Q board interviews: An effective method to research user opinions

Q board interviews can be applied as an effective method to get insight in the opinions of participants. Q board interviews form the interviewing part of Q methodology. Q methodology can be used to identify typical sets of opinions. However, in many studies, the research goal is to order opinions and see which ones play the most important roles,...

Teaching students to apply multiple physical modeling methods

Design students should be able to explore a variety of shapes before elaborating one particular shape. Current modelling courses don’t address this issue. We developed the course Rapid Modelling, which teaches students to explore multiple shape models in a short time, applying different methods and materials. The course contains four parts:...

Enhancement of Presence in a Virtual Sailing Environment through Localized Wind Simulation

In the context of sailing, wind plays an important role. However, there is little knowledge on how wind influences presence – the sense of “being there” - while immersed in a virtual setting. This article explores several wind parameters and presents a wind array to explore presence in a sail simulator. The simulation offered a virtual training...

Validating algorithms for calculation of the shape of a flexible blade

Methods and tools are developed to measure, analyze and compare physical and virtual blade shapes. An application is presented using measured data and the results of two blade shape calculation algorithms. A measuring method has been developed and a set-up for measuring physical blades was built. Tools were implemented to compare and evaluate...

Towards a unified description of product-related processes

To increase the effectiveness of computer support in development and production of durable industrial products (artifacts), three problems still need to be solved: (a) integration ofaspect models used in artifact development, (b) integration of the aspect models used in process planning andprocess representations, (c) integration of(a) and (b)....

Shape language - How people describe shapes and shape operations

Many designers do not use CAD tools for shape ideation. They consider CAD systems not appropriate for the ideation phase. This research investigates how designers ideate shape, in particular which terms they use to exteriorize shape. The goal is to be able to propose digital tools that are useful for shape ideation. For the inventory of shape...

Measurement and Design: Measuring in an interdisciplinary research environment. Symposium 29 April 1993