Emilie Loup-Escande

A Decision-making Help Tool in Innovative Product Design

The aim of this article is to show how ergonomics allows the detailed specifications for a decision-making help tool in innovative product design to be produced. The first part describes the context, both industrial and scientific, of such a study. In part two, we will explore current knowledge and the theoretical models relating to design activity and the taking of design decisions. Part three describes the empirical study undertaken for the design of the 3D Child virtual reality tool. Having explained our methodology for the gathering and analysis of data, we set out the needs of future users in respect of the help with decisionmaking expected from the 3D Child software and finish with the collaborative aspect intrinsic in decision-making. In the next part we deal with the data available from published sources and that collected in the field. In conclusion we insist on the importance of validating these data in actual usage contexts, by setting out our approach to the work.

Needs’ elaboration between users, designers and project leaders: Analysis of a design process of a virtual reality-based software

Abstract Context The participation of users in the design process is recognized as a positive and a necessary element as artifacts suit their needs. Two complementary approaches of users’ involvement co-exist: the user-centered design and the participatory design. These approaches involve learning process from users to designers and vice versa. However, there has no research in design of virtual reality (VR)-based software dealing with how the elaboration of needs is actually distributed in time and among users, designers and project leaders, as well as how it is actually supported by tools and methods. Objective This paper aims to observe, in a real design project of a virtual reality-based software, how the various stakeholders (users, designers, project leaders) actually participate by sharing and pulling pieces of information from the process of needs elaboration, and how these contributions evolve throughout the decisions made in the course of the project. Method Our method, based on the observation of the practices in collective design, allows us to collect and analyze the relationship between each possible action (e.g., elicitation), each stakeholder who initiates these actions (e.g., users) and each phase of the design process (e.g., evaluation phase), and the dynamics of the construction of needs. Results Our results detail how the elicited needs are dealt with by designers, users and/or project leaders: (1) we show a strong contribution of users in the design, compared to others stakeholders, (2) among the needs elicited by users, most have been validated by the designers, (3) some elicited needs could have been firstly rejected and finally validated and implemented. Conclusion We identify the reasons which justify and explain our results confronting them to the literature. We underline the conditions have been satisfied in our study in order to involve effectively users in the design of emerging technologies.

E-commerce and web 3D for involving the customer in the design process: the case of a gates 3D configurator

This paper aims to show to what extent the Web3D is an advantage for Living Lab paradigm. A state-of-the-art of Web3D solutions for e-commerce enabled us to select the most suitable functionalities and properties for designing a gates 3D configurator for person from the general public. This project was done in the context of an Action-Research. Twenty seven participants evaluated this tool. Results show that an interactive 3-dimensional visualization of the object is an advantage for the sale, because a single image does not usually allow user to imagine the product in its future environment. The use of Web3D for e-commerce gives the customer the ability to get involved in the design process. This point is a first answer to a research question on the role and definition of Living Labs.

User-Centred BCI Videogame Design

This chapter aims to offer a user-centred methodological framework to guide the design and evaluation of Brain-Computer Interface videogames. This framework is based on the contributions of ergonomics to ensure these games are well suited for their users (i.e., players). It provides methods, criteria and metrics to complete the different phases required by ae human-centred design process. This aims to understand the context of use, specify the user needs and evaluate the solutions in order to define design choices. Several ergonomic methods (e.g., interviews, longitudinal studies, user based testing), objective metrics (e.g., task success, number of errors) and subjective metrics (e.g., mark assigned to an item) are suggested to define and measure the usefulness, usability, acceptability, hedonic qualities, appealingness, emotions related to user experience, immersion and presence to be respected. The benefits and contributions of the user centred framework for the ergonomic design of these Brain-Computer Interface Videogames are discussed.

Designing a Virtual Reality Software: What Is the Real Contribution of End-Users to the Requirements Prioritization?

This paper deals with the requirements prioritization which is a step, or an activity, of design process influencing the decisions for the development of software products. This step is often implemented by designers and uncommonly by users. The objective of this paper is consequently to characterize the implementation of requirements prioritization by end-users. For that, we examined literatures of requirements engineering and ergonomics and we conducted an empirical study with twenty end-users of a virtual reality software. In this study, we analyze the lists of prioritized functionalities and the functionalities evoked spontaneously by users. Results show that (1) the priority functionalities for users were not systematically implemented by designers, (2) the different priority levels depended on users’ profiles, (3) the users who assigned ‘important’ and ‘unimportant’ priority levels evoked additional functionalities, and (4) the spontaneously evoked functionalities were mainly precisions of anticipated functionalities.

Effects of Travel Modes on Performances and User Comfort: A Comparison between ArmSwinger and Teleporting

ABSTRACT The commercialization of Head-Mounted Displays (HMDs) aimed at the general public has led several videogame and virtual reality companies to offer new modes for continuous travel, in addition to commonly implemented instantaneous travel modes such as the Teleporting metaphor. These new modes include the ArmSwinger metaphor, seen as “more natural.” Yet unlike Teleporting mode, ArmSwinger mode has so far not been studied. Our study was designed to fill this gap, by comparing the effects of these two travel modes implemented on an HTC Vive in terms of performance and user comfort. We collected two measures of performance (effectiveness and efficiency) and three measures of user comfort (cybersickness, user experience, and cognitive load). Results showed that (1) no significant difference was found in completion time between ArmSwinger mode and Teleporting mode, even if ArmSwinger mode seems more effective; (2) ArmSwinger mode caused more cybersickness than Teleporting mode in terms of nausea; (3) ArmSwinger mode produced a more negative user experience than the Teleporting mode in relation to appealingness qualities; and (4) ArmSwinger mode created a higher cognitive load than Teleporting mode in relation to the physical demand, effort, and frustration dimensions.