Hidetsugu Suto

Relation between impressions of a touch panels' coloration and operation

The relationships between the colors used in the design of touch panels and the operation of electronic devices are discussed, and experiments that investigated the effects of color in the designs of touch panel interfaces on their operation and on the impressions of users have been conducted. Subjects tried mental arithmetic tests on 12 types of screen which had different color images. The “time it took to perform the task,” the “number of correct answers,” the “number of incorrect answers,” and the “number of timeouts” were measured and counted. After the tasks were administered, the subjects answered questionnaires about their impressions of the interfaces. The average number of correct answers was higher when using “cool-casual” than when using the other colorations. Furthermore, there was a positive correlation between the number of correct answers and a preference for the display coloration. There was a strong relationship between the coloration of the interface and the speed and accuracy of the operation. The results of the study lead us to expect that both the usability and the accuracy of operations could be improved by designing the coloration of the touch panel interface appropriately.

Affect of Color of Interface on Accuracy and Speed of Operations

The relationships between colors and operations on electronic devices, e.g., web browsers and ATM consoles, are discussed. Two experiments were carried out in order to test the effects of colors on the accuracy and speed of operations. In these experiments, a problem was displayed on the screen with several different color push buttons. Subjects had to select the correct answer from three alternatives and push the answer panel which indicated the answer. The problems changed one after another, and subjects had to push the answer panel quickly. The data, e.g., the time required to answer all problems and the correct answer ratio, was analyzed. We found that the blue one was better than red ones, and formal coloration is better than the other coloration from the viewpoints of accuracy and speed of operations. The authors study aimed to elucidate primitive rules of how color is used in the design of human interfaces.

A Collaboration Support Tool for Multi-cultural Design Team Based on Extended ADT Model

In design field, collaboration is a crucial key method which leads to widen conceptual design idea. Collaboration helps us to share our knowledge together and concert idea in a design process. We also can share diverse viewpoints among collaborations. In this paper, a collaboration support system which based on extended ADT model, TTS method ADT is proposed. ADT model is a representation model for conceptual design. It is used for grasping artifacts as a communication medium between designers and users. The process of observing, sharing and creating design plans are represented through the extended ADT model. During an observation process, three influential factors: physical factor, emotional factor and cultural factor are observed with diverse viewpoints. Each process is visualized and shared by using TTS method by using visual information such as idea sketch, note and photo. By using this tool, designers in a team can visualize their idea, share it with others, and create novel design plan which based on multi-cultural background. An example of design process with TTS method is given in order to show the efficiency of proposed method.

Non-verbal Communication System Using Pictograms

A system is described that uses pictograms to support interactive non-verbal communication. While pictograms are typically used with objects, this system uses them for events as well. Moreover, whereas communication systems using pictograms are generally designed for people with disabilities, this system is designed for people in general. It can thus be used between a non-disabled person and a person with a disability, between an adult and a child, between a Japanese person and an American person, and so on.

A study of information flow between designers and users via website focused on property of hyper links

The accessibility of information on web-space is considered to be focused on the properties of hyperlinks. Although the reasons to put in a hyperlink are multifarious, only one kind of link exists in HTML structure. As a result of this, users have to search for links by using syntactically techniques so as to retrieve information in web-space. In this paper, four kinds of hyper links are introduced into HTML, in order to improve the accessibility of information in web-space: External links, Internal links, Navigation links and Intra-unit links. Designers and users can share the image of the link target page by using these kinds of links.

A modeling of collaboration mechanism of design process based on Channel Theory

Collaboration is one of the effective approaches that help us to share knowledge together and exchange ideas within team members. Sometimes, helpful new knowledge that is not held by the members emerges as a result of the collaboration. Such knowledge often contributes to get prime solutions in the collaboration process. However, the way to generate such new knowledge is implicit. In this paper, a method of creating a model, which represents effects of collaboration in a design process is proposed. By using this scheme, we can illustrate what new knowledge can be gotten from a collaboration and we can know the effects of the collaboration.

A study of the crossroad game for improving the teamwork of students

The Crossroad game is a social game that is used for learning to deal effectively with difficult situations such as conflicts in teamwork. This paper investigates the characteristics of questions to be used when the Crossroad game is applied to teamwork scenarios. The questions were collected by using questionnaires and dividing them into three groups, high-agreement, low-agreement, and middle-agreement groups using the chi-square method. Results are obtained from students in Japan and the UK, and it is shown that the attitude toward a dilemma within teamwork depended on the background of the students.

A Practice for Training IT Engineers by Combining Two Different Types of PBL

PBLs signifies both problem-based learning and project-based learning; we clearly distinguish between the two types of PBLs. The former PBL involves finding ways to solve problems under unfavorable conditions. In the curriculum at our institute, problem-based learning has been conducted since 2006. By contrast, project-based learning involves a student team undertaking an actual project, devised by a company. We did not adopt project-based learning in our curriculum. In 2016, our institute joined the Education Network for Practical Information Technology project of Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. In that project, around 40 universities are engaged in developing a cooperative network. Each university develops practical education using PBL; its knowledge and resources obtained are shared among other universities in the network. For our part of the project, we added 3 practical exercises based on project-based learning. By combining the two different types of PBL, our curriculum provides exercises that introduce better problem-solving skills, instill a challenging spirit, and provide practical experience for students. In this paper, we report our exercises and practical results for 2017.

A Support System for Vitalizing Brainstorming with Related Images

In this paper, a new supporting system for brainstorming is proposed, and the effects are discussed based on the results of experiments. Brainstorming is a method for encouraging ideas generation and obtaining useful ideas in order to achieve a particular goal. In a process of brainstorming, the participants are required to submit their ideas as much as they possible. However, generating huge volumes of new ideas is not easy for ordinary participants. Diversity of submitted ideas is another problem. When the participants are biased by conventional ideas, it is difficult for them to escape from the ideas and submit novel ones. The proposed system helps participants of brainstorming to generate new ideas by showing related images for them. The results of the experiment shows that participants of brainstorming can discuss more actively with the proposed system.

A Personal Relationship Analyzing Tool Based on Psychodrama Methodologies

In modern societies, we need to face with various pressure that could lead us to mental illnesses. Human relationship is one of the well-known stressors despite it is a quite important for our daily life. To overcome cruel situations come from human relationship problems, sometimes we need any supporting systems. Psychodrama is one of the effective counseling methods which are used for solving several human relationship problems. The method has many advantages, on another front it has problems. The first, before conducting a Psychodrama event, we have to adjust our schedules. The second, some people do not want to talk about their human relationship problems for other people. These factors make difficult for us to conduct Psychodrama events easily. In this paper, a self psychotherapy tool is proposed as a approach for the problems. The proposed tool aims to produce similar results with original group therapy sessions of Psychodrama. To evaluate the proposed tool, an experiment was conducted. The results show that the tool can provide some hints for the users who had troubles in current human relationships and want to improve the situations.