Adinda Freudenthal

Designing collaboration in consumer products

Designers of consumer products usually try to address as wide a range of user needs as possible. Due to various design constraints, such as product size and limited interface mechanisms, typically only a portion of those needs can be supported. This paper discusses efforts to design everyday consumer products that can support a broad range of user goals and approaches to the tasks in a collaborative manner.

Augmented Reality for Minimally Invasive Surgery: Overview and Some Recent Advances

Pablo Lamata1,2, Wajid Ali3, Alicia Cano1, Jordi Cornella3, Jerome Declerck2, Ole J. Elle3, Adinda Freudenthal4, Hugo Furtado5, Denis Kalkofen6, Edvard Naerum3, Eigil Samset3, Patricia Sanchez-Gonzalez1, Francisco M. Sanchez-Margallo7, Dieter Schmalstieg6, Mauro Sette8, Thomas Studeli4, Jos Vander Sloten8 and Enrique J. Gomez1 1Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain 2Siemens, United Kingdom 3University of Oslo, Norway 4Delft University of Technology, Netherlands 5Medical Centre Ljubljana, Slovenia 6 Graz University of Technology, Austria 7Minimally Invasive Surgery Centre Jesus Uson, Spain 8University of Leuven, Belgium

The intelligent thermostat: a mixed-initiative user interface

Recent advances in approaches to mixed-initiative user interfaces for desktop applications provide a number of principles, which can be used to embed intelligence in consumer products. An integration of several approaches is proposed towards building an intelligent thermostat that can reduce energy consumption. A statistical model is used to spot trends in living patterns and make suggestions. An embedded task model, containing product usage patterns, can infer user intentions and serves as input to a dialog manager. Future work includes field-testing of the prototype and concepts in residential homes.

Manipulation of mental models of anatomy in interventional radiology and its consequences for design of human---computer interaction

Interventional radiology procedures require extensive cognitive processing from the physician. A set of these cognitive functions are aimed to be replaced by technology in order to reduce the cognitive load. However, limited knowledge is available regarding mental processes in interventional radiology. This research focuses on identifying mental model–related processes, in particular during percutaneous procedures, useful to improve image guidance during interventions. Ethnographic studies and a prototype-based study were conducted in order to perform a task analysis and to identify working strategies and cognitive processes. Data were compared to theories from visual imagery. The results indicate a high level of complexity of mental model construction and manipulation, in particular when mentally comparing mental model knowledge with radiology images on screen (e.g., to steer a needle correctly). Regarding current interface support, most difficult is the interpretation and selection of oblique views. New interface principles are needed to bring cognitive demands within reasonable human range, and also accompanying cognitive work strategies should be developed.

A Mobile Monitoring System of Blood Pressure for Underserved in China by Information and Communication Technology Service

High blood pressure (BP, hypertension) is a leading chronic condition in China and has become the main risk factor for many high-risk diseases, such as heart attacks. However, the platform for chronic disease measurement and management is still lacking, especially for underserved Chinese. To achieve the early diagnosis of hypertension, one BP monitoring system has been designed. The proposed design consists of three main parts: user domain, server domain, and channel domain. All three units and their materialization, validation tests on reliability, and usability are described in this paper, and the conclusion is that the current design concept is feasible and the system can be developed toward sufficient reliability and affordability with further optimization. This idea might also be extended into one platform for other physiological signals, such as blood sugar and ECG.

Surgical Workflow Analysis: Identifying User Requirements for Surgical Information Systems

. Developing surgical information systems to support time-critical processes with significant internalised domain knowledge requires a systematic approach to analysing the surgical workflow. Such an approach is necessary if the information needs that govern surgical tasks are to be identified and subsequently communicated within multidisciplinary development teams. Addressing this need, this chapter proposes a design framework, known as a workflow integration matrix. This aids ergonomists, system developers and designers to create a knowledge base of information requirements within the surgical workflow to define the user requirements.

Teaching design for development in computer science

When undertaking a project in community-based co-design, students and their teachers must embrace uncertainty.

A quiet NICU for improved infants' health, development and well-being: a systems approach to reducing noise and auditory alarms

Noise is a direct cause of health problems, long-lasting auditory problems and development problems. Preterm infants are, especially, at risk for auditory and neurocognitive development. Sound levels are very high at the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and may contribute to the frequently observed detrimental outcomes of prematurely born infants. Despite efforts to reduce noise level at the NICU, these have not changed over the past years. Although many authors indicate that a systems approach could solve such interrelated problems, methods to do so are generally lacking for the complicated situation in a critical care setting. A new approach was developed, that is, combining Fuzzy Front End earliest stage product development and human factors methods, with a focus on all Human-tech levels and on their interaction. A concept built up from several emerging technologies was developed, including tactile alarms, artificial intelligence for medicine, multimodal alarm system and mobile communication in critical care. Current and envisioned nursing work was modelled. Outcome of the study is an overview of investigations to develop the measures.

Coping with different roles in intensive care nursing: design implications for digital support

Objectives The aim of this study is to arrive at design implications for the digital support of intensive care nurses, with a focus on supporting them in their roles as practitioners, as scholars and in their human response to their work. Methods Seventeen nurses from six different Dutch hospitals were interviewed using a newly developed digital prototype designed around these roles. The nurses were questioned about the suitability of four functions: two supporting the practitioner role (‘web of actors’ and ‘timeline and notes’); one supporting the scholar role (‘assessment of the patient’); and one supporting the role of human (‘perception of the shift’). The remarks of the nurses about these functions were grouped by their relevance to design (ie, the perceived added value of the function, suggestions for other uses, and the perceived negative impact of the function) and by topic. Results A total of 23 topics emerged: nine topics described the added values of the functions, nine were suggestions for other uses, and five concerned the negative impact of the functions as perceived by the participants. The main points of each topic were summarised, resulting in 23 design implications for digital role-based support.

Community-Based Co-Design for Informal Care: Bridging the Gap between Technology and Context

Innovative Product Service Systems (PSSs) are needed in order to keep the healthcare system affordable, while safeguarding or enhancing care quality. This study examined application of the Community-based Co-design approach to assistive technology development for informal care. A sequence of methods was applied, involving end-users and communities in the earliest design stages. A design target was found together with informal caregivers, and a solution was iteratively developed together with various stakeholders. This PSS solution enables the informal caregiver both to monitor the care recipient while being away, and to efficiently manage emergency situations if these occur. The PSS arranges existing technology in a unique and contextually appropriate way. This makes the solution much more likely to be accepted by end-users and their neighborhood communities. Community-based Co-design was essential in reaching this result. After the early design stage, an embodiment design stage was carried out. Various qualitative research and design engineering methods were combined, 1) to develop and validate the estimated supportive value of the PSS to target users, and 2) to develop and study the feasibility of the PSS. A role-play evaluation study formed an important part of this process. Significant insights from both the early and embodiment design stages were fed back as far as possible into the PSS itself, or into PSS design requirements. Reflecting on the results, it has become more likely that the PSS will have supportive value to caregivers, and that the PSS is feasible. Several recommendations were made for further development - in particular, the societal cost-benefit analysis for the PSS is promising but premature, and requires elaboration.