MDES, University of Cincinnati, 2017, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Design

With the development of information and communication technologies, most user experience design projects increasingly focus on digital features of mobile apps and services, rarely leveraging the benefits of print materials. However, printed booklets, with their tangible and familiar material qualities, still have unique values in communicating information to users in intuitive and graspable forms. Either mobile apps or print booklets cannot be a perfect solution by themselves for any user experience problems, and this study investigates the experiential qualities of both components and explores their complimentary integration to coordinate users' optimal information navigation and communication. For doing so, this thesis takes the Cardiac Home Care Education System Design Project, which was conducted for 12 months from 2016 to 2017, as a case study to compare and contrast the design processes and outcomes of an app and a booklet developed based on the same instructional content. The thesis discusses benefits of either component in various aspects of user experience as well as similarities vs. differences in their design considerations. The findings of this study will provide useful design implications and guidelines regarding which material component —between a mobile app and a printed booklet—would be a more appropriate solution for a given information navigation problem and furthermore how both components could be integrated toward a holistic user experience.

Committee: Heekyoung Jung Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Craig Vogel M.I.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Design

MDES, University of Cincinnati, 2015, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Design

Color plays an important role in a product's success but is oftentimes underutilized and overshadowed by other design decisions. Preliminary industrial design education may create a foundation of color knowledge, but the translation of color knowledge and the ability to strategically select and apply color to a product occurs through experience. Color by nature is perceptual and subjective; leaving even experienced industrial designers feeling apprehensive. This thesis focuses on how to deliver a systematic color selection process to Industrial Design students. Research was conducted in order to understand the current color resources, research, considerations, and practices in industrial design and outside of industrial design. From this, key insights were revealed that served as requirements for the development of a tool. The tool aimed at providing Industrial Design students the ability to approach color confidently in their design process and help them to rationalize their decisions. The tool was prototyped and tests were conducted to gauge its value. A survey of student designers was conducted both pre-prototype and post-prototype to measure the outcome as well as to identify areas of improvement and further exploration.

Committee: Craig Vogel M.I.D. (Committee Chair); Peter Chamberlain M.F.A. M.Phil. (Committee Member); Dennis Puhalla Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Design

MFA, Kent State University, 2012, College of Communication and Information / School of Visual Communication Design

Information retention is paramount to the education process. There is not a single act in academia that does not require extensive information recall. Beginning with the middle school grades, teachers increasingly rely on the lecture method of instruction. Incidentally, the middle grades are a critical period in the instruction of study skills as the students in that age range are developmentally ready to become strategic learners. Notable is a versatile tool that functions in varied note-taking environments. Considerations for different learning styles and activities that aid in information retention and recall are uniquely utilized throughout the application. This thesis offers a framework for the development of Notable. Ethnographic research was conducted on middle school students to gain insight on their learning environments, including the classroom, lecture styles, notetaking tools, organizational methods and social interactions among teachers and classmates. Quantitative research was conducted in the form of a survey. Over 70 participants submitted answers to questions revolving around achievement levels, learning styles, tools, and study habits. Data synthesized from surveys informed the construction of user personas and usage scenarios to help focus an iterative design approach toward the development of a comprehensive note-taking application.

Committee: Ken Visocky O'Grady (Advisor); Jerry Kalback (Committee Member); Karl Fast (Committee Member) Subjects: Design; Education; Educational Software; Educational Technology; Middle School Education; Teaching; Technology

MDES, University of Cincinnati, 2013, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Design

Given the emergence of mobile technology, the difference of devices and their adjunct operating systems have been progressively enlarged. On devices with varying screen sizes, user interaction and user experience become different. This makes web application design a more complicated task than before in order to meet various compatibility and user experience requirements. To fix this issue, web application design approaches have evolved into two categories: repurposing approach and optimized approach. In this study, I design and develop a cross–device web application by using these two approaches respectively. Usability testing is performed to collect data and user experience comments from respondents. Then analysis of the data shows which approach is more superior in specific situations.

Committee: Benjamin Meyer M.F.A. (Committee Chair); Heekyoung Jung Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Design

MDES, University of Cincinnati, 2022, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Design

COVID-19 caused lifestyle changes and set new challenges for information access. On the other hand, innovative technologies always enable new opportunities for challenges. This study uses a Virtual Tour environment as a method to benefit online information access on the University of Cincinnati (UC) campus. The quality of information access has a close connection with the community connection, campus decision-making, and research cooperation. Because of the online teaching and COVID-related isolation policy, members of the university need a higher ability of online information access, spreading, and sharing. In the data management and cultural heritage field, The Virtual Tour environment, as a new 3D interactive method, has been widely used with positive results. However, this method hasn't been used in the campus information access context. This study introduces the Virtual Tour Environment into the UC campus context and adopted the Virtual Tour environment in the UC New application prototype design. Two research processes are included in this study. Firstly, an auto-ethnography method is used to generate the framework and principles for further testing. Secondly, I used to research through design as a method and create a prototype to test and collect feedback from users. By using user experience elements theory, I analyze the data that I collect from five layers of the user experience. The result of this work shows how the VTE affects the campus information experience in a systematic way. This result can provide a reference for other designers or schools to improve their information accessing experience in a similar context.

Committee: Brooke Brandewie (Committee Member); Emily Verba Fischer M.F.A. (Committee Member) Subjects: Design

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2020, Educational Research and Evaluation (Education)

Two main research problems were addressed in the current study. First, the researcher explored the impact of e-mail prenotification, follow-up reminders and of mixed-mode design on survey response rates in Saudi Arabia among four conditions when applying a 2 (pre-notification: Yes, No) × 2 (Follow-up: E-mail, WhatsApp) between-subjects factorial design. Further, this study investigated the impact of including the phrase, “all I need is 10 more people,” during survey distribution. Results indicated that using both e-mail prenotification and follow-up reminders simultaneously, as well as multiple follow-up reminders in the form of both email and social media applications increased response rate. Further, using the phrase “all I need is 10 more people” during the second-follow reminder both elevated the response rate and provided support from the university to the researcher. Second, the researcher demonstrated whether the analytic choice between MR and SEM affected the results when examining the factors impacting the research productivity of faculty members in Saudi Arabia. Results indicated that using either MR or SEM delivered different results in terms of significant predictors and the model's overall explained variance. Further, differential outcomes produced by the various SEM models employed illustrate how the incorrection specification of formative (causal) indicators can result in worse data-fitting models. Implications for selecting analytic procedures are discussed.

Committee: Gordon Brooks (Committee Chair); Yuchun Zhou (Committee Member); Charles Lowery (Committee Member); Lijing Yang (Committee Member); Anirudh Ruhil (Committee Member) Subjects: Education

MDES, University of Cincinnati, 2019, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Design

Chinese international students face high rates of professional mental health (MH) concerns, but they demonstrate less help-seeking behaviors, such as seeking professional counseling. The underutilization of MH resources presents a challenge to colleges and universities. This study is aimed at assessing the perceptions and the barriers of international Chinese graduate students that prevent them from accessing professional MH services at UC. The goal of this study is to create a toolkit that addresses cultural sensitivity to help these students easily conduct self-directed MH care at an early stage. This study uses qualitative research methods to allow participants to extensively express their experiences and perceptions of professional MH services. About 10 in-depth interviews were conducted with graduate Chinese international students at UC, that included but not limited to the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP) students. Three significant barriers preventing Chinese graduate students from accessing MH services are lack of mental health resources, concerns of privacy protection, and language interpretation. Additionally, limited knowledge of self-directed care, lack regular treatment time due to busy academic schedules and a shortage of culturally appropriate services pose further difficulties.

Committee: Craig Vogel M.I.D. (Committee Chair); Gerald Michaud M.A. (Committee Member); Danny T. Y. Wu PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Design

Master of Sciences (Engineering), Case Western Reserve University, 0, EECS - Computer Engineering

The concept of self-management has been mentioned frequently in the medical field due to the stronger awareness and attention to human health. As a result, the self-management intervention (SMI) is introduced as the support tool by some medical providers such as doctors. The traditional intervention relies on the providers and it will cost unnecessary resources and the effect of the common intervention is also limited. It is reported that 95% of Americans have an active smartphone subscription and the wearable devices are becoming more affordable and accurate. Therefore, the optimization of the self-management intervention based on the novel mobile technology can be realized. Thus, the author proposed a mobile software system that combines the portable device, the android app, and the Internet message service in order to provide self-tailor interventions for the users. The core principle of the design is the skills of self-management (problem solving, decision making, resource utilization, the formation of a patient-provider partnership, action planning, and self-tailoring). Multiple functions utilizing sensor data and user's information are designed to assist to provide more information to the users, create a self-tailoring plan and strengthen the relationship between the users and providers. There are two projects, Path2Quit (smoking cessation project) and ADAPT (SMI for mobility impairments), developed based on this system and the results of the pilot tests proved that the efficiency of users' healthful self-management and the satisfaction level of the intervention are increased with the involvement of the software system according to the feedback from the users.

Committee: Ming-Chun Huang (Advisor); Xusheng Xiao (Committee Member); Michael Fu (Committee Member) Subjects: Computer Engineering

MDES, University of Cincinnati, 2019, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Design

Sustainable tourism has become the shift in tourism development because it is benefiting residents, tourists and the environment. Persuasion for sustainability is not relatively new, notions like “green design'' and “green technology'' consider changing people's habits through persuasive system design. Starting from these facts, this thesis project aims to promote sustainable tourism through persuasive design. The method of persuasive design evaluation showed that effective persuasive designs are existing in tourism programs today to influence tourists' behaviors. Some evaluation got bad results because people don't understand what trigger behavior change effectively and efficiently. This thesis project aims to understand tourists' behaviors and attitudes and find out the barriers for tourists to be green on tours. From the methods of the sustainable behavior survey and the sustainable attitude survey, the significant negative sustainable tourism behaviors and attitudes were uncovered. They were organized into 6 significant persuasion contents. From the interviews, the tourists' barriers to perform the target sustainable behaviors were identified. In the end, the persuasive design principles were proposed specifically for sustainable tourism. At the same time, from the experiment of promoting sustainable tourism behaviors, a new persuasive design methodology and a persuasive design process were proposed.

Committee: Steven Doehler M.A. (Committee Chair); Craig Vogel M.I.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Design

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2019, Instructional Technology (Education)

The study sought to investigate to what extent a technology-integration course constructed with guidance from the Learning By Design (LBD) instructional approach and TPACK instructional methods facilitates preservice teachers' TPACK development at a mid-sized Midwestern university in the United States. The study employed a case study approach and utilized multiple data collection methods, including a TPACK survey instrument, which was used to identify the changes in TPACK as perceived knowledge after the LBD-based course; content document analysis to gauge TPACK as applied knowledge in the preservice teachers' teaching products produced during the LBD process; and analysis of participant interviews to investigate the preservice teachers' interpretation of their technology-integration experience during the LBD process. Results indicated a significant change in preservice teachers' TPACK in the knowledge domains of TCK, TPK, and TPACK, with effect sizes ranging from medium to large. The findings from the content document analysis indicate that the preservice teachers reflected their self-confidence in TPACK in their instructional practices. When the participants felt that their TPK, TCK, and TPACK increased, they reflected an application of them in their teaching products. Among the aforementioned integrative knowledge constructs, the preservice teachers' application of TPK was the highest, and it involves utilizing technology to enhance students' learning and meet diverse learners' needs. The findings reveal that the preservice teachers had difficulty applying TCK as an integrative form of knowledge. The findings from the interview analysis revealed that Learning By Design helps develop preservice teachers' confidence regarding using technology integration in their future classroom teaching. Some of the major LBD benefits included providing preservice teachers with hands-on teaching experience with technology that allowed them to draw upon their previous pedagogical (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: David Moore (Committee Chair) Subjects: Curriculum Development; Design; Education; Educational Technology; Educational Tests and Measurements

Master of Computer Science, Miami University, 2012, Computer Science and Software Engineering

This thesis suggests a software architecture for a video discussion board using the Online Language Environment (OLE) Board as a case study. A more suitable architecture will enable it to meet its goals. Goals for the new board are to support future developers and users. Developer-oriented goals are ease of readability, maintenance, and enhancement. User-oriented goals are ease of use, new or improved features such as data collection, and enhanced security. The old system is out of date, making planned expansion difficult. The new system uses a Model-View-Controller architecture utilizing updated frameworks. Updated protocols based on XML were introduced, and elements were added to allow for new features. Developer goals have been met with minimal drawbacks. The new board was used by 42 students at the University of Aizu and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. New features proved useful and security was increased, with some decrease in usability during initial testing.

Committee: Dr. Douglas Troy (Advisor); Dr. Scott Campbell (Committee Member); Dr. Paul Lyddon (Committee Member) Subjects: Computer Science; Educational Software; Educational Technology