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ItemHaptic Interface Design Support: Assisting Designers in Analyzing the Design Space of and Prototyping Haptic Interfaces(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2022-05-27) Lin, HongnanHaptic interfaces, which enable human-computer interaction through touch, have the potential to benefit a wide range of life activities, including communication, education, creation, entertainment, and transportation. The development of practical haptic interface design requires the involvement of designers with their user-centered design perspectives and creative design expertise. Designers entering the haptic domain need support. Previous efforts have focused on providing hardware and software platforms for designers to design haptic experiences on top. In this dissertation, we study how to support designers to create new haptic hardware with emerging technologies. Specifically, we focus on two main challenges: analyzing the design space of haptic interfaces and prototyping haptic interfaces. Our inquiry is embodied in two projects respectively: Hapticology and FlexHaptics. In both projects, we design, build, and evaluate artifacts, i.e. tools and approaches, to transform haptic interface design from its current state to a preferred state and reflect on implications for future efforts on supporting designing haptic interfaces. Hapticology project proposes a rational design process for haptic interfaces adapted from design space analysis and morphological analysis. It provides a combination of design artifacts needed to perform the analysis, including a space of design options, discussions of the impact of the design options, and data visualization of the design options and impacts. FlexHaptics project studies the prototyping problem, focused on passive haptic interfaces. FlexHaptics method to design passive haptic interfaces comprises the modules, mathematical models, and editor. It combines important advantages of previous techniques, including extensive and fine-tunable haptic profiles and computer-aided design and fabrication. It also introduces beam structures to the field of passive haptic interfaces, which benefit predictable haptic properties, accessible fabrication, and compact form factors. The workshop explores passive haptic inputs with novice designers using FlexHaptics method. It reveals the design process followed by novice designers, challenges encountered in designing haptic hardware, and informs implications for future design support for creating passive-haptic interfaces. The two projects form a T-shape research structure; Hapticology builds the horizontal line as it navigates through extensive possibilities of haptic interface designs, and FlexHaptics builds the vertical line as it focuses on one haptic interface type identified from Hapticology and dives into the design processes. Synthesizing the findings from the projects, we discuss haptic interface design processes integrating the outcomes of this work and depict a framework to promote innovation in haptic interfaces.
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ItemDevelopment and evaluation of a design tool for occupational therapists to facilitate co-design of assistive technology with designers(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2022-05-05) Lee, Su JinDevelopment of effective assistive technology (AT) for individuals for disabilities necessitates close collaboration between occupational therapists (OTs) and designers. Currently, their successful collaboration is hampered by absence of a common language; as a result, clinical insight necessary for creating effective AT are poorly integrated into the design process. This problem can be attributed, in large part, to OTs’ inability to communicate with designers in design-actionable language. For successful ATs to be developed, OTs must be able to translate their clinical understanding of task-performance deficits into task-relevant design attributes that are necessary for designers to make informed design decisions. To enhance OT’s ability to communicate their expertise to designers and, therefore, be a better co-design partner in the co-design process, the aims of this dissertation were to: 1) develop the Dyadic Transfer Performance Instrument (DTPI), a tool designed to help OTs articulate, in design-relevant terms, clinical knowledge pertinent to designing AT interventions for caregiver-assisted transfers, 2) Conduct co-design workshops to engage OTs and designers to i) identify task-related problems with transfers from a pre-recorded video; ii) generate concepts for AT solutions, with and without DTPI, for a real-life case (based on a caregiving dyad experiencing transfer performance difficulties), and 3) Evaluate the usefulness of the DTPI, as measured by the extent to which its use: 1) increases OT’s active engagement in the co-design process; 2) increases OT’s use of design-relevant terms, and 3) improves the experience of participants during the co-design process. The primary output of this dissertation is a tool that empowers OTs to be co-equals in the co-design process, a pre-requisite for co-design teams to create more informative design criteria grounded in task-relevant design characteristics. The DTPI consists of several features: 1) a tag function that allow users to analyze environmental interactions during performance at fine-gained task levels, 2) prompts that facilitate consideration of all relevant design characteristics and attributes, and 3) compilation of data to easily visualize results in a way that supports generating design insights. Analysis of the co-design workshops indicate that the DTPI helps OTs to anchor their clinical assessments in more design relevant terms, increase the efficiency at which their assessments are communicated to designers, and increase their proactive contribution in the brainstorming phase of the co-design process. This project has several short- and long-term outcomes. Most immediately, it demonstrates the feasibility of a tool-mediated co-design method to foster more effective collaboration between OTs and designers. Adoption of more effective co-design methods will, over time, result in more effective AT solutions for transfer performance for which there are persisting unmet needs. Further, more effective AT solutions will improve transfer performance, thus enabling individuals aging with disability to remain at home longer, as well as reduce the physical strain on caregivers.