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2007 What Stories Inform Us About the Users? 2006 Creation of Reusable Visual Language for Process Control Identifying the Needs of Elderly for Technological Innovations in the Smart Home, in HFES 2005 Identifying the Needs of Elderly for Technological Innovations in the Smart Home, in HFES 2004 Developing Semantics Assessment Scales for Home Health Management Products 2003 Identifying Needs of Smart Homes for the Older Adults, (Thesis submitted to Nanyang Technological University for Partial Requirements for Master of Engineering Degree) Identifying User Needs in Technological Innovations with Projective Techniques, in SEAMEC 2003 (Best Student Paper).
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What Stories Inform Us About the Users? Yong Ming Kow, Angela Tan, Martin Helander, 2007 Storytelling has been used to elicit subconscious schemas that were formed from user experiences. Subjects were required to construct a working model using external and internal sources of information. Known methods of performing narrative analysis included Projective Tests, Narrative Analysis, and Cognitive Tasks Analysis. Three studies using storytelling methods were done with these methods. One with older adults, two with kins of older adults, and three with refinery operators. In the case of older adults, users were asked to make up stories for a fictitious person to extract cultural norms and knowledge. For the refinery study, we can look into real stories for more reliable data. Many types of design information were extracted: (1) emotional and functional needs, (2) functional dependencies, and (3) expertise. Arguably, these information will be hard to come by if a direct interview technique is conducted. Reasons due to the richness of information embedded in stories.
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Creation of Reusable Visual Language for Process Control Yong Ming Kow, Janet Jin, Geoffrey Ho, Sinem Goknur, John Hajdukiewicz, 2006 In some work domains, such as process control, the working principles behind the equipment, sensors, controllers, and users are often beyond a
single user to comprehend. It thus becomes important to creation a standard ‘visual language’ that can be reused across different sub-systems, so as to facilitate
communications and process understanding. This paper describes a workin-
progress of defining a visual language, the Visual Thesaurus, of a process
control monitoring system. Visual Thesaurus was defined as a common language
for discussing an interface within a domain1. Existing language theories
emphasized the importance of developing finite number of grammar that users
can immediately prescribe when they enter a new situation or encounter new
tools. In this way, users can create, explore, critique, and describe interfaces
more consistently and quickly. The information database to design Visual Thesaurus
was created out of Work Domain Analysis. Identified information were |
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Identifying Causal Relationships between Smart Home Products using Storytelling Yong Ming Kow and Martin Helander, 2006 Seven smart home functions for older adults were identified in a prior study. They are: mobility, communication, health, safety, outdoor activity, mental activity, and housework. Although these functions are dissimilar, they compete with each other for the same needs, resulting in redundancy in smart homes features. The present study attempted to identify the couplings in smart home technologies. Nineteen university students were asked to tell stories about older adults they knew well. The stories were analyzed in terms of functional needs. All seven smart home functions were identified. A causal relationship was noted if two conditions were satisfied: (1) The intention to carry out the cause function should appear before the intention to carry out the effect function; and (2) The sequence was likely to reoccur. .Except for safety all functions were related by means-ends relationships. Design selection should be based on maximizing utility. Before innovations are implemented, researchers should attempt to understand the implications of product usage in the context of use. These implications should be needs and goals directed, which contributes to the utility of the user experience. A prolong study into how users maximize utility by varying their tools and the way they conduct their activities may be useful in measuring and predicting of experience utility, even before innovations were put to use. |
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Identifying the Needs of Elderly for Technological Innovations in the Smart Home, in HFES Martin Helander and Kow, 2005 |
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Developing Semantics Assessment Scales for Home Health Management Products Yong Ming Kow and Tom Plocher, 2004 Evaluation of consumer products often take place at the emotional level. Thus understanding affective needs of users of medical products is important to consumer product design and development. Affective descriptors and statements were gathered from Kansei Engineering literatures and computer attitude test schedules including Computer Attitude Scale (CAS) and Attitude Towards Computer Usage Scale (ATCUS). These indicators covered, but not restricted to, the dimensions of trust, aesthetic, identity, and stigma. Younger and older adults were asked to rate these indicators along 5-points Likert scales pertaining to three different medical products. The data was factor and cluster analyzed. The results between younger and older adults were compared. Unpublished due to Trade Secret |
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Identifying Needs of Smart Homes for the Older Adults, (Thesis submitted to Nanyang Technological University for Partial Requirements for Master of Engineering Degree) Yong Ming Kow, 2003 As the number of younger adults taking care of older adults is decreasing, caregiving for older adults will be increasingly difficult. Smart homes hold enormous potential to replace much of caregivers work and fulfill needs of older adults. What smart homes can provide for the older adults, however, is uncertain and this research aims to identify them. Literature review in human factors, gerontology, and psychology showed older adults need: spirituality, productive aging, anti-aging, dependency avoidance, and nurturance seeking. Projective test was used to identify seven functions in smart homes to support them. These are: mobility, communication, safety, health, outdoor activities, housework, and mental activities. Subsequently, storytelling test found that communication and mobility support many of these functions and hold promise in future development. The data collected through the projective test and storytelling was used to conceptualize smart home features, which were rated in a survey. The ratings were analyzed with factor and cluster analyses. Needs structure of older adults was found comprising of three domains: personal needs, household needs, and active aging needs. In addition, tools for personal safety, household security, mobility, and communication, and transgenerational design, and usability issues are identified as promising areas for research and development. |
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Needs of the Older Adults and Design Factors of Smart Homes, in XVth Tirennial Congress of the International Ergonomics Association, 2003 Yong Ming Kow and Martin Helander, 2003 Older people are increasingly using advanced technological products. Smart homes are presently developed to fit the needs of these adults. Sixteen older adults were interviewed using projective technique using drawings of seventeen smart home features. From a literature review, five needs of older adults were identified. The interviews identified seven major functions of smart homes and associated design issues. In this paper, issues related to teleshopping, fall detection, and telemedicine are discussed. |
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Identifying User Needs in Technological Innovations with Projective Techniques, in SEAMEC 2003 (Best Student Paper). Yong Ming Kow and Martin Helander,2003 Products should be designed with merits that users can appreciate. But it is difficult to know what users needs were if the product is new, such as a smart home for the older adults. Projective test was performed to abstract user needs and other design factors such as usability and projections using drawings of smart homes. Based on schema theory and dual processor theory, users would orientate themselves and project experiential information into ambiguous drawings. Sixteen older adults were interviewed. 186 needs, along with usability and projected information regarding seventeen innovative smart homes features were obtained. Some design factors and lessons learned from this experiment were discussed. |