Science (Universidade Europeia)
Not a member yet
755 research outputs found
Sort by
The distant studio: A survey of design students’ experience with distance educational formats
No full textThe paper presents the results of a survey (n=279) conducted with the students of an
undergraduate design course. The questionnaire inquired design students’ preferences
regarding educational formats (distance, in-person, or combination of both); the questionnaire further explored the issue by comparing between four types of classes (project, drawing, theoretical-practical, and theoretical) and by establishing comparisons between the
students’ enrolment year. The main results reveal that design students prefer in-person formats, and preference for in-person educational formats increases regarding project-based
or drawing type of classes; what is more, preference for in-person educational formats is
appears to be higher in second and third-year students than in frst-year ones. These results
have implications for design education: a direct transfer of the typical design educational
format to a distance setting may be misguided and design education may require specifc formats (distance or otherwise) to ofer a satisfactory pedagogical experience to its
students
Exploring emotions in Avatar Design to increase adherence to chatbot technology
No full textA mock-up of a simulated e-commerce platform was used to evaluate the intentions to start the interaction with a chatbot during a system failure. The participants (N = 60) that volunteered to evaluate the platform’s usability were not aware that the chatbot’s design was the object of study. They were randomly assigned to one of the two experimental groups created based on the emotions expressed by the chatbots’ avatars (e.g., sad vs. humoristic) and were asked to buy a certain product as quickly as possible, under the pretext of an upcoming promotion. The purchasing process was suddenly interrupted by a system crash followed by an error message. Participants had three options: repeat the process, ask the chatbot for help, or give up the purchase. The decision to interact (yes/no) with the chatbot was the main dependent variable. Affective response to the chatbot-avatar was assessed with the Affective Slider and User Experience (UX) of the platform with the Attrakdiff questionnaire. The results suggest that the presence of an avatar tends to increase the intention to interact with the chatbot and that the inclusion of emotional expression has a significantly positive impact on adherence to chatbot technology, with greater strength in the case of humoristic expression compared to sadness. However, these differences do not seem to have been enough to affect UX. Overall, considering the various results obtained, this study supports the use of avatars to initiate interaction with chatbots and points out advantages in the use of emotional design strategies, namely humour
CAPM model applied to the Portuguese stock market
No full textThe stock market volatility is well correlated with the VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) environment, so it’s important to understand the best techniques that capture this relationship. The main objective of this work is to analyse the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) to understand the relationship between risk and return. The other objective is to try to understand if the CAPM model is reflected in the Portuguese stock exchange. If there is a direct correlation between risk and expected return, then we are looking at an efficient market. Through the method of observation and bibliographic and documentary research, a practical assessment is made of the relationship between the CAPM model and the Portuguese stock exchange. Analytically, an analysis of 40 companies of the Portuguese stock index (PSI 20) is carried out, where the behaviour of the beta and the rate of return is demonstrated
Reading motivation factors through interactive narratives and augmented reality
No full textRecent studies, that focus on children’s reading habits, have been indicating a decrease of interest in the age group between 8 and 11 years old. Faced with this problem, the use of emerging technologies, such as books that make use of augmented reality (AR), offers an alternative to traditional teaching and an incentive to reading activities that children need, which triggers the increase of interest. Although there are numerous typologies of this product, there is still no clear guideline for its production from a design point of view, respecting its constraints and potential, whether in terms of age, complexity and quantity of content, graphic elements, or multimodal and interactive elements that augmented reality offers. This study intends to answer part of this problem, proposing, in the design production process, a project methodology through a multidisciplinary methodological tool, with the objective of guiding the creation of this type of product in terms of design. Through a methodology that includes bibliographic review, creation of elements to consider in the design methodology and the assessment through the analysis of three case studies, the result of this research proposes a methodological tool as a guide for good practices in future design projects. In addition, the creation of a quality seal is also suggested to be used by designers when design projects follow this type of guidance, thus increasing the value of science and research applied to AR products
The impact of hybrid animation on the future of animation
No full textDue to technological evolutions, animation has evolved through a diverse range of techniques, creating the conditions for hybrid animation to emerge, which has a direct impact on the production of animation. The aim of this study is to research the current state of hybrid animation among professionals, academics and students of the animation field, to hear their views, adherence and impact on their processes, as well to identify the advantages and disadvantages of hybridization as contribution to the other professionals and animation industry. This paper will be limited to the study of the main production differences between 2D and 3D animation and the result of its combination as hybrid animation, as a criteria to limit the study. To achieve this purpose, the methodological approach defined by triangulation, combines literature review, quantitative methods and qualitative methods on its analysis in order to cross some of the results to achieve deeper understanding and more credibility of results. The main contribution of this study is to position hybrid animation processes from the point of view of animation practitioners and to reveal patterns and exceptions of adherence to its technical processes in order to gather insights on the benefits and potential of its use to the industry
Who are the language tourists? A factor‐cluster analysis based on language‐related attitudes, beliefs, and travel outcomes
No full textResearching language tourism (where language learning is a primary or secondary motivation for the trip) is a growing field of interest as the importance of language within tourism experiences is recognized. Conceptually located at the intersection of cultural, youth, academic, and educational tourism, past research has focused on the analysis of tourists who travel to formally learn a language, missing out on an important number of tourists who travel to learn a language informally. To overcome this gap in research, cluster analysis of a sample of 1014 formal and informal language tourists was undertaken to segment them based on language-related attitudes, beliefs, and travel outcomes. Four clusters of language tourists were identified, called the Enthusiasts, the Devoted, the Pragmatists, and the Less-Committed. We propose that two axes are fundamental for characterizing and understanding language tourists, thus contributing to expand theory on language tourism
How a sustainability strategy can leverage e-commerce?
No full textDuring the last decades, we have seen building sustainable business models as an innovative part of the business strategy. Different economic sectors have used the concept to meet their economic objectives, and one of the leading business models with the highest growth in the last decade was e-commerce. It is not too much to emphasize the importance of sustainability in e-commerce in all its dimensions. We have seen several investigations on the subject covering a wide range of application areas. In this context, a systematic review of the bibliometric literature was carried out on the SCOPUS indexing database using the keywords "sustainability, " "e-commerce, " "electronic commerce, " "B2C e-commerce", "business, management, and accounting" in the last decade (2012-2022). This study aims to understand how a sustainability strategy can leverage e-commerce
The new digital economy and sustainability: Challenges and opportunities
No full textThis study aims to analyze the interconnection between the concepts of digital economy and sustainability. These concepts have become popular due to awareness of climate change and the increased development and adoption of technologies. Researchers, business leaders and policymakers are exploring the many ways digital technologies can be used to address sustainability issues. Using a systematic literature review with a bibliometric analysis, we examined a sample of 92 studies indexed in SCOPUS to identify research activity on this topic up until April 2023. We found that 2022 had the highest number of peer-reviewed articles, with 31 publications. During the research, we identified multiple opportunities for this interconnection, such as developing renewable energies and sustainable technological solutions, smart cities and sustainable urbanization, and sustainable consumption. These opportunities enabled by digital technologies allow companies to adopt sustainable business strategies and develop sustainable products. Despite these opportunities, the digital economy presents several challenges that can hinder efforts to achieve sustainability goals, such as increasing e-waste, high energy consumption and rising carbon emissions, the digital divide, job insecurity, growing monopolies, and data protection. These issues must be addressed to enable the optimal use of the opportunities presented in the digital economy to promote sustainability
S&S’21 marine plastic pollution, design & circular economy
No full textPortugal is a country with a long maritime tradition and with a continuous process of extension of its continental shelf; however, to guarantee the sustainability of the oceans, it is necessary to implement mechanisms for cleaning the coast, as well as, the reuse of the collected materials, giving them a new purpose. The circular economy (EC) is currently one of the most discussed terms among scientists in environmental economics and one of the focuses of the European Union's Horizon 2020 strategy (Geisendorf and Pietrulla 2017). According to this, our project, Blue Circular Postbranding Project, is a pioneering blue circular economy initiative in our country, Portugal, and has emerged as a way to not only tackle the excessive consumption of goods and reduce unnecessary waste while promoting awareness of environmental education with our partners, but also to remove tons of end-of-life materials and products from the ocean, namely fishing nets, and marine litter, to create new and sustainable products, “100% made in Portugal”. To do that we’ve established a value chain and, together with our partners, we’ve developed a performance scheme that comprises the stages of marine garbage collection, transportation, dismantling, recycling, and creation of new products
Design & technology: Mediation by digital advents in avatar therapy
No full textThis research presents an analysis of Avatar Therapy, a method of treating auditory hallucinations for patients with schizophrenia through images that supposedly represent the voices that people with schizophrenia hear. The objective proposed here is to understand how the aesthetics of these images can successfully produce their therapeutic effect through design and technology tools. The study conceives the therapeutic process as an intersemiotic mediation and translation. In addition, it aims to analyze the processes of figuration and representation and the characteristics of the graphic software. It is an internal validity study with external validation capacity in its applicability and generalizability character. The research modality performed here fits (1) in the theoretical scope for aiming at fundamentals and structuring systems that can help in improvements for the development of Avatar Therapy; and (2) in the bibliographical scope for recovering the scientific knowledge of the followers of C. S. Peirce’s semiotics and applying it to the design of this therapy images