A Dissertation Exploring the Issues Surrounding the Rapid Development of Information Appliances by Designers

Abstract

This PhD by published works dissertation includes seven peer reviewed publications. The author uses selected papers to demonstrate the novelty of the work, summarising papers’ findings and illustrating as appropriate. The Introduction explains the way in which the work has developed, its focus and the raison d'être for the order in which the papers are presented. Contribution to New Knowledge briefly summarises the contribution of the outputs individually and collectively to the author’s chosen field. The Background chapter explains the work’s origins, how the author became interested in the field, how he developed his initial interests into a research topic and the timescale of events. Two papers; The Virtual Environment in Design Projects (1999) and Designing a Learning Environment for Three Dimensional Thinkers (2000) are used as reference material. In the Current Practice and Application chapter the work of other researchers relevant to the field of enquiry and the current practices of the design and manufacturing industry are discussed. References to papers included in this submission are cited as necessary. The IE System; Origins and First Workable Manifestations chapter describes how the various elements of the system came together to form one coherent methodology. The chapter details how the work progressed from early manifestations and describes the development of the IE2 and IE3.

The Trials and Empirical Performance Measurement chapter uses material from two papers: The Traditional Design Process Versus a New Design Methodology: A Comparative Case Study of a Rapidly Designed Information Appliance and Rapid Development of Tangible Interactive Appliances: Achieving the Fidelity / Time Balance. Through reference to these papers the author summarises the results of the various trials described in detail within them. The dissertation concludes by describing the latest and future work with colleagues at Lancaster University and Sony-Ericsson. The IE4, IE5 and IE6 are described and the plans for the future research are discussed.