ISSUE 45 - September 2008

Transforming Taiwan Aboriginal Cultural Features into Modern Product Design: A Case Study of a Cross-cultural Product Design Model - 23 September 2008

With their beautiful and primitive visual arts and crafts, Taiwan’s aboriginal cultures offer great potential for enhancing design value and becoming recognized in the global market. Evidence shows very high prospects for Taiwan’s local cultures to become crucial cultural elements in future design applications. The purpose of this paper is to explore the meaning of cultural objects from Taiwan’s aboriginal cultures and to extract their cultural features. The paper attempts to illustrate how, by enhancing the original meaning and images of these cultural features and by taking advantage of new production technologies, they can be transformed into modern products that meet the needs of the contemporary consumer market.

Driver Segmentation, New Technology and Safety - 4 September 2008

This paper reports a study in which drivers were segmented according to attitudes and behaviours. The approach was based on a technique known as the Delphi method (Linstone and Turoff 1975) This involves interviewing experts in a particular field – in this case driving and driver behaviour – and coming to a conclusion based on the common ground between them.

Immersion in videogames - 15 August 2008

User experience is a term that is widely used these days to refer to all sorts of
interactions between people and technologies. But when it comes to videogames, experience is the only sensible word to use. Games are pure experience. And the range of experiences they offer is huge from what it is like to land a 747 at Heathrow Airport to slaying space dragons with a team of like-minded warriors. Thus, when it comes to really understanding user experience in games, it can be hard to say anything that would apply in general. However, one expression that does seem to crop up regularly, and that gamers relate to, is that games are immersive: when people are having a good experience, they get lost or immersed in the game and the world outside the game fades into the background. So what is this notion of immersion? What causes it? And is it the heart of what makes a good game? These are the questions that I have been trying to answer, together with my colleagues and students, over the last few years.

The Role of Ethnography in the Organizational Implementation of IT - 2 August 2008

Ethnographic research in design often focus on the initial analysis of existing work practices in order to inform the subsequent design and implementation of new information technologies (IT). However, ethnography may also prove efficient in identifying, analyzing, and evaluating changes to work practices that emerge from using an IT system. In this article we investigate how nurses’ work was affected by the introduction of a large, shared Electronic Health Record (EHR) display in two highly collaborative work situations: the nursing handover, and the interdisciplinary team conference at which all clinicians on shift are present. The use of a display led to unanticipated and interesting new ways of collaborating among the nurses and between nurses and physicians. Evaluations of the initial use of new IT can establish a potentially important role for ethnography within iterative approaches to design as well as within the organizational implementation of IT.

Involving Local Undergraduates in Fieldwork - 31 July 2008

Since then I have found that even though it is helpful to have highly motivated Berkeley undergraduates accompany me to India, there are tremendous benefits to involving local undergraduates from India in my field studies. Familiarity with the local languages, cultures, and systems is an enormous advantage when undertaking field research.

Of Mice and iPods, or The Death of the Designer - 22 July 2008

Computing technologies are becoming so familiar it can feel as if they have always been here. It is strange to think that the mouse, for instance, was invented by Doug Englebart in the seventies. He must encounter a degree of incredulity when he mentions this to people. “You invented the mouse? Really? How nice. Did you also invent the pen?”

Culture in the Further Development of Universal Design - 15 July 2008

By now most readers of Design for All India have a healthy grasp of Universal Design. Many, perhaps most, have become highly competent in its application as is evident from the articles appearing in past volumes and today. Beyond technical mastery of the Seven Principles, knowledge of best-of-breed solutions, and familiarity with allied concepts such as Visitability, Adaptive Technology, or anthropometrics there is a cultural component to this design approach that is unquantifiably – but undeniably – transforming Universal Design. By systematically and thoroughly examining this cultural component in the coming decade we will discover the true nature of Universal Design to be social sustainability.

Adopting the Universal Design Approach Instead of the Stigma That Creates Poorly Accessible Enviroments - 3 July 2008

Universal Design can be thought of as a contemporary philosophical movement that addresses trends in the growth of the aging population and diversification of user abilities around the world. Stakeholders rely on designers, planners and managers as decision makers leading the drive to create non-segregated environments that help users and eliminate the stigma of disability. However, it seems necessary that everyone involved in the design process becomes aware and willing to bring about change. Therefore, the preparation of design students as well as users to understand the scope of Universal Design must be based on strategies that counteract the continuation of the stigma of disability in the mindset of designers and others who can bring about the changes required to create a more inclusive world.