Strategies to design for dynamic usability

Since usability is a property of the interaction between a product, a user and the task that he or she is trying to complete [6], a product’s usability can vary when it is used in varying use situations. We define this as dynamic usability. This study is aimed at exploring how practitioners currently deal with dynamic usability. From a retrospective case study research of three design projects different principles and strategies were formulated for dealing with dynamic use situations. In this paper we present solution principles that are applied to accommodate products to dynamic use situations and we discuss two design process issues with regard to dynamic usability, namely the information sources that are used to get insight in the use situations and the means by which designers try to get insight in the consequence of their design decisions with regard to future use situation

The Design of a new NICU Patient Area: Combining Design for Usability and Design for Emotion

In the design of medical products both usability and emotional experience are important to be considered. Usability can enhance the work situation of medical staff and ensure patient safety. Emotion related product aspects, on the other hand, influence the recovery pace of patients as well as the work satisfaction of staff. For an optimal medical design both aspects should receive well-balanced attention during the design process. Usability and emotional experience are currently related in literature. However, about the relation between these two aspects in practical design projects little information is available. Therefore we will discuss the exploration of the practical relation between Design for Usability and Design for Emotion in a design process. We explored the relation during concurrent application of both design approaches to the design of a patient area for a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Our aim was not to develop a new design method, but to explore in practice how both design approaches could be addressed concurrently. This paper describes the applied design approach, its strength and weaknesses as well as the design results. Overall, the NICU design case has proven that the concurrent application of Design for Emotion and Design for Usability is feasible in practice and results in a satisfactory design. Keywords: Usability; Design For Emotion; Medical Appliance; Participatory Design; Case Study</p

Participatory Scenario Generation: Communicating Usability Issues in Product Design through User Involvement in Scenario Generation\ud

Scenarios have proven to be a valuable tool in evaluating and communicating usability issues in consumer product design. Scenarios are explicit descriptions of hypothetical use situations. Realistic scenarios can serve as a valuable frame of reference to evaluate design solutions with regard to usability. To be able to achieve this required level of realism, involving users in scenario generation is essential. In this presentation we discuss how and where users can be involved in a scenario based product design process by means of examples of design projects that were executed by master students Industrial Design Engineering of the University of Twente. \ud \ud We distinguish direct and indirect scenario generation. In direct scenario generation the user is actively involved in a participatory scenario generation session: the scenarios are created together with users. Indirect scenario generation is an approach in which scenarios are created by designers based on common analysis techniques like observations and interviews. These scenarios are then offered to users for confirmation. Both types of user involvement in scenario generation can be aimed at either current use scenarios which describe the current situation or future use scenarios which include a new product design. \ud \ud The examples show that all strategies can be applied successfully to create realistic scenarios. Which strategy to choose depends among others upon risks and privacy issues, occurrence of infrequent events and availability of users. Furthermore, the variety of approaches shows that there is still a lot to explore with regard to benefits and limitations of the many techniques that can be applied in generating scenarios for consumer product design. We hope to contribute to this field by means of the research in our group and the work of students in the SBPD course\u

Historical “Truth,” Constructed Memory: Restaging Germany’s Reunification in Thomas Berger’s Television Melodrama Wir sind das Volk. Liebe kennt keine Grenzen (We are the people. Love without limits) (2008)

Film and television are popular media for the (re)presentation of history and the depiction of momentous past events. Germany’s reunification is no exception. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Germany has witnessed a proliferation of media production that endeavors to historicize and aestheticize the past. This coincides with the need to forge a post-Wall identity of the new Germany. My discussion of Thomas Berger’s award winning television drama Wir sind das Volk. Liebe kennt keine Grenzen (2008) examines how reunification is presented in a mixture of fictitious elements and authentic historical reconstruction based on shared memories of this past. Following a melodramatic trajectory, the film aims at the reconciliation of German society as a people twenty years after reunification

Valuing Biodiversity in Life Cycle Impact Assessment

Erratum published on 13 March 2020, see Sustainability 2020, 12(6), 2270. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11205628In this article, the authors propose an impact assessment method for life cycle assessment (LCA) that adheres to established LCA principles for land use-related impact assessment, bridges current research gaps and addresses the requirements of different stakeholders for a methodological framework. The conservation of biodiversity is a priority for humanity, as expressed in the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Addressing biodiversity across value chains is a key challenge for enabling sustainable production pathways. Life cycle assessment is a standardised approach to assess and compare environmental impacts of products along their value chains. The impact assessment method presented in this article allows the quantification of the impact of land-using production processes on biodiversity for several broad land use classes. It provides a calculation framework with degrees of customisation (e.g., to take into account regional conservation priorities), but also offers a default valuation of biodiversity based on naturalness. The applicability of the method is demonstrated through an example of a consumer product. The main strength of the approach is that it yields highly aggregated information on the biodiversity impacts of products, enabling biodiversity-conscious decisions about raw materials, production routes and end user products

Contradiction and the Role of the ‘Floating Signifier’: Identity and the ‘New Woman’ in Italian Cartoons During Fascism

This paper addresses the issue of political cartooning during Italian fascism, with specific reference to the role of women, as it is symbolised in the cartoons (i.e.the woman-mother/care-taker/fascist/worker). The latter will be revealed through a careful study of the contradictions generated by fascism and the representation of this ‘New Woman’ in political satire. The caricatures I will examine belong strictly to the Left discourse. They received high circulation figures and characterised Italy’s popular culture during the 1920’s. Whilst fascism did not provide any space for women to join the high ranks of the PNF (Partito Nazionale Fascista), the Left similarly did not provide any emancipatory discourse equal to a feminist one. Hence, at this stage women are engaged to different role-positions, which do not differentiate in party politics, but are more deeply embedded in the social spectrum of the society. In order to explain this contradiction, I will employ Ernesto Laclau’s concept of the ‘floating signifier’ for my analysis. I will begin with a presentation of discourse theory with specific reference to the ‘floating signifier.’ Following that, I will present a historical background and then turn to a series of examples