1,720,968 research outputs found
Ageing With Technology – An Extended Multimodal Design Study of Active Ageing Users’ Emotional Experience With Social Robots
No full textThis research explores the experience of advanced technology for active ageing users through their extended engagement with a social robot as a subcategory of smart products. In this project, such influences include the capacity of technology to affect the social, behavioural and emotional aspects of users’ daily lives. Advanced technologies such as smart products, artificial intelligence (AI), and ubiquitous computing are increasingly influencing contemporary life. Their complex nature has brought new challenges and opportunities for users, especially the older generations, since the capabilities to adapt to new complex technologies can be perceived as more challenging by ageing users accustomed to earlier systems. This research aimed to develop insights and reflections on active ageing users’ lived experiences and interactions with technology to inform future design and research practices in this area.
Influenced by ontological realism and social constructionism, this research applied an extended user study to interpret the lived experience of active ageing users with technology in natural settings. The study gathered evidence on the affective dimensions of the user experience of interacting with advanced technologies beyond controlled lab environments that capture only snapshots of the overall experience. I used three data collection stages, consisting of two rounds of interviews, two familiarising and demonstration sessions, and an extended user experience of 15 participants interacting with a social robot in their home environments. The result was a robust data collection system, starting with understanding users’ lived experiences with smart products and including users’ extended interactions. I used reflexive thematic analysis to analyse and interpret users’ social-physical experiences.
The findings from this research identified mixed emotional experiences, from fascination to wariness about advanced technology and its influence on participants’ lives. My research recognised active ageing users’ interaction with technology as a coevolutionary process in which both parties influence each other. The study observed six areas that contributed to how participants perceived interactivity of human-technology experiences – learnability, familiarity, responsivity, tangibility, playfulness, and novelty. Furthermore, my findings indicated that data privacy and security were not perceived as significant issues for most participants. However, the analysis revealed strong views on companionship in the current digital era, including a desire to differentiate between organic and non-organic interactions. Participants considered companionship a fundamental human quality and were concerned with technology replacing human relationships.
This research concludes that designers need to step away from the stereotypical views on active ageing users’ interaction with technology that are only limited to design for accessibility and usability. My analysis recognises active ageing users as a diverse, knowledgeable and reflective demographic who have experienced some of the most disruptive technological changes in recent history. The results suggest that design practices need to account for social and subjective experiences rather than focusing only on users’ emotional ratings of the experience. Similarly, my research presents a critical analysis of companion technologies. It recommends design practices to avoid generalising what ‘companionship’ means to all users. The study urges designers to spend time and effort understanding and unpacking what companionship means to users of technologies. My research proposes design practices to move beyond human-centred approaches and see the interaction as a coevolutionary process between the users, their environment and the technology
Design of an Employability Agency for the Transdisciplinary Students of Creative Technologies: A Research Through Design Approach
No full textFresh university graduates face an ever-changing professional landscape where it can be challenging to find jobs that lead to successful careers. This is particularly the case for emergent professions such as creative technologies, given the changing nature of technology and the increasingly recognised value of working across traditional disciplines. This thesis presents a Research through Design (RtD) project with the goal to help fresh creative technologists get better work opportunities. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with students, alumni, and industry experts to identify current practices, opportunities and challenges, and insights to inform the design of solutions to address this problem. Three themes were identified from these interviews: unexplored existing opportunities, a demand for employability skills, and platforms for student-industry interactions. The insights from this work inform the aspects that need to be addressed to design solutions that help creative technologies graduates find relevant jobs to start their careers in the right directions. The research raises new questions about why and how universities in the future can engage stakeholders to make the most of existing untapped opportunities and restructure processes to align with changing demands in industry
The Gatekeeper's Gambit - The Politics and Practice of New Ideas in Corporate Innovation
No full textThis research explores the role of “Innovation Gatekeepers” within corporate entities, and how these individuals impact the way in which new ideas are explored and funded. Drawing on the authors experience in corporate innovation and new product development, the study seeks to understand how these individuals, strategically positioned within organisational hierarchies, influence the trajectory of ideas, funding, and ultimately the products and services which are released to the public.
Private enterprises fund three-quarters of the worlds’ research and development (R&D) but there is a lack of transparency on the process they use and how that money is spent. Currently what is known of innovation within corporates is either not publicly available or delivered through biased marketing-led material. The literature in the field that exists is focused on best practice methodology and tends to avoid the examination of the practical realities of the innovation process in these environments. This research seeks to examine the unknown elements of this process, who is involved in innovation decision making, and how are these decisions made.
To gain an insider’s perspective of innovation processes within these corporations a grounded theory methodology was applied. Semi-structured interviews with corporate innovation team members elicited a rich contextual view of this environment that was interpreted through a constructivist lens. This research identified individuals who act as ‘Innovation Gatekeepers’. These gatekeepers, either consciously or subconsciously, apply a force that control the process of innovation. This force is realised through tangible tools, such as controlling the flow of information or access to resources, and intangible factors, such as personal drivers, motivations, and market forces.
The significant investment corporates make in R&D illustrates their desire to be innovative. This research has made visible the agency of specific individuals that have a disproportionate level of influence over the innovation process and its outcomes. This overwhelms other potential mitigating factors, such as increasing budgets or organisational priorities. Given that these individuals are inherent in an organisation and can’t be removed, corporates need to find a way to identify Innovation Gatekeepers and work to either harness or reduce their influence if they hope to be truly innovative
Service Design to Assist Caregivers of Adults With Learning Disabilities
No full textThis project investigated a design solution to assist the caregivers of adults with learning disabilities (McRae et al.) in Thailand. The problems associated with LDs are increasing annually. The bulk of primary caregivers are individual family members who provide caregiving services without sufficient support from healthcare organisations. The challenge to Thai caregivers is to maintain their career while concurrently providing care to people with LDs. In some instances, they are pressured into quitting their jobs to care for family members with LDs. This research project employed a design thinking methodology, which is a qualitative approach. Based on trial-and-error attempts and proactive practical experience using the design thinking process, this research established that design outcomes must rapidly meet user needs through the product development cycle of prototype and testing. The results of this research offer a service design solution that can be used to provide support groups for caregivers. The design applies a token system (time-based currency) as a medium for group members with which to either provide or acquire caregiving advice and support they support others in the same position by providing caregiving services on rotational basic. These services also provide a venue for caregivers through which they can stay connected while also serving as a learning environment
Supporting the Mental Wellbeing of University Students by Building Social Connectedness
No full textThis practice-led research project explored how universities might better support the mental well-being of tertiary students studying in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland). Before the COVID-19 pandemic, university students in Aotearoa (New Zealand) experienced moderate levels of psychological distress (New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations 2018). As a result of the ongoing global pandemic, students mental well-being has declined, as 65% experienced low or extremely low levels of well-being (Dodd et al. 2021). A hybrid methodology of Appreciative Inquiry (Ai) and Design Thinking (DT) was utilised to engage students in the design process, gain an understanding of students’ experiences of university services, and generate a design response that addresses students’ unmet needs. The Appreciative Inquiry process is a strength-based model that draws from the science of positive psychology to enhance what already works (Whatworks n.d.). This methodology follows five stages: Define – Discover – Dream – Design – Deliver (Priest et al. 2013). The Design Thinking process is similar to Appreciative Inquiry, encompassing a range of methods, tools and mindsets that have been applied in this project.
In the Define stage of the project, assumption mapping, a contextual review, and an investigation of services informed the research design and question. In the Discover stage, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine students from three major universities in Tāmaki Makaurau to learn about their experiences with university services. Seven primary themes were generated from a thematic analysis of these interviews, and opportunities for change were identified. In the Dream stage, a speculative future scenario was generated to explore what might be in response to these insights and opportunities. The Design stage of this process proposes what should be by presenting a potential service design response. Finally, the last stage, Deliver, aims to produce an events application alongside a recommendations guide to illustrate how AUT can implement these initiatives
Below, Behind, Across: Bttm Methodology and Queer Representation in Contemporary Art
No full textThis practice-led PhD investigates how socio-ecological art practices can facilitate queer representation in Aotearoa. Through the development of the research project, a bttm methodology emerged as an activating agent across a series of art installations, participatory workshops, queer history walks and discussion groups. Drawing on queer theory and socio-ecological art practices, bttm methodology is a guide to my art-making that valorises ‘lowly’ or marginalised positions. bttm (bottom) was developed with Val Smith and encompasses a range of queer socio-political relations, past and present, including: a receptive position in intimate relations, ethical alliances between the human and nonhuman, and a grounding in the whenua of the Aotearoa. below, behind, across considers the potential to produce queer knowledge and empowerment by adopting creative counter-positions, recalling queer histories and resisting oppressive uses of power. Drawing on the work of Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and Jack Halberstam, this research generates artistic platforms for queer representation that challenge dominant colonial, capitalist, and heteropatriarchal narratives.
As the site of the first Gay Liberation Front (GLF) protest in Aotearoa in 1972, Rangipuke (Albert Park) in the centre of Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland), is the physical and conceptual starting point of below, behind, across. As such, Rangipuke constitutes fertile terrain for exploring critical intersections of queer, environmental and colonial-capitalist discourse. Walking in Trees (2019) and Queer Pavilion (2020), two significant research projects, involved hosting a diverse range of artist performances and installations in temporary structures in this location. The GLF was an activist group formed by university students who sought liberation from discrimination and the confines of heteronormativity. My artistic research exhumes local history to reclaim critical moments of radicalism in queer politics. Like the GLF, my art practice and bttm methodology emerge from a university campus adjacent to Rangipuke; in the spirit of this movement I also seek to question hegemonic power, claim queer representation, and actively engage in creating co-operative and socially just formations
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
- …
