Juhani Tenhunen

Media map: a multilingual document map with a design interface

We present a selection of results produced in a project called Media Map. The project aims at developing an intuitive user interface to a library information system containing data on projects and publications. The user interface is a two-dimensional visual display created with the Self-Organizing Map algorithm. The map has been computed using the hierarchical self-organizing map, and a specific graphical design supports the visualization and use of the map interface. In the design, there are specific iconic representations for the projects, publications and persons displayed on the map. The novel aspects in this WEBSOM-type of document map are that the texts on the map are written in different languages, and there are different types of textual objects mapped on the same map. The interlingual mapping is based on applying machine translation on non-English documents. Even when the translation is not fully correct, the approach works well when large enough proportion of relevant terminology has become translated.

Evolution of User Driven Innovation

The source and driver of user driven innovation is a profound understanding of customer needs. Three main approaches to user driven innovation exist: a traditional sequential approach, a lead user approach and customer co-creation. The overall trend is toward increasing user participation throughout the innovation process. Today the leading companies successfully engage users into creative processes of their innovation activities starting in the early stages. In the energy sector user driven innovation methodologies appear promising, in particular as a mean to improve energy efficiency and save energy. This paper focuses on the evolution of user driven innovation. We present an ontology of user driven innovation. It is followed by a state-of-the-art analysis of traditional and new approaches. Finally we try to predict whether a user driven innovation approach could aid the energy sector in overcoming challenges related to global warming and oil shortage.© 2010 ASME

Modern technical documents for global users - usability vs. efficient production

Globally used technical documents need to be understood by users who have different cultural and educational backgrounds. Documents should preferably be visual, but such documents are difficult to produce and maintain. In this article visualisations of technical information are categorised according to taxonomy of visual representation elements, which is then evaluated against cultural dependency, language dependency and required professional knowledge. Based on the categorisation, we propose how visual documents with less cultural dependencies can be produced so that they can be reconfigured if the product changes by applying single sourcing methods used in text document production.