STEM Strategies
Visual Ergonomics for Colour Blindness: Providing Affordance in Graphical User Interface
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Abhinav Basak
Colourblindness is a condition in which the person affected confuses between certain shades of colour in visual interfaces when they come in contact with each other in adverse lighting conditions. Computer interfaces consist of a large amount of visual data. So, a colourblind person exposed to any of the conflicting colour schemes in a computer interface would be missing out on information which might even be critical. The purpose behind the advent of GUI in computers was to provide easy access of its features to users in order to increase work efficiency. As the GUI evolved, the accessibility options were expanded to cater extreme user categories. However, there is still a scope of improvement in the area of colourblindness. This paper intends to study the problems faced/likely to occur to colourblind users in a computer interface. The objective is to come up with design solutions to include colourblind users as mainstream user category in GUIs and expand the user base of the existing operating system.
Designing an Online Learning Platform for Physics Education View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Eugene Park
This study considers the initial stages and current progress behind the ongoing collaboration between a small group of graphic design and physics professors. Backed by NSF funding, our objective is to design and develop a website for teaching problem-solving skills to college-level physics students. The motivation behind his project stems from our disappointment in the current offerings of science study guides that are limited to providing additional challenges/problems with minimal feedback to user actions. What is needed in these products is a user experience that actively guides students to navigate through the general decision-making skills necessary for effective problem solving in the sciences. This initial investigation will articulate and reflect on the collaborative processes between science education and design thinking/making working together to create an online physics education website. Rather than just expecting a right or wrong answer, this website is designed to respond to students’ assumptions and actively guide them towards the appropriate problem solving strategies. And in order to deliver on this goal, the designers were tasked with putting together a web interface that demanded systems-level thinking and thoughtful implementation of signifiers and feedback to its users. The challenge behind this multidisciplinary effort ultimately involved negotiating the boundaries, roles, timelines, and expectations between the design and science disciplines, as well as discussing how the principles behind UX/UI design can enhance and extend science pedagogy behind the traditional classrooms.
Design and Innovation in Healthcare: A Systematic Literature Review
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Claudia de Souza Libanio
The development of research dealing with design as a strategic element in innovation and the transformation of organizations is growing. However, the transformative potential of design in the healthcare sector has not been broadly explored. Design has great potential to operate in the healthcare sector, as this sector has a complex system due to its comprehensiveness, unpredictability, plurality, dynamics, and uncertainties. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the relationships between design, innovation, and healthcare in the literature. A systematic literature review was carried out to map the current research on design and innovation in the health industry. The databases Science Direct, Wiley, Pubmed, and Bireme were used to search for articles. Papers have been researched that contain the keywords ‘design’, ‘innovation’ and ‘healthcare’. In total, 87 articles were selected. Results show an advance in research over the years, with a concentration of publications between 2012 and 2015. Regarding the analysis of the journals, correlated areas of study on this topic include health, design, computer science, architecture, engineering, and management. Focal points are related to the environments, products, services, processes, information, as well as aspects related to individuals and their relationships with other actors and with the health system. Also, recurring research topics are identified, such as: user-centered design, design aiding in patient safety and reducing failures and accidents, computerized healthcare systems, the use of design methodologies, and investments in health products, services, environment, process, and information.
