Gender and Videogames: The political valency of Lara Croft

The Face: Is Lara a feminist icon or a sexist fantasy? Toby Gard: Neither and a bit of both. Lara was designed to be a tough, self-reliant, intelligent woman. She confounds all the sexist cliches apart from the fact that she’s got an unbelievable figure. Strong, independent women are the perfect fantasy girls—the untouchable is always the most desirable (Interview with Lara’s creator Toby Gard in The Face magazine, June 1997)

Factors Associated with Revision Surgery after Internal Fixation of Hip Fractures

Background: Femoral neck fractures are associated with high rates of revision surgery after management with internal fixation. Using data from the Fixation using Alternative Implants for the Treatment of Hip fractures (FAITH) trial evaluating methods of internal fixation in patients with femoral neck fractures, we investigated associations between baseline and surgical factors and the need for revision surgery to promote healing, relieve pain, treat infection or improve function over 24 months postsurgery. Additionally, we investigated factors associated with (1) hardware removal and (2) implant exchange from cancellous screws (CS) or sliding hip screw (SHS) to total hip arthroplasty, hemiarthroplasty, or another internal fixation device. Methods: We identified 15 potential factors a priori that may be associated with revision surgery, 7 with hardware removal, and 14 with implant exchange. We used multivariable Cox proportional hazards analyses in our investigation. Results: Factors associated with increased risk of revision surgery included: female sex, [hazard ratio (HR) 1.79, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.25-2.50; P = 0.001], higher body mass index (fo

A mixed-method approach in ergonomic analysis utilising personalised data dashboards

How we gather individual data to inform product design is changing. In ergonomics, methodologies are rooted in qualitative approaches, providing a holistic approach but can lack objectivity and precision. In this work, we explore novel quantitative techniques, involving machine vision and muscle sensing, to create personalized data dashboards that enrich qualitative practices in a mixed-method design. We conducted a pilot study (n=10), evaluating participants’ motion in a simple ergonomic task, followed by interviews discussing the dashboards. A thematic analysis showed that all participants agreed the dashboards affirmed their experience. Furthermore, the order of data presentation influenced their language, affecting subjectivity and specificity. This study highlights participants’ roles as stakeholders, underscoring the need for their engagement to achieve meaningful design outcomes

The prototyping fungibility framework

Prototyping is an indispensable activity in product development that facilitates the generation of knowledge in the design process. It is crucial that this knowledge is the right knowledge (e.g., type, fidelity, and accessibility) to ensure stakeholders can evaluate and decision-make effectively. While this is well-recognised, prior work has focused on classifying prototyping/prototypes by their attributes rather than the knowledge they generate. As prototyping methods have a significant impact on the knowledge generated, both in the activity and resulting prototype, a means by which methods can be classified against knowledge generated would enable support of prototyping method selection, equivalence, and substitution. To this end, this paper presents the existing concept of fungibility - a context-specific value judgement as to whether two 'objects' are the same, and therefore capable of mutual substitution - and considers it in the context of prototyping and knowledge generation. In so doing, the paper provides a framework by which prototyping processes may be compared against their knowledge contributions to determine if they are fungible. This is then shown to support prototyping method comparison, selection and direction. After defining the fungibility framework, value is demonstrated via an illustrative example where it has been applied to the comparison of two prototyping instances. The framework is then appraised for its utility and limitations.</p

REVISITING PROTOTYPING IN 2020: A SNAPSHOT OF PRACTICE IN UK DESIGN COMPANIES

AbstractThe importance of prototyping is unanimous with numerous studies into the media, types, roles and properties of prototypes. However, no recent papers have sought to examine and characterise industry practice and if and how this has changed since the early 2000s.To address this, a snapshot of industrial prototyping practice with particular attention to the what, when, why, how, and by whom is reported. The study involved five small-medium sized design companies based in the South-West of the UK and validation of the findings by two independent practitioners.The snapshot revealed that 3D printing and virtual prototyping tools have reached widespread adoption in SMEs,that their design processes are highly agile and iterative and are difficult to fit to any extant design process model.Rather, the approaches appear to implicitly comprise of three levels of design convergence: macro, meso, and micro, which correspond to finer/more detailed changes.The results also reveal the frequent transitions between digital and physical media and the need to manage these transitions to ensure the product representations in different media are appropriately up-to-date.</jats:p