In this exploration of the human battery interface, the way in which battery information and notifications effect interaction are analyzed through two small scale studies and a design proposal which is then user tested. With the first study, an attempt is made to gauge user’s feelings toward the current battery information display on their smartphones through a brief online questionnaire. Participants who were selected for further study installed battery monitoring software on their devices and shared the resulting data. This data was then analyzed and some usage patterns were extrapolated. After surveying current market solutions and research in the field, design opportunities were explored and a final design proposal was created and tested with possibilities for further applications being discussed.

Målet med denna studie är att utveckla en adapterprototyp mot en öppen energiplattformoch dokumentera utvecklingsprocessen. Fokus ligger på att integreraPhilips Hue, ett system för styra trådlösa lampor mot plattformen Elis (Mobile servicesfor energy e ciency in existing buildings). Inom en begränsad tidsram så skavi sätta oss in i två främmande system till en sådan grad att vi kan skapa kommunikationenmellan dem. Inledningsvis krävs det att vi läser dokumentation och att vijobbar fram en arbetsplan. Vidare kommer vi lösa den adaption som krävs för attvärden mellan det två systemen överensstämmer och fungerar. Vi kommer användaoss av intervjuer för att få klarhet i hur plattformen är uppbyggd och grunden tillderas designval. Metoden design research används för att på ett iterativt sätt skapadelmål och successivt utveckla och utvärdera arbete. Målet med design research äratt skapa en artefakt, en adapterprototyp i vårt fall. Vi gjorde totalt fyra iterationerdär vi delade upp arbetet. Steg ett var att lära oss om plattformen, steg två lära ossPhilips Hue. Först i steg tre började vi utveckla vår adapterprototyp med kunskapenfrån det första iterationerna Slutligen intervjuade vi utvecklare i Elis och prata meddom om vad vi har kommit fram till och diskuterade fördelarna och nackdelarna vistött på vid utveckling mot deras plattform. Vi kommer med synpunkter och sakervi anser kan förbättras och hur adaptern bidrar till ett Elis ur ett software ecosystemperspektiv.. . . / The purpose of this essay is to develop an adapter prototype for an open energyplatform and document the development process. We focus on integrating PhilipsHue personal wireless lighting unto the platform Elis (Mobile services for energye ciency in existing buildings). Within the short timeframe of this study we intendto reach a level of understanding enough to make the systems communicate usingour adapter prototype. Initially we study documentation and prepares a work plan.Further more we try to solve the adaptation needed for the two system to communicate,this involves converting and matching up values. We will do some interviewswith the developers of Elis to get the big picture of how and why they designed theplatform they way it is. The research paradigm design research is a iterative methodologythat creates milestones, develop prototypes and evaluate the work. Thegoal of design research is to create an artifact, in our case an adapterprototype. Wemade a total of four iterations where the work was divided. Step one was to learnhow the platform works and step two was to study Philips Hue. At step three theimplementation of our prototype with the preparatory work from the rst iterationscould begin. The nal step was to interview members of Elis development team to nd out the impact of our work and to discuss the pros and cons of working withtheir platform. We present opinions and ndings of things we have found that canbe improved. We also de ne how our adapter bene ts Elis in a software ecosystemperspective.. . .

This thesis project identifies an issue of limited interaction options with cell phones and considers it to be a design opening and opportunity, rather than a problem. The design opportunity presented in this work is for shaping of future cell phone interactions by allowing users to design their own cell phones. To explore this provocative yet complex design opportunity a programmatic design research approach is used. The design program in this thesis is referred to as the ‘Design-It-Together cell phone’, or the DIT cell phone, design program and can be described as a design research effort into how users working together to design and make their own cell phones could offer a new set of perspectives and possibilities in shaping future interaction options with cell phones in contrast to an industry lead cell phone design and development process. Furthermore, the motivation for this thesis is not problem-based but rather exploratory, where the intention is not to build an ideal phone but rather to explore the opportunities and challenges faced by the design program, and what that can mean for shaping the future of cell phone interactions. A comprehensive exploration of this design space was done in nine main explorations or nine main experiments. Each experiment was formulated to challenge a perspective of the design program. The results of the explorations generated a repertoire of examples relating to understanding the current situations and predictions for future possibilities for cell phone interactions. Interpretation of the design program was done by analyzing this repertoire of examples from the perspective of n nine specified dimensions of the design program. The dimensions acted as a guide in thinking about possible futures of cell phone interactions within the design space of the program. Interpretation of the design program in this way allowed for comprehensive scenarios to be created of what the future of cell phone interactions could be like, as well as gaps and bigger picture impacts of the design program. The overall results and contribution of this work adhered to what is expected from a programmatic design research approach and is stated here as knowledge generated from explorations and interpretation of the DIT cell phone design program, based on the generated repertoire of examples, which helps shape possible futures for cell phone interactions.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Crashworthiness design is gaining more importance in the automotive industry due to high competition and tight safety norms. Further there is a need for light weight structures in the automotive design. Structural optimization in last two decades have been widely explored to improve existing designs or conceive new designs with better crashworthiness and reduced mass. Although many gradient based and heuristic methods for topology and topometry based crashworthiness design are available these days, most of them result in stiff structures that are suitable only for a set of vehicle components in which maximizing the energy absorption or minimizing the intrusion is the main concern. However, there are some other components in a vehicle structure that should have characteristics of both stiffness and flexibility. Moreover, the load paths within the structure and potential buckle modes also play an important role in efficient functioning of such components. For example, the front bumper, side frame rails, steering column, and occupant protection devices like the knee bolster should all exhibit controlled deformation and collapse behavior. This investigation introduces a methodology to design dynamically crushed thin-walled tubular structures for crashworthiness applications. Due to their low cost, high energy absorption efficiency, and capacity to withstand long strokes, thin-walled tubular structures are extensively used in the automotive industry. Tubular structures subjected to impact loading may undergo three modes of deformation: progressive crushing/buckling, dynamic plastic buckling, and global bending or Euler-type buckling. Of these, progressive buckling is the most desirable mode of collapse because it leads to a desirable deformation characteristic, low peak reaction force, and higher energy absorption efficiency. Progressive buckling is generally observed under pure axial loading; however, during an actual crash event, tubular structures are often subjected to oblique impact loads in which Euler-type buckling is the dominating mode of deformation. This undesired behavior severely reduces the energy absorption capability of the tubular structure. The design methodology presented in this paper relies on the ability of a compliant mechanism to transfer displacement and/or force from an input to desired output port locations. The suitable output port locations are utilized to enforce desired buckle zones, mitigating the natural Euler-type buckling effect. The problem addressed in this investigation is to find the thickness distribution of a thin-walled structure and the output port locations that maximizes the energy absorption while maintaining the peak reaction force at a prescribed limit. The underlying design for thickness distribution follows a uniform mutual potential energy density under a dynamic impact event. Nonlinear explicit finite element code LS-DYNA is used to simulate tubular structures under crash loading. Biologically inspired hybrid cellular automaton (HCA) method is used to drive the design process. Results are demonstrated on long straight and S-rail tubes subject to oblique loading, achieving progressive crushing in most cases.

Fear is an intrinsic human emotion, which produces with variable intensity a bodily reaction as a response to a stimuli. It is considered one of the basic human emotions, and it is universal of all animal species. Despite its subjective quality, fear has gained a rather negativistic stereotype that this research intends to debate and readdress, proposing that “negative fear” is part of an evolutionary transition cultivated by social and cultural constructs. This thesis will analyze the context in which fear operates, employing experience design methodologies and design research to reevaluate the role of fear in the contemporary settings of our societies to prove its connection to imagination, transhumanism and the production of empathy. After a brief historical perspective to situate this thesis in the contemporary framework of experience design, this research will investigate fear as prolific tool for the production of imagination, derived from its aesthetic connection to wonder and pleasure. This particular connection between fear to wonder was investigated among others by Charles Darwin, who also promoted the functionality of fear as the key to animal survival. The complex mechanism in which fear engages us will lead to the production of design prototypes that look at the animal kingdom and several other species’ talents in the detection and implementation of fear as a tool to survive. Here, the potential of our species to further evolve through the use of design will open a discussion on transhumanism and the future of humanity. The last section speculates a counterfactual conditional statement of how our humanity would operate, if emotional identities were reevaluated. In particular, the emotion of fear will be reevaluated for its unpleasant characteristics, from the bodily sensations to the mental postliminary conditions, to understand why certain human behaviors are still exercised, when the physiological effects are universally acknowledged as distasteful. By interpreting the physiological impact of fear, this research will continue its argument towards empathy, questioning what it truly means to ‘stand in someone’s else shoes’, specifically when fear is practiced. Empathy, as a pilaster in the mission statement of many contemporary disciplines, has surfaced in this research as viral phenomenon, which little has to do with truly ‘empathizing’. Here, it investigates how empathy can be experienced when fear is in play: if sharing fear as the bodily experience of someone else can lead to the production of authentic empathy, then humans have a chance to reevaluate its application in the contemporary global topics of war and diplomacy, domestic and public violence, or bullying to name a few. This research ultimately establishes a new perspective on the role of emotions in our societies, and creates a connection between design and the experience of intangibles, producing a view of the intrinsic systems of our being as ones deemed of value in the ambitious evolution of our species. / <p>The full thesis contains copyrighted material which has been removed in the published version.</p>

This study focuses on challenges and prospects of the teaching of the Doppler Effect to grade 12 learners. The challenges of teaching the Doppler Effect were established and these findings influenced the development of activities. These activities were tested, refined and re-tested in an iterative cycle and finally provided prospects on teaching the Doppler Effect. Educational Design Research (EDR) was used to bridge theory and practice in education. This study was done in the Vhembe district in the Limpopo province. In the first cycle, questionnaires and interviews with 32 teachers and a subject advisor were used to establish the baseline with regards to the challenges of teaching the Doppler Effect. After the analysis of the data which forms the first cycle of EDR, the content and methodological problems faced by teachers when teaching the Doppler Effect were revealed. In the second cycle of the EDR, learning activities were developed that was informed by the analysis and tried out in 2 schools by learners and their teachers. Completed activity sheets were marked and the results were used to determine if there were a correlation between the activity sheets and the written test. Problems were documented and changes to the activities were again made and tried out in 10 schools by 216 learners with the help of 10 teachers. The data collected from the learners` work sheets were analysed. Pearson`s product moment correlation has shown that there is a statistically significant relationship (r = 0.65; p < 0.01) that exists between these design-research activities and solving of problems on the Doppler Effect. An instructional manual was developed comprising of the final activities. This was distributed amongst the district officials and teachers to assist them in the teaching of the Doppler Effect in the Vhembe district. / Physics / M.Sc.(Mathematics, Science and Technology Education)

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Apparel, Textiles, and Interior Design / Sherry J. Haar / Research about military wives has been limited. In academia, most research centers on the soldier and/or the family as a unit. When literature does address only the wife’s perspective it rarely presents a positive portrayal of her life. However, it is not just literature that shows a gap in exposing the voice of the military wife. Art-based works rarely focus on her perspective; and methodologies, such as practice-based research, rarely utilize actual voices as inspiration. The aim of the current study was to discover the voice of the military wife, examine it through a feminist lens, and then translate those voices into artwork that represented the collective, lived experience of the women interviewed. Three methodologies were utilized to analyze and translate the voices of military wives into textile art. These three methodologies: practice-based research, phenomenology, and feminist inquiry provided a suitable structure for shaping the study to fulfill the project aim. Interviews conducted with 22 military wives revealed two overarching themes: militarization and marriage; as well as multiple subthemes. Three subthemes were recognized as being the most prominent: relationships, separation, and collective experience. These themes were used as the inspiration for the creation and installation of three textile art pieces. The current study serves to fill the gaps in both the literature and the artistic process by presenting both the positive and negative aspects of the military wife’s lived experience and using that lived experience as inspiration for textile art.

Esta pesquisa se propôs a construir uma breve cronologia da evolução do desenho industrial no estado do Rio de Janeiro, tendo como fio condutor três linhas de atuação do design: prática profissional (profissionais, escritórios, empresas, produtos e projetos), ensino e promoção/divulgação (eventos, conferências, exposições, premiações e concursos). Estas informações hoje se encontram dispersas ou são de todo desconhecidas do grande público. A pesquisa então procurou levantar, organizar e analisar criticamente esse volume de dados e informações, de modo a documentar e resgatar o desenvolvimento do design industrial no Rio de Janeiro. Este trabalho concentrou o foco do estudo histórico no design de produto, visto que uma série de trabalhos recentemente publicados já iniciou o processo de prospecção histórica do design gráfico no Brasil. Em que pese, além disso, que um estudo regionalizado do design de produto, centrado no Rio de Janeiro, ser uma contribuição relevante à historiografia do design brasileiro. A pesquisa fez uso de técnicas qualitativas de obtenção e tratamento de dados, destacando-se a pesquisa bibliográfica (sempre que possível fazendo uso de fontes primárias); o contato (via cartas, entrevistas e/ou acesso a websites) com as personalidades envolvidas nos eventos citados no texto; e, finalmente, a consulta a arquivos (públicos e privados). Ao se concluir a pesquisa, foram organizadas três cronologias independentes relativas a cada um dos subproblemas propostos a partir da questão central. Essas cronologias identificaram e contextualizaram as diferentes áreas de atuação do design de produto, descreveram o processo de implantação e desenvolvimento do ensino do design e documentaram as iniciativas no âmbito da divulgação e promoção do design de produto no Rio de Janeiro. O capítulo cinco apresenta as conclusões da análise da pesquisa. / This research intends to build up a brief chronology of product design development process in the state of Rio de Janeiro, following its three main areas of influence: professional practice (designers, offices, companies, products and projects), design promotion (events, conferences, exhibitions, awards and competitions) and design tuition (the formative path of product design college education). As today this information is either dispersed or unknown to the public, this work intends to uncover, organize and eventually analyse this amount of data in order to provide documentation and also rescue the development of industrial design in Rio de Janeiro from its oblivion. This work focused on the historical development of product design, as long as previous works have already started out the research on the history of graphic design in Brazil. Qualitative techniques were mainly used to obtain and process data such as the search into the actual bibliography (recurring to primary sources whenever possible), the contact (by letter, interviews and/or access to websites) with professionals involved in the events mentioned in the text and the search into public or private files. The research outcome was organized into three independent chronologies which identified and related the different areas of influence of product design that were documentary in the design college tuition evolutionary process. This brought evidence to initiatives in the scope of design diffusion in Rio de Janeiro. The last chapter presents conclusions pertaining to the analysis of the main line of design evolutionary process. Being a regional oriented research, concentrated in Rio de Janeiro, it may turn out to be a relevant contribution to Brazilian design historiography.

Submitted by Maicon Juliano Schmidt (maicons) on 2015-04-23T18:56:31Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Daniel Sperb Porto.pdf: 1254000 bytes, checksum: 37500082decb28706117ba810b6b200e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-23T18:56:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Daniel Sperb Porto.pdf: 1254000 bytes, checksum: 37500082decb28706117ba810b6b200e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-01-31 / AES Sul Distribuidora Gaúcha de Energia S.A / O presente estudo corresponde à avaliação de um sistema de informação na formação da remuneração de serviços, no setor de energia elétrica. Tal remuneração condiz com a mensuração e a gestão dos custos operacionais, visando à geração de maior racionalidade acerca do processo de remuneração de serviços terceirizados, em uma empresa do setor elétrico. A questão que problematiza o estudo converge no sentido de gerenciar e de mensurar a remuneração de terceiros, em atividades de redes de distribuição elétrica. A referida avaliação está fundamentada em um Sistema de Apoio à Decisão (SAD), o que permite simular cenários de remuneração de atividades em redes de distribuição de energia elétrica. A metodologia empregada foi a de Design Research (DR) e os resultados encontrados com a pesquisa demonstram que o sistema construído reflete a prática da realização de custos das equipes de construção de redes, evidenciando, inclusive, particularidades, como o tratamento de atividades-meio para a composição de uma remuneração adequada. / The present study corresponds to the evaluation of an information system in the formation of pay services in the electricity sector. Such remuneration is consistent with the measurement and management of operational costs in order to generate greater rationality of compensation process outsourcing services company in the power sector. The issue problem converges towards managing and measuring the compensation of outsourcers in activities of electric distribution networks. This evaluation is based on a Decision Support System (DSS) to simulate scenarios compensation activities in eletric distribution grid. The methodology employed was the design research (DR), and the results found with the research show that the system built reflects the practical realization of the cost of construction crews grids, realizing even as the particularities treatment activities through to the composition adequate remuneration.