Mauricio Novoa

Understanding the Needs of Pakistani Farmers and the Prospects of an ICT Intervention

This paper describes initial efforts in the form of a user research phase as part of a larger project to provide ICT based interventions to farmers in Pakistan to facilitate information dissemination. We conducted face to face interviews with 9 Pakistani farmers and 3 agricultural experts. Our main results show that mobile technology is present but under utilized, a strong peer reliance network exists and most information and media modalities are inaccessible. We relate the results obtained to design implications and future work.

Infusing technology driven design thinking in industrial design education: a case study

This paper narrates a case study on design thinking-based education work in an industrial design honours program. Student projects were developed in a multi-disciplinary setting across a Computing and Engineering faculty that allowed promoting technologically and user-driven innovation strategies.,A renewed culture and environment for industrial design (ID) students emphasised seeking functionality and fidelity, user and society value over beauty and form factors alone. The pedagogical approach sought to determine the new industrial products reality with an increasing contribution by design thinking, and its associated methodologies that are currently advancing typical ID.,In conclusion, the authors propose a number of reflections as recommendations, which may be useful for educational institutions contemplating similar curriculum makeovers to their design degrees.,Our research provides valuable lessons to other design courses that wish to invigorate their curriculum with technical and design thinking-based advances.

Interactive Toys in the Home : A Parents Perspective

In our research we argue for the benefits of Learning through play. In this initial design case, we report on the general requirements of household educative and interactive toys and current usage practices via a focus group with parents. Our results indicate that the parents in our focus group held greatest importance to social and physical play and wished to reduce the dependency on electronic devices.

International industrial design studio project: Design for development in the era of collaborative networks

This paper reports on the progress and Australian findings relating to an international collaborative and distributed industrial design studio project extending over four years between universities in Australia, the Americas and more recently Europe. Primarily the project was run from a third year industrial design studio unit at UWS and later it benchmarked Australian students with counterparts elsewhere in Canada (Alberta University) and Chile (Metropolitan University of Technology, UTEM). While this is an ongoing project that is still to reveal more results, this paper builds on previous reports explaining more precise structural and technical details to extrapolate lessons learnt and offer some of its main outcomes to others. The experience so far has already highlighted important issues relating to collaborative networks, social capital and future implications for design, education and manufacturing beyond functionalist paradigm

A Framework for Home-Based Stroke Rehabilitation Using Interactive Games and Augmented Reality Feedback

Rehabilitative devices promote functional improvement of post-stroke patients through movements and tasks, thereby retraining the patient. Augmented reality (AR) is playing a vital role in this area through numerous novel interfaces. Various techniques and interactive technologies have been studied in clinical rehabilitation trails. However, there are insistent needs to design interactive home-based games to support patients’ motivation and their rehabilitation needs in home settings. This paper presents a framework that can be implemented to design AR games-based rehabilitative system and improve the patients biofeedback.

Leveraging the design of child restraint systems to reduce driver distraction

Despite the significant level of protection child restraint systems (CRS) provide to children, motor vehicle accidents continue to lead to child injury, primarily due to drivers being distracted while monitoring the children in the back. Therefore, it is hypothesised that traditional design elements included within child restraints must accommodate new technology including sensors and automated systems, in an attempt to provide drivers with real time feedback about the CRS occupants without drawing their attention away from the road. As such, an iterative process documented within this paper offers design proposals that seek to modernise CRS. In conclusion, focus group studies provided insights on the validation of the design proposals.