täcker ett brett spektrum, från att användaren använder gränssnittet till praktiska aspekter som avbokning och kundservice.  För att besvara den andra forskningsfrågan, som handlar om det nya designramverkets möjlighet att tackla användbarhetsutmaningar, användes en heuristisk utvärdering vars resultat fastställde ramverkets effektivitet. Det resulterade i genomsnitt av 6,08 identifierade användbarhetsproblem per system, vilket validerar ramverkets användbarhet för utvärderare av bokningssystem. Diskussionen understryker också potentialen för ökad effektivitet med de rekommenderade tre till fem utvärderarna istället för en.  Trots vissa begränsningar, såsom bristen på detaljerade utvärderingsresultat på grund av sekretessavtal och oförmågan att slutföra bokningsprocedurer på grund av resursbegränsningar, har ramverkets effektivitet fastställts. Ramverket visade sig vara en värdefull ersättning till befintliga designriktlinjer och fungerar som ett omfattande verktyg för att utvärdera bokningssystem. Sammanfattningsvis adresserar denna masteruppsats forskningsfrågorna och understryker behovet av dedikerade designriktlinjer för bokningssystem samt visar effektiviteten hos det föreslagna ramverket för att förbättra användbarheten. Studien identifierar också områden för framtida arbete och rekommenderar förbättringar för en mer holistisk utvärdering av bokningssystem.

Eco-design is relatively new and fast growing field of research due to its vital importance to the manufacturing industry and its related environmental issues such as reducing waste, and CO2 emission. A major EU programme relating to the environment is the waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive. The (WEEE) directive specifies ten categories and a voltage range which is up to 1.000 volts AC or 1.500volts DC. The developed framework came for the implementation of Eco-design principles that helps to take into account the adaption of the (WEEE) directive and the restriction of hazard substances (RoHS) used in electrical and electronic equipments. As a result of identify gaps and needs such as a lack of a comprehensive Eco-design framework and the need to integrate it to the normal business operation. In this research the PDCA framework for Eco-design and WEEE directive will be discussed. The framework will encompass all of the Eco-design¿s implementation and integration factors and activities such as WEEE and RoHS directives, Eco-design management, Environmental legislations, Eco-design tools and considerations. The literature review covers the topic of Eco-design¿s related issues, and WEEE and RoHS directives rules. Based on comprehensive questionnaire survey of Eco-design, WEEE and RoHS issues and activities among a sample of environmentally aware companies, statistical analysis is carried out using SPSS software. Then the findings of the survey triangulated with the findings of the literature review formed the basis of the design and implementation plan of the proposed framework