Robert E. Wendrich

Harmonizing interoperability - Emergent Serious Gaming in Playful Stochastic CAD Environments

Computer-Aided Design (CAD) applications often promote memorable experiences for the wrong reasons. Coupled with complex functionality and poor user experience the learning curve is often steep and overwhelming. Invoking design creativity remains limited to conveying established geometry. Gameplay conversely excels in memorable and formative experiences and could spur intuition and natural creativity. If games are profoundly imbued for purposeful play, thriving on tacit and explicit user knowledge, a CAD system carefully stylized with ludic mechanisms could potentially be highly productive. An emergent serious game (SG) and CAD system may then hold promise. Preliminary feedbacks suggest a game-CAD environment incorporating interoperable mechanisms of CAD and SG systems to exchange creation improves user interactions resulting in better evolution of the workflow. The emerging scenarios presented reports a transformative approach to understanding of relationships in CAD use, learning and play mechanisms that enhance creativity and innovation.

Hybrid Design Tools in a Social Virtual Reality Using Networked Oculus Rift: A Feasibility Study in Remote Real-Time Interaction

Hybrid Design Tool Environments (HDTE) allow designers and engineers to use real tangible tools and physical objects and/or artifacts to make and create real-time virtual representations and presentations on-the-fly. Manipulations of the real tangible objects (e.g., real wire mesh, clay, sketches, etc.) are translated into 2-D and/or 3-D digital CAD software and/or virtual instances. The HDTE is equipped with a Loosely Fitted Design Synthesizer (NXt-LFDS) to support this multi-user interaction and design processing. The current study explores for the first time, the feasibility of using a NXt-LFDS in a networked immersive multi-participant social virtual reality environment (VRE). Using Oculus Rift goggles and PC computers at each location linked via Skype, team members physically located in several countries had the illusion of being co-located in a single virtual world, where they used rawshaping technologies (RST) to design a woman’s purse in 3-D virtual representations. Hence, the possibility to print the purse out on the spot (i.e. anywhere within the networked loop) with a 2-D or 3D printer. Immersive affordable Virtual Reality (VR) technology (and 3-D AM) are in the process of becoming commercially available and widely used by mainstream consumers, a major development that could transform the collaborative design process. The results of the current feasibility study suggests that designing products may become considerably more individualized within collaborative multi-user settings and less inhibited during in the coming ‘Diamond Age’ [1] of VR, collaborative networks and with profound implications for the design (e.g. fashion) and engineering industry. This paper presents the proposed system architecture, a collaborative use-case scenario, and preliminary results of the interaction, coordination, cooperation, and communication with immersive VR.

Innovative tool for specifying customer requirements

This paper presents the design and development of an App based tool for specification of customer requirements (CR) for product development. The most Quality Function Deployment (QFD) tools and methods are system based or used as an Excel document for specification and evaluation. Nowadays tool usage, functionality, and interaction can be designed simple, effective and aesthetically pleasing by means of native apps. They can be opened and accessed directly, much quicker, are rewarding, and enhance the user experience, even offline. Furthermore, the dynamic and playful use of an app will stimulate the interaction, motivation, and communication across various information platforms. We describe and show the initial testing and experiments with the Customer Priorities (CP) App and present preliminary findings and results from our ongoing research. This in turn leads and enables designers and engineers to move closer to the future users, understand their wishes, values and choices between passive and active needs. QFD defines mapping between customer requirements and product characteristics. In practice this means that a customer compares two product characteristics at time and defines which one is more important or if they are equally important. The App was tested in a user experiment. We considered a Smartphone as a design example. We asked test users to compare and specify their preferences for ten given product characteristics. Our test user group consists of 32 participants both from Finland and the Netherlands. They were either graduated students or teaching staff from a university. We show preliminary results and findings from user experiment and testing of the App. Furthermore qualitative results achieved in interview with test users will be presented

TOUCH, TOUCH, TOUCH, SENSORIAL COGNITIVE SKILLS SENSITIZED THROUGH TACTILITY AND TANGIBILITY

This paper presents the development and testing of a tangible user interface (TUI) project that includes the exploration of haptics, design processes, hybrid design tools and unconventional user interfaces (NUI) that focus essentially on the tangible bits, embodiment, meta-cognitive and user interaction (IxD) on concrete devices designed to explore sensorial feedbacks (e.g. sense of touch, tactility etc.). We include preliminary user-testing with a heterogeneous group of 24 participants and show initial results and findings based on usability, interaction modality and user experience (UX).

Robust Unconventional Interaction Design and Hybrid Tool Environments for Design and Engineering Processes

This paper investigates how and whether existing or current design tools, assist and support designers and engineers in the early-phases of ideation and conceptualization stages of design and engineering processes. The research explores how fluidly and/or congruously technology affords cognitive, emotive, gesture-based shape-and-form transformation and stimulates externalization within a hybrid design tool environment (HDTE). Meta-cognitive, emotive, gestural, sensorial, multi-dimensional interaction through exploration, translation and manifestation within a contextual blended environment is studied to enhance representation, stimulate choice-architecture and foster decision-making. Current and novel hybrid design tool developments and experiments illustrate the promise of hybridization for natural computing and unobtrusive design-tools (HDT) and cyber-physical systems (CPS). Put into perspective; a proposed framework of robust interaction design (IxD), gamification and affective computing (e.g. emotion) to improve and intensify user-experience (UX) and user-engagement (UE) is presented. The paper concludes by considering the allowance for possible novel routes to increase the scope and forging of links on prevailing frames of human-computer interaction (HCI).

Hybrid design tools for conceptual design and design engineering processes: bridging the design gap: towards an intuitive design tool

Hybrid Design Tools; Representation; Computational Synthesis. Non-linear, non-explicit, non-standard thinking and ambiguity in design tools has a great impact on enhancement of creativity during ideation and conceptualization. Tacit-tangible representation based on a mere idiosyncratic and individual approach combined with computational assistance allows the user to experiment, explore and manifest their ideas, fuzzy notions and mental images. One of the most difficult tasks of individual users is the externalization of tacit knowing, tacit expectations, and metacognitive feelings. Simply put, to bring your imagination alive you need encouragement, nudging, decision-making and trigger intuition. In our research we focus on the metacognitive aspects of user interaction and tool use wherein the wheels of causality are set off through coincidence, unpredictability and unexpected events. The hybrid design tools we author and build are based on the human intuitive capacity and sensory abilities to immerse in physical manipulation and tangible representation to enhance creativity and ideation process. Simultaneously we embed and implement computational design tools that assist and nudge the user during the process to represent the conceptual models, data mapping and transformative information. This transformation has a consequence of exercising the full cognitive abilities and reinforces the insight in understanding and knowledge about the problem definition and solution space. Working visually and sensory is a complex process that includes spatial information, multi perception and manual dexterity.

Blended Spaces for Integrated Creativity and Play in Design and Engineering Processes

The umpire whispers: “Please Play.” We sort of play. But it is all hypothetical, somehow. Even the “we” is theory: I never get quite to see the distant opponent, for all the apparatus of the game (Wallace, 2011, Infinite Jest, Hachette, UK). We find no reason to abandon the notion of play as a distinct and highly important factor in the worlds life and doings. All play means something. If we call the active principle that makes up the essence of play, “instinct,” we explain nothing; if we call it “mind” or “will” we say too much. However, we may regard it, the very fact that play has a meaning implies a nonmaterialistic quality in the nature of the thing itself (Huizinga, 2014, Homo Ludens, Ils 86, Routledge, London.). This paper builds on the notion of integration of creativity and play in design and engineering environments. We show results of ongoing research and experimentation with cyber-physical systems (CPS) and multimodal interactions. The use of computational tools for creative processing and idea generation in design and engineering are mostly based on commonly available 2D or 3D CAD programs, applications, and systems. Computer-generated creativity is mostly based on combinatorial power and computational algorithms of the intrinsic system duly orchestrated by the user to manifest outcomes on a variety of processes. However, integrated game-based CPS ecosystems could enhance the uptake of play, imagination, and externalization within the design and engineering process.

Airflow Interaction Interface: Playful 3-D CAD and Gaming

This paper describes the vision and development of a tangible user interface (TUI) that allows ‘glassblowing-like’ interaction (IA) with a computer. The premise is that human fidelity in exerting pressure and airflow (i.e. breathing, blowing) could stimulate intuition, creative processing, and affords unconventional human-computer interaction (UHCI). The ultimate goal is to find out how the potential of the human body can be used to design, develop and analyze new spatial interaction methods that surpass performance or application possibilities of currently available techniques. Multi-modal interactions are essential to computational processing whereby the human and machine are interconnected and coupled to enhance skills (analogue and digital), support rich performance, facilitate learning and foster knowledge in design and engineering processing. This paper describes the key concept of the TUI, the graphical user interface (GUI) and the data visualizer system. We illustrate the concept with a prototype system — the Air-Flow-Interaction-Interface (AFIF), testing and experimentation — to identify underlying research issues

Framework and Feasibility Study for Pairwise Comparison Tool

In design and engineering context, the use of tools, simulations and multi-realities is already an intrinsic part of design activities, methods and processes. To support participatory design during the ideation phase in a co-creative context, participative tools are needed. User-centered and co-creative design could benefit product creation and innovation process through data-collection (incl. product characteristics and user requirements) from individual data-mining activities. The traditional approach for customer requirements prioritization is pair-wise comparison. It is used both in the QFD method and in the Pugh matrix method. In practice, this means that a user compares two product characteristics at a time and decides which one of the two is more important or if they are equally important. Determining a suitable user interface for the comparison has proven to be the most demanding phase in the implementation of this method. This paper presents alternative ways to implement a customer property tool and discusses experiences with some of its implementations. In the first version, the interface is based on the use of numbers, whereas the last version is more visual, interactive and game-like. The feasibility of the tool was studied in user tests carried out in Finland and in the Netherlands.

Integrated Creativity and Play Environments in Design and Engineering Processes

The umpire whispers: “Please Play”. We sort of play. But it’s all hypothetical, somehow. Even the ‘we’ is theory: I never get quite to see the distant opponent, for all the apparatus of the game [1]. We find no reason to abandon the notion of play as a distinct and highly important factor in the world’s life and doings. All play means something. If we call the active principle that makes up the essence of play, ‘instinct’, we explain nothing; if we call it ‘mind’ or ‘will’ we say too much. However we may regard it, the very fact that play has a meaning implies a non-materialistic quality in the nature of the thing itself [2]. This paper builds on the notion of integration of creativity and play in design and engineering environments. We show results of ongoing research and experimentation with cyber-physical systems (CPS) and multi-modal interactions. The use of computational tools for creative processing and idea generation in design and engineering are mostly based on commonly available 2-D or 3-D CAD programs, applications and systems. Computer-generated creativity is mostly based on combinatorial power and computational algorithms of the intrinsic system duly orchestrated by the user to manifest outcomes on a variety of processes. However, integrated game-based CPS ecosystems could enhance the uptake of play, imagination and externalization within the design and engineering process.