Gert Pasman

Typology and the organization of design knowledge

Abstract This paper discusses the organization of design knowledge in the domain of industrial design. It introduces a typological model for the description and decomposition of the design knowledge that can be extracted from existing form concepts. This model provides a framework for the structure of an image database, which makes use of visual representations of prior designed products, in order to create a domain-specific knowledge base from which the industrial designer can acquire and apply design knowledge in the generation and development of new form concepts.

Collections designers keep: Collecting visual material for inspiration and reference

A contextual inquiry is presented on how designers collect and organize visual material that they use for inspiration in their design process. The inquiry is a follow-up on a inquiry performed over ten years ago by one of the authors. The aim of the inquiry was to find considerations for a tool that helps designers in collecting visual material. The inquiry was performed at six Dutch design agencies and involved sensitizing the subjects through cultural probes. The designers reported collecting as a continuous background process without specific stages, processes or tools in the design process. Collections of visual material are used in making collages, which are all made using computers. Collected visual material is usually physical, whereas the visual material used in the collages are all digital images. The physical and digital collections are different in use and value in the design process. The paper finally presents six considerations for a tool to support the collecting behaviour by designers.

Supporting generation Y interactions: challenges for office work

With Generation Y entering the workforce, for the first time IT supported tools at home are more advanced than these tools at work. This project aims to understand and model this friction and its challenges through a sequence of literature review and interviews. We identified six qualities of interactions and how they occur in private and work contexts. Based on these findings, we aim to develop guidelines as well as demonstrators that support Generation Y interactions in future office work.

Exploring a database through interactive visualised similarity scaling

Databases often force users to verbalize queries in terms of attribute values. In matters of taste or subjective judgement, as in picking a color, or a meal from a menu, this is difficult and distracting. In our solution, MDS-Interactive, the dialogue between user and database is mediated through a small, evolving set of sample objects, which are presented visually by a real-time multidimensional scaling (MDS) algorithm. Queries are posed by indicating positions between the samples in order to find an object having like similarities to the displayed objects. Three prototype systems have been built and evaluated.

Exploring Databases for Taste or Inspiration with Interactive Multi-Dimensional Scaling

The verbal interfaces of current databases are not well suited for searches based on taste, intuition, or complexity (such as selecting a wine, a colour, or a product with many attributes). MDS-Interactive is a visual interaction method, based on multidimensional scaling (MDS), where people manipulate a set of sample objects to navigate through a large collection. In the development of MDS-Interactive, attention was given to the balance of constraint and freedom, of inspiration and information, of verbal and visual interaction styles. We discuss the basic ideas of our technique, its relation to ecological display theory, and experiences with a prototype interface for a consumer recommendation service.

Exploring `Generation Y' interaction qualities at home and at work

Information technology support of office work has increased rapidly in functionality, but new ways of interacting have evolved more slowly. This paper adds to the design research community’s notion of interaction quality by exploring these new ways of interacting and comparing them in the home and work contexts. We describe and analyze two interview studies conducted with office workers to consider how they perceive, experience and compare interaction qualities. Six interaction qualities (instant, expressive, playful, collaborative, responsive and flexible) were identified that together embody an interaction style that we have labeled ‘Generation Y.’ From learning and comparing these qualities, we found that personal and natural type of interactions were mostly experienced in the more private home context. Formal and subtle type of interactions were mostly experienced in the more public work context. We also found that the office workers scored the interaction qualities in their home context as richer than in their work context. This study resulted in a set of design guidelines, aiming to be used to implement the Generation Y interaction style in future office tools and applications. Designers and researchers will benefit from the result of this study from understanding rich interaction design in the work context.

Making the office catch up: comparing generation Y interactions at home and work

Information technology (IT) support of office work has increased rapidly in functionality, but the interaction styles have evolved more slowly. This study explores interaction qualities of IT supported activities in the contexts of home and work. A series of contextual interviews was conducted with six Generation Y office workers. An interview toolkit was used to sensitize them to the subject of interaction qualities, experiences, and demands of future ways of working. This study resulted in a set of design guidelines, aiming to support Generation Y interactions in future office work. Designers and researchers who focus on understanding (rich interactions in) the work context would benefit from the result of this study.

Interactive pong: exploring ways of user inputs through prototyping with sensors

This study aimed to explore ways of user inputs through designing interactive game controllers with different type of sensor. From building four experiential prototypes on Pong, we learned to drive design by focusing on interaction qualities, which determine the use of sensors. We found that the interaction qualities together as a set offer a way to design aesthetics of behavior in interaction.

TIME: three-dimensional input, modification and evaluation

Simple intuitive manipulation of three-dimensional objects is needed for the conceptualizing phase of design. Present CAD systems do not allow for the quick and interactive generation and development of objects, which are based more on free-form ideas than on hard numerical input. This video presents a prototype envisiomnent that uses intuitive 3D sketch input with two hands.

Designing generation Y interaction by eliciting interaction qualities

With more and more products becoming digital, mobile and networked, paying attention to the qualities of interactions with these products should have is also getting more relevant. While interaction qualities have been addressed in a number of scientific studies, little attention is being paid to their implementation into a real life, everyday context. This paper describes the development of a novel office phone, YPhone, which demonstrates the application of a specific set of interaction qualities into the context of office work.