Showing papers presented at "International Conference on Internationalization, Design and Global Development in 2011"

A study of framework and process development for cultural product design

Abstract: The style of product design for a country or a nationality is influenced by its essential traditional cultures and lifestyles. Recently, the importance of studying Taiwanese cultures has been shown repeatedly in several studies in design field. Despite the recognized importance of product design in cultural and creative industries, they lack a systematic approach to it. Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to build a design framework and process for cultural product design. The approach includes two phases. First, the design framework and process for product development is constituted by the cultural attributive analyses and design concepts table, design principles, literature review and expert opinions. In the second phase, we undertake design practices based on the design framework and process in order to prove the effect.

Toward understanding the relationship between task complexity and task performance

Abstract: Task complexity has been recognized as one of the most important determinants of human behavior and task performance This paper reviews the relationship between task complexity and task performance Influencing mechanism of task complexity is tentatively explored Then, a conceptual framework is proposed to present the possible relationships among task complexity, task difficulty, self-efficacy, task characteristics, task performer characteristics, and task performance, for the sake of sharing and generalizing scientific findings across different areas

Creating effective personas for product design: insights from a case study

Abstract: Personas are a popular tool for product design professionals. However, controversy exists in the product design community in terms of its validity and applicability as a vehicle for client insights. Based on persona development work we have performed for a financial services company, we propose best practices that could help create more useful personas in support of product design.

Designing for social commerce experience as cultural consumption

Abstract: Social commerce websites are facing a challenge of how to use social media effectively in reaching their users in this globalization age. In this paper I look at two successful cases of social commerce websites, TaoBao of China and Etsy of the U.S. and argue that the design of a social commerce website should implement effective local SNS features to connect with and engage its users, mediate their identities, and empower them in this rising participatory culture.

Using metaphors to explore cultural perspectives in cross-cultural design

Abstract: We have proposed five cultural viewpoint metaphors to help designers that wish to encourage and support cross-cultural HCI contacts. In this paper we present the main results of an experiment carried out to assess the potential of these metaphors in designing cross-cultural systems. Six HCI designers, with different cultural backgrounds, were then asked to create re-design alternatives for a real website guided by the metaphors. As a result, the experiment showed the epistemic effect of the metaphors on cross-cultural design, i. e. as a means to build new knowledge and understanding.

The importance of feel in product design feel, the neglected aesthetic DO NOT TOUCH

Abstract: The urge to touch and feel objects is universal and powerful but focused scientific attention to understanding and enhancing the aesthetic portion of the total "feel" of a product in order to increase user satisfaction has been noticeably under emphasized in consumer product design and thus in the products themselves. Although the tactile, proprioceptive and kinesthetic senses are vital to life, in their larger context of "feel", they have been largely ignored compared to the senses of vision, hearing, taste and even smell. And while courses, institutions, and venues are dedicated to these latter senses, comparable ones for the former are decidedly absent. Recent interest in the haptic senses may be a sign of change. This paper explores several aspects of "feel" and offers suggestions for research areas.

Applying local culture features into creative craft products design

Abstract: The impact of worldwide commercial competition has brought about the emergence of cultural creative industries. We are now approaching a new era of aesthetic economy but also facing a decline in craft industries resulted from the impact of competitors' low-priced commodities. In order to upgrade our design industry, Taiwanese government has undertaken an important project titled "Challenge 2008: National Development Focus Plan". The emphases of the plan are on exploiting our rich cultural resources for developing design creativity and advancing the design industries by creating and promoting "experiential products," a reflection of the actual Taiwanese lifestyle. The purpose of this study is to convey/integrate Taiwanese local features into the design of cultural creative product. For the design processes, this study adapts the culture product design model, developed by Professor Rungtai Lin, with three main steps of attaining Cultural-specific features, formulating design concept model, and completing cultural product design. A series of craft products have been created as a demonstration to provide designers with valuable reference for successfully designing cultural creative products. An illustration for attributes of cultural product design is detailed for further synthesis of the design process.

Heuristic evaluation and usability testing: case study

Abstract: The goal of this user centered design (UCD) study was to to identify usability issues on the Bogazici University Industrial Engineering (BUIE) department website user interface (UI) and also to provide a re-design guideline for the website. In this context, the website was evalauted via using heuristic evaluation, remote usability testing, and post-test questionnaire methods. Every single screen of the BUIE website was evaluated, and design problems along with associated severity rankings were determined. Based on the heuristic evaluation findings, various task scenarios were created for the remote usability testing study. Four diffferent user groups were identified for the study: high school students, BUIE undergraduate students, BUIE Graduate students/academic staff, and other university students. The users were asked to perform tasks relavant to the group characteristics and expectations related to the website. Their performance were evaluated in terms of task completion success rate, number of clicks, and time spent till either accomplishment, failure, or quittance by a remote usability testing tool, Loop11. A post user testing questionnaire was also administered online where the user subjective rating data were collected for each task in terms of ease of use. The results indicated numerous UI design issues, as confirmed by both heuristic and usability testing methods. Further redesign study is required to implement the results of this sudy in order to enhance the ease of use of the BUIE department website.

Driving distraction analysis by ECG signals: an entropy analysis

Abstract: This paper presents a novel method in driving distraction analysis: entropy analysis of ECG signals. ECG signals were recorded continuously while 15 drivers were driving with a simulator. Mental computation task was employed as driving distraction. Sample entropy and power spectrum entropy of drivers. ECG signals while they were driving with and without distraction were derived. The result indicated that entropy of drivers ECG signals was sensitive to driving distraction and were potential significant metrics in driving distraction measurement.

A review of driver mental workload in driver-vehicle-environment system

Abstract: This paper reviews mental workload literatures which focus on the field of driving task. The purpose is to identify and discuss shortcomings in present research and opportunities for future study. A comprehensive search of journal papers on ISI Web of Science® (WoS) data base was conducted. 50 most-cited studies [1-50] are analyzed and classified into 4 categories: characteristics of the driver, characteristics of the vehicle, characteristics of environment, measurement and modeling. Chronological historiograph is generated to highlight the relationship among these studies in the retrieved categories. We argue that the ambiguity of concept and dissociative measurement are still primary barriers for current workload research. The further application of driver mental workload research should fully consider various potential influence factors in the Driver-Vehicle-Environment (DVE) system.

The impact of cultural differences on instant messaging communication in china and germany

Abstract: Instant messaging (IM) is a popular real-time communication tool to facilitate cooperation. This study attempts to provide a better understanding of instant messaging communication in China and Germany. The study aims to investigate the effects of individualistic versus collectivistic culture and lowversus high-context communication on the preference of multi-party chat and the level of responsiveness in instant messaging communication. 72 Chinese and 60 Germans participated in the survey. The results revealed that Chinese users significantly preferred multi-party chat, seldom sent messages to offline contacts, and used emoticons more frequently to increase the respond speed than German users. Further implications on designing effective cross-cultural communication tools were discussed.

Effects of different visual feedback forms on eye cursor's stabilities

Abstract: In this paper, we present an attention task experiment that investigated the effects of different visual feedback forms on the eye cursor's stability to find out the well-formed visual feedback. The different feedback forms were designed for dwell time, the eye cursor, and the center of the target (marked as a focus area). Our experimental findings can provide useful implications for the design of eye-controlled interfaces.

Smart store understanding consumer's preference through behavior logs

Abstract: This paper presents a smart store that estimates a preference of consumers concerning products from their behaviors. This paper proposes a method, which is a passive observation and an active observation, to observe two behaviors, direct behaviors and indirect behaviors. The passive observation is a method to observe direct behaviors of customers towards real products through ambient sensors. The active observation is a method to observe indirect behaviors of customers towards information of products through ambient displays. This study explains a purchase experiment using a prototype smart store that has installed the ambient shelves and displays. This study estimates the favorite clothes from their direct and indirect behavior using the smart store. The result of estimation of preference shows that accuracy rate is 87% by leaveone-out cross-validation.

Mobile research: benefits, applications, and outlooks

Abstract: With the growth of the Internet, online surveys have enabled researchers to shorten the data collection and analysis cycle. While online survey is well-suited for collecting structured data and identifying relationships between variables, it's limited in providing immediacy and context. The prevalence of smartphones is enabling researchers to capture more context and minimize time lag between customer experience and data collection. This paper will discuss the merits, limitations, and application of mobile research, using a BlackBerry apps study as an example. Applications for different industries will also be discussed.

A case study: behavior study of chinese users on the internet and mobile internet

Abstract: With the fast-paced development of the Chinese internet environment, people have learned to use the internet, and recently, the mobile internet. Users grown up in such an environment will have different interests, ways and reasons of using, and information needs. In order to obtain a better understanding on Chinese internet and mobile internet user behavior and examine the differences among the age groups of 20s, 30s, and 40s, an ethnographic study was conducted in Xi'an, China. This paper is a case study illustrating the various user behaviors on the internet and mobile internet for different age groups of people.

Cross-cultural design of a groupware application for global virtual team

Abstract: The need for supportive and reliable collaborative application is critical; it is also the need for many organizational supports. This paper reports about on-going research on how culture influence should be applied as a requirement when designing a synchronous groupware application as an intercultural collaboration tools aimed for global virtual team which consist of multicultural users. It will try to analyze how culture influences the way users prefer to interact using a groupware. Individuals are conditioned by their culture, therefore in this study we propose to extend Technology Acceptance Model so that we can understand the mechanism by which cultural differences could explain user's behavior toward the acceptance to a groupware application as a remote collaboration tool for global virtual team.

Culture-centered design: culture audit of screen designs for educational software in saudi arabia

Abstract: This paper describes screen design issues in a culture audit performed on software prior to translation. The authors found that this effort was cost-effective, because, for relatively little money and time, one can identify problematic items that translation services may not uncover, avoiding the end result of translating well what should never have been localized in the first place. In the cultural analysis section, we provide an overview of the wider cultural and social context of the rapid educational reform currently underway in the target country, Saudi Arabia. Because most educated users in the target country have learned to use the Microsoft Office Suite, we recommend that the design of Office be used as a baseline reference for any redesign.

Decision support system for industrial designer based on kansei engineering

Abstract: A combination of the traditional methodology of Kansei Engineering with the up-to-date Decision Support System (DSS) is developed in this paper. The users who have a little knowledge of information technology can achieve the Kansei Engineering optimal design in a short period of time by using the DSS, which is composed of a friendly human-computer interface, a database management module and a model management section. The introduction of the structure of the DSS is made first and a case study on the flat-panel handset is followed. Through the use of morphological analysis and semantic differential method, many designed samples and Kansei words are stored in the pre-determined database module. Some more consumers' information is required to get the evaluations of the automatic-formed models. Then a combination of BP artificial networks and GA is used to get the final results. The system is developed by the PHP language to make sure that it runs smoothly in a web environment. Finally, a matrix of physical parameters is attained according to the output of the system. A decoding procedure is done to get the real physical design elements of the optimal model of handset, followed by a prototyping method using other software such as UG. The optimal design is shown at last.

Designing for social urban media: creating an integrated framework of social innovation and service design in China

Abstract: In recent years, social media and social networking are increasing the global crucial topics. More and more people in China begin to merge into this virtual networking. Meanwhile, the continuous expediting of urbanization also occurs in the real world. It is a big challenge for designers to coincide with the new trends of city and media. New design thinking frameworks and methodologies will be needed to solve the emerging problems in the cities of China. As being designers with social responsibility, we have a critical quest that is how to design for the social innovation, sustainably for the most people and improve the social life in the context of developing local and cultural city environment. The trend of service innovation leads a new round of economic growth, which is happing in China. We developed a new framework with three perspectives about social innovation, i.e., social interaction, social integration and social inclusion. To solve the problems brought from urbanization, we need the holistic perspectives with the integrated methods of social innovation and service design. The case studies, which devoted to create the innovated application and service for the urban life in China, show the power of integrating the urban and media together in design thinking and implementation.

Exploration of the cultural product design of the national palace museum from a qualia viewpoint

Abstract: This research is focused on the cultural product design of the National Palace Museum (NPM) from a "Qualia" viewpoint. Because of the rapid rise in cultural product design in recent years, the Taiwanese government has led industrial development in emphasizing "Qualia," the emotional value or sense of quality goods. The NPM is being used as the flagship to create national policies for the cultural product design industry. The researchers have chosen the most well-known collection at the NPM - Jadeite Cabbage - as the subject of the research and to which to apply this cultural product design concept. The subjects for this study are products from the NPM's gift shop and online store. Content analysis and literature review were the methods chosen to explore the style and quality of the cultural products of the NPM. The findings and some suggestions for improving product design and administrative measures are presented.

Reading chinese in e-book readers: a review

Abstract: In this paper, a comprehensive review of related studies concerning reading Chinese in eBook readers is presented. This review aims at finding out related factors influencing the reading performance on eBook readers, especially for Chinese readers. The result of this paper could be useful for designing appropriate eBook readers to Chinese customers.

Friendly design and interaction relationship study on sitou tea-sipping design of cultural product

Abstract: Cultural products contain external and internal implications. The distinctive implications of products and the interactive relationship with users are the foundation for cultural creative products. Based on this, the conversion of friendly design in cultural products is investigated through the study of the relationship between friendly design and interactive relationship in cultural product, literature review and case analysis with the application of converting Sitou local cultural characteristics to the design development of cultural creative products, for the purpose of promoting product value. Thus, three conclusions are proposed as follow : (1) the three major elements of "emotional arousal", "emotional association" and "emotional communication" can be taken into account when discussing the conversion of product friendliness to help designers' product style design and the emotional communication; (2) with the added-value of converting Sitou's local cultural characteristics, the tea-sipping products studied show the unique elements of local Sitou culture and the style differentiation of delicate products; and (3) friendly design in products is able to serve as a medium to convey the emotions for enhancing the interaction between people.

A study on the application of cultural elements in product design

Abstract: In recent years, there has been a trend of using Chinese/ Taiwanese cultural elements in consumer electronics (CE) products. This innovative design method has resulted in many works that won significant awards in Taiwan and international design competitions. The award-winning works included massproduced products and conceptual design works, and the great appraisals have proven that this kind of design method could create added-value for a product. Therefore, "how to use design elements with cultural meanings" has become an important issue. This research has studied cases that used Chinese/Taiwanese cultural elements in product design, including five cases in Taiwan's electronics industry and 15 award-winning works in international design competitions. The purpose was to compare how the design methods used in mass-produced products are different from the ones used in conceptual design works. The results revealed that: 1) The mass-produced products utilized Chinese calligraphy and paintings as the main cultural elements, while the conceptual design works used Chinese calligraphy and paintings in not only artifacts and daily-use items, but also in the expression of custom and behavior, aesthetics, religion rituals, or even Chinese philosophy. 2) The mass-produced products made direct use of Chinese/Taiwanese cultural elements. Namely, some Chinese calligraphy and painting totems were copied on the products, thus presenting Chinese-style appearances. On the contrary, the award-winning works selected and translated the cultural elements more skillfully. The application of cultural elements was used in product appearances and functions. The designers were expressing their interpretation and deeper meanings of Chinese culture by their unique renovation. If the industrial designers could learn from these award-winning works and use the same kind of design method in CE products, new industrial opportunities could be created.

Accommodating both expert users and novice users in one interface by utilizing multi-layer interface in complex function products

Abstract: Rapid development of electronic technology promotes the complex function of a product. Users have to adapt themselves to interface with diverse mental model setting. To improve usability, both resolutions of consistent interface and wizard interface were frequently applied to help novice. However, both of them require as much time for those who are familiar with the system, i.e. expert users. Shneiderman (2000) remarked that Universal Usability requires that software systems accommodate a diverse set of users. Multi-Layer interface might be a solution for complex user interface and satisfy both novice and expert users. The idea of multi-layer interface has been applied to hardware and software interface design. Cases were discussed in which the improved Multi-Layer Interface was analyzed and conclusions made.

The effect of music on spatial ability

Abstract: In the first Mozart Effect study, Rauscher, Shaw, and Ky [1] found that exposure to a Mozart sonata enhanced visuo-spatial task performance. In this study, we sought to examine whether there was such an effect on three spatial ability sub-factors, namely spatial visualization factor (the paper folding test), spatial relation factor (card rotation test) and perceptual speed factor (hidden pattern test). In a between-subject design, 90 participants were exposed to 10 minute periods of a Mozart Sonata, Bach, or silence. After listening to a music stimulus or silence period, participants completed three spatial tests. The treatment conditions did not yield significant differences between groups. The results from all three spatial tests did not support the Mozart effect.

Mobilized collaborative services in ubiquitous network

Abstract: The paper inquires how collaborative services evolve in ubiquitous network. By comparison study in systems of solutions and interactions of services, it defines a conceptual framework of spaces of auras in mobilized collaborative services, proposing four kinds of network and interaction structures: Peer-to-Peer (P2P), Role-to-Role (R2R), Peer-to-Common (P2C) and Role-to-Centre (R2C). The conclusion of discussion is that in MCS, the form of space of auras decides mainly the way of interaction, the structure of system and degree of relational quality.

Experience design on m-commerce in China: digital marketing oriented social innovation design

Abstract: Mobile service has been a new economic growth point and provided development opportunities by the popularization of the mobile device. In this paper, we take marketing as a point to discuss the social innovation design in m-Commerce.

Design for aesthetic experience

Abstract: Taiwanese government has been aggressively promoting culture creative industries in recent years. To achieve the goals of industry transformation and to better the living environment, it further propels the innovative concept of "creative life industry". Demonstrating a new economy model, creative life industry intends to attain experience economy through attracting consumers with life aesthetics. In human life, craft creation comes with multi-values in various aspects. Craft is creative activities humans employ to solve their everyday problems in food, clothing, residing and transportation. It has served two functions in practical objects and art works in human history. In the process of creation, exchange, possession, usage, and appreciation, craft enriches human life and becomes the most valued aesthetic experience for promoting creative life industry. The purpose of this study is to investigate daily crafts, concerning both industry management and product design, and to establish an appropriate model to promote consumers' aesthetic experiences on daily crafts. The methods of data collection are survey questionnaires and in-depth interviews. With literature review, four experience factors of sense, think, act and relate are defined for writing up the survey questions. Results of data collected from the survey responses and interviews could provide concrete suggestions for artists, designers and business managers who plan for experience activities.

Does internationalization have its own face in each country? measuring the internationalization of web presence on higher education admission web pages between USA and Taiwan

Abstract: Developing sophisticated networks and facilitating its widespread use by the academic community is a powerful strategy to achieve the internationalization of higher education. But the content, structure, and responsive designate of collegiate websites can perform the most probabilities of Information and Communication Technology for communication and transaction still unexplored. We review the growing discussions on the internationalization of higher education and the website quality evaluate criteria to construct a measure template to help us analysis the web presence of higher education. This study measures top ranking of worldwide institutions with USA and Taiwan collegiate admissions web pages, to compare the differences and similarities on admission web pages presence. Fifteen top USA universities which intersected between three Worldwide Rankings and 15 top universities which got Top R & D grant from the Ministry of Education in Taiwan were selected. Content analysis method employed to measure the presence of internationalization on admissions web pages. Results present all the top universities of USA and Taiwan mention internalization in their mission statements, and have appropriate organizational structures in their institutions. And there are differences as it implements practically on web presence between 2 groups.

Design and evaluation of a novel trackball input device for middle-aged users

Abstract: This study developed two sets of novel trackball input devices operated by two hands with no space constraints, and required a series of experiments. Besides, the performances of the two newly-developed devices are significantly better than both existing trackball input devices in several tasks. However, the results of stability assessment tests show that the ability of a mouse to control the cursor is still greater than all the other devices. In physical observation part, wrist extension and ulnar deviation were measured while using Jack-1 and Jack-2, and showed apparently slighter than all the other devices.