Advances in Creativity, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Communication of Design: Proceedings of the AHFE 2021 Virtual Conferences on Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and Human Factors in Communication of Design, July 25-29, 2021, USA 9783030800932, 9783030800949

This book brings together experts from different areas to show how creativity drives design and innovation in different

1,419 181 87MB

English Pages 627 [630] Year 2021

Report DMCA / Copyright

DOWNLOAD PDF FILE

Table of contents :
Advances in Human Factors and Ergonomics 2021
Preface
Contents
Creativity and Thinking Styles
Overcoming Bounded Scalability: Achieving Interoperability Through Behavioral Boundary Objects
1 Introduction
2 Overcoming Bounded Scalability in Behavioral Design
2.1 Methodology to Achieve Learning at Scale
3 Behavioral Boundary Objects: Pattern Languages
4 Conclusion
References
Creative Inspiration
1 Introduction
2 Context
3 Process
4 Conclusions
References
Beyond IDEO’s Design Thinking: Combining KJ Method and Kansei Engineering for the Creation of Creativity
1 Introduction
2 Design Thinking 2.0: KJ Method and Kansei Engineering
3 Overcome the Barriers for Design Thinking 2.0
3.1 Linguistic Barrier
3.2 Disciplinary Barrier
3.3 Cultural Barrier
3.4 Summary
4 Behind KJ Method: Prof Kawakita’s View of the World
4.1 KJ Method and Design Thinking with a Wider Definition
4.2 The World as an Organic Entity
5 Beyond Borders: Managing Kansei Design
6 Conclusion
References
Blending Design Thinking and Design Futures: Facing the Complexity of Uncertain Futures
1 Introduction
2 How does Design Deals with Complex Futures?
3 Touchpoints Between Design Thinking, Design Futures, and Futures Thinking
4 Conclusions and Future Activities
References
Fractal Features of Creative Thinking Process
1 Introduction
2 Methodology
2.1 Cognitive Experiment
2.2 Coding
2.3 Fractal Analysis
3 Results and Discussion
3.1 Participants’ Information
3.2 Fractal Features
3.3 Thinking Process
3.4 Influencing Factors
4 Implications
5 Conclusions and Opportunities for Further Research
References
Contextual Knowledge Sharing Strategy Based on Contextual Thinking in Service Design
1 Introduction
2 Service Design and Contextual Knowledge
3 Visualization as a Means of Knowledge Communication
4 Mechanism and Strategy of Contextual Knowledge Sharing in Service Design
5 Conclusion
References
Innovation During Start-Up and Entrepreneurship
3C-Crisis-Concept for SME: Complexity, Capacity and Competence
1 Introduction
2 Approach
3 Discussion
4 Conclusion
References
The Evolutionary Nature of Innovation Businesses
1 Introduction
2 The Design Business Development as a Process
3 The Business Development Canvas
4 The Interconnected Nature of Startups
5 The Business Development Diamond
6 Conclusion
References
Inspiration Mining: Exploring Design Research(ers) Strategies
1 Introduction
1.1 Interdisciplinary Design Process by Ana Ricardo
1.2 (Un)complexity by Ana Almeida
1.3 The 21st Century Consumer by Inês Gonçalino
1.4 Emerging Cultural Landscapes by Raquel Gouveia
1.5 The Manifest of the Mind by Sara Condeça
2 Inspiration Mining Research Strategy
References
Democratic Organizational Culture for SMEs Innovation Transformation and Corporate Entrepreneurship
1 Introduction
2 Challenges in the SMEs Innovation Culture
3 Research Methodology, Methods and Results
4 Changing the SMEs Innovation DNA
5 The Democratic SME Innovation Transformation (DeSEMIT) Model
6 The DeSMEIT for Corporate Entrepreneurship in SMEs
7 Impact, Limitations, and Areas of Further Research
8 Conclusion
References
Environment and Sustainability
Bilateral Knowledge-Sharing for New Product Development Under the UN Sustainable Development Goals
1 Introduction
2 The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
3 The Innovation Paradox
4 A Democratic Approach to Social Product Development
5 The Bilateral Knowledge-Sharing
6 Transforming CSR and Achieving the SDGs
7 Limitations and Areas of Further Research
8 Conclusions
References
Beyond Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Democratizing CSR Towards Environmental, Social and Governance Compliance
1 Introduction
2 CSR Expectations and Opportunities
3 The CSR to ESG Democratic Transition
4 The CSR to ESG Facilitator
5 The Democratic CSR to ESG Model
6 Agile Implementation of the Democratic CSR to ESG Model
7 The Democratic CSR Organization-Society Co-evolutionary Model
8 The Democratic CRM Organization-Society Co-evolutionary Model
9 Limitations and Areas of Further Research
10 Conclusion
References
Tailor-Made Smart Sustainable City
1 Smart Sustainable City
2 The Essence and Use of the QFD Method
3 Analysis of Smart Sustainable City Elements Using QFD
3.1 Input Information
3.2 Means of Obtaining Information
3.3 Data Processing
3.4 The Assessment of Implementation Difficulties
4 Application
References
The Design of Take-Away Garbage Collection System Based on Service Design
1 Introduction
2 Research Status
2.1 Status of Takeaway Tableware
2.2 Status of Packaging Recycling
3 Theoretical Research
3.1 Status of Packaging Recycling
3.2 Introduction to TRIZ Theory
3.3 Innovation Design Method Based on CBR and TRIZ Theory
4 Take-Away Waste Recycling Service System
4.1 TRIZ-Based Service Design Conflict Resolution
4.2 Service System Construction
5 Conclusion
References
Health and Well Being
Wellbeing and Healthcare: Exploring Ways of Interactive Prototyping with Mental Process
1 Introduction
2 Research Approach
3 Design
3.1 Pregsport
3.2 CareforCarers
4 Conclusion
References
A Conceptual Design of a Modular Multifunctional Nursing Bed for Moderately Disabled Patients
1 Introduction
2 User Research
2.1 Observation
2.2 Interview
3 Process and Prototype Development
3.1 Concept
3.2 Cardboard modeling
3.3 Prototype developing
4 Evaluation of Nursing Bed Design
5 Conclusion
References
Disinfection of Vehicle Interior Space as a Major Step Towards the Recovery and Development of Post-pandemic Car-Sharing Industry
1 Background
1.1 In the Post-epidemic Era, Epidemic Prevention Becomes Normal
1.2 The Relationship Between Public Transport and the Spread of the Epidemic
1.3 Rising Awareness of the Cleanliness in Car-Sharing Services
1.4 Changing Travailing Patterns in the Post-epidemic Era
1.5 Shared Car Cleaning System Is Immature
2 Reasons for Perfecting Cleaning System
3 Suggestions for Conquering the Challenge
3.1 Formulate Corresponding Encouragement Policies
3.2 Establish a Unified and Standardized Clean Management
3.3 Enhance Consumer Recognition of the Sharing Industry
3.4 Establish a Flexible and Efficient Internet Emergency Response Mechanism
4 Conclusion
References
A Home-Based Upper Limb-Rehabilitation Service System for Patients with Mild-Stroke
1 Introduction
2 Literature Review on Upper Limb-Rehabilitation
2.1 Upper Limb Movements
2.2 Upper Limb Rehabilitation Theories
2.3 Upper Limb Rehabilitation Assessments
3 Qualitative Field Research
3.1 Observation
3.2 Interview
3.3 Results of the Qualitative Research
4 A Product Service System Design
5 Conclusion
References
Culture and Globalization
Democratic Governmental Corporate Entrepreneurship for the Transformation of the Public Sector in the Balkan Region
1 Introduction
2 Public Sector Challenges in Knowledge Management
3 Research Methodology, Methods, and Results
4 Towards a Public Sector Entrepreneurial Culture
5 The Holistic Government Corporate Entrepreneurship Model (HGCEM)
6 Impact of the HGCEM in the Public Sector
7 Limitations of the HGCEM Model
8 Areas of Further Research
9 Conclusion
References
Strategic Utilization of the VR and AR Technologies for the African Cultural Heritage Promotion and Management
1 Introduction
2 The Cultural Digital Transformation of Egypt
3 Extending the Cultural Digital Transformation of Egypt with VR and AR
4 The Bardo Museum in Tunis
5 The Museum/Castle in Oman
6 Technology Architecture and Infrastructure
7 Alignment with the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa 2024, and the UN 2030 Sustainable Agenda
8 Areas of Further Research
9 Conclusions
References
Application of Defamiliarized Illustrations to the Design of Culture and Creative Products
1 Introduction
2 Overview of Defamiliarization Theory
3 Illustrations’ Significance in the Design of Cultural and Creative Products from the Perspective of Defamiliarization
3.1 Improve the Novelty of Cultural and Creative Products
3.2 Intensify the Taste of Cultural and Creative Products
3.3 Strengthen the Originality of Cultural and Creative Products
4 “Defamiliarization” Strategy in the Design of Cultural and Creative Illustrations
4.1 Defamiliarization of Drawing Content
4.2 Defamiliarization from the Perspective of Viewing Angle
4.3 Defamiliarization from the Perspective of Drawing Material
4.4 Defamiliarization from the Perspective of Form of Expression
5 Conclusion
5.1 Value and Meaning of the Application of Defamiliarization
5.2 The Application Mode in Cultural and Creative Illustrations and Points Worth Noting
References
Knowledge Cities: ICT and Urban Components
1 Introduction
2 Theoretical Framework
2.1 The IM and ICT
2.2 The Innovative Milieu: Planned and Spontaneous Cases
2.3 Knowledge Cities and Economic Systems
3 Method
4 Results
4.1 Components and Conditions for the IM
4.2 The Components of the Knowledge City
4.3 Spatial Changes Framed in the KC. The 22@Barcelona Innovative Milieu
5 Discussion and Conclusions
References
The 4Es of Management: Managing Cultural Exchange in Multinational Corporations
1 Introduction
2 Multinational Corporations in Developing Countries
3 Pitfalls of Product Development for Developing Markets
4 Democratic Knowledge Management
5 The 4Es of Cultural Exchange Management
6 The 4Es Execution Process
7 Cultural Exchange for Democratic Product Development
8 Limitations and Areas of Further Research
9 Conclusions
References
Temporal Focus and Innovativeness of Consumers in the Use of Technologies: A Cross-Cultural Study
1 Introduction
2 Literature Review
2.1 Consumer Innovativeness
2.2 Temporal Focus
3 Materials and Methods
4 Analysis and Results
5 Discussion and Conclusions
References
Organizing Global Democratic Collaboration in Crisis Contexts: The International Triangulation System
1 Introduction
2 Multifactorial Disruptions of Unprecedented Magnitude
3 The Global Coordination Problem in Crisis Management
4 The International Collaboration Guideline for Crisis Management (ICGCM)
4.1 Addressing a Potential Organization for the Global Alliance
4.2 Defining the ICGCM Guideline
4.3 Applying the ICGCM
5 Coordinating Parallel ICGCMs Geographically and Across Disciplines: Federating the Global Alliance
5.1 The ITP: International Triangulation Procedure
5.2 The International Triangulation System (ITS)
6 Conclusions
References
Knowledge and New Technology
Identification of Potentials for the Personalization of Products
1 Problem and Objective
2 State of the Art
3 Methodological Approach
4 Method and Tool for the Analysis of Potentials
5 Exemplary Testing
6 Discussion and Future Work
References
Digital Museum Transformation Strategy Against the Covid-19 Pandemic Crisis
1 Introduction
2 Covid-19: Need of Digital Art
3 Research Methodology and Key Results
4 The COVID-19 Impact and Opportunities on Digital Art
5 Towards Gamified and Digital Museums
6 The Impact of Avatar Technology in Virtual Museums
7 An Avatar Based Digital Museum Architecture
8 Limitations and Areas of Further Research
9 Conclusions
References
An Interactive Design Solution Based on AR Technology for Mobile Phone Addicted User
1 Introduction
2 User Research
2.1 Observation
2.2 Context Mapping and Interview
2.3 Research Results
3 Design Process
3.1 Concepts
3.2 Hardware Design
3.3 Interaction Design
4 Conclusion
References
Packaging Design of Children's Toys Based on Synesthesia
1 Meaning of Synaesthesia in the Design of Children’s Toy Package
1.1 What is Synaesthesia
1.2 Children’s Potential Synaesthetic Ability
1.3 Rationality of Synaesthesia in Children’s Toy Package
2 Creating Synaesthesia in Children’s Toy Package
2.1 Initial Sensation Experience
2.2 Behavioral Experience
2.3 Emotional Experience
3 Essential Elements Constructing Synaesthetic Experience in Children’s Toy Package
3.1 Synaesthesia of Visual Image
3.2 Distinction of Material Combination
3.3 Formalization of Package Structure
4 Experiment of Synaesthetic Elements in Children’s Toy Package
4.1 Experiment Objective
4.2 Experiment Content
4.3 Result of the Experiment
References
E-commerce Perspective in Kids and Toys Sector Purchase Process: Design Opportunity
1 Introduction
2 Design for Usability and User Experience (UX)
3 The Research Method
4 Findings
5 Conclusions
References
Demands Exploration of Future Interior Layout in Shared Mobility Using Design Fiction
1 Introduction
1.1 Motivation
1.2 Prior Studies
1.3 Research Goal
2 Basis for Study Methodology
2.1 Design Fiction
2.2 User Enactment
3 Workshop Design
3.1 Study-Arranging AVs Layout for Future Carpooling Experiences
3.2 Assumptions
3.3 Procedure
3.4 Results
4 Conclusion
References
A Fintech Approach Towards Resolving the Young Adult Home Ownership Challenge
1 Introduction
2 Home Ownership Challenge
3 Research Methodology
4 Research Results Analysis and Proposed Solution
5 Co-sharing Platform Operations
6 Socio-Economic Impact of the Proposed Solution
7 Limitations and Areas of Further Research
8 Conclusions
References
Applications of Blockchain Technology in the Construction Industry
1 Introduction
2 Blockchain Technology in the Construction Industry
3 Research Methodology
4 Findings and Discussion
4.1 Background Information
4.2 Applications of Blockchain Technology in the Construction Industry
5 Conclusion and Recommendation
References
Education
How Shared Online Whiteboard Supports Online Collaborative Design Activities: A Social Interaction Perspective
1 Introduction
2 Methodology
2.1 Participants
2.2 Online Whiteboard
2.3 Workshop Sections
2.4 Interview Questions
3 Results
3.1 Experiences Related to Affective Expression
3.2 Experiences Related to Open Communication
3.3 Experiences Related to Group Cohesion
4 Discussion and Conclusion
References
Creative Class of “Micro Culture” Creative Industry
1 Introduction
2 Formation and Development of the Creative Industry Focusing on “Micro Culture”
2.1 Formation and Connotation of “Micro Culture”
2.2 Creative Industry Formation Focusing on “Micro Culture”
3 Formation and Development of the Creative Class
3.1 The Rise of the “Creative Class”
3.2 Trend of “Decentralization”
4 Growth Model of the Creative Class
4.1 Cluster Mode with “Micro Enterprise” at Its Core
4.2 Diffusion Mode with “Micro Culture” at Its Core
5 Conclusion
References
Innovation and Entrepreneurship Practice: Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning in an Applied Psychology Context
1 Introduction
2 Settings
3 Project 1 - Google
4 Project 2 - Dolby
5 Project 3 - PSA
6 Reflection
7 Conclusion
References
Perceived Conflict and Resolution Strategy in Collaborative Design of Complex Product from the Perspective of Cognitive Semantics
1 Introduction
2 Research on Modeling Perception and Conflict in Design
2.1 Modeling Elements and Association Rules of Complex Products
2.2 Modeling Perception and Evaluation Attitude in Design
3 Experimental Methods and Processes for the Extraction of Types of Perceived Conflicts
3.1 Research Methods and Steps
3.2 Analysis of Perceived Conflict Types
4 Resolution Strategy of Cognitive Fusion and Emotional Transformation
4.1 Conflict Resolution Path Based on Cognitive Fusion
4.2 Conflict Resolution Path Based on Emotional Transformation
5 Conclusion
References
Understanding the Interrelation Between Prototype Cognition and Creativity in Interdisciplinary Design Course
1 Introduction
2 Core Concept Expansion
2.1 Course Background
2.2 Top-Down Approach: Course Theme
2.3 Through Collaboration
3 Exploratory Prototype Cognition Analysis
3.1 Clustering Analysis Based on Ranking Manhattan Distance
3.2 Extract of Common Ranking Tendency
3.3 Discussion
4 Human Resource for Creativity
References
The Application of Teachers' Encouragement in Design Classroom
1 Introduction
2 Theoretical Background
2.1 Tripartite Encouragement Model (TEM)
2.2 Teacher Encouragement Has an Impact on Creativity
2.3 Encouraging Tools and Measures
3 Research Methods
3.1 Classroom Observation
3.2 Oral Analysis
4 Encouragement Strategy
5 Discussion and Conclusion
References
Interaction and xR Technology
A Novel Pandemic Delivery Pattern for a New Digital User Experience Degree Apprenticeship
1 Introduction
1.1 User Experience Education
1.2 Degree Apprenticeships
2 Programme Development
3 Delivery Model
3.1 Pandemic Response
4 Reflections
4.1 Change in Delivery
4.2 Creating a Community of Practice Online
4.3 Online Teaching
5 Implications for UX Programmes
References
Human Computer Interaction Opportunities in Hand Tracking and Finger Recognition in Ship Engine Room VR Training
1 Introduction
2 Research Rationale
3 Research Methodology
4 Technologies Used and the Finger and Hand Tracking Application Tutorial
5 Experiences of Hand Tracking and UI Implementation
6 Graphic Assets Designed for Hand Tracking System
7 Research Results
8 Areas of Further Research
9 Conclusions
References
Exploring and Reflecting on Generation Z Interaction Qualities and Selfie Scenario Designs
1 Introduction
2 Method
3 iMoonMent Selfie Booth
4 Face-Covering
5 Dual-Scene Online Streaming
6 Conclusion
References
Innovation and Creativity in Business
BossUP! Assessing Potential Hiring Candidates During the Interview Process via an Innovation Diagnostics Card Game
1 Introduction
2 Previous Works
3 Experiment
3.1 Participants
3.2 Pre-interview Survey
3.3 In-Person Interview and Playing BossUP!
3.4 Post-interview Survey
4 Findings and Insights
5 Future Works
6 Conclusion
References
Digital Sales in B2B: Status and Application
1 Introduction
2 Transformation to Digital Sales: The Rise of the Customer Journey
3 Emerging Technologies in B2B Sales
3.1 Virtual and Augmented Reality
3.2 Big Data
3.3 Artificial Intelligence
4 Organizational Alignment to Guide the Customer Journey
5 Discussion
6 Conclusion
References
A Business Transformation Model for Legacy Carriers as a Response to the Rise of Low-Cost Carriers
1 Introduction
2 The Liberalization Impact on the European Aviation Market
3 The Low-Cost Carries Phenomenon
4 Research Methodology and Results
5 Key Strategic Areas for Legacy Carrier Business Transformation
6 Legacy Airline Holistic Business Transformation Strategy
7 Limitations and Areas of Further Research
8 Conclusions
References
Innovation and Creativity in the Independent Market of Comic Books in Brazil
1 Introduction
2 Results and Discussion
3 Conclusion
References
Managing Interdisciplinary Human Intellectual Capital for Project and Organizational Development
1 Introduction
2 Teams and Teaming Challenges
3 The Challenge of Agile Teaming Indicators
4 Research Methodology and Results
5 Degree of Interdisciplinary Intellectual Capital
6 Aristotelian Applied Philosophy
7 The Interdisciplinary Intellectual Identification (I2ID) Canvas
8 Limitations and Areas of Further Research
9 Conclusions
References
Sustainable Leadership Wisdom Cube: Sustainable Leadership Style Evaluation Application to the Wisdom Cube Scientific Knowledge Space
1 Introduction
2 Problem Formulation
3 Research Methodology
4 Leadership Styles
5 The Pink Ocean Strategy
6 The Wisdom Cube Sustainable Leadership Framework
6.1 Framework Implementation
6.2 Sustainable Leadership Style Evaluation
7 Sustainable Leadership Wisdom Cube
8 Sustainable Leader Traits
9 Impact
10 Limitations and Areas of Further Research
11 Conclusion
References
Competitiveness and Innovation on the Frontier of Knowledge: 25th Anniversary Postgraduate in Administration TecNM Tijuana
1 Introduction
2 Framework
2.1 Model and Methodology
3 Conclusions
References
Communication of Design
Mascot Endorsement Provoke the Audiences’ Engagement
1 Introduction
2 Mascot Endorsement
2.1 Benefits of Mascot Endorsement
3 Personification in Advertising
3.1 Advertising Personification and Emotion
4 Emotional Attachment
5 Homophily and Emotion
6 Relationship Between Mascot Endorsements and Emotional Attachment
7 A Pilot Study for Exploring Criteria of Attractive Mascots in Visual
7.1 Research Methods
7.2 Research Results and Discussion
8 Conclusion
References
Understanding Fashion Brand Awareness Using Eye-Tracking: The Mix-and-Match Approach
1 Introduction
2 Research Aims, Hypotheses and Objectives
3 Method
3.1 Sample Selection
3.2 Main Study
4 Results
4.1 Hypothesis 1
4.2 Hypothesis 2
4.3 Hypothesis 3
4.4 Discussion and Conclusions
References
Brand Marks Analysis. Criteria and Evaluation Components to an Analysis Tool
1 Introduction
2 Framework of the Study
3 Conclusions
References
Organizational Design Towards the Configuration of a Media Communication Model
1 Design Process on Economic Strategies
2 Design Towards Strategy
3 Strategy, from Efficiency to Creating Value to Organizations
4 Design as a Strategic Constituent for Development
5 The Symbolic Value of a Organizational Design Model
6 Closing Remarks
References
Investigation the City Environment with the Help of Typographic Communication Design Perspectives
1 Introduction
2 Fonts Are Important Elements
3 Legibility and Communication Along the Streets
4 Readability, Hierarchy and Communication Along the Streets
5 Research Process
6 Research Results
7 Conclusion
References
Guidance and Public Information Systems: Diagnosis and Harmonization of Tourist Signage
1 Introduction
2 The Tourism and the Signage in Portugal
3 The Tourist Signage in Portugal
4 The Tourist Signage Systems
4.1 Tourist-Cultural Signaling
4.2 Walking Routes Signaling
4.3 Cyclable Paths Signaling
4.4 Environmental Signaling
4.5 Signaling of Other Routes and Paths
5 Conclusions
References
Investigation of the Application of Humanized Design Concept in the Evolution Process of Chinese Bed
1 Introduction
2 Humanized Design Concept
2.1 The Concept of Humanized Design
2.2 Principles of Bed Humanized Design
3 The Application of Humanized Design in the Evolution of Chinese Beds
3.1 The Concept of Humanized Design
3.2 The Application of Humanized Design Principles in the Evolution of Chinese Beds
4 Conclusion
References
Analyze the Relationship Between Chinese Painting Strokes and Qi on Inspiration of Art Education-A Study on Jian Bi Stroke
1 Introduction
2 Research Method
3 Planning and Action Process
3.1 Analyze the Relationship Between Chinese Painting Strokes and Qi
3.2 Realization Process of Spirit Resonance of the Painting
3.3 Action
4 Observation and Reflection
5 Conclusion
References
Application of Emotion-Based Design in Brand Communication—Taking KFC as an Example
1 Function and Method of Emotional Design
1.1 Function of Emotional Design
1.2 Methods of Emotional Design
2 Emotional Design in KFC’s Communication
2.1 Emotional Design Based on Instinct Level in KFC Communication Process
2.2 Emotional Design Based on Behavior Level in KFC Communication Process
2.3 Emotional Design Based on Reflection Level in KFC Communication Process
3 Research Conclusions and Future Prospects
References
Pupil Dilation, Emotion Valence, and Recall of Visual Images
1 Introduction
2 Method
2.1 Participants
2.2 Test Stimuli
2.3 Ratings of Images
3 Procedure
4 Results
4.1 Pupil Size Dilation
4.2 Recall of Images
5 Discussion
5.1 Implications of This Study
References
Advertising and Lifestyle: A Brief History of Contemporary Chinese Advertising and Lifestyle Transition
1 Introduction
2 A Brief History of Contemporary Chinese Advertising and Lifestyle Transition
2.1 1978–1985: Renaissance of the Advertising Industry
2.2 1986–1991: Exploration of Modern Advertising
2.3 1992–1998: Rational Development of the Advertising Industry
2.4 1999–2005: Globalization of the Chinese Advertising Industry
2.5 2006–2010: New Media Reshapes the Advertising Industry
2.6 2010–2020 Individual Experience First: Advertising from Information Deliver to Experience Provider
3 Conclusion
References
An Impression Evaluation of Robot Facial Expressions Considering Individual Differences by Using Biological Information
1 Introduction
2 Proposed Method
2.1 Emotion Estimation Using Biological Information
2.2 Type of Robot Facial Expressions
2.3 Three Patterns of Robot Facial Expressions Decision
3 Experiment
3.1 Overview
3.2 Results
4 Machine Learning Approach
4.1 Accuracy
5 Discussion and Conclusion
References
Status Quo and Improvement Design of Nanjing “Qinhuai Gift” Cultural and Creative Products—Take “Zhuang Yuan Lang” as an Example
1 Regional Cultural Background
2 Introduction to Cultural and Creative Products
2.1 “Zhuang Yuan Lang” Doll
2.2 “Zhuang Yuan Lang” Series of Cultural and Creative Products
2.3 “Qinhuai Gift” Cultural and Creative Products
3 Product Status and Market Analysis
3.1 Product Status
3.2 Market Environment
4 Finding Problems and Suggestions for Improvement
4.1 Finding Problems
4.2 Suggestions for Improvement
5 Summary
References
The Role of Auditory Description in Comprehension of Demonstrators: A Pilot Study
1 Introduction
2 Theoretical Framework
2.1 The Role of Auditory Description in Human-Exhibition Communication Process
2.2 Development of a Hypothesis
3 Pilot Study
3.1 Participants
3.2 Data Acquisition
4 Results
4.1 The Correlation of the Level of Comprehension and the Amount of Given Information
4.2 Sufficient (50%) and Optimal Levels (70%) of Comprehension Depending on the Length of the Audio Description
4.3 A Correlation between the Results on the Post-test and Respondents’ Own Perception of Comprehension
5 Discussion
5.1 Balancing Information Density and Comprehension
5.2 Limitations
6 Conclusions
References
Architecture Design of Intangible Cultural Heritage Games Based on WeChat Mini Programs - Chongming Biandan Opera as an Example
1 Introduction
2 Research Status
2.1 The Spread of Biandan Opera
2.2 Intangible Cultural Heritage Game
2.3 WeChat Mini Program
3 Intangible Cultural Heritage Game Case Study
3.1 Mini Program Games
3.2 APP Games
4 Design of Biandan Opera Game Based on WeChat Mini Program
4.1 Mechanism Design
4.2 Opera Story
4.3 Aesthetic Expression
4.4 Interactive Design
5 Conclusion
References
Transnationality, Socialism, Modernity: Text Spread of the Bauhaus and Emergence of Modern Design in China
1 Introduction
2 Transnational Spread of Bauhaus: Translation Work of Proletarian Art Theorists
3 Inspiration from Bauhaus: Avant-Garde Exploration by Early Chinese Design Scholars
4 Conclusion
References
Running Community Solidarity and Well-Being Motivated by Instagram Multimodal Communications Under the COVID-19 Pandemic
1 Introduction
2 Sport, Psychological Health and Well-Being
3 Self-determination by City Runners
3.1 Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations
3.2 Community Solidarity and Interventions
4 Netnography and Multimodal Communications
5 Harbour Runners’ Solidarity Through Instagram
References
Cultural Communication Design Strategies of Primary School Environment from the Perspective of Cultural Cognition
1 Introduction
2 Research Process
2.1 Participants
2.2 Research Method
3 Research Result
3.1 Description
3.2 Related Analysis
4 Conclusion
4.1 Summarize the Elements of Campus Culture and Materialize Them into Corresponding Design Elements
4.2 Make Effective Use of Offline and Online Spaces, Establish Public Display Area
4.3 Attach Importance to the Cultural Design of Parent Waiting Areas, and Effectively Deepen Campus Culture
References
The Hidden Art of Transmedia Storytelling Across Cinema and Video Game
1 Introduction
2 Linkage Between Cinema and Game
3 Conflict and Rising Tension
4 Conclusion
References
The Dark Art of Transmedia Storytelling
1 Introduction
2 From Film Noir to Neo Noir in Cinema and Game
3 Art of the Dark World Building
4 Conclusion
References
Analysis of the Impact on Mexican Consumers of the New Precautionary Legends in Processed Foods with Excess Nutriments
1 Introduction
2 Test
3 Results
4 Findings
5 Conclusion
References
The Adaptation of a Design Research-Action for Social Innovation Within the Criminal Justice System in Times of Pandemic
1 Introduction
2 Action Research
3 Design for Social Innovation
4 Criminal Justice System
5 The Action Research Developed
5.1 Before the Pandemic
5.2 During the Pandemic
6 Conclusions
References
Visual Analytics of Urban Informality and Infrastructure Planning with Tableau for Sustainable Urban Design Research Strategies in Lagos Metropolis
1 Introduction
2 Literature Review
2.1 The Context of Lagos Metropolis
3 Methodology
3.1 Case Study
3.2 Methods
4 Result and Discussion
4.1 Socioeconomic Factor Analysis of UIIP
4.2 Environmental and Infrastructure Factor Analysis of UIIP
5 Sustainable Urban Design Research Strategies for UIIP
5.1 Inclusive Urban Planning Design Research Strategies
6 Conclusion
Appendix
References
Quantitative Method of Regional Color Planning – Field Investigation on Renewal Design of Jiangchuan Street
1 Introduction
2 Research Objectives
2.1 Regional Color Planning
2.2 Site of Field Investigation
3 Research Methodology
3.1 Environmental Color Survey Method
3.2 Color Data Acquisition Method
3.3 The Experimental Process of Color Data Investigation
3.4 Color Data Integration Statistical Method
4 Research Results
4.1 Color Database Establishment
4.2 Building Color Statistics
4.3 Plant Color Statistics
4.4 Public Facilities Environmental Color Statistics
4.5 Shop Signboard Color Statistics
4.6 Theme Color Extraction
5 Conclusion
References
The Post-1995 Generation Color Preference Based on Social Software
1 Introduction
2 Data Collection and Analysis
2.1 Information Survey
2.2 Information Collection
3 Color Information Analysis
4 Conclusion
References
Author Index
Recommend Papers

Advances in Creativity, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Communication of Design: Proceedings of the AHFE 2021 Virtual Conferences on Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and Human Factors in Communication of Design, July 25-29, 2021, USA
 9783030800932, 9783030800949

  • 0 0 0
  • Like this paper and download? You can publish your own PDF file online for free in a few minutes! Sign Up
File loading please wait...
Citation preview

Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems 276

Evangelos Markopoulos Ravindra S. Goonetilleke Amic G. Ho Yan Luximon   Editors

Advances in Creativity, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Communication of Design Proceedings of the AHFE 2021 Virtual Conferences on Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and Human Factors in Communication of Design, July 25–29, 2021, USA

Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems Volume 276

Series Editor Janusz Kacprzyk, Systems Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland Advisory Editors Fernando Gomide, Department of Computer Engineering and Automation—DCA, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering—FEEC, University of Campinas— UNICAMP, São Paulo, Brazil Okyay Kaynak, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey Derong Liu, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, USA; Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China Witold Pedrycz, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alberta, Alberta, Canada; Systems Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland Marios M. Polycarpou, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, KIOS Research Center for Intelligent Systems and Networks, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus Imre J. Rudas, Óbuda University, Budapest, Hungary Jun Wang, Department of Computer Science, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong

The series “Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems” publishes the latest developments in Networks and Systems—quickly, informally and with high quality. Original research reported in proceedings and post-proceedings represents the core of LNNS. Volumes published in LNNS embrace all aspects and subfields of, as well as new challenges in, Networks and Systems. The series contains proceedings and edited volumes in systems and networks, spanning the areas of Cyber-Physical Systems, Autonomous Systems, Sensor Networks, Control Systems, Energy Systems, Automotive Systems, Biological Systems, Vehicular Networking and Connected Vehicles, Aerospace Systems, Automation, Manufacturing, Smart Grids, Nonlinear Systems, Power Systems, Robotics, Social Systems, Economic Systems and other. Of particular value to both the contributors and the readership are the short publication timeframe and the world-wide distribution and exposure which enable both a wide and rapid dissemination of research output. The series covers the theory, applications, and perspectives on the state of the art and future developments relevant to systems and networks, decision making, control, complex processes and related areas, as embedded in the fields of interdisciplinary and applied sciences, engineering, computer science, physics, economics, social, and life sciences, as well as the paradigms and methodologies behind them. Indexed by SCOPUS, INSPEC, WTI Frankfurt eG, zbMATH, SCImago. All books published in the series are submitted for consideration in Web of Science.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15179

Evangelos Markopoulos Ravindra S. Goonetilleke Amic G. Ho Yan Luximon •





Editors

Advances in Creativity, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Communication of Design Proceedings of the AHFE 2021 Virtual Conferences on Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and Human Factors in Communication of Design, July 25–29, 2021, USA

123

Editors Evangelos Markopoulos School of Management University College London London, UK Amic G. Ho School of Arts and Social Science The Open University of Hong Kong Ho Man Tin, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Ravindra S. Goonetilleke Department IELM Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Hong Kong, Hong Kong Yan Luximon Asian Ergonomics Design Lab The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Kowloon, Hong Kong

ISSN 2367-3370 ISSN 2367-3389 (electronic) Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems ISBN 978-3-030-80093-2 ISBN 978-3-030-80094-9 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Advances in Human Factors and Ergonomics 2021

AHFE 2021 Series Editors Tareq Z. Ahram, Florida, USA Waldemar Karwowski, Florida, USA

12th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics and the Affiliated Conferences (AHFE 2021) Proceedings of the AHFE 2021 Virtual Conferences on Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and Human Factors in Communication of Design, July 25–29, 2021, USA.

Advances in Neuroergonomics and Cognitive Engineering Advances in Industrial Design

Advances in Ergonomics in Design Advances in Safety Management and Human Performance Advances in Human Factors and Ergonomics in Healthcare and Medical Devices Advances in Simulation and Digital Human Modeling Advances in Human Factors and System Interactions Advances in the Human Side of Service Engineering Advances in Human Factors, Business Management and Leadership Advances in Human Factors in Robots, Unmanned Systems and Cybersecurity Advances in Human Factors in Training, Education, and Learning Sciences

Hasan Ayaz, Umer Asgher and Lucas Paletta Cliff Sungsoo Shin, Giuseppe Di Bucchianico, Shuichi Fukuda, Yong-Gyun Ghim, Gianni Montagna and Cristina Carvalho Francisco Rebelo Pedro M. Arezes and Ronald L. Boring Jay Kalra, Nancy J. Lightner and Redha Taiar Julia L. Wright, Daniel Barber, Sofia Scataglin and Sudhakar L. Rajulu Isabel L. Nunes Christine Leitner, Walter Ganz, Debra Satterfield and Clara Bassano Jussi Ilari Kantola, Salman Nazir and Vesa Salminen Matteo Zallio, Carlos Raymundo Ibañez and Jesus Hechavarria Hernandez Salman Nazir, Tareq Z. Ahram and Waldemar Karwowski (continued)

v

vi

Advances in Human Factors and Ergonomics 2021

(continued) Advances in Human Aspects of Transportation Advances in Artificial Intelligence, Software and Systems Engineering Advances in Human Factors in Architecture, Sustainable Urban Planning and Infrastructure Advances in Physical, Social & Occupational Ergonomics

Advances in Manufacturing, Production Management and Process Control Advances in Usability, User Experience, Wearable and Assistive Technology Advances in Creativity, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Communication of Design Advances in Human Dynamics for the Development of Contemporary Societies

Neville Stanton Tareq Z. Ahram, Waldemar Karwowski and Jay Kalra Jerzy Charytonowicz, Alicja Maciejko and Christianne S. Falcão Ravindra S. Goonetilleke, Shuping Xiong, Henrijs Kalkis, Zenija Roja, Waldemar Karwowski and Atsuo Murata Stefan Trzcielinski, Beata Mrugalska, Waldemar Karwowski, Emilio Rossi and Massimo Di Nicolantonio Tareq Z. Ahram and Christianne S. Falcão Evangelos Markopoulos, Ravindra S. Goonetilleke, Amic G. Ho and Yan Luximon Daniel Raposo, Nuno Martins and Daniel Brandão

Preface

Creativity is the key driver of innovation. The purpose of the AHFE 2021 conference track on Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship has been bringing together experts from different areas to show how creativity drives design and innovation, and thus merging a wider spectrum of related topics from engineering design, industrial design and ergonomics in design. The peer-reviewed contributions to this track, which have been collected in this book, do cover industrial and business topics within and lying in between disciplines such as information technology, computer science, social science, systems engineering, artificial intelligence, cognitive science and psychology. Communication of design is concerned with understanding users, creating communication and engaging experiences. Users expect communication to be an exciting and interactive experience. To provide such enjoyable and stimulating experiences, researchers in the discipline of communication design have been concerned with human factors research and methods enabling them to enrich communication and optimize design experience. By gathering peer-reviewed contributions presented at the AHFE conference track on Human Factors in Communication of Design, this book merges classical humanistic approaches concerning the role of human needs, emotions, thoughts and actions, with innovative and technological approaches, such as those improving visual experience, at the purpose of optimizing users’ experiences in design consumption, and users’ satisfaction toward the designs. This book is expected to serve professionals, researchers and students dealing with human factors research and methods applied to the field of business innovation and communication of design. It is organized into ten sections:

Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship 1. Creativity and Thinking Styles 2. Innovation During Start-Up and Entrepreneurship

vii

viii

3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Preface

Environment and Sustainability Health and Well-Being Culture and Globalization Knowledge and New Technology Education Interaction and xR Technology Innovation and Creativity in Business

Communication of Design 10. Communication of Design Each section contains research papers that have been reviewed by members of the International Editorial Board. Our sincere thanks and appreciation to the board members as listed below:

Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship E. Au, USA K. Chow, Hong Kong H. Dong, UK E. Gann, Germany M. Hartono, Indonesia T. Hoffmann, Germany B. Lee, Hong Kong L. Liu, China W. Liu, China C. Lung, Taiwan H. Makatsoris, UK C. Nair, USA T. Reunanen, Finland A. Rodrigo, Sri Lanka R. Seva, Philippines K. Sheen, UK L. Shijian, China H. Vanharanta, Finland K. Vergos, UK

Communication of Design S. Cha, Korea E. Hung, Hong Kong K. Kim, Korea

Preface

ix

S. Lam, Hong Kong D. Raposo, Portugal K. Shim, USA J. Shin, USA M. Siu, Hong Kong L. Tan, China X. Xin , China J. Yeo, Singapore D. Yip, Hong Kong We expect this book to provide readers with extensive information of the above-mentioned topics. Intended as a thought-provoking lecture, it is also aimed at inspiring them to contemplate other questions, applications and potential solutions. July 2020

Evangelos Markopoulos Ravindra S. Goonetilleke Amic G. Ho Yan Luximon

Contents

Creativity and Thinking Styles Overcoming Bounded Scalability: Achieving Interoperability Through Behavioral Boundary Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ruth Schmidt and Katelyn Stenger Creative Inspiration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Leonardo Springer Beyond IDEO’s Design Thinking: Combining KJ Method and Kansei Engineering for the Creation of Creativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yuuki Shigemoto Blending Design Thinking and Design Futures: Facing the Complexity of Uncertain Futures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Maria Rita Canina, Laura Anselmi, Carmen Bruno, Chiara Parise, and Davide Minighin Fractal Features of Creative Thinking Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Minghan Weng, Rui hu, Liqun Zhang, and Xiaodong Li Contextual Knowledge Sharing Strategy Based on Contextual Thinking in Service Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Long Yuan and Jun Zhang

3 11

16

24

31

40

Innovation During Start-Up and Entrepreneurship 3C-Crisis-Concept for SME: Complexity, Capacity and Competence . . . Dennis Bakir and Florian Engels

49

The Evolutionary Nature of Innovation Businesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Matthias Hillner

56

xi

xii

Contents

Inspiration Mining: Exploring Design Research(ers) Strategies . . . . . . . Paulo Maldonado, Ana Ricardo, Ana Almeida, Inês Gonçalino, Raquel Gouveia, and Sara Condeça Democratic Organizational Culture for SMEs Innovation Transformation and Corporate Entrepreneurship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Evangelos Markopoulos, Anxhela Bilibashi, and Hannu Vanharanta

65

73

Environment and Sustainability Bilateral Knowledge-Sharing for New Product Development Under the UN Sustainable Development Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Evangelos Markopoulos and Emma Luisa Gann Beyond Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Democratizing CSR Towards Environmental, Social and Governance Compliance . . . . . . . . Evangelos Markopoulos, Alexandra Staggl, Emma Luisa Gann, and Hannu Vanharanta

85

94

Tailor-Made Smart Sustainable City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Daria Motała The Design of Take-Away Garbage Collection System Based on Service Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Zhiwei Zhou and Tao Xi Health and Well Being Wellbeing and Healthcare: Exploring Ways of Interactive Prototyping with Mental Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Yancong Zhu, Xiaohan Wang, Longxin Ma, Bowen Zhang, Yuchen Jing, Xiaoyu Shen, Amanda Liu, and Wei Liu A Conceptual Design of a Modular Multifunctional Nursing Bed for Moderately Disabled Patients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Jing Luo, Yan Luximon, and Xiao Ni Disinfection of Vehicle Interior Space as a Major Step Towards the Recovery and Development of Post-pandemic Car-Sharing Industry . . . 136 Zhiqian Hu and Xiaohan Tu A Home-Based Upper Limb-Rehabilitation Service System for Patients with Mild-Stroke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Liwen Gu, Liangyan Shen, Shimeng Xiao, and Long Liu Culture and Globalization Democratic Governmental Corporate Entrepreneurship for the Transformation of the Public Sector in the Balkan Region . . . . 153 Evangelos Markopoulos, Egi Hoxhallari, and Hannu Vanharanta

Contents

xiii

Strategic Utilization of the VR and AR Technologies for the African Cultural Heritage Promotion and Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 Evangelos Markopoulos, Mika Luimula, Ghazi Benahmed, and Taisto Suominen Application of Defamiliarized Illustrations to the Design of Culture and Creative Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Sheng Zhou and Fan Zhang Knowledge Cities: ICT and Urban Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Sonia Cueva-Ortiz and Jorge Cruz-Cárdenas The 4Es of Management: Managing Cultural Exchange in Multinational Corporations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Evangelos Markopoulos and Emma Luisa Gann Temporal Focus and Innovativeness of Consumers in the Use of Technologies: A Cross-Cultural Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 Jorge Cruz-Cárdenas, Ekaterina Zabelina, Olga Deyneka, and Jorge Guadalupe-Lanas Organizing Global Democratic Collaboration in Crisis Contexts: The International Triangulation System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Evangelos Markopoulos, Ines Selma Kirane, Dea Balaj, and Hannu Vanharanta Knowledge and New Technology Identification of Potentials for the Personalization of Products . . . . . . . 217 Manfred Dangelmaier, Lesley-Ann Mathis, Daniel Ziegler, and Anette Weisbecker Digital Museum Transformation Strategy Against the Covid-19 Pandemic Crisis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 Evangelos Markopoulos, Cristina Ye, Panagiotis Markopoulos, and Mika Luimula An Interactive Design Solution Based on AR Technology for Mobile Phone Addicted User . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 Jing Luo, Yan Luximon, and Huai Fang Packaging Design of Children's Toys Based on Synesthesia . . . . . . . . . . 244 Siming Gui and Xifan Ding E-commerce Perspective in Kids and Toys Sector Purchase Process: Design Opportunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 Benedetta Terenzi and Arianna Vignati

xiv

Contents

Demands Exploration of Future Interior Layout in Shared Mobility Using Design Fiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 Qinxue Yang, Mengchao Ai, Xinyuan Tong, and Long Liu A Fintech Approach Towards Resolving the Young Adult Home Ownership Challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268 Evangelos Markopoulos and Jakob Dubois Applications of Blockchain Technology in the Construction Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 Opeoluwa Akinradewo, Clinton Aigbavboa, Ayodeji Oke, and Innocent Mthimunye Education How Shared Online Whiteboard Supports Online Collaborative Design Activities: A Social Interaction Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285 Qingchuan Li, Jiaxin Zhang, Xin Xie, and Yan Luximon Creative Class of “Micro Culture” Creative Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294 Xiaobao Yu and Hanqing Lin Innovation and Entrepreneurship Practice: Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning in an Applied Psychology Context . . . . . . . . . . 300 Jinge Huang, Lin Gan, Yuchen Jing, Longxin Ma, Qi Zhang, Liuyi Zhao, Mingyu Zheng, Antong Zhang, and Wei Liu Perceived Conflict and Resolution Strategy in Collaborative Design of Complex Product from the Perspective of Cognitive Semantics . . . . . 306 Zheng-tang Tan, Yu-fan Zhou, Zhen Wang, and Dan-hua Zhao Understanding the Interrelation Between Prototype Cognition and Creativity in Interdisciplinary Design Course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315 Lisha Ren, Zhe Sun, and Yue Li The Application of Teachers' Encouragement in Design Classroom . . . . 323 Xiaoyu Li Interaction and xR Technology A Novel Pandemic Delivery Pattern for a New Digital User Experience Degree Apprenticeship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335 Kimberly Anne Sheen, Jillian Griffiths, Derren Wilson, and Stuart Cunningham Human Computer Interaction Opportunities in Hand Tracking and Finger Recognition in Ship Engine Room VR Training . . . . . . . . . 343 Evangelos Markopoulos, Mika Luimula, Werner Ravyse, Jesse Ahtiainen, and Ville Aro-Heinilä

Contents

xv

Exploring and Reflecting on Generation Z Interaction Qualities and Selfie Scenario Designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352 Di Zhu, Ruilin Wang, Ziwei Zhang, Dawei Wang, Xiaohan Meng, and Wei Liu Innovation and Creativity in Business BossUP! Assessing Potential Hiring Candidates During the Interview Process via an Innovation Diagnostics Card Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361 Kiahsheng Teo, Jeffrey T. K. V. Koh, Keith Wong, Karin Aue, John Chan, and Bassam Jabry Digital Sales in B2B: Status and Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369 Heiko Fischer, Sven Seidenstricker, Thomas Berger, and Timo Holopainen A Business Transformation Model for Legacy Carriers as a Response to the Rise of Low-Cost Carriers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376 Evangelos Markopoulos and Fabian Jan Friedrich Hesse Innovation and Creativity in the Independent Market of Comic Books in Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386 Rodrigo Sergio F. de Paiva, Fernando Henrique Athayde, and Christianne Falcao Managing Interdisciplinary Human Intellectual Capital for Project and Organizational Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394 Evangelos Markopoulos, Philipp Robl, and Emma Luisa Gann Sustainable Leadership Wisdom Cube: Sustainable Leadership Style Evaluation Application to the Wisdom Cube Scientific Knowledge Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403 Evangelos Markopoulos, Lisa Marie Carolin Winter, and Hannu Vanharanta Competitiveness and Innovation on the Frontier of Knowledge: 25th Anniversary Postgraduate in Administration TecNM Tijuana . . . . 414 Rodolfo Martinez-Gutierrez, Maria Esther Ibarra-Estrada, Carlos Hurtado-Sanchez, Carmen Esther Carey-Raygoza, Beatriz Chavez-Ceja, and Artemio Lara-Chavez Communication of Design Mascot Endorsement Provoke the Audiences’ Engagement . . . . . . . . . . 423 Kevin Tsz Chun Kwok and Amic G. Ho Understanding Fashion Brand Awareness Using Eye-Tracking: The Mix-and-Match Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432 Pilar Contero-López, Carmen Torrecilla-Moreno, Carmen Escribá-Pérez, and Manuel Contero

xvi

Contents

Brand Marks Analysis. Criteria and Evaluation Components to an Analysis Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441 Daniel Raposo, Fernando Moreira da Silva, João Neves, José Silva, Rogério Ribeiro, and Ricardo Correia Organizational Design Towards the Configuration of a Media Communication Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452 Jorge Brandão Pereira and Vítor Quelhas Investigation the City Environment with the Help of Typographic Communication Design Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459 Ruth P. W. Chau and Amic G. Ho Guidance and Public Information Systems: Diagnosis and Harmonization of Tourist Signage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466 João Neves, Fernando Moreira da Silva, Daniel Raposo, José Silva, Rogério Ribeiro, and Ricardo Correia Investigation of the Application of Humanized Design Concept in the Evolution Process of Chinese Bed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474 Li Xu, Xueting Wang, Yeqing Lu, and Xiuhua Zhang Analyze the Relationship Between Chinese Painting Strokes and Qi on Inspiration of Art Education-A Study on Jian Bi Stroke . . . . . . . . . 483 Xue Hu, Eakachat Joneurairatana, and Sone Simatrang Application of Emotion-Based Design in Brand Communication—Taking KFC as an Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490 Xiaoning Jiang and Fan Zhang Pupil Dilation, Emotion Valence, and Recall of Visual Images . . . . . . . . 498 Mritunjay Kumar, Rajesh Ranjan, Braj Bhushan, Satyaki Roy, and Ahmed Sameer Advertising and Lifestyle: A Brief History of Contemporary Chinese Advertising and Lifestyle Transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506 Wenhua Li, Jia Xin Xiao, and Jiaying Huang An Impression Evaluation of Robot Facial Expressions Considering Individual Differences by Using Biological Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514 Kai Yu, Muhammad Nur Adilin Mohd Anuardi, Peeraya Sripian, and Midori Sugaya Status Quo and Improvement Design of Nanjing “Qinhuai Gift” Cultural and Creative Products—Take “Zhuang Yuan Lang” as an Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522 Yongyan Guo and Bingqing Sun

Contents

xvii

The Role of Auditory Description in Comprehension of Demonstrators: A Pilot Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530 Aleksandra Sviridova, Stefanie Everaerts, Laura Tas, Salma Yachchou, Lotte van Hoofstat, and Jouke Verlinden Architecture Design of Intangible Cultural Heritage Games Based on WeChat Mini Programs - Chongming Biandan Opera as an Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539 QianYu Zhang, Wei Ding, Jie Zhou, Xiaolin Li, and Xinyao Huang Transnationality, Socialism, Modernity: Text Spread of the Bauhaus and Emergence of Modern Design in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547 Yuxi Zhou and Shuwang Zhao Running Community Solidarity and Well-Being Motivated by Instagram Multimodal Communications Under the COVID-19 Pandemic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554 Sunny Sui-kwong Lam Cultural Communication Design Strategies of Primary School Environment from the Perspective of Cultural Cognition . . . . . . . . . . . 562 Jingyi Xia and Fanqiang Kong The Hidden Art of Transmedia Storytelling Across Cinema and Video Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569 David Kei-man Yip The Dark Art of Transmedia Storytelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574 David Kei-man Yip Analysis of the Impact on Mexican Consumers of the New Precautionary Legends in Processed Foods with Excess Nutriments . . . 580 Mariel Garcia-Hernandez, Fabiola Cortes-Chavez, Marco Marin-Alvarez, Alberto Rossa-Sierra, Elvia Luz Gonzalez-Muñoz, and Brenda Denisse Rivero-Orozco The Adaptation of a Design Research-Action for Social Innovation Within the Criminal Justice System in Times of Pandemic . . . . . . . . . . 588 Caio Miolo de Oliveira, Rita Assoreira Almendra, Tiago Leitão, and Ana Rita Alves Lourenço Visual Analytics of Urban Informality and Infrastructure Planning with Tableau for Sustainable Urban Design Research Strategies in Lagos Metropolis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596 Oluwole Soyinka and Alain Chiaradia Quantitative Method of Regional Color Planning – Field Investigation on Renewal Design of Jiangchuan Street . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608 Lingling Chen and Fanqiang Kong

xviii

Contents

The Post-1995 Generation Color Preference Based on Social Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 618 Ren Long and Zheqian Peng Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625

Creativity and Thinking Styles

Overcoming Bounded Scalability: Achieving Interoperability Through Behavioral Boundary Objects Ruth Schmidt1(B) and Katelyn Stenger2 1 Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, USA

[email protected]

2 Department of Engineering Systems and Environment, University of Virginia,

Charlottesville, USA [email protected]

Abstract. Behavioral design’s preference for bespoke, contextualized solutions to behavioral challenges allows it to solve targeted problems with precision, but also makes it difficult to systematically capture and apply lessons from successful interventions. This state of “bounded scalability” is traditionally framed as a generalizability challenge to scaling solutions; however, it may be better characterized as an interoperability challenge, which requires new methodology to democratize who gets to participate, and supports learning in addition to problem solving. Deploying boundary objects—artifacts and concepts that can effectively translate content across disciplinary contexts—as a means to achieve interoperability can lower the bar to sharing and applying effective intervention outcomes, while also raising the floor for less formally trained practitioners. In particular, the boundary objects known as pattern languages that support both analytic and synthetic activities may help interdisciplinary collaborators and non-professionals more effectively participate in behavioral problem solving. Keywords: Behavioral design · Scalability · Boundary object · Interoperability

1 Introduction Behavioral design—generally defined as purposefully shaping an environment to influence behavior, decision-making, and judgment in an effort to overcome Simon’s notion of “bounded rationality”—has traditionally relied on see-one/solve-one problem solving that results in individual unit level solutions [1, 2]. This has contributed to many effective interventions while also resulting in a tension between scale and specificity that hampers practitioners’ ability to transfer lessons learned in individual contexts effectively to others. As a result, the field continues to struggle to generalize findings across concrete instances as a means to scale its impact [3], even when individual interventions are successful [4, 5], resulting in a current state of “bounded scalability”. However, what if what appears to be a generalizability challenge, oriented to problem/solution application, is actually an interoperability problem of translation between © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 3–10, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_1

4

R. Schmidt and K. Stenger

systems? We propose that the most significant limiting factor in scaling behavioral design is human—epistemological and communicative—rather than procedural, requiring a redistribution and expansion of problem-solving ownership and knowledge to an expanded cast of characters who participate in behavioral problem solving, and the development of new methodology to support how that knowledge is built and transferred amongst them. In this paper, we first characterize previous attempts to overcome behavioral design’s bounded scalability and indicate how their collective pursuit of generalizability has neglected the potential of interoperability as an alternate mechanism for scale. We describe how shifting to a focus on interoperability can help overcome bounded scalability in two specific ways: democratizing who participates in the discipline through increased support for interdisciplinarity and positioning methodology and learning as co-equal to theory and practice to further develop behavioral design as a capability. We then demonstrate how methodological boundary objects, and specifically the notion of a “pattern language,” can address bounded scalability by affording a structure to capture both analytical and synthetic approaches, such that both novices and experts contribute to and participate in the learning and doing of behavioral design. To support these claims, we use the case of pattern languages successes within User Interface User Design (UX/UI) design. We conclude by indicating potential limitations to this approach and next steps.

2 Overcoming Bounded Scalability in Behavioral Design Efforts to systematize problem solving in behavioral design are as old as the field itself, occurring first in early mnemonics such as MINDSPACE [6] and EAST [7] that primarily provided reminders about common solution components. More structured models such as COM-B [8] and BASIC [9] have attempted to classify approaches to behavioral challenges through taxonomies or toolkits, while still others have suggested that the key to scaling solutions resides in finding patterns behind the mechanisms of successful interventions to provide clues about which might be more likely to work in certain contexts [10]. Alternatively, proponents of “budging” have suggested that because solutions are variable and reliant on people’s beliefs, barriers to action, and the applicable cultural context, practitioners should use results of successful interventions to inform “decision rules” that augment traditional literature searches [11]. Finally, researchers working to close the gap between practice and theory have proposed models that essentially reverse engineer solutions to confirm the presence of underlying theory [2, 12, 13]. These approaches have contributed valuable expansions to the thoughtful and rigorous application of behavior insight to real-world challenges, yet collectively assume the path to scale is primarily one of essentially dialing up more of the same approach— whether practitioners, processes, or goals—to create efficiencies in connecting theory to practice. In addition, the use of frameworks within behavioral design practice tends to be centralized and top-down. This neglects two potential alternative mechanisms to scale: expanding who participates in behavioral problem solving through increasing interdisciplinarity and the diversity of practitioner audiences, and evolving beyond behavioral design’s focus on theory and practice to develop a more robust set of methodologies that support capabilities for learning and doing.

Overcoming Bounded Scalability

5

Interdisciplinarity. Early and influential behavioral scientists primarily came from the fields of psychology and economics, supplemented by a small supporting set of disciplines such as marketing and law. More recently, the field has begun to partner with experts within the behavioral sciences (e.g. sociology, anthropology) and beyond (e.g. critical geography, design, public policy) [14]. Further disciplinary expansion of behavioral design promises to provide supplementary strengths to counter behavioral design’s limitations, increasing its potential to help solve “wicked” problems [15] that tend to benefit from systemic and abductive modes of inquiry. The evidence of improved interdisciplinary partnerships through the expansion of methodology and measures of success when tackling wicked problems can be seen, for example, in disciplines such as ecology [16]. However, an increased reliance on interdisciplinarity also heightens the potential for miscommunication and loss of learning due to collisions between different theories, definitions, methodologies, and measures of success that inhibit sharing and translating relevant content and context effectively across practitioners. This converts problem solving from one purely focused on knowledge accumulation and communication to the more complex task of epistemological translation. In order to mature as a field, therefore, behavioral design will likely need to employ a “translational” methodology or set of mechanisms that can democratize behavioral problem solving by making behavioral insights more accessible and easier to capture, share, build on, and apply amongst a diverse range of disciplines, while still honoring the depth and rigor of specialization and disciplinary expertise. Extending the Long Tail of Behavioral Design. Further afield, proposals to engage laypersons in a form of citizen behavioral design, or “self-nudging” [17], have reframed who qualifies as a behavioral designer by inviting individuals who lack formal or professional training into the fold. This more distributed form of applied behavioral design has the potential to not only expand who counts as a practitioner, but the nature of challenges it addresses: where behavioral challenges in public policy tend to address populationlevel issues, such as paying taxes or public health, layperson practice provides opportunities to tackle important niche challenges at much smaller scale to tackle the “long tail” of behavioral design. Higher contextualization through layperson involvement also increases the chance of relevance and legitimacy, which may be of particular importance for populations or contexts that deviate from the norm given behavior design’s inclination of design to the average. Extreme democratization can also create additional challenges. A lack of training in applied behavioral design may make it difficult to develop effective solutions consistently or to test their level of efficacy. In addition, small-scale problem solving that lacks the heft to achieve statistical significance may be perceived as merely anecdotal. Perhaps most intractably, non-experts may struggle to access and make sense of behavioral design’s constantly evolving knowledge base and fail to note where theory was once considered canonical has failed to replicate or otherwise fallen out of favor.

6

R. Schmidt and K. Stenger

2.1 Methodology to Achieve Learning at Scale While broadening the audience of practitioners provides one potential pathway to greater disciplinary scale and maturity, another avenue lies in establishing broader behavioral design capabilities in the form of methodologies that systematize behavioral design activities, rather than cultivating deeper individual expertise. To do this, behavioral design must expand its focus beyond developing and applying a theoretical knowledge base to developing mechanisms that support situated learning. Situated learning theory suggests that individuals acquire professional skills through social processes and membership within a community of practice [18], where knowledge is co-constructed and embedded within a particular social and physical environment [19]. Current approaches to behavioral design tend to be insular, with limited access to active learning environments and requiring substantial training to engage, which excludes crucial partners (e.g. community leaders, interdisciplinary allies, clients) from participating in problem framing, solution ideation, implementation, evaluation and iteration. This suggests that embracing a learning-by-doing approach through the explicit use of mechanisms to co-construct and convey learning will allow practitioners to widen their focus from focusing on solutions—the “what”—to also include their collective practice—the “how”—and the nature of participants—the “who.” This, in turn, requires new mechanisms to capture, evolve, and translate knowledge between practitioners.

3 Behavioral Boundary Objects: Pattern Languages Above we have proposed two reframes to help the field of behavioral design overcome “bounded scalability”: democratizing behavioral expertise to include adjacent disciplines and layperson practitioners, and promoting learning-by-doing by positioning methodology as co-equal to theory and practice. We suggest that the notion of boundary objects, broadly defined as symbolic or tangible mechanisms that are simultaneously adaptable and meaningful to diverse audiences while still maintaining their disciplinary integrity [20], can play a pivotal role in supporting these shifts. Taking forms as varied as frameworks, conceptual definitions, or physical repositories [20, 21], boundary objects are essentially structures that act as interoperable agents across domains and audiences [22], sharing a characteristic ability to “not suppose an epistemological primacy for any one viewpoint” ([20] p. 389) while allowing multiple disciplinary practitioners to participate in their construction and use. As methodological free agents, boundary objects not only effectively re-center problem solving at the level of interdisciplinary ecosystems rather than within the domain of a single discipline, but their pluralistic and dynamic nature provides entry to a range of emergent and diverse perspectives while still allowing participants to fully maintain their disciplinary independence, This makes boundary objects well suited to support the democratization of behavioral design as a mechanism for scale, and particularly relevant to the disorienting dilemmas common to complex problems that require multiple complementary disciplines to solve [23]. Boundary objects also support our second proposed reframe—learning-by-doing— through their ability to support the creation, capture, and exchange of knowledge in pursuit of a shared goal even when individual disciplines or practitioners do not have

Overcoming Bounded Scalability

7

shared perspectives or experiences. Boundary objects therefore support transformative learning in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary partnerships in the spirit of “collaborative mutualism” [24], but because they are situated in activity—the “stuff of action” [25]—they can also contribute to cultivating a cyclical dynamic that captures learning that occurs as a result of applied activity (i.e. learning by doing) while simultaneously providing a mechanism to inform action (i.e. doing informed by what we’ve learned). The boundary object known as a “pattern language” is particularly interesting in this light. Originating from architecture in the work of Christopher Alexander [26, 27], pattern languages are comprised of structural relationships and design principles (i.e. syntax) that can be used to connect clusters of component parts (i.e. vocabulary) in an applied setting (i.e. context). In the same way that language allows us to both deconstruct and construct meanings, pattern languages can be used to break down problems and solutions, as well as to build new combinations: Where the former allows designers to analyze successful solutions to understand not just that a solution worked, but gain insight into why and how, the latter helps practitioners formulate solutions based on a mature understanding of how those component parts achieve a desired effect. The strength of pattern languages lies in their ability to inform a wide array of meaningful constructions that maintain both internal and external coherence without resorting to rote formula [26], an attribute that has proven useful for problem solving contexts with a multiplicity of potential solutions such as software engineering and organizational learning management, and which therefore shows high potential for behavioral design [28, 29]. For example, the use of pattern languages applied to user experience and user interface (UX/UI) design has widened practitioner participation and contributed to innovations now evident on smartphones and tablets. While the call for pattern languages within UX/UI pre-existed these devices, this application of pattern languages exploded as smart phones and tablets became a central artifact and access point for many amateur designers [30]. As a result, the field of UX/UI design developed an assemblage of patterns—a “pattern library”—driven largely by the need for a coherent but flexible vocabulary of different user behaviors (e.g. swiping and tapping on smart phones), and different physical attributes (e.g. a handheld user-interface). In tandem with a shared and widely available artifact, this development and set of structural norms supported wide experimentation by reducing potential misunderstandings arising from various disciplinary vocabularies as well as time and cost required for development, and increasing overall democratization for UX/UI design [31]. We speculate that the development of pattern languages and pattern libraries can yield similar benefits for behavioral design as a means to scale. Not only does the complexity of designing for human behavior require an approach that affords adaptability, but the structure of pattern languages naturally fits behavioral design’s component parts: syntax in the form of modularized combinations of behavioral approaches that reliably address common challenges, vocabulary in the form of behavioral insights, and context as the specific conditions into which interventions are placed. In addition, pattern languages’ ability to methodologically bridge the worlds of abstracted, decontextualized content

8

R. Schmidt and K. Stenger

and the concrete contexts of implementation to support both analytic/scientific and synthetic/generative activities [28] suggests that it can contribute to both diagnostic (what worked) and constructive (what could be) dimensions of behavioral design activity. Finally, while patterns based on evidence from prior successes can contribute to solving similar problems or to the development of hypotheses for new and emergent challenges, robust pattern languages can also take on a more potent role of disciplinary stewardship, in which values, belief systems, and ideologies embedded into pattern languages—and boundary objects more broadly—can streamline problem definition and solution construction by promoting syntactical “rules” or design principles and suggestions about what should be true of any good solution as an input to ideation or hypothesis development [32]. Pattern languages’ ability to empower a community of practitioners with collective intelligence and a shared discourse adds an additional emergent dimension of scalability, in which communities of practice can contribute to, share, and hone a body of knowledge that extends problem solving capacity beyond personal experience. This potentially yields three distinct and powerful benefits: it lowers the bar to entry by flattening potential learning curves, especially for “self-nudger” layperson practitioners; it raises the floor by providing mechanisms that allow these more inexperienced practitioners to propose solutions with greater integrity and likelihood of success even as the field continues to evolve; and it reduces the need to start from scratch every time by allowing diverse behavioral design practitioners to access and apply evolving disciplinary knowledge in an easier and more actionable way. However, this can also serve as a cautionary tale. Just as any structure can provide useful guardrails but also implicitly denote what’s “out” as well as what’s included, ideologies contained within pattern languages and boundary objects also share the potential to constrain or overly prescribe the nature of solutions or how to define success [33]. The appropriate application and use of these mechanisms therefore requires deliberate consideration and construction, such that their contributions to scale through democratized use and shared knowledge base are not negated by an overly narrow view of what good looks like, or what problems to solve.

4 Conclusion In this paper, we propose that the field of behavioral design will need to look beyond the pursuit of generalizable principles if it is to overcome its current state of “bounded scalability.” Accomplishing this will require developing new methodology that not only engages a wider population, but also empowers and supports this expanded set of practitioners to make sense of complexity in both context and approach. We suggest that boundary objects, such as pattern languages, may represent a set of feasible and interoperable mechanisms that both lower the bar and raise the floor for applied practice, and which will in turn contribute to behavioral design’s evolving maturity as a discipline and its ability to develop partnerships for truly inter- and transdisciplinary projects.

Overcoming Bounded Scalability

9

References 1. Simon, H.A.: The Sciences of the Artificial, 3rd edn., [Nachdr.], MA MIT Press, Cambridge, MA (2008) 2. Cash, P.J., Hartlev, C.G., Durazo, C.B.: Behavioural design: a process for integrating behaviour change and design. Des. Stud. 48, 96–128 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.des tud.2016.10.001 3. Bates, M.A., Glennerster, R.T.: 2017). The Generalizability Puzzle (SSIR). Stanford Social Innovation Review (2017). https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_generalizability_puzzle 4. DellaVigna, S., Linos, E.: RCTs to Scale: Comprehensive Evidence from Two Nudge Units, 65 (2020) 5. Johnson, S.: What works: when & why are nudges sticky, scaleable and transferable? J. Behav. Econ. Policy, 3(Special Issue), 19–21 (2019) 6. Dolan, P., Hallsworth, M., Halpern, D., King, D., Metcalfe, R., Vlaev, I.: Influencing behaviour: the mindspace way. J. Econ. Psychol. 33(1), 264–277 (2012). https://doi.org/10. 1016/j.joep.2011.10.009 7. The Behavioural Insights Team: EAST: Four simple ways to apply behavioural insights. London: BIT (2014). https://www.behaviouralinsights.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/BITPublication-EAST_FA_WEB.pdf 8. Michie, S., van Stralen, M.M., West, R.: The behaviour change wheel: a new method for characterising and designing behaviour change interventions. Implement. Sci. 6(1), 42 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1186/1748-5908-6-42 9. OECD: The BASIC Toolkit. Paris: OECD (n.d.). https://www.oecd.org/gov/regulatory-pol icy/tools-and-ethics-for-applied-behavioural-insights-the-basic-toolkit-9ea76a8f-en.htm 10. Ludwig, J., Kling, J.R., Mullainathan, S.: Mechanism experiments and policy evaluations. J. Econ. Perspect. 25(3), 17–38 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.25.3.17 11. Hauser, O.P., Gino, F., Norton, M.I.: Budging beliefs, nudging behaviour. Mind Soc. 17(1–2), 15–26 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11299-019-00200-9 12. Bohlen, L.C., et al.: Do combinations of behavior change techniques that occur frequently in interventions reflect underlying theory? Ann. Behav. Med. 54(11), 827–842 (2020). https:// doi.org/10.1093/abm/kaaa078 13. Khadilkar, P.R., Cash, P.: Understanding behavioural design: barriers and enablers. J. Eng. Des. 31(10), 508–529 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1080/09544828.2020.1836611 14. Feitsma, J., Whitehead, M.: Bounded interdisciplinarity: critical interdisciplinary perspectives on context and evidence in behavioural public policies. Behavioural Public Policy, 1–27 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1017/bpp.2019.30 15. Buchanan, R.: Wicked problems in design thinking. Des. Issues 8(2), 5–21 (1992). https:// doi.org/10.2307/1511637 16. Goring, S.J., et al.: Improving the culture of interdisciplinary collaboration in ecology by expanding measures of success. Front. Ecol. Environ. 12(1), 39–47 (2014). https://doi.org/ 10.1890/120370 17. Reijula, S., Hertwig, R.: Self-nudging and the citizen choice architect. Behav. Public Policy, 1–31 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1017/bpp.2020.5 18. Lave, J., Wenger, E.: Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1991) 19. Vygotsky, L.S.: Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (1980) 20. Star, S.L., Griesemer, J.R.: Institutional ecology, “translations” and boundary objects: amateurs and professionals in Berkeley’s museum of vertebrate zoology, 1907-39. Soc. Stud. Sci. 19(3), 387–420 (1989)

10

R. Schmidt and K. Stenger

21. Huvila, I., Anderson, T.D., Jansen, E.H., McKenzie, P., Worrall, A.: Boundary objects in information science. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. 68(8), 1807–1822 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1002/ asi.23817 22. Johnson, M.P., Ballie, J., Thorup, T., Brooks, E.: Living on the edge: design artefacts as boundary objects. Des. J. 20(sup1), S219–S235 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1080/14606925. 2017.1352771 23. Fiore, S.M.: Interdisciplinarity as teamwork: how the science of teams can inform team science. Small Group Res. 39(3), 251–277 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1177/104649640831 7797 24. Pennington, D.D., Simpson, G.L., McConnell, M.S., Fair, J.M., Baker, R.J.: Transdisciplinary research, transformative learning, and transformative science. Bioscience 63(7), 564–573 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1525/bio.2013.63.7.9 25. Leigh Star, S.: This is not a boundary object: reflections on the origin of a concept. Sci. Technol. Hum. Values 35(5), 601–617 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243910377624 26. Alexander, C.: A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings Construction. Oxford University Press, Oxford (1977) 27. Alexander, C.: The Timeless Way of Building. Oxford University Press, Oxford (1979) 28. Salingaros, N.A.: The structure of pattern languages. Archit. Res. Q. 4(2), 149–162 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1017/S1359135500002591 29. Huvila, I.: The politics of boundary objects: hegemonic interventions and the making of a document. J. Am. Soc. Inform. Sci. Technol. 62(12), 2528–2539 (2011). https://doi.org/10. 1002/asi.21639 30. Borchers, J.O.: A pattern approach to interaction design. In: Gill, S. (ed.) Cognition, Communication and Interaction: Transdisciplinary Perspectives on Interactive Technology, pp. 114–131. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01206115 31. Tidwell, J.: Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design. O’Reilly Media, Inc., Sebastopol (2005) 32. Schmidt, R.: Strange bedfellows: design research and behavioral design. In: Design Research Society Proceedings. Presented at the Design Research Society 2020 International Conference: Synergy (2020). https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2020.252 33. Hawkins, B., Pye, A., Correia, F.: Boundary objects, power, and learning: the matter of developing sustainable practice in organizations. Manag. Learn. 48(3), 292–310 (2017). https:// doi.org/10.1177/1350507616677199

Creative Inspiration Leonardo Springer(B) ISEC Lisboa – Portugal, CIEBA FBAUL – Portugal, Lisbon, Portugal [email protected]

Abstract. There is nothing more valuable than being able to see another angle of a given problem, and subsequently envisioning and providing a solution. We live in a world where information is widely available, yet people hang to their comfort zones with representations that hinder perceptions. Creativity transforms an idea of an existing domain into a new one, it is all about being curious, examining, connecting, experimenting, and playing with the surroundings, and then incubating an entire new version or set of ideas, adding value to the process. It is the ability to reflect and make out of context connections with previous knowledge that generates a new idea. This research aims to inspire design students thinking process, such as creative inspiration, in a higher education context, using visual references and metaphors from a wide range of circumstances and addressing different topics, fostering the creative output. Keywords: Human factors · Innovation · Design · Creativity

1 Introduction Creative inspiration is a cognitive process that allows an individual to address underlying issues in unconventional ways. It involves curiosity and the skill to recognize and use previous knowledge and experience. This requires the ability to think beyond common constraints, encompassing a holistic methodology and involving different subjects. Repeatedly have individuals from different backgrounds used creative practice in distinct areas of knowledge addressing various topics with remarkable results. “Presumably, the process of creativity, whatever it is, is the evolution of a new art form, a new gadget, a new scientific principle, all involve common factors. Obviously, then, what is needed is not only people with a good background in a particular field, but also people capable of making a connection between item 1 and item 2 which might not ordinarily seem connected.” (Isaac Asimov) [1]. “the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do” (David Ogilvy) [2]. “a creative person without a sense of humor has a serious problem” (George Lois) [3]. “If you want to learn creativity, never focus on just the fact. Seek out the underlying conceptual structure and the deeper meaning” (Keith Sawyer) [4]. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 11–15, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_2

12

L. Springer

2 Context Most creative actions transform individuals and consequently social habits. Like most creative activities design is a human-centered, solution-driven, problem-solver that usually researches interdisciplinary topics, acquiring specific insights and experiences, developing holistic and sustainable solutions to a given problem.

Fig. 1. Double-edge blade. Source: Author

Creative manifestations come in many forms, when K.C. Gillette patented the safety razor in 1901 (Fig. 1), a simple high chrome stainless steel disposable double edge blade, attached to a reusable handle, shaving was a totally different procedure. The successful design issued to U.S. armed forces in 1918 and still available today, addressed shaving in a distinct manner, creating an underlying ritual that derived from an aesthetic mindset, and consequently changing society. Design as a methodology requires flexibility and understanding of what matters to the user (and all those who interact with the design), regarding behavior, from frustration to comfort, bearing in mind context and user-experience, “connecting the dots” to create added value, like the creative process. Nowadays this typically requires an immersive space with power sockets, quality Wi-Fi, funny people, and good vibes, that foster the development of ideas, where people collaborate, share knowledge, and share work-in-progress. Good design changes the way we use devices, eventually feel towards a specific task or ritual, in many ways it is a statement that provides meaning. Any creative process is a non-linear thought process that requires mental flexibility and understanding of what matters to people, regarding behavior, from frustration to comfort, thinking about context and user-experience, connecting different issues to create added value. One can make the creative process straightforward by using the formula: something + something different  = something new with additional value

3 Process Creativity is an ongoing process that involves emotional intelligence, learning, understanding, and experimentation that nourishes on cultures, art, history, technology, sociology, cuisine, connections, insights, listening to elders, acknowledging traditions, fostering side projects, observing people, playing, empathizing with problems, examining

Creative Inspiration

13

available resources, adapting existing solutions, experimenting and evaluating, making mistakes, reflecting, taking notes, drawing on paper, sleeping on it, laughing, being flexible, synthesizing and above all thinking [5]. Traveling and cultural engagement also offer the occasion for an immersive experience, characteristic of different destinations and dissimilar civilizations that are crucial for the individual mental development. On the other hand, reading and listening (books, articles, images, sounds, music) allows imagination to observe and assimilate a distinct reality, and imagine and additionally create a new reality, that encompasses the individual’s cultural and cognitive background, making a new perception of reality. Furthermore, spending time considering the possibilities with mindfulness (observing thoughts and feelings), also fosters creativity by relating previous learned subjects, as well as linking new subjects with specific and comprehensive understanding, that may generate new ideas. Images provide visual references and examples from a variety of areas such as: advertising, art & design history, sociology, psychology, technology, all crucial to develop critical observation and creative thinking, intrinsic to the creative process.

Fig. 2. What can one observe in this photograph? Source: Author

A black and white image (Fig. 2) depicturing an event, stimulates the observer to see details within a given visual context. The observer can analyze, questioning (who is doing what, why, when, where, and how), fostering his imagination, and consequently incubating ideations and therefore interpret the image in a personal manner.

14

L. Springer

Can you describe your observations with five (5) words? Naturally, those chosen words differ amongst various individuals, each with a distinct life experience, and therefore cognitive response. Unquestionably, a socio-cultural background and an education influence every individual in a different manner, developing cognitive skills and gaining experience. However, any conscious understanding requires awareness and applied practice, especially with learning-by-doing activities. Nonetheless, everyone can improve creative skills by observing beyond the obvious, making connections and fostering ideas, as well as using creative methodologies tutored to design students in project-based learning assignments to devise solutions. • Ask questions: Who; What; When; Where; Why; How • SCAMPER: Substitute; Combine; Adapt; Magnify; Modify; Put to other uses; Eliminate; Rearrange • Brainstorming: how to generate ideas (20 min.; take notes; do not criticize) • Design process: Understand - Define - Ideate - Prototype - Refine (Form, Function, Meaning, Value, Sustainability) While concepts and creative methodologies are understood, applying these ambiguities in real life are not a simple task, they require curiosity and awareness, understanding of past learnings, as well as embracing new experiences. This may seem difficult for the untrained person, yet, once the connection between different concepts is made it becomes obvious to the layperson.

Fig. 3. Step Ladder Stool design. Source: Author

The 3D design reinterpretation of a Step Ladder Stool (Fig. 3) combines two concepts, a chair, and a stair, that create a unique product. In addition, the use of color characterizes

Creative Inspiration

15

the design, characterizing its main parts and providing a visual reference to the underlying design concept.

4 Conclusions Creative inspiration combines multiple areas of knowledge and requires constant stimulation. A creative individual is one that transforms acquired cultural domains (perceptions), incorporating new elements, and consequently creating new perceptions and therefore values. Quite often, a playful persona with a curious mindset, interested and informed in various subjects, with a broad understanding and an eye for detail. Nonetheless, to present creative content requires a certain amount of audacity, as critique and bias are the norm. It is only after a new idea is accepted into the mainstream that it is considered rational and accepted as normal. As a result, the creative individual has usually good general knowledge, a background in the subject of interest, dissimilar experiences, unconventional habits, and is able to interconnect all. The pursuit for creative inspiration involves not only a broad understanding of different subjects as well as specific knowledge, but above all it requires a disciplined and curious mindset, able to connect dissimilar subjects, as well as an unbiassed attitude of what others may think and criticize about the occasional awkward output. I truly believe that a creative mind is the engine for transformation, acquiring insights and reframing problems, embracing craftsmanship and acknowledging that simplicity is elegancy. Nevertheless, this ability to understand, relate, generate, refine, and communicate ideas comes only with constant research, self-assessment, and personal development. something + something different  = something new with additional value

References 1. https://www.technologyreview.com/2014/10/20/169899/isaac-asimov-asks-how-do-peopleget-new-ideas (1959 essay; published October 2014; Accessed Jan 2021) 2. Ogilvy, D.: Eternal Pursuit of Unhappiness Being Very Good Is No Good, You Have to Be Very, Very, Very, Very Very Good. Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, London (2009) 3. Lois, G.: Damn Good Advice (For People with Talent!). Phaidon Press, London (2012) 4. Sawyer, K.: Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity. Jossey-Bass, Wiley (2013) 5. Leonardo, S.: The Little Book for Creative Inspiration. Amazon Publishing (2020)

Beyond IDEO’s Design Thinking: Combining KJ Method and Kansei Engineering for the Creation of Creativity Yuuki Shigemoto(B) Department of International Liberal Arts, International College of Arts and Sciences, Fukuoka Women’s University, 1-1-1 Kasumigaoka, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 813-8529, Japan [email protected]

Abstract. This paper introduces a new conceptual model that better describes and further develops IDEO’s Design Thinking. A combination of KJ Method and Kansei Engineering that have been respectively established by late Prof Kawakita and Prof Nagamachi has been identified to construct the model of design thinking that yields advanced creativity for designing a delightful user experience. Ongoing data collection for the empirical examination is planned for publication, which will be extensively based on this paper. Further interdisciplinary and cross-cultural research should be encouraged for co-creating the next stage of design thinking. The author welcomes invitations for joint research, design practice, constructively critical arguments and so forth from academia and industries. Design research is an insightful academic discipline that learns from the past, focuses on the present, and envisions the future. Keywords: Design thinking · KJ method · Kansei Engineering · Kansei design · Design management

1 Introduction Since its consolidation by IDEO and Stanford University, in the past several years, design thinking has attracted the attention of design researchers and business experts. Design thinking has expanded its adoption to diverse fields, such as education, policy making, social innovation and so forth. It is a useful tool for those who seek creative problem solving, though only when manipulated with the expertise required to best utilise it. In particular, as wicked problems increasingly and overcrowdedly emerge and disappear nowadays, only limited experts can truly make use of design thinking, whereas the majority of design practice and research seems to result in offering little value. The difficulty in manipulation is caused by the two faucets of design thinking. On the one hand, design thinking is narrowly defined as a practical process of problem solving. On the other hand, its wider definition is regarded as a thinking ability itself that concerns how to manage the problem solving. In short, design thinking is both method and methodology [1–3]. This may not be anything new to the experts who are reading © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 16–23, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_3

Beyond IDEO’s Design Thinking

17

this paper; however, many people in industries, governmental sectors and educational organisations are not aware of it. Consequently, an inappropriate use of design thinking frequently occurs, and thus unpleasant outcomes can occur. Globally, it has hence been recognised that design thinking is not a magic wand. How can we help people better leverage the potential of design thinking? Based on a critical reconsideration of IDEO’s design thinking model, a combination of KJ Method and Kansei Engineering has been identified to construct an advanced conceptual model that further develops IDEO’s model for designing more delightful user experiences. Thus, this paper aims to share a work in progress that aims to re-conceptualise and consolidate Prof Kawakita and Prof Nagamachi’s thinking processes, which are symbolised as KJ Method and Kansei Engineering in the context of design thinking. The next chapter presents the new model, which is currently undergoing empirical examination, after which unveiled insights regarding the two design methodologies are described for a comprehensive understanding of the next phase of designerly ways of thinking.

2 Design Thinking 2.0: KJ Method and Kansei Engineering The newly developed design thinking model features a combination of KJ Method and Kansei Engineering that were respectively founded in the 1960-1970s by late Professor Jiro Kawakita, the ethnogeographer, and Professor Mitsuo Nagamachi, the engineer with a doctorate in psychology. On the one hand, KJ Method has been introduced as a Japanese technique for a creative qualitative data analysis and problem solving [4, 5]. It has attracted attention amongst creativity researchers. On the other hand, Kansei Engineering has been investigated as a method to translate consumers’ inner desire into physical specifications of a product in the field of ergonomics [6–8]. Both have been used in the context of managerial (business) studies as a method for creative ideation and product development; however, these two methods have not been integrally discussed yet. Furthermore, their quintessence has never been truly shared with the international research communities. The detailed background regarding why the knowledge gap has been yielded is explored in the following chapters. In this chapter, Fig. 1 shows a conceptual model of Design Thinking 2.0, which is shaped by KJ Method and Kansei Engineering. In the five stages of the design thinking process, KJ Method explicates the implicit knowledge in comprehending tacit user needs and ideating solutions for the needs. Once these stages are correctly completed, KJ Method accomplishes its role and hands the baton to Kansei Engineering, which embodies the creative solution as a tangible product based the logic of psychology and engineering. Consequently, KJ Method provides concrete guidance for how to conduct the emphasis, defining and ideating stages, whereas Kansei Engineering achieves firmer, more precise and more efficient prototyping and testing by supporting a designer’s practice through science. The combination of KJ Method and Kansei Engineering potentially explores a new stage of design thinking that may go beyond the IDEO’s process model [3]. Nonetheless, what IDEO and the scholars at Stanford have achieved has already played a significant role in providing a space for revising and reviving the wisdom of the Japanese design thinkers. In this sense, it is the fact that development of the science of design since the late

Fig. 1. Design Thinking 2.0: KJ Method and Kansei Engineering

18 Y. Shigemoto

Beyond IDEO’s Design Thinking

19

1970s has spotlighted completely new sense of KJ Method and Kansei Engineering that bloomed from the 1960s to 1970s, and the two have never academically been combined until recently. Here, the author would humbly reappreciate the interdisciplinarity, which is the quintessence of design research.

3 Overcome the Barriers for Design Thinking 2.0 For a true understanding of the quintessence of KJ Method and Kansei Engineering, and their significance in the context of design thinking, one must have accessibility to 1) the global knowledge of design research, 2) the original texts regarding KJ Method and Kansei Engineering, 3) academic languages of ethnographers and engineers and 4) the notion of Kansei that functions as the core foundation to sustain the two design methods/methodologies. Consequently, one must conquer the following barriers: i) linguistic barrier, ii) disciplinary barrier and iii) cultural barrier. 3.1 Linguistic Barrier To begin with the linguistic barrier, proficiency in English and Japanese is essential for the correct assessment of the value of KJ Method and Kansei Engineering in the context of global design research. A limited number of English works have discussed the natures of these methods. Furthermore, translated works are deemed to involve an issue that connotations and delicate notional senses could often be lost between languages (this perspective also relates to the cultural barrier to Kansei). Thus, the knowledge regarding KJ Method and Kansei Engineering have not been sufficiently and rightly introduced to the global design research community, whereas, in turn, global design knowledge has rarely been translated in Japanese. 3.2 Disciplinary Barrier Second, one may need to be familiar with research philosophies and methodologies in anthropology (social science), engineering and psychology based on which KJ Method and Kansei Engineering has been developed. Different academic disciplines apply different norms, common senses and means for the acquisition of knowledge. One does not have to be a doctor in all disciplines, but one should know how social scientists and engineers perceive and attempt to understand the world for what objectives. This barrier stems from the interdisciplinary nature of design research that relates to the creation of more than utilitarian value [9]. The emergence of the science of design has allowed for tackling wicked problems that cannot be solved (or even identified) using knowledge of one academic discipline. 3.3 Cultural Barrier Finally, a cultural barrier is related to the linguistic hindrance. Specifically, “Kansei” is a tricky term, which is usually translated as feeling, sense, sensitivity, and so forth, but it may be a unique notion to Japanese culture (as long as the author knows). One

20

Y. Shigemoto

can find the word in a dictionary, and various brief introductions have been provided in papers regarding Kansei Engineering. In particular, Lee, Harada and Stappers [10] and Lévy [11] attempted to examine the notion itself of Kansei, but both papers seem to overlook something. Unfortunately, the author is unable to clearly identify what is missing for now. I am also in the midst of the journey to discover what Kansei is and how we may be able to train it for better designing. Note that Prof Nagamachi says that Kansei Engineering guarantees a hundred-percent product success, but the premise should be noted that this is only when the methodology is correctly utilised with the quality of Kansei at his level. Other languages than Japanese might have the same sense as Kansei, but there are no ways for the author to confirm this. Thus, I am always happily open to a cross-cultural joint research to approach Kansei for co-creating new knowledge. 3.4 Summary As such, when the three barriers have been overcome, one may be able to truly understand and describe the dynamics of Prof Kawakita’s and Prof Nagamachi’s creative design practices. Without accessibility to the original texts of KJ Method and Kansei Engineering in Japanese, the global knowledge of the design research community in English and their socio-cultural backgrounds linked to the linguistic regulations in perceiving the world, no one is capable of further investigating this research theme. It is unfortune that the thoughts of late Prof Kawakita can only be accessed via gems of his archival legacy. Furthermore, to be fair, English archives in regard to KJ Method and its relevant creativity that have been directly written by Prof Kawakita are not found (please do contact the author if you know any.) As for Prof Nagamachi’s works, even in his Japanese literature, we need to read between lines, where there is tacit essence with regards to how to leverage Kansei for manipulating Kansei Engineering [12]. The author has been discovering how to read his unwritten messages through longitudinal interviews and action research in collaboration with him. Despite the paper’s title, the remainder of chapters particularly focus on Prof Kawakita’s KJ Method, whereas the significance of Kansei Engineering in design research is described in the author’s paper presented at AHFE 2020 last year [12].

4 Behind KJ Method: Prof Kawakita’s View of the World 4.1 KJ Method and Design Thinking with a Wider Definition ‘Keep yourself a blank slate, let the chaos speak for itself’. This is a policy that Prof Kawakita repeats in his written works [13]. His message connotes that if the author would humbly interpret according to the contexts, ‘follow your intuition, interpret symbolic messages that chaotic data is sending to you’. This process equates Martin’s [14] design thinking described as the knowledge funnel that consists of the stages of ‘Mystery, Heuristic and Algorithm’ (see Fig. 2). Furthermore, Kawakita [15] explains that there are logical thinking, sub-logical thinking and non-logical thinking. He also regards the nature of KJ Method as being the means for the creative integration of symbolic meanings in the complicated world.

Beyond IDEO’s Design Thinking

21

Mystery Heuristic

Algorithm Fig. 2. The knowledge funnel ([14]: p. 8)

The integration is accomplished using abductive reasoning. Prof Kawakita hence concludes that human activity is creative by nature. Thus, better management of the three types of thinking may lead one towards advanced creativity. Logical thinking and nonlogical thinking also overlap the analytical thinking and the intuitive thinking of which the combination is defined as widely defined design thinking by Martin [14]. Thus, the exploration and identification of the sub-logical thinking may open the door for a new stage of research regarding design thinking, both with narrow and wide definitions. 4.2 The World as an Organic Entity Prof Kawakita’s thought of following what the world symbolically tells you indicates that he regards each and every thing in the universe as an organic entity. This view reminds the author of a lecture of anthropology of modern Japanese society at the University of Oxford when the author was reading for a master’s degree. Professor Roger Goodman, an anthropologist of Modern Japanese Society, explained that the Japanese found spirits even in objects in surrounding environments. This view stems from the religious notion of Yaoyorozu no kami (a myriad of gods in nature) that shapes the Japanese way of perceiving the world in Shinto. This perspective of finding the world to be an organic entity is not often found in the Western school of thought. The philosophical gap, which may be yielded from socio-cultural differences, should be considered when investigating and practicing design for the future. This paper by no means denies the modern science that has been developed based on the Western philosophical position. Modern science has improved our lives. I am simply suggesting to revise diverse views of knowing and designing the world and to take advanced points of different thoughts and methodologies.

5 Beyond Borders: Managing Kansei Design In Prof Kawakita’s and Prof Nagamachi’s written works, we often find mentions (and Prof Nagamachi has revealed in conversations with the author) that KJ Method and Kansei

22

Y. Shigemoto

Engineering are useful methods/tools that are openly available to anyone who seeks better problem solving and better design practice; however, their discourse involves a tacit premise: this is provided that one is appropriately trained, ideally with the founders or with their previous trainees whose performances of manipulating the methods are admitted by them. Therefore, it is of course best to work with them, but at least a succession of their methods must be done along with the methodologies that have been constructed based on the background thoughts described in this paper. Finally, each industry stores an infinite bulk of expertise and skills that are even fostering at this present moment. We, the scholars in design, may not be able to know or manipulate all industrial wisdom, but we can understand the contextual languages of producers, consumers and societies. In this sense, we can engage in design work as a creative process that aims to coordinate physical factors for the embodiment of conceptual solutions for social needs [16]. This is what Design Thinking 2.0, which the author calls Kansei Design, a combination of KJ Method and Kansei Engineering, should do and is capable of doing. The management of such design practice for achieving the delightful trinity is the way that the next era may seek. This is the scholarly way of design management that I have long sought.

6 Conclusion This paper has introduced a new conceptual model for explaining and exploring Design Thinking 2.0, which has been developed based on IDEO’s model. The interdisciplinarity of design research has combined KJ Method and Kansei Engineering, which have been established by late Prof Kawakita and Prof Nagamachi, pioneering design thinkers during Japan’s miraculous economic growth, as a creative design methodology for designing creativity. Further interdisciplinary and cross-cultural collaborations should be encouraged for co-creating the next stage of design thinking. Data collection for the empirical examination of the conceptual model is currently being performed. The author welcomes invitations for joint research, design practice, constructively critical arguments and so forth from academia and industries. Finally, there is much more to say about KJ Method and Kansei Engineering and their impacts on developing and shaping design management, but the space allotted for this paper does not allow for this. Please await my forthcoming papers that will be extended based on this paper. Design research is an insightful academic discipline that learns from the past, focuses on the present, and envisions the future. Acknowledgments. This paper was written as a part of the research project funded by JSPS KAKENHI: Grant Number 20K20124. I also would like to express thanks for the substantial and constructive input provided by Dr Kai Battenberg and Dr Kento Masuyama.

References 1. Brown, T.: Design thinking. Harv. Bus. Rev. 86, 84–92 (2008) 2. Brown, T., Katz, B.: Change by design. J. Prod. Innov. Manag. 28, 381–383 (2011)

Beyond IDEO’s Design Thinking

23

3. Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford: An Introduction to Design Thinking, pp. 1–15 (2013) 4. Scupin, R.: The KJ method: a technique for analyzing data derived from Japanese ethnology. Hum. Organ. 56, 233–237 (1997) 5. Kunifuji, S.: A Japanese problem-solving approach: the KJ Ho method. In: Skulimowski, A.M.J., Kacprzyk, J. (eds.) Knowledge, Information and Creativity Support Systems: Recent Trends, Advances and Solutions. AISC, vol. 364, pp. 165–170. Springer, Cham (2016). https:// doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19090-7_13 6. Alexandros, S., Sotirios, P., Dimitrios, K.: Affective engineering: towards a consumerculture theory approach to Kansei engineering. In: Proceedings of the 2011 Conference on Designing Pleasurable Products and Interfaces, vol. 23, pp. 1–8. ACM (2011) 7. Lokman, A.M.: Design & emotion: the Kansei engineering methodology. Malays. J. Comput. 1, 1–11 (2010) 8. Nagamachi, M.: Kansei engineering: a new ergonomic consumer-oriented technology for product development. Int. J. Ind. Ergon. 15, 3–11 (1995) 9. Shigemoto, Y.: Designing emotional product design: when design management combines engineering and marketing. In: Fukuda, S. (ed.) AHFE 2019. AISC, vol. 952, pp. 28–39. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20441-9_4 10. Lee, S., Harada, A., Stappers, P.J.: Pleasure with products: design based on Kansei. In: Pleasure with Products Beyond Usability, pp. 219–229. CRC Press, London (2002) 11. Lévy, P.: Beyond Kansei engineering: the emancipation of Kansei design. Int. J. Des. 7, 83–94 (2013) 12. Shigemoto, Y.: Meaning and approach of new product designing through Kansei engineering. In: Di Bucchianico, G., Shin, C.S., Shim, S., Fukuda, S., Montagna, G., Carvalho, C. (eds.) AHFE 2020. AISC, vol. 1202, pp. 621–626. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/ 978-3-030-51194-4_81 13. Kawakita, J.: Hasso ho (Methodology for Ideation). Chuko shinsho (1967). (in Japanese) 14. Martin, R.: The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage. Harvard Business Press, Boston (2009) 15. Kawakita, J.: Hasso ho (KJ ho) to dezain (KJ Method and Design). Dezain gaku kenkyu (Bulletin of JSSD), pp. 2–8 (1985). (in Japanese) 16. Shigemoto, Y.: Managing emotion for a sustainable future. In: Bohemia, E., Bont, C.d., Holm, L.S. (eds.) Design Management Academy Conference 2017, vol. 3, pp. 733–752. Design Management Academy, Hong Kong (2017)

Blending Design Thinking and Design Futures: Facing the Complexity of Uncertain Futures Maria Rita Canina, Laura Anselmi, Carmen Bruno, Chiara Parise, and Davide Minighin(B) Design Department, IDEActivity Center, Politecnico di Milano, Via Durando 38/A, 20158 Milan, Italy {marita.canina,laura.anselmi,carmen.bruno, chiara.parise}@polimi.it, [email protected]

Abstract. Due to the increasing complexity that comes from exponential technological development, this paper highlights Design Thinking shortcomings when confronted with multiple, non-linear, tangled futures. The methods of Futures Thinking and Design Future, by their nature, deal with those futures and their declinations. By analysing these three methodologies, similarities and differences were emphasized. This paper aims to bring these disciplines together in order to reach a futures-ready Design Thinking that maintains its ties with the present day within the tangible realm, to avoid severing its connection with user needs. Keywords: Design thinking · Design futures · Design methodology · Future thinking · Complexity

1 Introduction The degree of complexity of the world has been constantly rising since the first days of humanity. In the last century, the developments in technology act as one of the main drivers in the rise of the overall level of societal complexity reaching its acme in the last decades [1, 2]. While being a driver of increasing complexity, technological innovation brought into existence a set of opportunities in several fields, morphing the boundaries defining domestic and social scenarios. Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Virtual and Augmented Reality, and other technologies, are impacting the process of creation and innovation, transforming the industrial economy and the associated job market, creating both significant opportunities and threats that need to be managed properly. Therefore, in this evolving context, companies should more than ever be prepared to face the multiplicity of uncertain futures, to anticipate possible scenarios to guide innovation and to be able to take full advantage of the innovation capacity of digital technologies. Such possibilities will require professionals to be ready to manage complexity and to deal with a spectrum of probable future scenarios. Indeed, the spread of digital technologies is having a massive impact on the type of skills and tools needed to manage such © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 24–30, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_4

Blending Design Thinking and Design Futures

25

complexity. Skills such as problem-solving, creativity, critical thinking have been musthaves for professionals, together with flexibility, resilience, envisioning and anticipatory abilities necessary for professionals to bridle the first 5–10 years of the post-pandemic world [3]. The approach, mindset and toolbox of designers exploited through the Design Thinking methodology, have so far allowed companies to deal with human and social structures of increasing complexity to achieve large scale innovation and be competitive on the market [4]. DT has always supported in faced the economic and social reshuffling of the last decades to design products interfaces and services, focusing on human needs and looking for new perspectives in order to open a window on the future. This methodology allows to recognise patterns of behaviour and interaction and to exploit them to delimit and tap the possible areas of intervention to be used during the ideation and development of the innovative solution [5, 6]. However, DT in its original form seems not suitable to deal with the complexities of such futures because the scope of its methods and tools is centred on providing human-centred solutions in a foreseeable, probable future. The two main disciplines identified as able to face the multiplicity of futures are Future Thinking and Design Future [4, 7]. The field of studies known as Futures Thinking (FT), an area of social and strategic inquiry concerned with the systematic study of the future, provides several methods, approaches, and tools that can allow to shape the future [7]. Design Future (DF) is a narrative design approach, stemming from Design Fiction, interaction design, and ethnographic research and offers a way of dealing with complexity: it aims to envision possible future scenarios and allows to imagine and explore leaving the limits of the strictly current reality [4]. The aim of this paper is to investigate the main analogies and point of connection between DT, FT and DF to reinforce the importance and the needs of envisioning a design methodology that supports professionals in different fields in anticipating needs, shaping the future and make radical innovations even in an uncertain and complex future.

2 How does Design Deals with Complex Futures? To project the design activity in a future beyond the time horizon limits of DT practice, it is crucial to envision possible future scenarios in which such activity can occur. To investigate and envision the different ways in which the present can evolve in the future, the Future Cone, in particular its last iteration conceived by Joseph Voros [8], is an efficient tool also to challenge current assumption and anticipate decision. It is used to create a taxonomy of futures based on their different degree of probability. Voros individuates different futures categories organised according to their distance from the linear, business as usual future, among which the three most interesting, for the purpose of this paper, are: Probable, Plausible, Possible futures. Probable futures are those futures deemed as likely to happen and are often the linear continuation of current trends. However, sometimes trends do not develop linearly, fade earlier than expected or are replaced by different trends emerged unexpectedly. Plausible futures, on the

26

M. R. Canina et al.

other hand, are not strongly linked with current trends, but stem from current knowledge (e.g., physics laws, systems of human interaction, processes). They are said to be those futures that could happen, developing within the realm if what can reasonably happen but is not expected to happen. Concluding, the broader class is Possible futures, or those futures that might happen. This class encompasses all those scenarios relaying on future knowledge, where events and technologies are not direct causes of the current situation, but still cannot be ruled out by current understanding of how the universe, the world, and humanity work. Considering this classification of futures, we can say that DT focuses on probable futures that either are likely to happen or should happen, while long-term futures trends and opportunities – especially in non-linear complex scenarios – often stem from the whole spectrum of futures that might happen from a present perspective, namely the realm of possible futures [4, 9]. Despite the inbred ability of designers and upholders of DT to conceive tangible solutions that inhabit futures yet to be imagined — namely the ones surrounding the next generations of products — the very nature of DT hinders the possibility of conceiving solutions for longer-term, complex futures. The analysis of DT within the context of complex, long-term futures brought to the surface two pain points. First, DT operates within a timeframe related to the upcoming next generation product of innovation. Being a Human Centred approach, DT focuses on user desires and need, investigating the socioeconomic elements of the timeframe context in which the design process takes place [10]. Developed around the mantra “design solutions that are desirable, feasible, and viable”, the DT method accompanies its practitioners along the process of outlining a preferable scenario in a probable future within a foreseeable time horizon [6, 11]. While desirability lies at the very core of the design discipline itself (beyond DT), feasibility and viability constrain heavily the whole process to hic-et-nunc innovations, curbing the potential of ideas outside the status quo-enforcing borders of what is promptly achievable and within a client’s reach [12]. Secondly, DT focuses on a single, linear, and probable future, which limits the relationship with complexity leading to multiple non-linear futures and making it difficult to understand a not-so-near future determined by non-linear connections and by a complexity that is not possible to approach and understand with DT standard tools [13]. Such limitation about design thinking, inevitably reduces the chances of radical long-term innovation and of a change that comes from the exploration of various and alternative paths in those futures that are deemed as possible, rather than a probable (or projected) future, the domain in which DT performs [14–16]. Due to its potential, FT and its integration in the design discipline has been subject matter of studies and examples in the educational, commercial, and academic field in the last decades [16, 17], for the creation of multiple future scenarios from which potential design solutions can be drawn. Besides this integration, Design Futures (DF) develops adopting some methods and tools from Future Thinking. Thanks to its inherent familiarity with narrativity (because of its origins from Design Fiction, Speculative, Critical, and Discursive design), DF creates objects, known as diegetic prototypes, to depict whole realities that can be dubbed as hyperreality. This is simulation of reality perceived as real because of its intertwined combination of

Blending Design Thinking and Design Futures

27

tangible and fictional elements [4, 18, 19]. The DF approach becomes an essential step in the process of involving both designers and non-designers in the discussion about the conceived future scenarios. Such involvement contributes to the normalisation of such futures, drawing them away from the realm of fictional narratives and asserting them as liminal, thus actionable and achievable. It might appear as a trivial step, yet it is fundamental in its form of casting the depicted scenario as a “self-fulfilling prophecy” [20] on which the actual design phase can be structured upon exploiting the apparent teleological function that characterises the design discipline in the present day [21]. The ideation of futures actionable scenarios lies at the very core of the field of DF, however, the nature of the discipline renders these envisioned worlds ideational and explorative, moderately detached from the materiality that characterises everyday experiences and their implementation, since its making, use, and re-making is the driving force beneath change and the very design process. The main aim of Design Futures is to raise awareness and “make people think” [4, 13]. DF is an analysis and criticism tool, useful as a “design for debate” and to understand what the circumstances and future possibilities could be. For the same reason, DF will never have implications for the present. DF considers users only in the anticipatory practice, it remains at the level of speculation and the user’s viewpoint is totally missing [4, 21]. DF is showing the possible change, but only understanding the user’s needs and having an approach focused on the human perspective are essential steps to (actively) achieve change [21]. Design Futures is pushing the creativity of designers and making them able to face complexity and multiplicity of futures. Since the nature of this approach tends to push the boundaries of what can be designed trying to tackle broader issues (e.g., climate change, financial disasters, health-related consequences of a pandemic), potential managers might perceive that DF proposals are disregarding their company’s core objectives, thus hindering the understanding of the potential of DF scenario building [22]. DF is missing the connection with end-users and it is alienated from the commercial aspects of day-to-day, user-oriented design practice, becoming unsuitable for actionable future change if employed as a standalone panacea. With what is analysed in this paper, it is possible to recognise an interesting design area in which DT, FT and DF coexist. The next chapter highlights the analogies and strengthen points of these methodologies to identify the requirements for their possible integration.

3 Touchpoints Between Design Thinking, Design Futures, and Futures Thinking To integrate Design Futures, Futures Thinking and Design Thinking methodology, it is essential to pinpoint similarities and points of connections between the two approaches [4, 23]. According to the European Foresight Framework, three main phases can be identified to understand and analyse futures-oriented methods: diagnosis, prognosis, prescription. From the analysis and comparison of several processes of firms practicing DF[18, 24−26], a common pattern comes to the surface: within the DF realm, the

28

M. R. Canina et al.

diagnosis, prognosis, and prescription phases can be characterized as three sequential divergent/convergent steps bearing a resemblance with the DT double diamond process. Within each phase, futures thinking employs several instruments that could be used to broaden the scope of DT both expanding the timeframe and the range of possibility in which it operates. An analysis of the phases and the related exemplifying methods will follow. The diagnosis phase, containing all the steps and tools to analyse and understand the state of the art and context of the initial situation [27], is characterised by a widespread (divergent) analysis of the existent, then converged in those aspects necessary for the foresight/envisioning activities that will follow. Among the FT methods that could contribute to expand DT reach in the future, a prominent example is horizon scanning. Horizon scanning is the process of identifying significant changes beyond the primary scope of the company. When undertaking horizon scanning, the aim is to identify and understand those phenomena or aspects of the world that are most relevant to decision making, called signals. In particular, in a FT process, the focus is on weak signals [16]. Weak signals refer to the early signs of possible, but not confirmed changes that may later become more significant indicators of critical forces for development, threats, business and technical innovation. They represent the first signs of paradigm shifts, or future trends, drivers or discontinuities [28]. Signals are generally generated by the drivers. Drivers are defined as developments causing change, affecting or shaping the future. Essentially, a driver is the cause of one or more effects (e.g. increasing sugar intake in our daily food consumption is a driver for obesity) [29]. Consideration needs to be given to ‘external’ information from the widest range of media combined with ‘internal’ industry specific information. Horizon scanning mainly focuses upon deeper rooted trends rather than events [16]. The contribution of FT and DF during the diagnosis phase contributes to a wider outlook of the define phase’s timeframe, thanks to the analysis of drivers and weak signals. The prognosis phase, that comprises those processes and tools aimed at futures worldbuilding, envisioning and selection of the preferred actionable scenarios [27], develops as a divergent elaboration of the selected elements in order to create potential futures directions – directions that are then converged in the form of scenarios. One of the ways in which FT tackles these fringe futures envisioning divergent narratives and presents them using scenarios based on a detailed overview on external factors through STEEP lenses. The STEEP analysis is an acronym which stands for Social, Technological, Economical, Environmental, and Political [8, 16]. The prescription phase, where a solution is devised – alongside the consequent strategy and planning activities – to achieve the selected scenario [27], features another divergent phase as the scenarios start being populated by diegetic prototypes, from which stems the transmedial construction of hyperreality. The last convergence phase is largely hypothetical, in view of the fact that it can be identified as the conversation and discourse distilled from the DF output. Given the nature of FT methods, devised as strategic tools, the methods used in the diagnosis phase have a different scope from design: business planning, rather than the design of an innovative product. That said, this part probably will be taken care of by

Blending Design Thinking and Design Futures

29

the very discipline of DT, since it is fundamental to converge the focus on both user’s needs and company objectives. These three phases can be characterised as three sequential divergent/convergent steps bearing a resemblance with the DT double diamond process. Such configuration of the DF processes, the deduced methodological pattern and the emerged similarities with the DT seem to suggest that an integration of DF tools and approaches in the DT method is not only advisable, but also a viable direction to render DT a futures-ready discipline.

4 Conclusions and Future Activities The analysis carried out within this paper, aimed at assessing the readiness of DT as enabler of innovation in complex non-linear futures, the contributions provided by the disciplines of FT and DF, and at identifying the strength and weaknesses of the three disciplines, highlighted not only the necessity but also the possibility of implementing FT methods and a DF approach in the DT methodology to reach the posited objective. DT maintains its role as a starting point and solution for answering human needs whilst creating innovation in relation to exponential technological development. However, the contributions of FT and DF are essential in bridging the gaps between DT and complex futures, namely its narrow timeframe, and the focus on probable futures. Furthermore, the two processes of DT and DF have a similar approach based on succeeding convergent and divergent phases, phases in which FT methods are of paramount in intertwining the disciplines, further supporting the development of a resolutive framework in the coexistence of the three disciplines. The forthcoming studies on this subject will focus on the possible development of a methodology involving the coexistence of the three disciplines, capable of providing innovation in complex futures.

References 1. Kurzweil, R.: The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence. Viking, New York (1999) 2. Sargut, G., McGrath, R.G.: Learning to Live with Complexity, https://hbr.org/2011/09/lea rning-to-live-with-complexity, Accessed 31 Jan 2021 3. Paraboschi, A., Dalla Rosa, P.: Design futures: a new discipline, tool and medium. Digit. Sci. J. Digit. Cult. 85–94 (2016). https://doi.org/10.4399/97888548960937 4. Voros, J.: A generic foresight process framework. Foresight 5, 10–21 (2003). https://doi.org/ 10.1108/14636680310698379 5. Ollenburg, S.A.: Beyond futures: designing futures by educating future designers. World Fut. Rev. 10, 279–293 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1177/1946756718790758 6. IDEO: Design Thinking. https://www.ideou.com/pages/design-thinking. Accessed 18 Jan 2021 7. Iskander, N.: Design Thinking is Fundamentally Conservative and Preserves the Status Quo (2018). https://hbr.org/2018/09/design-thinking-is-fundamentally-conservative-and-pre serves-the-status-quo 8. Dunne, A., Raby, F.: Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming. The MIT Press, Cambridge, London (2013)

30

M. R. Canina et al.

9. Evans, M., Sommerville, S.: A design for life: futures thinking in the design curriculum. Fut. Res. Q. 23, 5–20 (2007) 10. Ollenburg, S.A.: A futures-design-process model for participatory futures. J. Fut. Stud. 23, 51–62 (2019). https://doi.org/10.6531/JFS.201906_23(4).0006 11. Candy, S.: The futures of everyday life: politics and the design of experiential scenarios (2010). https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.1840.0248 12. Nefula: The Near Future Design Methodology (2021). https://nefula.com/wp-content/upl oads/2017/03/Nefula-Near-Future-Design-Methodology.pdf 13. Baudrillard, J.: Simulacra and Simulation. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor (1994) 14. Reeves, S., Goulden, M., Dingwall, R.: The future as a design problem. Des. Issues. 32, 6–17 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1162/DESI_a_00395 15. Taylor, D.: Design futures. In: Massey, A. (ed.) A Companion to Contemporary Design Since 1945, pp. 51–71. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken (2019). https://doi.org/10.1002/978111 9112297.ch3 16. SpeculativeEdu: SpeculativeEdu|Approaches, methods and tools for Speculative Design. https://speculativeedu.eu/approaches-methods-and-tools-for-speculative-design/. Accessed 31 Jan 2021 17. Near Future Laboratory: Near Future Laboratory. https://nearfuturelaboratory.com/. Accessed 31 Jan 2021 18. Montgomery, E.P., Woebken, C.: Extrapolation Factory: Operator’s Manual. Createspace Independent Publishing Platform, North Charleston (2016) 19. Nordkapp: Actionable Futures Toolkit – Nordkapp. https://futures.nordkapp.fi/. Accessed 31 Jan 2021 20. European Foresight Platform: Methodology « European Foresight Platform. http://www.foresi ght-platform.eu/community/forlearn/how-to-do-foresight/process/methodology/. Accessed 27 Jan 2021 21. Saritas, O., Smith, J.E.: The big picture – trends, drivers, wild cards, discontinuities and weak signals. Futures 43, 292–312 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2010.11.007 22. European Foresight Platform: Megatrend/Trend/Driver/Issue « European Foresight Platform. http://www.foresight-platform.eu/community/forlearn/how-to-do-foresight/methods/ analysis/megatrend-trend-driver-issue/. Accessed 31 Jan 2021

Fractal Features of Creative Thinking Process Minghan Weng1 , Rui hu1 , Liqun Zhang1(B) , and Xiaodong Li2(B) 1 School of Design, Shanghai Jiao Tong University,

800 Dong Chuan Road, Shanghai 200240, China [email protected] 2 China National Gold Group Gold Jewelry Co., Ltd., 1 Liuyin Park South Street, Beijing 100011, China [email protected]

Abstract. In traditional design, creativity mainly depends on the designer’s knowledge and experience, less exploring the mechanism behind the process from tasks to concepts, which are therefore unable to meet the increasingly complicated demands with a high-efficiency system model. Aiming at the multidimensionality, dynamics and complexity of creative thinking process, in view of complexity science, the research proposes fractal as a research approach for the generation and evolution of creativity and a new idea for exploring design innovation. With cognitive experiments, the research explores the features of designers’ thinking in creativity, analyzes the inner levels of creative thinking process, clarifies the similarities between subjects at various levels, summarizes important influencing factors, and accordingly hypothesizes that the creative thinking process has fractal features. The creativity method based on fractal model will be of feasibility and effectiveness and provide a heuristic assistance and support for the generation of creativity. Keywords: Fractal · Creative thinking · Design innovation

1 Introduction What is creative thinking? Creative thinking is the process of thinking in a flexible, fluid, and novel way. It means thinking outside the box and designing new ways to solve problems, perform tasks, and deal with challenges, bringing new or even non-traditional perspectives. As the product of the initial stage in design activities, creativity is also the key factor to determine the design result. Nowadays, in the face of increasingly complex design challenges, creativity has become more precious. In traditional design, creativity is mainly dependent on and limited by the knowledge and experience of designers, which is often regarded as a gift of nature. Actually, its generation and evolution experience a rigorous and fuzzy thinking process which is hard to describe. Since the 1950s, cognitive psychologists and design researchers have been trying to explain it but most remaining in the aspect of theoretical deduction and case studying less revealing the operating mechanism behind. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 31–39, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_5

32

M. Weng et al.

With the development of artificial intelligence and neurocognitive science, more studies focus on conducting fine-grained researches on designers [1], design process [2], creativity generation and evolution process [3] by computing tools, and devote to create easy-to-use heuristics [4] to make it a potential capability which can be mastered by all people, and, to some extent, realize the automation [5]. Despite researches from perspectives, creativity is still a relatively unexplored and interesting area. From the view of complexity science, fractal theory has shown competence of theoretical construction and model simulation in the field of complex abstract network. As creative thinking is multidimensional, dynamic and complex and traditional linear science is difficult to describe and explain it, the fractal theory may show its superiority in the research of creative thinking. Fractal [6], initially put forward by Benoit B. Mandelbrot as mathematical model, is used to represent the morphological characteristics of space filled with non-integer dimensions and the self-similarity is its most basic feature. In terms of research, it can describe objects from a dimensional perspective and is closer to the real attributes and states of complex systems. With the development of research, fractal has expanded from mathematical geometry to many fields. Evidently, as the frontier and an important branch of complexity science, fractal has become the integration of interdisciplinary knowledge and a world view as well as methodology to uncover simple laws behind complex things [7]. However, most applications in art and design are confined to the visual form of its generated results and seldom explore the rules behind or possible heuristics in design processes. This research aims to make recommendations for this, divided into three objectives(i) To understand the underlying features of creative thinking process; (ii) To construct a generalization model of creative thinking based on fractal; (iii) To develop new methods of heuristics and measurement in creativity. This paper covers the results of the current ongoing work: for objective (i), a hypothesis is proposed that the creative thinking process has fractal features; For objective (ii) and (iii), preliminary discussions are conducted for further research.

2 Methodology 2.1 Cognitive Experiment In order to explore the creative thinking process, the research used cognitive experiments to obtain real and objective first-hand data, generalize and summarize the internal laws and essential attributes of creative thinking from the individual to the whole, divided into three steps: a creative thinking experiment and two questionnaires. Table 1 lists the goals for each step, the data to-be-collected and the sample sizes. In the creative thinking experiment, protocol analysis [8] was used to collect the creative information of participants. Participants were asked to express the whole thinking process in language, words and sketches. Researchers ensured the quiet and reminded participants to think aloud. At the same time, the behaviors and reactions of participants were closely monitored, documented in time sequence and recorded by audio and

Fractal Features of Creative Thinking Process

33

video. After the experiment, participants were interviewed retrospectively and surveyed by questionnaires. The research carried out a cognitive experiment, taking the creative visual design with dream as the conceptual theme as an example. Table 1. Experimental process Steps

Creative thinking experiment: protocol analysis

Questionnaire 1: Personal creativity

Questionnaire 2: influencing factors

Objectives

Verify the fractal features of creative thinking process

Select participant with high creativity

Summarize important influencing factors

Data to-be-collected

60-min design task of 1 person: – Audio data – Video data – Writings and sketches during the task

Rating of 9 dimensions: Eight-dimensional thinking, fluency, motivation, cognition, communication, originality, synthesis, culture and environment

Rating of 12 factors: thinking skills, background, cognition, motivation, self-efficacy, practical ability, creative attitude, perceived behavioral control, stimulate, environment, manpower and resource

Sample sizes

8–10 people

8–10 people

20–50 people

Questionnaire 1 referred to the measurement by Fields and Bisschoff [9], which is supported by large literature background and measures creativity of adults from nine dimensions of two main types: cognitive psychology and external influence. In this research, the individual creativity of participants was evaluated and scored. In Questionnaire 2, twelve influencing factors were further rated on a five-point scale to evaluate influences on creative thinking process of designers. It provides reference for further research and development. 2.2 Coding Data segmentation was adopted based on the content and process of creative thinking, the turning points in the experiment such as sentence pauses, intonation changes and sketch deadlocks are used as the basis. Data coding is to classify and code the protocol analysis reports to reflect the creative strategies and behaviors of participants. The coding scheme for this research involved three types: creative contents, thinking processes, and related previous ideas. Thinking process coding included five main categories [10]: divergent thinking (exaggeration), lateral thinking (out-of-the-box), aesthetic thinking (beauty and taste), systems thinking (synthesis towards a whole), and inspirational thinking (emergent, radical insight). The

34

M. Weng et al.

final correlation coding was used to evaluate the developing process of ideas and served as an important basis for the fractal hypothesis. 2.3 Fractal Analysis The coding above was associated by the network analysis method [11]. Directed similarity method was used to find the similarity between ideas and basic concepts and simulate the process of determining the entry point of creativities. The weight value of composite creativities and associations was analyzed by analytic hierarchy process. Gephi 0.9.2 was used for visualization.

3 Results and Discussion 3.1 Participants’ Information According to the purpose and requirements, typical representatives were selected as the final samples of the experiment. 10 graduate students participated in the experimental process, all of whom have at least 5 years of education experience in industrial design, age 22–25, male to female ratio of 1:1.

Fig. 1. Ideas over time only considering idea generation. In first 25 min after the start of the experiment, participants exhibited higher creative tendency and more positive creative attitude, and then generally sank into the deadlock of creativity in different degree. Therefore, this table noted the participants’ numbers of ideas over the 25-min productive period of time.

Individual creative ability of participants was examined by Questionnaire 1. As a result, three participants (4, 7, 9) showed high creative tendency (3.48, 3.48, 3.70 out of 5, mean = 2.70, SD = 0.81), which indicated that they were intuitively expected to be more creative and produce more ideas in the given period of time. The explanation was supported by Fig. 1, which shows the number of ideas generated by the participants over time.

Fractal Features of Creative Thinking Process

35

3.2 Fractal Features The creative thinking networks generated by three creative participants in the experiment were depicted in Fig. 2. Nodes represent the coding of creative concepts in numerical order with different colors highlighting the types of thinking strategies. Table 2 shows the statistical parameters related to Fig. 2.

Fig. 2. Creative thinking process and ideation for the three creative participants. (a) Participant 4, (b) Participant 7 and (c) Participant 9.

Since the third coding introduced, namely the association between ideas, the activities that were not related in time are linked in Fig. 2. As it shown, the networks illustrate clustering in visualization, representing the nonlinear process of creative thinking activities, which is also the basic feature of fractal. In Fig. 2, participant 7(b) focused more on the constraint, that is, developing creativity around the basic concept, defining a goal or requirement on one dimension, generating ideas, and then moving to the next, which broadened the conceptual dimensions as much as possible, and, thus, forming a larger network (graph distance = 10, Table 2). In contrast, participants 4(a) and 9(c) used existing ideas more as a springboard for further development and evaluation or setting goals on the basis. With coevolution, each

36

M. Weng et al. Table 2. Relevant parameters of Fig. 2 Average degree

Average weighted degree

Graph distance

Density

Modularity

Number of communities

(a)

1.1

2.35

7

0.014

0.569

6

(b)

1.235

2.745

10

0.025

0.527

9

(c)

1.236

2.891

9

0.023

0.531

9

successive idea constituted the improvement of the understanding of the basic concept and creativity space. Although the methods were different, the coding explains the underlying relationships in the development and evolution of creative thinking process, namely similarity. It can be easily found from the experiment that there exist statistical similarities between creativities and basic concepts, such as the dimensions of composition, outward perceptible shapes, revealed states, internal texture, attributes, features, nature, functions, values, etc. On the whole, the creative process is a large self-similar structure formed by the nonlinear combination of sub-processes. Shown in Fig. 2, the whole network is similar to the parts, namely, different creative dimensions and stages, in terms of existence form, information distribution, character display, time extension, space occupation, etc. Parts constitute the whole and make the whole creative thinking network presenting self-similarity and fractal features. Even different participants’ networks, varying rates and numbers, appear similarity superficially. 3.3 Thinking Process One of the distinct differences between participants is the types of thinking they used in creative process, as the patterns showed in Fig. 2. Actively for the systems thinking (46%), branches of network are tightly connected in Fig. 2(b), forming a dominant central cluster with all activities running around. Meanwhile, the resulting number of ideas is relatively small with low modularity (0.527, Table 2), because of the constant feasibility assessment in the process. Compared with (b), the design elements in Fig. 2(a) are similar but most are processed from the divergent thinking (31.25%), starting from the basic concept to explore all aspects of the creative space and finally forming four large and two medium-sized creativity groups, showing more intuitive fractal features and higher modularity degree (0.569, Table 2). However, the character of Fig. 2(c) is quite different, exploring more creative ideas by visual language in the aesthetic thinking (29.09%) and showing more independent and powerful branches with distinct creative style. Divergent/systems thinking >> aesthetic thinking >> lateral thinking, (a) Systems thinking >> divergent/lateral thinking >> aesthetic thinking, (b) Aesthetic thinking >> divergent/systems thinking >> lateral thinking. (c)

Fractal Features of Creative Thinking Process

37

This revealed the major difference in the way creative subjects think. Creative thinking, as a cognitive process, largely depends on the cognitive subjects. Designers observe, feel, understand, grasp, select and extract the connotative and denotative contents of basic concepts, express them through association and imagination, and form creativity by different design means. This subjective process leads to the fuzziness and complexity of creative thinking, verifying the feasibility of fractal research methods. Interestingly, the inspirational thinking appeared in the experiment, as the blue coding shown in Fig. 2. The breakthrough inspiration is occasionally generated when the creative process is stalled or stimulated by external knowledge, though leaping, it gradually returns to the primary creative space, make connection with other ideas and eventually evolves into new ones. 3.4 Influencing Factors According to the frequency of the options mentioned in Questionnaire 2, the results are showed in Table 3. The three often mentioned are thinking skills, creative attitude, and perceived behavioral control. The influence of these in the experiment is also obvious. Participants with higher creative tendency not only got higher scores in Questionnaire 1, but also performed more dimensions of thinking skills and appeared positive attitude in creative thinking process. Perceived behavioral control refers to an individual’s perception of how easy or difficult it is to perform a particular behavior. In the study, participants with more creativity can consciously control themselves to break out of the previous thinking modes, find new breakthrough points and even explore the creative space that had never been considered before. Table 3. Top three frequently mentioned options of Questionnaire 2 Options

Frequency

Thinking skills

70

Creative attitude

60

Perceived behavioral control 60

4 Implications To some extent, this research is innovative and practical. Firstly, the introduction of fractal in the field of creative thinking helps to rethink the micro-mechanism, conditions and factors of creative thinking process. Secondly, the results emphasize the similarity in the process of development and evolution of creativity, which is the key to understand and link the fundamental logic and presents fractal features. It is helpful for further simulation of the creative thinking process and forming a generalization model.

38

M. Weng et al.

Finally, fractal provides a new application possibility for measuring and inspiring creativity. This approach, based on complex scientific system, can complement existing methods such as brainstorming, mind mapping, linkography, etc., and better explain the fuzzy logic of creative thinking allowing for dynamic analysis. This also means that it has the potential to develop into new measurement, measuring the creativity of different subjects, helping design management and providing reference for designers to improve and form personal style.

5 Conclusions and Opportunities for Further Research This research proposes the hypothesis that the creative thinking process has fractal features. Through cognitive experiment, the thinking features of designers in the creativity generation stage are discussed; the inner levels of the process and the similarity between the subjects are analyzed, and the important factors affecting the fractal process are summarized. On the basis, several key points worthy of further research are drawn out. Firstly, the fractal features should be verified by the mathematical method of fractal dimension. Secondly, larger studies of creative thinking processes in the literature and the real world are needed to map out the generalized structure of different patterns. Furthermore, the complex scientific system method should be particularly used to analyze the data in depth and deduce a more general fractal model. Finally, the correlation between creativity and fractal can be discussed, and a new measurement based on the fractal model can be proposed to provide a heuristic assistance and support for the generation of creative concepts and the management of design activities.

References 1. Gero, J.S., Milovanovic, J.: A framework for studying design thinking through measuring designers’ minds, bodies and brains. Design Science (2020) 2. Sowden, P.T., Pringle, A., Gabora, L.: The shifting sands of creative thinking: connections to dual-process theory. Think. Reason. 21(1), 40–60 (2015) 3. Taura, T., et al.: Constructive simulation of creative concept generation process in design: a research method for difficult-to-observe design-thinking processes. J. Eng. Des. 23(4), 297–321 (2012) 4. Liu, Q., Wang, K., Li, Y., Liu, Y.: Data-driven concept network for inspiring designers’ idea generation. J. Comput. Inf. Sci. Eng. 20(3), 031004 (2020) 5. Zhao, T., Yang, J., Zhang, H., Siu, K.W.M.: Creative idea generation method based on deep learning technology. Int. J. Technol. Des. Educ. 31(2), 421–440 (2019). https://doi.org/10. 1007/s10798-019-09556-y 6. Mandelbrot, B.B.: The Fractal Geometry of Nature, vol. 2. WH freeman, New York (1982) 7. West, G.B.: Scale: the Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies. Penguin, New York (2017) 8. Sarkar, P., Chakrabarti, A.: A support for protocol analysis for design research. Des. Issues 29(4), 70–81 (2013) 9. Fields, Z., Bisschoff, C.A.: A model to measure creativity in young adults. J. Soc. Sci. 37(1), 55–67 (2013)

Fractal Features of Creative Thinking Process

39

10. Creative Thinking in Foresight. https://www.scribd.com/document/117822391/Jorlen-Cre ative-Thinking-in-Foresight 11. Cash, P., Štorga, M.: Multifaceted assessment of ideation: using networks to link ideation and design activity. J. Eng. Des. 26(10–12), 391–415 (2015)

Contextual Knowledge Sharing Strategy Based on Contextual Thinking in Service Design Long Yuan(B) and Jun Zhang School of Design, Hunan University, Chang Sha, China

Abstract. Some studies have proved that visual tools in service design, as boundary objects, can promote interdisciplinary collaboration. However, how these visualization tools and methods enable interdisciplinary collaboration needs to be further explored. This paper proposes a Contextual Knowledge Sharing Model, which further explains the role of service design in helping multidisciplinary collaboration. This paper describes the relationship between service design and contextual knowledge and their mechanism based on service characteristics and the perspective of promoting the circulation of contextual knowledge. Keywords: Service design · Contextual knowledge · Interdisciplinary collaboration · Visualization

1 Introduction Discussions about how service design can trigger organizational changes have gradually begun to increase [1–3]. Experience-centric service design pays particular attention to customer experience [4], as well as how to achieve a better customer experience in the front, middle and backstage. Among them, exploring the context of customers is the core. Some design practice companies use a series of tools and methods [5] to try to dig out the context of customers and organizations to provide nourishment for service innovation. Service design method emphasizes the role of interdisciplinary collaborative design. Co-design strengthens the creativity of design work by allowing designers and nondesigners to participate in design work together. A significant function of service design is to use tools and methods as the medium to provide a common language to promote interdisciplinary communication [3], mostly like some visualization tools and techniques [6–8]. Rygh’s research pointed out that service design uses tangible tools as boundary objects to strengthen communication between designers and stakeholders, and exchange knowledge, which is difficult to convey in ordinary times [9]. Service design methods can effectively enhance the efficiency of knowledge and information communication, which is beyond daily meetings [3, 9]. The key to interdisciplinary collaboration is the circulation of knowledge. But what knowledge does the service design excavate in the process of multidisciplinary collaboration, and how to promote multidisciplinary collaboration? This part of the research is still lacking. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 40–46, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_6

Contextual Knowledge Sharing Strategy Based on Contextual Thinking

41

Based on what mentioned before, this paper believes that the circulation of contextual knowledge about services from different stakeholders in the organization can promote service innovation and achieve a better customer experience. Therefore, this article attempts to propose a model that explains how service design enables the circulation of contextual knowledge between organizations and customers to help interdisciplinary collaboration in service innovation.

2 Service Design and Contextual Knowledge Knowledge is selected information that serves a specific purpose in human-to-human interaction. In an era when system networks and organizational networks are becoming increasingly complex, service innovation relies on the multi-dimensional collection of knowledge and makes full use of this knowledge in the process of assisting in generating innovative solutions. Therefore, innovative and usable services need to rely on the knowledge of system members, rather than relying solely on the designer’s own knowledge. In this way, user-centered design, co-design [10], and participatory design [11] make full use of knowledge from non-designers. The contextual knowledge in the context of service design is one of this knowledge. Multiple actors inside and outside the organization provide service elements and form a system. With the inherent knowledge of customers who are not under the control of the organization, a series of situations are formed, and then the experience is displayed through the customer’s behaviour [12, 13]. Contextual knowledge is a dynamic manifestation of users and providers’ specific needs based on their limitations and solutions within a particular context. Double Diamond Model is one of the most classic service design models, divided into four stages: Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver. Stickdorn et al. divide the conventional service design process activities into Research, Ideation, Prototyping, Implementation [3]. These processes are similar, describing the service design process from insight into customers and systems, and gradually produce innovative service design solutions. The whole process is integrated with human-centred thinking and can acquire contextual knowledge from customers, designers, co-participants, and stakeholders. Service design has an essential relationship with contextual knowledge as that mentioned above can be regarded as a process of contextual thinking in service design which uses knowledge invisibly.

3 Visualization as a Means of Knowledge Communication Designers can fully coordinate their thinking, actions, and the world, and perform cognitive activities through visualization [14]. Visualization technology is one of the critical foundations of service design that helps communicate user research data in service innovation [15]. It supports the communication between all participants, the development of the process itself and its results [6]. Segelström’s research shows that although service designers in practice do not have standard visualization techniques, they often use journeys, narrative methods (storyboards), and character prototype methods to achieve resonance with stakeholders [7]. The Analysis-Synthesis Bridge Model (ASBM) (Fig. 1)

42

L. Yuan and J. Zhang

proposed by Dubberly reveals that designers use the model to abstract the concrete reality and use the model as a prototype to try to convey possible future forms [16]. Dubberly believes that building a model can help team members understand system elements, promote a shared understanding and expand the scale of the design process. This paper assumes that the process of modelling is the process of further contextual knowledge mining, as well as the contextual knowledge storing and designers can use knowledge to create the future.

Fig. 1. Analysis-synthesis bridge model [16]

The methods and tools of service design mostly visualize the context and promote design participation and communication in the collaborative design process [3, 9]. Boundary Objects is a medium for interdisciplinary teams to communicate and collaborate, which can overcome professional language limitations and promote knowledge exchange with the simple visual form that promotes the participation of originally isolated participants in the process [17]. The methods and tools of service design build a large number of Boundary Objects to promote interdisciplinary collaborative design. Diana further divides the visualization model in service design into four categories as Maps, Flows, Images and Narritives (Fig. 2) [6], covering different categories of service design tools, such as map tools like system maps, mind maps, affinity diagrams, service ecologies etc., flow tools like service blueprint, customer journey maps etc., image tools like moodboards, service images, evidencing, tomorrow headlines etc., narrative tools like storyboarding, such as filming the interaction, experience prototype, etc.

Contextual Knowledge Sharing Strategy Based on Contextual Thinking

43

Fig. 2. Analysis-synthesis bridge model (Dubberly 2008)

4 Mechanism and Strategy of Contextual Knowledge Sharing in Service Design Situational design [18] also pays attention to experience and user needs, and gradually acquires contextual knowledge about users through its design process and tools. Similar to service design, although this method focuses on user needs and context, it is more limited to software design and development. This means that service design involves not only the user-level context, but also the front-line, back-end and other levels of participants, and even the entire organization and system. Therefore, it is necessary to further discuss the characteristics of the service. The essence of service design is to design an effective model for organizing and planning the various components of people, infrastructure, communication and tangible materials in the service system [19]. Services are co-created [20] and involve multiple stakeholders. And IHIP (Intangible, Heterogeneous, Inseparable, Perishable) of services proposed by Meroni and Sangiorgi [21] indicate that services are contextualized and vary according to specific conditions. Take taxi services as an example. When calling a taxis daily, customers often need comfortable vehicles, but when emergencies happen, customers need faster cars. Suppose the proposed design solution does not meet the customer’s context, and cannot provide the customer’s desired experience, as well as not meet the company’s context (such as strategic needs, technical requirements), etc. In that case, it may lead to the failure of the entire service innovation. To achieve a sustainable business, it is necessary to creat a sustainable system. In service design, the contextual knowledge from various stakeholders in the service system needs to be used to test whether the customer value can be realized sustainably. It is critical to the success of service innovation that different contextual knowledge circulates among interdisciplinary team members. Under such a premise, this article attempts to interpret the sharing mechanism and strategy of contextual knowledge based on some characteristics of the service (Fig. 3).

44

L. Yuan and J. Zhang

Fig. 3. Contextual Knowledge Sharing Model (evaporated by authors) shows that service designers use visual tools to connect different stakeholders to promote contextual knowledge communication at different levels in the entire service design process.

In the research stage, the main thing is to explicit the needs of customers in the context. Researches about customers will be used by user researchers, service designers and other participants through interpretation sessions [18], workshops and other forms to build a total of persona, storyboards, the current state of the customer journey map etc. The process of collaborative modelling and the concrete modelling carry out abstract cognition and storage of concrete reality [16]. The contextual knowledge at this stage is mainly about customer needs. In the ideation stage, service design transfers the contextual knowledge about customers to the collaborative design participants through real-time interactive workshops combined with a series of collaborative tools and modelling a viable future, reshaping participants’ minds and exploring design solutions to realize customer value. These codesigners will put forward different insights to further help the entire design community deepen this knowledge and generate new knowledge. The contextual knowledge at this stage is mainly about how to realize customer values. In the prototyping stage, service designer uses prototypes as the leading learning and communication tool to show possible services and promote communication between designers and stakeholders [22]. Customers use their previous cognitions to interact with new services, and companies can also proofread their cognitions of customers. At the same time, because of the tangibility of the service, it can help make the priority decision combined with the company’s context. In the process, the company will optimize service offering, and ultimately strike a balance between customer value and corporate value. The contextual knowledge at this stage is mainly about the knowledge of what enterprise values is. In the implementation phase, the company began to launch real services for a broader range of target customers and iterated gradually in details. This process will gradually

Contextual Knowledge Sharing Strategy Based on Contextual Thinking

45

improve the understanding of the entire system and improve the service system for systematic maintenance, which is the key to sustainable service innovation. The contextual knowledge at this stage is mainly about the system needs. The whole process constitutes a circulation cycle, continuously mining and triangle knowledge about customer needs, customer values, enterprise values and system needs, and making them assist the service design process. CKSM (Contextual Knowledge Sharing Model) integrates the understanding of customers and organizations. It is expected that in the service design process, service designers can adopt and customize knowledge requirements in four aspects to take more systematic visualization methods and tools to obtain more comprehensive contextual knowledge for service innovation.

5 Conclusion This paper proposes a Contextual Knowledge Sharing Model, which attempts to further explain the mechanism of service design in helping interdisciplinary collaboration from the perspective of knowledge circulation based on the service’s characteristics. Visualization tools in service design can be used as boundary objects to store contextual knowledge from different sources and promote the circulation of contextual knowledge in the organization during the service design process to achieve better customer experience and system value. The limitations of this paper exist evidently. First of all, the definition of context and contextual knowledge is not clear. Besides, the model proposed by this paper spans the entire service design process, so some details are missing. Finally, the most critical problem is that the model still lacks sufficient support and verification. Future research should focus on the commonalities and differences in the numerous tools and methods of service design, as well as what knowledge these tools store. Another is to conduct indepth research from other perspectives on the mechanism of service design to promote interdisciplinary collaboration.

References 1. Junginger, S, Sangiorgi, D.: Service design and organizational change. Bridging the gap between rigour and relevance. In: International Association of Societies of Design Research KOR 4339–4348 (2009) 2. Sangiorgi, D.: Transformative services and transformation design. Int. J. Design 5(2), 29–40 (2011) 3. Stickdorn, M., et al.: This is Service Design Doing: Applying Service Design Thinking in the Real World. O’Reilly Media Inc., Sebastopol (2018) 4. Zomerdijk, L.G., Voss, C.A.: Service design for experience-centric services. J. Serv. Res. 13(1), 67–82 (2010) 5. Polaine, A., Løvlie, L., Reason, B.: Service Design: From Insight to Inspiration. Rosenfeld Media, La Vergne (2013) 6. Diana, C., Pacenti, E., Tassi, R.: Visualtiles: Communication tools for (service) design. In: Conference Proceedings ServDes 2009, DeThinking Service ReThinking Design, pp. 65–76. Oslo Norway, November 24–26 2009. Linköping University Electronic Press (2012)

46

L. Yuan and J. Zhang

7. Segelström, F.: Visualisations in Service Design. Linköping University Electronic Press, Linköping (2010) 8. Sevaldson, B.: Visualizing complex design: the evolution of gigamaps. In: Jones, P., Kijima, K. (eds.) Systemic Design Theory, Methods, and Practice Translational Systems Sciences, vol. 8, pp. 243–269. Springer, Tokyo (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55639-8_8 9. Rygh, K., Clatworthy, S.: The use of tangible tools as a means to support co-design during service design innovation projects in healthcare. In: Pfannstiel, M.A., Rasche, C. (eds.) Service Design and Service Thinking in Healthcare and Hospital Management, pp. 93–115. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00749-2_7 10. Sanders, E.B.N., Stappers, P.J.: Co-creation and the new landscapes of design. Co-design 4(1), 5–18 (2008) 11. Holmlid, S.: Participative; co-operative; emancipatory: from participatory design to service design. In: Conference Proceedings ServDes 2009; DeThinking Service; ReThinking Design; Oslo, Norway, 24–26 November 2009, pp. 105–118. Linköping University Electronic Press (2012) 12. Teixeira, J., et al.: Customer experience modeling: from customer experience to service design. J. Serv. Manag. 23(3), 362–376 (2012) 13. Bitner, M.J.: Servicescapes: the impact of physical surroundings on customers and employees. J. Mark. 56(2), 57–71 (1992) 14. Gedenryd, H.: How Designers Work: Making Sense of Authentic Cognitive Activities. Lund University (1998) 15. Segelström, F., Holmlid, S.: Visualizations as tools for research: service designers on visualisations. Nordes (3) (2009) 16. Dubberly, H., Evenson, S.: On modeling the analysis-synthesis bridge model. Interactions 15(2), 57–61 (2008) 17. Star, S.L., Griesemer, J.R.: Institutional ecology, translations’ and boundary objects: amateurs and professionals in Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907-39. Soc. Stud. Sci. 19(3), 387–420 (1989) 18. Holtzblatt, K., Beyer, H.: Contextual Design: Design for Life. Elsevier, San Francisco (2017) 19. Vargo, S.L., Maglio, P.P., Akaka, M.A.: On value and value co-creation: a service systems and service logic perspective. Eur. Manag. J. 26(3), 145–152 (2008) 20. Vargo, S.L., Lusch, R.F.: Institutions and axioms: an extension and update of service-dominant logic. J. Acad. Mark. Sci. 44(1), 5–23 (2016) 21. Meroni, A., Sangiorgi, D.: Design for Services. Gower Publishing Ltd., Burlington (2011) 22. Blomkvist, J., Holmlid, S.: Service prototyping according to service design practitioners. In: Conference Proceedings, ServDes 2010, Exchanging Knowledge, Linköping, Sweden, 1–3 December 2010, pp. 1–11. Linköping University Electronic Press (2010)

Innovation During Start-Up and Entrepreneurship

3C-Crisis-Concept for SME: Complexity, Capacity and Competence Dennis Bakir(B) and Florian Engels Innovator Institut GmbH, Nachbarsweg 25, 45481 Muelheim an der Ruhr, Germany {db,fe}@innovator-institut.de

Abstract. When crisis strikes, there are three central aspects that enable SME to not only survive but to utilize them to gain a visible advantage once the crisis subsides: complexity, capacity, and competence. Particularly in crisis, those three factors act as a catalyst (both positive and negative) and are closely interwoven in a network of effects, which can, to a certain extent, be influenced by the entrepreneur himself. In this paper, complexity, capacity, and competence are aligned in a comprehensive approach according to common innovation management models like Business Model Canvas as well as methods for analyzing industry rivalry for assessing their effects on SME during an economic crisis. The aim of this paper is to develop a complexity-reducing approach that is intended to actively support SMEs in crisis navigation and emphasizing the importance of innovations for growth. Keywords: Crisis · Innovation · SME · Managing · Change

1 Introduction Even though media coverage of large corporations shapes the image of corporations being the driving force behind a countries’ economy in the public perception, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) account for the majority of businesses worldwide and are crucial to job creation and global economic development. They represent about 90% of businesses and more than 50% of employment worldwide. In contrast to large corporations, with absolute higher financial power and accounted research and development budgets, SMEs have to deal with a lower capitalization, which, ultimately leads to a higher sensitivity and vulnerability to ceasing demand, misleading innovation projects or crisis effects. Characteristic for these business entities is that they are accountable for the development of new solutions and taking risks for their employees and neighborhood on their own responsibility, both legally and capitalwise. Hence, it is of uttermost importance to support SMEs in their economic relevance. Especially in times of uncertainty, innovations have a high relevance for companies and the economy to survive unscathed. However, many SME lack innovative strength, according to a representative survey by the Bertelsmann Foundation [1]. But what are the reasons for the lack of innovation culture and why do SME struggle evaluating and tackling ideas? Around 46% of SMEs are classified as lacking innovation [2]. However, © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 49–55, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_7

50

D. Bakir and F. Engels

there is no lack of willingness to develop products or services, but instead proper ideas to generate new development goals, to concretize needs and to objectively observe and evaluate the market are missing. At this point, SMEs can be supported through specific, guided application of creativity techniques and the exchange of diverse knowledge. There is a general consensus that innovations are of essential economic importance, especially for high-wage countries in the face of dynamic global competition. The topic is therefore given correspondingly high priority by politics with targeted infrastructure measures and incentives such as subsides to strengthen the innovative power of the economy. Likewise, most companies devote a great deal of attention to innovation management, according to the study results of the Boston Consulting Group on dealing with innovations in the area of “organization” [3]. Especially smaller or newly founded enterprises often have difficulties to firstly understand and consequently implement professional innovation processes. The innovation process is defined as a sequence of activities organized by a company’s management to produce new products and services for marketing [4]. At the same time, the category of innovation processes include market expansion activities and improvement of supply functionality, production processes, equipment maintenance, distribution channels, service and the perfecting of the company’s administrative and management activities [4]. Due to the importance of innovation processes for the long-term success of a business, the question arises how business can be supported in the implementation and realization of fitting processes. Supporting a SME’s innovation process, however, is a complex task that requires time and a high level of expertise along daily business routines. This means for most of those companies that they are reliant on external knowledge, like specialized consultants which in fact strains financial resources. Hence, our goal is to find a way to build and support an efficient businesses’ crisis management process with internal resources and by emphasizing innovation. There are three central aspects that enable SME to not only survive but to utilize them to gain a visible advantage once the crisis subsides: complexity, capacity, and competence. Complexity refers to the vast amount of information, both internal and external, hence hindering on profound decision-making and mainly refers to the according studies about bounded rationality. A sub-factor for complexity is dynamic change in competitive factors such as innovations. Capacity symbolizes the businesses’ limited resources, e.g., capital, time and employees as well as production capacities and depicts the downsides during uncertain times, as they are currently present. Competence especially focuses on the human aspects of an enterprise. Vital factors are the employees and their productivity that often lie dormant once crisis hit, which is likewise true for the entrepreneur himself. Optimally, he can draw on extensive knowledge that can be transformed into foresight to make strategic decisions regarding the existing, limited resources. Particularly in crisis, those three factors act as a catalyst (both positive and negative). It even seems as if these three factors are closely interwoven in a network of effects, which can, to a certain extent, be influenced by the entrepreneur himself.

3C-Crisis-Concept for SME

51

2 Approach In this paper, complexity, capacity, and competence are aligned in a comprehensive approach according to common innovation management models like Business Model Canvas (BMC) as well as methods for analyzing industry rivalry for assessing their effects on SME during an economic crisis. The work aims to provide an overview as well as possible solutions for the lack of profound support on sustainable management processes, especially insufficient innovation planning, which many SMEs suffer from. Our qualitative approach is, in this early phase of research, based on thorough literature reviews, practical experience and observation. However, a quantitative study to underline the importance of practical innovation processes in SMEs is already being planned in order to test assumptions derived from the initial phase. Hence, the goal is to analyze cause and effect relationships in the first instance and secondly establish a comprehensive model as assistance for SMEs to manage crisis effects while still generating growth. Due to the highly individual economic conditions in each country, our work focusses on Germany and German SMEs – which, however, partially also operate internationally. Two economic models are used to map complexity, capacity and competence to represent stable as well as dynamic factors in a business’ environment. For analyzing and understanding the complexity of the environment of a company and influencing factors in an understandable manner, Michael E. Porter’s Five Forces Model from 1979 offers a well-established tool. Although times and environments have changed, this ancient model is still relevant in its core aspects, today. Whereas the five forces model represents stable environmental factors, the BMC is more focused on the actual implementation as well as dynamic factors. Those dynamic factors can be the loss of employees or loss of resources (e.g., through trade restrictions or shortages) as well as short-term changes in competition. Hence, the BMC was used as a model for capacity and competence. Since the present classification of complexity, competence and capacity is developed from the dimensions of the BMC canvas as well as the five forces model, an empirical survey has been replaced by applying the expert knowledge onto existing empirical models. The key technology will be an underlying algorithm and potentially self learning intelligence, that is thought to evaluate and interconnect certain economic scenarios and individual use cases accordingly. In consequence, suggestions shall be given on how entrepreneurs can properly react to those effects and moreover diminish their impacts in advance by thoroughly managing the 3C-Factors. Therefore, an editable and scalable software-architecture will be used, designed for structuring the manyfold economic, social, scientific and personal influences. In the end, it is intended to actively support SMEs with ambitions to digitize growth processes and to foster their business via constantly updated decision support. The procurement of decisive data in sufficient quantity and quality, e.g., on the market, competition, research results and intellectual property rights, is often too time-consuming and is insufficiently pursued by many SMEs in their day-to-day business. This results in immense additional opportunity costs, especially in the form of missed opportunities and wasted resources, e.g., through failures and multiple developments that can be saved using this approach.

52

D. Bakir and F. Engels

In particular, complexity can be reduced by using the approach to reach higher transparency on value creation and make fully informed decisions. Capacities should be utilized to actively identify inefficient processes and implement more efficient, qualitative procedures. Competence should be further expanded instead of being lost to competitors. This does not only ensure the SME’s survival during the crisis but enables them to make a strategically strong start once economic circumstances improve. Hence, the entrepreneur can use the network of effects to actively position his company. The Innovator_Institut has a long-lasting history of working closely with German SMEs in infrastructure and innovation matters. Many of our partners have been thoroughly accompanied and counseled in follow-up projects, hence a very close and comprehensive view of innovation processes in SMEs at any maturity state is given. This practical expert knowledge is supplemented by practical and empirical research activities in the field of integrated process monitoring from field to administration level. This paper presents our findings and insights through working with SMEs who have been affected by the ongoing crisis. The researchers assume that SME can successfully manage their business considering the key performance parameters complexity, competence, and capacity. This assumption shall be tested in further research, approach from an analytical and practical point of view.

3 Discussion Today, competitiveness is defined by numerous factors and is more complex than ever before. This particularly affects the way of how SMEs do business. Existing models and theories lag practicability to support a decision-making process in the modern and volatile environment and furthermore require a sound theoretical and data driven framework. Concluding from that, data either is not available at all, due to various reasons or data is not accessible for analysis, both leading into a decision process with incomplete information. Thus, a scheme to repeatable identify and assess factor in a rather effortless way would be supportive for decision making. Such a model should consider of course the influencing direct forces and beyond that sustainable issues as these become more important in international businesses and markets. Hence, our approach aims to make it easier for SMEs to collect, compile and analyze business data through a framework of three central factors. For analyzing and understanding the complex environment of a company and influencing factors in an understandable manner, Porter’s five forces model offers a wellestablished model. Although times and environments have changed since its development, this model is still relevant in its core aspects. The five forces will be representing complexity in the context of the 3C-model, as this factor includes the uncertainty due to lack of information which results from a very versatile external business environment. Subfactors of complexity include the following: First, suppliers, which inhere a high power and influence on the final product and its quality, need actively to be managed by a company. Price, reliability and delivery time are core aspects for SMEs and their sourcing decisions, likely causing target conflicts. Second, customers are considered as another highly influential/powerful force in a specialized niche market. A respective

3C-Crisis-Concept for SME

53

company’s success is rarely based on mass products and a broad sales market rather than small series or individual solutions addressed at a defined small customer group. Price, usability and design of the product or machine limit its interdisciplinary usage as they are developed for a certain task. Third, new entrants are classically viewed as a risk. In SMEs, however, the market is usually so specialized, that a company’s specialized knowledge can hardly be copied or is far too specialized and thus risky to mimic. Hence, as already explained in [5] technology trends will substitute the force of new entrants. In this facet, the subfactor is no longer a risk, but can also become a chance once new technology trends are recognized earlier and shape the competitive environment. Fourth, there are substitutes, which are classically defined as threats that compete about the same or similar customer needs. As substitutes offer a similar advantage for the user, it is highly important to create a unique (set of) attribute(s) along the other characteristics in order to differentiate. Here, information needs to be gathered to assess the business environment and identify customer needs. Last, there is rivalry, that is defined as competition inside a branch. Due to specialization, rivalry exists to a smaller extent, but still emphasizes the need for differentiation via high quality products and a measurable benefit.

Fig. 1. The genuine model on the left is altered by the factors partners, that supplement strategic cooperation and technology trends, that substitute new entrants, as there is anyway a differentiation with high entry barriers to be observed.

The five forces represent the classical and rather stable business environment. Today, however, factors like globalization have made the environment of most businesses more dynamic and more complex than what is covered by the original model. Hence, we lean on the BMC to break down instantaneous influencing factors on specific value propositions. The BMC was first developed by Alexander Osterwalder in 2005. It is a strategic management template to document business models by describing an enterprises’ or products’ value proposition, infrastructure, customers, and finances. By allowing an overview of the business environment with its factors, it assists firms in reviewing and refining their short-term processes and activities. The BMC is an optimal tool to capture the factors capacity and competence in the 3Cmodel, as Osterwalder proposed it as a reference model that can be fitted to the needs and specifications of a SME [6]. As the BMC is often used to develop new or refine existent business models, it offers a way to further reduce complexity by breaking down the business environment while also including the factors of capacity and competence

54

D. Bakir and F. Engels

as more practical and dynamic factors. This includes temporary or permanent loss of employees, trade restrictions or shortages. In the 3C-model, capacity symbolizes the businesses’ limited resources, e.g., capital, time and employees as well as production capacities and are represented by the block key resources as well as by finances in the blocks cost structure and revenue streams in the BMC context. In the case of a crisis that reduces the willingness or ability for sourcing, capacity represents production capacities that often lie dormant once crisis hit as well as issues with supply chains that may hinder production. Competence especially focuses on the human aspects of an enterprise. Vital factors for SME are the employees and their productivity, which in the BMC are cumulated in key resources as employees usually do not play a significant role in the development or refinement of a business structure. However, competence also entails the expert knowledge of the SMEs managers (most likely managing partner) which play into the block partner networks. Finally, competence also describes the perceived competence towards the customer, hence falling into the blocks of customer relationships. If SME lose credibility of their competence during crisis, they run the risk of losing costumers due to perceived bad management. In conclusion, the 3C-concept aggregates the three most important factors that especially SME should be aware of once crisis hits. Putting these aspects together, the objective of a generally applicable approach that can be used to structure and evaluate a company’s situation with regard to the 3C factors can be pursued. The aim of this project is to help businesses balance missed opportunities against costs that come with time-consuming procurement of decisive data in sufficient quality and quantity. Hence, an active support for SMEs with ambitions to digitize growth processes and to foster their business via constantly updated decision support is given. This could be rolled out as a software as a service solution. Key feature will be a n-stage algorithm (subject of following papers) that calculates dependencies between the factors and enables to weigh these accordingly. So, as a function of the weightings, different estimates of current and future market opportunities results. The system boundary initially runs along the local application by the user and extends on the software side to the basic cloud infrastructure. However, this can be extended to include further external services, such as specialized databases. The actual framework ultimately results from the requirements profile of an individual SME. Hence, the algorithm aims to offer the possibility of an easy assessment of the SMEs risks, chances and potentials. Through weighting of the 3C-factors, an individual, yet fast and statistically sound analysis of their business environment can be provided, thus guiding especially inexperienced SMEs through difficult economic times.

4 Conclusion While the model has been developed in very close consultation with experts and under precise observation of the economic situation of SMEs affected by early effects of a crisis, such as lower revenues, diminished orders and appropriating reserves, further research is needed to examine the taken actions and resulting constitution. The planned empirical validation of our 3C-model will be twofold: One part will be interviews with experts as well as CEOs of SMEs to gain further insight in how SMEs tackle the three

3C-Crisis-Concept for SME

55

central C’s in times of crisis. The second part will be quantitative research to determine which strategies used by SME have proven successful and how they can be mapped onto the 3C model. Finally, for validation, past and current reference projects are compared with their predicted and actually existing market potentials. In addition to industry reports and market analyses, partners from industry are also asked about their subjective impressions. With the aid of regression analyses (maximum likelihood estimation) and Gaussian distribution the approach can be validated and subsequently improved continuously. Already in the early stages of development and optimization, the program shows a very reliable and realistic assessment of the potential. With a growing data base and quantitative data, more subfactors can be entered into the 3C model. Hence, we hope to be able to give SMEs the opportunity of an individual assessment of their chances by using the 3C model as an underlying model for a software tool. This will enable SME to improve their decision-making especially during difficult economic times. Due to the extremely diverse global situation, this paper also mainly focusses on German SMEs. Even though many of our partners also operate internationally, economic conditions are too individual in each country to claim global validity. However, the present framework can be extended and fitted to different economic environments.

References 1. Wortmann, M.: Stagnierende Produktivität bei kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen gefährdet Deutschlands Wohlstand. In: Produktivität von kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen in Deutschland. Bertelsmann Foundation, Guetersloh (2019) 2. Astor, M., et al.: Untersuchung von Innovationshemmnissen in Unternehmen. In: ZWE Gutachten/Forschungsberichte, Berlin (2013) 3. Roghé, F., Strack, R., Petrova, V.: Organization 2015. In: Fuehrung + Organisation, vol. 5/2009, p. 205. Schaefer-Poeschel, Stuttgart (2009) 4. Vahs, D., Brem, A.: Innovationsmanagement – Von der Idee zur erfolgreichen Vermarktung. In: Schaefer Poeschel, Stuttgart (2015) 5. Bakir, D., Engels, F., Bakir, J.: Innovators 5 forces approach to increase the accuracy of technological SME-innovations. Int. J. Qual. Res. 13(4), 875–886 (2017) 6. Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y.: Business Model Generation - Ein Handbuch für Visionaere, Spielveraenderer und Herausforderer. In: Campus, Frankfurt am Main (2010).

The Evolutionary Nature of Innovation Businesses Matthias Hillner1,2(B) 1 Glasgow School of Art, Singapore, Singapore

[email protected] 2 TruBlu AI Pte Ltd., Singapore, Singapore

Abstract. Drawing on secondary research and data grounded in case studies, this paper discusses the dynamics of creative startup businesses. Conventional business models tend to assess businesses in relation to their momentary characteristics rather than in light of how they change over time. This paper builds on insights surrounding distinct phases in the development of startups to outline how multiple strategies—finance, route-to-market, IP, resource allocation, etc.—can be interlinked and aligned with a long-term perspective in mind. The paper builds on existing theories as well as a strategic framework for innovation management along with a model that helps to visualize and monitor business development progress. The proposed framework, the business development canvas, can be viewed as the skeletal structure of an organization around which developments are strategically aligned. The progress assessment model, which is presented here as the business development diamond, can be used to monitor the effective use of this strategic framework. Keywords: Design · Innovation · Startup · Entrepreneurship · Business model · Business growth · Management · Business strategy · Dynamic capabilities

1 Introduction The guiding thought that has led to this paper is how do startup businesses develop? How do they grow and mature? Whilst there are established conventions in conjunction with the running of established businesses, be they large or small in size, there is limited clarity on how startups behave, in particular during the initial stages. What we do know is that there is a high level of volatility, and it is estimated that only around ten percent of startups prevail in the longer term [1]. Success is often measured based on initial public offerings or trade sales [2], a set of metrics that omits the startups which stabilize at a modest scale or grow into larger independent businesses. The purpose of this paper is not to introduce another set of success assessment criteria. It is to examine the processes behind startup business developments, and to find meaningful ways of framing these for the benefit of monitoring and progress assessment. This paper is motivated through a PhD study, in the course of which a range of designled startups were examined. The study was carried out from 2012–2019, and the key © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 56–64, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_8

The Evolutionary Nature of Innovation Businesses

57

findings are discussed in a book entitled as “Intellectual Property, Design Innovation, and Entrepreneurship” which was published in January 2021 [3]. This paper is not limited to previously published insights, it also takes into consideration post-doc research findings gathered in conjunction with an R&D platform project that has been pursued in exchange with innovation experts including venture capital investment managers, startup incubation managers, serial entrepreneurs and innovation industry leads from companies such as SAP, AWS, IBM, Accenture etc. Whilst the data collection related to the PhD study mentioned was largely conducted through semi-structured interviews, mixed-method surveys and secondary research, the post-doc research findings were obtained through qualitative open conversations. This paper will shed some light into areas where innovation theory and practice do not quite connect, and it culminates in a simple model which may help to bridge theoretical paradigms with practices that are common in the private sector.

2 The Design Business Development as a Process During the aforementioned PhD inquiry Grounded Theory methods were deployed to establish the key business development attributes. The data collected was coherent in relation to the main concerns that drove the decision-making of creative entrepreneurs. The most prominent concerns were IP and finance followed by other aspects such as the product, i.e. the single-minded proposition, team-related matters, the route-to-market, and access to complementary assets (Fig. 1). The latter is a term coined by David Teece to sum up the additional resources necessary to take a product to market and optimize the financial returns through value chain coverage [4]. Brand assets were added later following a series of longitudinal studies, which suggested that the brand- and market positioning of a firm becomes a significant factor once market access is secured.

Fig. 1. The key startup business development attributes. The version on the right introduces a time factor. Finance is used to secure IP and complementary assets. Brand assets and marketing efforts are deployed for market penetration. A startup is an evolving business.

In the early stage of a startup, the product, the IP that protects the knowledge generated in conjunction with the product, as well as the team carrying this knowledge are

58

M. Hillner

strongly intertwined. These three assets appear to form a unit that is unlikely to change in the beginning, and any variation to one of these three aspects is likely to impact the other two. The layout of factors on the right-hand side of Fig. 1 was a first attempt to introduce a time-based order. The unit of team, product and knowledge sits towards the left and influences the management of the surrounding factors that are situated towards the right. Industry practices along with some existing theories suggest that innovation businesses, i.e. businesses that are built around inventions or inventive steps, require models that recognize the time-factor. One such model that emerged in the context of innovation management theory is the Myers and Marquis Model from 1969 (Fig. 2) as discussed by Godin and Lane [5]. This maps out how technology-push and market-pull factors interact over time, until an invention is released on the market. This model is very useful to examine driving factors in conjunction with R&D. However, it does not account for surrounding factors such as finance and complementary assets. The other critique that I would express towards this model is that it does not cater for iterative steps as they are common in the context of design thinking and innovation.

Fig. 2. The Myers and Marquis Model from 1969 as discussed by Godin and Lane (2013)

Sebastian Conran is a reputable designer who runs a consultancy in London, UK, under the name Sebastian Conran Associates. An example of a practice-based workflow is Sebastian Conran’s bar chart that sketches out time-based shifts in the collaborative accountability in the context of product design innovation (Fig. 3). This diagram shows how the input from different stakeholders typically changes over time as a product is prepared for market entry. It is noteworthy that Conran’s approach tends to start with a market incentive [6], whereas many innovation concepts evolve from research observations and from the identification of new opportunities rather than a market-pull set of circumstances. The intensity of design efforts, which comprise the conceptualisation and the shaping of a product, are situated in an inverse relationship to the technology

The Evolutionary Nature of Innovation Businesses

59

and manufacturing efforts. The emphasis shifts from one to the other. Research and marketing-related efforts are emphasised at the beginning and the end of a project. Conran uses a mixed business model. Whilst motivated through perceived market opportunities, Conran’s enterprising initiatives are mostly self-initiated and often funded through his design consultancy revenues in the beginning stages. This is part of the reason why certain business development aspects are not as prominent as they would be in conjunction with a single-product firm whose commercial success relies exclusively on the development and the launch of a single proprietary value proposition.

Fig. 3. An analysis of workflows in conjunction with innovative design products according to Sebastian Conran, the priorities shift over time as a product moves towards market introduction. (© Sebastian Conran Associates)

3 The Business Development Canvas The business development aspects discussed under point two give rise to the question how the criteria mentioned play a role as the business matures and evolves into an established business that can enter a scaling process (Fig. 4). It is useful to focus on how the different development attributes are articulated as a business goes through various phases. Emphasis shifts from market analysis to market positioning and subsequently to market capture which ultimately results in an increase in market power, for example. In reality the developments are not quite as straight forward as one might assume in light of the diagram shown in Fig. 4. The development attributes and their periodic articulation are mere categories which hold a multitude of decisions that are to be made by the creative entrepreneur. This model which I referred to as the business development canvas in the book mentioned above, is designed to serve a canvas on which an entrepreneur can draw decisions and decision trees in pursuit of the alignment of diverse strategies. Figure 5 shows a scenario that has been analyzed in my book [3], a case study which involves two complementary innovations a flexible room divider screen developed for hospitals (KwickScreen) and a customer management platform called Romulus. The

60

M. Hillner

Fig. 4. The key business development aspects (attributes) change over time as a business matures.

Fig. 5. In reality the development of business is far more complex than shown in Fig. 4. However, the development steps can typically be allocated to the key business development attributes mentioned above. In this example we have the route-to-market at the top, beneath which is IP, then finance and the complementary assets at the bottom. Note that this diagram depicts only the early and the transitional startup development phases.

diagram shows how decisions and evolving circumstances have panned out over time. The close examination of the diagram reveals how customer feedback led to a revision of the marketing strategy for KwickScreen, and how the engagement with customers led to the development of a bespoke sales management system that paved the way towards an additional revenue stream, and subsequently became a spinout business in its own right. Although the diagram looks complex at first glance, four of the five business development attributes—market, knowledge assets and IP, finance, complementary assets—are

The Evolutionary Nature of Innovation Businesses

61

easy to spot. Brand assets were omitted in Fig. 5, because for early startups that develop around a business-to-business model, brand assets tend to be of lesser significance.

4 The Interconnected Nature of Startups The question that arises, is how the diagrams shown in Figs. 4 and 5 can support reallife innovation practices. Where this paper adds to the studies mentioned earlier is the exploration of concepts in relation to existing business management systems. The vast majority of innovation management platforms currently used in the industry resemble project management systems with added functions dedicated to the peer evaluation of ideas. Whilst beneficial for crowd sourcing ideas within medium-to-large corporations, these systems are of limited benefit to independent startups which are usually built around single products or a small range of products. The peer evaluation of ideas is not needed here as the teams are usually very small in size. This is why existing innovation management systems benefit the small startup business barely more than the conventional project management platform. What is potentially more useful to the aspirational creative entrepreneur, are systems that manage the different business development aspects in a dedicated way. There are sales management systems, often termed customer relationship management platforms (CRM), finance management systems (FMS), as well as supply chain management systems (SCM). Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERP) cover a range of aspects offered by individual specialized systems. However, these systems are mostly designed for established businesses, the modus operandi of which differs from that of startups who typically deploy a much more fluid and connected approach to managing and developing their business attributes. Rather than managing funding and finances, IP, distribution, along with R&D in an isolated fashion, the creative entrepreneur needs to be able to manage these development aspects in conjunction and establish clarity about how these development aspects depend on one another. To what extent is the development of an IP portfolio dependent on the sourcing of funding or vice versa? The creative entrepreneur requires a simple system that allows to make meaningful connections between the variety of business development aspects that are at play.

5 The Business Development Diamond Whilst trying to compute a system that allows to track progress made in conjunction with an early-stage startup that evolves over time into an established firm and trying to align this system with common standards of operating a firm, a model has emerged that helps to reveal the progress made by the creative entrepreneur at a glance. The diagram tracks advancements in relation to supply chain and distribution network as well as progress in relation to R&D and sales (Fig. 6). This mapping of development aspects appears useful, not only because it reveals potential imbalances between supply and demand, and it also indicates if the business is undergoing a market-pull or a technology-push phase. Through monitoring periodic changes (Fig. 7), one can measure the business development almost like the growth of a tree which manifests in tree rings. Different conditions and strategic decision result in different growth patterns. Intellectual Property (IP) sits at the heart of the diagram because it is connected to the development of all four

62

M. Hillner

surrounding aspects. It evolves from R&D and enhances market power which impacts sales. According to Adam Sutcliffe, the inventor of Orbel, a small palm-sized hand sanitizer which medical staff can carry on their belt, both suppliers and distributers wish to see a robust IP portfolio before they invest in the development of a distribution network or manufacturing facilities [7].

Fig. 6. The business development diamond is a model that can help illustrate how balanced the developments of different business attributes are. It reveals if the approach is sales- or market-led, or if a technology push is applied. It can indicate if the supply chain suffices to satisfy market demand (distribution).

In light of observed innovation practices, this paper proposes the business development diamond as a model to measure progress in relation to the development of early-stage businesses that are built around innovations. The question that arises is how does this model connect with the business development canvas discussed earlier? What has been revealing is the fact that in practice it is best to split complementary assets into supply- and distribution-related assets whereas innovation theorists often converge the two. Without this distinction in the strategic development, entrepreneurs can easily find themselves confronted with supply shortages, distribution-related logistic problems or with other operational challenges. The key business development attributes shown in the business development canvas are embedded in the diamond diagram, although not in too obvious a fashion: Complementary assets are split into supply- and distribution-related assets (Fig. 7). The development of these business attributes may pave the way towards sales, which in the case of a transitional startup or an established business may also be strengthened through brand assets. R&D generates IP which enhances the startup’s competitive advantage, and consequently benefits sales growth. Sales feed into finances, and revenues can be reinvested to enhance supplies and distribution, but also in growing the IP portfolio, and to re-innovate through continued R&D. The blue shapes at the center of Fig. 7 indicate different business development phases like the rings of a tree. Diamonds growing upwards more rapidly than downwards are a sign of a market-led phase. If the downward corner is more pronounced than the one pointing up, the business is likely to be undergoing a technology-push phase. Horizontal asymmetry is an indication for potential supply shortages or distribution-related challenges. Either can jeopardize a startup’s

The Evolutionary Nature of Innovation Businesses

63

survival prospects and compromise growth. To succeed and to thrive, the startup needs to grow constantly, and ideally in a symmetric fashion. Symmetry here reflects a balanced approach to asset management.

Fig. 7. The business development diamond in application.

6 Conclusion This paper seeks to draw attention to the time-aspect in conjunction with the management of creative startup businesses. In line with the book ‘Intellectual Property, Design Innovation, and Entrepreneurship’ [3] the paper introduces the business development canvas as a means to map out the most significant startup business development strategies in conjunction with one another. To monitor the effectiveness of startup management decisions, this paper proposes a new model, the business development diamond, which can be deployed to illustrate progress made by creative entrepreneurs in relation to the key development aspects: complementary assets (related to supply and distribution), R&D (related to the product development), finances and sales. Brand assets typically play a supporting role until a business is established in the market and enjoys brand recognition amongst the target audience. Their significance increases when entrepreneurs scale a business and defend market share, in particular if the business uses a businessto-consumer approach. Both models, the development of which was nurtured through exchanges with entrepreneurs, investors, innovation coaches and managers of startup incubators, are currently being tested in practice. It is assumed that the effective use of these models may enhance a startup’s strategic decision-making and improve its dynamic capabilities, i.e. the ability to respond to unforeseen changes in the market environment [8]. How progress is measured and computed to allow for these models to function to the

64

M. Hillner

best of their capacity, could not be articulated in this paper. However, it is hoped that the discussion of these models may help to introduce new perspectives to the management of creative startups, and that the thoughts shared may inspire new and more effective approaches to the strategic management of innovation businesses.

References 1. Shane, S.: The importance of angel investing in financing the growth of entrepreneurial ventures. Q. J. Finance 02(02), 1–42 (2012). World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., Singapore 2. Kokshagina, O., Le Masson, P., Weil, B.: Should we manage the process of inventing? Designing for patentability. Res. Eng. Des. 28, 457–475 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00163-0160245-0 3. Hillner, M.: Intellectual Property, Design Innovation, and Entrepreneurship. Springer, Heidelberg (2021) 4. Teece, D.J.: Profiting from technological innovation: implications for integration, collaboration, licensing and public policy. In: Teece, D.J. (et al.) Strategy, Technology and Public Policy: The Selected Papers of David J. Teece. Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham (1988) 5. Godin, B., Lane, J.P.: Pushes and pulls: hi(s)tory of the demand pull model of innovation. Sci. Technol. Hum. Values 38(6), 621–654 (2013). SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA, USA 6. Conran, S.: Interview in Person, London, UK, 30 June 2017 7. Sutcliffe, A.: Interview via Skype, UK/Singapore, 25 June 2020 8. Teece, D.J.: Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic Management: Organizing for Innovation and Growth. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2011)

Inspiration Mining: Exploring Design Research(ers) Strategies Paulo Maldonado1,2,3(B) , Ana Ricardo3 , Ana Almeida1,2,3 , Inês Gonçalino3 , Raquel Gouveia3 , and Sara Condeça3 1 Faculdade de Arquitetura, CIAUD – Centro de Investigação em Arquitetura, Urbanismo e Design, Universidade de Lisboa, Rua Sá Nogueira, Polo Universitário, Alto da Ajuda, 1349-055 Lisbon, Portugal [email protected] 2 Escola de Artes, Departamento de Artes Visuais e Design, CHAIA Centro de História de Arte e Investigação Avançada, Universidade de Évora, Palácio do Vimioso, Largo Marquês de Marialva 8, 7000-809 Évora, Portugal 3 Escola de Artes, Departamento de Artes Visuais e Design, Universidade de Évora, Colégio dos Leões, 7003-554 Évora, Portugal

Abstract. The article describes and presents the results of an atypical process of Design research strategy, tested in a Master in Design Course. It is intended that students explore ideas, concepts and themes - Inspiration Mining - taking as a starting point a set of 32 (30 + 2) reference titles, with the objective of discovering, through the establishment of more or less (im)probable relationships, possible points of interception, enhancers of new ideas. The objectives of the proposed work focus on the development of research and critical reflection in a collaborative environment of exploring the [apparently] unknown, in search of new meanings. During the process, the intersection of inspiring ideas leading to the transforming a set of existing ideas into new ones. Keywords: Inspiration mining · Design research strategies · Critical reflection · Collaborative environment · Intersection of inspiring concepts · Literature review

1 Introduction We know the difficulties inherent to the discovery of a timely research topic, capable of becoming a significant contribution to knowledge and science in Design. The starting point is the exploration of concepts, ideas and themes - Inspiration Mining1 - starting with a proposal for curation of reference titles, with the purpose of discovering, through the establishment of relations more or less (im)probable, relationships and conceptual leaps and flashes of inspiration through the ideas with the greatest potential (first in a perspective of divergence and expansion, then in a perspective of convergence and 1 The Inspiration Mining work was developed in the curricular unit Theory and Criticism of Design

(Master in Design, Universidade de Évora) in the academic years 2019–2020 and 2020–2021 under Paulo Maldonado supervision. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 65–72, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_9

66

P. Maldonado et al.

concentration), possible points of interception, new (disruptive) concepts, ideas and unexpected themes inspirers for the individual research project, going through the IDEO itinerary [1]: discovery > interpretation > ideation > experimentation > transformation. The research environment is an incubator of possible futures for design research, testing innovation through content curation, collaboration and connectivity. Rapid prototyping of possible ideas for research topics among participants (inspired cultural provocateurs) coach, prepares and transforms educated thinkers into highly educated thinkers to be innovation. 1.1 Interdisciplinary Design Process by Ana Ricardo

Fig. 1. Interdisciplinary Design Process: synthetic scheme about books, selection and visual narrative.

The selection and analysis of the nine most interesting concepts gave rise to the visual narrative (Fig. 1). The results of these “intersections of thinking” [2] transport us to the notion that design process is interdisciplinary. Design is not an isolated activity and so “it emerges from a wider field of relationships” [3] and connections, which converge with each other to inspire us. This exercise of intersection knowledges also helps us “understanding user needs” [3], prioritize function and not necessarily aesthetics, because “design’s only contemporary purpose is to create new things out of nothing” [3]. The key aspect for this conduct of thinking is to “be open to the ideas and language of people who have different backgrounds and ideas about the world” [2]. This notion establishes the connection with the “Design Ethnography” [4], where the empathy and the insight are the motto. This means that to “be willing to

Inspiration Mining: Exploring Design Research(ers) Strategies

67

change the way we think about the world and what we do” [2] is a fundamental research skill. The act of “observation requires attentive looking and systematic recording of phenomena – including people, artifacts, environments, events, behaviors and interactions” [4], in fact, we can record and prioritize the ideas and inspirations using the visual methodological process of “mind mapping” [4]. However, in the concept “Design (as) research” [2], we understand the importance of interpretation. Throughout the interdisciplinary process, from the ideation to the implementation, the “research is only good as its interpretation” [2]. Design is a challenging process where human, social and empathic skills are tested. To do our project based on an interdisciplinary design process is necessary to articulate questions and take conclusions and that is why “critical reflection is a necessary component of a design research practice” [2]. 1.2 (Un)complexity by Ana Almeida

Fig. 2. (Un)complexity: books selection and textual structure.

“The planet is an object of matter in space and time, whereas ‘world’ is an idea” [5]. In perspective, this concept is valid in the scope of design because it represents a world of “ideas”, thought and rethought, under the various constraints of space and time. Design is a fundamental part of the universe we cohabit (Fig. 2). Design must be methodological and disciplined. From the start it is important to be aware that “there are things to know, ways to know, ways of knowing them, and ways of finding out about them” [6]. For this to be possible, it is necessary to adapt

68

P. Maldonado et al.

and define the best approach strategy to the type of product and target for which one intends to work. “Creativity can’t be reduced to a single flash of insight in a single moment”. [7] It is imperative to explore the theme to the maximum, in order to open the field of hypotheses and thus stimulate the designer’s creativity. Observation is also a fundamental part, since “objects are a form knowledge about how to satisfy certain requirements about how to perform certain tasks” [6]. When this process is executed successfully all the capacities are gathered to develop a good design, and therefore a good business [8]. “The artist’s business is reflection” [3] and “design was conceived of as a revolutionary way of transforming life” [3] and it is in this sense that it should be understood. The process may seem complex, however, “openness simplifies complexity” [9]. Therefore, nowadays, design has become “a fetish of modern consumer society” [3] that only sees potential in business models, neglecting the necessary design process. It is up to us, designers, to counteract this trend. 1.3 The 21st Century Consumer by Inês Gonçalino

Fig. 3. The 21st Century Consumer: selection of books, 9 of 18 concepts and visual planning of text structure.

Inspiration Mining: Exploring Design Research(ers) Strategies

69

“There is all around us today a kind of fantastic conspicuousness of consumption and abundance” [10]. It becomes increasingly evident that, this man-made need for exuberance, who lives to assert himself before society based on what he owns, rooted on the inconsistent idea that having more is also “being more” (Fig. 3). Consumption is an activity that arises from the needs of the human being. Just as there are essential and superfluous needs, consumption can also be essential or superfluous. As a rule, essential consumption corresponds to primary needs, that is, the purchase and use of goods indispensable for survival. Superfluous consumption, on the other hand, correspond to superfluous needs that are met with the acquisition and use of goods that are dispensable in our lives, but that for many is a priority. Whether the needs that motivate the act of consumption are essential or superfluous, this must happen based on previous evaluations of what the market offers as a response to said need, and the act of purchase previously calculated. “The vast majority of the population, however, consumes and shops with their mind and their heart, or if you prefer, their emotions” [11], often proceeding to an impulsive act that is not always the best response to the need that motivated the consumption. This being the reality by which the consumer is governed, it’s necessary for a brand that is seeking success in the market to “stop racing after every new fad and focus on making consistent, emotional connections with consumers” [11]. Building customer loyalty and maintaining a long-lasting relationship with them is an important step to ensure that with each new product or service launched on the market, there is a greater probability of sales. The connections established are then extremely important, and their success, dictates the success of the brand. This is the important work of the marketing and design teams (which ironically are often undervalued) that with the necessary tools and knowledge, know how to reach the target audience, turning potential consumers into actual consumers. The perception of a brand is achieved through various means (such as its logo, packaging, communication elements, etc.). “All elements of a visual language should be intentionally designed to advance the brand strategy” [12] and it is proven that “using clear language consistently to communicate about products and services helps the customer” [12]. It is therefore, up to marketeers and designers to create communication media and, in a coherent way, “you have to deliver the information the way people absorb it, a bit at a time, a layer at a time, and in the proper sequence” [13]. It follows that the way “how a brand is perceived affects its success” [12]. In short, the success of brands is fundamental in the contribution to consumer activity, which in turn is fundamental to the growth of the global economy. The success of a brand positively affects society in general, since it generates more jobs and “the system needs people as workers, as savers, but increasingly it needs them as consumers” [10]. In any case, it’s important that every consumer is aware of the impact of the consumer industry on the environment. Without conditions and environmental quality, there is no consumption that can save us. And just as today’s consumption is evidenced on unnecessary grounds, so is its impact, because “nature was never glorified quite so much before it was everywhere laid waste” [10]. It is unfortunate, that this exaltation, occurs in greater measures than the remedial responses in the face of the damage. It is necessary to understand that consumption is fundamental but, it must be a conscious act at all levels inherent to it.

70

P. Maldonado et al.

1.4 Emerging Cultural Landscapes by Raquel Gouveia

Fig. 4. Emerging cultural landscapes: books, concepts and visual narrative.

“Emerging cultural landscapes” [14] present two topics of interest: “creative intelligence” [7] and “creativity and emotion” [17]. “Dreams” [15] result from them, the individual “cast of space under my chair” [15], with a “social function” [16]. The use of this “social function” [16] with the “creation of meaning” [16] or with the intention of creating it, trough “recycling, sharing and reframing” [16]; influences “dreams” [15] in a second way. These “dreams” [15], if submitted to an individual perspective, that is, to a philosophy called “Tuhantu (symbols, icons and personalities have different meanings depending on world view, experiences and beliefs)” [15], allow to the individual the

Inspiration Mining: Exploring Design Research(ers) Strategies

71

ability, after a “change in values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours” [14], to fit in and help shape a new “emerging cultural landscape” [14] (Fig. 4). 1.5 The Manifest of the Mind by Sara Condeça

Fig. 5. The manifest of the mind: construction of the visual narrative with the final selection of authors and concepts/ideas

The human mind was once a great mystery and sometimes difficult to decipher. Today, its complexity is closer to being understood. The patterns in our mind adapt to the complexity of our lives, and it’s up to people, us, to organize those patterns, as John Maeda states in his book The Laws of Simplicity – “humans are organization animals” [9]. So, unconsciously, we are always creating habits and ways to stay organized. These habits arise from new ideas – “ideas don’t happen because they are great or by accident” [18], they happen when we move to achieve them (Fig. 5). “Existence, at least human existence, is defined by the choices people make” [19]. The human being is defined by more or less complex choices. However, “simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful” [9]. If our choices are not meaningful, are they the right ones? Perhaps the best way to make decisions, to have ideas, to create habits and make choices, involves choosing the route of simplicity. Often, “a single keyword generates more thoughts than a phrase” [20] and, with this, the route of simplicity may end up bringing the best ideas. However, “big words seldom accompany good deeds” [21] and we must be in control of what are the possible and impossible strategies to achieve, “insight and fancy are, in the first instance, two qualitatively different modes of operation of the mind as a whole” [22]. By establishing relationships between the mind, the organization, the habits, the ideas and all their simplicity, we can conclude that everything is born from the creativity of the mind and the decisions we made – “creativity is the catalyst for brilliant accomplishments, but it is also the greatest obstacle” [18]. It is important to be able to be creative in the way of thinking and living, since the understanding of our mind develops as we experience life.

72

P. Maldonado et al.

“Society and education have cramed our non-linear brains in a linear box and then we wonder why learning and thinking can seem difficult at times” [20]. However, it does not have to be, and this is a decision that only we can make.

2 Inspiration Mining Research Strategy Starting with a curation of 30 printed reference titles (some of the titles may be lateral to the scientific area of study) plus 2 key titles, the students selected and used (for 120 min) 6 reference titles of their choice, identifying and registering, under the form of a mental map and on paper (A3), 18 concepts, ideas and themes (3 per title). They then elaborate an analytical index of the 18 ideas and depart to relate and discuss 9 of the 18 ideas. The process culminates in the construction of a distinctive narrative originating in the 9 ideas (in the form of text and ideographic). Acknowledgments. Centro de Investigação em Arquitetura, Urbanismo e Design, Faculdade de Arquitetura, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal; Centro de História de Arte e Investigação Avançada da Universidade de Évora, Évora, Portugal.

References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22.

IDEO: Design Thinking for educators (2012). http://designthinkingforeducators.com/ Laurel, B.: Design Research. MIT Press, Cambridge (2003) Clarke, A.J.: Design Anthropology. Springer, Vienna (2011) Martin, B., Hanington, B.: Universal Methods of Design. Rockport Publishers, Beverly (2012) Fry, T., Dilnot, C., Stewart, S.C.: Design and the Question of History. Bloomsburry Academic, London (2015) Cross, N.: Designerly Ways of Knowing. Spinger, London (2006) Nussbaum, B.: Creative Intelligence. Harper Collins Publisher, New York (2013) Bierut, M.: Seventy-Nine Short Essays on Design. Princeton Architectual Press, New York (2007) Maeda, J.: The Laws of Simplicity. MIT, Cambridge (2006) Baudrillard, J.: The Consumer Society: Myths and Structurs. SAGE Publications, London (1970) Roberts, K.: Lovemarks: The Future Beyond. PowerHouse Books, New York (2007) Wheeler, A.: Designing Brand Identity. Wiley, Hoboken (2010) Underhill, P.: Why We Buy. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks (2000) Dunne, A., Raby, F.: Speculative Everything. MIT Press, Cambridge (2013) Gerber, A., Lutz, A.: Influences. Die Gestalten Verlag, Berlin (2006) Lupton, E., Miller, A.: Design Writing Research. Phaidon, London (2008) Sanders, L., Stappers, P.J.: Convivial Toolbox. HarperCollins, New York (2013) Belsky, S.: Making Ideas Happen. Portfolio Penguin, London (2011) Schwartz, B.: The Paradox of Choice. HarperCollins e-books, New York (2007) Nast, J.: Idea Mapping. Wiley, Hoboken (2006) Kawasaki, G.: Enchantment. Portfolio Penguin, London (2011) Bohm, D.: On Criativity. Routledge, New York (2005)

Democratic Organizational Culture for SMEs Innovation Transformation and Corporate Entrepreneurship Evangelos Markopoulos1,2(B) , Anxhela Bilibashi1 , and Hannu Vanharanta3 1 HULT International Business School, Faculty of Management and Entrepreneurship,

35 Commercial Road, London E1 1LD, UK [email protected], [email protected] 2 Queen Mary University of London, School of Business and Management, 327 Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK 3 University of Vaasa, Wolffintie 34, 65200 Vaasa, Finland [email protected]

Abstract. The contribution of the Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) in every economy is undeniably significant. Still, their existence relies on their leadership’s ability to respond to the continuous challenges utilizing best their limited resources. This paper introduces a Democratic Leadership Change Integration Model (DLCIM) that can be used globally to support and institutionalize SMEs’ innovation by maximizing their human intellectual capital’s effectiveness democratically. Knowledge democratization is a crucial stage in knowledge generation. Its benefits encourage both the employees and the organization to create innovative products and services under ethical management values and principles. The proposed framework helps organizations and SMEs achieve a knowledgebased democratic company-employee relationship. It encapsulates the integration of The Company Democracy Model as the tool and base for innovation, the ADKAR model for change management, and the Self-Determination Theory as a leadership principle. Keywords: SMEs · Business transformation · Organizational culture · Self-determination · Company democracy model · Leadership · Change management · Knowledge management · Innovation · Corporate entrepreneurship · Family business

1 Introduction SMEs are known to form the backbone of every economy. They occupy the largest proportion of businesses on a national and global scale and have a critical impact on job formation, GDP, and overall economic development [1]. However, due to their size, operations, and limited financial resources, SMEs are often restricted from effectively accessing and implementing innovation management programs. Reports indicate a dropping rate in the number of innovative SMEs in recent years [2] as innovation activities © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 73–82, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_10

74

E. Markopoulos et al.

are reduced [3, 4]. Inadequate innovation adaptation threatens the essential elements for survival and growth, such as long-term productivity, profitability, and market responsiveness [5]. Thus, most SMEs remain small, under the influence of larger organizations, or die recently after their establishment [6, 7]. Studies indicate that SMEs regard the macro environment as their biggest challenge to innovate [8]. However, evidence shows that external support has become extensively available through the many regulatory frameworks set by public institutions that create SMEs’ opportunities to benefit. This proves that governments want SMEs to improve, develop, and grow [9, 10]; however, they must research the SMEs’ internal environment and support them in building and maintaining an innovation culture. Democratizing SMEs’ potential is crucial in building the foundation for future innovation explorations. SMEs’ leaders can use a tailored framework to promote a democratic innovation culture and operations by focusing on knowledge exploitation and embedment in SMEs through their employees or the society’s intellect.

2 Challenges in the SMEs Innovation Culture Most of the SMEs, besides the startups, belong to the category of family businesses, which restricts the freedom and level of innovativeness, managing intuitively rather than strategically. Such SMEs focus primarily on profit maximization and day-to-day operations. This translates into a lack of long-term organizational goals, development, and implementation strategies that, if present, could ensure higher survival and long-term competitiveness [11]. As family entities, SMEs tend to preserve tradition rather than respond to the need for change. Innovation is treated as a threat to existing products/services rather than an opportunity for further development. It is perceived as a process that requires abundant financial resources and expertise, which SMEs are believed to be lacking [12]. Therefore, there is no understanding and practical application for innovation to be achieved as an added value and a knowledge-sharing collaborative process. SMEs, and especially the family business, can have many ideas, essential for innovation, from the new generations that succeed the older ones. A successful interorganizational collaboration can boost the entrepreneurial potential of the firm. However, it requires both generations to align their mentality and vision. Younger members are discouraged by the founding age, which lacks ways to provide the space to think innovatively [13]. This conservative leadership and centralized decision-making disincentivize employees, restricts them within their roles without opportunities or motivation to share constructive feedback or pursue innovation projects [14].

3 Research Methodology, Methods and Results Academic primary and secondary research based on international literature review, a survey with 100 participants, and 5 interviews with SMEs owners from different industries and sizes of organizations was conducted to understand the level of innovativeness and the cultural elements that SMEs must adopt to innovate and grow. The results were analyzed based on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions (Table 1) [15].

Democratic Organizational Culture for SMEs Innovation

75

Table 1. Research results analyzed with Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. Cultural dimension

Non-innovative SMEs

Innovative SMEs

Power distance

High: (a) Limited sharing of organizational goals, conservative in preserving the already established business forms. (b) Limited collaborative thinking between leaders and selected employees

Low: (a) Organisational members share the same values and vision. (b) Collaboration and active encouragement for employees and society to communicate ideas

Uncertainty avoidance

High: (a) Risk and lack of funding discouraged leaders from exploring new spaces and R&D. (b) Innovation perceived as cost-intensive. (c) Fear of failure. (d) Innovation for the family business is regarded as a threat to the reputation of existing products/services

Low: (a) Lack of funding did not stop innovation. (b) Innovation developed through knowledge management

Masculine vs. Feminine

Moderate: less proactive employees with a focus on security/stability; less equality

Moderate: a higher level of independence, proactivity, and career development; more equality

Time orientation

Short-term: Unplanned innovation, executed only at times of organizational pressures or incremental changes dictated from the top managers

Long-term: (a) Innovation is part of long-term plans. (b) Innovation is systematically discussed in meetings

Individualism vs. Collectivism

High: No culture of sharing, concentration, and development within existing roles

Moderate: Autonomy and initiative are encouraged based on reward

Hofstede’s analysis identified the absence of innovative desire and practices in most firms, showing the correlation between innovation and corporate culture to be distinctive for survival and growth. Most SMEs did not comply with the elements of the innovation culture. They relied on employees with higher education or rank when engaged in innovation, ignoring the rest, losing this way tremendous intellectual capital. Their involvement in entrepreneurial projects was dependent on the availability of financial resources. Contrarily, several SMEs were innovated continuously and improved their products and services despite their limited financial resources. The success element was claimed to be the open mindset of democratic leaders to involve everyone to contribute and experiment on their ideas, some of which emerged into valuable entrepreneurial projects successfully implemented in the firm. Therefore, innovation is limited by the availability of financial resources and the firm’s inability to use its human intellectual capital effectively. The study indicates that knowledge management can be successfully adopted in SMEs despite their limited

76

E. Markopoulos et al.

human resources or financial status. People can think creatively if they are given the space to do so [16]. However, it will be difficult for innovation to be achieved without establishing a strong cultural foundation in such a manners. The adaptation of democratic culture can help SMEs to identify the human resources willing and capable to innovate. The study acknowledges the nature of the problem as a domino effect (Leadership – Culture – Innovation – Growth) based on which it indicates three central SME needs. The need for: (1) Leadership that can shift SMEs to a more democratic culture which better supports innovation, with knowledge management practices that capture, use, and turn individual knowledge into organizational knowledge; (2) Implementation of a change management strategy for innovation to be planned, applied, and reinforced until it becomes part of the organization. This includes the need to motivate and trigger the desire for contributing knowledge willingly and repeatedly; (3) The creation of a universal framework that will lead to long-term innovation by supporting SMEs’ needs. Such a framework shall be a clear path to the democratization of SMEs’ internal environment for knowledge creation and utilization.

4 Changing the SMEs Innovation DNA The SMEs’ organizational transformation can be realized through a democratic leadership and culture. Creating this culture requires a strong strategy but also decisive leadership to execute it. Leaders must lead their vision through a clear implementation strategy that fulfills the needs for the transformation to be achieved effectively. Changing SMEs’ innovation DNA through leadership can be theoretically presented as a three-step strategic roadmap where the Company Democracy Model (CDM), the SelfDetermination Theory (SDT), and the ADKAR change management model are applied. The SDT represents the theoretical change aspirations, the ADKAR demonstrates what needs to change for the firm to facilitate innovation, and the CDM indicates how to achieve these aspirations practically. The CDM is a knowledge-based democratic culture framework for innovation management. Through the organizational evolutionary spiral method of the CDM, a roadmap is presented to the SMEs for the identification, elicitation, and transformation of data and information into knowledge that is evolved into innovation, competitiveness, and extroversion. As humans are placed at the heart of innovation, their knowledge is welcomed regardless of their social or professional status. Through the CDM, SMEs can create more freedom for thinking and creativity and establish collaborative relationships between leaders, employees, and society [17]. However, for SMEs to maintain an ongoing innovation culture, individuals must be motivated to share knowledge and collaborate. Human beings are subject to intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. They are more prone to reach maximal results when both motivators are present or when the inherent motivation exceeds the extrinsic one [18, 19]. Therefore, the focus is on implementing the Self-Determination Theory to primarily fulfill intrinsic motivation through belongingness, autonomy, and competence. At the same time, individuals pursue the development of their ideas through the CDM. Then, extrinsic motivation is satisfied through a reward scheme based on the participants’ contribution at each CDM model level.

Democratic Organizational Culture for SMEs Innovation

77

Furthermore, the transition from the current to the future state requires a great degree of change that is usually hard to accept as it creates mental barriers for those exposed to it. This transition must repeatedly happen as innovations materialize in the organization. The ADKAR Model, as a Y theory, is the most suitable change model to help individuals understand, embrace, and commit to this change through their involvement. ADKAR creates the inertia for progressing through every single stage of the process until innovation is embedded in SMEs’ DNA [20].

5 The Democratic SME Innovation Transformation (DeSEMIT) Model The integration of the CDM, STD, and ADKAR compose the Democratic SME Innovation Transformation (DeSMEIT) Model, which creates corporate entrepreneurship within SMEs. When the CDM, STD, and ADKAR are used simultaneously, they form a holistic mechanism where leaders, employees, and society co-exist and co-evolve, reaching their full potential. Practically, evolution follows the six levels of a pyramid structure. Figure 1 presents the integration of the STD and the ADKAR in the CDM 6-level pyramid.

Fig. 1. The Democratic SME Innovation Transformation (DeSMEIT) Model.

While progressing through each level, SMEs explore new knowledge spaces and opportunities. Each level is briefly presented: Level 1 sets the infrastructure for the democratic corporate culture and the change in the SMEs’ DNA. The need for knowledge and ideas is communicated, and contribution is required from all employees. Belongingness is achieved gradually as trust and

78

E. Markopoulos et al.

psychological safety is inflicted in the corporate environment, fostering voluntary participation conditions. This first level is related to the Awareness stage (A) of the ADKAR model. Employees are being informed of the existence of the DeSMEIT and are invited to participate. In level 2, ideas with a potential plan of execution are selected to be developed furthermore. The organization supports the idea holder to enter into a knowledge maturity process. The organizational support ignites the desire to commit to the idea and work towards proving its value to the organization or the society. The second level is related to the Desire stage (D) of the ADKAR model. As employees receive support to further think and elaborate on their knowledge or ideas, their desire is tested. The ones with strong desire will proceed, while the rest will stop. Level 3 is the most knowledge-intensive stage. Individuals’ experiences change as they learn to work at the small group level, share, develop, and demonstrate their intellectual contributions. Equipped with freedom and autonomy, groups follow their project plans to transform their ideas into prototypes and later into actual products or services offered in the market for use, consumption, and testing. The third level is related to the Knowledge stage (K) of the ADKAR model. Employees are allowed to develop their ideas and test them in the market. This provides practical knowledge on valuating these ideas and what needs to be improved or delivered to sustain a possible success. In level 4, the best prototype or product is selected by the SMEs’ leadership. Further support is given on research, development, and testing to make it part of its innovations. At this level, innovation is achieved. The project and the employee group move to level 5 only if the innovation demonstrates its maturity and proves a strong competitive advantage and market for it. The fourth level is related to the Ability (A) of the ADKAR model. Employees with successful ideas from level 3 must indicate their ability to turn these ideas into innovations that sustain them and the SMEs, long term success, and added value. In level 5, the innovation becomes part of the SME’s competitiveness, strategy, marketing, and communication. It becomes the differentiation element of the SME from other SMEs. The group’s competence and the employees are supported, encouraged, and significantly rewarded so that change and innovation can be sustained for a long-time. Level 6 reveals the highest level of competency achieved by the organization through its employees. In this stage, the firm can run internationally to reach new markets and establish new partnerships that could not have been possible before. This success is also the apex of the self-confidence an employee can get. Being in a SME and being given a chance to lead it with just an idea is an experience that builds character, loyalty, commitment and bonds the employee with the SME. The fifth and sixth levels are related to the Reinforcement stage (R) of the ADKAR model. The competitive advantage gained from the innovation at level 5 and the internationalization opportunities offered at level 6 are used to sustain this success and build on it.

6 The DeSMEIT for Corporate Entrepreneurship in SMEs The execution of innovation through the DeSMEIT requires extrinsic motivators that do not interfere with the intrinsic ones to recognize employees’ contribution. Since every

Democratic Organizational Culture for SMEs Innovation

79

level requires a different amount of energy and effort, the inverse pyramid has been used to assign rewards based on meritocracy. It also represents steps for career progression at the SMEs level and ignites corporate entrepreneurship as a type of business that this term has been excluded. The inverse pyramid (Fig. 2) depicts the minimum rewards, starting at the bottom, and increase as the individual progresses into the higher stages of knowledge contribution and innovation, similar to the Democratic New Product Development Model [21].

Fig. 2. SMEs corporate entrepreneurship.

In level 1, the contributors receive an ethical recognition on the knowledge provided or the idea proposed. The reward is minimal as the idea is still hypothetical, and the knowledge is not justified or tested enough. In level 2, the individual increases the efforts and spends more time developing the idea into a project plan. As the attempt remains moderate, the individual receives various compensations reflecting the time and the effort placed. Up to this level, the SME has not made any significant investment other than compensating for the overtime or working time the employees have spent on their knowledge contributions. Level 3 challenges the employees but also the SME. Given that the idea requires real execution, the SME must invest in developing the knowledge into a product or service. This is a critical stage as SMEs need the courage to make this investment. Moreover, it needs to give practical credit to the employee if the results are successful. This is a stage where the family business type of SMEs step back unless they are confident of the success. The DeSMEIT levels 4, 5, and 6 apply the corporate entrepreneurship principles where the SME is forced to accept or stop the process. Due to the small number of employees in an SME, successful products and services must be handled by those who had the idea and successfully delivered it. There are no innovation units, groups, or teams in SMEs. Everything operates at the individual or small group level, but the individuals need much stronger incentives to continue achieving level 3. It is the time that the SME

80

E. Markopoulos et al.

shall grant ownership rights or partnership to the employee and secure the commitment and passion needed to move forward. The employee must become the product’s or service’s leader and function as an entrepreneur within the SME, which now has to operate as a new business unit or entity. The corporate entrepreneurship concept, invented to utilize employees’ intellectual capital by turning them into corporate entrepreneurs [22], cannot be applied unless the SME commits to sharing power and control faster and at earlier stages, unlike the large-scale corporations who can take more time for such decisions. In this case, level 4 is achieved when the SME’s employee status changes into a partner. The product or service success achieved in level 3 supports the employee financially, motivating him/her to continue the success and create innovation out of it. The incentives of level 5 are the absolute freedom the employee gets to utilize and the competitive advantage of the innovation through the SME’s communication and commercialization strategy. The employee is supported financially not only from the profits derived from the specific innovation but also from the shares received from the company’s overall progress due to the contribution and impact of the innovation in the overall brand name, competitiveness, and success. Level 6 does not provide any incentives to the employee and the SME other than the international development opportunity if the innovation derived has this potential. The primary motivation lies in the employee’s ego, passion, and commitment to go beyond the domestic market and reach blue and international oceans. This is the stage where the roles between the SME and the employee get reversed. It’s the employee who supports the growth and future of the SME in markets and regions never seen before.

7 Impact, Limitations, and Areas of Further Research The DeSMEIT supports SMEs to establish a democratic knowledge-based culture that can lead them into the innovation needed to end a survival marathon and grow into large enterprises that drive industrial change and market competitiveness. The creation of democratic company culture is bound to decrease inequalities in the working environment while increasing internal knowledge flow. Knowledge-driven SMEs generate and create the space needed to achieve specialization. The model can be a game-changer not only from the knowledge wealth that can be made in the developed economies but also in the developing economies where reverse, architectural frugal, and other types of innovation can start from the SMEs. However, the research conducted has been limited to the SMEs’ characteristics, as the region and the sector of operations might differ extensively. Most of the SMEs studied are from the Balkan region and operate in the finance, retail, and hospitality sectors. The number of interviews was conducted only with SMEs leaders, excluding employees’ perspectives, which might have been different and more insightful. Furthermore, due to the SMEs’ restrictions on investments, the study approaches innovation in general terms from a more conservative staged and incremental process. The DeSMEIT presented has been developed at a theoretical level and requires further research to document its application in practice. This opens an opportunity for understanding discrepancies that might hinder its execution and uncover any crucial features

Democratic Organizational Culture for SMEs Innovation

81

that can be added to complete the model furthermore according to SMEs situation. The model can also be investigated in relevance to the country, the region, the industry the SME operates in, and the overall geo-entrepreneurial perspective [23]. Further research could be conducted to understand SMEs’ ability to move with disruptive and radical innovation strategies, revealing the implications of the adaptation of one or the other.

8 Conclusion The integration of the CDM, ADKAR, and STD composes the DeSMEIT, a reliable mechanism that allows SMEs to reach competitiveness and extroversion through innovation. It is a step staged approach that evolves based on the SMEs’ organizational culture and commitment to invest in human capital. Starting from the first level where new ideas emerge until the last level where the ideas are solidified to deal with internationalization strategies or the creation of new business entities, the model promotes corporate entrepreneurship in a category of businesses that have not been considered possible. The democratic staged internal knowledge evolution that drives the model is aligned with the organizational change management stages of the ADKAR Model as a complimentary Y-theory approach to discreetly empower and engage SMEs’ human resources in knowledge sharing for co-petition among themselves and co-evolution with the company. The self-determination theory has been used in the model as a metric instrument on the effectiveness of the democratized organizational culture, the quality of knowledge produced by the employees, and their commitment to continue their efforts and faith in such initiatives. The model intends to inspire SMEs to explore their human intellectual capital and attempt to discover new opportunities.

References 1. Cabanero, C.P., Cruz, T.G., Ros, S.C.: Do family SME managers value marketing capabilities’ contribution to firm performance. Mark. Intell. Plan. 30(2), 116–142 (2011) 2. KfW SME Innovation Report 2018. Innovator rate has fallen again. https://www.kfw.de/PDF/ Download-Center/Konzernthemen/Research/PDF-Dokumente-Innovationsbericht/KfW-Inn ovationsbericht-EN/KfW-SME-Innovation-Report-2018_EN.pdf 3. Coleman, A.: Telegraph: this is why innovation is the key factor to growing your business. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/connect/small-business/driving-growth/supporting-smallbusiness-growth/innovation-key-to-sme-growth/ 4. Cordeiro, A.S., Vieira, F.D.: Barriers to innovation in SMEs: an international comparison. In: II Conferência Internacional de Integração do Design, Engenharia e Gestão para a inovação Florianópolis, SC, Outubro 2012, Brasil, pp. 21–23 (2012) 5. Daly, K.: Goldman Sachs: Unlocking UK Productivity. https://www.goldmansachs.com/cit izenship/10000-small-businesses/UK/news-and-events/gew-2015-f/unlocking-uk-productiv ity.pdf 6. OECD, United Kingdom: Public affairs division. Small and medium-sized enterprises: local strength, global reach. http://www.oecd.org/cfe/leed/1918307.pdf 7. Peacock, R.W.: Understanding Small Business: Practice, Theory, and Research. Scarman Publishing, Adelaide (2004)

82

E. Markopoulos et al.

8. Welsh, J., White, J.: A small business is not a little big. Harvard Business Review (1981). https://hbr.org/1981/07/a-small-business-is-not-a-little-big-business 9. European Commission: Addressing Information Barriers in the SME Funding Market in the Context of the Capital Markets Union. https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/170606-smeaccess-to-funding_en.pdf 10. Young, L.: The Report on Small Firms. Crown, London (2015) 11. Toghraee, M., Farsi, J.: Identification the main challenges of small and medium-sized enterprises in exploiting of innovative opportunities (Case study: Iran SMEs). J. Global Entrep. Res. (2015) 12. Ramadani, V., Schneider, R.C. (eds.): Entrepreneurship in the Balkans. Springer, Heidelberg (2013) 13. Poza, E.: Family Business, 3rd edn. South-Western Cengage Learning (2010) 14. Franco, M.: Collaboration among SMEs as a mechanism for innovation: an empirical study. N. Engl. J. Entrep. 6, 10 (2013) 15. Hofstede, G.: Cultural dimensions in management and planning. Asia Pacific J. Manage 1, 81–99 (1984) 16. Markopoulos, E., Vanharanta, H.: Space for company democracy. In: Kantola, J.I., Barath, T., Nazir, S., Andre, T. (eds.) Advances in Human Factors, Business Management, Training and Education. AISC, vol. 498, pp. 275–287. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/ 978-3-319-42070-7_26 17. Markopoulos, E., Vanharanta, H.: The company democracy model for the development of intellectual human capitalism for shared value. Procedia Manuf. 3, 603–610 (2015) 18. Deci, E.L., Ryan, R.M.: Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behaviour. Plenum Press, New York (1985) 19. Deci, E.L., Ryan, R.M.: Self-determination theory: a macrotheory of human motivation, development, and health. Can. Psychol. 49(3), 183–185 (2018) 20. Hiatt, J.M.: ADKAR: A Model for Change in Business, Government, and Our Community. Prosci Learning Center Publications, Loveland (2006) 21. Markopoulos, E., Gann, E., Vanharanta, H.: Democratizing New Product Development Through an Industry-Society Entrepreneurial Partnership. In: Ahram, T., Karwowski, W., Pickl, S., Taiar, R. (eds.) IHSED 2019. AISC, vol. 1026, pp. 829–839. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27928-8_126 22. Markopoulos, E., Aggarwal, V., Vanharanta, H.: Democratization of Intrapreneurship and Corporate Entrepreneurship Within the McKinsey’s Three Horizons Innovation Space. In: Ahram, T., Karwowski, W., Pickl, S., Taiar, R. (eds.) IHSED 2019. AISC, vol. 1026, pp. 1007– 1017. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27928-8_150 23. Markopoulos, E., Markopoulos, G., Vanharanta, H.: Democratizing Innovation. A GeoEntrepreneurial Analysis and Approach Through the Company Democracy Model. In: Markopoulos, E., Goonetilleke, R.S., Ho, A.G., Luximon, Y. (eds.) AHFE 2020. AISC, vol. 1218, pp. 3–16. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51626-0_1

Environment and Sustainability

Bilateral Knowledge-Sharing for New Product Development Under the UN Sustainable Development Goals Evangelos Markopoulos1,2(B) and Emma Luisa Gann1 1 HULT International Business School, Faculty of Management and Entrepreneurship,

35 Commercial Road, London E1 1LD, UK [email protected], [email protected] 2 Queen Mary University of London, School of Business and Management, 327 Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK

Abstract. Developing countries are characterized by various factors that feed into a vicious cycle of underdevelopment; poor education systems, low-skilled workforce, low per capita income, and unstable governments which build a weak foundation for economic prosperity and foreign investments. Moreover, there is no foundation from which innovation could transpire to drive growth. This research aims to provide a solution to this development paradox by emphasizing the urgency to address innovatively the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) and utilize effectively the human intellectual capital of the developing countries with the support of multinational organizations. It introduces a Bilateral knowledge sharing model providing the MNCs a framework to merge local knowledge with existing expertise for the development of local market products, whilst developing the country’s human capital. Furthermore, it extends on the creation of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) actions for the MNCs related to the UN SDGs and 2030 Agenda. Keywords: Multinational companies · Emerging markets · Knowledge Management · New Product Development · CSR · UN SDGs · International Business · Company Democracy

1 Introduction Multinational Corporations (MNCs) are important for the national development of the less developed world. They contribute capital and know-how, diversify the economy and offer employment to the local workforce [1]. However, many are struggling to create value for the local market beyond those naturally incurring benefits. Due to a lack of empathy and understanding of the local customer, MNCs find it difficult to develop profitable products that add social value and contribute to resolving many sustainable development challenges that exist in their immediate business environment [2]. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 85–93, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_11

86

E. Markopoulos and E. L. Gann

In most of the emerging and developing countries, local companies often do not have the skills or resources to deliver but also utilize innovative products and services. This discourages multinationals to consider new product development (NPD) for such markets, as lack of understanding of the local needs makes NPD activities to be of high-risk. Instead, NPD is heavily premised on the notion of creating products for consumption in developed economies through which Multinationals extracts resources from the developing countries, to offer better and cheaper solutions to the Western customer [3]. To address the issues developing nations face, the United Nations have introduced the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 aiming to address poverty and inequality universally whilst supporting economic development [4]. Even though the 17 Goals raise attention to the most acute issues, they don’t lay out a clear pathway to achieving those, leading to contradictory actions in some instances [5]. To maximize innovative impact and stimulate economic growth, companies must effectively deploy human knowledge in new product development initiatives at the developing markets.

2 The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals In recent years, technological advancements and other rapid developments led to an increase in global inequalities [6]. As the rich countries accumulate wealth and use the most innovative technologies to operate at an increasing speed, the poor countries find themselves caught in a vicious cycle of underdevelopment [7]. In 2015, the United Nations have introduced the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all [4]. Aiming to benefit the planet and every global citizen universally the seventeen goals, to be achieved by 2030, target key issues such as poverty, gender inequality, and climate change, among others. Even though all seventeen SDGs are equally important, this research focuses on addressing four core goals as a foundation to reach the remaining ones. These are No Poverty (SGD 1), Quality Education (SDG 4), Decent work and Economic Growth (SDG 8), and Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure (SDG 9). The United Nations calls for action from its member states’ governments and from a range of stakeholders such as important public figures, private sector organizations. To deliver the Goals as planned in 2030 and prevent the global inequalities from widening, all stakeholders must act with utmost ambition [8]. This research relates the Multinational Corporations, an SDGs analysis, and the path to their achievement from a private sector viewpoint.

3 The Innovation Paradox Innovation is at the heart of economic growth; innovative technologies, systems, and processes result in higher productivity, which in return allows an increase in output from a steady source of input. Innovation Paradox is the concept where the less developed world has access to significantly less innovation than the more developed countries. Captured by World Bank economists Cirera and Maloney in 2017 [2], the Innovation Paradox is a critical concept because productivity accounts for half of the differences

Bilateral Knowledge-Sharing for New Product Development

87

in GDP per capita across countries [2] and, paradoxically, developing countries do not indicate enough effort into innovative products, processes, and technologies. To capture innovation, existing literature highlights the importance of management practices, and specifically the management’s ability to identify new technological opportunities, develop a plan to exploiting them, and cultivate the human resources necessary to execute them [2]. In order to investigate the barriers that are constraining managers from doing such, this literature draws on primary research in the form of interviewing leaders of Multinational Corporations in developing countries. Nabil Habayeb, CEO of General Electric Middle East, Thomas Schäfer, Managing Director of Volkswagen South Africa, and Philipp Schiemer, CEO of Mercedes-Benz Brazil offer conclusive insights. Thomas Schäfer, CEO of Volkswagen South Africa, highlights that the automotive industry is very much oriented after the markets with the biggest volume, such as China and the US. Therefore, developing completely new models for developing markets is almost impossible, as there is no means of financing. The problem is that Africa is a huge continent, with more than 50 countries which are all completely different in terms of religion, history, and culture and products for Western customer do not satisfy such respective product needs. The disparity between local needs and Western products and the difficulty to bridge it is a core theme of the innovation paradox.

4 A Democratic Approach to Social Product Development To develop relevant products for the respective markets, managers must find ways to develop them economically and effectively, to balance the risk-return equation. This can be achieved by utilizing the human intellectual capital that derivers not only from the employees of the MNCs but also from the local workforce who understands the market needs and expectations. Therefore, there is a need for a democratic space to be created in which ideas, knowledge, and expertise will be shared from all who can contribute [9]. Such knowledge-sharing driven democratic spaces can be created with the Company Democracy Model developed by Prof. Evangelos Markopoulos, and Prof. Hannu Vanharanta [10]. The model makes firms more receptive to employee’s knowledge, increases innovation, competitiveness and generates shared value for the organization, the employees, the economy, and the society [11]. The Company Democracy outlines six levels towards a democratic company culture, presented in a pyramid structure which represents the incremental progression of the levels [10]. Even though the solution suggested by this literature can help a company with the implementation of responsible practices internally, its impact is limited to one stakeholder group. Additional literature exists, extending the Company Democracy approach into the field of New Product Development. The Democratic New Product Development Model (DeNPD) developed by E. Markopoulos, E. L. Gann, and H. Vanharanta [12], is an extension of the Company Democracy Model, with a similar 6 level structure, to connect society and industry for collaborative product development (Fig. 1), When elevating through the levels of the DeNPD, organisations can facilitate the evolution of an idea from the citizen up to the creation of a world-class innovative product. Every individual that identifies the need

88

E. Markopoulos and E. L. Gann

for a new product can engage with an organization that would benefit from developing the respective product. The research concludes a mutual benefit arises from such effort, as the company can cut back on research & development expenses and launch an innovative new product, whilst the individuals can gain an income from this process by commercialising their knowledge by using corporate resources.

Fig. 1. The Democratic New Product Development Model.

5 The Bilateral Knowledge-Sharing To make the democratic approach to NPD applicable for the developing countries, this research attempts a formulate a solution to connect Multinational Corporations with local knowledge. Therefore, this paper extends the Democratic New Product Development model to make it valid for its application to developing economies (Fig. 2). In Level 1 of the model, the organisation establishes a democratic culture that opens to external ideas for new products. It searches for local individuals to share their unfulfilled needs with the organization, which grows its understanding of specific product needs in a region. In Level 2, supportive teams are built around these individuals, to facilitate democratic collaboration. This way, employees can understand and uncover the root problem underlying the product idea and mature the initial idea into a solid concept. In Level 3, the actual development process takes place. It is essential at this stage to maintain a high level of collaboration with the local individual and avoid risks from Western biases that can dominate the development process and diminish the relevance for the respective social context. In Level 4, the focus lies on making the product robust and solid to reveal its innovative impact [12] on the respective market. In this stage, the company and individual

Bilateral Knowledge-Sharing for New Product Development

89

analyse the broader innovative impact the product can have on the local communities. Thus, the democratic NPD team achieves to extend the understanding of the individual’s situation to the broader context of the market. In Level 5, the product is readily developed to compete in the local markets. Especially for the marketing and communication of the product, it is crucial to employ the individual’s knowledge of how to reach best the respective customer base. After this point the organisation can elevate to the next and last level; Level 6., as the organisation has matured into an empathic entity and able to develop an understanding of a certain communal context. This allows applying the new knowledge gained to successfully sell the product across the region to markets that face similar product needs.

Fig. 2. The Democratic New Product Development model for developing

The bilateral knowledge sharing dimension can be considered the added and shared value the model offers to the developing world. In many less developed countries, a good education is a rarity. As the company evolves through the six levels of the pyramid, the collaboration enables a two-sided learning experience; whilst corporates develop a better understanding of the developing markets, the individuals get the opportunity to learn internal processes and acquire basic business skills that can potentially lead to an offer employment opportunities (Fig. 3). Level 1, of the Bilateral DeNPD model, where individuals and companies start the collaboration, they start to develop a basic understanding of one other’s mission and vision. The democratic team building process of Level 2, provides education to the individual on basic team-working principles, including communication, reporting, structures, and technologies. In Level 3, when the product development moves to its conceptualisation, the individual can learn the standard internal product and project development process.

90

E. Markopoulos and E. L. Gann

In Level 4, the innovative potential impact of the product is analyzed and the company can teach basic industry knowledge to extend the individual’s understanding of the value that the product brings to the company and how it supports the corporate mission and vision. Moving to Level 5, the individual can learn from the company’s marketing department basic marketing principles and in return give feedback on how marketing will be perceived by the respective local market and suggest effective alternatives. Lastly, in Level 6, the company can educate the individual on the distribution and sales elements, to close the product development cycle and conclude them with a holistic product development education. Here, the company can benefit from the individual’s ideas on how to distribute products more effectively in a specific context. In brief, by engaging in democratic product development, MNCs can derive local knowledge whilst at the same time offer an alternative form of education and employment opportunities to the local communities.

Fig. 3. The Democratic New Product Development model for bilateral knowledge-sharing

6 Transforming CSR and Achieving the SDGs Non-compliant with Richard E. Smith’s popular definition of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): “a business system that enables the production and distribution of wealth for the betterment of its stakeholders through the implementation and integration of ethical systems and sustainable management practices” [13], many companies misuse this concept to fix their reputation. Therefore, companies create CSR campaigns fully unrelated to their mission and profit-generating activities, failing to properly integrate social and environmental concerns into their value chain. What compares to social greenwashing, is not only unsustainable out of an operational and financial perspective, but it is also not scalable [14]. The ESG index is a way for many companies to restructure their

Bilateral Knowledge-Sharing for New Product Development

91

CSR strategies and reputation with more ethical management and meaningful social programs [15]. Using Bilateral knowledge-sharing companies can transcend profit-generating activities into corporate social responsibility activities without further investments and achieve the key four Sustainable Development Goals as defined in this paper (Table 1). Table 1. SGDs achievement through the bilateral knowledge-sharing pathway Sustainable development goals

Bilateral knowledge-sharing pathway

SDG 1: No Poverty

Employ locals for product development efforts and beyond

SDG 4: Quality Education

As part of the BiKS, locals receive a solid and practical business education

SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

Through increased corporate empathy, MNCs can understand better how to employ local youth and therefore increase their opportunities and achieve economic growth

SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

By building the system of knowledge-sharing, innovation can stay within the border of the developing country, fostering industrial diversification, and growth

7 Limitations and Areas of Further Research The proposed solution in this research indicates limitations the impact it can have under different circumstances related to the social, economic, and political situations that exist in each country. Thus, as an area of further research, studies could explore the differences between different developing markets, and the implications for the democratic new product development concept for each. With variables such as culture, education systems, and regulatory frameworks, it might be necessary to make different considerations regarding the application of the democratic new product development concept across different regions. Further research can also be directed on the differences between emerging and developing countries, and how those impact the suggested solutions. Lastly, more emphasis can be given to the proposed model to integrate the reverse innovation as an alternative way to utilize the local intellectual capital for new products and services that could be exported from the emerging countries to the western world through the MNCs [16]. This can potentially move the organization towards the concept geo-entrepreneurship where MNCs can innovate on different areas based on the expertise that exists in each country [17].

8 Conclusions Multinational Corporations can achieve significant benefits from the democratization of their product development. Such an approach can facilitate knowledge-sharing and

92

E. Markopoulos and E. L. Gann

profit-sharing with the local communities. From a corporate perspective, this enables low-cost product development, whilst increasing reputational benefits and profits from the relevance of the products it the respective markets. From a local perspective, the workforce will be up-skilled and productivity will be increased, together with the GDP that can reflect this growth. Most importantly, such developments will happen sustainably and in full alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals, contributing towards achieving them by 2030. This paper presented a bilateral-knowledge sharing model that supports Multinational Corporations to merge local knowledge with the expertise of their employees. Based on the Democratic New Product Development Model (DeNPD), this model uses the inclusion of externals into the corporate product development process as a source of idea generation. The Democratic New Product Development Model for Bilateral Knowledge-sharing allows companies to better understand the local culture and tie corporate social responsibility to product development. Including citizens in the product development process, MNCs can provide alternative education and employment at the same time. As a result, the innovation level, the per capita income, and that economic growth increase. The proposed model provides a way for the private sector to significantly contribute towards achieving the SDGs without dependence on governmental actions.

References 1. McIntyre, J., Ivanaj, S., Ivanaj, V.: Multinational enterprises and the challenge of sustainable development. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, Glos, UK (2009) 2. Cirera, X., Maloney, W.: The Innovation Paradox: Developing-Country Capabilities and the Unrealized Promise of Technological Catch-Up. World Bank Group (2017). https://openkn owledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/28341/9781464811609.pdf 3. Gorrie, A., Pons, D., Maples, D., Docherty, P.: Principles of Product Design in Developing Countries (2018) 4. The United Nations: Take Action for the Sustainable Development Goals (2015). https://www. un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/. Accessed 29 Dec 2020 5. Menton, M., et al.: Environmental justice and the SDGs: from synergies to gaps and contradictions. Sustain. Sci. 15(6), 1621–1636 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-020-007 89-8 6. Vieira, S.: Inequalities on the rise (2013). http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/policy/ wess/wess_bg_papers/bp_wess2013_svieira1.pdf. Accessed 12 Feb 2021 7. Kharlamova, G., Stavytskyy, A., Zarotiadis, G.: The impact of technological changes on income inequality: the EU states case study. J. Int. Stud. 11(2), 76–94 (2018) 8. Sustainable Development Goals Report (2019). https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2019/TheSustainable-Development-Goals-Report-2019.pdf. Accessed 12 Feb 2021 9. Markopoulos, E., Vanharanta, H.: Space for Company Democracy. In: Kantola, J.I., Barath, T., Nazir, S., Andre, T. (eds.) Advances in Human Factors, Business Management, Training and Education. AISC, vol. 498, pp. 275–287. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/ 978-3-319-42070-7_26 10. Markopoulos, E., Vanharanta, H.: Democratic culture paradigm for organizational management and leadership strategies - the company democracy model. In: Charytonowicz, J. (ed.) Advances in Human Factors and Sustainable Infrastructure. 5th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics, vol. 20, pp. 190–201 (2014)

Bilateral Knowledge-Sharing for New Product Development

93

11. Markopoulos, E., Vanharanta, H.: Company democracy model for development of shared value. Elsevier, Proc. Manuf. 3, 603–610 (2015) 12. Markopoulos, E., Gann, E.L., Vanharanta, H.: Democratizing new product development through an industry-society entrepreneurial partnership. In: Ahram, T., Karwowski, W., Pickl, S., Taiar, R. (eds.) Human Systems Engineering and Design II. IHSED 2019. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol. 1026 (2019) 13. Smith, R.: Defining Corporate Social Responsibility: A Systems Approach For Socially Responsible Capitalism. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania (2011). https://repository. upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=od_theses_mp 14. Markopoulos, E., Kirane, I.S., Gann, E.L., Vanharanta, H.: A democratic, green ocean management framework for environmental, social and governance (ESG) compliance. In: Ahram, T., Taiar, R., Gremeaux-Bader, V., Aminian, K. (eds.) IHIET 2020. AISC, vol. 1152, pp. 21–33. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44267-5_4 15. Markopoulos, E., Gann, E.L., Kirane, I.S., Vanharanta, H.: Green capitalism: democratizing sustainable innovation by recycling intellectual capital energy. In: Ahram, T., Taiar, R., Gremeaux-Bader, V., Aminian, K. (eds.) IHIET 2020. AISC, vol. 1152, pp. 507–519. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44267-5_77 16. Hadengue, M., de Marcellis-Warin, N., Warin, T.: Reverse innovation: a systematic literature review. Int. J. Emerg. Mark. 12(2), 142–182 (2017) 17. Markopoulos, E., Markopoulos, G., Vanharanta, H.: Democratizing innovation. A geoentrepreneurial analysis and approach through the company democracy model. In: Markopoulos, E., Goonetilleke, R.S., Ho, A.G., Luximon, Y. (eds.) AHFE 2020. AISC, vol. 1218, pp. 3–16. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51626-0_1

Beyond Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Democratizing CSR Towards Environmental, Social and Governance Compliance Evangelos Markopoulos1,2(B) , Alexandra Staggl1 , Emma Luisa Gann1 , and Hannu Vanharanta3 1 HULT International Business School, Faculty of Management and Entrepreneurship,

35 Commercial Road, London E1 1LD, UK [email protected], {astaggl2017, egann2017}@student.hult.edu 2 Queen Mary University of London, School of Business and Management, 327 Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK 3 University of Vaasa, Wolffintie 34, 65200 Vaasa, Finland [email protected]

Abstract. The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) concept evolved from a commonly-doubted understanding to a measurable framework. It compensates for negative socio-economic externalities emulated by consumerist societies. Its progressive takeover on market mindsets set the pathway for Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors implementation in alignment with global plans for greener practices like the Kyoto Protocol. Ultimately, CSR-driven initiatives under democratic rules enable a swift Green Ocean Strategy and a dynamic integration from the business environment to the business ecosystem. So far, CSR and ESG transitions have been criticized for their labor and cost intensiveness, not necessarily translating into shareholder’s short-term financial interests. This paper explores the efficient implementation and execution of a strategy that extends CSR to ESG. It provides transitional frameworks for organizations to transform their CSR activities into achieving ESG compliance using shared intellectual capital in a structured and profitable way. Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility · New product development · ESG · Green Ocean Strategy · Agile · Scrum · Human resources · Company democracy · Management · Business ecosystems · Innovation family business

1 Introduction Amid a rise in complex company policies, managers have increasingly sought a solution in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices to outweigh the negative externalities businesses have created by running programs to improve their communities. Nevertheless, CSR programs did not always indicate desired results. CSR programs that have been undertaken in the past didn’t serve a serious reputation as a corporate restructuring © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 94–103, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_12

Beyond CSR: Democratizing CSR Towards ESG Compliance

95

practice but rather as an extra pro-bono marketing tool towards social or sustainable capitalism [1]. Some companies were blamed for greenwashing or thought their economic contributions were sufficient [2]. According to Keith Davis “social involvement by a business is inevitable and a fundamental development that is a long-run secular trend regardless of temporary cyclical swings. It is not a fad moment.” [3]. CSR today aims to revamp and improve the organization as a whole and from within, rather than facilitating quasi-charitable work for socio-environmental causes. Business is not concerned “merely” with profit but also with promoting desirable “social” ends; that business has a “social conscience” and takes its responsibilities seriously for providing employment, eliminating discrimination, avoiding pollution [4]. Effective CSR relies on the degree of openness organizational cultures have and the degree of democracy on designing and executing CSR strategies and projects for the people, from the people. The Company Democracy Model (CDM) presents a suitable tool that can set the appropriate democratic corporate culture from which the proper CSR response can emerge [5]. CDM utilizes the firm’s intellectual capital for shared value innovation [6]. The Y theory type open management framework promoted by CDM facilitates for CSR challenges a collaborative environment for knowledge generation, exchange, innovation, and review. The CDM democratized knowledge-based culture functions as a gateway to innovation while producing pioneering and profitable products and services that allow organizations to score on the ESG index (Environmental, Social, Governance), an impactful valuation index for organizational investments [7, 8]. This paper attempts to provide a new solution, a logical strategy to tackle negative externalities commencing with the restructuring of internal perspectives and processes that can extend CSR and link such activities with the corporate ESG strategy.

2 CSR Expectations and Opportunities The underlying challenge CSR and ESG indices imposed are implied by the market leaders’ lack to accurately measure and represent standards and metrics that can be applied not only industry-wide but also globally. Although the two are very different in theory and often distinguished from one another as a green activity and investment strategy, they are not entirely different from a practical perspective. Many synergies have not yet been recognized. While smaller organizations often fail to meet fundamental, impactful objectives with CSR programs, medium-sized organizations struggle to obtain a measurable and long-term success that exceeds the competition. Therefore, if taken, CSR activities for small and medium-sized organizations target more reputational and marketing objectives for immediate results than meaningful and impactful contributions to society. However, the problem is identified in the large-scale organizations from which the society has higher expectations due to their ability to seriously create long-term investments in direct CSR strategies and actions with practical and measurable success. As a result, large organizations fail to realize an opportunity they have to prove their CSR commitment and sensitivity and transition from CSR strategies to ESG strategies and obtain the most out of their efforts.

96

E. Markopoulos et al.

3 The CSR to ESG Democratic Transition At present, CSR programs aren’t intended to go beyond the ordinary good deed, bypassing the momentum where substantial effects on both the organization and the society can be made. Moreover, human capital is commonly deployed inefficiently in ESG strategies which deter from maximizing efforts and ultimately results in nonalignment of project scope and the ability to reach the desired outcome. Many have yet to realize the difference democratically involving employees can make, particularly when seeking to go beyond CSR. The research presented in this paper explores the efficient implementation and execution of a strategy that extends CSR to ESG. This approach’s foundation is built on the Company Democracy Model (CDM), which promotes organizations to establish a democratic corporate culture, receptive to employees’ ideas, ideally leading from CSR innovation to CSR competition to ESG optimization and success. The CDM represents a culture reflected in several G (governance) and S (social) requirements of the ESG index. It is also a tool to extract social and environmental knowledge from people and turn it into “a knowledge-building engine” that reinforces collective decision-making. Ethical behavior requires good governance, which is the democratic element that must be represented in CSR to score on ESG indices. Thus, the combination of CSR under democratic organizational cultures can bring organizations closer to being involved in all the ESG activities by building on their previous CSR programs and efforts.

4 The CSR to ESG Facilitator One of the first steps an organization shall take in developing a new democratic approach for managing CSR in line with the highest ESG scoring is to assign a CSR to an ESG facilitator. The facilitator’s role is to coordinate employees, decision-makers, and social entities through the various stages that develop and execute a democratic strategy beyond CSR. A human resources specialist can be the suitable facilitator as s/he is in the center of the organization, in direct communication among various hierarchy levels, and with solid knowledge of its capabilities and maturity. The goal is to predominantly comprehend the CSR project objectives by promoting the employee’s democratic participation and collaboration. The facilitator drives CSR consensus among the organization and the employees on the market expectations, the societal needs, and stakeholder stewardship duty. Having an on-site facilitator hedge against operational inefficiency and maintains momentum in energy-intensive output delivery. This transitional phase stabilizes the core CSR-related initiatives and identifies those who have the potential to go beyond CSR. It is yet a critical phase heavily relying on the democratic culture introduced and led by the facilitator. It determines future CSR programs’ outcome and standardizes an organization’s internal process measuring future CSR strategy outcomes. The aim is to establish a co-evolutionary culture amongst employees that will provide common ground and the democratic space needed to incentivize individuals to participate in knowledge sharing [9].

Beyond CSR: Democratizing CSR Towards ESG Compliance

97

Under the facilitator’s guidance in a democratic process, knowledge is elicited and validated first. This ensures that ideas generated through the knowledge network are resilient enough and always CSR-driven to be transformed into innovative CSR practices that will eventually lead to operational, financial, and above all, genuinely reputational competitiveness.

5 The Democratic CSR to ESG Model The democratic CSR facilitator operates within a democratic CSR model that manages activities to create CSR ideas, transformation to CSR projects and initiatives, and their extension to ESG measurable achievements. The model’s pyramid structure indicates the knowledge progression journey from the abstract CSR ideas to the ESG impact achievements (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. The democratic CSR model.

At level one, the knowledge network is established to democratically collect ideas, knowledge, and information from all employees who wish to participate. The facilitator ensures that employees are constantly active with each other in an environment that triggers ideas for innovations. Democracy is essential to allow everyone to contribute ideas on how the organization can strategically progress by making a difference in its environmental and societal impact.

98

E. Markopoulos et al.

Level two evaluates the employee’s ideas. It separates wishful thinking, which can be a source for creative imagination, from the practical and well-justified review that can be considered for implementation. Whether an idea can be realized or not is determined by allowing the knowledge owners to defend its value by answering why, when, where, for whom, and how the idea can be used. The facilitator oversees the validation of CSR ideas and their transformation into action plans. Such plans that derive from the employees align the organization with society’s needs. At this level, the facilitator reports validated ideas to the board, deciding which ideas should be implemented in level three. The third level is implementing the idea into a CSR project, program, or activity and its execution with the owner’s involvement in a decision-making position. Throughout this process, an organization develops practical CSR activities that match society’s expectations while rewarding and promoting those who contributed to them. Regardless of its size or sector, any organization can deliver the first three levels of the model. However, the upper levels of the pyramid show greater complexity. Level four allows one to move into CSR innovation, presuming that the knowledge applied in the previous levels has been transformed into an outstanding initiative with the potential to be patented, protected, or further developed for broader applications or innovativeness. Green leaders must therefore always be on the lookout for new ideas generated democratically by knowledge owners. The fifth level returns to the organization the competitiveness obtained from the CSR innovations. This is where a company experiences higher customer retention as a repercussion of standing out in the CSR market among their competitors. The innovation in CSR practices allows the organization to form a stronger relationship with its employees and society. Level six is the outcome of applying the democratic CSR model. Innovation and competitiveness enable the organization to score on the ESG index and reach a Green Ocean [10] and/or a Pink Ocean [11] to create sustainable or socially innovatively developed markets. The six levels form a roadmap to CSR-based success for the organization within the market and its society. Customers, employees, the market, and society can recognize such success and results by setting new standards for CSR projects, programs, and innovations.

6 Agile Implementation of the Democratic CSR to ESG Model The Scrum methodology is an agile project management approach for incremental project implementation with tangible deliverables in each implementation iteration [12]. The Scrum manifesto [13] establishes a working framework that begins with the requirements collection of the desired project or product. The product backlog requirements are prioritized according to their importance for gradual development towards completing the project. The implementation takes place in sprints which are short time intervals in which the implementation objectives are met. The implementation process is repeated with as many sprints needed to complete the project. Instead of placing a project manager to run a project in one implementation cycle (requirements, analysis, design, development, test, and deployment), the Scrum methodology suggests a more holistic approach, replacing the team structures as needed and as

Beyond CSR: Democratizing CSR Towards ESG Compliance

99

many times needed based on the number of sprints. The Scrum Facilitator enables the team to do their work the best way possible and empowers them to take ownership of their respective tasks. Quick failure allows a steep learning curve and high innovative impact. The application of the scrum methodology on the Democratic CSR model divides the model in two partitions (Fig. 2). The first partition consists of the Levels 1 to 3 where the organization designs and delivers a CSR program which derived democratically from the knowledge of its employees. The implementation sprints execute the requirements needed for the CSR program to compete each level. These sprints are managed by the CSR program facilitator, or scrum master. The second partition consists of the levels 4 to level 6 where the results of the CSR program are transformed into CSR innovation through the development of innovative CSR products and service. The second partition is executed with another group of sprints for innovative SCR new product development. These sprints are managed by the CSR innovation facilitator.

Fig. 2. Agile implementation of the democratic CSR model.

7 The Democratic CSR Organization-Society Co-evolutionary Model By replacing the New Product Development process of the Democratic Innovation CSR Model with the Democratic New Product Development Model (DeNPD) which involves

100

E. Markopoulos et al.

citizens participating in the development of new products, can extend their benefits to the design and implementation of projects in which the society gets involved. The DeNPD model of knowledge management indicates that the highest level of innovation can be reached if a company creates a culture that encourages knowledgesharing through the internal involvement and empowerment of the employees and the external involvement of citizens as society members [14]. Represented in a reverse pyramid structure, this model depicts a superficial idea’s development into a competitive new product while simultaneously describing the individual’s transcendence from an outsider to an organization’s integrated member. The agile integration of the democratic new product development model with the democratic CSR model allows companies to develop innovative and effective CSR campaigns while minimizing cost and maximizing the societal impact (Fig. 3). This organization – society co-evolutionary relationship extends beyond CSR and leads an organization to ESG as it practically addresses all ESG dimensions.

Fig. 3. Organization-society co-evolution in the democratic CSR model.

8 The Democratic CRM Organization-Society Co-evolutionary Model The democratic CRM organization-society co-evolutionary model (Fig. 3) is composed from the Democratic CSR model pyramid and the reverse DNPD pyramid that describes the society members’ co-evolutionary growth in corporate CSR programs. Both pyramids have six stages. The first three stages of the CSR pyramid indicate the evolution of an employee’s CSR idea into the development and execution of a CSR program. The reverse pyramid represents the society where externals to the organization citizens can contribute to the development of the CSR project with their participation or

Beyond CSR: Democratizing CSR Towards ESG Compliance

101

other types of knowledge or networking contributions. The more the CSR idea grows in the organization from one level to the other, the more opportunities are for the external collaborators (citizens) to get engaged and benefit from this co-evolutionary and coexistence in the same CSR goals and objectives. It must be noted that the two pyramids are not necessarily connected and related to each other. If a citizen decides to step down from the CSR idea at any level, then the opportunities to grow and benefit from the CSR program, as it grows, are stopped. Therefore, the maximum benefit a citizen can get from such a co-evolutionary model is related to the total time s/he remains active in the CSR program. The evolution from one level to the next, in both pyramids, is done upon completing several sprints that implement each level’s activities. This agile project implementation approach has been selected. It offers the knowledge space to mature over several sprints and develop with a broader team structure composed of employees and citizens. Level three is a critical level in the Company Democracy Model and all of its derivative models. Therefore, in this case, level three maintains this criticality as it is the level whose completion transforms a CSR idea from project to product or service. The first three levels of the pyramid are based on the transformation of a CSR idea (level 1) to a CSR program (level 2) and its execution (level 3). These are three levels that can be delivered by any organization regardless of its size, type, or industry. The CSR project’s success determines if this initiative can extend beyond CSR based on its impact and innovative design and execution. Suppose there are vital creative elements widely accepted by society with strong and measurable impact. In that case, the organization extends the CSR project and transforms it into a product that can be offered widely as a new product or service to new markets. In this case, the organization moves beyond CSR towards ESG as the common good achieved by a CSR idea, which was turned into a CSR product, can now be offered globally, either as a CSR activity or as a new product or service. This evolution maximizes the role of the society involved in the journey. The citizen or citizens engaged in the initial stages of the CSR idea can remain part of this success and ambassadors of the product at the markets. Such synergies prove that social and sustainable products can be made democratically from the people with the organizations to be the co-evolutionary success facilitators.

9 Limitations and Areas of Further Research The democratic CSR model, as a derivative of the Company Democracy Model and, can inherit its implementation best practices and achieve the desired results up to level 3. However, levels 4 to 6 are the ones who extend CSR to ESG. The paper indicates this extension process, but it does not specify each level’s alignment with the ESG elements. This research can be extended to identify the number and the type of ESG elements that can be addressed in each level of the democratic CSR model. Existing literature indicates the need for a practical categorization of the ESG elements in CSR activities [15], but the absence of a model that will host this categorization and create a roadmap for the CSR to ESG transition was missing.

102

E. Markopoulos et al.

This mapping will help the organization track the CSR to ESG progress and plan the integration of the correct elements in the processes of each level [16]. Such an approach can be a strong incentive for organizations to adopt the model. They compare ESG progress and scores from project to project and measure CSR’s impact to ESG initiative in their overall organizational valuation [17].

10 Conclusion The CSR programs’ goal is to create long-term value for organizations, a collaborative and striving working environment for employees, and a measurable impact on society and the environment. Exceeding ordinary CSR initiatives requires economic, social, and environmental planning. However, they need applied knowledge, insights, and ideas that can be transformed into meaningful and impactful CSR programs. Such knowledge exists in all the organizations that seek it. The use of democratic knowledge elicitation practices and models can create the employees’ culture to contribute with ideas that can benefit society. This paper presented the Democratic CSR model in a theoretical and practical dimension. It integrated it with the agile scrum methodology for CSR staged implementation that delivers gradual results and the opportunity to adjust or improve the CSR program based on the staged deliverables. It also integrated the reverse pyramid of the Democratic New Product Development in which members of the society can get involved in the company’s CSR programs. This holistic approach extends CSR’s democratization and the benefits of the organization and society. Going “Beyond CSR” can be reflected in the organization’s ESG index and lead to Green and Pink oceans through CSR innovations.

References 1. Markopoulos, E., Gann, E.L., Kirane, I.S., Vanharanta, H.: Green capitalism: democratizing sustainable innovation by recycling intellectual capital energy. In: Ahram, T., Taiar, R., Gremeaux-Bader, V., Aminian, K. (eds.) IHIET 2020. AISC, vol. 1152, pp. 507–519. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44267-5_77 2. The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/aug/20/greenwash ing-environmentalism-lies-companies 3. Davis, K.: Social responsibility is inevitable. Calif. Manage. Rev. 19(1), 14–20 (1976) 4. Friedman, M.: The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. In: Zimmerli, W.C., Holzinger, M., Richter, K. (eds.) Corporate Ethics and Corporate Governance, pp. 173– 178. Springer, Heidelberg (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-70818-6_14 5. Markopoulos, E., Vanharanta, H.: Democratic culture paradigm for organizational management and leadership strategies – the company democracy model. In: Ahram, T., Karwowski, W., Marek, T. (eds.) Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics AHFE 2014, Kraków, Poland, vol. 20, pp. 190–201 July 2014 6. Markopoulos, E., Vanharanta, H.: Company democracy model for development of shared value. Procedia Manuf. 3, 603–610 (2015) 7. Wealthsimple: https://www.wealthsimple.com/en-us/learn/esg-investing#pros_of_esg_inv esting 8. US News: https://money.usnews.com/investing/investing-101/articles/2018-06-28/how-esginvesting-increases-risk-adjusted-returns

Beyond CSR: Democratizing CSR Towards ESG Compliance

103

9. Markopoulos, E., Vanharanta, H.: Space for company democracy. In: Kantola, J.I., Barath, T., Nazir, S., Andre, T. (eds.) Advances in Human Factors, Business Management, Training and Education. AISC, vol. 498, pp. 275–287. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/ 978-3-319-42070-7_26 10. Markopoulos, E., Kirane, I.S., Piper, C., Vanharanta, H.: Green ocean strategy: democratizing business knowledge for sustainable growth. In: Ahram, T., Karwowski, W., Pickl, S., Taiar, R. (eds.) IHSED 2019. AISC, vol. 1026, pp. 115–125. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-030-27928-8_19 11. Markopoulos, E., Ramonda, M.B., Winter, L.M.C., Al Katheeri, H., Vanharanta, H.: Pink ocean strategy: democratizing business knowledge for social growth and innovation. In: Markopoulos, E., Goonetilleke, R.S., Ho, A.G., Luximon, Y. (eds.) AHFE 2020. AISC, vol. 1218, pp. 39–51. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51626-0_5 12. Schwaber, K.: SCRUM development process. In: Sutherland, J., Casanave, C., Miller, J., Patel, P., Hollowell, G. (eds.) Business Object Design and Implementation, pp. 117–134. Springer, London (1997) 13. Scrum manifesto: http://www.scrummanifesto.org/ 14. Straßmann, T., Schilberg, D., Wurm, A.-L.: Development of a concept for the use of humanoid robot systems with the example of a logistic support process. In: Ahram, T., Karwowski, W., Pickl, S., Taiar, R. (eds.) IHSED 2019. AISC, vol. 1026, pp. 840–846. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27928-8_127 15. Markopoulos, E., Kirane, I.S., Gann, E.L., Vanharanta, H.: A democratic, green ocean management framework for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) compliance. In: Ahram, T., Taiar, R., Gremeaux-Bader, V., Aminian, K. (eds.) IHIET 2020. AISC, vol. 1152, pp. 21–33. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44267-5_4 16. van Duuren, E., Plantinga, A., Scholtens, B.: ESG integration and the investment management process: fundamental investing reinvented. J. Bus. Ethics 138(3), 525–533 (2015). https://doi. org/10.1007/s10551-015-2610-8 17. Schramade, W.: Integrating ESG into valuation models and investment decisions: the valuedriver adjustment approach. J. Sustain. Financ. Invest. 6(2), 95–111 (2016)

Tailor-Made Smart Sustainable City Daria Motała(B) Faculty of Engineering Management, Poznan University of Technology, pl. Marii Skłodowskiej – Curie 5, 60-965 Pozna´n, Poland [email protected]

Abstract. The aim of this paper is to identify the extent to which it is substantiated to use QFD analysis in recognizing the expectations of city users and supporting decisions regarding the implementation of the needs identified in this way. Cities exist for people, meeting their diverse needs. City managers need information on what these needs are and what they relate to. While carrying out their work, they developed methods of collecting this data. It seems, however, that the process of reflecting the expectations of users in the possibilities of urban development does not always run smoothly. This substantiates the use of the QFD method in the analysis of expectations and possible ways of achieving them. The publication were inspired by the work on the project to implement the QFD method in an enterprise WPiP in Pozna´n that uses advanced computer technologies to design, implement, control and improve sustainable functioning solutions for individual buildings and groups of buildings. Keywords: Smart sustainable city · QFD method

1 Smart Sustainable City Changes in the natural environment, which affect all of us, determine the growing need to apply solutions in the field of sustainable development. Many authors have tried to explain what sustainable development is and how it should be construed [1–6]. The understanding of this concept, however, depends on the kind of area of interest that the author comes from, which is also pointed out in the literature [7]. The most general definition is the one used for years. It presents sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” [8]. Sustainable development is of particular importance in relation to cities which are home to more than a half of the world’s population [9]. At the same time, different groups of residents have different expectations as to the conditions and facilities offered by city administrators. The possibilities and conditions for their development are also varied. The smart city concept sometimes comes under criticism because it fails to sufficiently take into account all the aspects of sustainable development. On the other hand, solutions undertaken as part of the implementation of sustainable urban development are not always communicated across efficiently enough and, consequently, they are not © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 104–111, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_13

Tailor-Made Smart Sustainable City

105

sufficiently transparent to city dwellers, i.e. the recipients and consumers of city products. As a result, the concept of smart sustainable city increasingly often appears in the literature [10]. It not only assumes high technological development, but it also aims at promoting sustainable economic development and high quality of life, including the effective use of natural resources and management with the involvement of the dwellers. Sustainable smart cities combine many different solutions from seemingly disparate scientific disciplines and functional areas. Smart most often refers to the use of advanced technologies, allowing the operation and control of diverse devices and their systems. Integrated computer technologies (ICT) make it possible to process huge databases and thus support decision-making. In selected aspects, it is possible to apply automation, in this case to develop computer algorithms that will adjust the functioning of devices and their sets in an optimal way on the agglomeration scale. Such an understanding of the smart area, however, is narrow in nature; more broadly, it is associated with an increase in the ability to learn, collaborate and solve problems [11]. Smart cities arise owing to the intelligent use of digital information, for example in areas such as human health, mobility, energy use, education, knowledge transfer and urban governance [12]. The essence of urban sustainability is based on creating a socially, economically and environmentally harmonious space, and it is rooted in categories such as equity, equality, sustainable consumption or ecological responsibility [13]. The aim here is to implement a city model that is user-friendly, especially for residents, and at the same time efficient in the use and distribution of resources. A model that is also ecological, both for contemporary consumers and future generations. Detailed identification of the needs and expectations of potential users and, on that basis, inferring concrete proposals of ways of their implementation may facilitate the application of the QFD method.

2 The Essence and Use of the QFD Method As shown by the results of literature studies, [14] the QFD methodology has been recognised to be a viable tool for the effective design of services and products. The broad applicability of the method allows it to be used both in the formulation of current, short-term goals and those of a more strategic nature. It can support the development of new products [15], logistics services [16], or ecological design of services and products [17, 18]. Owing to its versatility, QFD has been used for many years in various aspects of design [19]. In principle, it is possible to try to compile the expectations of the recipients and the possibilities of their implementation in every area of the organisation’s operations. In its qualitative context, this method is somewhat reminiscent of brainstorming, as it sometimes requires a high degree of creativity at the stage of searching for solutions that would as fully as possible meet the diverse expectations of potential users. Obviously, this stage is also supported by detailed calculations, reflected by the parameter dependence matrix indicating the sums of positive and negative correlations obtained with particular combinations of possible solutions. Even then, however, the expert assessment of the quality of the evaluated set is necessary. This is particularly important when considering products developed for a broad and very diverse range of audience. And this is the type of audience the managers of cities

106

D. Motała

and metropolitan areas have to deal with. The use of the QFD method in the analysis of urban sustainability has not found much application yet. However, some of its elements can be found in this research [20].

3 Analysis of Smart Sustainable City Elements Using QFD The QFD method belongs to the area of qualitative method supported quantitatively, just like the issue of urban development. It is used to analyze large data sets, trying to indicate the most important directions of development and potential innovations. Its use is also justified in this aspect, because the amount of information obtained from numerous groups of city users is very significant. The obtained data are to help improve the product, i.e. the use of the city in a broad sense. The application of QFD allows us not only to indicate the utilities that are particularly important for their recipients and at the same time the methods of their implementation, but also to link these assumed implementations. This makes it easier to assess which of them should be undertaken and in what order, due to the interrelationships. The use of QFD analysis in the area of studying the needs of city users and the possibility of their implementation requires some adjustments in the scope of the method itself, but it seems that it may be substantiated. 3.1 Input Information In the QFD analysis, the input data are, first of all, the client’s requirements, which can be looked upon as sustainability guidelines. They are a compilation of expectations of city users concerning functionality and broadly defined friendliness, but also the cost-effectiveness of applying the offered solutions. The term “users” has been applied intentionally, because cities are places of work for many people, who visit them either from time to time or on a daily basis, but indicate suburban areas as their place of residence, administratively not belonging to cities. The same is true of schools, universities and offices. People who use their services are not always the residents of a given city. Therefore, it is more appropriate to use the term city users. Thus, expectations are a sustainable element in the concept of cities under analysis. The second type of data necessary to carry out the QFD analysis is the parameters of the offered products reflecting customer expectations. In the case of the smart sustainable city, it can be assumed that it is the smart area which shows to what extent the ICT solutions are available owing to technological advances. However, they alone cannot constitute parameters in the QFD analysis. The collection of these data includes infrastructure and devices and the mechanisms that comprise them. Computer support consists primarily in operating, controlling and synchronising their operation. It also includes the functionalities of systems that enable the collection of information and the compilation of data leading to knowledge creation. It is not sufficient just to collect these data as parameters in the QFD analysis. In order to carry out the process, it is also necessary to identify the relationships between feasible solutions. This should be developed, at the latest, at the stage of assigning the parameters to the expectations of the recipient. However, it would be optimal to identify them and enter the data beforehand.

Tailor-Made Smart Sustainable City

107

3.2 Means of Obtaining Information In relation to the traditionally used QFD method, i.e. aimed at improving the products offered by enterprises, a number of ways of collecting information can be applied. The most effective ones include [21]: – visits to customers’ premises, i.e. observation of the user, – research of internet sources developed by the users, – mapping of the customer process, i.e. a kind of simulation. It seems that all of the above can also be applied in the collection of feedback provided by city users. Depending on the type of a problem to be solved or aspect to be improved, customer observation can be done in different ways. Sometimes, it is actually a meeting in person, which allows obtaining information about the solutions that city users and residents are interested in, solutions which are non-existent or not functioning as expected. This type of data is also often provided by organised communities, sometimes established for a specific purpose. In such an event, it is not really a case of customer observation, but still the information and ideas obtained come from those directly involved. Social networking sites are a source of a great deal of information. In the network, owing to the relative anonymity of statements, the feeling of having to restrain from expressing one’s true opinions decreases or even disappears altogether. More and more often, attention is drawn to the development of a cooperative society [22], which can be perceived in two ways in the context of applying the QFD method. On the one hand, with the support of internet technologies, it is possible to freely exchange opinions, shape the perception of the certain aspects of a sustainable city, or even create new knowledge related to the development of such cities. The creation of such a society and its improvement manifests itself also in establishing various co-operations, joint production, distribution and trade of both products and services, which in turn can be considered more in terms of applied solutions in the functioning of cities, i.e. parameters in QFD. In the context of expectations, however, the cooperative formation of media vehicles may be of more interest. They are independent as their content is based on the individual opinions of their creators and is developed free of charge. In such a cooperative way, quite considerable opinion-forming media can be created [22]. The rightness of the posted content and its correctness is assessed by the amount of feedback received, both in favour of and against. Such sites on the web, selected appropriately in terms of their topics, can serve as a source of valuable information. A third way of obtaining data as to the expectations of city users is to simulate the introduction of certain solutions and check their effects. This method is of great importance especially when introducing changes in the infrastructure of cities, e.g. in the field of transport. It can be applied when the number of variables taken into account is quite significant, but still predictable. It is worth noting that under this method simulations can still be carried out, owing to the availability of appropriate IT infrastructure.

108

D. Motała

The second group of data necessary to obtain included the broadly defined parameters in the QFD analysis, although it would probably be more appropriate to call them solutions in the area of the functioning of the city. The notion of parameters has technological overtones, while in this context the very diverse character of these solutions should be better taken into account. Apart from infrastructural and technological arrangements, there are also social ones, which group city users around one or another idea or activity for which infrastructure is not necessary. The sources of such data could be city development plans, emerging technological solutions, most often aiming at taking greater care of the environment, but also the already mentioned bottom-up created media and information obtained from various types of cooperation. 3.3 Data Processing Data acquisition in the QFD analysis is a necessary initial stage, but conclusions are obtained by appropriate data processing. First, it is necessary to consider the parameter area, i.e. those solutions that will potentially be introduced or improved in the city. This involves finding those solutions which will be mutually supportive and those which will clearly be mutually exclusive. An example could be the idea of collecting rainwater while increasing green areas in the city. That would most likely be in conflict with efforts to expand office infrastructure within the metropolitan area. Developing and updating such solution sets requires a certain amount of effort and complex knowledge, so they should be outsourced to interdisciplinary teams. The next step in the QFD analysis is to match users’ needs and expectations with potentially possible for change and urban improvement. It is not necessarily the case that a particular need is matched by one specific solution. It seems that much more often they will be overlapping sets, both on the side of expectations and of possibilities of their implementation. This means that the answer to the user’s requirement will be a set of parameters, and, at the same time, a parameter may be an answer to more than one need. Therefore, it is important to group certain requirements in such a way that the parameters of their implementation overlap. This is carried out using a dependency matrix of solutions corresponding to the sets of expectations and the sum of their negative and positive correlations. Consequently, this may also facilitate the development of a sequence of actions to be taken in urban development processes. Traditionally, this stage of analysis is supported by the assessment of competitiveness. In the case of using QFD for the selection of optimal solutions, from the point of view of users and city managers, this stage is unnecessary. It is not about seeking a competitive advantage, as it is the case between enterprises, but about the improvement of metropolitan areas. Therefore, instead of undertaking competitive activities, cities establish cooperation at various levels and make use of benchmarking solutions. Consequently, the last element in the QFD analysis for city improvement is the assessment of the feasibility of selected solutions. 3.4 The Assessment of Implementation Difficulties In the traditionally applied method, three aspects of the difficulty of implementing the selected solutions are assessed - technical, organisational and financial. All of them can

Tailor-Made Smart Sustainable City

109

also be applied in the analysis of city development and improvement. The technical difficulty may include both the construction of appropriate urban infrastructure and the use of integrated IT systems that will ultimately enable the infrastructure to function efficiently. The organisational area involves issues related to the implementation of change, including the impediments that arise from the transformation process. This is particularly well illustrated by the extension and improvement of transport infrastructure, where the construction of broader streets, cycle paths or tram lines requires periodical detours and other similar inconveniences. From the point of view of current needs, it is significant inconvenience for city users. Ultimately, however, the new solution is often assessed positively. The last area covered by the traditional analysis relates to financial difficulties. In principle, a certain level of spending is assigned for each project, but, as in all other projects, it is necessary to assume certain possible deviations in the actually incurred costs in relation to the initial assumptions. In the QFD analysis carried out for the smart sustainable city, it is worth considering two other areas of assessing the difficulty of implementing solutions. The first is social difficulty. All changes that are to affect a wide range of diverse users may meet with social opposition from selected groups. It is impossible to fulfil absolutely all of the expectations postulated by the target users. Therefore, it is important to determine how strong the opposition to the proposed solution will be and by how large a community it will be. The second area is environmental, or ecological, difficulty. In the case of cities that want to be sustainable, this aspect is very important, as the assumption is that each next generation should leave the place where the solution is to be implemented as it is, or better, in terms of their ability to fulfil their needs. However, current users’ expectations do not always coincide with this kind of understanding of urban use. Environmental difficulty can be construed as the constraints arising from environmental regulations and social resistance to the introduction of certain negatively perceived changes. This difficulty is seen as both environmental and social. The assessment of the implementation difficulty level determines the possibility of their actual implementation.

4 Application The presented method of searching for optimal solutions from the point of view of users and city managers can be applied both in large metropolitan areas and small towns. This is owing to the versatility of the method, in which the level of data detail can be selected according to needs. Consequently, in large metropolitan areas, it would probably be an approach at a high level of generality, which, however, can be made more specific in the course of selecting and analysing specific expectations and possibilities for their implementation. In small localities, data with a high level of detail can be introduced straight away as it does not hinder a comprehensive view of the city’s development. The above considerations were inspired by the work on the project to implement the QFD method in an enterprise that uses advanced computer technologies to design, implement, control and improve sustainable functioning solutions for individual buildings and groups of buildings. This publication is of a purely theoretical character, developed on

110

D. Motała

the basis of considerations related to the possibility of using enterprise management methods in the management and improvement of cities, which for most of the world’s population are places of residence, work and study. This aspect of using well-known and broadly discussed management methods in relation to smart sustainable cities is the current research area pursued by the author.

References 1. Dernbach, J.C.: Sustainable development as a framework for national governance. Case Western Reserve Law Rev. 49(1), 1–103 (1998) 2. Cooper, P.J., Vargas, M.: Implementing Sustainable Development: From Global Policy to Local Action. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., Lanham, MD (2004) 3. Elliott, J.: An Introduction to Sustainable Development. Routledge, London (2012) 4. Baker, S.: Sustainable Development. Routledge, London (2015) 5. Blewitt, J.: Understanding Sustainable Development. Taylor & Francis Ltd, United Kingdom (2017) 6. Robertson, M.: Sustainability Principles and Practice. Routledge, London (2021) 7. Egelston, A.E.: Sustainable Development. A History. Springer, Dordrecht (2013) 8. Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future, Oxford University Press (1987) 9. Buchholz, K.: How has the world’s urban population changed from 1950 to today? World Economic Forum, Geneva, Switzerland (2020) 10. Bibri, S.E.: A foundational framework for smart sustainable city development: theoretical, disciplinary, and discursive dimensions and their synergies. Sustain. Urban Areas 38, 758–794 (2018) 11. Korenik, A.: Smart city as a sustainable city development form and as a basis of sound municipal finances. Ekonomiczne Problemy Usług 4(129), 165–175 (2017) 12. Trindade, E.P., Hinnig, M.P.F., da Costa, E.M., Marques, J.S., Bastos, R.C., Yigitcanlar, T.: Sustainable development of smart cities: a systematic review of the literature. J. Open Innov. Technol Market Complex. 3(1), 1–14 (2017) 13. Lewandowska A.: The concept of a sustainable city and attempts to implement it in the European settlement space. In: Sadowy K. (ed.) City – Art – Science – Economy, pp. 90–98. Res Publiki Nowej Library, Res Publica im. H. Krzeczkowskiego Foundation (2014) 14. Chowdhury, M.M.H., Quaddus, M.A.: A multi-phased QFD based optimization approach to sustainable service design. Int. J. Product. Econ. 171, 165–178 (2016) 15. Tontini, G.: Integrating the Kano model and QFD for designing new products. Total Qual. Manag. Bus. Excell. 18(6), 599–612 (2007) 16. Bottani, E., Rizzi, A.: Strategic management of logistics service: a fuzzy QFD approach. Int. J. Prod. Econ. 103(2), 585–599 (2006) 17. Wolniak, E.R., S¸edek, A.: Using QFD method for the ecological designing of products and services. Qual. Quant. 43, 695–701 (2009) 18. An, Y., Lee, S., Park, Y.: Development of an integrated product-service roadmap with QFD: a case study on mobile communications. Int. J. Serv. Ind. Manag. 19(5), 621–638 (2008) ´ askiej seria: 19. Wolniak, R.: The history of the QFD method. Zeszyty Naukowe Politechniki Sl˛ Organizacja i Zarz˛adzanie 100, 553–564 (2017) 20. Khan, H.H., et al.: Challenges for sustainable smart city development: a conceptual framework. Sustain. Dev. 28, 1507–1518 (2020)

Tailor-Made Smart Sustainable City

111

´ 21. Cwiklicki, M.: Methods for collecting voice of customer in modern QFD. Zeszyty Naukowe ´ askiej seria: Organizacja i Zarz˛adzanie 102 (2017) Politechniki Sl˛ 22. Jemielniak, D., Przegali´nska, A.: Collaborative Society. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA (2020)

The Design of Take-Away Garbage Collection System Based on Service Design Zhiwei Zhou and Tao Xi(B) School of Design, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dong Chuan Road, Shanghai 200240, China [email protected]

Abstract. In this paper, we study the current takeaway waste recycling problem and redesign the takeaway waste recycling system under the service design concept. This paper uses a combination of CBR theory and TRIZ theory to analyze and learn from similar cases of garbage collection systems, find and solve conflicts in the take-out garbage collection problem, and thus design a take-out garbage collection system under the service design concept. It provides a sustainable development direction for the existing take-out waste pollution problem and offers the possibility of green development for the whole take-out industry. Keywords: Takeway garbage recycling · Green design · Service design

1 Introduction China’s catering industry was hit hard by covid-19 in 2020, according to statistics, the national catering revenue from January to February 2020 was 419.4 billion yuan, down 43.1% year-on-year. Although the covid-19 has brought a huge impact on the catering industry, it has accelerated the transformation of traditional enterprises into online catering, which in the long run seems to help the further development and growth of the online catering market. The further expansion of the online catering market has added new development space to the catering industry, but it also means that more takeout plastic waste is generated every day, and how to reasonably recycle and dispose of take-out food containers has become a hot spot for green city development. Under the urban requirements of sustainable development, major take-out platforms have also gradually introduced environmentally friendly take-out tableware or green take-out demand advocacy. For instance, the take-away platform has launched a “no cutlery required” comment function in its app to encourage users to reduce the use of disposable cutlery, and has also released “E-DIBLE CHOPSTICKS”, an eco-friendly chopstick that can be eaten. In addition, they also try to solve the problem from the perspective of packaging design, with the original kraft paper packaging instead of plastic. However, none of these forms are being used on a large scale, which shows that promoting green take-out from a single perspective or from one end of the spectrum creates little effect. Therefore, it is of academic research interest to study take-out waste recycling from the perspective of service system design. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 112–120, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_14

The Design of Take-Away Garbage Collection System

113

2 Research Status 2.1 Status of Takeaway Tableware Nowdays, the take-out industry has not formed a standardized packaging use norms, resulting in a wide variety of merchants to provide lunch boxes, tableware. Some of these businesses select to use disposable foam plastic lunch boxes to reduce costs, another part of them use over-packaging take-out to promote their brand. Such a phenomenon makes the sorting of take-out meal boxes increase, the difficulty of recycling, but also increases the cost of recycling. Therefore, only a small number of PP plastic lunch boxes are recycled by small waste collection stations or scavengers, while the rest of the recyclable resources are treated as useless household waste and are mixed with recycling for incineration or landfill treatment, but mixed incineration will produce a lot of harmful gases, mixed landfill will contaminate the soil, thus exacerbating the environmental pollution caused by white waste. 2.2 Status of Packaging Recycling In order to make a feasible redesign for take-out packaging waste recycling, an understanding of existing packaging recycling patterns is needed. A literature search shows that in order to alleviate environmental pressure and improve resource utilization, China formulated the “Packaging Recycling Management Measures” for packaging in 2008, which proposes to regulate the recycling and management of packaging with the main theme of “reduce, reuse and recycle”. And for the packaging recycling is mostly used in reverse logistics recycling mode, broadly divided into four types: manufacturer recycling mode, user recycling mode, industry consortium recycling mode and third-party recycling mode. Among them, the third-party recycling mode by the manufacturer to bear certain costs, the recruitment of third-party enterprises for packaging recycling processing work, its wide range of application, high recovery rate, recycling costs are the lowest of the four, so the model is currently the most widely used reverse logistics recycling mode. The current research on packaging recycling is mainly focused on e-commerce express packaging recycling. As a kind of packaging, take-out containers have certain commonalities with general packaging. Therefore, based on the existing research results and the characteristics of take-out containers themselves, a more suitable service system can be designed for take-out waste recycling.

3 Theoretical Research 3.1 Status of Packaging Recycling CBR theory (case-based reasoning, CBR) is based on an instance-based reasoning approach that combines the representation of knowledge with the establishment of a library of instances, featuring past instance attributes to achieve product design. The process is shown in Fig. 1, and its steps include the following four, namely, retrieval, reuse, correction and saving. The advantage of this method is that it can solve problems quickly and

114

Z. Zhou and T. Xi

Fig. 1. CBR theory model.

efficiently, shorten the product design cycle, and at the same time the collected cases can be stored into a case library for future use. However, its shortcoming is that the solutions generated by this method are relatively less innovative, and secondly, they cannot be used in the absence of similar cases. 3.2 Introduction to TRIZ Theory TRIZ theory is an inventive problem solving theory proposed by researchers led by Altshuller, and it is an innovative problem solving theory. In this theory, problems in the design process are described in terms of conflicts, because designers make other internal properties of the product degrade during the design process in order to satisfy or improve some internal properties of the product, which indicates that there is always some conflict in the design. Compared with CBR, it can systematically provide new ideas to solve the contradictory problems in the innovation design process (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2. TRIZ theory general solving process

3.3 Innovation Design Method Based on CBR and TRIZ Theory As mentioned above, both CBR theory and TRIZ theory have their own strengths and weaknesses, so the innovation design method based on CBR and TRIZ theory is a

The Design of Take-Away Garbage Collection System

115

combination of the two theories for the specificity of the problem studied in this paper. The process is as follows: (1) Similar case search. Search similar cases to find reference cases to analyze and summarize, so as to provide solution ideas for the later innovative design. (2) Translation of design problems into TRIZ conflict parameters. Find the problems in the design process and translate them into TRIZ conflict parameters. (3) Problem solving through TRIZ conflict matrix Find a solution to the problem by searching the 40 solutions of TRIZ. (4) Derive design solutions. Combining the solutions provided by CBR and TRIZ to identify innovative design solutions. 3.3.1 Case Studies Based on the above method, the existing packaging recycling examples were searched. The Finnish packaging industry’s recyclable system is a systematic approach to packaging, which is not specific to a product or a company, but requires a complete service chain (system) of packaging manufacturers, suppliers, product packagers, and numerous retailers and distributors. The bottling industry in Finland includes soft drinks and alcoholic beverages for takeaway, and the glass and plastic bottles used are designed and produced according to standards. Therefore, it uses packaging that is both returnable, reusable and recyclable, while avoiding over-packaging (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3. Flow chart of the Finnish bottling industry recycling system.

In the case of the Finnish garbage collection system, two ideas for solutions can be summarized: (1) Completing the recycling of packaging cannot be done from a single perspective, but should be done from all supply chains to establish a complete service system and manage it.

116

Z. Zhou and T. Xi

(2) In order to improve the efficiency and reusability of packaging recycling, unifying the industry’s packaging standards is beneficial to the green requirements of recyclability. 3.3.2 TRIZ-Basde Design Conflict Resolution The contradiction matrix consists of 39 contradictory opposing technical parameters and 40 standard solutions. Using the TRIZ contradiction matrix, firstly, the specific problem is described and transformed into a problem of general nature by 39 technical parameters. Then, the general solution to the problem is found from the 40 solutions in the table. Finally, the specific solution is formed by combining the actual research situation. In order to better apply TRIZ theory to the practical problems of service design, Bo and Chen identified 21 service-related parameters and converted the engineering parameters of TRIZ into service parameters as shown in Table 1. Table 1. Corresponding parameters transformation schematic table. Original engineering parameter

Service parameter

09 Velocity

System reactivity

10 Force

deliverability

11 Stress or pressure

Demand of different parties

12 Shape

A look or scene

13 Structural stability

Stability of service functionality

14 Intensity

Professional communication skills

15 The action time of the moving object

Duration

17 Temperature

Atmosphere

18 Brightness

Environmental cleanliness

19 The energy of the moving object

Labor intensity

21 Power

Efforts

23 Material loss

Non-persistent forces

25 Time loss

Time consumption

28 Accuracy of the test

Communication accuracy

29 Manufacturing precision

Accuracy of service provision

30 Sensitivity to the effects of external harmful factors

Interaction and customization

32 Manufacturability

Service accessibility

35 Adaptability and diversity

Flexibility

27 Reliability

Reliability

34 Maintainability

Service capability

39 Productivity

Services performance

The Design of Take-Away Garbage Collection System

117

4 Take-Away Waste Recycling Service System 4.1 TRIZ-Based Service Design Conflict Resolution 4.1.1 Design Requirements (Specific Questions) Before proceeding with the application of TRIZ theory, general problems should be found in the existing design process. Based on the current situation analysis and example analysis above, the following four specific problems can be obtained: 1. Facilitate recycling. Require the ability to conveniently consolidate take-out waste for recycling. 2. Facilitate waste transportation. Concentrated take-away garbage should be transported in a reasonable manner. 3. Recyclable. The recycled take-away tableware can be recycled. 4. Low cost. Low cost of disposal and low cost burden for take-out recycling platforms and merchants. 4.1.2 TRIZ Conflict Matrix Translating the above specific problem into a general problem and finding the corresponding conflict parameters: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Facilitate recycling corresponds to the flexibility of service. Facilitate waste transportation corresponds to stability of service. Recyclable corresponds to accessibility of services. Low cost corresponds to expressiveness of services.

A conflict matrix based on the 40 solutions of TRIZ is obtained as shown below in Fig. 4.

Fig. 4. TRIZ conflict matrix diagram.

118

Z. Zhou and T. Xi

4.2 Service System Construction Based on the application of the TRIZ conflict matrix in the previous section to query the 40 standard methods of TRIZ theory for resolving conflicts, and combined with the special characteristics exhibited by the recycling system services in the CBR case study, a solution to the take-out waste recycling problem can be obtained as follows: 1. Build a third-party recycling platform. Using the advantages of third-party platforms, the separation of recycling and take-out platforms can reduce the recycling costs of take-out platforms and businesses to a certain extent, while also making the entire service system more stable. 2. Establishing cutlery standards for the takeaway industry. Unify the tableware of the take-out industry to facilitate the recycling of take-out tableware and improve service accessibility. 3. Centralized recycling management. Conducting community-based recycling management facilitates the transportation of take-out waste, and also reduces the pressure on third-party platforms. 4. Provide door-to-door recycling service. Providing door-to-door services can increase the user experience while improving the flexibility of the service system. 4.2.1 Service Process Design The service system built in this paper mainly includes recycling platform, take-out platform, take-out merchants, consumers, community recycling points, third-party waste recycling companies and third-party tableware manufacturing companies. The operation flow of the system is shown in Fig. 5:

Fig. 5. CBR theory model.

The Design of Take-Away Garbage Collection System

119

(1) Recycling platform: The recycling platform is responsible for the operation and management of the takeout recycling system and the provision of uniform take-out tableware for major take-out platforms. Responsible for managing waste transportation and door-todoor recycling services at community recycling sites. The recycled take-out waste is sorted and forwarded to the appropriate recycling companies for waste disposal and cutlery manufacturers for clean recycling treatment. (2) Takeaway platform: The takeaway platform gives uniform takeaway tableware to the takeaway merchants who are enrolled in the platform. It avoids over-packaging by merchants for branding purposes and facilitates subsequent recycling efforts. (3) Takeaway merchants: Take-out merchants hand over their take-out to platform users. (4) Consumers: Consumers can drop off their take-out waste at community take-out waste collection points or call for door-to-door collection service through the recycling platform. (5) Community recycling points: Community recycling points store the take-out waste of that community and are transported by the staff of the recycling platform at the specified time. (6) Waste recycling companies: The recycling platform sorts the waste and then transfers the non-recyclable waste to a third-party waste disposal company for proper waste disposal. (7) Tableware manufacturing companies: Provide tableware for the system and be responsible for the cleaning of the tableware after recycling.

5 Conclusion With the development of the city, the concept of sustainable green development is increasingly recognized by people. Therefore, from the idea of green city construction, this paper designs a take-away waste recycling system under the concept of service design by combining the methods of CBR theory and TRIZ theory. The system provides a new possibility for green take-out by establishing a third-party recycling platform to unify the take-out industry’s tableware and packaging, and to carry out community-based unified recycling of take-out waste, thus achieving recycling of take-out tableware and reasonable disposal of take-out waste. This paper presents a solution idea for online catering activities, it can also be analogized to other online consumption industries, such as delivery and fresh food.

References 1. Tao, G., Yujun, Z., Li, P.: A review of the current situation and development in the field of waste plastics recycling in China (in Chinese). J. Electr. Mech. Eng. 26(06), 5–8 (2009)

120

Z. Zhou and T. Xi

2. Liang Chunxiang. How “Green Finland” is made (in Chinese). J. Resource Guide (04), 54 (2017) 3. Zhu, Y., Jiang, X., Zhu, H., Dong, M.: Design of a recyclable Chinese take-out lunch box (in Chinese). J. Logistics Eng. Manage. 41(12), 163-164+117 (2019) 4. Wang, B., Yuqing, X., Li, T.: Green packaging structure design principles from Finnish packaging industry recyclable system (in Chinese). J. Pack. Eng. 30(07), 167-168+171 (2009) 5. Zhang, L., Zhi, Z.: An analysis of ecological civilization construction–Green takeaway as an example (in Chinese). J. Changzhi Coll. 36(06), 12–15 (2019) 6. Liu, Y.: A study on the green marketing of take-out platforms in response to the plastic crisis (in Chinese). J. Corp. Technol. Develop. 08, 210–211 (2019) 7. Liu, Z.F., Gao, Y., Hu, D., Zhang, J.D.: A green innovative design method for products based on TRIZ and the principle of example reasoning (in Chinese). J. China Mech. Eng. 23(09), 1105-1111+1116 (2012) 8. Zhang, F., Zhang, L., Wang, P.: Product innovation design based on TRIZ evolutionary theory (in Chinese). J. Agric. Mach. 39(2), 116–119 (2008) 9. Gao, C., Huang, K., Zhao, F.: Research and implementation of rapid innovative design of principles and structures based on example reasoning (in Chinese). J. China Mech. Eng. 18(24), 2907–2913 (2007) 10. Chai, K.-H., Zhang, J., Tan, K.-C.: A TRIZ-based method for new service design (in Chinese). J. Serv. Res. 8(1), 48–66 (2005) 11. Bajwa, P.S., Mahto, D.G.: Concepts, tools and techniques of problem solving through TRIZ: a review (in Chinese). Int. J. Innov. Res. Sci. Eng. Technol. 2(7), 3061–3073 (2007) 12. Ai Media Report: A special research report on Chinese food and beverage takeaway market merchants during the 2020 epidemic (in Chinese). https://www.iimedia.cn/c400/70742.html 13. Garbage classification nationwide accelerated, the take-away industry should say goodbye to the “barbaric growth” (in Chinese) .https://www.tmtpost.com/4039653.html

Health and Well Being

Wellbeing and Healthcare: Exploring Ways of Interactive Prototyping with Mental Process Yancong Zhu1 , Xiaohan Wang1 , Longxin Ma1 , Bowen Zhang1 , Yuchen Jing1 , Xiaoyu Shen1 , Amanda Liu2 , and Wei Liu1(B) 1 Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, People’s Republic of

China {yancong.zhu,wei.liu}@bnu.edu.cn, {xiaohan.wang,malongxin, bowen.zhang,yuchen.jing,xiaoyu.shen}@mail.bnu.edu.cn 2 Faculty of Psychology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708-0187, USA [email protected]

Abstract. This study explores prototype design with psychology methods to guide students to apply their expertise to real product design. We research specific populations in COVID-19 in China and the impact of people’s psychological changes on interactive behavior in different context. We transform mental processes such as cognition, emotion, and volition into interaction behaviors with psychological research methods, and then these behaviors are transformed into interaction prototype products. Two prototypes were built and experienced, i.e., CareforCarers and Presport We discuss these prototypes, experiences for initiating interaction design programs based on multidisciplinary education. This study demonstrates how to transform user behaviors, psychological insights, and user needs into interactive prototype designs. We found that integrating psychological elements improve product design’s attribute on interaction quality through quick evaluation sessions. Keywords: COVID-19 · Prototype designs · Emotional interaction

1 Introduction People’s work and lives have changed considerably after the COVID-19 outbreak. With the uncontrollable duration of the epidemic, many people experience negative stresses such as psychological anxiety, tension, and panic [1]. Those stresses people to pay more attention to physiological, psychological, and behavioral reactions [2]. It is essential to know how to help people relieve and soothe their stresses through meditation by physical devices while working at home [3]. This study researched users and scenarios in the COVID-19 context. By analyzing psychological elements such as human perceptions, emotions, and needs, we interpreted human emotional needs into interaction design of the product. It is found that the interaction prototypes designed by professional user research and analysis are more interactive, natural, and holistic [4]. Furthermore, it could trigger deeply emotional interactions between the user and the product [5]. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 123–127, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_15

124

Y. Zhu et al.

2 Research Approach The research identifies the target users through desktop research. We analyze the qualitative characteristics of users and their characteristics by questionnaires and telephone interviews, and then create Personas to describe the differences of these users. After determining the user characteristics, we summarize the main points of users’ mental process. Every user immerses in different emotions during every using a product. The effects of that emotions can bring about different interactions and experiences. Furthermore, we interpret the user’s psychological process into their interaction behaviors. We conduct four iterative stages in concept and prototype development in total. The first two iterative stages focus on exploring the combination of mental process analysis and user needs, so as to cluster the group’s mental process. The third iterative stage aims to interpret interactive behaviors and construct interaction conceptual principles. The fourth stage aims to crack technological problems and these iterative targets on integrating user comments to finalize the prototypes. We make a prototype according to the interpreted interactive behaviors by computer modeling software, rapid prototyping manufacturing, and intelligent hardware. This article will take Pregsport designed for pregnant women to exercise at home and CareforCarers designed for psychological counselors to relieve compassion fatigue as examples.

3 Design 3.1 Pregsport According to statistics, there are about 11 million pregnant women in China in 2019. Only 17.1% of them usually stick on pregnancy exercises such as yoga and jogging. 97.8% of the exercise activities is walking [6]. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it is difficult to do exercise and have outdoor activities. Due to the intensification of the epidemic and the reduction of exercise, pregnant women have encountered many problems, such as decreased sleep quality, depression, irritability, cardiopulmonary weakness, fetal macrosomia and reduced rates of natural labor [7, 8]. Subsequently, we deeply interview eight pregnant women in their mid-term pregnancy on their exercising. Furthermore, we convert the needs according to the interview results. The results demonstrate that most pregnant women in the mid-term pregnancy chose to exercise at home during the epidemic. They look forward to scientific exercise guidance, clear exercise volume display, certain motivation, and regular exercise reminders. And they need to know the fetus’ condition during exercise. By clustering the analysis of users’ needs, we find that the processes, consisting of occurrence, development and disappearance of pregnant home exercisers’ psychological phenomena. The processes are continuous in time, mainly manifesting in the cognitive process, emotional dependence, and volitional process. Cognitive process includes feeling, perception, memory, thinking, and imagination. Emotional dependence includes emotional and psychological experience combined with user needs. The volitional process sets specific goals for pregnant women in their own activities, prompting pregnant women to continuously overcome internal and external difficulties as planned and strive

Wellbeing and Healthcare: Exploring Ways of Interactive Prototyping

125

to achieve goals [9]. We cross-analyze and cluster their emotional adjustment needs, and obtained the interactive behaviors in adjusting emotions. As shown in Table 1. Table 1. Interaction analysis User needs

Mental process

Interaction behavior Prototype

Need to be guided to exercise in moderation

Cognitive process

Breathing feedback

A breathing light guides exercise, digital display of exercise volume

Need to know the Emotional dependence Visual interaction fetus’ condition during Voice interaction exercising and get satisfaction after exercise

Digital display of fetus’ physiological data, baby’s laughter bringsemotional satisfaction

Need to be reminded to Volitional process exercise and motivation to achieve the goal

The combination of vibration and voice is used for prompting and encouraging

Vibration feedback Voice prompts

According to the interaction behavior, we design the physical product with voice, vibration, breathing light and other functions. and design an app that shows intuitional data to pregnant exerciser as well. Heart rate sensor and reflective sensor transmit the signal to the cell phone through WIFI. The app, which makes the product reliable and good experience, displays fetus’ and the pregnant exerciser’s data of condition and movement. 3.2 CareforCarers More people need mental help due to the COVID-19 epidemic, an extensive national survey showed that 35% of people have emotional problems, especially in Henan, Hubei and Hunan provinces. Moreover, in Hubei province, 33.56% of people had poor or even worrisome mental state. Therefore, counselors were extra busy during this epidemic. Most counselors participate to assist by psychic hotline five to six times a week. The increased workload leads to mental problems for counselors [10]. In their work, counselors frequently empathize with their patients, and experience their trauma from the heart to perceive their pain. However, after overwork, counselors can become overly empathetic and enter a state of exhaustion known as “compassion fatigue” [11]. We analyze the results from the interviews and focus groups of nine counselors (four of them involve in the psychological hotline), and got the fact that demonstrate that most of the counselors cannot receive timely psychological guidance after the counseling. We used grounded theory to analyze the content of the interview and transcriptional records of the focus group. We interpret the counselors’ needs and conclude four guidelines that they are looking for a flexible, immersive, and easy-to-use product to help them separate from compassion fatigue quickly and effectively.

126

Y. Zhu et al.

For each of our design criteria, we made the first exploration of the prototype. For example, the easy-to-use guideline, we want to design a component to wake up the product instead of relying on the switch to turn on or off the software or program. We choose to design a desktop hardware through the analysis of the actual situation - the consultant’s network interview through the computer. The product comes with a detector, such as a heart rate sensor, which detects the heart rate change of the consultant can automatically turn on the meditation speaker switch. The design of hardware products involves the selection of specific hardware, we used a smaller bread board at the beginning. But after debugging, it was found that the influence between the serial ports was so great that we adjusted the size of the whole product. And at first, we considered that the camera and other programs were built into the original software of the hotline, but in the user test, the user repeatedly mentioned that he wanted to sit the meditation part in a separate software. They don’t want to see the analysis data at the same time of consulting, so we tried the software interface on the web side. Based on the SUS scale analysis of the user tests, the cause of compassion fatigue when the counselor takes frequent consultation is that the counselors cannot get rid of the pain of experiencing patients’ trauma after work. Compassion fatigue is diffuse, so the counselor often appears to get away from others and behaves irritably [12]. The actual characteristics and needs of users combined with their psychological characteristics are shown in Fig. 1. We design a product with voice guidance and meditation for counselors to relieve compassion fatigue after consultation in a more natural interaction.

Fig. 1. Explore the needs from the mental health

4 Conclusion Interaction is a bridge between individual’s subjective reality and objective reality, and it is essential to integrate psychological research. This paper shows how to translate psychological process research into interactable behavior and design products based on the behavior. Through this research model, product functionality is better tailored to individual behavior, enhancing interaction and individual initiative usability. This research also has implications for other physical interaction product designs.

Wellbeing and Healthcare: Exploring Ways of Interactive Prototyping

127

References 1. Fofana, N.K., Latif, F., Sarfraz, S., Bilal, Komal, B.: Fear and agony of the pandemic leading to stress and mental illness: an emerging crisis in the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Psychiatry Res. 291, 113230 (2020) 2. O’Connor, D.B., et al.: Research priorities for the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond: a call to action for psychological science. Br. J. Psychol. 111, 603–629 (2020) 3. Ozili, P.K., Arun, T.: Spillover of COVID-19: impact on the global economy. SSRN Electr. J. (2020). https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3562570 4. Aprile, W., van der lelm, A.: Interactive technology design at the Delft University of Technology-a course about how to design interactive products. In: Proceedings of the E&PDE 2011, London (2011) 5. Qu, Y.R., Chong, D.Y., Liu, W.: Bringing interaction design methods and experimental technologies together into designing and developing interactive products. In: Proceedings of the 11th Asia Pacific Conference on Computer Human Interaction (APCHI ’13), pp. 102–107. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA 6. Tan, C.: Analysis of the current situation of exercise in pregnant women and its influencing factors. Mater. Child Health Care China, Jilin 34(17), 3920–3923 (2019) 7. Berthelot, N., Lemieux, R., Garon-Bissonnette, J., Drouin-Maziade, C., Martel, É., Maziade, M.: Uptrend in distress and psychiatric symptomatology in pregnant women during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Acta Obstet. Gynecol. Scand. 99(07), 848–855 (2019) 8. Vargas-Terrones, M., Barakat, R., Santacruz, B., Fernandez-Buhigas, I., Mottola, M.F.: Physical exercise programme during pregnancy decreases perinatal depression risk: a randomised controlled trial. British J. Sports Med. 53(6), 348–353 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1136/bjs ports-2017-098926 9. Wang, H., Mao, H., Rong, H.: Analysis of exercise behavior and related influencing factors during pregnancy in 3099 pregnant women, Shanghai. Shanghai J. Preventive Med. 032(002), 176–180 (2020) 10. Rokach, A., Boulazreg, S.: The COVID-19 era: How therapists can diminish burnout symptoms through self-care. Curr. Psychol. 1–18 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-011 49-6 11. Silver, J., Caleshu, C., Casson-Parkin, S., Ormond, K.: mindfulness among genetic counselors is associated with increased empathy and work engagement and decreased burnout and compassion fatigue. J. Genet. Couns. 27(5), 1175–1186 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10 897-018-0236-6 12. Maydych, V., Claus, M., Watzl, C., Kleinsorge, T.: Attention to emotional information is associated with cytokine responses to psychological stress. Front. Neurosci. 12, 687 (2018)

A Conceptual Design of a Modular Multifunctional Nursing Bed for Moderately Disabled Patients Jing Luo1(B) , Yan Luximon1 , and Xiao Ni2 1 School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR

[email protected] 2 School of Arts and Design, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

Abstract. The disabled elderly people are a major part of the overall disabled people in China. The demand for elderly care is growing rapidly. The manual requirements for nursing staffs are also increasing rapidly. Therefore, this situation places a higher demand on rehabilitation products, especially nursing beds. However, traditional nursing beds cannot meet the needs of disabled patients for auxiliary nursing at different stages of rehabilitation. This project proposes a modular multifunctional nursing bed for moderately disabled patients. The nursing bed is modular and uses intelligent technology for multifunctional functions. It can be used in a hospital environment and is designed for different medical stages. The modular multifunctional bed aims to help in patients’ rehabilitation and improve well-being. Keywords: Multifunctional bed · Modularization · Humanization · Rehabilitation · Human Factors

1 Introduction The society is aging in many parts of the world, including China [1]. The elderly disabilities are the main part of the disabled in China [2]. Disabled patients need nurses to help them bathe, eat and walk. However, the number of professional nursing staff in China is very small [3]. The rapid growth of the elderly population will lead to an increased burden in elderly care. This situation places higher requirements on health care products. Therefore, there is an urgent need for more solutions to help disabled elderly to carry out their daily routine and in addition provide rehabilitation activities. This will eventually relieve pressure for nursing staffs. The medical procedure for disabled patients includes three stages namely: diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation. The whole procedure is performed on the medical nursing bed [4], requiring disabled patients to stay in bed for a long time. Long-term bedbound can cause the patients’ body function to degenerate and may produce complications, such as bedsores [5]. In addition, this situation can even cause psychological problems for the patients [6]. Clinical practice has shown that the physical rehabilitation treatment of long-term bedridden patients is very necessary. Scientific rehabilitation training can © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 128–135, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_16

A Conceptual Design of a Modular Multifunctional Nursing Bed

129

gradually restore the motor function of patients [7]. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a solution that can help disabled patients carry out rehabilitation training. As the most indispensable medical equipment for bedbound patients [8], medical nursing beds have become the primary choice for innovation and improvement in this research. It is very important to develop a multi-functional intelligent medical nursing bed to meet the urgent needs. There are several studies on nursing beds in Europe and the United States [9, 10]. Representative companies are Devicelink in the United States and Arjo Huntleigh in Sweden. They have all carried out the research and development of nursing bed [9]. The Arjo Huntleigh has developed a nursing bed with bathing function. This nursing bed can offer the bathing function without moving the patient. It not only reduces the workload of nursing staff but also avoids secondary injuries caused while moving the patients [10]. This solution proved the feasibility of modular design and played a certain role in daily care for patients. In general, many scientific research institutions have made many innovations in the research of multifunctional nursing beds. But the research of multifunctional nursing beds is still in the development stage. The nursing beds have broad application prospects and research space. There are more possibilities in assisting moderately disabled patients for rehabilitation or psychotherapy by developing a modular multifunctional nursing bed on this project. Based on rehabilitation and ergonomics knowledge, this project has designed an intelligent nursing bed solution. The functional structures of the nursing bed have been designed with different function modularity. In this study, different functional modules were analyzed, and an intelligent nursing bed was designed. ‘Care+’, ‘Health+’ and ‘Warm+’ are solutions proposed for different stages of diagnosis and treatment. The purpose of this research is to solve the technical shortcomings of ordinary nursing beds and provide effective care for disabled patients. The difference between the medical bed designed in this project and the single-function medical bed lies in three innovative models that can be changed to meet the different care needs of patients.

2 User Research The research methods include two parts: (a) Observation of patients using hospital beds in the medical environment to discover the design insights. (b) Interviews with patients and stakeholders on previous bed usage. 2.1 Observation Researchers visited three hospitals to observe and record the activities of patients, their families, and medical staff using nursing beds in the hospital environment. The observers were two patients, a nurse, and a family member. Patient A, a moderately disabled patient, was hospitalized for about two months due to a fracture of his left foot. Patient B was a mildly disabled patient and used a nursing bed only with the basic functions.

130

J. Luo et al.

The first stage was to observe the daily nursing activities. Two problems were found based on the observations. First, first time users need to learn how to use the bed from others. The instructions of the bed function are not intuitive. The specific adjustment and operation methods of nursing bed cannot be clearly displayed. Secondly, the manual adjustment control is at the end of the bed, the patient cannot operate the bed by themselves. Sometimes, fast adjustment by others may cause discomfort. The second stage was to observe the rehabilitation training process. In this stage, several problems were found. First, patients can only receive simple massage to achieve the initial effect of preventing muscle atrophy. Specialized rehabilitation training was conducted in a rehabilitation room. The patient needed to use a wheelchair to go to the rehabilitation room. During the transfer process, multiple nurses were required to help move the patient. This procedure may cause discomfort and pain to the patient. 2.2 Interview After the observation, the researchers interviewed patients, medical staffs, and family members to gain their needs on using nursing bed products. Patients hope to improve the comfort and autonomous control of the nursing bed. During the treatment phase, the patient’s family members often sit in a chair nearby to accompany patients. They hope to get better rest during the long waiting periods. From the perspective of nurses, they hope that the nursing bed can help patients turn over and move during the rehabilitation treatment. This can reduce their workload and improve the quality of treatment. At the same time, the nurses also expressed the need that the nursing bed can have some sort of AI function that can help to communicate and guide the patients more effectively. They think this can alleviate the patients’ negative emotions. From the doctors’ point of view, in the rehabilitation training stage, they hope that the nursing bed can help detect the patients’ blood pressure, body temperature, and other general physical signs to improve their work efficiency.

3 Process and Prototype Development 3.1 Concept The results of user research provide a reference for the concept and prototype development. The study found that stakeholders have different needs for the functions of the multifunctional nursing bed at different stages. In addition to offer basic functions, patients also have emotional needs. The design solution needs to offer the basic functions of the nursing bed, but also need to meet more emotional requirements and medical treatment needs. Therefore, the design goal was to provide users with rehabilitation functions based on the basic functions of nursing beds as well as some entertainment. The conceptual design sketch is shown in Fig. 1.

A Conceptual Design of a Modular Multifunctional Nursing Bed

131

Fig. 1. Conceptual sketching

3.2 Cardboard modeling Based on conceptual design, a cardboard prototype of the multifunctional nursing bed was developed, and the feasibility of structure transformation was verified. It is shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2. Cardboard testing

3.3 Prototype developing The shape, size, and surface of the prototype have been repeatedly evaluated and modified. Figure 3 shows the prototype model in the iterative design process.

132

J. Luo et al.

Fig. 3. Prototype developing

This design proposes three modular design solutions, Care+, Health+, and Warm+. Care+ model takes affective design as the starting point to solve the problems of inconvenient washing on the bed and getting out of bed at night. It adds a foldable guardrail and a bedside display screen, making it easier for family members and nurses to take care of patients. Health+ mode adds a rehabilitation exercise module that is different from the current market competitors to help disabled patients perform lower limb rehabilitation training. Warm+ mode adds a simulated sunbathing module, using the built-in air circulation system and blind lighting design. The design reduces the labor intensity of nursing staff, improves the comfort of patients.

4 Evaluation of Nursing Bed Design Medical products have strict industry standards. It is necessary to apply ergonomics knowledge in the structural design of the nursing bed. Human factors data can be obtained and analyzed using the anthropometric method. In this paper, the design index of multifunctional nursing bed is determined by referring to the relevant standards such as “Medical electrical equipment-Part1: General requirements for safety” [11]. It is including size index, position adjustment index, and bearing index. According to the international medical equipment general standard and referring to the relevant dimensions of the existing nursing bed in the market, the overall dimension of the nursing bed is determined as 2100 mm × 1000 mm × 600 mm. The movement angle of Health+ model during the first 0° to 30° and the last 20° to 90° hash 5° to 10° increment respectively [12]. The multifunctional nursing bed sets the movement angle of the leg bending mechanism according to the above index. The final prototype is shown in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5. To sum up, the modular multifunctional nursing bed design solution can offer three models which have different functions. This project can improve the needs of moderately disabled patients at different stages in the treatment process. Even more, this study pays attention to the psychological feelings of disabled patients. By using the modular multifunctional nursing bed, patient’s daily life can be more easily and comfortably, thus improving self-confidence and dignity.

A Conceptual Design of a Modular Multifunctional Nursing Bed

Fig. 4. The final prototype of Care+

133

134

J. Luo et al.

Fig. 5. The final prototype of Health+ and Warm+

5 Conclusion This research focuses on the design of nursing beds for moderately disabled patients to improve the user experience of the treatment with moderately disabled patients. These results may help formulate design standards for nursing bed products for moderately disabled patients. According to the interview, patients mentioned that this improvement can inspire them to have a positive attitude on their rehabilitation.

A Conceptual Design of a Modular Multifunctional Nursing Bed

135

The limitation of this research is that the design is still in the conceptual design stage. The product prototype design and evaluation will be carried out in the follow-up research. Smart medical products are needed in smart medicine as the society is rapidly aging and there is a continuous lack of nursing staffs. Acknowledgments. The authors declare no conflict of interest. This work was funded by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

References 1. Hui, X.U., Jifei, W.: Demographic bonus, population age structure and Chinese ageing population. Ecol. Econ. (2014) 2. Tam, M.: Active ageing, active learning. Stud. Contin. Educ. 33(3), 289–299 (2011) 3. Wei, Y., Zhang, L.: Analysis of the influencing factors on the preferences of the elderly for the combination of medical care and pension in long-term care facilities based on the Andersen model. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 17(15) (2020) 4. Wang, S., Shi, W., Liang, Y., Huang, L., Huang, Z.: Design and manufacture of multi-function electric nursing bed. J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 1213, 052111 (2015). Agarwalla, S., Sarma, K. K. 5. Kosaka, M., Takahashi, M.: Stage identification using electromagnetic waves for noncontact bed sores detection system. In: 2019 International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation (ISAP), Xi’an, China, pp. 1–3 (2019) 6. Zhang, T., Xie, C., Li, N.: Roboticized multi-function nursing bed and its control system. J. South China Univ. Technol. (2006) 7. Ugo C., et al.: Secondary prevention through cardiac rehabilitation: physical activity counselling and exercise training. Eur. Heart J. 31(16) (2010) 8. Garg, A., Owen B., Beller D.: A biomechanical and ergonomic evaluation of patient transferring tasks: bed to wheelchair and wheelchair to bed. Ergonomics (1991) 9. Xin, S., Zhang, H., Ma, X.: Development of multifunction electric nursing bed. J. Shanghai Dianji Univ. (2013) 10. Ma, K.: The Design of Multifunction Nursing Bed with Function Extensio. Tianjin University of Science and Technology (2015) 11. IEC 60601-1: 1988 Medical Electrical Equipment-Part 1: General Requirements for Safety. IEC, Geneva (1988) 12. Trochimczuk, R., Ku´zmierowski. T.: Kinematic analysis of CPM machine supporting to rehabilitation process after surgical knee arthroscopy and arthroplasty. Int. J. Appl. Mech. Eng. 19(4) (2015)

Disinfection of Vehicle Interior Space as a Major Step Towards the Recovery and Development of Post-pandemic Car-Sharing Industry Zhiqian Hu(B) and Xiaohan Tu School of Design and Innovation, Tongji University, 281 Fuxing Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai, China

Abstract. As a “public good”, car-sharing services are often used by many people. Since the epidemic, the entire transportation industry is affected. Car sharing becomes a low-risk travel mode and may be one of the primary modes of transition throughout the epidemic. However, the traditional coping methods to the epidemic, public transport cleaning model of the transportation industry, does not meet the demand for safety. This paper proposes countermeasures to help car-sharing companies cope with the difficulties and boost long-term development. Keywords: Post-epidemic era · Car-sharing · Clean and disinfect

1 Background 1.1 In the Post-epidemic Era, Epidemic Prevention Becomes Normal COVID-19 is a major public health emergency with the fastest spread, the broadest range of infections, and the most challenging prevention and control in decades. Public health emergencies, especially major infectious disease outbreaks, have a vigorous spreading and uncertain scope of impact. If they are not prevented and controlled in time, they can easily cause severe damage to public health and social and economic activities. Major infectious diseases such as the SARS virus in 2003, H1N1 influenza in 2009 and Covid19 since the end of 2019 have all brought public health safety great harm. Recently, the epidemic has taken on a rampant stance, indicating the need for long-term responses. 1.2 The Relationship Between Public Transport and the Spread of the Epidemic For large cities and megacities, public transportation, which plays a vital role in transmitting infectious diseases, is likely to cause the spread of contagious activities in a network due to its dense and high mobility of passengers. Reducing the spread of the epidemic through the public transportation cleaning system and keeping it in a near “static” state can achieve a large degree of epidemic prevention and control. Therefore, public transportation has become the main target of epidemic prevention and control [1]. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 136–141, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_17

Disinfection of Vehicle Interior Space

137

1.3 Rising Awareness of the Cleanliness in Car-Sharing Services Safety is the “first ethics” of human life. Individual life and health and public health incidents have always been hot topics in social ideology. Facing the unpredictable COVID19, the safety of cleaning and disinfection in the car has become the focus of public opinion. In fact, as the smog problem has gradually spread across the country in recent years, improving the air quality in the car and building a healthy car riding experience have always been the key research and development directions of the entire automotive industry [2]. With the epidemic sweeping across the country, people’s attention to cleanliness in the car has gradually expanded from chemical pollution and odor pollution to the prevention and control of biological pollution and the disinfection and sterilization of the air in cars. From an automobile travel survey by Ipsos, it can be seen that, in China, after the outbreak, people’s concerns about health, safety and other factors have increased significantly. The antibacterial function of air conditioners and the use of antibacterial materials in cars have been getting lots of attention. 1.4 Changing Travailing Patterns in the Post-epidemic Era There are many speculations and studies on the long-term impact of the epidemic on society. Even in the most optimistic circumstances, the public transportation industry will still come to a halt. After Covid-19, traditional cleaning methods could no longer slow the decline of the industry. All types of public transportation business declined out of consumers’ fears of exposure to viruses. According to research statistics [3], more than half of the people have changed their mode of transportation. In the original subway and public transportation service groups, except for about 60% of them turned to travel by self-driving cars, most of the others chose to travel mainly by car-sharing with acquaintances. 1.5 Shared Car Cleaning System Is Immature At present, car sharing is a “public good”, but the “one passenger, one round of disinfection” initiative does not seem to be easy to achieve. The high frequency of use, the complex and diverse group of users, and the lack of timely maintenance and cleaning make the sanitary conditions inside the shared cars unsatisfying [4]. It is just that online cars like Didi are mostly private cars, so they can be cleaned up in time, but most shared cars are operated by platforms, so a unified and efficient cleaning and disinfection model is needed.

2 Reasons for Perfecting Cleaning System As shown in Fig. 1, clean and disinfection systems in the aviation industry and the bus industry are composed of four elements: governmental, economic, social, and technological [5]. Their systems have been very well developed, from regulation to specific process details. But for such a new industry as car-sharing, there are still significant shortcomings in clean and disinfection management.

138

Z. Hu and X. Tu

At the government level, in China, there is currently almost no legal policy for car-sharing business, and the cleaning system of car-sharing lacks industry standards. At the economic level, compared with bicycle-sharing, the cost to form a scale effect of car-sharing is enormous. The payback period is very long, and there is a lack of strong capital chain support [6]. At the social level, the credit system for car sharing is not soundly developed and lacks consumer acceptance. At the technological level, the industry lacks refined operations. The platform’s level of digitization and intelligence is insufficient, and there is no open and standardized operation and maintenance services for the platform. It is challenging to improve user experience without timely supervision and management [7]. As the car-sharing industry boomed in recent years, it hasn’t experienced the shock of the epidemic crisis yet [8]. Besides the concerns that have been stressed before, to reboot sharing car-sharing business, service providers need to take safety seriously into account by pondering all the touchpoints with customers that are potentially at risk of exposure to infectious diseases. More research is needed on the dimensions of security considerations under shared mobility (Table 1). Table 1. Comparison of public transportation disinfection measures in the post-epidemic era.

3 Suggestions for Conquering the Challenge 3.1 Formulate Corresponding Encouragement Policies The government should strengthen the supervision of car-sharing business activities. In a newly launched Chinese policy about car-sharing business management [9], the management norms for the shared car industry were proposed, which included the use

Disinfection of Vehicle Interior Space

139

of information technology to achieve social supervision, establishment of service quality and reputation assessment and complaint reporting systems. However, no further instructions have been given in terms of health protection as in shared bicycles. In March 2020, China promulgated the “Internet Rental Bicycle Hygiene Guarantee Operation Regulations” [10], which established a standard for the cleaning system of shared bicycles. After the epidemic, due to the gradual recovery of the short-term rental industry, the car rental industry may be one of the few areas that will be less negatively affected and is expected to have a positive impact. Similarly, for car-sharing disinfection, the government should further enact measures to develop a strong health and safety certification and protocol for the industry to ensure passengers and employees’ safety and increase confidence that the industry will emerge from the epidemic [11]. 3.2 Establish a Unified and Standardized Clean Management At present, many car-sharing related companies are developing and putting into use cleaning products, such as Magna’s ozone technology, Hyundai Group’s interior germicidal light technology, Ford’s high-temperature sterilization technology, and Adient’s research and development of antibacterial interior materials, and there is even cooperation between the car-sharing platform Turo and third-party cleaning company Spiffy [12]. But from a long-term perspective, the service that customers expect is not only one method but a series of solutions to reduce the risk of infection in public transportation. Car-sharing companies need to unify many cleaning methods within the company, establish a complete and reliable corporate image, and give customers a sense of security on physical and digital touchpoints. 3.3 Enhance Consumer Recognition of the Sharing Industry While the sharing economy affects all aspects of people’s lives, people’s attention has gradually increased. As the core and foundation of the sharing economy, trust has attracted much attention in itself and its influence [13]. A major source of consumer trust in the platform is satisfaction with the quality of service. Service quality is an outward form of expression that consumers can intuitively perceive. Companies should focus on services that allow consumers to feel the difference and truly engage in order to feel the benefits of change [14]. Figure 1 is the largest new energy experience center in Nanjing. Using this method to communicate with consumers can not only train and educate consumers to improve the concept of green travel but also let everyone make promises and take actions to try new modes of transportation, so that enabling better development of car-sharing services [15].

140

Z. Hu and X. Tu

Fig. 1. Nanjing’s largest new energy vehicle experience center ()

3.4 Establish a Flexible and Efficient Internet Emergency Response Mechanism In the handling of public health emergency incidents, car-sharing companies must release and update relevant data and information in a timely manner, give users the right to know about safety, and dispel their travel concerns. For example, GoFun and Funshare will repeatedly inform their APPs that “Vehicles are disinfected”. Funshare will also place disinfected instruction cards in the car. Moreover, the company conducts a scientific and comprehensive investigation of the vehicle-related situation, to increase the real-time monitoring capabilities in the vehicles, further enrich the monitoring dimension of the vehicle big data, and give customers a safe experience in both physical and digital touch points.

4 Conclusion The global outbreak of COVID-19 has had a substantial negative impact on the transportation industry. It has affected economic development, public safety, and employment. However, the epidemic crisis encountered by the shared car market is a controllable problem that will inevitably arise in its long-term development. Security experience is a user demand that the car-sharing business cannot ignore today. The shared car cleaning and disinfection industry’s structural changes can genuinely promote a more sustainable development path.

References 1. Guan, S., Peng, Q.: Thoughts on urban traffic countermeasures during epidemic prevention and control. J. Undergr. Space Eng. Traffic Transp. 33, 70–74 (2020)

Disinfection of Vehicle Interior Space

141

2. The impact of the post-epidemic era on global automobile consumption. https://www.ershic imi.com/p/03258f52fe47cca9f63d3e3edc8cb4b1 3. Wu, J., Wang, Y., Chen, X.: Commuter carpooling design and organizational efficiency impact analysis during the duration of public health incidents. China J. Highway Transp. 33, 20–29 (2020) 4. Car-sharing, the antidote to the new car-building forces, or the poison? https://m.sohu.com/ n/545013490/ 5. Technical guidelines for epidemic prevention and control of transportation airlines. http:// www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2020/06/20/5520789/files/719c3487862f487fa6b8d0af185 f2fb8.pdf 6. Xu, H., Kang, L.: Research on the status quo, expectations and countermeasures of the development of shared cars in China. China Market 23–25 (2018) 7. Annual comprehensive analysis of China’s shared car market 2020. https://www.analysys.cn/ article/detail/20019824 8. Hossain, M.: The effect of the Covid-19 on sharing economy activities. J. Clean. Prod. 280, 124782 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.124782 9. Measures for the management of small and microbus leasing business services (Ministry of Transport of the People’s Republic of China Order No. 22 of 2020) Highway_Chinese government. http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2020-12/31/content_5575818.htm. Accessed 26 Feb 2021 10. Announcement of the China Urban Public Transportation Association on the Publication of the Group Standard for Internet Rental Bicycle Health Protection Operation Specifications. http://www.ttbz.org.cn/Home/Show/12243/. Accessed 01 Mar 2021 11. Nhamo, G., Dube, K., Chikodzi, D.: Impact of COVID-19 on Global Car Rental Industry and Ride and Share Transport Services | EndNote Click. https://click.endnote.com/viewer? doi=10.1007%2F978-3-030-56231-1_7&token=WzIwMDY0MzcsIjEwLjEwMDcvOTc 4LTMtMDMwLTU2MjMxLTFfNyJd.MI7C2ZN4a2qSuSq1zVtGzG5UdgU. Accessed 26 Feb 2021 12. How Sanitation Methods have Taken Center Stage in Shared Mobility. https://movmi.net/sha red-mobility-sanitation/. Accessed 24 Feb 2021 13. Wu, D.: An Empirical Study on the Influencing Factors of Consumer Trust in Platform-based Shared Cars. Yunnan University of Finance and Economics (2018) 14. Hu, C.: Research on the influencing factors of consumer trust in the sharing economy. Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (2017) 15. Winsler: Five elements to promote clean transportation. China Open. J. 41–42 (2012)

A Home-Based Upper Limb-Rehabilitation Service System for Patients with Mild-Stroke Liwen Gu, Liangyan Shen, Shimeng Xiao, and Long Liu(B) Tongji University, Siping Road 1239, Shanghai 200090, China [email protected]

Abstract. With the increase in the number of stroke patients in China and the rehabilitation service requirements, the conventional hospital rehabilitation model can no longer cater to the individual needs of patients. Upper limb motor dysfunction is the most prevalent symptom leading to reduced capacity of patients. Therefore, rehabilitation training is vital to the recovery of limb motor function in stroke hemiplegia patients. The authors conduct research on the upper limb recovery in mild stroke patients in China. During the research, the authors adopt methods including literature review, case study, field research, interviews, and so on, to observe and study the medical treatment and life patterns of mild-stroke patients, also to explore their needs through multiple iterations. The research utilizes the human-centered design principle and ergonomics paradigms and finally produces a home-based rehab service system design. Keywords: Stroke patients · Upper limb-rehabilitation · Product-service-system design

1 Introduction A disease with a high risk of mortality and disability, stroke leads to the loss of many abilities [1]. Of all common symptoms after stroke, upper limb weakness can be quite a significant issue and result in serious consequences [2]. For instance, Lawrence [3] reveals that of 1259 patients registered with stroke, 75% of the total survivors had upper limb issues after a stroke. Since the upper limbs are the primary system by which a person contacts and manipulates the surrounding environment, reduced upper limb function can contribute to a reduction in self-care and life quality [4]. In China, the annual stroke mortality rate is estimated at 157/100 000 [5], with 70% to 80% of the survivors being unable to live unaided due to their disability [6]. However, home-based rehabilitation is becoming an inevitable necessity as patients are not allowed to undergo hospital-based rehabilitation after one year from January 1, 2018, according to a new policy in Shanghai. The purpose of this study is to investigate the physical and psychological requirements of stroke survivors and to examine existing approaches and theories of efficacious limb strengthening for stroke survivors. This study involves the application of the PSSD method to a remote rehabilitation system to ensure effective upper limb training for most © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 142–149, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_18

A Home-Based Upper Limb-Rehabilitation Service System

143

mild stroke patients through home equipment and digital platform to enhance the patient and therapist utilization experience.

2 Literature Review on Upper Limb-Rehabilitation 2.1 Upper Limb Movements The human upper limb is composed of the shoulder, the arm, the elbow, the forearm, the wrist, the hand and the fingers. The joints of the shoulder, elbow, wrist and fingers connect the parts of the body, thus generating upper limb movements [7]. Based on Drake’s theory [8], the description of the essential movements of each part of the upper limb is presented in Table 1, to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the types and characteristics of human upper limb movements and laying the foundation for subsequent rehabilitation approaches and assessment of the upper limb. Table 1. Different parts’ upper limb movements (Source: Drake [8]) Parts

Shoulders & Arms

Elbows & Forearms

Upper limb movements

Pictures

1. Flexion/Extension 2. Abduction/Adduction 3. Protraction/Retraction 4. Internal rotation/External rotation 5. Circumduction 1. Flexion/Extension 2. Supination/Pronation 1. Flexion/Extension

Wrists

2. Abduction/Adduction 3. Circumduction

Hands & Fingers

1. Flexion/Extension 2. Abduction/Adduction 3. Circumduction

2.2 Upper Limb Rehabilitation Theories Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT) is a therapeutic approach to elevate the functional use of the more severely impaired upper extremity in stroke patients [9], which compels patients to access the upper limb of the impaired side by limiting or reducing the use of the unimpaired side. Bilateral Arm Training (BAT) is a method of therapy that includes repetitive exercises that accomplish movements using bilateral limbs symmetrically and alternately [10]. Also, the device-driven bilateral arm training helps patients to resect movements such

144

L. Gu et al.

as flexion and extension, forward flexion, and back extension of different parts of the upper limb in a passive, active-assisted, and resistive mode [10]. The Task-Oriented Training (TOT) actively engages patients in upper limb exercises through intentional assignments and tangible instructions [11]. After consolidating all the information, the brain commands the relevant muscles to accomplish a particular task and encourages hand-eye coordination. By comparison, we identified that incorporating BAT and TOT to form a task-oriented bilateral upper extremity training is a more viable protocol for mild stroke patients rehabilitating at home since when patients returned home, they would be expected to participate in daily routines that require a high degree of bilateral upper extremity involvement. 2.3 Upper Limb Rehabilitation Assessments Functional assessment in the post-stroke period is paramount for therapists to decide on independent therapeutic plans and objectives [12]. In practice in China, therapists employ a personal face-to-face assessment and then prompt the patient to make appropriate adjustments during rehabilitation. Upper limb post-stroke recovery evaluation adopted in hospitals includes Brunnstrom Approach and the Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA) [13]. The Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA) is a widely used scale, quantified on the basis of the BRS, for a specific assessment category [14]. It comprises five domains: motor function, sensation, balance, joint range of motion, and joint pain [12].

3 Qualitative Field Research With a qualitative approach, the authors conducted a field study of the strokerehabilitation service system in Shanghai, including mild stroke patients and therapists. The authors firstly employed an observational approach with patients undergoing upper limb rehabilitation in various hospitals in Shanghai to determine how patients spent their days in the hospital and investigated the general physical and psychological needs of 10 stroke patients. Second, patients and therapists were interviewed to identify the concrete requirements of patients in the rehabilitation process after their discharge from the hospital and to summarize the fundamental upper limb movements appropriate for home training. 3.1 Observation For two days, the authors observed the rehabilitation department and wards of a comprehensive hospital located in a suburb of Shanghai (Hospital A) and a specialized rehabilitative facility in central Shanghai (Hospital B). The fundamental needs of stroke patients in the facilities were outlined by documenting the surroundings, as well as the behaviors and emotional well-being of stroke patients throughout the treatment process. Four typical scenes are recorded, which include occupational treatment areas in the rehabilitation department of both Hospital A and B, as well as the wards of the hospital

A Home-Based Upper Limb-Rehabilitation Service System

145

inpatient neurosurgery sections of hospitals A and B. According to the observed four scenarios above, the authors derived the typical rehabilitation requirements of most stroke patients in the hospitals: (a) Diversity in rehabilitation equipment: While each patient is expected to use 8 or more pieces of rehabilitation equipment daily, it is not feasible for the patient to carry all of the equipment home with them. (b) Individualization of rehabilitation exercise: Stroke patients differ greatly in their disabilities and physical features, so even if they are using the same equipment, the therapist will still readjust the parameters in advance. (c) Professional guidance: Clear indications from the therapist will result in more structured training and concentration of the patient during the rehabilitation process. Sometimes, the therapist may need to patiently repeat instructions until the patient fully understands them. (d) Simple & comprehensible information: When instructing patients, therapists should use sentences and instructions that are understandable, rather than medical or technical terms. (e)Safety: Patients need caregivers to look after them and should be given more supervision and company to avoid accidents. (f) Psychological intervention: As a result of the unexpected occurrence of the disease, the patients suffer from psychological issues, such as depression and anxiety. What they need is the appropriate psychological therapy, consisting of motivation, social support and stimulation towards the recovery progress. 3.2 Interview Five iconic stroke patients and five therapists were reached by the author for in-depth interviews to obtain the patients’ true feelings and potential needs. Here is the summary after the interviews. Owing to the decline in motor and speech capabilities, many patients experience a loss of self-care. They require a caregiver to be with them 24 hours a day minimum. Patients with stroke are prone to anxiety, isolation, depression, fear, and pessimism because they find it challenging to accept the abrupt hemiparesis. However, if we compare the patient’s initial situation with the situation after three months of rehabilitation, we can see a tremendous improvement. This suggests that active psychological intervention and consultation are also essential requirements for stroke patients. Thus, while an improvement on the physiological level generates a sense of enjoyment and proudness, the psychological intervention significantly raises the enthusiasm and initiative of the patient. Meeting patients’ physiological and psychological demands is thereby mutually reinforcing and inseparable. The relationship between the two should be considered and integrated during the designing of upper limb rehabilitation systems. 3.3 Results of the Qualitative Research Based on observations and interviews with patients and therapists, a summary of the research findings is presented by the authors in three areas. 1). The increased

146

L. Gu et al.

patient needs, 2). Therapist needs, and 3). Therapists’ recommended methods of home rehabilitation training. 1) Patients’ needs Within the context of the observation analysis, to which the author summarized the fundamental needs of the patients in the hospital. In contrast, based on in-depth interviews with patients and therapists, to address potential requirements after they return home, authors classified all patient needs in remote home rehabilitation into three categories: rehabilitation needs, information needs, and emotional needs. See Table 2. Table 2. The stroke patients’ needs Rehabilitation needs

Information needs

Emotional needs

Professional & achievable rehabilitation goals

Simple & understandable information

Encouragement and praise

Multi-functional & small-sized rehabilitation devices

Multi-sensory & immediate feedback

Effective incentive mechanism

Simple interactions

Visual display of data and information

Effective companionship of the family

Effective rehab training methods

Multi-dimensional data reporting

Support and social contact with peers

Personalized rehab training content

Medication Reminder

Social support and financial help

Professional rehabilitation assessment

Confidentiality of patient data

2) Therapists’ needs As providers of services in intimate contact with patients, the therapists perform an integral part of the system, and their demands deserve to be considered. By interviewing the five therapists, the following requirements were gathered: a) b) c) d)

The therapist is required to be certified to work both online and offline. The therapist also needs to be equipped to use the tools and services. The therapists need a proven method of performing remote assessments. The electronic healthcare records need to be embedded with the rehabilitation system for a completer and more detailed overview of the patient’s condition. e) Strict confidentiality of personal information and data about therapists and the patients for whom they are responsible must be maintained.

3) Therapists’ recommended methods of home rehabilitation training According to the FMA assessment and consultation with the therapist, initially, several basic movements were determined to be suitable for home rehabilitation training, classified into three levels: basic, intermediate, and advanced. Movements at the basic level

A Home-Based Upper Limb-Rehabilitation Service System

147

allow the impacted muscle groups to stay active and decrease spasticity. Movements at the intermediate level emphasize the full range of motion of the joint and prevent painful contractures, while those at the advanced level are intended to reinforce muscles and flexibility. The movements at each level are segmented into the shoulder, arm and hand, with the patient simply needing a large plank, a thick rod, a tethered stick, and a ball to accomplish these movements.

4 A Product Service System Design Based on needs result from the research, design pain points were identified. For one thing, the patient needs a basic device that has explicit guidelines for the different types of upper limb exercises to be performed. For the early phase (discharge), a basic knowledge of how to manipulate and practice at home is necessary. During the middle phase (training at home), they require a self-assessment of recovery outcomes and a professional review by a distance therapist. And in the later phase, a reward or incentive is necessary to assist them in maintaining their training rather than quitting halfway. For one thing, the patient needs a basic device that has explicit guidelines for the different types of upper limb exercises to be performed. For the early phase (discharge), a basic knowledge of how to manipulate and practice at home is necessary. During the middle phase (training at home), they require a self-assessment of recovery outcomes and a professional review by a distance therapist. And in the later phase, a reward or incentive is necessary to assist them in maintaining their training rather than quitting halfway (Fig. 1). Presented a conceptual design for a remote upper limb rehabilitation product and service for patients with stroke. A rehabilitation instruction manual, an upper extremity home rehabilitation device, as well as a digital platform comprise the design. The authors integrate upper limb training approaches, principles and techniques into a modular intelligent hardware device. In a further step, an integrated online digital platform is established to enable patients to maintain contact with their therapist while recovering at home and to document the patient’s daily status and progress. Conventionally, the therapist will administer verbal advice on recovery upon the patient’s discharge from the hospital. When patients return home, family members will oversee daily care and assist with simple exercises for rehabilitation, and some family members will purchase appropriate rehabilitation equipment online for passive mode training. In comparison with traditional home rehabilitation, the authors additionally introduced more potential stakeholders, for instance, smart medical device companies, survivors of stroke rehabilitation, research institutions, social media, and philanthropic investors. Moreover, authors increased additional available resources, such as platforms established by hospitals and medical companies, recovery manuals, and smart rehabilitation devices. By the analysis of material flow, information flow and financial flow, the future home rehabilitation system diagram is illustrated in detail, as shown in Fig. 2 as well as professional guidance and supervision, so many.

148

L. Gu et al.

Fig. 1. The training methods of home-based rehabilitation device design concept

Fig. 2. The future home rehab system map

A Home-Based Upper Limb-Rehabilitation Service System

149

5 Conclusion Within this research, through observations and interviews, the authors gathered the needs of patients and therapists and further segmented them into three categories to create a support system to help post-stroke patients at home to exercise effectively and improve their upper extremity function under the remote supervision of a therapist. Regarding the overall remote rehabilitation system, its eventual implementation required a high degree of participation from multi-stakeholders. Besides stroke patients, therapists, hospitals and medical device companies, the concern and permission of the Chinese government is especially important. In conclusion, our target users for this research are currently patients with mild stroke. In the future, as technology evolves and more trials are conducted in clinical settings, it is possible to broaden the target users to patients with mobility and cognitive problems resulting from other conditions or to the elderly.

References 1. Mozaffarian, D., et al.: Heart disease and stroke statistics-2016 update a report from the American Heart Association. Circulation 133(4), e38–e48 (2016) 2. Fregni, F., Pascual-Leone, A.: Hand motor recovery after stroke: tuning the orchestra to improve hand motor function. Cogn. Behav. Neurol. 19(1), 21–33 (2006) 3. Lawrence, E.S., et al.: Estimates of the prevalence of acute stroke impairments and disability in a multiethnic population. Stroke 32(6), 1279–1284 (2001) 4. Nichols-Larsen, D.S., Clark, P.C., Zeringue, A., Greenspan, A., Blanton, S.: Factors influencing stroke survivors’ quality of life during subacute recovery. Stroke 36(7), 1480–1484 (2005) 5. Liu, L., Wang, D., Wong, K.L., Wang, Y.: Stroke and stroke care in China: huge burden, significant workload, and a national priority. Stroke 42(12), 3651–3654 (2011) 6. Wu, Z.Y., Chong, H., Zhao, D.: Epidemiological study on the incidence and mortality of stroke in Chinese population. Chin. J. Epidemiol. 24(3), 236–239 (2003) 7. TeachMe Series: The upper Limb (2020). https://teachmeanatomy.info/upper-limb/ 8. Drake, R., Vogl, A.W., Mitchell, A.W.: Gray’s Anatomy for Students E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences, Philadelphia (2009) 9. Reiss, A.P., Wolf, S.L., Hammel, E.A., McLeod, E.L., Williams, E.A.: Constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT): current perspectives and future directions. Stroke Res. Treat. 2012 (2012). Article ID: 159391 10. Stoykov, M.E., Corcos, D.M.: A review of bilateral training for upper extremity hemiparesis. Occup. Ther. Int. 16(3–4), 190–203 (2009) 11. Yoo, C., Park, J.: Impact of task-oriented training on hand function and activities of daily living after stroke. J. Phys. Ther. Sci. 27(8), 2529–2531 (2015) 12. Kim, W.S., Cho, S., Baek, D., Bang, H., Paik, N.J.: Upper extremity functional evaluation by Fugl-Meyer assessment scoring using depth-sensing camera in hemiplegic stroke patients. PLoS ONE 11(7), e0158640 (2016) 13. Fan, X.S.: Design study of household hand rehabilitation products for stroke patients. Master thesis. DongHua University, China (2017) 14. Fugl-Meyer, A.R., Jääskö, L., Leyman, I., Olsson, S., Steglind, S.: The post-stroke hemiplegic patient. 1. A method for evaluation of physical performance. Scand. J. Rehabil. Med. 7(1), 13–31 (1975)

Culture and Globalization

Democratic Governmental Corporate Entrepreneurship for the Transformation of the Public Sector in the Balkan Region Evangelos Markopoulos1,2(B) , Egi Hoxhallari1 , and Hannu Vanharanta3 1 HULT International Business School, Faculty of Management and Entrepreneurship,

35 Commercial Road, London E1 1LD, UK [email protected], [email protected] 2 Queen Mary University of London, School of Business and Management, 327 Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK 3 University of Vaasa, Wolffintie 34, 65200 Vaasa, Finland [email protected]

Abstract. Democratization can be defined as the autonomy of decision-making and unbiased contribution, and access to data and information. Therefore, public sector democratization can give more liberty to the public sector employees to trigger original viewpoints that can initiate a more innovative and ambitiousdriven work environment. Such democratization can create governmental, corporate entrepreneurship where public servants can explore entrepreneurial opportunities. The process is similar to knowledge-based business transformation, where organizational culture needs to change to achieve better use of knowledge and human resources management. In this paper, such a modification will be adopted by implementing a Holistic Model for governmental entrepreneurship, by integrating the Kotter’s Model for change management, the Self-determination Theory for employee motivation, and Democratic Governmental Intrapreneurship Model (DeGIM) for knowledge management. The paper is based on data and information from the Balkan’s region public sector and sets the base for future adaptation elsewhere. Keywords: Public sector · Business transformation · Organizational culture · Self-determination · Company Democracy Model · Kotter Model · Change management · Knowledge management · Innovation · Corporate entrepreneurship · Balkan region

1 Introduction The public sector’s effectiveness in terms of innovative and effective services has been questioned over the years, and much research has been done studying it. This paper belongs in this category as it examines, analyzes, and attempts to deliver a process

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 153–161, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_19

154

E. Markopoulos et al.

framework for the democratization of the public sector towards achieving governmental/corporate/entrepreneurship and support its transformation by empowering its operations with the utilization of its human intellectual capital. This research is based on data from the Balkan region and targets its challenges. On such an attempt, specific issues must be considered on such an organizational/government transformation. One can be the private sector’s size compared to the public sector in terms of employment, which in the Balkan region reaches 24,8% [1] while in the other areas it is nearly double. In China, almost 50% of the workforce is involved in the public sector, 3% in Japan, 17% in the US, 28% in Greece, and 31% in Germany [2]. Another issue is the effectiveness of the public sectors directly impacting the present status and the future of a country. Insufficient and bureaucratic public sectors effect the percentage of youth emigration, also known as “brain-drain,” as they look outside Balkan countries for better opportunities with well-established governmental procedures [3]. Moreover, the political systems in place are not focusing on the betterment of the public sector but rather on big organizations’ gains and profitability. Notably, this brings other notions like corruption, mediocracy, oligarchy, etc., which are very relevant in today’s Balkan governments. Furthermore, the lack of economic development in the area applies to the public sector’s missing improvements, which depends on ethnocultural factors as well [4]. Additionally, factors like low wages, no decision-making opportunities, no autonomy, and extreme ruling drive people further away from considering public sector careers.

2 Public Sector Challenges in Knowledge Management Besides the organizational challenges, there are also several knowledge-based challenges the public sector faces when effectively delivering services and accomplishing citizens’ needs. Most importantly, it is the knowledge waste in the sense of the lost opportunities to learn from a situation [5]. In this case, knowledge waste is related to the loss of practical knowledge from all public servants, especially from the educated youth. Brain-drain is one of these phenomena, proving how skilled and knowledgeable younger generations migrate for better work opportunities and living standards outside their own country. Other factors, like public vs. private sector wage differences, contribute more to professional knowledge distribution. As public-private wage differences are still very volatile and under the impact of countries’ political decisions [6], knowledge will be directed to those who pay for it. Therefore, no government intervention to alleviate public sector wages creates another big gap where understanding cannot be applied in practical work. People would not prefer being employed in the public sector.

3 Research Methodology, Methods, and Results The research results have been derived from academic primary and secondary research based on an international literature review, a survey with 103 participants, and 4 interviews with experts in the public administration sector in the Balkan region. Furthermore,

Democratic Governmental Corporate Entrepreneurship

155

statistical data from 11 Balkan countries have been gathered and analyzed under Hofstede’s cultural dimensions to determine the cultural, social, and ethnographic factors that impact the utilization of the human intellectual capital in the public sector. This research’s key findings are the high numbers of public servants and the high numbers of brain-drain over the last decade. Statistical evidence indicates that the average percentage of people working for the Balkans’ public sector is 24.8% of the whole population (Table 1). On the other hand, the analytical data focuses on the governments’ misdoings leading to other, very relevant concepts like bureaucracies, corruption, nepotism, lack of meritocracy, bribery, embezzlement, etc. Nearly 53% of the respondents did not consider a career in the public sector because of low salaries, political instability, low talent acquisition, no growth opportunities, extreme top-down hierarchies, and other issues. Furthermore, 17.5% were not sure about the public sector efficiency. The correlation indicates a lack of effectiveness in the public sector operations, which is reflected in the society and impacts the brain-drain phenomenon. Table 1. Country workforce employed in the public sector. Balkan countries

Balkan countries

Albania

16.6%

Bosnia and Herzegovina 30.2% Bulgaria

24.5%

Croatia

31.7%

Greece

20%

Kosovo

32.6%

Montenegro

30.4%

North Macedonia

22.4%

Romania

15.3%

Serbia

28.4%

Slovenia

20.9%

Average

24.8%

4 Towards a Public Sector Entrepreneurial Culture A potential solution to solve the problem of knowledge democratization in the public sector of the Balkan region can be the creation of the public sector entrepreneurial culture with the integration of three management models; Kotter’s Model, Self-Determination Theory, and the DeGIM [7], a version of Company Democracy Model [8] focused on governmental intrapreneurship, for governmental entrepreneurship. Such a culture can be implemented with the contribution of each model. Specifically, Kotter’s Model for change is an X theory type more suitable for change management in the public sector due to its resistance to change [9]. It can effectively

156

E. Markopoulos et al.

implement the change needed through steps that ‘enforce’ employees to develop and innovate [10]. The Self-Determination Theory is a macro tool that helps drive public workers’ intrinsic motivation along with three crucial determinants: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Employees who intrinsically experience these determinants can foster volition, inspiration/motivation, and engagement/commitment that can successfully result in persistence, creativity, and enhanced workplace performance [11]. The Democratic Governmental Entrepreneurship Model (DeGIM) derives from the Company Democracy Model to be applied in the transformation of the public sector culture and its processes through public servants’ motivation to operate autonomously with their knowledge contributions on decision-making and project implementation [7]. Hence, the three models’ integration covers variable factors of change in the public sector to foster the right mindset for creating an entrepreneurial culture.

5 The Holistic Government Corporate Entrepreneurship Model (HGCEM) The Holistic Governmental Corporate Entrepreneurship Model (HGCEM) approaches the governmental entrepreneurship challenge holistically, emphasizing the knowledge creation and utilization, organizational change culture, and employee self-confidence. HGCEM is built around the Democratic Governmental Intrapreneurship Model (DeGIM) with the Kotter’s Model and the Self-Determination Theory to support the six-level DeGIM evolutionary process model. The pyramid of this holistic model (HGCEM) divides the DeGIM into three major knowledge zones: the Knowledge Awareness Zone, the Action Implementation Zone, and the Results Utilization Zone. The three zones reflect the McKenzie innovation space horizons’ transformation with the Company Democracy Model for corporate entrepreneurship for democratic knowledge-driven innovation [12]. Each of these zones contains two levels of the DeGIM. In levels 1 and 2 (Knowledge Awareness Zone), democratic culture is promoted to utilize this as an environment for growth. In levels 3 and 4 (Action Implementation Zone), the public servants’ knowledge implementation is recognized as an achievement due to organizational productivity and innovation. In the last two levels (Results Utilization Zone), the goal for shared value and governmental intrapreneurship is achieved by deploying the organizational knowledge in the society with social innovations. The integration of the Kotter’s Model for organizational change to the DeGIM provides the mechanism to manage resistance to change and to enforce the adaptation of governmental, corporate entrepreneurship. The steps of the Kotter’s Model (Fig. 1) are divided into the DeGIM zones to address the goal of each zone. The first three steps of the Kotter’s Model, where a change plan is created through the immediate call for urgency [10], correspond to the Knowledge Awareness Zone as people need to be aware of the current situation and the necessary improvements that must be done for the organization to survive and keep on with its operations. The second three steps of the Kotter’s Model correspond to the Action Implementation Zone, where the communication and the implementation of the change of the plan occur with the first

Democratic Governmental Corporate Entrepreneurship

157

visible results that indicate the effectiveness of the change plan. The Kotter’s Model last two steps, where the outcomes of the change are deeply rooted in the employees’ mindset, and the organization’s ideology and new operations correspond to the Results Utilization Zone, where reinforcement and improvement actions take place for the organization to sustain the new reality.

Fig. 1. Integration of the Kotter’s Change Model with the DeGIM in the knowledge zones.

Furthermore, the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) elements are distributed in the DeGIM levels to indicate the DeGIM activities’ correlation with employee-centered concepts. Since SDT is based on workers’ intrinsic motivation through the ‘experience’ of autonomy, competence, and relatedness [11], the first STD element is related to the Knowledge Awareness Zone of the DeGIM. It is the element where the employee’s experience is identified and utilized in an awareness environment through democratic organizational culture and knowledge support processes. The second SDT element promotes the fostering of employee engagement, volition, and motivation. This is aligned directly to the Action Implementation Zone, which practically supports how the determination is a primary factor motivating employees to act. The DeGIM levels, in this case, also reflect the practical implementation of the employee’s knowledge into actual products, services, and innovations. The third STD element, related to the results of the previous activities and stages’ efforts, emphasizes the continuous persistence, creativity, and enhanced performance for the results to be utilized effectively and continuously. The DeGIM levels, in this case, reflect this goal with the creation of social innovation for shared value creation that can benefit the public servants (employees), the public organization (company), and the citizens above all (market).

158

E. Markopoulos et al.

The integration and the relationship of the three models that form the Holistic Government Entrepreneurship Model are presented in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2. Holistic Government Entrepreneurship Model (HoGCEM).

6 Impact of the HGCEM in the Public Sector The introduction of a new democratized working environment in the Balkan area’s public institutions can attract ambitious, creative, and positively committed public servants seeking to utilize the freedom to think and practically act within a public organization creatively. For such new and existing public servants, the model can support them to undergo a change management stage that will make them more experienced in responsible decision-making and autonomous task and risk management. Furthermore, corporate entrepreneurship can become part of the public sector practices, which can develop employees’ skills and incentivize their innovation capacity. The model introduces the idea that innovation and entrepreneurship can exist in the public sector and all the career development opportunities available in the private sector organizations and startups. Democratizing knowledge management in the public sector public organizations can reduce bureaucracy and build customer and business relationships as needed in any economy. However, this can be attained if the government changes or adjusts statutes, regulations, and strategies to boost talent acquisition to implement such transformation strategies. Knowledge democratization in the Balkan region’s public sector can be a push factor in terms of growing the efficiency and effectiveness of the processes while allowing public servants to concentrate more on shared value outcomes that will improve the citizens’ life quality, productivity, and performance.

Democratic Governmental Corporate Entrepreneurship

159

Such an impact can reflect on the brain drain crisis by rebuilding the trust of the citizens and in the government, but also create brain-gain employment opportunities, especially for the younger generation who has attained higher education abroad.

7 Limitations of the HGCEM Model Several limitations can be highlighted on the HGCEM Model that restrict its potentiality mostly due to the degree of effectiveness of the models that compose it in the public sector. Initially, the Kotter’s Model brings a significant focus on the importance of change agents, who are quite critical for the transition period. However, it does not take into consideration internal factors such as the permanent roles public servants have and the lack of job security that exists in the public sector. Likewise, the Self-Determination Theory is not an unarguable theory with the total industry acceptance. Many argue that Maslow’s Hierarchy can be more accurate in terms of motivators of human behavior or other fundamental human needs [13, 14]. Lastly, the CDM can also be argued to present some limitations, but rather in terms of implementation. Because it is quite a demanding model in terms of democracy, transparency, and equal opportunities, it can be very challenging to convince governments or other institutions to implement it in their system, especially taking into consideration the level of corruption and political instability in the specific regions. Furthermore, the holistic model remains within the theoretical boundaries and does not yet have any practical implications which could prove the model’s effectiveness.

8 Areas of Further Research The limitations of the proposed solution can be the driving force for further research covering uncontrolled, external factors not taken into consideration during the development of the model. Other frameworks like the McKinsey 7s Model can help prove how shared values can affect public systems, their strategies used, and skills required for employees [15]. Also, the notion of public sector democratization itself does not have a specific definition, which opens space for further research on this context. Additionally, more research can be conducted in terms of public sector employment legislation for such practices to be adapted. If governmental institutions cannot suggest, or impose, if needed, in periods of crisis, business transformation practices for the organization’s survival and the economy, then such models have no practical use in such governments. Therefore, further and extensive research on studying the morphology of the public sector in terms of ability and willingness to change is crucial. This research can extend to governments that have acted upon public institutions’ democratization and actives concerning social and economic prosperity. Lastly, the HGCEM Model can and shall be developed from the Geo-Entrepreneurial dimension where governmental services can be outsourced or subcontracted in areas or other governments where the expertise and the willingness to deliver them innovatively exists [16].

160

E. Markopoulos et al.

9 Conclusion Knowledge management has always faced challenges in the elicitation and the implementation stages. Knowledge exists everywhere, especially in people, regardless of their education, skills, professional or social status. The democratization of knowledge management is a modern management trend driven by ethical and moral management principles that promote equal opportunities for all who feel they possess knowledge and wisdom. The adaptation of democratic driven knowledge management frameworks indicates continued and impressive success in the private sector, but the challenge is their adaptation in the public sector. With 1/3 of the global workforce employed in the public sector, any improvement can be considered massive for the worldwide economy. However, the public sector challenges that range from corruption to permanent employment and surreal benefits of the public servants restrict the government’s fair contribution in the global economic development efforts. The Holistic Government Corporate Entrepreneurship Model (HGCEM) uses the Kotter’s Model as the base for organizational change and the DeGIM as the base for knowledge management. As both models are staged, alignment has been made between the Kotter’s stages and the DeGIM’s stages to drive this culture transformation process towards government-corporate entrepreneurship. Furthermore, the Self-Determination Theory act as an internal driver of human motivation for public servants. It also aligned with the other two models forming a tryptic of processes for the successful adaptation of the model. This paper attempted to propose HGCEM as a solution and focused initially on research data and information from the Balkan region that indicate lack of democratization for governmental entrepreneurship for motives such as corruption, lack of meritocracy, institutional bureaucracy, etc. However, this might not be the only region with such challenges. Therefore the model can be considered helpful and food for thought for other geographic areas with similar conditions and situations.

References 1. UETANI Naokats: Democratization Overview. Institute of Developing Economies. https:// www.ide.go.jp/English/Research/Topics/Pol/Democratization/overview.html 2. Business Insider. http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-government-sector-emp loyment-2011-11 3. Eurostat. International migration statistics (2017). http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/met adata/en/migr_immi_esms.html 4. Hofstede Insights. https://www.hofstede-insights.com/product/compare-countries/ 5. Prashant, M.J.: Innovation routes (2018). https://innoroo.com/blog/2018/08/06/knowledgewaste-glossary/ 6. Vladisavljevi´c, M., Narazani, E., Golubovi´c, V.: Public-private wage differences in the Western Balkan countries. Munich Personal RePEc Archive (2017). https://mpra.ub.uni-mue nchen.de/80739/ 7. Markopoulos, E., Vanharanta, H.: Public sector transformation via democratic governmental entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship. In: Ahram, T., Karwowski, W., Pickl, S., Taiar, R. (eds.) IHSED 2019. AISC, vol. 1026, pp. 867–877. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/ 10.1007/978-3-030-27928-8_131

Democratic Governmental Corporate Entrepreneurship

161

8. Markopoulos, E., Vanharanta, V.: Democratic culture paradigm for organizational management and leadership strategies - the company democracy model. In: Charytonowicz, J. (ed.) Advances in Human Factors and Sustainable Infrastructure. 5th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics, vol. 20, pp 190--201 (2014) 9. Kotter, P.J.: Leading change: why transformation efforts fail. Harvard Bus. Rev. (1995). https:// hbr.org/1995/05/leading-change-why-transformation-efforts-fail-2 10. Tanner, R.: Management is a Journey (2015). https://managementisajourney.com/summaryof-kotters-eight-step-leading-change-model/ 11. Deci, E.L., et al.: Self Determination Theory (2020). https://selfdeterminationtheory.org/the ory/ 12. Markopoulos, E., Aggarwal, V., Vanharanta, H.: Democratization of intrapreneurship and corporate entrepreneurship within the McKinsey’s three horizons innovation space. In: Ahram, T., Karwowski, W., Pickl, S., Taiar, R. (eds.) IHSED 2019. AISC, vol. 1026, pp. 1007–1017. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27928-8_150 13. Lester, G (2017) https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/comparing-management-tactics-millen nials-maslow-vs-sdt-glen-lester/ 14. Harvard Business Review (2014). https://hbr.org/2014/11/what-maslows-hierarchy-wonttell-you-about-motivation 15. McKinsey (2018). https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-fin ance/our-insights/enduring-ideas-the-7-s-framework 16. Markopoulos, E., Markopoulos, G., Vanharanta, H.: Democratizing innovation. A geoentrepreneurial analysis and approach through the company democracy model. In: Markopoulos, E., Goonetilleke, R.S., Ho, A.G., Luximon, Y. (eds.) AHFE 2020. AISC, vol. 1218, pp. 3–16. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51626-0_1

Strategic Utilization of the VR and AR Technologies for the African Cultural Heritage Promotion and Management Evangelos Markopoulos1,2(B) , Mika Luimula1 , Ghazi Benahmed3 , and Taisto Suominen1 1 Faculty of Engineering and Management, Turku University of Applied Sciences,

Joukahaisenkatu 3, 20520 Turku, Finland {evangelos.markopoulos,mika.luimula,taisto.suominen}@turkuamk.fi 2 School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London, 327 Mile End Road, GB, London E1 4NS, UK 3 Mediterranean Development Initiative, Technopole, 3021 Sfax, Tunisia

Abstract. The importance and purpose of heritage preservation have been extensively discussed in tourism research and has also been linked with regional and national development strategies. Because of time degradation, human activities, and the overcrowding effect, heritage preservation and reconstruction efforts are becoming critical to ensure the sustainability of heritage sites and disseminate the history and the potential of a region or a country. Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) offer useful applications in heritage preservation. This study aims to explore the potential of these interactive technologies to be applied in heritage preservation in Africa, introduce strategies and applications developed Egypt and Tunis but also from Oman, and Finland, and highlight their impact in regional and national socio-economic development. As members of the Time Machine Europe this paper analyzes previous experiences in global scale and aim is to contribute in large-scale digitalization projects in Europe but also world-wide. Keywords: Virtual reality · Augmented reality · Cultural heritage · Digital strategy · Africa · Digital museums · Regional development · Tourism · Startup society · Management

1 Introduction For many decades Africa has been considered as an unexplored opportunity in all possible dimensions (human resources, raw material, natural resources, cultural resources, etc.). However, and despite the growth of the 2000–2008, the development rate of the continent does not follow the pace of its reputation. The economic growth of Africa has stabilized at 3.4% in 2019 but is expected to pick up to 3.9% in 2020 and 4.1% in 2021, but to remain below historical highs of 2009 [1]. This growth can be considered as the minimum in every conservative plan, and this raises serious consideration on why these dynamics continue to be unexplored or © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 162–172, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_20

Strategic Utilization of the VR and AR Technologies

163

explored without the presence of the western world. The European investments in the continent are far less compared to the Asian. China and India invest massively in Africa with significant key and critical projects in agriculture, infrastructure, and transportation. According to Ernst & Young’s latest Africa Attractiveness report, China is the single largest contributor of foreign directive investment with 293 projects since 2005, totalling an investment outlay of $66.4 billion and creating 130,750 jobs [2]. While for some Africa is the land of opportunity, for others it an unknown environment, far from their preferences on where investments shall be made. This distance can be considered due to the lack of information western managers and investors have about the continent. One way to tackle this challenge is the introduction of virtual reality technologies where the African civilization, culture and history can be projected in an immersive, safe and engaging way. The use of Virtual Reality but also Augment and Mixed Reality can reveal investment opportunities in Africa thought the promotion of the history and culture of the continent. This paper shortly reports findings from the strategies and pilot projects developed in Egypt and Tunis. Together with previous development activities in Europe (Finland and Baltic Sea region) as well as in Asia (Oman) a quite wide understanding has been obtained on how mobile, AR, and VR applications could be used as a part of cultural heritage projects. Due to latest digitalization period, museums and libraries have already enough digital content for new value creation to be added on their operations. Digital property can now be seen as a raw material for innovative gamified solutions. An example is the TUAS Turku Castle AR application which the represents renaissance era paintings in a form which can serve visitors who are interested in stories behind paintings but also those who are more interested in gamified features. Both the tourist and game application modes engage a physical visit to Turku Castle [3]. Another application developed by TUAS for the Turku Castle namely Medieval Gastrobox in turn represents immersive experiences in Cave environment [4]. LightsOn! is AR application that can be seen as a way of subjectivizing visitor’s experience at eight cultural heritage locations and historical sites in Finland and Estonia [5].

2 The Cultural Digital Transformation of Egypt Egypt can be considered as a pioneer country in the creation and adaptation of cultural digital heritage strategies. The decision to move massively on a cultural digitization strategy aimed to present the opportunities of the unexplored Egypt though its history while demonstrating the technological readiness and advancements of the country. The results of this strategy have been remarkable as Egypt developed and keeps on being developed with impressive grow rates (5–7% GDP) despite the devastating crisis it faced during the political instability caused by the revolution of 2011 (−4% in GDP) [6]. Prior the revolution the country was developing with rates of 6 and 8% per year which is far more what the most advanced European country had (Fig. 1). This development was achieved as Egypt attracted partners instead of investors that utilized its human resources and technological readiness.

164

E. Markopoulos et al.

Fig. 1. Egypt’s annual growth rate from 2008 to 2018 [6].

Through a digital transformation strategy initiated with the establishment of the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, the development trajectory of the country increased exponentially [7]. This was achieved mainly from two key projects launched by the Ministry of ICT. The first one was the establishment of the Software Engineering Competence Centre (SECC) which transferred in Egypt US software engineering standards such as the powerful Capability Maturity Model [8]. This plan established Egypt as a software engineering power were qualitative and affordable software could be developed instead of cheap and unreliable. The second key project was the development of the CULTNAT organization whose aim was to utilize the upcoming software engineering brainpower of Egypt and digitally transform its entire cultural heritage into digital museums, libraries, publications, and applications [9]. CULTNAT became an applied research centre where innovations like the Culturama [10], Eternal Egypt, Holographic technologies, and others are developed with advanced technologies and impressive results such. The digitization of the Egyptian cultural heritage became a strategy that won many EU research and innovation grants despite the fact the Egypt is not in the EU. Today Egypt continues of this route with the leaders of this digital revolution (MICT, CULTNAT, and SECC) to expand and support this strategy (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2. Egypt’s CultTech strategy pillars.

Strategic Utilization of the VR and AR Technologies

165

3 Extending the Cultural Digital Transformation of Egypt with VR and AR The example of Egypt can be adopted in other African countries. At one hand, and even that many countries have indicated progress in several sectors they have not yet achieved a digitization strategy and results similar to Egypt. On the other hand, the opportunities many countries can offer to investors may be considered more than what Egypt provides today. Since the development of a similar strategy with Egypt can be a plan that needs at least a decade to bring results, other countries can utilize the benefits VR and AR offers to develop their initial digital cultural heritage promotion and link on that business and development opportunities around the disseminated regions. VR can drive the user in a specific locations providing the information and education needed to understand the area, the culture and the people in a safe at low-cost way. Investors can learn the country and explore its opportunities by virtually learning the cultural and societal evolution. This can reflect the economical evolution in natural and human resources but also in intellectual capital. AR can extend the VR promotion strategy by offering, as an incentive to those who visit the country, further opportunities in the physical locations that have not been provided in the VR spaces. Digitization of cultural heritage with AR and VR technologies can be the beginning of developing a technology oriented national extroversion strategy for visitors and investors. The technology exists and the cases are several.

4 The Bardo Museum in Tunis Bardo application is related to the great fortune of Tunisia’s tourism which is Bardo National Museum. The Mediterranean Development Initiative (MDI) program “Heart to Art”, aims to provide guests with an unexpected way of connecting with the historical artifacts of museum by encouraging crosscutting and transversal viewings of them. Such connections permit the visitors to go deeper than customary method of museum presentations (e.g., type of a statue, construction date, its place of origin). “Heart for Art” is employed as (a) a tool for user profiling, (b) medium to introduce to the potential visitors of the museum specified thematic topics, (c) an advertising technique of not only the venue but also the mobile app and (d) a tool for creating souvenirs for the visitors that could be used in social media to remind them of their visit. Besides, the Bardo Museum retains the stigma of the terrorist attack of 2015 [11]. This program enables to remember that it was there where lives were lost. Instead people will be able to talk about the Museum where masterpieces are brought to life. It will be a victory of culture against terrorism. The objectives of the Bardo app are about reaching a paintings collection (unlocking pictures need to be scanned) and display their information; provide multi-language system works (English-Suomi and soon French and Arabic) and get the movement in touch: zoom in to move forward and drawing an arc to rotate in the model scene. These are achieved with an Animated and Voice Recognition User Interface, a dictionary system that allows users to search any word or title by typing it or calling it. Another application, the ‘Escape Room’ is currently under development.

166

E. Markopoulos et al.

The application intents to be a source of information and a guide at the same time for the tourists where they can experience of the collection list of the Romain Mosaics, 3D models of stairs, textured walls, carpets and texturing the floor, and level design of the first room (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3. 3D model from the MDI “Heart to Art” program.

The results of the first prototype allow the visitor to enter in the room, see all the mosaics dark or search for them, either by clicking search button and the mosaics shine, or by using the IBM Watson technology for voice recognition. If the user knows the title of the mosaic or the object, he/she can say it and the camera will focus on it. If the user clicks on it, a panel will display the full description about the object in the current language of the mobile phone if that language exists in the available languages, else it will be displayed in English. MDI uses gamification as a tool to attract visitors, unfamiliar with heritage, art and history, especially in remote cities and villages. The use of gamification makes it possible to turn museums and heritage in general more into attractive, especially for audiences less accustomed to visiting them. The gamification of a museum visit creates a bridge between generations and facilitates learning in an unconscious way. MDI focus is to teach to young job seekers coding while creating with them a gamified application that promotes the Tunisian heritage in an innovative and fun way. The objective of the program is for Tunisians and for tourists to discover the masterpieces of the mosaics of the Bardo Museum and to get acquainted with them by “bringing them to life” (through 3D modeling) and listening to the story they have to tell.

5 The Museum/Castle in Oman In 2017, the TUAS Turku Castle in Your Hands application [3] was scaled to meet requirements in Arabic countries’ cultural and technical context and requirements to use multilingual content. Nizwa Fort as one of the most popular tourist locations in Oman was chosen as a demonstration site. This application was developed in Turku University of Applied Sciences in a close cooperation with researchers from Nizwa and Sohar College of Applied Sciences.

Strategic Utilization of the VR and AR Technologies

167

The goal was to develop an application that could engage users to physical visit in the fort. Cultural heritage projects developed under virtual reality and augmented reality can increase the sensory and cognitive experiences for tourism [12]. In this sense and during the development phase a lot of valuable information was received from the Finnish Ministry of Tourism on this fort such as related to usability, user experience, and cultural differences. This prototype contained various similar features that were previously developed for the Turku Castle in Your Hands application. For example, users are introduced to the historical site with a two-dimensional map for showcasing points of interest such as VR mode in certain locations. While visiting in the fort additional information is available by using the scanning feature. That is to say some additional information can be unlocked with image recognition. Some custom graphics are produced for the use as markers. These markers are placed around the fort. One of the rooms of the fort can be inspected in VR mode. This mode consists of game and puzzle feature to engage visitors to learn more about the museum artefacts (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4. Nizwa Fort. External map and interior spaces.

To address this challenge a gamified application to be applied in cultural heritage in African continent is introduced, along with the technologies that can be used to increase regional and financial sustainability. Effective gamified applications can reveal commercialization opportunities and monetization practices that can assure return of investment on their development [13, 14]. Selecting the best modernization approach in games of any kind is highly related with the type of game itself and its players/users target group [15]. In this gamified cultural heritage approach the user interacts with the application in indoor conditions, guided to selected on of the various digitized monuments. The application utilizes AR technology and provides multilingual guidance that can trigger just in time affordable augmented information of artefacts in the museums. The information is textual and includes multi-media in different formats. Visual markers are used as triggers in the indoor environments. Depending on the conditions (e.g. lightning, geometry) museum artefacts such as statues or paintings itself are used as visual markers. On the monument site, the application offers relevant augmented content to enhance the visit. In the outdoor environment, GPS positioning is used as the main trigger, and visual markers will be considered in environments without GPS coverage.

168

E. Markopoulos et al.

Most of the mobile phones are nowadays supporting above mentioned technologies. So the technology itself is ready to be used widely in African hoping to bring various stakeholders onboard to form a vital startup society, able to collaborate across borders and cultural differences, share profits, generate stories, and express societal harmony.

6 Technology Architecture and Infrastructure Based on the experiences reported in the previous sections a CultHer Architecture is proposed to be used for the utilization of augmented reality in cultural heritage promotion and management in Africa (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5. Architecture for strategic utilization of augmented reality for cultural heritage promotion and management.

Mobile devices are widely used in African continent with high computing power. Their features have been evaluated in various test-generate cycles and found AR to be a robust solution to promote cultural heritage in various projects. The CultHer server is capable to utilize cultural heritage collections such as Europeana, a widely used cultural heritage collection in EU supporting semantic web and linked data. The AR City mobile application [16] combines a semantic ontology data model with AR related content. Enriching cultural heritage experiences with visual and auditorial media content and with customized and localized representations of stories based on user profiling allows the creation of immersive experiences for users interested in cultural heritage in African continent. The CultHer application has been developed with the Unity game engine and identifies cultural heritage artefacts by utilizing mobile device camera as a sensor. Depending on mobile platforms this mobile AR application uses Google’s ARCore or Apple’s ARKit frameworks. It’s a client server solution that enables user tracking and makes it possible to create customized experiences for the users, and in the same time collect behavioral data to be used in both in research and business development.

Strategic Utilization of the VR and AR Technologies

169

7 Alignment with the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa 2024, and the UN 2030 Sustainable Agenda In June 2014, the 23rd Ordinary Session of African Union Heads of State and Government Summit adopted a 10-year Science, Technology, and Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA-2024) [17]. The strategy is part of the long-term people centered AU Agenda 2063 which is underpinned by science, technology and innovation as multi-function tools and enablers for achieving continental development goals. The Agenda calls for the diversification of sources of growth and sustenance of Africa’s current economic performance, and in the long-run, lifting large sections of our population out of poverty. The proposed strategy entails upgrading Africa’s human capital to meet modern demands and the aspirations of Agenda 2063, the long-term plan for transforming the continent. This objective is in line with the Science, Technology, and Innovation Strategy for Africa 2024, which sets out a means to follow through on the Agenda, feeding into the recognition of technology and innovation as mechanisms to implement the recently adopted UN Sustainable Development Goals. The 2030 Agenda of the United Nations identifies 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), offering a holistic sustainability framework focused on the premise that sustainability and sustainable growth have a social, economic, and environmental aspect. The framework relates the social with the ecological aspects as well with the economic aspects, all under the environmental impact, meaning that the wellbeing of the earth and the biosphere is a concern for social and economic well-being [18]. The goals provide a blueprint for peace and prosperity for the people and the planet, embodying crucial calls for action by all countries in a global partnership [19]. Many of the 17 SDGs such as goal 4 (Quality Education), 5 (Gender Equality), 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), 10 (Reduce Inequalities), 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), and 17 (Partnerships), address major human societal needs and develop the social infrastructure on which people and regions can grow and prosper [20]. Digital museums and technologies contribute on the adaptation of the UN SDGs as they reduce inequalities between the privileged and the less privileged, men and women or younger and older by offering the same access to knowledge and education, for all people, anywhere and anytime. The effectiveness of VR and AR in digital cultural heritage creates partnerships which can assure decent work and economic growth for the people and their regions. Furthermore, digital technologies are the ultimate tools for substance development as they reduce unnecessary transformation and logistics while promoting in the most ecological way regional and national opportunities. Digital strategies are sustainable strategies that require, as fuel to operate, only human intellectual capital, knowledge which is in excess in Africa.

8 Areas of Further Research Even that VR and AR can be considered promising technologies on the exploitation and dissemination of cultural heritage there are concerns regarding the cost of such investments, the technological maturity of the users, the technological infrastructure of

170

E. Markopoulos et al.

the country and the costs to acquire qualitative equipment that can offer the best possible virtual experience and the expected results. These issues are related with the technical, economical, and political dimension of the PESTLE analysis [21] but also with the social dimension on the readiness of the society to accepts such disruptive digital transformations on sectors that traditionally have been operated physically. This research will be extended to analyze the readiness of specific African countries and regions to adopt such strategies and identify the return on their investments. Furthermore, it will emphasize on the detailed alignment of the proposed strategies with the UN sustainable development goals indicating which goals can be achieved and how. This can lead to the development of a roadmap that define how the use of advanced virtual reality technologies and strategies in digitization of cultural heritage can deliver local and regional sustainable development.

9 Conclusions The rapid development of Africa has stated over the last twenty years and continues to grow. The annual African GDP increased by 50% in the first decade of 2000, moving from 1.067 billion$ in 2000 (2.45% growth) to 1.561 billion $ in 2008 (5.6% growth). This makes Africa the 3rd world’s faster grown region compared to the developed economies which are in the seventh place [22]. This impressive progress has been achieved with the effective communication of the African investment opportunities that can be beneficial for the investors, the African nations, and the people. VR and AR technologies open the communication borders and disseminate such opportunities in an immersive, safe, and engaging way. The digitization of cultural heritage is one way a country can export its culture and relate it with its development strategy [23]. The examples presented in this paper indicate a global trend towards cultural heritage digitization across the world. From Europe (Finland, Esthonia and Latvia), to Asia (Oman) and Africa (Egypt and Tunis) cultural heritage digitization strategies and project can be used to support national and regional development aligned with the UN sustainable goals for growth and property. It can be concluded that Africa is expected, and able, to positively surprise the world through its digital transformation readiness. A start seems to be the digitization of its cultural heritage and but its certain that it won’t stop there.

References 1. African Economic Outlook: Developing Africa’s Workforce for the Future. African Development Bank (2020). ISBN: 978-9938-882-92-6. https://www.afdb.org/en/knowledge/public ations/african-economic-outlook 2. Africa CGTN: https://africa.cgtn.com/2017/05/07/china-is-the-single-largest-investor-inafrica 3. Bulatovic Trygg, N., Luimula, M.: Cultural heritage in a pocket - case study “Turku castle in your hands”. In: 2016 Proceedings of the 5th IEEE Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications, pp. 55–58 (2016)

Strategic Utilization of the VR and AR Technologies

171

4. Qvist, P., et al.: Demo: medieval gastro box – utilizing VR technologies in immersive tourism experience. In: 2016 Proceedings of the 5th IEEE Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications, pp. 77–78 (2016) 5. Lehto, A., Luostarinen, N., Kostia, P.: Augmented reality gaming as a tool for subjectivizing visitor experience at cultural heritage locations—case lights on! J. Comput. Cult. Heritage 13(4), 1–16 (2020) 6. ElGhouty, A.S.: Public debt and economic growth in Egypt. Bus. Econ. Res. 8(3), 183–200 (2018). ISSN: 2162-4860 7. Markopoulos, E., Markopoulos, G., Vanharanta, H.: Democratizing innovation. A geoentrepreneurial analysis and approach through the company democracy model. In: Markopoulos, E., Goonetilleke, R.S., Ho, A.G., Luximon, Y. (eds.) AHFE 2020. AISC, vol. 1218, pp. 3–16. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51626-0_1 8. The Software Engineering Competence Center (SECC). https://www.secc.org.eg/ 9. Cultnat. https://www.cultnat.org/ 10. World Intellectual Property Organisation. https://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2012/05/ article_0008.html 11. United Nations. https://www.un.org/victimsofterrorism/fr/node/1024 12. Markopoulos, E., Markopoulos, P., Liumila, M., Almufti, Y., Romano, C.: Digital cultural strategies within the context of digital humanities economics. In: Ahram, T. (ed.) AHFE 2019. AISC, vol. 973, pp. 283–295. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3030-20476-1_29 13. Markopoulos, E., Markopoulos, P., Liumila, M., Chang, Y.C., Aggarwal, V., Ademola, J.: Virtual and augmented reality gamification technology on reinventing the F1 sponsorship model not purely focused on the team’s and car’s performance. In: Ahram, T. (ed.) AHFE 2019. AISC, vol. 973, pp. 364–376. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3030-20476-1_37 14. Markopoulos, E., Markopoulos, P., Liumila, M., Almufti, Y., Romano, C., Benitez, P.V.: A gamified approach towards identifying key opportunities and potential sponsors for the future of F1 racing in a declining car ownership environment. In: Ahram, T. (ed.) AHFE 2019. AISC, vol. 973, pp. 179–191. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-03020476-1_19 15. Markopoulos, E., Markopoulos, P., Liumila, M., Almufti, Y., Aggarwal, V.: Mapping the monetization challenge of gaming in various domains. In: Ahram, T. (ed.) AHFE 2019. AISC, vol. 973, pp. 389–400. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-03020476-1_39 16. Ravyse, W., Pouru, L., Ekqvist, S., Koivulahti-Ojala, M., Lehto, A., Luimula, M.: Combining semantic ontology and AR content toward an immersive smart city mobile application. In: Proceedings of the 11th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications, CogInfoCom, 23–25 September 2020, pp. 203–208 (2020) 17. Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa 2024. https://au.int/sites/default/files/ newsevents/workingdocuments/33178-wd-stisa-english_-_final.pdf 18. Sukhdev, P., Rockström, J.: Stockholm Resilience Centre’s (SRC) contribution to the 2016 Swedish 2030 Agenda HLPF report. Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm (2017) 19. Sustainable Development Goals. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300 20. Markopoulos, E., Ramonda, M.B., Winter, L.M.C., Katheeri, H., Vanharanta, H.: Pink ocean strategy: democratizing business knowledge for social growth and innovation. In: Markopoulos, E., Goonetilleke, R.S., Ho, A.G., Luximon, Y. (eds.) AHFE 2020. AISC, vol. 1218, pp. 39–51. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51626-0_5 21. Sridhar, R., et al.: A Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental (PESTLE) approach for assessment of coastal zone management practice in India. Int. Rev. Public Adm. 21(3), 216–232 (2016)

172

E. Markopoulos et al.

22. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/consent/?to. https://www.forbes.com/2010/08/12/asiachina-africa-trade-growth-markets-economy-investment.html 23. van der Borg, J., Russo, A.P.: THe impacts of culture on the economic development of cities. European Institute for Comparative Urban Research, Erasmus University Rotterdam (2015). https://www.wien.gv.at/meu/fdb/pdf/intern-vergleichsstudie-ci-959-ma27.pdf

Application of Defamiliarized Illustrations to the Design of Culture and Creative Products Sheng Zhou and Fan Zhang(B) School of Design, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China [email protected]

Abstract. The literary theory “Defamiliarization” is put forward by Shklovskij as a significant theory in Russian formalism. In fact, the theory of defamiliarization can be applied to many fields, including the field of illustrations. First of all, in this paper, the meaning of defamiliarization was discussed from the perspective of psychology and rhetoric so as to unveil the role of illustration in the design of cultural and creative products. Secondly, the case study method was used to analyze the application strategy of defamiliarization in the design of cultural and creative illustration design respectively from the perspective of Drawing Content, Viewing Angle, Drawing Material and Form of Expression. At last, an overall investigation was conducted into the method of applying defamiliarization to the design of cultural and creative illustrations, on which basis, a set of design ideas were worked out to improve the novelty, taste and originality of cultural and creative products. Keywords: Defamiliarization · Russian formalism · Illustration design · Cultural and creative products design

1 Introduction In the 21st century, people have marched towards the era of picture-reading. Accordingly, the definition of illustration is no longer restricted to illustration in the book, but subject to more diversified development. As people’s spiritual demands become increasingly intensified, the cultural and creative industry realizes a fast development and cultural and creative products have served as an important bridge in the cultural information exchange while illustration plays a vital role in cultural and creative design. This trend has made it specially important to guide the cultural and creative illustration design by applying the defamiliarization theory. On one hand, illustration itself is able to present consumers of cultural and creative products with the experience of defamiliarization and add the taste and freshness to products; on the other hand, the defamiliarized design method has the content and form of cultural and creative illustrations innovated, favorably inspiring designers’ ideas.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 173–180, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_21

174

S. Zhou and F. Zhang

2 Overview of Defamiliarization Theory In the early 20th century, Shklovskij (an expert in literary theories in Russia) put forward the literary theory “Defamiliarization” as a significant theory in Russian formalism. The so-called defamiliarization is to make familiar things strange [1] and arouse people’s perception of things by means of various complicated and mastered artistic expressions [2]. Psychologically, people are always “eager” and “curious” about stimuli existing in the external environment while familiar and authentic scenes can seldom attract people’s attention and interest [3]. Defamiliarization will help things cast off traditional forms, making it easier to catch people’s eyes and stimulate their perception. From the perspective of rhetoric, defamiliarization can allow people to obtain an unusual feeling by breaking certain rules [4]. For example, Shklovskij ever said: “New adjectives are added to old words, which will extend the meaning to the new system and refresh people’s aesthetics……” [5]. That is to say, defamiliarization is to endow new meaning to things by discarding old rules, in which way, people’s feelings about things will be restored. In nature, defamiliarization is a kind of artistic expression containing many artistic and rhetoric methods familiar to us, including comparison and exaggeration etc. [6]. Designers are required to dig out the deeper significance of things and prolong people’s perception process by using the defamiliarized design method [7]. Then, people are forced to renew their understanding of various things familiar to them before and new aesthetic experience will be brought out in the process of “recognition”. In this paper, focus is on discussing the application of defamiliarization in the design of cultural and creative illustrations. Defamiliarization aims at restoring people’s feelings about life by stimulating their mind, which coincides with the role of illustration design in the design of cultural and creative products. In other words, through emphasizing and activating consumers’ visual sense and mental feelings, the design of cultural and creative illustrations can evoke their awareness of cultural and creative products. Hence, defamiliarization is of higher availability in the design of cultural and creative illustrations. As shown in Fig. 1, defamiliarization can make use of complicated and mastered artistic expressions to recover the “sensibility” of forms. By introducing defamiliarization into the design of cultural and creative illustrations, illustrations’ forms will become intricate. Meanwhile, common elements in daily life will be endowed with new artistic rules and incorporated into pictures by means of special artistic expressions, which will change people’s antiquated ideas and promote brand-new aesthetic feelings. In fact, the application of defamiliarized illustration design into cultural and creative products can effectively enhance the artistic value and originality of such products and rebuild people’s perception.

Application of Defamiliarized Illustrations to the Design

175

Fig. 1. Resulting relationship from introducing defamiliarization into cultural and creative illustration design

3 Illustrations’ Significance in the Design of Cultural and Creative Products from the Perspective of Defamiliarization From the perspective of defamiliarization, illustration, as a new element, can be combined into the design of cultural and creative products, creating more new possibilities. 3.1 Improve the Novelty of Cultural and Creative Products Structurally, the design of cultural and creative products hardly changes due to plenty of limitations in production cost, processing technique and transportation space. Fortunately, the introduction of illustration design can broaden the design thinking and the illustration language will reinforce the product’s innovation. Generally, outstanding illustration design is full of imagination, which can not only lift the aesthetics of cultural and creative products, but also improve the novelty and deepen people’s impression on such products. On the aspect of visual psychology, the application of illustration to cultural and creative products will thoroughly satisfy people’s needs in chasing novel things, and arouse consumers’ attention more easily. 3.2 Intensify the Taste of Cultural and Creative Products Usually, in the application of defamiliarization, some exaggerated and unique artistic methods will be adopted in the design of cultural and creative products, which can produce remarkable instant visual effect, bring interesting aesthetic experience and strengthen the effect and appeal of cultural and creative products to consumers. As a result, the purpose of sales promotion and creating corresponding social benefit can be achieved. 3.3 Strengthen the Originality of Cultural and Creative Products To realize the product’s individualization, the most important point lies in the peculiar and ingenious visual sense of strangeness [8]. As each piece of illustration is exclusively designed, it can satisfy consumers’ requirements in product’s taste, sentiment and level.

176

S. Zhou and F. Zhang

In addition, compared with the design of product’s structure and form, illustration design requires lower investment cost and higher operability. Therefore, the application of illustrations into the design of cultural and creative products can largely strengthen the product’s originality.

4 “Defamiliarization” Strategy in the Design of Cultural and Creative Illustrations The utilization of defamiliarization in illustration design plays a significant role in increasing the individualization and aesthetic value of cultural and creative products. Compared with typical and traditional means of expression, the mechanism of defamiliarized expression has become more diversified, which is helpful to discover new forms and meanings, reinforce the audience’s memory and positively contribute to the product’s differentiation. Generally speaking, the defamiliarized design of cultural and creative illustrations can be carried out from the following four aspects. 4.1 Defamiliarization of Drawing Content Rhetoric and Deformation. Substantially, rhetorical devices can be applied to produce the sense of strangeness, but such rhetorical devices always co-occur with abstraction and deformation. In this way, the defamiliarization of drawing content is to apply various rhetorical devices to common elements in daily life (including exaggeration, personification or deformation) so as to generate new elements that will be fused in pictures. For example, as shown in the cultural and creative packaging of Fig. 2, the designer personalizes the image and subtly applies the exaggeration. The most representative animals in Bashu are personalized into chef who is demonstrating the cooking of thick broadbean sauce. Actually, the method of defamiliarization will promote people to review the drawing content and obtain new aesthetic experience.

Fig. 2. Beautiful life in Chengdu-packaging of thick broad-bean sauce in Pixian County

Heteromorphic Isomorphism. Also, some special methods like heteromorphic isomorphism can produce the effect of defamiliarization for design. As demonstrated in Fig. 3, the author has processed the natural landscape and the image of panda by using

Application of Defamiliarized Illustrations to the Design

177

the method of heteromorphic isomorphism, creating such a magic picture. While people are amazed at the peculiar picture, they are also aware of the importance of environmental protection and conservation of rare animals. After designers deeply dig out the inner meaning of these things extremely familiar to us and the interrelationship in the form of defamiliarized display, people’s profound thinking is activated and the product’s connotation is upgraded to a higher level.

Fig. 3. Packaging of han shui selenium valley beverage.

4.2 Defamiliarization from the Perspective of Viewing Angle Viewing Angle refers to the angle from which any thing is observed, including the angle from which any problem is considered. In Design of Design, Kenya Hara mentioned: “There may be a million of ways for us to view and feel the world [9].” However, we’re always trapped in the fixed mindset in daily life. As long as we subconsciously prefer the defamiliarization and apply it to illustration design, our design will definitely refresh people’s feelings and experience. Take Fig. 4 as an example, one corner of the table from a top view is selected to inspire a familiar and strange feeling, which will easily arouse consumers’ emotional resonance. 4.3 Defamiliarization from the Perspective of Drawing Material Material aesthetics is an importance factor impacting the illustration design’s aesthetics [10]. Although the application of special materials in product design involves costs, processing techniques and other related problems, the digital software has made a huge progress. For example, by using Photoshop, Illustrator, SAI and other software [11], pictures will be added with various material textures, and then printed to products.

178

S. Zhou and F. Zhang

Fig. 4. Illustration in cafe shop series of cultural and creative products

Of course, within the range of cost and technique, it is also practical to conduct the defamiliarized design for these products’ materials. While applying special materials, we can combine the touch and visual sense to enrich people’s multidimensional feelings. As such novel experience is interconnected with and concurrently different from our ordinary feelings, the effect of defamiliarization will be highlighted. As shown in Fig. 5, the author has added the texture of colored pencil and gold foil to the illustration so as to enrich the texture of pictures, provoke people’s desire of touch and deepen their perception.

Fig. 5. Illustration in cultural and creative investment-attracting present in Gaoming District, Foshan

4.4 Defamiliarization from the Perspective of Form of Expression As the form of expression of illustrations varies, the pure display of illustration is insufficient to attract consumers. Then, the defamiliarization of the illustration’s form of expression is also a feasible method. As indicated in Fig. 6, the illustration is combined with the product’s structure to generate the 3D effect, which has not only strengthened the strangeness and interest of cultural and creative products, but also increased such products’ collection value.

Application of Defamiliarized Illustrations to the Design

179

Fig. 6. Lucky series of cultural and creative gift box

5 Conclusion 5.1 Value and Meaning of the Application of Defamiliarization The “defamiliarization” theory is highly inspiring as it blaze a new trail for our creative design from the perspective of form. As Kenya Hara mentioned in Design of Design: “Creation is not merely to work out novel things, but it’s also creative to redevelop familiar things in an unknown field [9]”. When any cultural and creative illustrations are designed, designers shall consider how to create new ways of seeing the world. The “defamiliarization” theory will guide designers to think about various problems from a brand-new perspective, keep breaking rules and usher in more creative designs. 5.2 The Application Mode in Cultural and Creative Illustrations and Points Worth Noting During the defamiliarization of cultural and creative illustration design, designers shall adhere to the principle of promoting the novelty, taste and originality of cultural and creative products, initiate the defamiliarization from four aspects (Drawing Content, Viewing Angle, Drawing Material and Form of Expression), produce new ways for people to view things, activate their enthusiasm in understanding the world, guide them to re-recognize these things and ultimately present them with brand-new visual experience and aesthetic enjoyment. It shall be noted that, although the defamiliarized design usually brings out novel and unique appearance, excessive insistence on such novelty and uniqueness and regarding it as the ultimate goal will result in misunderstanding or nonacceptance. Defamiliarization shall be established based on previous experience, and neglect of the relevance to previous experience will violate the original intention of defamiliarization. Therefore, designers are required to achieve a balance between familiarity and novelty while applying the defamiliarization theory to design rather than blindly pursue unfamiliar and peculiar results.

180

S. Zhou and F. Zhang

References 1. Gao, Y.H.: Discussion on the relationship between “metaphor” and “defamiliarization”. J. Liaoning Univ. Technol. (Soc. Sci. Ed.) 20, 66–68 (2018). (in Chinese) 2. Shklovsky, V.: Russian Formalism Literature Anthology. SDX Joint Publishing Company, Beijing (1989). Fang, S. Translate. (in Chinese) 3. Robert, S.F.: Essentials of Understanding Psychology. Post & Telecom Press, Beijing (2015).(in Chinese) 4. Yang, X.R.: Defamilarization/novelty. J. Grad. Sch. Chin. Acad. Soc. Sci. 6, 88–97,146 (2017). (in Chinese) 5. Hua, F.: InTerpretation of Shklovsky’s defamiliarization theory (2019). Public art. 42–43. (in Chinese) 6. Zhang, L.J.: From poetic revolution to film poetics: on the vision of russian futurism and formalism. J. Univ. Jinan (Soc. Sci. Ed.) 46–68, 157–158 (2018). (in Chinese) 7. Ding, Q.: From concealment to exposure: the beauty of form and skill moving into the limelight of art. J. Xinjiang Univ. (Philos. Humanit. Soc. Sci.) 46, 98–102 (2018). (in Chinese) 8. Ma, J.H.: The significance and methods of nostalgic design in layout. Packag. Eng. 39, 292– 295 (2018). (in Chinese) 9. Kenya, H.: Design of Design. Shandong People’s Publishing House, Jinan (2006). Zhu, E. Translate. (in Chinese) 10. Zhang, P.: Study on the aesthetic feeling of material in picture book illustration (2017). Public art. 55–56. (in Chinese) 11. Wang, T., Wu R.Y.: The practice and exploration of freudian painting style in digital illustration (2019). Public art. 77–78. (in Chinese)

Knowledge Cities: ICT and Urban Components Sonia Cueva-Ortiz1,2(B) and Jorge Cruz-Cárdenas3,4 1 School of Architecture, Arts and Design, Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica,

Quito, Ecuador 2 CITEHS Research Center for the Territory and Sustainable Habitat, Universidad Tecnológica

Indoamérica, Quito, Ecuador 3 ESTec Research Center, Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica, Quito, Ecuador 4 School of Administrative and Economic Science, Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica,

Quito, Ecuador

Abstract. Based on a shift in the production matrix from goods and services to knowledge and innovation, countries on at least three continents have invested in the construction of knowledge cities. However, to what extent are knowledge cities (KCs) linked to the information and communications technology (ICT) on which they are based? Are KCs a technological consequence, or a political ideology oriented towards the reinforcement of an economic system? To answer these questions, three global examples and the 22@Barcelona case study were examined using qualitative methods. The findings revealed how political agreements and the modification of urban plans impacted the cities. We observed existing relationships among ICT, KCs, and the business structure that was implemented, although the latter was not part of the KCs. This study presents a theoretical input for KCs and highlights the need for new urban and architectural spaces that respond to the innovative milieu of nascent societies. Keywords: Urban management · Information city · 22@Barcelona · Innovative milieu · Knowledge-based urban development

1 Introduction Small towns such as Palo Alto (Silicon Valley), CA, Cambridge, UK, and Sophia Antipolis, France have become paradigms for the new knowledge production system. They have created unprecedented economic growth and the conditions necessary for attracting scientific talent [1]. These urban developments have also marked the beginning of the information age and inspired the conception of the innovative milieu and the information city. The terms “information city”, “intelligent city”, and “knowledge city” were coined to refer to a city focused on knowledge production through the creation of an innovative environment [2, 3]. This article uses the term “knowledge city” because it is the most frequently used. Although there is a lack of consensus on the name of this new type of city, there is agreement on the need to facilitate innovation and knowledge production. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 181–188, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_22

182

S. Cueva-Ortiz and J. Cruz-Cárdenas

This article aims to understand the relationships among information and communications technology (ICT), built knowledge cities, and economic systems, with two specific objectives: (1) to deepen the understanding of the concepts of innovative milieu (IM) and knowledge cities (KC), and their relation to ICT and economic systems; and (2) to identify the spatial changes framed in KC theory focused on the 22@Barcelona case study. Previous KC studies draw a panoramic vision of these cities, whose components include various elements such as public policies, economic characteristics, culture, production conditions, and quality of life. However, no studies have encoded and classified these components with a focus on the KC urban component. Thus, the present study attempts to reduce this knowledge gap by examining the transition from the theoretical-conceptual to the urban-spatial.

2 Theoretical Framework 2.1 The IM and ICT The development of ICT has had significant effects, such as establishing the notion of knowledge or innovation as a raw material that can be transformed into a valuable product [4]. The shift from the production of goods and services to the generation of knowledge and innovation has become predominant in knowledge-based economies, and several authors have highlighted the importance of the city or territory in this process [4, 5]. The IM is defined as a network of social [4, 6–8], institutional, organizational, and economic relationships [9, 10], in which a group of people are interconnected in a defined geographical area [4, 8, 11], space, or territory [6, 7, 9, 12]. In such a setting, the interactions or exchanges among the diverse actors contribute to innovation [8, 9, 11, 12], collective learning, and the fertilization of ideas [7]. 2.2 The Innovative Milieu: Planned and Spontaneous Cases The spontaneous cases in Silicon Valley and Cambridge were developed in areas close to universities with strong research trajectories [9]. The universities’ need to transmit research findings efficiently and directly led university leaders to request the establishment of other uses for land adjacent to their campuses [9, 13–15]. Inside this milieu emerged a synergy and a space for unprecedented technological development and economic growth [9, 10, 16]. In contrast, both planned cases—Sophia Antipolis and 22@Barcelona—were developed by the installation of large international companies, and by the agreement of the most important universities and other IM institutions (interviews) on the locations; [17, 18]. In both cases, the goal was the development of a KC or high-technology cluster. In all four cases, the firm has become the technology transfer center, risk capital source, and production intermediary. In the planned cases specifically, international firms were included from the beginning as a way to attract other companies.

Knowledge Cities: ICT and Urban Components

183

2.3 Knowledge Cities and Economic Systems When we refer to the economic system we align with Cohen’s [19] classification, which refers to three basic systems: traditional (household), central (planned), and decentralized (market). The first is a system where reciprocity and sharing are institutionalized, the second system is represented by government institutions, and the third is represented by firms. Cohen explains that in every system there is a platform for modelling the agents “which lead[s] to one dominating subsystem gaining overall dominance over other subsystems” [19, p. 5]. The concept of the KC emerged from observations of cities whose development mode was based on the new informational mode [2]. Castells described KCs as informational cities that host a new “mode of informational development” [2, p. 22]. Castells and Hall [9] referred to such cities as a “technopolis”, which has been defined as the construction of a complex of high-technology companies based on the IM to include industrial and scientific complexes. Yigitcanlar and Lönnqvist (2013) refer to urban interventions that are based on the new development mode, as “knowledge-based urban development” (KBUD). Regarding the KC and economic systems, Castells [2, 9] discusses the separation of the mode of development (industrial or informational) and the mode of production (capitalism and statist), thus emphasizing the possibility of different combinations between them. In the same way, the construction of a KC, which is a city under the informational development mode, is independent of the mode of production (capitalist or statist) or of economic system.

3 Method The present study used an inductive qualitative method, which was divided into two phases corresponding to the two specific research objectives. In Phase 1, the conception of KCs and the IM were analyzed to discern their components and conditions. The conceptions were formed based upon the analysis of the cases of Silicon Valley and Cambridge. Sophia Antipolis and 22@Barcelona, two planned projects, were also considered. In Phase 2, which concerned the empirical study of 22@Barcelona, a contrast was drawn between the urban policies and built spaces. In this phase, the document review was intensified for the period 2000–2016. In addition, 18 semi-structured interviews were conducted, and direct observations were made of the Campus Audiovisual (CA) and Llull Pujades Levant (LPL), the two most executed polygons (defined areas of urban action) in the 22@Barcelona urban intervention. Also, participant observations of the events and services rendered in operating this IM in 22@Barcelona were performed during the period 2013–2016.

4 Results 4.1 Components and Conditions for the IM IM components are segregated between structural social organizations (institutions) and territorial conditions or characteristics.

184

S. Cueva-Ortiz and J. Cruz-Cárdenas

The definition of the IM follows Camagni [4, 8] regarding the structure of his description, and it was supported by the authors and case studies reviewed (see Table 1). Thus, the IM can be conceived as a network of spontaneous relationships that arise in a defined geographical [4] area in which eight basic components converge: higher education (HE); research centers (RC); technology transfer centers (TT); government institutions (G); culture and leisure centers (CLC); housing and services (HS); investment organizations (IO); and production and industry centers (PC). These components or organisms are located in a interconnected and defined territory (IDT) that promotes social interactions (SI); forges a sense of belonging (SB); encourages collective learning (CL); projects a specific external image (EI); and facilitates physical and virtual interconnections (PVI). As the goal of IM, innovation and “knowledge production” (KP) applied to products and processes (see Table 1 and Fig. 1). Table 1. Components and conditions of the innovative milieu according to several authors. Referents/Components

HE RC TT

G

CLC HS

IO

PC IDT

.

.

.

.

SI

SB CL

Castells et al., 2001

.

.

.

.

.

.

Camagni, 1991, 2017

.

.

.

.

.

.

Komninos, 2002, 2009

.

.

.

.

.

.

Strategic Management, 2001

.

.

.

Yigitcanlar & Lönnqvist, 2013

.

.

Finquelievich et al., 2017

.

.

.

.

Yigitcanlar et al., 2008

.

.

.

.

.

Navarro et al., 2016

.

.

.

.

.

Esmaeilpoorarabi, 2017

.

.

.

.

.

.

Stephens et al., 2019

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Sofia Antipolis

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Cambridge

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Silicon Valley

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

22 @ Barcelona

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

. . .

.

EI PVI KP

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

. .

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

. .

. .

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

These components and conditions were supported by the data collected in the research, as illustrated in Table 1 where the similar terms were combined. Thus, when an author referred to quality of life, we marked three components in the table: housing and services (HS), culture and leisure centers (CLC), and production and industry centers (PC), as justified in quality of life studies [1].

Knowledge Cities: ICT and Urban Components

185

Fig. 1. Innovative milieu: components, conditions, and value product.

The IM provides fertile ground for innovation based on individual knowledge and to increase its strength in the exchange. Since the private company is the predominant organizational structure where the KCs are located, the company has been the resource most used. Thus, 22@Barcelona has deployed a series of services aimed at creating and strengthening firms. However, the innovation goals, the organizational structure, and the economic system depend on the objectives and policies of every city and society in which they were developed. 4.2 The Components of the Knowledge City IM is the key driver of the city in the age of information or knowledge. Such a city specializes in specific areas of knowledge by creating clusters or hubs [1, 4, 8, 10, 12, 20, 21], and as a result, the integration of these innovation clusters generate, according to scale, the knowledge cities or districts. The innovation clusters, which specialize in different knowledge areas, are not independent; they instead share the territory, and thus, many of their components. They benefit from economies of scale and the multidisciplinary interactions associated with the quest for knowledge and innovation [4, 8] (see Fig. 2).

186

S. Cueva-Ortiz and J. Cruz-Cárdenas

FIGURE OF IM

CLUSTER A SPECIALIZATION A

SP N IO AT B L IZ R IA TE EC LUS C B

C N O I T C ZA R LI TE IA S EC L U P C S

KNOWLEDGE CITY

Fig. 2. Knowledge city components

The development of the IM is the most highlighted aspect of KC urban theory. The KC has a direct relation with ICT and the approach to knowledge production through the IM’s creation, but the relation to a specific economic system does not exist in the conception or origin of spontaneous cases. 4.3 Spatial Changes Framed in the KC. The 22@Barcelona Innovative Milieu The Modification of the Metropolitan General Plan (MPGM) introduced the code “22@”, which symbolizes the knowledge industries, and “@activities”, where “@” is associated with the intensive use of ICT. This plan intended to shape IM, and the new land use permitted development of KC institutions, which shaped the definition of the five innovation clusters. The “22@” project was implemented on 200 hectares in the San Martí district (Poblenou), and included six public management land polygons. During the working phase, the 22@Barcelona Society supported the creation of a business association, the 22@Network, to make demands on city hall that the 22@Barcelona Society could not make as a public entity, and to develop the planned IM (Interviews). The 22@Network association creates interaction and exchange networks, such as the five thematic commissions. These commission meetings serve to establish formal network partners to support 22@Network proposals (Interviews; participant observation). IM materialized within the built city through the MPGM and its land-use changes, but not in the urban and architectural spaces. Thus, monthly meetings are held in improvised spaces, such as in the hallways of the UPC Foundation (Polytechnic University of Catalonia) and Cibernarium (interviews). In urban design and architecture, technology

Knowledge Cities: ICT and Urban Components

187

is used for smart materials and accessories. However, ICT is not focused on KC spaces, such as IM spaces for spontaneous interaction. This entrepreneurial and institutional network also maintains the conformation of IM. However, a platform for entrepreneurial promotion was also installed which assists the creation and growth of new firms, such as incubators, accelerators, and other spaces for spin-offs and start-ups.

5 Discussion and Conclusions Due to the global influence of cities such as Barcelona and their alignment with the market system, the KC model has become associated with this system. However, a KC can choose its innovation goals and organizational structure. Although KCs are not part of a specific system [2], this case provides an essential lesson: the commitment to an economic system created the perception of this system as the most viable (direct observation). This was possible with the implementation of the entrepreneurial platform, which Cohen [19] labels a dominance mechanism. Consequently, any proposal made in another system would require such a commitment to recreate that system’s institution and institutional behavior [19]. The innovation and knowledge production demands of cities change their social organization and spatial distribution, and the IM becomes the city’s key driver. In the reviewed cases, interactions and spontaneous encounters have theoretical value as promoters of innovation [8], but, paradoxically, spaces for free and spontaneous gatherings have been deliberately neglected. KCs are structurally linked to ICT through the IM in an environment that was created to facilitate interaction and innovation [9, 10]. Private enterprises (firms), public institutions, or mixed systems are organizational forms [19] that can be adopted for all components of the IM and KC. The case studies in this research have adopted models of mixed cooperation or the triple helix approach, but in the spontaneous case studies, the IM arose in a university or research setting. Acknowledgments. This study was supported by the Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica through CITEHS and Research, Innovation and Development Center. The collection of field data was supported by the National Secretariat of Science and Technology of Ecuador (SENESCYT). We extend our sincere thanks to the corresponding authorities for their constant support. I must also thank Dr. Cesar Guevara for his support and advice. Thanks a lot.

References 1. Esmaeilpoorarabi, N., Yigitcanlar, T., Guaralda, M.: Place quality in innovation clusters: an empirical analysis of global best practices from Singapore, Helsinki, New York, and Sydney. Cities 74, 156–168 (2017) 2. Castells, M., Muñoz, R.Q.: La ciudad informacional: tecnologías de la información, reestructuración económica y el proceso urbano-regional. Alianza, Madrid (1995) 3. Aydalot, P., Keeble, D.: High technology industry and innovative environments in European: an overview. In: Aydalot, P., Keeble, D. (eds.) High Technology Industry and Innovative Environments: The European Experience. Routledge (2018)

188

S. Cueva-Ortiz and J. Cruz-Cárdenas

4. Camagni, R.: Local ‘milieu’, uncertainty and innovation networks: towards a new dynamic theory of economic space. In: Camagni, R. (ed.) Innovation Networks: Spatial Perspectives, London, pp. 121–144 (1991) 5. Polyakov, R., Stepanova, T.: Innovation clusters in the digital economy. In: Ashmarina, S., Mesquita, A., Vochozka, M. (eds.) Digital Transformation of the Economy: Challenges, Trends and New Opportunities. AISC, vol. 908, pp. 200–215. Springer, Cham (2020). https:// doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11367-4_19 6. Yigitcanlar, T., Lönnqvist, A.: Benchmarking knowledge-based urban development performance: results from the international comparison of Helsinki. Cities 31, 357–369 (2013) 7. Yigitcanlar, T., Velibeyoglu, K.: Knowledge-based urban development: the local economic development path of Brisbane, Australia. Local Econ. 23(3), 195–207 (2008) 8. Camagni, R.: Technological change, uncertainty and innovation networks: towards a dynamic theory of economic space. In: Capello, R. (ed.) Seminal Studies in Regional and Urban Economics, pp. 65–92. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57807-1_4 9. Castells, M., Hall, P.G.: Tecnópolis del mundo: la formación de los complejos industriales del siglo XXI, Pascual Mo. Alianza Editorial, Madrid (2001) 10. Stephens, B., Butler, J.S., Garg, R., Gibson, D.V.: Austin, Boston, Silicon Valley, and New York: case studies in the location choices of entrepreneurs in maintaining the Technopolis. Technol. Forecast. Soc. Change 146, 267–280 (2019) 11. Finquelievich, S., Feldman, P., Girolimo, U.: Tandil: innovación y desarrollo local. Cuad. Urbano 22(22), 133–155 (2017) 12. Komninos, N.: Intelligent Cities: Innovation, Knowledge Systems, and Digital Spaces. Spon Press, London (2002) 13. Boddy, M., Hickman, H.: The ‘Cambridge Phenomenon’ and the challenge of planning reform. Town Plan. Rev. 87(1), 31–52 (2016) 14. Wicksteed, B., Segal Quince Wicksteed Ltd.: The Cambridge Phenomenon Revisited: Parts One and Two (2000) 15. Koepp, R.: Clusters of Creativity: Enduring Lessons on Innovation and Entrepreneurship from Silicon Valley and Europe’s Silicon Fen. Wiley, Hoboken (2002) 16. Marín, A.L.: La nueva sociedad de la información: una perspectiva desde Silicon Valley. Editorial Trotta (2000) 17. Perrin, J.-C.: La Phenomene Sophia-Antipolis dans son Environment regional. In: Milieux innovateurs en Europe, pp. 283–302. GREMI, París (1986) 18. Perrin, J.-C.: New technologies, local synergies and regional policies in Europe. In: Philippe Aydalot, D.K. (ed.) High Technology Industry and Innovative Environments, pp. 139–162. Routledge (2018) 19. Cohen, S.I.: Different institutional behavior in different economic systems: theory and evidence on diverging systems worldwide. Econ. Syst. 38(2), 221–242 (2014) 20. Strategic Management Institute: Sophia Antipolis-Creation of a Greenfield Cluster, Stockholm (2001) 21. Alfaro Navarro, J.L., López Ruiz, V.R., Nevado Peña, D.: The effect of ICT use and capability on knowledge-based cities. Cities 60, 272–280 (2016)

The 4Es of Management: Managing Cultural Exchange in Multinational Corporations Evangelos Markopoulos1,2(B) and Emma Luisa Gann1 1 HULT International Business School, Faculty of Management and Entrepreneurship,

35 Commercial Road, London E1 1LD, UK [email protected], [email protected] 2 Queen Mary University of London, School of Business and Management, 327 Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK

Abstract. Despite the obvious benefits that Multinational Corporations (MNCs) have on developing economies, those often come together with tremendous externalities. Rather than exploiting cost drivers and cost savings to deliver cheaper products to the Western customer, MNCs could try to find more ways to cater to local markets profitably whilst contributing to resolving social challenges. This paper introduces a management framework that facilitates knowledge-exchange between local organizations and the MNCs for a more targeted product development that can effectively respond to the local needs. This research explores the relationship between MNCs and developing markets; it highlights the pitfalls of new product development efforts for such markets in depth before touching upon more effective ways of generating innovative intellectual capital for product development practices; it introduces the 4Es Management Framework that can solve cultural exchange challenges in MNCs, and lastly, it elaborates on how this can constitute alternative CSR initiatives. Keywords: Multinational companies · New product development · CSR · International business · Organizational culture · Company democracy

1 Introduction The role of the Multinational companies (MNCs) in developing countries is considered controversial; many blame them for exploiting the resources of the host country, such as raw materials and cheap labor, others praise the advances they enable through foreign investments, such as improvement of infrastructure, upskilling of the workforce and a shift away from the agricultural sector [1]. Corporations understand the value of penetrating less developed markets where big population size and strong growth prospects of such countries are important factors in the race for global market share. However, to assure sustainable development in the developing and emerging countries, MNCs have to take ownership of their social and environmental impact. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 189–198, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_23

190

E. Markopoulos and E. L. Gann

The fact that MNCs often struggle to understand local customs and cultures creates challenges as they operate with systems, processes, and products that are very much oriented after the Western business models and customer preferences. Thus, MNCs fundamentally lack an understanding of the local customer and fail to deliver, or mostly not even attempt to develop, the right products for each market they target. The findings of this research prove that closer communication between local communities and Multinational Corporations would bring mutual benefit; companies can establish their market presence more effectively whilst sustainably contributing to economic growth. However, it is well known that merging cultures is never a simple endeavor. This research responds to these concerns. It suggests the 4Es of Management for democratic organizational culture, which gives upper Management of MNCs the tools to facilitate effective collaboration between employees and locals, to invent and develop products that better respond to local needs, tying MNCs with the local culture. The 4Es of the model, Envision, Empower, Extend, Enforce, represent the stages through which management transforms the company into a democratic entity that can simultaneously adjust its existing processes to reflect on the local market needs. Based on this model, management can achieve a better cultural exchange between local and foreign employees, but also ensure a cultural fit of their product in the market. Such a collaborative approach benefits the local society on different layers and can be part of alternative, but less costly CSR solutions. This can create a positive impact on the way MNCs are seen in the foreign business ecosystems and help them integrate and grow it stronger from within.

2 Multinational Corporations in Developing Countries There are different reasons why international firms choose to access less developed regions. Some MNCs tend to move only their production to such countries, as offshore production can create huge cost savings due to cheap labor, lenient regulations or regulation enforcement, and a low cost of raw materials. Other MNCs expand to less developed regions in a strategical race for global market share and understand that such markets offer a tremendous consumer base in quantitative terms, high market growth potential, and unfulfilled demands for products and services [2]. Even though MNCs often use developing markets for their Corporate Social Responsibility campaigns, such unscalable efforts mostly exist for reputational purposes instead of their desire for the common good. Whichever reason MNCs have for expanding to a developing country, it appears that profits are always at the core of motivation, therefore it is important to highlight that profit-orientation is not a challenge. However, problems arise when profits are not balanced with social equity and environmental justice, leading to unfair exploitation of the local resources and cause strain on the local communities. If companies keep wanting to operate in such countries, they must significantly decrease their externalities and beyond this, become degenerative. Thus, they must focus on positively contributing towards the host nation’s sustainable development, sustainable infrastructure development, economic opportunities, and skills development for the locals by providing solutions for environmental destruction and climate change.

The 4Es of Management: Managing Cultural Exchange

191

3 Pitfalls of Product Development for Developing Markets As part of this research, two forms of primary research have been conducted. In the first part of the research, 25 citizens of different developing countries have been interviewed to determine the product need. In the second, interviews have been conducted with upper management of MNCs in developing countries, to examine the challenges they are facing and the solutions they have attempted to resolve. Interviewees were Nabil Habayeb, CEO of General Electric Middle East, Thomas Schäfer, Chairman & Managing Director Volkswagen Group South Africa, and Philipp Schiemer, CEO of Mercedes-Benz Trucks in Brazil. Initially, the survey has revealed that market drivers should not be the pushing force that brings MNCs to developing countries. Market drivers assume that products, as well as marketing, are transferable from an existing market to a new, international market [3]. However, a clear majority of survey participants believe that the developing world does require very different products than the rest of the world (96%). Nevertheless, the interview with Thomas Schäfer, Managing Director of Volkswagen South Africa, revealed that in the automotive industry, it is almost impossible to develop new products for developing markets. Thus, markets have to work with what was initially developed for big markets. This is problematic, as Mr. Schäfer acknowledges because culture and behaviors are significantly different from country to country and therefore, there is an unfulfilled demand for more localised products. This equally applies to an emerging country like Brazil, as interviewee Mr. Schiemer highlights: the product requirements in Brazil are substantially different to the ones in Germany, for example. Despite existing challenges, all three interviewees agree on the importance of the integration of the local knowledge into product development efforts and that every part of the product development process should link back to the purpose that the product has for the local market. Moreover, this allows reducing the risk of failure, as local cooperation is highly effective to leverage national pride, with the participation of the locals to change their country for the better. Furthermore, it leverages knowledge about local conditions, helps to find out the right product requirements, and establishes direct communication with the customer.

4 Democratic Knowledge Management It is common knowledge that a rigorous understanding of the customer is essential for successful product development [4], and as this research proves, this is even more important for Western MNCs to survive in volatile foreign markets [5]. Nevertheless, many struggle to accumulate local knowledge and therefore fail to introduce relevant products to those markets for the right price point [6]. A very effective yet cost-efficient way for companies to gather intellectual property is to derive it from their employees and other stakeholders. The Company Democracy Model, (Fig. 1) developed by researchers Markopoulos and Vanharanta in 2012 offers a framework for companies to achieve internationally competitive products from internal knowledge [7].

192

E. Markopoulos and E. L. Gann

Fig. 1. The company democracy model.

The model presents six steps towards a democratic company culture, displayed in a pyramid structure which represents the incremental progression of the levels. Being designed primarily for Western corporations, the Company Democracy Model must be adapted to a developing country context; often, there is a lack of local employment in MNCs, which limits the internal local knowledge pool. Therefore, previous research has extended the Company Democracy Model to a developing country context; The Democratic New Product Development model for developing economies provides a framework to connect Multinational Corporations with local knowledge (Fig. 2). The model is presented in a reverse pyramid structure, representing the evolution of the product from a broad idea to a competitive product and the simultaneous development from a clear understanding of the local needs. At the core of the model lies the industrysociety relationship between organizations and individual, deriving from democratic NPD practices [8]. In Level 1 of the model, the organisation establishes a democratic culture that opens up to external ideas for new products in pursuit of local knowledge that can allow the organisation to develop an understanding of the specific product need. In Level 2, the organisation undertakes democratic team-building around the local individual, helping employees understanding and uncovering the product idea of the individual and grow the idea into a solid concept. In Level 3, the product development process starts, entailing a tight collaboration between local individual and company, while ensuring cultural relevance of the product. Level 4 focuses on making the product robust and solid on what leads to its innovative impact on the respective market, including in-depth analysis on the broader innovative impact that the product will have on local communities. In Level 5, the product is readily developed to compete in the local markets and the focus moved to developing a solid marketing strategy appropriate for the local context.

The 4Es of Management: Managing Cultural Exchange

193

Once Level 6 is reached, the company has “matured to an empathic entity”. It can now scale the product impact and extend its outreach to other regions.

Fig. 2. The democratic new product development model for developing economies.

The 6th level of the module shifts such MNC’s strategies towards reverse innovation [9] and geo-entrepreneurship [10], where the utilization of the local intellectual capital can generate new products for the local markets which can also be offered to the western world as affordable innovations.

5 The 4Es of Cultural Exchange Management When expanding operations to less developed markets, corporate leadership faces the challenges of navigating through a complex business environment, consisting of unstable political systems, ambiguous regulatory frameworks, environmental and humanitarian challenges. However, the managerial practices of multinational corporations are to target social responsibility impact and the dynamic development of the developing or emerging nations. These targets can assure shared value innovations and product development for the benefit of both the MNC and the local society and economy [11], but also sustainable development that can reach to green oceans and contribute to the MSNs ESG and CSR targets [12]. To operate successfully in those markets, leadership must master corporate culture management to facilitate the right balance between western practices and empathy for the local culture. The latter, even though widely overlooked, is essential to reflect market needs in the development of their solutions and thus, sustain relevant product development for the market. This opens the need for an inclusive management system, established on proven western systems and processes but built around local knowledge.

194

E. Markopoulos and E. L. Gann

The 4Es Management Framework for Cultural Exchange in MNCs (Fig. 3) allows management to lead their organisations through the process of corporate democratisation and create a basis for multi-cultural management, as well as increased responsiveness to challenges and trends. The model measures progress on two axes; The x-axis measures the degree of democracy that management enables for an organization. This is the degree of participation that management facilitates amongst stakeholders respective the corporate activities. The y-axis measures the extent to which a company establishes structured processes around this knowledge democratisation. Both variables are correlated, meaning that a company can only move up one axis effectively if it progresses similarly on the other.

Fig. 3. The 4Es management framework for cultural exchange in MNCs

This parallel progress creates two spaces highly related to each other. The increase of the degree of democracy provides the space needed for the democratic culture to deliver the expected results [13]. A high degree of democracy creates a larger space to think and innovate, which delivers better results. Likewise, the degree of the established practical processes creates the space needed for the process to be effective. A low degree on democracy restricts the adaptation and effectiveness on the organizational processes.

6 The 4Es Execution Process When an organisation starts operating in a developing or emerging market, the first step for management is to build the organisational purpose based on social needs, as the GE CEO Nabil Habayeb has highlighted in his interview for this research.

The 4Es of Management: Managing Cultural Exchange

195

Therefore, management must develop a vision that binds the company and locality together in pursuit of sustainable innovation. By articulating this vision to relevant corporate stakeholders, the organisation moves up on the x-axis. This is the first step on the y-axis as it marks the foundation of the development of internal processes around this purpose. In the second step, the management must empower people internally. By giving employees a stake in working towards the defined and announced purpose, the organisation moves up another step on the x-axis. As this employee involvement can only encounter with the right processes in place, such as effective communication channels, the organisation moves up similarly on the y-axis. This symmetric progress in the degree of company democracy and practical processes initiates the implementation of the Company Democracy Model to empower employees to engage. In the third step, the organisation starts sharing knowledge and brings the purpose from theory to action, by opening up to external individuals that wish to contribute to the organisational purpose. This is an essential step in corporate democratisation and moves the company forward on the x-axis. To register such contribution and formalise the collaboration, the company must evolve its systems and processes further, moving up on the y-axis. At this point, management facilitates empowerment not only internally, but extends the empowerment to society. This results in the democratic creation of new product development from and for the developing economies (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4. The 4Es of management for democratic new product development

At the fourth and last step, the management enforces this progress by solidifying and improving the systems and processes, moving up to the last step on the y-axis. The previous includes having effective improvement systems in place, which ensure that the

196

E. Markopoulos and E. L. Gann

company constantly evolves and does not stand still on a continuum. This is achieved with the continuous feedback of the people involved in the three previous stages and moves the organisation similarly up on the x-axis.

7 Cultural Exchange for Democratic Product Development Reaching the second progress step in both axes is a fundamental milestone that links the 4Es management framework with the Democratic New Product Development Model, which can only be applied successfully if employees embrace the vision created by the upper management. This effort must be based on the formerly established purpose and aim to prepare employees for the knowledge-sharing mission. It is important to highlight, that the democratisation serves a common goal and will result in mutual benefit, for the employees, the communities, and the organisation. If employees understand the purpose and value of this vision, management can make them vision advocates and empower them to take active roles in the establishment of new processes. Such a level of internal engagement empowers management to democratise outwards by seeking engagement from external stakeholders. During the third step of the 4E management model (Engage), the 6 stages of the Democratic New Product Development for Developing Economies model can be applied and local individuals can step in to start a collaboration with the organization, moving their knowledge from the initial product idea a commercially sound solution. The last stage, the enforcing stage, is executed after the Democratic New Product Development Model for Developing Economies. Once the company has moved to Level 6 on this model, the product is fully developed and can strategically be distributed. At this stage, the management must ensure that the organizations has become a learning organization [14] with improved and strengthened processes are for future applications.

8 Limitations and Areas of Further Research One limitation of this research is the sample of interviewees, which included only Managers. For the research to be more holistic, the opinions of employees and local citizens should have been considered equally in the development of the 4Es model. As the model suggested is build on a democratic philosophy, inputs of the employees and other stakeholders might have pointed out challenges or weaknesses in the model. A second limitation is that all the managers were German, sharing a common western management mentality in thinking and acting. Despite the fact that they were all top executives from impressive multinational corporations, the research would have been more precise if more executives with different cultural backgrounds were involved. Therefore, an area of further research could be the study of the entrepreneurial tendencies in developing countries, and the attitude and motivation of the local workforce to support Multinational Corporations in developing countries. Such research could conclude on citizens’ willingness to engage with those MNCs that positively impact their country’s development. and provide more precise insights in the way in which they can best contribute to such corporations.

The 4Es of Management: Managing Cultural Exchange

197

Another area of further research can be considered the study of the management structures of Multinational Corporations. Specifically, it would be helpful to explore the most effective ratio between the origin of management, meaning the ratio between people from the host and home country of the corporation. This can make the proposed management solution more effective and adjust its execution process accordingly. Lastly, an additional area of further research could be the CSR impact of the proposed model. More specifically, how well can democratic new product development in developing countries be turned into official CSR campaigns and how effectively will they contribute to the organisations reputation globally.

9 Conclusions The role of MNCs in developing countries must change. Rather than exploiting the host country merely for the bottom line in a race for a global market share, companies should attempt to balance profit aspirations with social inclusion and responsibility for the sustainable development of the country. This can be achieved by integrating local knowledge in the product development processes. MNCs can design and develop products that have an impact on local communities by addressing their respective needs. Moreover, profits generated by such social products can stay within the nation’s borders and contribute to the economic development of the respective country. Managing such cross-cultural knowledge exchange within MNCs can be enabled through the 4Es framework for Cultural Exchange Management. It provides Management with guidance on how to extend their product development processes to the local market and facilitate successful collaboration between locals and individuals. As a result, innovative products can emerge, tackling the innovation paradox which holds back developing countries from sustainable development. With such Democratic New Product Development practices, Multinational Corporations can sustainably grow their market share whilst supporting the economic growth of the developing world and increasing social welfare.

References 1. Leonard, J.H.: Multinational corporations and politics in developing countries. World Politics 32(3), 454–483 (1980) 2. Khan, M.: Challenges for MNEs Operating in Emerging Markets. Tecnológico de Monterrey, Monterrey (2015). http://www.aabri.com/LV2014Manuscripts/LV14045.pdf 3. Yip, G.: Total Global Strategy – Managing for Worldwide Competitive Advantage. Prentice Hall, Hoboken (1995) 4. Choy, M., Park, G.: Sustaining innovative success: a case study on consumer-centric innovation in the ICT industry. Sustainability 8(10), 986 (2016) 5. Cirera, X., Maloney, W.: The Innovation Paradox: Developing-Country Capabilities and the Unrealized Promise of Technological Catch-Up. World Bank Group, Washington, DC (2017) 6. Gorrie, A., Pons, D., Maples, D., Docherty, P.: Principles of product design in developing countries. Appl. Syst. Innov. 1(2), 11 (2018)

198

E. Markopoulos and E. L. Gann

7. Markopoulos, E., Vanharanta, H.: Democratic culture paradigm for organizational management and leadership strategies - the company democracy model. In: Charytonowicz, J. (ed.) Advances in Human Factors and Sustainable Infrastructure. 5th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics, vol. 20, pp 190–201 (2014) 8. Markopoulos, E., Gann, E.L., Vanharanta, H.: Democratizing new product development through an industry-society entrepreneurial partnership. In: Ahram, T., Karwowski, W., Pickl, S., Taiar, R. (eds.) IHSED 2019. AISC, vol. 1026, pp. 829–839. Springer, Cham (2020). https:// doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27928-8_126 9. Hadengue, M., de Marcellis-Warin, N., Warin, T.: Reverse innovation: a systematic literature review. Int. J. Emerg. Mark. 12(2), 142–182 (2017) 10. Markopoulos, E., Markopoulos, G., Vanharanta, H.: Democratizing Innovation. A geoentrepreneurial analysis and approach through the company democracy model. In: Markopoulos, E., Goonetilleke, R.S., Ho, A.G., Luximon, Y. (eds.) AHFE 2020. AISC, vol. 1218, pp. 3–16. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51626-0_1 11. Markopoulos, E., Vanharanta, H.: Company democracy model for development of shared value. Procedia Manuf. 3, 603–610 (2015) 12. Markopoulos, E., Kirane, I.S., Gann, E.L., Vanharanta, H.: A democratic, green ocean management framework for environmental, social and governance (ESG) compliance. In: Ahram, T., Taiar, R., Gremeaux-Bader, V., Aminian, K. (eds.) IHIET 2020. AISC, vol. 1152, pp. 21–33. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44267-5_4 13. Markopoulos, E., Vanharanta, H.: Space for company democracy. In: Kantola, J.I., Barath, T., Nazir, S., Andre, T. (eds.) Advances in Human Factors, Business Management, Training and Education. AISC, vol. 498, pp. 275–287. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/ 978-3-319-42070-7_26 14. Mastio, E., Chew, E., Dovey, K.A.: The learning organization as a context for value cocreation. Learn. Organ. 27(4), 291–303 (2019)

Temporal Focus and Innovativeness of Consumers in the Use of Technologies: A Cross-Cultural Study Jorge Cruz-Cárdenas1,2(B) , Ekaterina Zabelina3 , Olga Deyneka4 , and Jorge Guadalupe-Lanas1,2 1 Research Center in Business, Society, and Technology, ESTec, Universidad Tecnológica

Indoamérica, Quito, Ecuador {jorgecruz,jorgeguadalupe}@uti.edu.ec 2 School of Administrative and Economic Science, Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica, Quito, Ecuador 3 Department of Psychology, Chelyabinsk State University, Chelyabinsk, Russia 4 Department of Political Psychology, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia

Abstract. Innovative consumers are very important to today’s businesses as they are the first adopters of new products. This article seeks to contribute to the existing knowledge on the characteristics and traits that innovative consumers possess by focusing on the temporal orientation of said consumers. The current study is a cross-cultural study based on a survey that was carried out in Ecuador (a South American developing country) and Russia (a Eurasian emerging country). The results obtained for the two countries consistently establish that the temporal focus in the future is a characteristic associated with innovative consumers. The current study also presents the theoretical and practical implications of these findings. Keywords: Consumer innovativeness · Technology · Temporal focus · Cross-cultural study · Consumer behavior

1 Introduction Technology is a determining force in the configuration of societies today. The penetration of technology and technological products reaches most of humanity. To exemplify this point, the number of smartphone users in 2020 was estimated to be 3.5 billion [1], and the number of active internet users was estimated to be 4.7 billion [2]. Based on new technologies, new products are constantly being generated. Furthermore, disruptive innovations—that is, those products or technologies that significantly change the configuration of entire sectors or industries or create new ones—are becoming increasingly frequent [3]. Considering this background, this study focuses on understanding innovative consumers’ traits or characteristics. Specifically, the temporal orientation or temporal focus and how this is related to consumer innovativeness is analyzed. In order to generate more © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 199–205, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_24

200

J. Cruz-Cárdenas et al.

solid conclusions, the current study takes a cross-cultural approach by using two countries—Ecuador (a South American developing country) and Russia (a Eurasian emerging country)—as its setting.

2 Literature Review 2.1 Consumer Innovativeness In general, consumer innovativeness can be defined as the willingness of a consumer to adopt new products, services, or technologies shortly after they are available in the market [4]. Previous literature exposes various types of consumer innovativeness [5]. Of these various types, domain-specific innovativeness stands out for its great capacity to predict new product adoption behavior [5–7]. Domain-specific innovativeness refers to the attitude or predisposition of consumers toward a category or type of products [6]. Already in the specific area of the adoption of technology-based products, previous studies have established that consumers’ domain-specific innovativeness directly and positively affects the adoption of new technological products [8] or the trend to prefer and use technology-based services [9, 10]. Given the importance of the consumer innovativeness construct, various studies have tried to understand it in greater depth by identifying its determining factors. Thus, the frequency of use of the product and the leadership of consumer opinion in the product category have been identified as predictors of consumer innovativeness in relation to a product category [11]. Involvement in a product category, as well as the psychological trait of desiring uniqueness [11, 12], consumer self-confidence, and status seeking [13], have also been identified as predictors of consumer innovativeness. In this search to expand on existing knowledge of the factors determining or associated with consumer innovativeness, this study recognizes the potential of consumers’ temporal focus, which is analyzed in the next section. 2.2 Temporal Focus Temporal focus is the other fundamental construct in the current study, which is the volume of attention that people commit to thinking about the past, present, or future [14, 15]. This construct is related to the concentration of a person on aspects of his/her life, depending on the temporal location of these aspects. People can have multiple temporal focuses. Temporal focus has several central implications for people’s lives. For example, a focus on the past can be detrimental as it is associated with depression [15]. A focus on the present is positively associated with life satisfaction but is also associated with impulsive behaviors [14, 15]. Meanwhile, a focus on the future is associated with abstraction and cognitive thinking, proactivity, optimism, and achievement [14, 15]. Although the concept of temporal focus was born in the field of psychology, it has made its way into the discipline of consumer behavior. Thus, in the field of consumption, a temporal focus on the present is associated with more hedonic consumption choices [16]. On the other hand, consumers with a temporal orientation in the future tend to evaluate more positively brands that reflect their ideal self (not their current self) [17].

Temporal Focus and Innovativeness of Consumers

201

Once the theoretical framework has been exposed, it is necessary to consider that innovative consumers are the first to adopt new and even disruptive products that are associated with cutting-edge technologies and offer benefit flows and operating mechanisms not previously seen in the market. However, with respect to the above, the temporal focus toward the future stands out as a potential explanatory variable for consumer innovativeness. Future orientation would allow consumers tending toward abstract thinking to better understand the characteristics of new products, actively seek them out, enjoy their possession more, and better incorporate them into their lives to build their ideal image. Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed: H1: The temporal focus of consumers on the future is positively associated with their innovative attitude toward technological consumption.

3 Materials and Methods The current study was conceived as a cross-cultural study of two countries: Ecuador, which is a South American developing country, and Russia, which is a Eurasian emerging country. Ecuador has an approximate population of 17 million inhabitants and a per capita gross domestic product (GDP per capita) that exceeds $6,000 a year [18]. Russia, for its part, has a population of 146 million inhabitants, and its GDP per capita reaches $11,585 [19]. The selection of these two countries with marked differences was motivated by the objective of generalizing the results. The current study employed a survey to collect information. The questionnaire consisted of several sections, of which three were relevant for this article: the demographic information section, the section that measured the temporal focus of the respondents, and the section that measured consumer innovativeness in the domain of technologies and technological products. Some central demographic characteristics that were measured were the age, gender, and income of the interviewees. Income was measured as the monthly per capita household income. In the two countries, five income ranges were generated. Considering that in Ecuador the monetary unit is the United States dollar and in Russia it is the ruble, the ranges were different for each country. To measure the temporal focus of the respondents, Shipp et al.’s [14] Temporal Focus Scale (TFS) was used. The aforementioned scale consists of 12 items organized in three dimensions. Thus, the scale uses four items to measure past focus (e.g., “I replay memories of the past in my mind”), four items for current focus (e.g., “I focus on what is currently happening in my life”), and four items for future focus (e.g., “I think about what my future has in store”). Each of these items is answered with a frequency scale (from never to constantly). The present study used a five-point scale for these responses. To measure consumer innovativeness as it applied to technologies and technological products, the respective section containing four items in Parasuraman and Colby’s [20] TRI 2.0 scale was used (e.g., “Other people come to me for advice on new technologies”). TRI 2.0 displays as response options the interviewees’ expressions of disagreement– agreement (Likert scale) with the statements. The current study decided to use a five-point scale for these responses. Given the cultural and economic differences between Ecuador and Russia, the sampling and survey processes were different in the two countries. In the case of Ecuador, the

202

J. Cruz-Cárdenas et al.

survey was carried out in Quito, the capital; the sampling was multi-stage and based on the random selection of census zones. The questionnaire was applied through in-person interviews by survey personnel hired for this purpose. In the case of Russia, the survey was conducted in the city of Chelyabinsk, one of the 10 largest cities in Russia. The sampling was based on a listing of the employees of the largest companies in the city. The questionnaires were applied in person or online to the randomly selected sample. The field work and the structuring and debugging of the databases in the two countries covered a period spanning the last months of 2018 and the first months of 2019. As a result, a final sample of 745 individuals was obtained in Ecuador and 428 in Russia.

4 Analysis and Results Five types of relevant analysis were performed on the collected data: descriptive analysis, reliability analysis of the scales, confirmatory factor analysis, and analysis of invariance of the TFS (due to its extension of 12 items) and multiple regression models. Table 1 presents the main characteristics of the samples in Ecuador and Russia. As demonstrated, the two samples were demographically diverse. Table 1. Characteristics of the samples. Variable

Ecuador (N = 745) Russia (N = 428) (%)

(%)

51.3% 48.7%

59.8% 40.2%

21.7% 24.0% 25.0% 16.8% 12.5%

22.9% 29.7% 23.8% 14.7% 8.9%

8.6% 43.6% 23.9% 10.2% 13.7%

29.9% 30.1% 25.5% 9.1% 5.4%

Gender Woman Man Age (years) Younger than 25 25–34 35–44 45–54 55 and above Monthly household income Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Table 2 presents the means, standard deviations, and reliability measures for the scales used. For the reliability analysis, the Cronbach’s alpha values were estimated. As shown in Table 2, in all cases, the Cronbach’s alpha values obtained far exceeded the established minimum limit of 0.6 [21]. From there, it can be concluded that the scales used have an appropriate reliability.

Temporal Focus and Innovativeness of Consumers

203

Table 2. Means and Cronbach’s alphas of the measurement scales used in the study Ecuador (N = 745)

Russia (N = 428)

Mean (SD)

Cronbach’s alpha

Mean (SD)

Cronbach’s alpha

3.16 (0.84)

0.73

2.62 (0.94)

0.76

TRI 2.0 Innovativeness Temporal focus Past focus

3.34 (0.97)

0.88

3.78 (0.99)

0.89

Current focus

4.24 (0.54)

0.76

3.90 (0.76)

0.72

Future focus

3.70 (0.89)

0.87

3.61 (0.84)

0.79

The next step was to measure the goodness of fit of the TFS in Ecuador and Russia using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). CFA was applied only to the TFS since this scale is multi-dimensional and has 12 items. The indicators used to estimate the goodness of fit were the comparative fit index (CFI) and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA). The results of these parameters for the TFS in Ecuador were a Satorra-Bentler RMSEA of 0.046 and a Satorra-Bentler CFI of 0.971. In the case of Russia, the values obtained were a Satorra-Bentler RMSEA of 0.068 and a Satorra-Bentler CFI of 0.933. These values are within the range that Hair et al. [21] denominated as a good fit. Once the goodness of fit of the TFS was verified in both Ecuador and Russia, the next step was to confirm its invariance; that is, the next step was to verify that the TFS had the same structure and the same meaning in both countries. For this, the configurational model for the two countries together—that is, a model without imposed restrictions—was compared with the restricted model (all factorial loads restricted to be equal) [22]. CFI and RMSEA values of 0.009 and 0.003, respectively, were obtained by comparing the models. If it is considered that the conditions required to confirm invariance are changes in CFI equal to or less than 0.010 and changes in RMSEA equal to or less than 0.015 [23, 24], the results supported the existence of invariance in the TFS. Finally, the last analysis carried out aimed at testing the hypothesis of the study. To achieve this, a multiple regression model was estimated in which consumer innovativeness was the variable to predict. The three temporal orientations were entered as predictors. Additionally, age, gender, and income were incorporated as control variables. As shown in Table 3, the results are very consistent across the two countries. Age is negatively associated with consumer innovativeness. Gender (man) and income are positively associated. Finally, the temporal focus on the future is positively associated with consumer innovativeness; that is, the hypothesis of the study has support in both countries.

204

J. Cruz-Cárdenas et al. Table 3. Results of the consumer innovativeness multiple regression model. Russia

Ecuador

B (SE)

B (SE)

(Constant)

1.86 (0.31)***

2.53 (0.26)***

Age

−0.10 (0.03)** −0.02 (0.00)***

Gender (man)

0.57 (0.09)***

0.35 (0.06)***

Income

0.14 (0.04)***

0.14 (0.02)***

Past focus

−0.08 (0.05)

0.03 (0.03)

Current focus

0.06 (0.06)

0.10 (0.05)

Future focus (H1) 0.15 (0.06)**

0.07 (0.03)*

Total R2

0.17

0.18

Notes: *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001

5 Discussion and Conclusions The current study extends the existing knowledge on the characteristics of innovative consumers. Thus, to characteristics such as consumer opinion leadership [11], involvement with the product and the need for uniqueness [11, 12], consumer self-confidence, and status seeking [13], the present study adds the temporal focus. Specifically, and based on a cross-cultural study, the present study identified that a temporal focus on the future is positively associated with consumer innovativeness. Future studies should verify the present results in other scenarios such as developed countries. An important implication of this study for professional practice pertains to communication strategies for new and disruptive products. The forward-looking trait of innovative consumers (the first adopters of new products) marks the style that the communication strategies of these products can have when they are launched in the market.

References 1. Statista: Number of Smartphone Users from 2016 to 2021. https://www.statista.com/statis tics/330695/number-of-smartphone-users-worldwide/?kw=mobile%20phone%20user&crm tag=adwords&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwd_N7oD57AIVqeiGCh0Tog9HEAAYASAAEgIb 0vD_BwE. Accessed 10 Nov 2020 2. Statista: Global Digital Populations as of July 2020. https://www.statista.com/statistics/617 136/digital-population-worldwide/#:~:text=How%20many%20people%20use%20the,per cent%20of%20the%20global%20population. Accessed 10 Nov 2020 3. Guo, J., Pan, J., Guo, J., Gu, F., Kuusisto, J.: Measurement framework for assessing disruptive innovations. Technol. Forecast. Soc. Chang. 139, 250–265 (2019) 4. Schiffman, L.G., Wisenblit, J.: Consumer Behavior, 11th edn. Pearson, Upper Saddle River (2015) 5. Bartels, J., Reinders, M.J.: Consumer innovativeness and its correlates: a propositional inventory for future research. J. Bus. Res. 64(6), 601–609 (2011)

Temporal Focus and Innovativeness of Consumers

205

6. Goldsmith, R.E., Hofacker, C.F.: Measuring consumer innovativeness. J. Acad. Mark. Sci. 19(3), 209–221 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02726497 7. Hirunyawipada, T., Paswan, A.K.: Consumer innovativeness and perceived risk: implications for high technology product adoption. J. Consum. Mark. 23(4), 182–198 (2006) 8. Chao, C.-W.F., Reid, M., Lai, P.-H., Reimers, V.: Strategic recommendations for new product adoption in the Chinese market. J. Strateg. Mark. 28(2), 176–188 (2020) 9. Cruz-Cárdenas, J., Guadalupe-Lanas, J., Ramos-Galarza, C., Palacio-Fierro, A.: Drivers of technology readiness and motivations for consumption in explaining the tendency of consumers to use technology-based services. J. Bus. Res. 122, 217–255 (2021) 10. Cruz-Cárdenas, J., Zabelina, E., Deyneka, O., Guadalupe-Lanas, J., Velín-Fárez, M.: Role of demographic factors, attitudes toward technology, and cultural values in the prediction of technology-based consumer behaviors: a study in developing and emerging countries. Technol. Forecast. Soc. Change. 149, 1–12 (2019) 11. Jordaan, Y., Simpson, M.N.: Consumer innovativeness among females in specific fashion stores in the Menlyn shopping centre. J. Consum. Sci. 34, 32–40 (2006) 12. Gentina, E., Kratzer, J.: An integrative model of the influence of self-esteem on adolescents’ consumer innovativeness: the mediating role of social network position and need for uniqueness. Ind. Innov. 27(10), 1110–1132 (2020) 13. Jürgensen, K., Guesalaga, R.: Young consumers’ innovativeness in apparel choices: a model including consumer self-confidence. Int. J. Consum. Stud. 42(2), 255–263 (2018) 14. Shipp, A.J., Edwards, J.R., Lambert, L.S.: Conceptualization and measurement of temporal focus: the subjective experience of the past, present, and future. Organ. Behav. Hum. Decis. Process. 110(1), 1–22 (2009) 15. Shipp, A.J., Aeon, B.: Temporal focus: thinking about the past, present, and future. Curr. Opin. Psychol. 26, 37–43 (2019) 16. Otterbring, T.: Time orientation mediates the link between hunger and hedonic choices across domains. Food Res. Int. 120, 124–129 (2019) 17. Tan, T.M., Salo, J., Juntunen, J., Kumar, A.: The role of temporal focus and self-congruence on consumer preference and willingness to pay: a new scrutiny in branding strategy. Eur. J. Mark. 53(1), 37–62 (2019) 18. Central Bank of Ecuador: Informe Estadístico Mensual [Monthly Statistical Report] Nº 2014. https://contenido.bce.fin.ec/home1/estadisticas/bolmensual/IEMensual.jsp. Accessed 20 Oct 2020 19. World Bank: World Development Indicators (2019). https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY. GDP.PCAP.CD?locations=RU. Accessed 20 Oct 2020 20. Parasuraman, A., Colby, C.L.: An updated and streamlined technology readiness index: TRI 2.0. J. Serv. Res. 18(1), 59–74 (2015) 21. Hair, F.H., Black, W.C., Babin, B.J., Anderson, R.E.: Multivariate Data Analysis, 7th edn. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River (2010) 22. Kline, R.B.: Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling, 4th edn. Guilford, New York (2016) 23. Chen, L.D., Gillenson, M.L., Sherrell, D.L.: Enticing online consumers: an extended technology acceptance perspective. Inf. Manag. 39(8), 705–719 (2002) 24. Cheung, G.W., Rensvold, R.B.: Evaluating goodness-of-fit indexes for testing measurement invariance. Struct. Equ. Model. 9(2), 233–255 (2002)

Organizing Global Democratic Collaboration in Crisis Contexts: The International Triangulation System Evangelos Markopoulos1,2(B) , Ines Selma Kirane3 , Dea Balaj3 , and Hannu Vanharanta4 1 Queen Mary University of London, School of Business and Management, 327 Mile End Road,

London E1 4NS, UK [email protected] 2 Turku University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Engineering and Management, Joukahaisenkatu 3, 20520 Turku, Finland 3 Hult International Business School, 35 Commercial Road, London E1 1LD, UK {IKirane2018,DBalaj2018}@student.hult.edu 4 School of Technology and Innovations, University of Vaasa, Wolffintie 34, 65200 Vaasa, Finland [email protected]

Abstract. The 2020 global crisis triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic progressively shut down economies from East to West as the virus spread worldwide. Progressively, nations suffered massive economic losses as their markets became both disrupted and polarized, reflecting public authorities’ weaknesses to collaborate on a socio-economic speed adaptation. Beyond an organizational crisis, significant management and leadership concerns were raised on the sporadic and disjoint initiatives taken across sectors. Paradoxically, big data utilization wasn’t optimized and fully potentialized. It, in turn, leads to a worrying number of R&D waste in time and outputs. Globalized trans-disciplinary and multi-sectorial ecosystems’ intertwined character adds to a Global Alliance’s organizational complexity to operate successfully. This paper proposes the International Collaboration Guideline on Crisis Management (ICGCM), which aims to be automatized by International Triangulation Systems (ITS). Keywords: Business transformation innovation · Global collaborative management · International relations · Project management · Global crisis management · Covid19 · Diplomatic coopetition · Knowledge management · Global alliance · Agile operations

1 Introduction As the world froze in 2020, starting with a viral outburst in China of unknown etiology, spreading from East to West of the globe within two months, the pandemic disrupted international business activities, financial markets, domestic and global economies, © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 206–213, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_25

Organizing Global Democratic Collaboration in Crisis Contexts

207

social interactions, and governmental actions. Yet, the Covid-19 pandemic was not the only major event polarizing markets and endangering populations in 2020. The year marked by multiple crises reminds the global community’s pressing need to collaborate faster and more effectively on commonly faced threats, including bio-hazards, raising inequalities, and climate change symptomatic events. In the past five years, a notable shift has been the cleavage across nations on critical and humanitarian challenges, which even upturned some core democratic principles [1]. More than ever, the “Global Alliance,” a recurrent theme in the post-pandemic literature, needs to be democratically organized.

2 Multifactorial Disruptions of Unprecedented Magnitude The lack of proactive response, efficient communication, and most-importantly agile collaborative organization unleashed markets’ negative externalities on social welfare. It exposed unprecedented volatility in the financialized global economy. It stressed the New Technological Establishment of modern societies. On February 20th , 2020, fifty days after the outbreak, marked the beginning of the Covid-19 recession catalyzed by the US stock market crash in the subsequent two months with 1800 points fall on the opening of the DJIA (08/03/20) [2], 7.6% drop for the S&P500 [3], and an exceptional decrease of the US-Treasury securities’ yield below 0.4% [4]. The Great Lockdown surpassed some losses of the notorious 2008–2009 global crisis [5]. In fact, “the worst crisis since the Great Depression” [6] is forecasted by the World Bank to last until at least 2025 before some recovery signs in the least impacted states show [7]. These consequences are undeniably imputable to organizational glitches, pointed by all parties involved. The 2020 pandemic went from a Health Crisis to an “Organizational Crisis” with the main challenge being solving the coordination and cooperation problems which prevailed across organizations and within partnerships.

3 The Global Coordination Problem in Crisis Management Notably, by a surge of individual initiatives taken by stakeholders from all backgrounds, the pandemic has shown that global proactiveness can solve this challenge. In fact, by late September 2020, over 84,800 research papers had been published on the domain of Covid-19 [8]. Keegan and Tan’s work on tracing a quantitative portrait of wiki collaborations indicates an evident intellectual interest surge (academic, professional, popular). Contributions on the topic are depicted as peaks in article creations and revisions and clicks [9]. However, “waste in research” is part of coordination problems. The pandemic surged the previous astonishing waste level of 85% due to time pressures, disjoint communication means, and a drowning multiplicity of bureaucratic layers. The wasteful outcomes are poor questions, poor study design, inefficient regulation and conduct, and non or poor reporting results [10]. A democratic universal method must be standardized and become the main procedure framework, adaptable for any crisis response to solve this coordination problem.

208

E. Markopoulos et al.

4 The International Collaboration Guideline for Crisis Management (ICGCM) 4.1 Addressing a Potential Organization for the Global Alliance Modern problems require global solutions, as the Covid-19 outbreak reminded the international community that no nation is capable of solely handling unpredictability or hedge against various risks and crisis management on their own. National interest has to be adjacent to global collaboration when human species integrity is at stake. The original model has thus limitations in scope and complexity for international project management and strategic risk hedging. Academics across fields call for greater awareness of international research’s recent dynamic shifts and instantaneous diffusion of temporary and final findings to foster collaboration during threatful episodes [11]. Furthermore, international committees stress the need to address “global economics, the environment, and the future of work” amongst other challenges in a cooperative manner to fulfill the definition of 2021’s global interaction. Thus, this paper proposes the foundation of standardized transnational and international crisis management [12]. The proposed ‘International Collaboration Guideline for Crisis Management’ (ICGCM) can be defined as a general framework, agile enough for individual and contextual arrangements. It provides a cooperative structure for joint crisis management, starting from the threat-identification to its resolution, hedging, or eradication. The ICGCM is here schematized based on its benchmark model but can be road-mapped differently with the core purpose of being an improved organization of collaboration across varied cultures, bureaucracies, and jurisdictions when humanity as a whole faces a critical danger. 4.2 Defining the ICGCM Guideline The Hexa-staged pyramid notoriously represents the original Company Democracy Model (CDM), the ultimate level of which opens the organization’s progress toward extroversion and international upscaling, mainly concerns organizations [13]. This model, driven by a shared value approach, focuses merely on national scale organizations, aiming to restructure for more agility in their internationalization process [14]. The ICGCM extends the CDM in its organizational representation and internal mechanisms, yet focusing on articulating international creative problems solving, design thinking, especially those of human development, humanitarian challenges, and sustainable development, as the pandemic stressed their prevalence. ICGCM’s pyramid shape, by bringing together each face up to its summit, frames a close multilateral collaboration between various centers. This construct is defined between ‘Entities’: countries, headquarters, companies, organizations, laboratories, institutes, and more, depending on the defined initial project. These entities are contextualized in different environments: economies, jurisdictions, and market configurations, as shown in Fig. 1.

Organizing Global Democratic Collaboration in Crisis Contexts

209

Fig. 1. The mainstream representation of the ICGCM: International Standard Collaboration Guideline for Crisis Management, (levels 7–12).

4.3 Applying the ICGCM Each ICGCM face represents a unilateral collaboration between two entities, which support specific levels adapted to the participants. The six levels are not ambiguous in a formulation as they can be tailored for each face, increasing the efficiency, effectiveness, resilience, and agility of the collaboration. The six levels presented in the ICGCM are only informative and could be adapted for each collaboration for effective partnership. Each edge of the pyramid scales the Entity’s evolution in terms of competitiveness and collaborative value, stressing each Entity’s critical importance in their individual and shared progress. The ICGCM comprises three stages, each subdivided into levels, the label of which is only an indicative status for the collaborating Entities. The brief example is based on the global research for a vaccine at the pandemic declaration in early 2020 (Table 1). The transition from intra- to extra-Entity project scaling and development stipulates the Company Democracy Model as an intra-entity between level 6 (CDM) and 7 (ICGCM) stands the critical moment internationalization where domestic and local organizations can cluster into unified Entities. This International Collaboration Synchronization defines the moment where entities are developed based on their stakeholder reach, size, representativity, and, more importantly, their expertise. In the “Covid-19 vaccine development” narrative, certain research-hospital conglomerates like the French IHU

210

E. Markopoulos et al.

Table 1. Research reference table of the ICGCM, levels explanation, rationale for modification upon contexts and projects, and a covid-19 example. Guideline stage

Levels labels

Competitive edge & collaborative value scale

Example

Unbiased Customs Establishment

(Level. 7) Netting the national bias, creating organizational neutrality

Democratic culture establishment, varied netting jurisdictions, economies, and cultural market spaces

(Level. 8) Standardizing transparent and continuous communication

Transnational Democratic Communication and Knowledge Sharing Engines

Identify best tangible resources, assess market authorization procedures, flag intangible strength, and weaknesses in public health change management

(Level. 9) Engineering and Design-thinking processes synchronization

R&D methodologies development based on available intellectual capital

Collaborative R&D

Vaccine research: split the methods (RTPCR, Antigenic, etc.)

(Level. 10) Prototypes R&D output design Creation & Output proposals and Retro-control production engineering Democratic (Level. 11) Benefits Retribution Democratic Innovation implementation following global needs or demand (Level. 12) Democratic benefits retribution according to the pro-rated participative activity

Assess national needs for innovation and prepare domestic implementation across markets, demographics, sectors

Collaboration on vaccine distribution and post-vaccinal follow-up

Fair-share allocation upon the performance of the parties involved

Distribution of contributions recognition, intellectual property rights, and commercialization rights and limitations

Marseille Méditerranée stand out as an Entity on their own due to its material capacity, infrastructure, knowledge, expertise, and insights on infectious diseases. However, South Africa as a whole country might gather all its relevant organizations, in this case, medical institutions, as one Entity, as the means provided by each one of them wouldn’t be sufficient to collaborate internationally.

Organizing Global Democratic Collaboration in Crisis Contexts

211

5 Coordinating Parallel ICGCMs Geographically and Across Disciplines: Federating the Global Alliance 5.1 The ITP: International Triangulation Procedure The International Triangulation Procedure represents the processes allowing multiple ICGCM pyramids of transnational or sectorial collaboration to be connected to the same summit. The International Triangulation Systems includes all innovative systems and emerging technologies in the Industrialization 4.0 era to be integrated for a faster, more agile, less bureaucratic, and continuously revised objectives planning, execution, and scaling. In this metaphorical/symbolic representation, bringing all summits into a common point implies collaborating on a global goal, for instance ceasing the Covid-19 pandemic by finding a standard pharmaceutical protocol or creating a novel vaccine. 5.2 The International Triangulation System (ITS) In the ITS, all pyramids must juxtapose against a common axis, conferring the concerned Entities of the central role of coordinator committee (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2. Integration of the international triangulation procedure

According to experts and decision-makers’ seniority, the coordinator committees’ positions are decided at the beginning of the process. These committees act as guardians for fair collaboration practice and thoughtful prospects of innovations. They must be strategically oriented in two directions for each Aggregate (Transnational Pyramid) to facilitate internal control and operations optimization between them.

212

E. Markopoulos et al.

One approach the coordinating Entity can follow on its effort to internally organize the International Triangulation Procedure is to operate on basis of the Co-Evolutionary Spiral Method. In this case a division at an inferior level sends feedback to another other division who studies along with its aggregate an alternative method for improved pertinence and performance. This strategic consulting is sent back and forth among other divisions in this process scaling up the levels. To achieve continuous and incremental improvement, re-entries in the spiral are possible if mismatches or delays occur between the aggregates [15]. Figure 2 indicates that knowledge derived from either side of the divisions at level 7 (i.e., noted E-L7 for European entered division at Level 7) is sent in a feedback path from the opposed division. The central committee evaluates this feedback by the cluster progress. It synthesizes its recommendations in an internal consulting format sent back to the division, leveling-up the knowledge progression. If the feedback analysis indicates the proposals’ poor application, the division descents one or more levels to complete or repeat the research needed to achieve the level’s requirements and advance to the next. The automation of this system via cloud computing programs, artificial intelligence as expert systems, and the securitization of information, smart contracts, and big/metadata via blockchain is the next step that will provide practical applicability to the ITS. The coordination in the ITP (Fig. 2) can be human-managed whenever the Entity’s size, expertise, and resources permit it. Otherwise, innovative systems intervene in bridging two Entities that cannot, for diplomatic reasons, time constraints, or unforeseen factors, provide a neutral and open data sharing and analysis. Such an approach would answer the post-pandemic literature, which stresses the time and resource savings intelligent systems can provide when given an international synchronized reach [16].

6 Conclusions The ICGCM proposed in this paper can be considered as a candidate model for consensual standardization by international organizations and professional associations. It stresses the critical importance of systematizing collaborative networks in global crisis response. It creates the space needed for democratic knowledge contributions from any Entity anywhere in the world [17]. This approach helps Entities organize their projects, reduce their environment’s false alarms or inaccurate information, and facilitate collaborative focus. The mindset applied stands on the four pillars for collaborative crisis management and unity which are Synthesis (ideating together), Symbiosis (being together), Synergy (acting together), and Synchronicity (timing together). Further research will be conducted on resolving challenges such as intellectual property rights distribution, international legislative changes, commercialization rights distribution, pricing, research funding allocation, and others related to the model’s practical and ethical operations that follow any success achieved at the research level. The Covid-19 pandemic tested the world’s international cooperation, capability, capacity, and maturity in addressing the global crisis. It indicated the need for unity, the adaptation of more democratic procedures for collaborative thinking in a co-opetitive and not competitive way, and the joint transformation of knowledge into practical wisdom [18]. The first version of the ICGCM aims to set co-opetitive global networks that

Organizing Global Democratic Collaboration in Crisis Contexts

213

can proactively, preferably, or reactively address critical, humanitarian, and sustainable challenges with unity.

References 1. Time Magazine. https://time.com/5919494/person-of-the-year-2020-editors-letter/ 2. MSNBC. https://www.msnbc.com/stephanie-ruhle/watch/stocks-plunge-at-market-open-tra ding-halts-after-dow-drops-1800-points-803195578623 3. Fortune. https://fortune.com/2020/03/09/dow-jones-sp-500-today-nasdaq-stock-marketcrash-2020/ 4. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/09/10-year-treasury-yield-plunges.html. 5. BloombergQuint. https://www.bloombergquint.com/business/global-great-lockdown-willdwarf-the-great-recession 6. Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-slump-is-worst-since-greatdepression-will-it-be-as-painful-11589115601 7. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/14/great-lockdown-corona virus-to-rival-great-depression-with-3-hit-to-global-economy-says-imf 8. Cardosso, C., Galou, E., Kervella, A., Kwok, P.: Data Power, Eyrolles Editions (2020) 9. Keegan, B., Tan, C.: A quantitative portrait of Wikipedia’s high-tempo collaborations during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. arXiv:2006.08899 (2020) 10. Glasziou, P., Sanders, S., Hoffman, T.: Waste in Covid-19 research. Bio-Med. J. BMJ 369, m1847 (2020) 11. Fry, C.V., Cai, X., Zhang, Y., Wagner, C.S.: Consolidation in a crisis: patterns of international collaboration in early COVID-19 research. PLoS ONE 15(7), e0236307 (2020) 12. Vision of Humanity. https://www.visionofhumanity.org/davos-2021-calls-for-greater-globalcollaboration-peace/ 13. Markopoulos, E., Vanharanta, H.: Democratic culture paradigm for organizational management and leadership strategies - the company democracy model. In: Charytonowicz, J. (ed.) Advances in Human Factors and Sustainable Infrastructure. 5th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics, vol. 20, pp. 190–201 (2014) 14. Markopoulos, E., Vanharanta, H.: Company democracy model for development of shared value. Procedia Manuf. 3, 603–610 (2015) 15. Markopoulos, E., Kirane, I.S., Balaj, D., Vanharanta, H.: Artificial intelligence and blockchain technology adaptation for human resources democratic ergonomization on team management. In: Ahram, T., Karwowski, W., Pickl, S., Taiar, R. (eds.) IHSED 2019. AISC, vol. 1026, pp. 445–455. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27928-8_68 16. Peiffer-Smadja, N., Maatoug, R., Lescure, F.X., et al.: Machine learning for COVID-19 needs global collaboration and data-sharing. Nat. Mach. Intell. 2, 293–294 (2020) 17. Markopoulos, E., Vanharanta, H.: Space for company democracy. In: Kantola, J.I., Barath, T., Nazir, S., Andre, T. (eds.) Advances in Human Factors, Business Management, Training and Education. AISC, vol. 498, pp. 275–287. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/ 978-3-319-42070-7_26 18. Vanharanta, H., Markopoulos, E.: Visualization of the wisdom cube scientific knowledge space for management and leadership. In: Kantola, J.I., Nazir, S. (eds.) AHFE 2019. AISC, vol. 961, pp. 14–25. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20154-8_2

Knowledge and New Technology

Identification of Potentials for the Personalization of Products Manfred Dangelmaier1,2(B) , Lesley-Ann Mathis1 , Daniel Ziegler2 , and Anette Weisbecker1,2 1 Institute of Human Factors and Technology Management (IAT), University of Stuttgart,

Nobelstr. 12, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany {manfred.dangelmaier,lesley-ann.mathis, anette.weisbecker}@iat.uni-stuttgart.de 2 Fraunhofer IAO, Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO, Nobelstr. 12, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany {manfred.dangelmaier,daniel.ziegler, anette.weisbecker}@iao.fraunhofer.de

Abstract. Individualization is considered a megatrend in postmodern societies. The markets react with the individualization of products. However, many approaches fail after considerable sums have already been invested. Therefore, this paper presents a benefit-oriented method to identify potentials for the personalization of products. It first accompanies the product through its life cycle (product journey) in order to identify various users and then these users on their user journey in order to observe the product experience. From these observations, a set of ideas for personalization is derived, which together with the associated benefits represent the personalization potential. The method has successfully been tested by individuals and teams in face-to-face workshops and online events using scenarios from the mobility, construction and service sectors. The learning effort is low. The personnel input per analysis amounts to approx. 150 h. The method is to be further evaluated using concrete use cases in industrial practice. Keywords: Mass personalization · Product development · Innovation potentials · Product journey · User journey

1 Problem and Objective Individualization is considered a stable megatrend and a determining factor for postmodern societies [1]. Markets are responding to this with the individualization of products. The classic approach to product personalization through mass customization focusses on the idea of differentiation as a market strategy [2]. Mass customization adapts the product to customer needs at the time of the purchase decision. Changes of users’ needs during the product life cycle are typically not anticipated. In contrast, we use the term “mass personalization” to emphasize the further development of mass customization under the changed boundary conditions of today’s product creation. It focuses on radical usercentricity and the benefits for all users over the entire life cycle of a product instance [3, 4] exploiting the cost advantages of mass production and automated end-to-end processes. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 217–224, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_26

218

M. Dangelmaier et al.

However, many personalized products do not meet the expectations placed in them and serve only a niche market or, in the worst case, fail after considerable sums have already been invested in their development and production. Therefore, a method or tool for strategic product management is being sought that can be used to identify the potential for personalizing products with little effort.

2 State of the Art Most existing methods for personalization in product creation follow a process-oriented sequential approach. Requirements are elicited first and in the second step, products are adapted accordingly (e.g. [5, 6]). However, the meaningfulness of the product adjustments from the user perspective as well as the cost-benefit ratio are not in the focus of these methods. They start rather late in the development process, are too time-consuming, and are tailored to conventional mass customization. In innovation management, identifying the potential of new technologies in early phases plays a crucial role in meeting the needs of the market and users [7]. Foresight methods like the scenario technique are used to show development possibilities through extrapolation and to derive new fields of action by identifying influencing factors [8]. However, if the direction of the innovation is already determined - towards personalization in our case - this method is not suitable. In addition, those methods are targeted at technologies rather than users. More recent approaches in innovation management, on the other hand, focus on interaction and customer centricity in the product development process. Examples include methods such as Design Thinking or Empathy Maps, which actively involve the user in the adaptation process and are thus intended to ensure the success of new developments [9]. Hence, recent approaches show a shift from analytical to participatory methods, with a focus on the user perspective. This user perspective is mostly represented in the area of usability and customer experience engineering. For example, customer journeys are an established tool for modelling the customer experience. Their roots lie primarily in service engineering [10] but it is also widely used in marketing [11–13]. A customer journey deals with the touchpoints customers have with a company’s offering over a period of time, while the considered time period can vary widely [14]. Customer journey maps can be used to analyze the surveyed or presumed current state of an existing offering as well as to shape the target state of a product or service to be adapted or created [14]. Typically, customers and users are assumed to be the same person and not changing over the time period under consideration. Hence, people who may encounter the service in roles other than as a customer are often not considered. The occasionally used term “user journey” is predominantly understood as a synonym [14], but might in practice indicate that other groups of users and their experience of use (user experience) are also considered. Customer journey mapping can also be applied in an adapted form to industrial product-service systems [15]. The considered procurement decisions and processes in the business-to-business environment are characterized by the involvement of stakeholders with different roles. The authors therefore stress the necessity to identify all relevant participants prior to the actual mapping process [15]. However, the focus on

Identification of Potentials for the Personalization of Products

219

the procurement process means that end users were not considered in the case studies described. To sum up, there are relevant approaches and methodical components related to the defined problem, but no integrated method and no tool, which fulfil the needs for a user-centric and lifecycle-aware personalization.

3 Methodological Approach The basic idea behind differentiation through mass customization [2] is the willingness of customers to pay for the benefits of personalization. Benefits are usually understood as a measure of products’ ability to satisfy needs [16]. We follow this view and focus on finding personalization options for a product which satisfy needs of customers or users better than the current state without personalization. The notion of need is not limited to certain types of requirements and includes functional, economic, as well as procedural utility needs as well as emotional and social ones. By potential we understand a set of development possibilities for a product. They are represented by the set of development options that better fulfil user needs and thus deliver added value. Therefore, personalization potentials consist of a set of personalization options together with needs, which can be fulfilled in addition for the customer or user. In the user-centered lifecycle approach both users and their needs may change. Needs can be person-dependent, time-dependent and/or situation-dependent. Users may include “end users” of the product as well as production workers, maintenance personnel or recyclers. They can be natural persons such as John Doe or corporate bodies such as a company operating the product. The fulfilment of needs happens through interaction between user and product at their touchpoints (Fig. 1). Interactions may also occur in pre- and post-usage stages like marketing experience, purchase process, and product disposal.

Fig. 1. Product and user journeys

According to this model, personalization options can be found when considering interactions between users and the product over the lifetime of a product. Ideally, all

220

M. Dangelmaier et al.

possible users in all possible states and all possible interactions are considered in order to develop personalization ideas for them and evaluate them regarding their benefits. In real life, we must limit our efforts and work with user samples and representative interactions to identity potentials. It is well known from user-centered product design [17] that in usability engineering working with small user samples is sufficient to identify optimization potentials. Observation (field studies), user surveys (interviews), or the use of prior knowledge of individuals or groups (workshops) are appropriate for the examination of interaction. The latter is particularly suitable for interdisciplinary groups in companies for orienting work on their product portfolios and product strategies. Costs, personnel capacity and implementation time are comparatively low for this case. The procedures to be applied will not require any special expertise and will be familiar at least to some of the players involved. Techniques from usability engineering and market research are particularly helpful here, since they start with the customers and their needs. We take up the principle of the customer or user journey mentioned above and apply it twofold (Fig. 1). First, we accompany a product on its way from the cradle to the grave in order to identify the users with whom it comes into contact. We call this lifecycle consideration the product journey, borrowing from the notion of product journey mapping, which has been also applied in the context of sustainability studies [18]. We then follow users on their journey from initial contact with the product to the end of use, where we look at interactions with the product to find ideas for personalization. We call those user journeys, in agreement with the terminology used in marketing and usability or user experience engineering.

4 Method and Tool for the Analysis of Potentials Based on this approach, a tool for the analysis of potentials using product and user journeys was developed for small and medium-sized teams. It can be used synchronously or asynchronously both in face-to-face workshops and in digital collaboration. An interdisciplinary team with people from e.g. marketing/sales, portfolio and product management and production as well as representative users is recommended for the implementation of the method in order to be able to cover all relevant aspects. For identifying users in the product journey, we use the concept of personas, which describes users and their goals [19]. Since creating validated personas is very timeconsuming, we chose proto-personas which are quickly to implement [20]. Protopersonas are created in brainstorming sessions [20] and in our case, are described in a minimalistic way by a combination of first and last name. The last name represents a character trait or activity of the user (e.g., Colin Commute). The first name is used for naming and to perceive the persona as a person. The proto-personas are plotted as users along the horizontal axis in a product journey schema (see Fig. 2). The lifecycle of the product is followed to identify relevant personas as far as possible. Subsequently, the proto-personas are prioritized regarding their representativeness for the relevant target groups. The value development per user is analyzed and the experienced benefit or the quality of the user experience is represented by positioning the persona on the vertical axis. Depending on the product, the graph can also show the course of value creation or value development (e.g., for real estate).

Identification of Potentials for the Personalization of Products

221

Fig. 2. Product journey schema with example for an e-scooter (translated from German)

Fig. 3. User journey schema with example for the proto-persona “Tim Tourist” (translated from German)

Then we perform a user journey for the selected proto-personas by analyzing their interactions with the product for their typical use case. Each user journey is documented using a schema as shown in Fig. 3. The stations of the user journey are named and plotted along the horizontal axis over time, while the vertical axis quantifies the user experience. Based on the interactions at the touchpoints, suggestions for improving the user experience are identified and options for personalization are specified. Not all ideas for improving the user experience might be related to personalization, but they represent further development potential. For each personalization option, the benefit for the customer (added value or fulfilled need from the user’s perspective) is explicitly specified. Then the cost-benefit ratio is estimated from the company’s point of view and qualitatively evaluated with plus or minus in a simple case. The set of personalization

222

M. Dangelmaier et al.

options with a positively assessed cost-benefit ratio together with their customer benefits represent the personalization potential, which is the final result.

5 Exemplary Testing The method for potential analysis with product and user journey was tested based on three products: hotel accommodation, real estate and electric scooter. Since the testing was mostly conducted after the COVID-19 outbreak, the methodology is also designed for digital formats. Testing took place within the project team as face-to-face workshops and online events and was conducted several times online with external participants. The use of the developed schemas enables collaborative processing of the respective journey as well as rapid visualization in virtual workshops. In the following, the example “e-scooter” is described, which was carried out iteratively with different users to demonstrate the applicability of the method. The e-scooter was used as a product example in external testing because it is readily accessible to participants and has been a feature of the urban landscape recently. The company in this example is a fictional scooter operator named “Yes” which provides e-scooters in a sharing mode. These can be rented by the user with the help of an app by paying for the time and distance of the ride. In the product journey, proto-personas for the lifecycle of the e-scooter were identified together with the external participants (see Fig. 2). The course of the graph describes the user experience. The proto-persona Tim Tourist was selected as one of the prioritized target groups for the e-scooter. An exemplary user journey for the use case sightseeing in Berlin starts with the initial contact with the product and ends with the start-up (see Fig. 3). Personalization options with a positively evaluated cost-benefit ratio include, for example, personalized prices and a personalized payment process, which lead to a price advantage and greater transparency for the user. In terms of effort, our examples show that a product journey as well as a user journey, should be estimated at 1.5 h. For a simple potential analysis, one can assume 5 personas [21]. This results in a time expenditure of 6 sessions of 1.5 h each in addition to the effort for the preparation by the organizer and the moderator. In total, this means 9 h per participant and with 5 participants, amounts to 45 h of personnel input for the participants. If the organizer or moderator is familiar with the method and content, 2 weeks of working time for preparation, implementation and follow-up are to be estimated. Realistically, an analysis can be carried out within one month, with a personnel input of 150 h. This applies if the participants are readily available. It assumes digital implementation in the case of distributed participants.

6 Discussion and Future Work The need for the presented method is based on the insight that personalization in itself does not deliver any added value customers are willing to pay for. It therefore aims to identify potentials that establish customer value. It combines radical user-centeredness, lifecycle orientation, and the search for benefits for the customer or user of the product,

Identification of Potentials for the Personalization of Products

223

without ignoring the cost-benefit ratio for the manufacturer or operator. It is thus suitable for identifying personalization potentials in early phases of product innovation and development. The method was tested using examples from the mobility, construction and service sectors and its applicability to physical products and services was demonstrated. The application to the e-scooter example, which was fictitious for the participants, shows that the method can also be applied to new developments if there is at least a basic product idea to sketch a product journey. When used for the enhancement of existing products, on the other hand, extensive experience or existing market research results can be used as input to improve the quality of the outcome. The trials with external participants confirm the method is applicable in workshops with an appropriate learning effort. This should especially be rated against the fact that the tests were carried out both in face-to-face workshops and in online formats with limited interaction possibilities. In order to adapt the method to different starting situations, there are various scaling options. In an iterative-incremental approach, it can make sense to start with a coarse product journey and only a few user journeys in order to first structure the existing assumptions. In further iterations, insights previously gained in evaluations can be used to further detail these or to consider additional relevant user groups. In this way, the effort per iteration can be kept low. Conversely, individual methodological components such as the proto-personas can easily be replaced by more detailed approaches, or upstream empirical user research can be supplemented. The method therefore offers the necessary flexibility to be adapted to specific requirements from the company’s point of view and to make further use of any findings already available. Acknowledgments. The authors would like to thank the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Ministry of Science, Research and Arts of Baden-Württemberg and the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labor and Housing Construction of Baden-Württemberg for the financial support of the projects within the High-Performance Center for Mass Personalization Stuttgart.

References 1. Hornik, A., et al.: Zukunft von Wertvorstellungen der Menschen in unserem Land. https:// www.vorausschau.de/files/BMBF_Foresight_Wertestudie_Langfassung.pdf 2. Piller, F.T.: Mass customization. Ein wettbewerbsstrategisches Konzept im Informationszeitalter. Dt. Univ.-Verl., Wiesbaden (2006) 3. Hämmerl, R., Dangelmaier, M.: Mass Personalization und die Erfolgsfaktoren nach dem Stuttgarter Modell. ZWF 113, 730–733 (2018) 4. Held, M., et al.: Personalization in the automotive and building sector – research program of the high-performance center “mass personalization” in Stuttgart. In: 8th International Conference on Mass Customization and Personalization – Community of Europe (MCP - CE 2018), Novi Sad, Serbia (2018) 5. Kaneko, K., Kishita, Y., Umeda, Y.: Toward developing a design method of personalization: proposal of a personalization procedure. Procedia CIRP 69, 740–745 (2018) 6. Baumberger, G.C.: Methoden zur kundenspezifischen Produktdefinition bei individualisierten Produkten. Verl. Dr. Hut, München (2007)

224

M. Dangelmaier et al.

7. Ardilio, A., Laib, S.: Technologiepotenzialanalyse. Vorgehensweise zur Identifikation von Entwicklungspotenzialen neuer Technologien. In: Bullinger, H.-J. (ed.) Fokus Technologie. Chancen erkennen - Leistungen entwickeln, pp. 175–217. Hanser, München (2008) 8. Schimpf, S., Lang-Koetz, C.: Technologiemonitoring. Technologien identifizieren, beobachten und bewerten. Fraunhofer IAO, Stuttgart (2010) 9. Schoblik, J., Kölmel, B., Bulander, R., Richter, A., Waidelich, L.: Methoden des kundenzentrierten Innovationsmanagements als Basis der personalisierten Produkt-/Servicegestaltung. In: Deutscher Dialogmarketing Verband e.V. (ed.) Dialogmarketing Perspektiven 2019/2020. Springer, Wiesbaden (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-29456-4_1 10. Stickdorn, M., Schneider, J.: This is Service Design Thinking. Basics, Tools Cases . Wiley, Hoboken (2011) 11. Janson, A.: Der Kunde im Fokus: Das Konzept der Customer Journey. GRIN Verlag, München (2012) 12. Keller, B., Ott, C.S. (eds.): Touchpoint Management. Entlang der Customer Journey erfolgreich agieren. Haufe Group, Freiburg, München, Stuttgart (2019) 13. Theobald, E., Jentschke, M.: Kundenzentriertes Markenmanagement. Effektive Markenführung entlang der Customer Experience Journey. Springer, Wiesbaden (2020). https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-658-28022-2 14. Følstad, A., Kvale, K.: Customer journeys: a systematic literature review. JSTP 28, 196–227 (2018) 15. West, S., Stoll, O., Østerlund, M., Csernetzky, P.M., Keiderling, F., Kowalkowski, C.: Adjusting customer journey mapping for application in industrial product-service systems. IJBE 11, 275–297 (2020) 16. Kirchgeorg, M.: Gabler Wirtschaftslexikon. https://wirtschaftslexikon.gabler.de/definition/ kundennutzen-39021/version-262440 17. Nielsen, J., Landauer, T.K.: A mathematical model of the finding of usability problems. In: Arnold, B., van der Veer, G., White, T. (eds.) Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in computing Systems - CHI 1993, pp. 206–213. ACM Press, New York (1993) 18. Ellen MacArthur Foundation: Product Journey Mapping. https://www.circulardesignguide. com/post/product-lifecycle-mapping 19. Cooper, A.: The Inmates are Running the Asylum. SAMS, Indianapolis (1999) 20. Gotthelf, J.: Using Proto-Personas for Executive Alignment. https://uxmag.com/articles/ using-proto-personas-for-executive-alignment 21. Nielsen, J.: Why You Only Need to Test with 5 Users. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ why-you-only-need-to-test-with-5-users/

Digital Museum Transformation Strategy Against the Covid-19 Pandemic Crisis Evangelos Markopoulos1,2(B) , Cristina Ye3 , Panagiotis Markopoulos4 , and Mika Luimula1 1 Faculty of Engineering and Management, Turku University of Applied Sciences,

Joukahaisenkatu 3, 20520 Turku, Finland {evangelos.markopoulos,mika.luimula}@turkuamk.fi 2 School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London, 327 Mile End Road, GB, London E1 4NS, UK 3 Hult International Business School, 35 Commercial Road, London E1 1LD, UK [email protected] 4 School of Science and Engineering, University of Turku, Turun yliopisto, 20014 Turku, Finland [email protected]

Abstract. During the last decade, the art industry and especially the museums, the art galleries and the auctions has stagnated due to the global financial crisis (2007–2017) and latest lockdowns brought by the Covid-19 pandemic (2020-). Many art institutions introduced digital technologies into their operations and transitioned to the online art market. Visits to art exhibitions include interaction with other visitors of similar interests. Hence, digital art venues must create the same environment vibes and offer similar opportunities as the physical ones. The paper indicates the application of the avatar technology as an interaction method in digital museum spaces. It also provides the functional requirements, a navigation process, and the implementation scenarios for the adaptation of such technologies. The application of this digital strategy can transform the art market, contribute to the museum’s sustainability, and offer the public different ways of learning and entertainment. Keywords: Art tech · Digital museums · Gamification · Avatar · Culture · Technology · Covid-19 · Virtual spaces · Virtual reality · Innovation

1 Introduction The ‘museum’ definition has changed over the years, but its core concept remains the same. In 2004, the International Council of Museums (ICOM) has brought forward a new way to define museums. The latter is not anymore just a permanent institution in the service of the society, but a business capable of diversified actions to attract visitors, scientists, sponsors, and investors [1]. Museums start to use different business approaches to increase their visitors and offer creative and interactive services. However, this does not seem to deliver the expected © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 225–234, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_27

226

E. Markopoulos et al.

results due to several barriers which prevent people from enjoying art such as lack of time, high admission fees, cultural barriers, health/disability issues, and unattractiveness of exhibitions, among others [2]. Compared to the number of people and groups who had access to art in the past, modern times have more art consumers due to the development of new and interactive technologies such as the virtual reality, virtual spaces, avatars, and others. Museums and art galleries intensified their online presence by offering different virtual art exhibitions and tours. Many of these technologies already existed but with limited use as emphasis was given on the physical visitors, however the Covid-19 pandemic boosted their effectiveness and opened new opportunities. In general, the art market can become more accessible everywhere, globalized, and without logistic and financial obstacles. It must be noted that the digital technologies are not at the state to fully replace a physical art institution, but they can certainly make the art consumption affordable and accessible to anyone.

2 Covid-19: Need of Digital Art In March 2020, and a few months after the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak, the situation became uncontrollable forcing many countries to declare national and long-term repeated lockdowns. The cost of this confinement is both economical and psychological. In fact, according to a report by International Council of Museums (ICOM) which counts 1.600 respondents from museums visitors and museum professionals in 107 countries, during the period of April 7 till May 7 2020, 94.7% of the participants replied that their institutions have been closed [3]. Besides the economic issues, Covid-19 brought a considerable additional damage to the population well-being. The social isolation driven by the confinement has increased the level of loneliness in many people. According to the Google Trends index, during the period of confinement, March 2020 to May 2020, many searches have been recorded with words such as ‘loneliness’ and ‘boredom’ [4]. Hence, it is important to engage such vulnerable categories in activities and opportunities that could improve their feelings and mental health. The use of advanced digital technologies helped balance, to an extent, the psychological impact of the imposed isolations. Many platforms and tech-tools have been offered to provide social and cognitive support to the people [5], but also to support the art institutions’ economy. The transition to the online art market offered an alternative way to visit museums and other exhibitions spaces from home and proved to be a wise strategy, as the strict lockdowns remain with no sign of improvement [6]. This paper aims to indicate that the art market economic stagnation during the Covid19 pandemic can been lifted with the use of emerging technologies and the increase of the online presence and online services of art institutions. Nevertheless, the latter does not provide the possibility of physical interaction between visitors, but finds many supporters who seek a new way of social interaction and entertainment in a very difficult period that tends to be last much longer than expected. The paper emphasizes on the introduction and adaptation of avatar technology in virtual museums spaces that enhance the digital experience. Such technologies service

Digital Museum Transformation Strategy

227

can remain in used even the post-C19 period for those unable to visit museums and/or socialise due to financial, logistical and/or physical issues. It can be considered that VR and avatars democratise the accessibility to art institutions.

3 Research Methodology and Key Results The data used in this thesis derive from both primary and secondary research. The secondary research has been conducted with a comprehensive study on official websites of major museums around the world, and on an extended literature review on reports, books and articles concerning the art market, emerging technologies, and their impact on the economy. The primary research was mainly conducted with a survey with 530 respondents reinforcing the fact that not many people visit art institutions in their city or on holidays due to different socio-economic barriers. Based on the conducted survey, the main obstacles to hinder people visiting art institutions are time, money, cultural knowledge, physical disabilities and unattractiveness of offered exhibitions. These have brought the art market to stall. In addition, the Covid19 pandemic crisis with the continuous lockdown was devastating for the art and the museums industry. The latter brought many businesses to close or to seriously risk their operations, including art institutions [7]. The museums’ reaction to these issues has been the transition to an online art market and continue to entertain art-lovers, and not only, during the lockdowns. Nevertheless, Covid-19 also increased the level of solitude. The social interaction vibes of art institutions must be reconstructed to reduce loneliness and increase engagement.

4 The COVID-19 Impact and Opportunities on Digital Art Online virtual museums offer different experiences and ways of learning. They provide various opportunities to the public to visit an art institution anytime and anywhere from their own pace. Indeed, the online presence by museums across the globe has intensified during the Covid-19 pandemic period [8]. A report from the Networks of European Museums Organisations (NEMO) which analysed around 1000 surveys from 48 museums, mainly in Europe, has shown (Fig. 1) that 4 out of 5 museums increased their digital services to reach their audiences [9].

Fig. 1. Increase of museum online service. Forecast [9].

228

E. Markopoulos et al.

Furthermore, half of the respondents stated that their museum provides now one or more new online services and offers permanent and temporary museum exhibitions (Fig. 2) mainly on communication, education, video production and entertainment activities.

Fig. 2. Popularity of museum online services [9].

The cultural industry digitalisation has intensified the consumption and globalisation of art. The key technologies that impact this transformation are the artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), but also cryptocurrency and blockchain. Each one of these technologies contribute from a different perspective, covering the utilization of the big data and decision-making opportunities, to immersive engagement up to the safe and digital transactions. Table 1 indicates some application of these technologies in the digital museum operations. Table 1. Contribution of advanced technologies in the art market. Artificial intelligence

VR and AR

Cryptocurrency and blockchain

Find an artwork by uploading an unlabelled image

Dynamic experience within virtual environment

Improve authentication and provenance of artworks

Suggestion of exhibitions based on recent searches, visits, and personality

360° on-screen views of every artwork

Protect the privacy of the art collectors

Storytelling service in virtual museums

Projection of artwork anywhere

Traceability of art sales and commissions Fractional ownership of art through tokenization

Digital Museum Transformation Strategy

229

The development of virtual environments has a critical role in the digital museums transformation as they recreate physical spaces for activities and operations into digital spaces. The user can walk around the virtual space with a similar navigation process used in Google Maps. Virtual spaces can act as learning systems with highly interactive information regarding the artwork (history period, artists, techniques) or any digital object, exhibit, or information tab. Online institutions complement and fill the gap of the physical institutions by opening the accessibility to a wider range of public and improve the museum’s efficiency in terms of time, revenue and service offered [10]. This digital transformation of the museums changes the role of the consumers/visitors from passive to active. Visitors don’t walk around and observe the exhibits, but they have unlimited time to interact and examine any artwork. On average a proper museum visit lasts 2 h at least [11], but this does not assure that the visitor will observe and study all the exhibitions of his/her interest. The size of the art institutions and the kind of exhibitions offered might require a second or third visit which does not usually happen. Digital museums change the perceptions of the exhibited artwork and induce visitors to stay more in front of an exhibit and practically live the experience.

5 Towards Gamified and Digital Museums Digital technologies can change the way art institutions operate, but the challenge will be on addressing the social dimension they impact. According to primary research conducted survey 65.2% of the participants consider art institutions as a place to meet new people and socialise. This demand-gap can be filled with the introduction of avatar technology that can operate in the same way with the video games. Gamification can be used to recreate and increase avatar-based social interaction within virtual museums. The development of characters to interact within the virtual environment is becomes a global market trend. The idea of adding games features into non-game systems started to spread in 2010 with the goal to enhance the consumers’ attractiveness and their whole experience [12]. Industries like the automobile racing and F1, in particular, have been studied the way gamification [13] and virtual reality can increase sponsorships [14] and maintain their client base and fans. Furthermore, the use of avatars in gamified businesses applications is considered a marketing strategy [15] which can be monetized globally (Fig. 3). Many art institutions introduced games into their physical environments making the museum visit more social, interactive, and attractive but without the use of gamification technologies for immersion and engagement, omitting research that insists on the significance of the gamified experience. This reflects the reality on the degree of awareness art institution have on their practical and actual understating of the gamified services and operations.

230

E. Markopoulos et al.

Unlike the art industry the gaming industry transformed the Covid-19 crisis into an opportunity to enter the virtual museum market. Nintendo release on 20 March 2020 the game ‘Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ which gives the possibility to visit and curate a ‘virtual museum’ (with real-life authentic artworks) and spend the ‘gaming-time’ as ‘learning-time’. The latter consists in a real-life simulation which takes place on a desert island through the use of an avatar. The peculiarity of this game is that users can connect up to eight players per island and play together with friends and family. Six weeks after its release the game sold 13.41 million units. It became the most popular game for offering a way of social interaction and entertainment during Covid-19 [17]. Another recent avatar-based game that has been released in 2020 is the ‘oMoma’ (online Museum of Multiplayer Art) by LikeLike industry. Compared to Animal Crossing, oMoma has less popularity as the squared pixels design is not appealing enough. The goal of oMoma is to recreate the social dynamics of exhibition spaces. It enables multiple players to interact with both virtual installations and visitors within the virtual environment [18].

Fig. 3. Forecast of gamification market by region in billions USD [16].

6 The Impact of Avatar Technology in Virtual Museums In the last few years, the use of avatars has been adopted by different businesses as a marketing tool to attract more consumers and enhance their perceptions of the product/service offered [19]. This strategy could also be adopted by virtual museums to offer social interactions within their online tours and attract more consumers. Before entering the exhibition and start the visit, every user would be asked to create an avatar which will be used to personify and represent the individual during the whole experience. The whole digital art institution experience would be similar to a game: dynamic and interactive.

Digital Museum Transformation Strategy

231

Upon the creation of the avatar character, the visit can start at the museum exhibitions, art galleries or the showrooms of an auction which is accessible by a shared link. Within the same virtual environment, there are other avatars around in the same room or different spaces (building, terrace, etc.) visiting the same art institution at the same time just like in a physical experience. Visitors can interact with each other, socialise and exchange opinions by clicking on each other avatar. Such avatar-based virtual environments offer museums dynamic learning and educational tools to everyone, but also the possibility to connect with each other across the globe [20]. In fact, the use of avatars within virtual environments can increase the sense of presence of an individual, which can decrease one’s feeling of loneliness. In the Covid-19 period avatars can be used within art classes, but also act as an efficient way to spend time with friends, enjoy the museum visit, and fight the depressing feeling of isolation.

7 An Avatar Based Digital Museum Architecture An indicative avatar-based architecture that can be applied in digital museums consist of three layers. The first layer indicates the users’ workstations, the second the login process and the avatar creation, and the third their presence in the exhibition spaces. The users start by accessing the museum website or some other websites the museum has collaborated with for the digitalization of its museum, using their computers in their own space anywhere in the world. From there they can join the server which contains the tools to create their avatar as well as enter the digital museum environment. They will firstly create an account with the appropriate information asked by the museum and then make and customize their 3D avatars to their liking. Afterwards, they are ready to enter the digital museum common space. This common space is shared by all users that have each created their own accounts and avatars. Within the common space users can see the exhibits and other users, and interact with the environment and with each other. The amount of interaction varies between different virtual museums but something they all have in common is the exploration of a multi-user 3D digital environment with contents and rooms similar to the real museum. Those can be exhibit rooms or simpler common rooms such as a cafeteria or a library. Users are independent meaning they can go wherever they want within this environment. Within this space some museum staff members may be assigned by the museum to enter the digital environment as users to help the visitors with any questions they may have or even act as museum guides. After the users are satisfied with their visit to the digital museum, they may simply close the application to leave the environment. They may leave and rejoin whenever they like. Rejoining is easier since they have already created an account and an avatar, so it’s as simple as logging in and entering the virtual space (Fig. 4).

232

E. Markopoulos et al.

Fig. 4. Avatar based digital museum architecture.

8 Limitations and Areas of Further Research The research conducted for this paper took place during the Covid-19 global pandemic crisis. This significantly impacted the opportunity to conduct personal interviews, visit museums and record the feedback from visitors and clients in museums and other art institutions. The same applies for feedback that could have been gathered from professionals in the sector such as museum directors, investors or service suppliers. Therefore, the data used cannot be considered complete and quite accurate as it is based on the literature review, on-line surveys and discussions. However, the results of the primary research conducted are aligned with the results from the secondary research which indicates that the challenge of distance is common for all researchers. This research can continue to identify in depth the public preferences of socialisation. It is essential to have a large set of information on the ways people prefer to socialise (virtual, real or both), on the number of virtual friends they have, on their opinions regarding meeting someone virtually and analyse, examine, and explore virtual friendship from the safety, social or other dimension. The research can also be supported with the proper demographics which shall extend beyond the young individuals to those with limited technical knowledge or access to the technology. Furthermore, the use of avatars and their operations on the virtual spaces needs to be examined in sectors, such as the shipping, the maritime [21] or the firefighting [22] that already began to use them within virtual reality applications integrating tracking

Digital Museum Transformation Strategy

233

with eye tracking, hand tracking and finger tracking to increase engagement and study the human behaviour in virtual spaces [23, 24].

9 Conclusions Avatar technologies, virtual reality, virtual worlds, gaming and gamification, can offer creative interactivity and unique experiences with low or no cost to the global visitor introducing new revenue streams [25]. This paper has covered the transition from a traditional art institution experience to a digitalised one using emerging technologies that can contribute on resolving financial and logistics barriers that prevent people to consume and enjoy art, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. As art institutions are seen as a place where to encounter new people and socialise, their digital twin must offer a similar experience. The creation and implementation of a real-time based avatars could be a potential solution to this challenge. They can attract more visitors and provide the opportunities to individual to interact and share experiences with each other. More than that, avatars can be used to fight the depression and the financial catastrophe spread globally by the Covid-19 pandemic. It is certain that the vaccines will fight the virus sooner or later, but the ruined economies and depressed souls will impact the mental health of billion of people for years ahead. The proposed paper indicated that avatar technologies in virtual spaces such as museums can be a way to give people the opportunity to enjoy art, which seems that after the Covid-19 crisis it will be a luxury that will be physically experienced by only the very few.

References 1. Guidi, G., Trocchianesi, R., Pils, G., Morlando, G., Seassaro, A.: A virtual museum for design: new forms of interactive fruition. In: 2010 16th International Conference on Virtual Systems and Multimedia, Seoul, Korea (South), pp. 242–249 (2010) 2. IPSOS (2004). https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/popularity-museums-and-galleries 3. Brodeur, A., Clark, A.E., Flèche, S., Powdthavee, N.: Assessing the impact of the coronavirus lockdown on unhappiness, loneliness, and boredom using Google Trends (2020). arXiv:2004. 12129 4. ICOM. https://icom.museum/en/news/museums-museum-professionals-and-covid-19-sur vey-results/ 5. Shah, S., Nogueras, D., van Woerden, H., Kiparoglou, V.: The COVID-19 pandemic: a pandemic of lockdown loneliness and the role of digital technology. J. Med. Internet Res. 22(11), e22287 (2020) 6. Bu, F., Steptoe, A., Fancourt, D.: Loneliness during a strict lockdown: Trajectories and predictors during the COVID-19 pandemic in 38,217 United Kingdom adults. Soc. Sci. Med. 265, 113521 (2020) 7. Antara, N., Sen, S.: The impact of Covid-19 on the museums and the way forward for resilience. J. Int. Mus. Educ. 2(1), 54–61 (2020) 8. Serrell, B.: Paying attention: the duration and allocation of visitors’ time in museum exhibitions. Curator Mus. J. 40(2), 108–113 (2010) 9. NEMO. https://bluesyemre.files.wordpress.com/2021/01/survey-on-the-impact-of-thecovid-19-situation-on-museums-in-europe-final-findings-and-recommendations.pdf

234

E. Markopoulos et al.

10. Badia, F., Schiano, V.: Evolution of the business model for contemporary art galleries. Current situation and future challenges. In: IFKAD 2015, Culture, Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Connecting the Knowledge Dots, Bari, Italia, 10–12 June 2015 (2015) 11. Li, Y., Liew, A., Su, W.: The digital museum: challenges and solution. In: 8th Information Science and Digital Content Technology, vol. 3 (2012) 12. Robson, K., Plangger, K., Kietzmann, J., McCarthy, I., Pitt, L.: Understanding gamification of consumer experiences. In: Cotte, J., Wood, S. (eds.) NA - Advances in Consumer Research, vol. 42, pp. 352–356. Association for Consumer Research, Duluth (2014) 13. Markopoulos, E., Markopoulos, P., Liumila, M., Almufti, Y., Romano, C., Benitez, P.V.: A gamified approach towards identifying key opportunities and potential sponsors for the future of F1 racing in a declining car ownership environment. In: Ahram, T. (ed.) AHFE 2019. AISC, vol. 973, pp. 179–191. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-03020476-1_19 14. Markopoulos, E., Markopoulos, P., Liumila, M., Chang, Y.C., Aggarwal, V., Ademola, J.: Virtual and augmented reality gamification technology on reinventing the F1 sponsorship model not purely focused on the team’s and car’s performance. In: Ahram, T. (ed.) AHFE 2019. AISC, vol. 973, pp. 364–376. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3030-20476-1_37 15. Markopoulos, E., Markopoulos, P., Liumila, M., Almufti, Y., Aggarwal, V.: Mapping the monetization challenge of gaming in various domains. In: Ahram, T. (ed.) AHFE 2019. AISC, vol. 973, pp. 389–400. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-03020476-1_39 16. Market Research Report. https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/gamificat ion-market-991.html 17. Zhu, L.: The psychology behind video games during COVID-19 pandemic: a case study of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Hum. Behav. Emerg. Technol. (2020). https://doi.org/10. 1002/hbe2.221 18. LikeLike. http://likelike.org/2020/04/14/the-online-museum-of-multiplayer-art/ 19. Hemp, P.: Avatar-based marketing. Harv. Bus. Rev. 84(6), 48 (2006) 20. Heidicker, P., Langbehn, E., Steinicke, F.: Influence of avatar appearance on presence in social VR. In: 2017 IEEE Symposium on 3D User Interfaces (3DUI), Los Angeles, CA, pp. 233–234 (2017) 21. Bellalouna, F., Luimula, M., Markopoulos, P., Markopoulos, E., Zipperling, F.: FiAAR: an augmented reality firetruck equipment assembly and configuration assistant technology. In: 2020 11th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications (CogInfoCom), Mariehamn, Finland, pp. 237–244 (2020) 22. Markopoulos, E., Lauronen, J., Luimula, M., Lehto, P., Laukkanen, S.: Maritime safety education with VR technology (MarSEVR). In: 2019 10th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications (CogInfoCom), Naples, Italy, pp. 283–288 (2019) 23. Markopoulos, E., Markopoulos, P., Laivuori, N., Moridis, C., Luimula, M.: Finger tracking and hand recognition technologies in virtual reality maritime safety training applications. In: 2020 11th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications (CogInfoCom), Mariehamn, Finland, pp. 251–258 (2020) 24. Luimula, M., Markopoulos, E., Kaakinen, J.K., Markopoulos, P., Laivuori, N., Ravyse. W.: Eye tracking in maritime immersive safe oceans technology. In: 2020 11th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications (CogInfoCom), Mariehamn, Finland, pp. 245– 250 (2020) 25. Markopoulos, E., Markopoulos, P., Liumila, M., Almufti, Y., Romano, C.: Digital cultural strategies within the context of digital humanities economics. In: Ahram, T. (ed.) AHFE 2019. AISC, vol. 973, pp. 283–295. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3030-20476-1_29

An Interactive Design Solution Based on AR Technology for Mobile Phone Addicted User Jing Luo1(B) , Yan Luximon2 , and Huai Fang1 1 School of Arts and Design, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

[email protected] 2 School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR

Abstract. With the rapid development of wireless technology, mobile phones are becoming widespread at all levels in the society. Advancement in technology is leading to people’s over-dependence on mobile phones and in many cases emergence of mobile phone addiction. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to explore an interactive way to relieve the excessive use of people’s attention and addiction to mobile phones. The habits of using smartphones were investigated first. Based on the results of data analysis, the conceptual design of a new interactive solution based on augmented reality (AR) technology was proposed. This design solution is an attempt to alleviate the addiction to the mobile phone using AR, artificial intelligence, and environmental computing technology. Keywords: Mobile phone addiction · Smart glasses · Image recognition · Augmented reality

1 Introduction Mobile phone has accumulated an enormous number of users because of its portability, convenience, privacy, and easiness [1]. However, the over-dependence on smartphones has led to several psychological and physiological problems [2, 3]. Long-term use of smartphones can lead to mobile phone addiction and chronic neck muscle strain [4], which directly endanger the physical and mental health of users [5, 6]. Understanding the core of mobile phone addiction is the first step to address the above problem. Mobile phone addiction is intrinsically a kind of behavioral addiction [7]. The main manifestation of this phenomenon is the fear of missing information. The convenience of transmitting information by smartphones causes the daily using of mobile phones to be uncontrolled [8]. Continued use of smartphones for a long time even produces negative emotions. This kind of negative emotion is a kind of diffuse anxiety, which is called fear of missing [9]. Fear of missing information is an important factor leading to mobile phone addiction [10]. The more frequently we use mobile phones, the more our attentions are occupied by mobile phones, which forms a vicious cycle [11]. Therefore, people are becoming increasingly impatient with their work because of attention-deficit and mobile phone addiction [12]. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 235–243, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_28

236

J. Luo et al.

The effective solution to mobile phone addiction is to broaden the channels for people to access information, rather than dependent on mobile phones only [13]. To achieve this goal, this study designed a pair of smart glasses that can actively provide the information needed in the characteristic scene to users. The information is projected into the physical world by AR technology so that people can interact with information in the real world. At the same time, the designed system is also equipped with a touch board, which is used as an information carrier when no physical (flat or curved) surface is detected. Users can interact with information accurately. This study explored the possibility of this kind of intelligent glasses for daily use. The new technology not only meets the user demand but also reduces the dependence on mobile phones. The developed system aims to provide better users experience when interacting with the system. Starting from the interaction form, this paper explores the design of glasses, which provides reference and experience for future research on the interaction form of mobile phone dependence.

2 User Research To find out the situation and scenes for using mobile phones, this study utilizes the methods of observation, context mapping, and interview to conduct user research. Through the user research, the scenes and current problems were identified and the basic characteristic and persona were summarized. 2.1 Observation First of all, a follow-up observation on a female employee and a male college student was conducted (Fig. 1). During the observation, some common problems were discovered which can reflect the mobile phone usage habits of the subjects. The subjects checked their mobile phones unconsciously even while studying and leisure activities. They even stop doing their main work. Based on the results of observation, their motivations for using mobile phones were asked. Referring to the research of Tran et al. [11], the motivation of people to use mobile phones can be roughly divided into filling their spare time, alleviating social embarrassment, taking a break between works, and looking forward to information recovery and update. The above results of observation and investigation confirmed these motivations.

Fig. 1. Smartphone scenes

An Interactive Design Solution Based on AR Technology

237

2.2 Context Mapping and Interview To further understand user behavior, four students and three working staffs (There are two female and two male participants) were invited to participate in the context mapping and interview. The participants were asked to fill in the relevant forms on week-days and rest days to record the use of mobile phones by using an app called Off-Screen. Participants were required to record the usage time of mobile phone screen every day to obtain relevant data. By analyzing the forms, results show that participants behaved most negatively in the scene ‘look forward to the replies and notifications’ and most positively in the scene ‘rest after work’ and ‘kill the spare time’. Based on the analysis, the interview was hosted to find out the feelings of participants in different scenes. The contents of the interview showed that most of the interviewees were expecting information updates and worried about missing information. Therefore, the interviewees have to pay more attention to smartphones, which distracts their attentions on work or study, thus resulting in anxiety and irritability. 2.3 Research Results Participants spend about 40% of the time looking smartphone. Users’ anxiety and curiosity about missing information exacerbate the problem. Based on the user research, the confusion (Fig. 3) and the expectation (Fig. 4) of users were summarized.

Fig. 3. The confusion of users

Fig. 4. The expectation of users

238

J. Luo et al.

3 Design Process Based on the research results, the design objectives were put forward. Firstly, the design should allow users to receive messages and notifications through multiple channels. Users need not allocate attention to mobile phones because of waiting for messages and message notifications. Secondly, the scheme can meet most of the entertainment needs of mobile phones, but with a corresponding time reminder mechanism. Finally, the design scheme actively provides different functions according to different scenes, to reduce the muscle damage caused by using mobile phones [4]. 3.1 Concepts People pay too much attention to smartphones because it is the only platform that connects everyone for most scenarios, leading users to ignore physical surroundings. If the information world could integrate with the physical surroundings, People will feel connected through interaction with the physical world directly without focusing on mobile screen only. Using the proposed interactive design solution, users can interact with information in the physical world. It will make people feel more connected (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5. Concept explanatory diagram

Because of the previous user research design insights, this study conducted brainstorming and proposed conceptual solutions. After the initial concept is determined, the specific design concept is further developed and explored (Fig. 6). 3.2 Hardware Design The design concept of the hardware is a pair of intelligent glasses with a touch panel. The glasses are integrated with built-in acceleration sensors, an HD camera, and related electronic components. A high-definition camera is used to accurately judge the user’s usage scene. It can also project messages and notifications into the physical world using augmented reality technology, ensuring that users do not miss any information. Moreover, the touchpad also was designed to provide a physical surface for the projected information. Users can also interact with the information more accurately through tapping on the pad (Fig. 7).

An Interactive Design Solution Based on AR Technology

Fig. 6. Concept sketch

Fig. 7. The details of hardware design

239

240

J. Luo et al.

3.3 Interaction Design As the media of information interaction has changed, the original form of interaction on the mobile phone should also change. Therefore, this project designs the information interaction forms that may appear in the smart glasses. For better understanding, the following figures show the usage scenarios by storyboards (Fig. 8, Fig. 9, Fig. 10, Fig. 11).

Fig. 8. Users get ready to leave for work.

Fig. 9. Users go to the workplace.

Fig. 10. Users arrive at the office and start working.

An Interactive Design Solution Based on AR Technology

241

Fig. 11. Users drive for hiking.

The relevant wireframes are drawn according to the different scenarios to clarify the logic of information interaction, as shown in Fig. 12.

Fig. 12. Wireframe of interaction design

According to the physical size of the projection medium, the user interface is designed (Fig. 13). The design scenario is shown in Fig. 14.

Fig. 13. Interface design

242

J. Luo et al.

Fig. 14. Scenario

4 Conclusion This study focuses on developing an interactive design solution based on AR technology that can relieve people’s over-dependence on mobile phones. It should be noted that there are some limitations in this study. First, more user samples should be added. Secondly, due to the limitation of the equipment, the real effect of the new interactive mode could not be demonstrated very well. In further research, the experiment will be carried out in a more rigorous environment, and the irrelevant variables will be strictly controlled, to reduce the interference of environmental factors on the research and demonstrate a more realistic interactive experience.

References 1. Tang, W.H., Tang, S.H., Li, C.L.: Chinese Mobile Internet Entering the 5G Era. China Press (2020). https://doi.org/10.13854/j.cnki.cni.2020.17.011 2. Erfani, S.S., Abedin, B.: Impacts of the use of social network sites on users’ psychological well-being: a systematic review. J. Am. Soc. Inform. Sci. Technol. 69(7), 900–912 (2018) 3. Moqbel, M., Kock, N.: Unveiling the dark side of social networking sites: personal and work-related consequences of social networking site addiction. Inf. Manage. 55(1), 109–119 (2017) 4. Häkkinen, A.: Effect of manual therapy and stretching on neck muscle strength and mobility in chronic neck pain. J. Rehabil. Med. 39, 575–579 (2007) 5. Yildirim, C., Sumuer, E., Adnan, M., Yildirim, S.: A growing fear prevalence of nomophobia among turkish college students. Inf. Dev. 32(5), 1322–1331 (2015) 6. Vaghefi, I., Lapointe, L., Boudreau-Pinsonneault, C.: A typology of user liability to it addiction. Inf. Syst. J. 27(2), 125–169 (2017) 7. Ruonan, S., Jianfeng, Q.J.: Efficacy of EEG biofeedback in the treatment of mobile phone dependence in college students. J. Chengdu Med. Coll. (2020) 8. Hato, B.: Compulsive Mobile Phone Checking Behavior Out of a Fear of Missing Out: Development, Psychometric Properties and Test-Retest Reliability of a C-FoMo-Scale (2013) 9. Huanyou, C., Gengfeng, N., Xiaowei, C., Qi, W., Yuhong, S., Xiaojun, S.: Fear of missing: what did i miss?. Progress Psychol. Sci. 26(03), 527–537 (2018)

An Interactive Design Solution Based on AR Technology

243

10. Franchina, V., Vanden Abeele, M., Van Rooij, A.J., Lo Coco, G., De Marez, L.: Fear of missing out as a predictor of problematic social media use and phubbing behavior among Flemish adolescents. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 15(10), 2319 (2018) 11. Tran, J.A., Yang, K.S., Davis, K., Hiniker, A.: Modeling the engagement-disengagement cycle of compulsive phone use. In: Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (2019) 12. Nikhita, C.S., Jadhav, P.R., Ajinkya, S.A.: Prevalence of mobile phone dependence in secondary school adolescents. J. Clin. Diagn. Res.: JCDR 9(11) (2015) 13. Weiser, M., Brown, J.S.: The coming age of calm technology. In: Denning, P.J., Metcalfe, R.M. (eds.) Beyond Calculation, pp. 75–85. Springer New York, New York, NY (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-0685-9_6

Packaging Design of Children’s Toys Based on Synesthesia Siming Gui and Xifan Ding(B) School of Design, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China [email protected]

Abstract. In this age, more attention is paid to the innovation and development of their package design. An excellent package design can not only immediately attract children’s attention, but also fully fulfill its own value. This paper will analyze children’s potential synaesthetic ability, and further put forward a designing idea regarding children’s toy package based on synaesthesia. Integrated with three essential elements of package designing, namely vision, material and structure, a way to construct synaesthetic elements in the children’s toy package will be presented - the synaesthesia of visual images, the distinction of material combination and the formalization of structure. In addition, the importance of introducing synaesthetic elements into the children’s toy package will be further justified through an experiment on the selection of children aged 4 to 8 between the synaesthetic toy package and the non-synaesthetic one. Keywords: Synaesthesia · Potential synaesthetic ability · Toy package design

1 Meaning of Synaesthesia in the Design of Children’s Toy Package 1.1 What is Synaesthesia It is not until the late 20th century that synaesthesia was explored with deep insight. Psychologically, synaesthesia is defined as a fact of experiencing one or more than one feelings when a different part is stimulated. Synaesthetic experience simultaneously combines different forms of feeling, which will involuntarily stimulate other senses and immediately arouse numerous sensations when triggered. This is, to some extent, a common experience to everyone. Based on some frequent synaesthetic experiences in daily life, many nouns and phrases have come into being, e.g. “sweet voice”, “a heavy look”, “warm color” and so on. 1.2 Children’s Potential Synaesthetic Ability It is generally said that acquiring a language during infancy is like “parroting” that infants will imitate the sounds and tones after hearing them so many times. However, some researchers have found that in the brain of infants before three years old there are abundant synapses, which enable their sense organs to trigger another one while © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 244–250, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_29

Packaging Design of Children’s Toys Based on Synesthesia

245

stimulated, and thus generate the synaesthetic experience. For example, when a mother is lightly humming a lullaby to her baby, the baby might be, apart from indulging in the lullaby itself, at the same time enjoying the joyful scene of soft colors, as well as the fragrant smell. 1.3 Rationality of Synaesthesia in Children’s Toy Package It is proved psychologically that it will stimulate children more desire for exploration when they tear off the package of their new toys in person. Nowadays, parents attach increasing importance to the autonomy education of their children. Apart from letting children select their toys by themselves, many parents encourage their children to unwrap the toys and tidy them up in person, and also hope in this way. Therefore, the feeling brought by toy package to children should be valued more than that to parents. The experience of toy package consists of the information conveyed by the products through the connection of all senses. Many researches and experiments have showed that compared with adults, children are much easier to access the synaesthetic experience. Therefore, if we can recognize these facts and apply this innovative idea to the toy package, a much more meaningful package design can be created to stimulate children’s senses and to build a closer bond with children.

2 Creating Synaesthesia in Children’s Toy Package Children’s experience of toy package can be generally divided into three phases: the initial sensation experience, behavioral experience and emotional experience. 2.1 Initial Sensation Experience The initial sensation experience is a kind of sensation experience mainly based on the vision, which is converted from a series of information brought by the whole appearance input of the toy package to the children while they are selecting toys before so many rows of toy racks. If you can employ children’s potential synaesthetic ability and the trait of them accessing synaesthetic experience more easily, and manage to stimulate a series of such experience by virtue of children’s immediate visual feeling of the package, then your products can stand out in such a competitive time for toy industry. 2.2 Behavioral Experience The behavioral experience usually occurs during the behavioral process of unpacking the toys by children, when the five sense organs feel more richly. Thus, it is a good idea to integrate various sense triggers into package design based on the theme of the product itself. During this stage, the cognitive level and experience preference of children of different ages should be fully recognized.

246

S. Gui and X. Ding

2.3 Emotional Experience The emotional experience is a much deeper one triggered by the similarities and resonances occurring when the brand philosophy and cultural connotation of a product communicate with the life, emotion and values of users. This will also improve brand loyalty. Just like different consumer groups valuing different emotional layers, children of different genders and age groups are interested in different spiritual attitudes. Therefore, the toy package design should target a particular customer segment for the product and achieve an in-depth satisfaction of the demand of various children.

3 Essential Elements Constructing Synaesthetic Experience in Children’s Toy Package Three elements should be considered during the package design, namely the vision, the material and the structure. Therefore, corresponding with these three, the three essential elements constructing synaesthetic experience in children’s toy package can be considered as the synaesthesia of visual images, the distinction of material combination and the formalization of package structure. 3.1 Synaesthesia of Visual Image The visual experience is usually the first channel to bring information to children when they are exposed to the toy package. Most children are relatively weak in response to the information conveyed by words. And it is exactly because they perceive the world from the simplest perspective that they are endowed with an amazing imagination of images, the most primitive way to transmit information. The picture below is the toy packages of NUMNOMS fast-food box series (Fig. 1 shows an example). Their visual design delicately combines the images of utensils and food with the shape of the package box, and makes children’s preferred food cartoon. Further, by employing rich colors, they present an image of the delicately packed bento box full of children’ joy, which arouses users’ synaesthesia including smell and taste. An excellent children’s toy package design can exploit children’s synaesthesia to make the visual images synaesthetic and hence to build a “particular language” for children’s world.

Fig. 1. Toy packages of NUMNOMS fast-food box series

Packaging Design of Children’s Toys Based on Synesthesia

247

3.2 Distinction of Material Combination The package material can literally influence all sensation experience. And in the behavioral experience stage, the distinction of material will be presented more obviously. The package of Hatchchimals electronic pets of magical egg series (Fig. 2 shows an example), combined with the product themes such as “pet”, “raise-up”, “incubation” and so on, is made egg-shaped. Besides, the frosted hard plastic can not only protect the product but also imitate the surface of the eggshell. The cracks created while opening the egg-shaped package and the sound setting a scenario of real hatching can intrigue children’s curiosity and love and thus are both entertaining and educational.

Fig. 2. Hatchchimals electronic pets of magical egg series and their package

Under the principle of avoiding materials that are not environmental-friendly or exert negative influence on children, the selection of materials should correspond to the visual design of package and integrate the product traits and brand personalities, to create a relation between sense information available for children within their cognitive range as much as possible, with an attempt to fully fulfill the multi-sense experience brought by the materials. This will allow children more synaesthetic experiences. 3.3 Formalization of Package Structure In terms of the opening way, contrary to the “simplification” way of other package designs, children’s toy package conducts a “formalization” way during the process. The package should allow children more interesting interaction during the unwrapping process and thereby increases children’s interest, curiosity and desire for exploration. “Formalization” is currently a mainstream idea for children’s toy package, with the “variation” and “enlightenment” as the main representations. The children’s toy package featuring “variation” usually adopt a special way to open, making children full of surprise at the moment of opening up the package and embrace expectation for the product itself. Some of them can be transformed to an exhibition box, a storage box or even a part of the toy. Just like the dummy sets of Nanana Surprise and their packages (Fig. 3 shows an example), such package design greatly improves the additional and environmental value while also increasing the interest.

248

S. Gui and X. Ding

Fig. 3. Dummy sets of Nanana Surprise and their packages

The children’s toy packages featuring “enlightenment” usually trigger children’s aspiration for exploration by leading them to interact more with the toys, and hence turn the unwrapping of package an interesting game. This process is educational both for their ability of DIY and IQ development, as is illustrated by the example of the packages of L.O.L Surprise cloth-changing dolls of UNDER WRAPS series (Fig. 4 shows an example).

Fig. 4. Packages of L.O.L Surprise cloth-changing dolls of UNDER WRAPS series

In recent years, the designers of toy packages are keeping trying to innovate the package forms, with an attempt to make it not merely a box serving for protection, but a better integration with children’s synaesthetic experience.

4 Experiment of Synaesthetic Elements in Children’s Toy Package 4.1 Experiment Objective With an aim to further prove the importance of introducing synaesthetic elements into children’s toy package and to verify the three elements constructing the synaesthetic

Packaging Design of Children’s Toys Based on Synesthesia

249

experience in children’s toy package, i.e. the synaesthesia od visual images, the distinction of material combination and the feasibility of formalization of package structure, an experiment was conducted on the choice between the toy packages with synaesthetic elements and those without the elements among 15 children aged between 4 to 8. 4.2 Experiment Content The experiment was designed as follows: three package groups were employed to conduct the contrast experiment. In each package group, package A was designed with synaesthetic elements; package B was designed without synaesthetic elements, except which all other traits were similar to package A. As the picture illustrates, the first group was to explore the attraction of the synaesthetic design in the visual images to children; the second group was designed to examine to what extent the distinction of material combination attracts children; and the third group aims to investigate to what extent children gratitude to the package structure featuring formalization (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5. Package groups of experiment

All surveyed children were notified that there were toys inside these packages. As for the first package group, the respondent children were asked to choose one they were more interested in after observing the two packages respectively; in the second group, each package was observed and touched by the children and then the choices were made; for the final group, the children were asked to open up the packages and find out all the toys placed in them, and then the choices regarding which one was more joyful were made. It should be noticed that the toys placed within the packages in each group were all the same. 4.3 Result of the Experiment In the first package group whose appearance was observed by the 15 surveyed children, package A won 14 children’s favor; for the second package group, among the 15 children who observed and touched the packages, most spent more time observing and playing the package A and 12 said they were more interested in the package A, while the rest 3 chose package B; in the third group experiment, all 15 children favored package A after totally unwrapping the packages and getting all toys placed within.

250

S. Gui and X. Ding

Through the experiment on the choice between the toy packages with synaesthetic elements and those without the elements among children aged ranging from 4 to 8, it was found that the former one wins more favor among children. In addition, it was also verified that it is an effective way to draw children’s attention and to arouse their curiosity, and also an idea and approach to impress them deeply by creating synaesthetic experience through synaesthetic constructs added to the visual images, the material selection and the package structure of toy package, while at the same time combining them with the relatively popular children’s toy packages in the current market. As people’s material demand has been satisfied basically and commonly, the era of experience economy has arrived quietly when the package not only serves for promotion and protection, but also needs to bring rich sensual and spiritual enjoyment to users. For children, “playing experience” starts from the very moment of opening up the toy package. Based on children’s potential synaesthetic ability, it is an effective way to conduct the toy package design from the perspective of synesthesia, to prolong the package’s usage period, improve its additional value and thereby increase the competitiveness of the product.

References 1. Wang, Y.: Associative modulation of timbre in performance (in Chinese). J. Music. Instrument. 09, 56–58 (2008) 2. Zhang, L., Lou, M., He, J.: Art synaesthesia translation in the sensory experience of product symbol (in Chinese). J. Packag. Eng. 39(06), 14–19 (2018) 3. Senlin, Y., Mao, Y.: Synaesthesia elements and synaesthesia design based on the design of Naoto Fukasawa (in Chinese). J. Packag. Eng. 39(06), 24–28 (2018) 4. Han, C.: Children’s Toy Packaging Design Assumption Based on the Concept of Turning Waste to Wealth (in Chinese). J. Decor. 12, 128–129 (2016) 5. Jin, G., Lang, T.: Children’s Toy Packaging Design Based on Emotional Experience and Rational Cognition (in Chinese). J. Packag. Eng. 36(14), 106–109 (2015) 6. Yu, M., Wen, H.: Interesting packaging structure design of children’s biscuits. J. Adv. Mater. Res. 3326 (2014)

E-commerce Perspective in Kids and Toys Sector Purchase Process: Design Opportunity Benedetta Terenzi1(B) and Arianna Vignati2 1 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Perugia, 06125 Perugia,

Italy [email protected] 2 Department of Design, Politecnico of Milan, 20133 Milan, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. Online sales for companies have become indispensable to reach the global market’s consumers. To facilitate the purchasing process, however, it’s essential to design websites taking attention to all those aspects that contribute to determining their quality and ability to meet the needs of both the e-commerce and the end-user. In particular, when we refer to kids’ products sale, personalized e-commerce services are necessary, bearing in mind the role of emotions on customers’ behaviour and the particular attention that parents pay to products quality. The paper aims to understand behaviours and buying habits’ changes of parents and adults in general, with a particular focus on the processes of choice, purchase and post-sale concerning online sales platforms for children’s products. The research reports an analysis of 16 major online retail platforms currently existing globally, divided between child-specific and generic, evaluating aspects related to on-line Customer Journey and User Experience (UX). Keywords: User experience · On-line purchase process · Human-systems interaction · Customer journey · E-commerce

1 Introduction The data show that almost 4.66 billion people were active internet users as of October 2020, encompassing 59% of the global population. Connecting billions of people worldwide, the internet is a core pillar of the modern information society. The global internet penetration rate is 59%, with Northern Europe ranking first with a 95% internet penetration rate among the population. The countries with the highest internet penetration rate worldwide are the UAE, Denmark, and South Korea. At the opposite end of the spectrum is North Korea with virtually no online usage penetration among the general population, ranking last worldwide. China, India and the United States rank ahead all other countries in terms of internet users. China has more than 854 million internet users, and India has approximately 560 million online users. Both countries still have large parts of the population that are offline (https://www.statista.com/topics/1145/internet-usage-worldwide/). © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 251–258, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_30

252

B. Terenzi and A. Vignati

If in particular, we refer to the use of online sales platforms, when we look back at 2020 in the business world, we’ll remember it as the year e-commerce stopped being the future of retail and became the present. This was the year that local governments forced us to give up in-store shopping for weeks or months, and then when we had an opportunity to return when stores reopened, we mostly kept shopping online anyway. During the lockdown, millions of people in the world began relying on shopping websites and apps in record numbers as the Covid-19 pandemic swept across the world. Electronic commerce (e-commerce) refers to the purchase of goods and services via the World Wide Web using secure servers (HTTPS address) with virtual payment services and subsequent delivery of the goods. E-commerce websites B2C need to provide customers with a positive User Experience (UX), to be successful and competitive. Online sales for companies have become indispensable to reach different consumers of global markets. To facilitate the purchasing process, however, it is essential to design web sites taking into account all those aspects that contribute to determining their quality and ability to meet the needs of both the owner of the e-commerce and the end-user. In particular, when we refer to the sale of products for children, personalized e-commerce services are necessary, bearing in mind the role of emotions on customer behaviour and the particular attention that parents pay to product’s quality. This means being able to inform the consumer attentively, to present the product in the right way, to guide the customer journey before, during and after the purchase process with an efficient product review service, effective customer service and fast and reliable shipping [1]. The paper aims to understand the impacts of digital transformation on the behaviours and buying habits of parents and adults in general, with a particular focus on the processes of choice, purchase and post-sale about the use of online sales platforms for children’s products. In particular, the paper reports the results of research aimed at investigating the on-line platform service role in the choice and purchase process and create analysis framework including all the aspects linked to the quality of the User Experience, bringing them back into an analysis model that takes the ‘7LOCI meta-model’ approach and readjusts it to the reference context. The research starts with a snapshot of the online shopping experience in the kids & toys sector, highlighting the increase in the online presence of stores historically linked to physical sales. The trend follows the changing purchasing behaviours of parents and caregivers who are increasingly predisposed to a digital approach, even for purchases related to children’s products.

2 Design for Usability and User Experience (UX) When a system or product is developed, it will be used within a certain context and by a user with certain characteristics and needs. Thereby, an accurate understanding of the context of use within which such a system will be used is crucial for helping to specify user requirements as well as providing a sound basis for later evaluation activities. In our case, in fact, the reference context is the particular field of products for children and toys, which is growing rapidly today, and which has to interface with a parent who is increasingly informed, increasingly connected, and increasingly willing to spend money on his or her children, as long as he or she has high-quality products and services. In recent years companies have shifted their attention away from technology and production issues, focusing on how their products, systems or services are perceived and

E-commerce Perspective in Kids and Toys Sector

253

experienced by the consumer [2]. In this sense, following the trend sector, also many kids&toys companies are putting more effort into understanding the emerging needs of their different end-users, parents, caregivers, and kids. The field of research on the product experience comprehensively covers the research of many disciplines, including in the definition of product the extended meaning that also refers to systems and services. Is possible to distinguish three components or levels of the experience: aesthetic pleasure, attribution of meaning, and emotional response [3]. We thus define product experience as “the entire set of affects that is elicited by the interaction between a user and a product, including the degree to which all our senses are gratified (aesthetic experience), the meanings we attach to the product (experience of the meaning) and the feelings and emotions that are elicited (emotional experience)” [4]. The concept of user experience is dealt with in ISO 9241: 2010, which generally concerns “the ergonomics of human-system interaction”. ISO 9241-210: 2010 defines Human-Centered Design (HCD) as an approach to system design and development, which aims to make interactive systems more usable by focusing on the use of the system and applying knowledge and techniques related to human factors/ergonomics and usability (the standard also identifies the principles that should be followed in favour of the human-centred design approach). In line with the principles of HCD, studying the way people interact with products and systems constitutes a valuable and valid contribution to the collection of specific information that is functional to all the phases of the design process. The ISO 9241-210: 2010, therefore, speaks of User Experience (UX) and defines it as the set of “perceptions of the person and results deriving from the use and/or expectation of use of a product, system or service”. At the same time defines the interactive system as: “the combination of hardware, software and/or services that receive input from, and communicate output to, users.” Is important to distinguish the total User Experience from the User Interface (UI) that is the interface of the instrument that allows the interaction between man and device, so the UI refer only to a part, but it is a fundamental part of the User Experience. We must also make a distinction between User Experience and usability. Usability means “the degree to which a product can be used by specific users to perform specific tasks with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specific context of use” [5]. The usability, therefore, has the objective of economizing the cognitive effort of the user, proposing products that are easy to understand, to learn, to use, to remember, that avoid or make mistakes recoverable and therefore gratify the user. Whilst the usability focuses on the degree to which a product can be used by specific users to achieve specific tasks with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction, the user-experience focuses on human factors such as emotional, affective and contextual aspects [6]. The web has further expanded the concept of usability that moves from the characteristics of the software to those of the interaction. The ultimate goal of web usability is to make the underlying and transparent technology invisible to the user, who must concentrate his attention and cognitive effort mainly on the objective, without dispersing it on the use of the medium [7].

254

B. Terenzi and A. Vignati

Starting from Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Usability is possible to define UX as something that satisfies much more than simple instrumental needs, and that recognizes the use of a product as a subjective, contextualized encounter, complex and dynamic [8]. Speaking of interaction, we must say that it is not necessarily limited to an instrumental and non-instrumental physical action, but it can also consist of passive (often visual) perception, or even in the memory or thought of a product [9]. At the same time, technology-driven research focuses on how products can be created with new technologies that can benefit potential users. Most of this research consists of studies on the application of digital or smart technologies in HCI. The interest of the designing therefore focuses on exploring new functionalities and the possibilities for interaction that can be created with these new technologies. Within the HCI field, there is currently a shift from usability research to user experience research, which involves experiences such as presence, fun, trust, or commitment [9].

3 The Research Method In recent years, most of the innovations in e-commerce, both technological and business models, have been aimed at improving the Customer Journey. The ultimate goal of this innovation is to finalize the customer not only to the brand but especially to the Web channel to transform the on-line purchase into a habit. The innovations concerned all phases of the purchasing process [10]. The research reports a comprehensive reading of 16 of the largest online retail platforms currently existing globally, divided between child-specific and generic, evaluating aspects related to on-line Customer Journey and User Experience (Table 1). The models identified in the literature all include a set of fundamental attributes against which the quality of the site can be assessed. For the corporate sector, the most significant models include that proposed by Dutta and Segev [11] used for a survey to identify the best 100 corporate sites in the world) and that used by the ENTER Web Award Committee (ENTER Web Award Committee: http://www.tis.co.at/enter). There are also models used by organizations which carry out a quality check on the site at the request of the user. Examples are the evaluation schemes proposed by HTML Point http://www.clarence. com/home/htmlpoint/controllo.htm) and Atlantis S.r.l. (http://www.x-land.it/atlantis). At the basis of the choice of our analysis model, there are some important considerations concerning the concept of quality of a site. In particular, it should be remembered that, on the one hand, the development of a website requires very different types of skills, ranging from software engineering to graphics, marketing, etc., and on the other hand, the tools available for their implementation are increasingly sophisticated, allowing anyone to create their site in a short time. On the other hand, the tools available for creating them are increasingly sophisticated, allowing anyone to create their site in a short space of time. Often, people who are not computer experts are involved in the design and implementation of a site and who design it without taking into account, for example, the technical constraints that determine its accessibility. On the other hand, a computer scientist who does not know semiotics or

E-commerce Perspective in Kids and Toys Sector

255

Table 1. List of E-commerce platform analyzed. E- COMMERCE SPECIFICALLY FOR CHILDREN'S PRODUCTS Name 1

Fat Brain Toys

2

SpearmintLOVE

3

Scentos

4 5

Products Descripon educaonal toys

B2C Website

Naonality

hps://www.fatbraintoys.com/

producer/retailer

USA

hps://www.spearmintlove.com/

producer/retailer

USA

hps://scentos.com/

producer/retailer

USA

Redsbaby

baby and kids clothing scented staonery baby strollers

hps://www.redsbaby.com.au/

only retailer

Australian

Kidstuff

toys

hps://www.kidstuff.com.au/

only retailer

Australian

6

Giant Teddy

teddy peluche

hps://www.gianeddy.com/

producer/retailer

USA

7

Toyscenter

toys

hps://www.toyscenter.it/

producer/retailer

italian

8

Family naon

only retailer

italian

Rocketbaby

different kids’ product different kids’ product

www.family-naon.it

9

www.rocketbaby.it

only retailer

italian

GENERAL E- COMMERCE Name

B2C Website

1

Amazon

hps://www.amazon.com/toys/b?ie=UTF8&node=165793011

Naonality USA

2

Target

https://intl.target.com/c/toys/-/N-5xtb0?lnk=Toys

USA

3

Walmart

hps://www.walmart.com/

USA

4

Kmart

hps://www.kmart.com/

USA

5

TMall

hps://www.tmall.com/?spm=a220m.1000858.a2226n0.1.3a2a8fe9fEPHn4

chinese

6

Made in china

hps://www.made-in-china.com/

chinese

7

Alibaba

www.alibaba.com

chinese

the principles of graphic design or marketing risks creating a site that does not live up to the company’s image and does not allow its objectives to be achieved. Furthermore, when evaluating a website, it must be borne in mind that the concept of quality is linked to two important aspects: the process and the product. The hypermedia nature of the Internet and the importance of aspects linked to interfaces, speed of access to information and security of transactions differentiate the development of websites from that of a traditional information system. The model we chose refers to some principles of classical rhetoric [12]. According to the rhetorical model of argumentation, the verification of the completeness of the exposition (expositio) of a document can be based on a set of loci. These loci or argumenta were introduced by Cicero in De Inventione [13]. It is a general model, which makes it possible to identify some elements which, appropriately combined, make it possible to evaluate and make suggestions for improving the quality of a website and which, symmetrically, provide guidelines for the development of sites. We have therefore adapted to our case the meta-model defined as 7Loci [14]. The meta-model introduced at the end of the 1990s to assess the quality of websites. The first version, named 2QCV2Q from the initials of the names of the Ciceronian loci on which it was built - quis, quid, cur, ubi, quando, quomodo - was subsequently renamed 2QCV3Q, due to the addition of quibus auxiliis [15]. The interpretation of loci makes it possible to classify the characteristics of a Web site into seven groups or ‘dimensions’ (Fig. 1), which cover all the components of a Web site [16], according to a systemic approach to quality [17]. In our case, we have reinterpreted the reading of the two loci

256

B. Terenzi and A. Vignati

‘quando’ and ‘quomodo’ concerning the original version, determining the final structure as follows (Table 2). Table 2. List of E-commerce platform analyzed. LOCUS

INTERPRETATION

QVIS? QUID? CUR? UBI? QVODOMO? QVANDO? QVIBUS AUXILIIS?

IDENTITY CONTENT SERVICES IDENTIFICATION USABILITY CHECK OUT CUSTOMER CARE

4 Findings According to the interpretation of the meta-model 7LOCI findings from the analysis on the e-commerce platforms can be clustered on the following 7 areas: – Identity: 94% have a clear artwork and 65% of the platforms adapt the visualization to user needs (Fig. 1); – Content: 82% have varied product categories but all connected to the kids’ world, while 18% are vertical on the toy. If we can consider the contents of the communication the data confirm the availability of technical contents about the products (for 76% of the cases the only type of contents available) but also additional information related to the emotional sphere (Fig. 2). – Services: 94% have sections with technical information about the products, 82% can supporting the launch of new products or promo with dedicated showcases, 47% provide to companies specific pages for the brand communication (Fig. 3); – Identification: the research confirms the availability of technical contents about the products (for 76% of the cases the only type of contents available) but also additional information related to the emotional sphere; – Usability: Another relevant design factor analyzed is the usability of the e-commerce platforms. Only 35% have functions for the customization of the layout and the set-up of different type of visualizations. The contents are organized for categories and only 59% leave users to research for advanced contents like interests, lifestyle, trends or emerging focuses. The free research is however available for 71% of the platforms (Fig. 4); – Check-out: From the point of view of the services offered to users there is complete coverage of services for the secure payment (94%), the home delivery (82%) and the selection of products (77%). There is instead available space for design improvements in the support of the overall purchase experience with news (47%) and chat/chatbot (41%). As well as the use of digital technologies to empower the user experience (only augmented reality is available in 1 platform analyzed);

E-commerce Perspective in Kids and Toys Sector

257

– Customer care: from the point of view of the customer care 71% of the platforms have a newsletter. Only 29% have a blog for discussions on thematic topics and 53% collect feedback and comments from the users. Compared with e-commerce in other sectors there is a high potential for improvement and design of specific UX experiences in this field.

Fig. 1. E-commerce identity

Fig. 2. E-commerce contents

Fig. 3. E-commerce services

Fig. 4. E-commerce usability

5 Conclusions The research carried out monitored the level of innovation in the customer journey and user experience of 16 of the world’s largest e-commerce platforms in the kids&toys sector. The results show that there is still a long way to go. None of the e-commerce platforms in the sample analyzed shows that they offer an innovative user experience in all the loci examined. The data show that the specialist e-commerce in the kids&toys sector pays more attention to the specificity of the consumer, presenting products with descriptions that go beyond the technical aspects and that also provide indications of use. In general, there is a tendency for e-commerce to introduce innovations mainly in check-out and multi-channel payment possibilities. A further area where there is a good level of innovation is customer care where e-commerce tends to support the customer on several traditional channels (SMS, email…) and channels internal or external to the platform, also giving a lot of importance to consumer feedback.

258

B. Terenzi and A. Vignati

E-commerce, therefore, will have to be more and more attentive and flexible, to reactively incorporate new technologies and new models that may change the customer journey and user experience paradigms shortly.

References 1. Terenzi, B., Vignati, A.: Smart retail and phygital customer journey in the kids and toys stores. In: Russo, D., Ahram, T., Karwowski, W., Di Bucchianico, G., Taiar, R. (eds.) IHSI 2021. AISC, vol. 1322, pp. 709–714. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-03068017-6_105 2. Verganti, R.: Design-driven innovation. Changing the Rules of Competition by Radically Innovating What Things Mean. Harvard Business Press, Boston (2009) 3. Hekkert, P.: Design aesthetics: principles of pleasure in product design. Psychol. Sci. 48(2), 157–172 (2006) 4. Desmet, P., Hekkert, P.: Framework of product experience. IJDesign 1(1), 57–66 (2007) 5. Norma ISO 9241 “Ergonomic requirements for office work with visual display terminals (VDTs) 6. Hollnagel, E., Woods, D.D.: Joint Cognitive Systems: Foundations of Cognitive System Engineering. CRC Press, Boca Raton (2005) 7. Krug, S.: Don’t make me think. Un approccio di buon senso all’usabilità web e mobile, 3°edn. Tecniche nuove, Milano (2014) 8. Hassenzahl, M., Tractinsky, N.: User experience – a research agenda. Behav. Inf. Technol. 25(2), 91–97 (2006) 9. Schifferstein, H.N.J., Hekkert, P.: Product Experience: Perspectives on Human-Product Interaction. Elsevier, Amsterdam (2007) 10. Terenzi, B., Vignati, A.: Digital transformation in product service system for kids. Design tools for emerging needs. In: Ahram, T., Karwowski, W., Vergnano, A., Leali, F., Taiar, R. (eds.) IHSI 2020. AISC, vol. 1131, pp. 228–234. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10. 1007/978-3-030-39512-4_36 11. Dutta, S., Segev, A.: The Global Internet 100 Survey 1998. Special Report. Insead, Information Strategy, Novell (1998) 12. Mich, L., Franch, M.: 2QCV2Q: a model for web sites analysis and evaluation. In: Proceedings of the International Conference Information Resource Management Association (IRMA) pp. 586–589 (2000) 13. Cicero, M.T.: De Inventione. in De Inventione, De Optimo, Genere Oratorum, Topica, vol. 2, Rhetorical Treatises, Warmington, E. H. (eds), Hubbell, H. M. (Translator) Harvard University Press (1970) 14. Mich, L.: Assessing the quality of Web sites: training experiences for a method based on the 7Loci Meta-model. In: Didamatica 2007. Informatica per la Didattica, pp. 51–60. Asterisco, Milano (2007) 15. Garavaglia, B.: Manuale di retorica. Bompiani, Milano (1989) 16. Mich, L., Franch, M., Gaio, L.: Evaluating and designing the quality of web sites. IEEE Multimedia 10(1), 34–43 (2003) 17. von Bertalanffy, L.: General System Theory: Foundations, Development. Applications. George Braziller, New York (1968)

Demands Exploration of Future Interior Layout in Shared Mobility Using Design Fiction Qinxue Yang, Mengchao Ai, Xinyuan Tong, and Long Liu(B) College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University, 281 Fuxin Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai, China [email protected]

Abstract. Current interior design activities for future vehicles pay little attention to the users’ demands on social and psychological aspects. The research provides an innovative approach for exploring the users’ psychological, cultural, and social implications for future AVs. We also conclude several influence factors of future AVs’ layout in different scenarios which can help designers to shift perspectives and generate more reliable prospective outcomes. In this article, we first study existing cases and literature of the interior layout for AVs and use design fiction to build several narrative story and low fidelity prototypes for a future AV in shared mobility. Then we invited 3 groups of passengers to review and reflect on these prototypes. After they evaluate the good and bad experiences in the prototype, we sort out the needs of passengers in different scenarios for space, facilities, and services, which can provide innovative exploration for the existing layout design. Keywords: Design fiction · Future demands · Autonomous vehicle · Interior layout · User enactment

1 Introduction 1.1 Motivation With the development of autonomous driving technology, driving behavior has become less vital. It will not only provide more possibilities for flexible interior layout but also promoted the development of shared mobility by reducing the costs of the driver. According to some research [1, 2], the number of AVs used for shared mobility services will be five times that of privately-owned by 2040. To solve the problem of increasing urban travel demands with less car ownership, carpooling of share mobility service may be the better choice [3]. As an AV will be a much professional service space, the interior layout needs to consider more on the interaction of human to explore creative layout design on the passenger experience. 1.2 Prior Studies Several studies analyse passengers’ demands on future AVs. Bastian Pfleging et al. [4] investigated user needs for non-driving activities during automated driving by a © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 259–267, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_31

260

Q. Yang et al.

web survey, a contextual observation and in-situ interviews. They identified 3 groups of activities as follows: “doing nothing”, “entertainment, physical needs, watching out of the window”, and “communication, productivity, use of mobile devices”. Pinyan Tang et al. [5] combine the method of simulator study and user enactment to study the passengers’ preference in future AVs. The activities are categorized into 2 groups: passenger sitting alone and a passenger sitting with another passenger. Ingrid Pettersson et al. [6] explore users’ expectations for AVs by 2 qualitative approaches: drawing and collagen for future AVs and setting the stage. Martin Östling et al. [7] use the “setting the stage” method to investigate preferred sitting positions in future AVs. 3 trip scenarios have been tested in the process: “riding to work or school”, “a weekend trip with family”, and “a vacation trip with family”. Most of the studies focus on the activities of users in AVs. Some of the studies researched the preferred sitting positions or postures in AVs under limited scenarios. Few of them build the connection between trip purpose and activities. Moreover, under the context of carpooling, the relationship between passengers could be more complex. The relativity of trip purpose, passenger relationship and number of passengers are not fully explored. 1.3 Research Goal Firstly, establishing future prototypes based on design fiction enables users to no longer challenges the technology and turn to discussions on the future scenarios. Then we establish a research path to explore user needs in future scenarios by conducting a user enactment. In the process, we invite users to immerse themselves in different scenarios and evaluate the prototypes. 1. What are the different activities that users tend to perform under different trip scenarios? What factors affect the choice of passengers for activities? 2. What kind of cabin layout can best meet users’ privacy or communication needs in different trip scenarios?

2 Basis for Study Methodology To explore the demand in future scenarios, we make use of Design fiction to help to build several narrative prototypes. 2.1 Design Fiction Design fiction is coined by science fiction writer Bruce Sterling. He offers a formal definition of it: “the deliberate use of diegetic prototypes to suspend disbelief about change” [8]. It is suggested that design fiction is “a contemporary form of forwardthinking intervention-that has been enabled by the current networked media environment”. According to the six key characteristics of design fiction [9], design fiction can examine the implications of the potential design and technology. Also, it provides a

Demands Exploration of Future Interior Layout

261

believable environment of the future for discussing user concerns and uncertainties. The aim of it is not to solve conflicts but inspire more meaningful discussion and thoughts. Design fiction is a representational narrative tool created in many forms (storytelling, pictures, films and so on), which is considered as a way of representing and intervening [10]. 2.2 User Enactment User Enactments (UEs) aims to understand technology in an uncertain future. Users provide insights into what the future should be based on the experience of the present. For the design team, UEs are instrumental in making the conceptual leap from data to the concept, for covering a design space or making many iterations of one concept, and for exploring yet to be designed technology and services [11]. There are mainly 3 stages of UE design process [11]. 1) Concepts Generation 2) Concepts Valuation and Selection 3) User Enactment Both methods propose to use narrative stories and prototypes to explore the users’ preferences for future scenarios. UEs are a more detailed design approach that has been used to explore users’ needs for future AVs in several studies. Based on the 2 methods, we have formed our study for investigating the passenger’s requirements for future carpooling experiences.

3 Workshop Design 3.1 Study-Arranging AVs Layout for Future Carpooling Experiences To examine the influence factors for future carpooling experiences and the interrelationship of them, firstly, we have generated several trip purposes in the future based on literature and reports. Under each trip purpose, there are different passengers’ relationship and a number of passengers which formed different trip scenarios in the future. Then the corresponding interior layouts were generated for each scenario based on prior studies. After the assumptions were generated, we built a prototype of AVs’ cabin space in low fidelity. The participants were asked to enact the prototype based on each scenario. During the process, the participants were asked to choose their preferred non-driving activities and fill in a scale to evaluate the satisfaction for each layout concept. 3.2 Assumptions A. Vehicle Occupancy According to the previous chapter, city Robotaxi will have the most possibilities in the application. Considering the shared mobility economy, which is important to sustainable development. A satisfactory carpooling service may be the better choice for people to

262

Q. Yang et al.

enjoy their trip at a lower price rather than own cars. Based on the current road regulations, service prices, and operation efficiency, this research focused on AVs with four-seater occupancy, which not only has commercial possibilities but also can gather data from the existing scene. Therefore, passengers will share the space in this scenario. The layout and functional facilities will play a much vital role in the carpooling service value. B. Trip Purposes Several studies investigate on the trip purposes of AVs under the context of carpooling. We have combined the trip purposes that have been examined in the prior studies [12, 13, 14] and considered the situation in China to generate our trip purposes. To simplify the study, the trip purposes have been narrowed down to 3 purposes: “trip for leisure”, “trip for daily errands”, and “trip for business”. “Trip for leisure” includes circumstances like shooting, visiting friends or going out. “Trip for daily errands” include commuting or picking up the children. “Trip for business” include long business trip (>1.5 h) and short business trip ( Rj

(2)

where, P is the representative vector calculated from the ranking result, pi,j is the ranking tendency between project i and project j. It means the project i is more representative for the concept of footbridge to the participant compared with project j, when the value pi,j is equal to 1, otherwise the value is equal to 0. For illustration, the vector results can be transferred into the matrix in Fig. 2, and the ranking of three elements are presented as an example. With the standardized vector of ranking results, the quantitative difference among participants can be calculated in the Manhattan distance, which can be output the number of different tendency pairs directly. The detailed calculation method is presented in Equation below. Dm,n = P m , P n 1 =

9 9         pi,j − pi,j  m m

(3)

i=1 j=i+1

where, Dm,n is the Manhattan distance between student m and student m, which can be calculated as the sum of the absolute difference of corresponding element. Based on the Manhattan distance between each two students among 86 participants, the distance matrix can be built as Fig. 3. The area with color close to yellow means the shorter distance of vector and the smaller difference of students ranking tendency, and that with color close to blue means the relative different ranking tendency.

Understanding the Interrelation Between Prototype Cognition

319

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of ranking standardization method

Fig. 3. Distance matrix based on questionnaire data.

3.1 Clustering Analysis Based on Ranking Manhattan Distance To analyze the clustering state of participants’ ranking tendency with the complex major backgrounds, the ranking results are processed with the hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA), which is a common statistical approach to achieve cluster classification based on the pair distance. For the classified clusters, the cluster are represented by the vector center, which is used to calculate the distance to other clusters. As presented Fig. 4, the 86 participants can be divided into a main cluster shown in blue nodes and some exceptions.

320

L. Ren et al.

Fig. 4. Clustering analysis of all participants.

According the results of HCA, the participants with similar ranking tendency can be found, which can also be reflected on the change of matrix shown in Fig. 3. The matrix with the sequence change of students in HCA is shown in Fig. 5. The cluster is the area with local higher color, which means the shorter distance between students belong to the same cluster, which will be used to extract the common tendency in the following section.

Fig. 5. Distance matrix before and after clustering analysis.

3.2 Extract of Common Ranking Tendency Focusing on the common ranking tendency in the largest cluster, the tendency matrices of 71 participants in this cluster are combined together. As shown in Fig. 6, the left part is the comprehensive tendency matrix, which reflected the common ranking tendency in this cluster, and the right part is the sum of value in rows which is tendency of this project quantitively. The extraction results is FIHAGECDB, and the results in HCA

Understanding the Interrelation Between Prototype Cognition

321

also pointed the cluster member mainly agree with this ranking sequence, where the Manhattan distances between any two members are smaller than 6. Based on the analysis of extraction, the high-ranking tendency on project J is remarkable, and the relatively lower tendency can also be found on project B and project D.

Fig. 6. The result of main clustering group.

3.3 Discussion From the analysis result, it can be seen that the interdisciplinary course of footbridge design has helped students to construct a cognitive system for the concept of the footbridge in the three years of teaching practice. Among the 86 students who participated in the questionnaire, 71 students are the leading ethnic group. That is, the students who participated in the course have a similar basis for evaluating footbridge (Fig. 7).

Fig. 7. The archetype of students’ cognition clustering analysis based on 2017–2019 interdisciplinary footbridge design course.

322

L. Ren et al.

In the meanwhile, the major is still the main segmented factor in clustering analysis. The quantitative results of groups are mostly among 15 to 20, and those with high-level cognition score had more sense in design, assuming industrial design students are leaders in those groups. However, it does not mean that tacit understanding is directly related to the quality of cooperation results. Most teams with a high level of tacit cooperation often perform well in the design language and presentation, but it is difficult to touch the structural innovation issues that involve interdisciplinary thinking. On the contrary, the group with shallow tacit understanding has a negative correlation with the satisfaction of group cooperation. The enormous conflicts of opinions and antagonistic cooperation ingroup cooperation have a significant impact on the cognition of the footbridge concept. The results of this kind of group cooperation mostly show a large workload and good results. It forms a breakthrough or supplement to the concept of the footbridge in some aspect.

4 Human Resource for Creativity Research in this paper demonstrates that students’ cognition of the footbridge concept is influenced by the original professional education system’s training, but there is also a tendency to break through and get involved. This relates to the phenomena of demainstreaming the definition of the footbridge, creating a more diverse understanding. This cognitive change directly influences the possibilities of creating a new connection that originated in the footbridge; that is what educators expect to see, the creativity students possess. The prototype cognition experiment, for now, cannot directly have the answer to the correlation between individual cognition statement, tacit understanding, and final design outcome. However, the inclination reflected in this experiment can be used as the basis for curriculum updated design in the subsequent teaching practice of interdisciplinary footbridge course to help to build a more diverse and creative multidisciplinary team.

References 1. Matlin, M.W.: Cognitive psychology and college-level pedagogy: two siblings that rarely communicate. New Dir. Teach. Learn. 89, 87–103 (2002) 2. Fruchter, R., Lewis, S.: Mentoring models in an A/E/C global teamwork e-learning environment. In: American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition, p. 12 (2001) 3. Guilford, J.P.: Measurement and creativity. Theory Pract. 5(4), 185–189 (1966) 4. Sternberg, R.J., Lubart, T.I.: Creativity: its nature and assessment. Sch. Psychol. Int. 13(3), 243–253 (1992) 5. Taura, T., Nagai, Y.: Creativity in innovation design: the roles of intuition, synthesis, and hypothesis. Int. J. Des. Creat. Innov. 5(3–4), 131–148 (2017) 6. Çizgen, G., Ulusu Uraz, T.: The unknown position of intuition in design activity. Des. J. 22(3), 257–276 (2019)

The Application of Teachers’ Encouragement in Design Classroom Xiaoyu Li(B) School of Design, Hunan University, Changsha 410006, Hunan Province, China

Abstract. In this article, we report an encouragement strategy in the field of design education. Based on the literature review, an analysis framework for encouragement is initially constructed. Secondly, based on the natural observation of the design classroom and the feedback from the administrators, using the tripartite model of encouragement (TEM), according to the principle of open coding in the grounded theory, the encouragement in the design classroom was coded and classified, and the analysis framework was further revised. Explore the key characteristics of encouragement that can best promote the development of creativity in the design classroom, how teachers can promote the development of creative thinking of design students by creating an innovative environment, and develop a set of strategies for design teachers to reflect and grow. Teachers reflect on what they notice at a specific time Regarding the encouragement in the classroom and making corresponding countermeasures in time to ensure the design of the encouragement in the classroom. Keywords: Encouragement · Design classroom · Creativity

1 Introduction Sincere and sincere encouragement has always been the fountain of our souls. Encouragement means “to express affirmation through language or other symbolic expressions to instill courage, perseverance, confidence, inspiration or hope in the context of dealing with challenging situations or realizing potential” [1]. The satisfaction of the affirmed needs will become the driving force to encourage him to be positive. It is easy to find in our lives that people with sufficient confidence are full of energy and can always exert extraordinary abilities. We put our eyes on the classroom, how will teachers encourage the development of students’ creative potential? Investigating how teachers create an environment that supports educational creativity is crucial, because although many teachers may think that it is important to cultivate students’ creativity, they may lack teaching strategies to do so [2]. Recent studies have shown that encouragement in an academic environment is positively correlated with improving students’ academic self-efficacy, job-seeking self-efficacy, and hope [3]. Although the academic field pays more and more attention to encouragement, there is still a blank in the classroom, especially how to design classroom encouragement. Teacher encouragement has a natural motivational © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 323–331, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_39

324

X. Li

effect on students. The author set out to study in the spirit of exploring encouragement and design stimulus strategies in the classroom. In this article, we describe the encouragement strategies applicable to design classrooms, which can help design teachers to grow and reflect. In the design classrooms, we pay attention to encouraging the use of this teaching strategy. In this way, we aim to support students’ growth in the classroom, help them build a sense of belonging and confidence, and stimulate creativity more effectively.

2 Theoretical Background 2.1 Tripartite Encouragement Model (TEM) Encouragement is our most common way of expressing support. The Tripartite Encouragement Model (TEM) was proposed by Y. Joel Wong, who provides a conceptual model for encouraging classification. This model describes the focus of encouragement, the characteristics of encouragement and the degree of encouragement. Encouragement is conceptualized in different dimensions as a kind of interpersonal communication behavior, a kind of character strength and a kind of ecological group norms (Y. Joel Wong, 2014). In this article, our encouragement framework is developed based on the tripartite encouragement model. 2.2 Teacher Encouragement Has an Impact on Creativity Creativity is essential for finding solutions to new problems and generating novel and useful products or services to meet people’s needs [4, 5]. Cultivating students’ creativity has attracted much attention, and creativity is of great benefit to improving students’ problem-solving abilities, professional abilities, and their career development [6, 7]. Many studies have documented the role of teacher encouragement in promoting student creativity (Fryer & Collins, 1991; Reeve, 2002; Renzulli, 1992; Sternberg, 2007). Teachers can stimulate creativity in the classroom through explicit or implicit encouraging information and behaviors (Runco & Johnson, 2002). A recent study explored the extent to which teacher encouragement is related to the self-efficacy beliefs of first-year engineering students and their willingness to stick to the engineering plan [8]. 2.3 Encouraging Tools and Measures Encouragement can be divided into four areas. A positive view of oneself; a positive view of others; an open attitude to experience; a sense of belonging to others [9]. The more inspired people are, the more they will have a sense of belonging and the more powerful they will be in dealing with life challenges. Dinkmeyer and Losoncy [10] proposed two basic encouragement tools. 1. Focus on effort or improvement; 2. Focus on strengths and assets. Recently, Wong developed and tested the Academic Encouragement Scale to capture student encouragement experiences in the higher education environment. It not only conceptually defines the incentive measures in the university environment, but also proposes an operational method to measure incentive measures [3].

The Application of Teachers’ Encouragement in Design Classroom

325

3 Research Methods 3.1 Classroom Observation Based on doing sufficient literature research work, we also launched classroom observation work on this research question. Participated in 4 courses in the fall semester. At the beginning of the class, we discussed the course links, and progresses with the teacher so that we can make necessary observations of class encouragement. Our observation involves all the processes of teaching, including concept introduction, brainstorming, group discussion, teacher guidance and other links. Among them, teachers’ encouragement methods, task design, student participation, physical space, etc. all stimulate or hinder creativity in the classroom. In the five design classroom, the duration is 5–8 weeks, with 3 lessons per week, 4 hours per lesson, and 40 minutes per lesson. The purpose of classroom observation is to record the encouragement in the classroom environment, and the creativity inspired by it. The first author went to the site to observe and record, from the perspective of the classroom environment as a whole, to be as objective and accurate as possible. Organize the observed forms of encouragement, and integrate and innovate with the content of the previous literature research. From this, an encouragement model suitable for designing the classroom environment is developed. In the five classrooms, the creativity environment is different, and the content of the courses is aimed at corporate projects and students are searching for topics independently. Those who are biased toward engineering technology are also biased toward design thinking. The encouragement strategies observed in each classroom have their own characteristics, and it is true that each teacher has its own unique teaching method, and the classroom atmosphere presented is also different. In the first class, the teacher is good at using wrong design demonstrations to help students avoid the mistakes made by predecessors as much as possible. In the second classroom, the teachers are relatively young, and the classroom tends to be more casual and relaxed. The students gather in small groups in the classroom, and they can whisper to each other. The universal design method described by the teacher is very detailed, but lacks truthfulness. Design tasks. The third class is oriented towards engineering. Students should learn the knowledge of the Internet of Things and combine design thinking to do product design. In this class, students are encouraged to be given the role of system architect, not only to be able to do product design but also to understand technical knowledge. The fourth class is a workshop. The atmosphere of the workshop is very relaxed and open. Students’ creative ideas and works are posted on the wall. Members of each group can see their own results. 3.2 Oral Analysis After the classroom observation, we use the recordings in the classroom to do oral analysis. The oral analysis is the most concerned and widely used empirical research method among all the methods of analyzing and designing activities in recent years. Use ATLAS.ti software to code and analyze the audio, translation, and photos of the teacher’s class. In terms of segment segmentation, Saier et al. described two main methods to segment spoken experimental data: segmentation based on verbalized events,

326

X. Li

such as pauses, intonation, and syntax to mark complete phrases and sentences; segmentation based on reference The intent of the subject, such as Schmidt’s description of a paragraph’s reasoning, presents the coherent assertion behavior of the entity being designed. The total recording time is 536 min. In order to identify the encouragement used by teachers in the design classroom, we combined Wong’s tripartite encouragement model (TEM) and adopted the open coding principle of grounded theory to identify the recording. A total of three researchers performed encoding analysis on the recording. When a certain encoding diverged, we would discuss the rationality of the encoding together, and calculated the repetition rate kappa value as 0.6 to ensure the reliability of the encoding at one time (Table 1). Table 1. Design classroom encourages coding instructions Node main category

Child node

Encoding times of recording data

Example

Foci of encouragement

Challenge-focused

8

Knowing that every step from understanding to actual combat requires effort

Levels of encouragement

Potential-focused

Role substitution

5

Be good at using the designer’s perspective to see problems, have your own responsibilities and responsibilities

Interpersonal communication

Teacher as co-learner

3

Let’s take a look at this WeChat grabbing red envelope and what time is related to

Group norm

Visually interesting environment

2

Free use of tables and chairs, creative process or creative results will be posted on the wall

An atmosphere 9 of respect, care, and tolerance for differences

Friendly teacher-student relationship, free expression and discussion by students

Co-create

People in the classroom don’t spare any effort to discuss a problem together

2

(continued)

The Application of Teachers’ Encouragement in Design Classroom

327

Table 1. (continued) Node main category

Child node

Features of effective encouragement

Framing of encouragement message

Perceived trustworthiness of encourager

Encoding Example times of recording data Social proof principle

6

Haidilao’s interpersonal contact points are well done, and other small flaws can also be accepted by users

Encourage mistakes and risks

1

Is it because you don’t want to learn from the classmates in the group?

Wrong demonstration

5

Many students set the problem very magnificently at the beginning, but in the process of operation it hastily

Point out 2 deficiencies and propose solutions

This idea is very innovative, try to think of it more concretely

Encourage design talent

1

You have your own keen insight when doing visual design

The power to provide an example

4

Look at Naoto Fukasawa’s designs and learn from his transparency

Personal proof principle

2

For example, when I was doing user research in the past, I asked everyone in the scene to verify my design

The coding includes any observable characteristics including the physical environment during the observation period, the behavior or communication that can be recognized by teachers and students. This code sheet integrates Wong’s tripartite encouragement model. During the observation process, the first author also identified the unique encouragement in the design classroom, such as role substitution, visually interesting environment, social proof principle, power to provide role models, encourage design talent, etc. These sub-nodes have been proved to be beneficial to the creativity of the classroom in the feedback from the students after the class. We also discussed with

328

X. Li

the teachers in depth, and summarized the encouragement strategies for designing the classroom, which will be discussed in the next section.

4 Encouragement Strategy Through in-depth literature analysis, field classroom observation, and classroom speech analysis, we have initially formed a design classroom-specific encouragement strategy. 1.

2.

3.

Encourage with challenges and potential as the focus Challenge-centered encouragement is designed to help the recipient face constantly challenging situations. Potential-oriented encouragement attempts to motivate the recipient to realize their potential and cultivate the recipient’s personal development. Teacher motivation can be challenge-centered (for example, instilling hope in students when they want to give up learning tasks); or potential-centered (for example, identifying students’ performance in school and encouraging them to go for higher goals that suit their potential task). Teachers in the classroom represent the key force of igniting creativity. They must accurately identify the challenges that students will encounter, and encourage them based on their potential or talents, so as to enhance their confidence instead of suppressing self-confidence. Example of encouragement based on challenges: “The process of implementing the program may be a bit difficult, but it is unavoidable and must go step by step.” Example of encouragement based on potential: “Your future positioning is the role of the product manager of the enterprise.” Students feedback that after receiving the teacher’s challenge and encouragement, they will have a certain psychological expectation of the challenge, and they can face it more calmly when facing the challenge; after receiving the potential encouragement, they have a deeper understanding of their own positioning, responsibility and responsibility From the bottom of my heart, I want to complete the project better. Be open to experience and ideas In the design classroom, specific elements need to be encouraged, such as encouraging imperfect courage, orderly freedom, open tasks rather than limited tasks. The students muster up the courage to put forward his unconstrained ideas. Regardless of the quality of the ideas, the teacher must focus on encouraging the students’ courage to enhance his self-confidence. Example: “This classmate’s perspective on the problem is very special and deserves encouragement.” This practice of giving feedback to the teacher after class allows students to imagine more boldly, increase their self-confidence, and dare to poke their own ideas in class. Encourage the unique talents of each student Design is a comprehensive subject that requires multi-disciplinary knowledge, and the abilities of design students are also diverse. Students who are good at logical thinking may not be good at visual design, and students who are good at integrating user stories may not be good at interaction design. Teachers should focus on their unique talents and encourage them to stimulate their creativity in the field of talents, help students find their position in the team, and help students find employment in the classroom based on the current corporate and market conditions. Example:

The Application of Teachers’ Encouragement in Design Classroom

4.

5.

6.

7.

329

“You have done a good job of research, and you can go to user research in the future.” Provide the power of role models The power of role models is endless. Design is a new subject. Students rarely come into contact with designers in their daily lives. Teachers give examples of excellent designs and designers in class to stimulate students’ intrinsic motivation. At the same time, teachers themselves are role models for creative activities, and students are more willing to follow the teachers in the classroom. Observers recognize that teachers often use the principles of physical verification or social proof to guide students in the classroom, telling the success experience of others and how to deal with similar problems through case studies. Teachers often use some wrong demonstrations to prevent students from taking detours by giving examples. Compared with successful experience, the way students feedback the wrong demonstration is more grounded, and it can also enliven the classroom atmosphere and is easy to accept. Encourage a relaxed, respectful, and differentiated classroom atmosphere It is easy to find that a relaxed classroom can greatly stimulate creativity. Observers find that they usually meet the following points: the teacher-student relationship is friendly and respectful; visually presents an interesting environment, free use of tables and chairs, students gather in groups, and creative processes are posted on the wall or Creative achievements; students are allowed to whisper in the classroom, and students can use both of their minds to find other materials for creative stimulation during class. This also indirectly provides sufficient design resources, chatting among students and even learning based on games. Point out the shortcomings and propose solutions When encouraging students, they should be made aware of what they are doing well, so as to enhance their perception of their own abilities. Teachers should not be judges of students’ success and failure, but should provide useful information to students through various methods. [11, 12]. When providing evaluation, the results of basic information feedback and controlled feedback are quite different. For example, “Awesome!” is a kind of controlled feedback. He didn’t tell the students what makes them do well and how to do better. Teachers should put forward some follow-up guidance during the evaluation. Example: “This idea is very innovative, try to be more specific.” Real design tasks Dewey [13] insisted that educational experience must integrate personal interests with the needs of society, emphasizing that students actively participate in the innovation process. Design education has also been working in this direction, cultivating the next generation of talents through the cooperation of industry and education, in order to bridge the gap between theory and practice. In the school-enterprise cooperation, students have the opportunity to participate in the design ecological cycle as “professional designers”, learn and grow in real design projects, and have rich and meaningful project experience. In addition, real design tasks can also give students a strong sense of substitution. Through some guidance, they can stimulate a sense of social responsibility, which stimulates internal motivation. In more

330

X. Li

active participation in projects, students are more motivated to gain deeper Sense of accomplishment. 8. Accept mistakes and encourage risk Mistakes and risks are the only way in the innovation process. In an environment where creativity is weak, novel ideas are not well accepted. The restrictions in the environment make students afraid to share their unique ideas. Some teachers regard unexpected classroom interactions in the classroom as interference, belittle unique ideas [14], and even identify ideal learners as those obedient learners. An environment that supports creativity is an environment where people can safely take risks and realize that mistakes are a necessary part of learning [2]. Teachers, as classroom guides, should fully realize the importance of encouraging unique ideas, especially in designing classrooms. Example: “Try to do things that you don’t know how to do. Our goal is to grow into a compound design talent. Mistakes are unavoidable, but we have to go one step at a time.” 9. The role of teachers in learning and discussing together in the classroom The teacher participates in the student’s decision-making process in the classroom, and collaborates with the student team. At the same time, the student is given the right to create rules and discuss the classroom process with the teacher. Driver (2001) investigated the views of business students and found that support for creativity has nothing to do with any specific content or curriculum. It is related to pedagogy, which is the role of teachers in guiding students through various experiences that support creativity. 10. Avoid some practices that will hinder students from stimulating creativity Setting too high tasks is beyond the scope of students’ ability; focusing on students’ mistakes and weaknesses and accusing them; excessive comparison, a large number of competitors will reduce the creativity of creators; pessimistic views on students’ projects or abilities; The guidance is too much to dominate. These teachers should focus on avoiding.

5 Discussion and Conclusion All in all, this research draws on the perspective of encouragement psychology and applies its model to the environment of design education. Through four observations of the design classroom environment, the characteristics of encouragement that occurs frequently in the design classroom environment and can better stimulate creativity are summarized. On this basis, develop a set of encouragement strategies suitable for designing teacher growth. This strategy is to allow teachers to reflect on the situation of encouragement in the classroom that they have noticed at a specific time, and make corresponding countermeasures in time to ensure design encouragement, as far as possible Maximize the creativity of the design classroom. There are still some limitations in this study. Our observation only selects four courses from the School of Design, and there are deficiencies in the sample of course types and teacher types. This research fills the gap in encouraging strategies in the design classroom. The design classroom is a creative environment where countless innovative ideas are generated, but there are still many classrooms that hinder students’ creativity in the creative environment. This research

The Application of Teachers’ Encouragement in Design Classroom

331

provides a wealth of encouragement strategies for design teachers, which can guide teachers to create a better encouraging classroom environment in the future.

References 1. Wong, Y.J.: The psychology of encouragement: theory, research, and applications. Couns. Psychol. 43(2), 178–216 (2015) 2. Chan, S., Yuen, M.: Personal and environmental factors affecting teachers’ creativity-fostering practices in Hong Kong. Thinking Skills Creativity 12, 69–77 (2014) 3. Wong, Y.J., Cheng, H.-L., McDermott, R.C., Deng, K., McCullough, K.M.: Believe in you! measuring the experience of encouragement using the academic encouragement scale. J. Posit. Psychol. 14(6), 820–828 (2019) 4. Chua, B.L., Tan, O.S., Liu, W.C.: Journey into the problem-solving process: cognitive functions in a PBL environment. Innov. Educ. Teach. Int. 53, 191–202 (2014) 5. Lee, J.C., Wang, C.L., Yu, L.C., Chang, S.H.: The effects of perceived support for creativity on individual creativity of design-majored students: a multiple-mediation model of savoring. J. Balt. Sci. Educ. 15, 232–245 (2016) 6. Kim, T.Y., Hon, A.H.Y., Lee, D.R.: Proactive personality and employee creativity: the effects of job creativity requirement and supervisor support for creativity. Creat. Res. J. 22, 37–45 (2010) 7. Shalley, C.E., Gilson, L.L.: What leaders need to know: a review of social and contextual factors that can foster or hinder creativity. Leadersh. Quart. 15, 33–53 (2004) 8. Hsu, H.-Y.: Exploring the relationship between student- perceived faculty encouragement, self-efficacy, and intent to persist in engineering programs. Eur. J. Eng. Educ. (2021) 9. Evans, T.: Development and initial validation of the encouragement scale edu-cational form. J. Humanist. Edu. Dev. (1997, in Press) 10. Dinkmeyer, D., Losoncy, L.: The Skills of Encouragement. St. Lucie Press, Delray Beach (1996) 11. Amabile, T.M.: A Model of Creativity and Innovation in Organization. In: Staw, B., Sutton, R. (eds.) Research in Organizational Behaviour. Elseiver, Amsterdam (1989) 12. Amabile, T.M.: Creativity in Context: Update to the Social Psychology of Creativity. Westview, Boulder (1996) 13. Dewey, J. (ed.): Democracy and Education. The Macmillan, New York (1916) 14. Craft, A.: An analysis of research and literature on creativity in education. Qual. Curric. Auth. 51, 1–37 (2001) 15. Creswell, J.W.: Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches. SAGE, Thousand Oaks (2012)

Interaction and xR Technology

A Novel Pandemic Delivery Pattern for a New Digital User Experience Degree Apprenticeship Kimberly Anne Sheen(B) , Jillian Griffiths, Derren Wilson, and Stuart Cunningham Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK {k.sheen,j.r.griffiths,d.j.wilson,s.cunningham}@mmu.ac.uk

Abstract. The teaching and study of User Experience (UX) is relatively new compared to more established fields. Additionally, the interdisciplinary nature of UX may make a consensus on teaching pedagogies and methods difficult to reach. To add to the complexity of teaching UX, is the emergence of the degree apprenticeship programme where apprentices study at a higher education university for 20% of their time while 80% is spent with their employer. This paper describes the process of launching a programme to respond to this unique and emerging context during a global pandemic. It focuses on reflections from lecturers on the challenges and reception of the programme and discusses the initial contributions this work can bring to conceptions of UX pedagogies, especially those delivered in an online delivery environment. Keywords: Education · User experience · Teaching · Curriculum delivery

1 Introduction 1.1 User Experience Education The study of User Experience (UX), the aspects of interaction with any product or service [1], is a relatively new area of study compared to classical and more established fields such as Human-Computer Interaction or Information Science. While the literature on UX education and pedagogy exists [2], it is relatively limited and does not always address the field’s complexities well [3]. Over the past few decades, there have been calls for refined teaching methods [4]; however, these goals have remained elusive [5] and solutions are not necessarily received well. Moreover, the multi-disciplinary nature of UX may make it difficult to reach agreement on the use of specific pedagogies, models and methods to deliver the curriculum. As late as early 2020, the problems plaguing UX and design education were still being discussed and debated by leaders in the field [6]. While there is no firm answer, there is some agreement that experiential learning is essential to the study of UX and central to building the necessary competence for knowledge transfer and future success in the workplace [2]. This principle is often embedded in UX curriculum in design schools where core skills are learned by solving real world problems [7]. This process is broken down into four parts: orientation, observation, practice, and play [8]. Students first learn UX theories and the general process as a core to © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 335–342, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_40

336

K. A. Sheen et al.

proficiency [9]. Then, they start to approach the complexity of the process with feedback [10]. Following which, students use real scenarios to practice their skills [7]. Play, the final stage, is learning how to apply the design process in a controlled environment [8]. While this gives a foundation for the UX process, it does not address many of the “practice-level struggles”, such as dealing with stakeholders, that practitioners deal with [11]. Additionally, it has been found that the learning process should also include soft skills necessary for the workplace [12]. It is often acknowledged that UX education needs to extend beyond usability or a focus on research methods to be more immersive [3]. While this is done through the more experiential style of learning detailed above and has shown reliable practical results, it is difficult to implement during the current pandemic where online and blended learning pedagogies are the norm. Instead of students getting valuable time in the studio and regular feedback from practitioners, most if not all of the learning is conducted online; and it is subject to the affordances of the platforms used and the various interpretations of online learning for students and staff [13–16]. 1.2 Degree Apprenticeships In addition to the current complexities plaguing the education situation and the UX field, is the rise of the degree apprenticeship. A UK degree apprenticeship is a combined package of work and study where apprentices are employed by a company and paid a wage, whilst studying with a delivery provider, particularly (but not exclusively) in the case of degrees this may be within a university. British degree apprenticeships began in 2015 and are financially attractive to prospective apprentices, who receive both a salary and have their tuition fees paid indirectly by their employer via a national government apprenticeship levy. The apprenticeship itself has a set of requirements and competencies designed by employers (known as the Standard), with delivery providers designing the academic programme of study in response. There are many benefits with this approach, including offering the opportunity for employers to invest in and upskill their employees and universities gaining an insight into the current industry practices [17, 18]. It also seeks to encourage industry participation in higher education by producing graduates with specific vocational skills linked to employer needs. The UK degree apprenticeship system normally allows for 80% time on the job and 20% of the time studying and attending university. Whilst challenging for apprentices, it allows for learning and work that is focused, up-to-date, and relevant to the industry at large. With universities doing this by consulting with the employers regularly ensuring the learning goals are aligned.

2 Programme Development Considering these challenges and opportunities, a new degree apprenticeship programme and delivery pattern for digital user experience was developed at Manchester Metropolitan University (ManMet). The development process was an embodiment of the usercentred design philosophy and utilised agile methods from the UX field. The programme was designed in a cross-faculty initiative with planning, curriculum design, and unit development and instruction coming from four of the five faculties at ManMet and based

A Novel Pandemic Delivery Pattern for a New Digital User Experience

337

on the Standard to meet the skills gap in the UK digital area [19]. It launched September 2020 with 22 apprentices on programme from 18 different companies, ranging from charities to multinational companies.

3 Delivery Model The programme was developed to grow knowledge and skills to support various digital UX roles. It is a fully accredited degree that is undertaken by the apprentices over four years in a part-time capacity. There are 22 taught units with all being core, except for a specialism taken during the second year in either Sound, Coding, Design, or Storytelling. There is then a final large work-based project known as an endpoint assessment. The programme is delivered in a sprint pattern to mirror industry practice, a pattern not typical of most UK academic programmes. Apprentices are released from their workplace for six four-day sprints each academic year for a total of 24 teaching days per year. With an additional six online question and answer sessions (IQA) between sprints. The two sprints a year deliver six units, equivalent to two-thirds of the standard undergraduate course year, meaning the programme runs four years rather than three. Each sprint delivers what is referred to as a Triad of units. These units are designed to deliver a fundamental understanding of concepts which build on each other but deepen in each individual unit. In the first two years, each Triad is assessed synoptically with one project. This helps illustrate how the aspects and concepts interact with and impact each other. This also allows apprentices to work on projects for work as their assessments. The lecturers only assess the portions of the project relevant to their units. The delivery model includes six teaching hours of each unit during the Sprint week (Table 1). The week starts with an introduction to the Sprint and Stand-up session lasting three hours. After a one-hour lunch break, the first unit’s 3-h session commences. On Day 2 of the sprint, the second unit’s 3-h session takes place followed by the third unit’s first 3-h session. The delivery pattern of the units then repeats on Sprint Day 3 and 4. The final three hours on Day 4 is a Skills Support Session and Sprint Retrospective. Table 1. Example of the sprint delivery of units, Stand up, and Retrospective. Intro & stand up

Unit 1

Unit 2

Unit 3

Mon 10 AM–1 PM

Mon 2 PM–5 PM Tues 10 AM–1 PM Tues 2 PM–5 PM Wed 10 AM–5 PM Wed 2 PM–5 PM Thurs 10 AM–1 PM

Skills & retrospective Thurs 2 PM–5 PM

3.1 Pandemic Response Originally, all days of the Sprint were to be delivered in person. However, the national UK lockdown in March of 2020 and subsequent government advice changed ManMet’s delivery pattern to blended online learning, with the first two days designed to be delivered on campus and the second two days of the sprint changed to online delivery. This

338

K. A. Sheen et al.

changed again when ManMet had to move to complete online only delivery, as a result the programme thus far has been delivered as online only.

4 Reflections Although a new programme, continuous feedback is designed into each Sprint and Triad to enable the programme team to reflect on the teaching and learning experience and quickly make any necessary improvements. The feedback streams were Sprint Retrospectives, staff-student consultation committees, peer-elected student representatives, student satisfaction surveys, and regular conversations with apprentices and employers. At the end of every Sprint, apprentices end their time with a Retrospective session where they discuss what went well, what could have gone better, and what the next steps would be. The programme team immediately reflects on each Sprint, discussing the feedback and their thoughts and then iterates aspects of the teaching. For example, the timings of breaks, technology used to support learning, amount of group activities, and time spent on summative assessment activities were improved upon between Sprints 1 and 2. Additionally, the programme recently received its first student satisfaction survey results. Overall, apprentices reported they were satisfied with the programme as a whole and when asked what could be improved stated that they felt there was nothing major to improve and that they felt heard because they saw immediate changes based on their feedback. While it seems that apprentices are satisfied and the programme is moving in the right direction, there are many areas for the programme team to reflect. This section outlines those initial reflections, their concerns, and what has been actioned. 4.1 Change in Delivery As this programme was set to launch in September 2020, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the delivery model changed to blended learning before the start of term. At this change, lecturers discussed initial concerns regarding running the workshop sessions. In the first iteration of the delivery pattern, all sessions were going to be fully face to face. This allowed for a short lecture to deliver theory and other relevant teaching before allowing the session to become a workshop where apprentices would work on applying their learning to real world business problems. The switch to blended learning with face-to-face the first two days and online learning the second, would force time that was meant to be workshops to being online and leave more of the face-to-face time as lectures rather than experiential learning with guidance from lecturers. In the midst of identifying how this problem could and would be tackled in the coming Sprints, ManMet pushed all learning to online only. Lecturers initially found this challenging as it was announced days before the start of Sprint 1. Working with each other and through in-depth discussions, the programme team decided to move back towards sessions which aligned with the lecture-then-workshop style that was originally planned for normal delivery. As lecturers had been preparing and discussing online learning for the blended format, the teaching team was able to take advantage of what they had planned regarding online learning and apply that to the experiential style they originally wanted to employ.

A Novel Pandemic Delivery Pattern for a New Digital User Experience

339

4.2 Creating a Community of Practice Online Due to the change to online only learning, the teaching team worried about the creation of a community within the apprentices, something which is vital to the success of online learners [20]. Not only would online learning make community development difficult, due to lockdown restrictions and remote working many of the apprentices reported feeling isolated and that getting to know other people on the programme is difficult in an online environment. Additionally, as these are apprentices rather than traditional full-time students, the programme team had hoped they would develop a Community of Practice (CoP). CoPs are groups which interact regularly and discuss their passion and build a shared repertoire of resources and a shared practice [21]. This would be beneficial to people new to UX, provide them with information about UX in a variety of industries and would allow established apprentices to expand their understanding, make new connections, and discuss concepts in a way which may bring new insights. Finally, the programme team was concerned with how to help apprentices make deep connections with the material, something often done with informal discussion or group work. This type of connection building does not lend itself well to online environments. To combat these issues, lecturers encouraged apprentices to talk with their classmates and build their own community. To do this, apprentices created their own Microsoft Teams channel so that they could discuss work. Additionally, they created a Whatsapp group to encourage each other with their writing and to share advice and best practice. Lecturers also coordinated with each other to create small groups for their subject classrooms which did not have apprentice overlap. This allowed for apprentices to work with different people in each unit while discussing concepts and conducting small activities. The hope was to foster communication between apprentices. In the recent student satisfaction survey results, several apprentices commended this stating that they liked the small group sessions and that it allowed them to get to know the other apprentices in their cohort. Lecturers are continuing to offer class time for apprentices to build their community and cohort identity so that they may help each other succeed and build a CoP. 4.3 Online Teaching While online teaching was originally viewed as a challenge, discussion within the programme team outlined several benefits for the apprentices learning in this way. For instance, online learning allows for sessions to be video recorded and allows apprentices to return to the material later. Additionally, online learning allows the programme team to employ some digital communication technology currently used in their work environments and helps them get more familiar with that technology. Finally, teaching digital UX to these apprentices online allows them to make further connections between what they are learning with critiques of the digital tools they are using for their learning. Overall, employers have reported that the online learning done in this programme mirrors the current remote working environment in a way they find beneficial.

340

K. A. Sheen et al.

While there are many benefits, there are several challenges that the teaching team highlighted in relation to teaching online at the start of programme development. Lecturers had discussions on how to ensure the online sessions would be engaging and interactive, that apprentices would feel confident with the material and their mastery of it, and that they would be able to build a community within their cohort. The teaching team met this challenge with the addition of interactive activities such as Kahoot quizzes, the use of small group work, and feedback sessions where apprentices could check their understanding on how to conduct methods and receive feedback on them. These approaches have been received positively by the apprentices. They frequently reported that this has supported their sense of community, their involvement in the sessions, and confidence with their learning. Additionally, lecturers worried that apprentices would find the long learning days challenging and taxing. To combat that, an hour lunch break was offered between the morning and afternoon sessions and one short break was offered in the middle of each teaching session. Feedback from the apprentices showed that this was not enough to mitigate this challenge. In fact, apprentices reported that the online nature caused massive screen fatigue and that even with breaks they struggled towards the end of the day. Based on this feedback, the teaching team opted to institute a 15-min break for every 45 min of online teaching. During this break, apprentices were asked to physically step away from the computer. Apprentices and the teaching team reported that this change has dramatically improved the quality of the teaching and learning experience. Moreover, the affordances of the digital platforms implemented by ManMet had some impact on the practical aspects of teaching. Lecturers and apprentices found it difficult to demonstrate and discuss their sketching practice, as real-time feedback on work was impossible. The group was too large for the lecturer to ask each apprentice to show their work and doing so would have ‘exposed’ the work to the rest of the group, possibly bringing in confidentiality concerns. Additionally, the lecturer had no access to technology that would allow them to sketch, talk, and show the sketch at the same time. Sketching on paper required the apprentices to use a variety of techniques to digitise their work and submit it through Moodle, the online teaching platform. The lecturer then needed extra time to provide individual feedback on apprentices’ work through Moodle. Creative solutions to meet this challenge are still being explored by the programme team. The absence of being in the same physical space as the apprentices also meant that lecturers had more of a challenge monitoring apprentices’ progress in group tasks, as each group had to be ‘visited’ individually, rather than observed and monitored in a more holistic manner. This presented challenges if a group had questions or points of clarity as the ability for a lecturer to multi-task in an online environment is greatly reduced. The apprentices too, noted that some activities could be challenging online. Nevertheless, lecturers observed apprentices in groups engaging in comparable discussion and achieving learning comparable to that of the physical classroom. Similarly, the subtle body language ‘cues’ that a lecturer would be able to pick up on to indicate apprentices were struggling with tasks or concepts was absent. It was found that apprentices who were more comfortable with the tasks tended to be more active and confident broadcasting their ideas in the class sessions. Conversely, even though some apprentices who were unfamiliar with tasks indicated their discomfort with learning

A Novel Pandemic Delivery Pattern for a New Digital User Experience

341

these skills, others may have found it harder to raise issues. However, apprentices have taken initiative to email the teaching team to discuss their work and receive clarity. Due to this, there has been an increase in workload for the teaching team due to this shifting from in class to an outside of class activity.

5 Implications for UX Programmes Although this programme is new, feedback from both apprentices and employers has been overwhelmingly positive, stating that the programme approach is satisfactory and appropriate. Based on this, the programme team has identified best practice for the delivery of digital user experience programmes online. Programmes delivered online should include frequent interactive aspects to keep engagement with the material high and build confidence. Additionally, examples and digital tools used for teaching should remain relevant and industry based. All feedback should be provided on work quickly to assist in building the skills necessary for the workplace. Moreover, physical issues related to online learning such as eye strain, and screen fatigue should be addressed early. Finally, the fact that every cohort of students is different needs to be accounted for and teaching strategies should be iterated based on what is working for that group of students. However, there are challenges to running a programme during a pandemic that need careful consideration by programme teams. The dispersal of the teaching team requires more targeted communication between members to ensure adequate delivery of the programme while not increasing time spent in meetings. Aspects such as linking assessments means that lecturers on the units must be mindful that they are not misleading or confusing students when giving feedback or guidance that may relate to the other unit’s section of assessment. Additionally, university systems which are not designed for rapid changes and flexibility, need to be carefully employed with creativity. Overall, the real-world based model of experiential learning has proved effective based on feedback from the programme team, apprentices, and employers even if it is only conducted in an online only environment. Making the effort to include the apprentices and demonstrating responsiveness to their feedback, while demanding, results in a better experience for the apprentices and provides valuable data for the teaching team to use during iteration to enhance the effectiveness of the teaching and learning. Acknowledgments. The authors would like to thank Manchester Metropolitan University and the School of Digital Arts (SODA), the Apprenticeship Unit, the employers and their apprentices on the Digital User Experience Degree Apprenticeship.

References 1. Nielsen Norman Group. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/definition-user-experience/ 2. Getto, G., Potts, L., Salvo, M.J., Gossett, K.: Teaching UX: designing programs to train the next generation of UX experts. In: ACM International. Proceedings of the 31st ACM international conference on Design of communication, vol. 1. SIGDOC, 30th September–1st October 2013, pp. 65–70. ACM, Greenville (2013)

342

K. A. Sheen et al.

3. Rose, E., Tenenberg, J.: Making practice-level struggles visible: researching UX practice to inform pedagogy. Commun. Des. Q. Rev. 5(1), 89–97 (2017) 4. Law, E.L.C., Roto, V., Vermeeren, A.P., Kort, J., Hassenzahl, M.: Towards a shared definition of user experience. In: ACM CHI extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems CHI 2008, 5th–10th April 2008, pp. 2395–2398. ACM, Florence (2008) 5. Law, E.L.C., Vermeeren, A.P., Hassenzahl, M., Blythe, M.: Towards a UX manifesto. In: BCS Learning and Development. Proceedings of the 21st British HCI Group Annual Conference on People and Computers: HCI but not as we know it, vol. 2. BCS-HCI, Swindon, 3rd–7th September 2007, pp. 205–206. BCS Learning & Development Ltd., Swindon (2007) 6. Meyer, M., Norman, D.: Changing design education for the 21st century. She Ji: J. Des. Econ. Innov. 6(1), 13–49 (2020) 7. Vorvoreanu, M., Gray, C.M., Parsons, P., Rasche, N.: Advancing UX education: a model for integrated studio pedagogy. In: Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, May 2017, pp. 1441–1446. ACM CHI, Denver (2017) 8. Getto, G., Beecher, F.: Toward a model of UX education: training UX designers within the academy. IEEE Trans. Prof. Commun. 59(2), 153–164 (2016) 9. Latzina, M., Rummel, B.: Soft(ware) skills in context: corporate usability training aiming at cross-disciplinary collaboration. In: CSEE&T Proceedings 16th Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training. CSEE&T, Madrid, 20th–22nd March 2003, pp. 52–57. IEEE Press, Madrid (2003) 10. Cooke, L., Mings, S.: Connecting usability education and research with industry needs and practices. IEEE Trans. Prof. Commun. 48(3), 296–312 (2005) 11. Chong, F.: The pedagogy of usability: an analysis of technical communication textbooks, anthologies, and course syllabi and descriptions. Tech. Commun. Q. 25(1), 12–28 (2016) 12. Elliott, L.J.: Keeping the HF/UX curriculum current with the critical decision method. In: Kantola, J.I., Barath, T., Nazir, S., Andre, T. (eds.) Advances in Human Factors, Business Management, Training and Education. AISC, vol. 498, pp. 15–21. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42070-7_2 13. Gikas, J., Grant, M.M.: Mobile computing devices in higher education: student perspectives on learning with cellphones, smartphones & social media. Internet High. Educ. 19, 18–26 (2013) 14. Rubin, B., Fernandes, R., Avgerinou, M.D.: The effects of technology on the community of inquiry and satisfaction with online courses. Internet High. Educ. 17, 48–57 (2013) 15. Seale, J., Georgeson, J., Mamas, C., Swain, J.: Not the right kind of ‘digital capital’? An examination of the complex relationship between disabled students, their technologies and higher education institutions. Comput. Educ. 82, 118–1287 (2015) 16. So, S.: Mobile instant messaging support for teaching and learning in higher education. Internet High. Educ. 31, 32–42 (2016) 17. Antcliff, V., Baines, S., Gorb, E.: Developing your own graduate employees: employer perspectives on the value of a degree apprenticeship. High. Educ. Skills Work-Based Learn. 6(4), 378–383 (2016) 18. Bravenboer, D.: Why co-design and delivery is “a no brainer” for higher and degree apprenticeship policy. High. Educ. Skills Work-Based Learn. 6(4), 384–400 (2016) 19. Manchester Digital. https://www.manchesterdigital.com/post/manchester-digital/skillsaudit-2020 20. Conrad, D.: Building and maintaining community in cohort-based online learning. Int. J. E-Learn. Dist. Edu. 20(1), 1–20 (2005) 21. Wenger, E.: Communities of practice. Communities 22(5), 1–5 (2009)

Human Computer Interaction Opportunities in Hand Tracking and Finger Recognition in Ship Engine Room VR Training Evangelos Markopoulos(B) , Mika Luimula, Werner Ravyse, Jesse Ahtiainen, and Ville Aro-Heinilä Faculty of Engineering and Management, Turku University of Applied Sciences, Joukahaisenkatu 3, 20520 Turku, Finland {evangelos.markopoulos,Mika.Luimula,werner.ravyse}@turkuamk.fi, {Jesse.Ahtiainen,ville.aroheinila}@edu.turkuamk.fi

Abstract. The research conducted for this paper is an extension of the continuous efforts at the Turku University of applied Sciences to optimize the Maritime Immersive Ocean Technology (MarsISOT) by integrating advanced immersive technologies. This paper reports the integration of hand tracking and finger recognition in the ShipSEVR learning episode. ShipSEVR, part of MarISOT, is a VR Training next generation learning environment focused specifically on ship engines and engine rooms safety procedures. The technology has been designed and developed at Turku University of Applied Sciences for Wärtsilä Land and Sea Academy utilizing latest VR technologies. The delivered learning episode consists of a 3D ship engine room space where trainees are expected to find certain devices and equipment by utilizing the available technical drawings. This enhanced human computer interaction environment reflects to industry requirements the derived after the first version of the technology and its test with industry experts. Keywords: Virtual reality · Maritime safety training · Hand tracking · Finger Recognition · Shipping · Human computer interaction · Engine room · Ship · Maritime

1 Introduction Over the last two years the Turku University of Applied Sciences has made the strategic decision to explore in depth the applications of virtual reality in the shipping and maritime sector. Turku hosts some of the world’s leading maritime companies in ship building, ship operations and maritime education. Since then, several projects and experiments have been implemented and international strategic partnerships have been formed. These activities resulted to the creation of the MarISOT technology [1]. Lately MarISOT received funding to explore its commercialization route and disrupt the maritime training markets with the introduction of advanced virtual reality applications specifically on the maritime safety sector. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 343–351, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_41

344

E. Markopoulos et al.

Industry experts believe that immersive learning with VR environments provide pedagogical practices and deeper understanding of the processes and procedures [2] required to undertake in a given situation [3]. In an attempt to keep up with the maritime technology trends, research was conducted to examine and develop ShipSEVR (Ship Engine Safety Education Virtual Reality) [4]. ShipSEVR is a next generation VR Training learning environment focused specifically on ship engines and engine rooms safety procedures. The technology has been for been initially developed for Wärtsilä Land and Sea Academy (WLSA) at the AVR Turku Innovation and Competence Factory (AVR Turku) with the latest VR technologies. Furthermore, MarSEVR (Marine Safety Education with Virtual Reality) is a second core technology of MarISOT focused on virtual training on command bridge operations. [5]. The technology provides practical situational awareness and decision-making scenarios by replicating a ship bridge environment for virtual education in maritime safety training. Both MarsSEVR and ShipSEVR adopt VR and game design principles to implement, immersive training scenarios in an engaging and interactive way that contributes to better understand decision-making factors in a gamified environment.

2 Research Rationale The research resented in this paper extends the functionality of the ShipSEVR technology with the addition of Hand and Finger Tracking. These technologies have been successfully implemented in the MarSEVR technology [6] which is also part of the wider MarISOT technology. Furthermore, this work resolves various technical challenge challenges identified in the first version of ShipSEVR. The previous version of ShipSEVR was tested intensively by Wärtsilä at their Turku premises and the promising results helped the project to continue [7]. However there have been found some challenges in usability and user experience which were mainly caused by the use of controllers. Furthermore, the low resolution of the headset greatly hampered the immersive quality of VR. The controllers were unwieldy to interact with the command bridge instruments. Dials with fine adjustments, closely spaced buttons and slider positioning proved to be most problematic. Although controllers were sufficient for manipulating a relatively large wheel and lever, users had to explicitly look at the virtual objects to line up the controller with that object to ensure successful interaction. Training experts felt that such repeated practice in a virtual environment could be habit-forming for real-world settings where seafarers should rather be able to blindly find the ship controls. In addition, visualization of detailed engine schematics was difficult because of the lack of resolution. As a conclusion it has been decided to integrate one of the most promising new VR technologies which is the Varjo VR-2 glasses with human-eye resolution. This device is offered with Leap Motion sensor for hand tracking and finger recognition. To be able to integrate hand tracking and finger recognition, new UI design, and UI assets had to be created. Also, interactions for teleporting and engine schematics were redesigned. For a fluent use of hand tracking and finger recognition it was decided to add

Human Computer Interaction Opportunities in Hand Tracking

345

a tutorial, a visible guidance to train inexperienced users. The use of hand tracking and finger recognition is not so common in gaming industry and there were some challenges to find best practices how to design a virtual UI and how to interact with engine schematics or navigate in the ship engine room fluently. As a result, and after resolving the mentioned challenges the hand tracking and finger recognition was integrated in the ShipSEVR learning episode using Varjo VR-2 glasses with Leap Motion sensor. This effort conducted a pilot test with ten test subjects were usability and user experience were evaluated. These results are reported in detail in the paper.

3 Research Methodology The research methodology followed in this research used a triangulation approach composed from the literature review the prototype developing, and two surveys, one for the user experience and one for the system’s usability. The literature review contributed on the identification of the best practices to integrate hand tracking and finger recognition in virtual reality applications for serious games and in the maritime industry in particular. The prototype development emphasized on the design a virtual UI to interact with engine schematics, engine room navigation and integration of the hand and finger tacking technology in the ShipSEVR application. The usability survey included 15 participants that completed an online questionnaire consisting of two parts. The first section asked about their user experience with handtracking and the second section tested the usability of hand-tracking. For the user experience, the participants were asked to rate (on a scale of poor, below average, average, above average and excellent) their experience with several interactions using hand-tracking and their most familiar controller. The interactions included: (a) button press; (b) lever pull; (c) wheel turn; (d) sensitive dial adjustment; (e) slider positioning; (f) teleport; (g) pick up object; (h) hold or carry object; (i) inspect object while holding it; (j) interact with menu options. They were also asked to list (in their opinion) any advantages or disadvantages with hand-tracking. Finally, they were asked to indicate how long it took to become accustomed to hand-tracking. The usability section used questions from the System Usability Scale (SUS) [8] questionnaire. The statements were adapted to better elicit responses about hand-tracking in VR. For example, if the original statement read “I find the system unnecessarily complex”; the statement was changed to “I find hand-tracking in VR unnecessarily complex”.

4 Technologies Used and the Finger and Hand Tracking Application Tutorial The previous version this ShipSEVR application [4] was used as a base application and two plugins namely Varjo VR-2 Pro Ultraleap SDK for Unity and Varjo Plugin for Unity were first installed. In addition, Steam VR plugin was already in use in the base application. Hand tracking and teleportation UI utilize prefabs from the Ultraleap plugin

346

E. Markopoulos et al.

were modified to be used in the new version. Teleportation was developed so that the user can point to any surface that has the correct “teleport” tag assigned to it. This project has been developed with Unity version is 2019.2.11. An interaction tutorial scene was developed for the use to learn how the teleportation works while using hand and finger recognition gestures (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Guidance signs in the tutorial scene.

In this tutorial, the user is also able to test how the blueprints work. This tutoring scene is a square shaped area with instruction signs that has as text and images on how to use the teleportation gestures. Next to the instruction sign there is a blueprint on a table, and a sign above it that explains how to use it. In addition, there is an exit sign and a button to exit the tutorial and move to the exercise. The player is forced to move in the environment by using teleporting before pressing the exit button.

5 Experiences of Hand Tracking and UI Implementation The ShipSEVR Hand and Finger tracking system was developed based on assets provided by LeapMotion, the hand tracking solution Varjo relies on, and built the rest upon that. The UI was designed utilizing the 3D in-world system based on LeapMotion’s assets. Most of the VR middleware, such as SteamVR and Oculus, provide ready-made tools for basic functions such as teleporting around. In the case of Varjo glasses these type of tools were not available and such a system was developed from the scratch. While designing teleport functionality, the UI system was already tied to the user’s hand models. Ray casting can be activated by pressing one of the buttons on the UI, and subsequently aim around the scene by moving said hand. When the user has aimed their hand at a suitable spot where they can press another button on the UI to teleport there. The system relies on teleporting script making it easily adjustable and portable to other projects.

Human Computer Interaction Opportunities in Hand Tracking

347

6 Graphic Assets Designed for Hand Tracking System In this version, a 3D teleport UI for the Varjo hand models was used. To use developed teleporting gestures explained above a rounded button assets and control panel asset for the hand controls was designed. In addition, two animated identicators were designed to visualize where the user is teleporting: a green arrow for possible places to teleport to, and a red cross to identicate places where the player cannot teleport (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2. Rounded button and control panel assets for the improved hand controls.

These additions improved the user experience and teleportation felt much more pleasant to use, and easier to understand. Also, blueprints were added to the scene, made to “pop out” from the surroundings so they catch the user’s interest. Furthermore, a glow effect with a purple arrow for the blueprint pedestal was designed to improve the user experience (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3. A glow effect with a purple arrow for the blueprint pedestal.

348

E. Markopoulos et al.

7 Research Results The results from this research and the experiments conducted after the implementation of the hand tracking functionality seems to indicate that the hand tracking does not improve the user experience as it was expected. The comparisons between controllers and hand-tracking for the various interactions (Fig. 4) indicate that the test participants rated their experience with the controllers better, on average, for all but one (button press) of the interactions.

Fig. 4. Average comparative experience ratings between controllers and hand-tracking

Moreover, only one of the participants rated their overall experience with handtracking higher than with controllers (Fig. 5). Therefore, and based the these quantitative results, the hypothesis that hand-tracking improves user experience in a VR environment seems to be rejected. However, in scrutinising the answers to the question asking for the disadvantages of hand-tracking, this conclusion is probably rejected as the participants indicated that the lack of haptic feedback (mentioned by six participants) was at the root of the results favouring controllers: “lack of physical resistance, no haptic feedback or such”, “no haptic feedback when interacting with the world”, “lack of feedback (haptic or otherwise) when interacting with the world.” The participants felt it strange to touch or hold an object without any sort of tactile feedback from, for instance, pulling a controller trigger or feeling the rumble from the controller when interacting with an object: “no feedback from for example rumble motors”, “feels strange to grab objects that aren’t there”, “no feeling of actually grabbing object.” Five of the participants also mentioned that hand-tracking technology is clearly in its infancy because the virtual hands would often flicker, disappear or track inaccurately. Two more participants echoed these sentiments by stating that the controller buttons were

Human Computer Interaction Opportunities in Hand Tracking

349

Fig. 5. Average overall controller and hand-tracking experience per participant

more reliable at this stage of testing the hand-tracking technology: “the technology is still experimental and has some bugs like hands disappear when hand is in a certain position”, “can be unreliable (hands flickering/shaking immediately breaks the immersion)”, “the tracking itself is shaky and inaccurate at times.” Given these qualitative comments on the disadvantages of VR hand-tracking, it comes as no surprise that the usability score measured for hand-tracking in VR is 64,33. A score of 68 indicates a sufficiently usable interface with some work to be done [9]. This usability score indicated that there are advantages on the hand-tracking and that the hypothesis shall not be rejected. Eight of the participants claimed that the hand tracking felt more natural while six participants considered the immersion with handtracking is much improved over controller driven scenarios: “hand tracking feels very natural and immersive”, “hand tracking is intuitive way to grab and move objects”, “more immersive (minus the haptics)”, “when working as intended, hand tracking makes the experience much more immersive and learning instances will be closer to real life situations”, “hand orientation is more natural”. The greatest advantage hand-tracking has over controllers, is the intuitiveness of knowing how to use your hands and not being required to learn the various controller buttons—five participants mentioned this lower barrier to VR interaction: “you don’t need to remember buttons”, “no need to memorize what each button of the controller does”, “no buttons are needed to learn on the controller”.

8 Areas of Further Research The work delivered for the integration of the hand and finger tracking in ShipSEVR intends to continue optimizing this integration and extending it with eye tracking and multiplayer functionality. Specifically, the next phase intends to focus on improving user experience by bypassing the first button press. That is to say the teleportation ray could

350

E. Markopoulos et al.

simply show up whenever the user raises their hand. The goal of this current solution was to tie other systems (mainly blueprints) into the UI. It has been discovered that the aiming target could be smoothed out a little, since in the current version it’s very jittery due to how exact and accurate the hand tracking system is. This will also be fixed in the next phase of the development. Regarding the and eye tracking functionality, ShipSEVR will follow the research done in MarSEVR where the eye tracking technology has been implemented successfully [10]. Eye gaze reflects the allocation of attentional resources and can be used as an index of the mental processes underlying behavior in VR environments [11]. Furthermore, research has been initiated for the implementation of multiplayer functionality that will allow more than one player to enter the virtual engineer room and collaborate on common activities and exercises with other users. This will advance the effectiveness of the technology as it is an industry requirement derived from the industry experts who participated in this research.

9 Conclusions Hand-tracking in VR brings about an immediate immersion improvement over the controllers. Users are likely to feel more in control of the natural movement and hand orientation that comes with hand-tracking. Unfortunately, gloveless hand-tracking technology is still emerging and as innovators and early adopters of game technologies. It seems that the current state of this technology is not quite ready for regular consumption. Its primary pitfalls include a lack of haptic feedback and a sketchy tracking accuracy. However, it can be said with confidence that hand-tracking, perhaps with the aid of haptic gloves, is a way of the future, or the very near future, considering the technology evolution pace. The clearly immersive quality of hand-tracking validates the hypothesis that hand-tracking can improve VR user experience. This integration has been industry requirement and will be based on experiments conducted on other MarISOT applications. Tests will continue with more participants primarily from the maritime sector with extensive expertise on the activities covered in the training scenarios. Regardless the outcome of these extended tests, hand tracking will be a leading feature of ShipSEVR, moving the technology ahead the current needs and ready to respond to near future ones.

References 1. Markopoulos, E., Luimula, M.: Immersive safe oceans technology: developing virtual onboard training episodes for maritime safety. Future Internet 12, 80 (2020) 2. Allied Market Research. https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/virtual-training-and-simula tion-market 3. Saftey4sea. https://safety4sea.com/new-vr-training-solution-to-help-protect-cargo/ 4. Markopoulos, E., Luimula, M., Porramo, P., Pisirici, T., Kirjonen, A.: Virtual reality (VR) safety education for ship engine training on maintenance and safety (ShipSEVR). In: Markopoulos, E., Goonetilleke, R.S., Ho, A.G., Luximon, Y. (eds.) AHFE 2020. AISC, vol. 1218, pp. 60–72. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51626-0_7

Human Computer Interaction Opportunities in Hand Tracking

351

5. Markopoulos, E., Lauronen, J., Luimula, M., Lehto, P., Laukkanen, S.: Maritime safety education with VR technology (MarSEVR). In: 2019 10th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications (CogInfoCom), Naples, Italy, pp. 283–288 (2019). https:// doi.org/10.1109/CogInfoCom47531.2019.9089997 6. Markopoulos, E., Markopoulos, P., Laivuori, N., Moridis, C., Luimula, M.: Finger tracking and hand recognition technologies in virtual reality maritime safety training applications. In: 2020 11th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications (CogInfoCom), Mariehamn, Finland, pp. 000251–000258 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1109/CogInfoCo m50765.2020.9237915 7. Lauronen, J., Ravyse, W., Salokorpi, M., Luimula, M.: Validation of virtual command bridge training environment comparing the VR-training with ship bridge simulation. In: Stanton, N. (ed.) AHFE 2020. AISC, vol. 1212, pp. 444–451. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10. 1007/978-3-030-50943-9_56 8. Brooke, J.: Sus: a quick and dirty’ usability. Usability evaluation in industry, vol. 189 (1996) 9. Bangor, A., Kortum, P.T., Miller, J.T.: An empirical evaluation of the system usability scale. Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interaction 24(6), 574–594 (2008) 10. Luimula, M., Markopoulos, E., Kaakinen, J.K., Markopoulos, P., Laivuori, N., Ravyse, W.: Eye tracking in maritime immersive safe oceans technology. In: 2020 11th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications (CogInfoCom), Mariehamn, Finland, pp. 000245–000250 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1109/CogInfoCom50765.2020.9237854 11. Hayhoe, M., Ballard, D.: Modeling task control of eye movements. Curr. Biol. 24(13), R622– R628 (2014)

Exploring and Reflecting on Generation Z Interaction Qualities and Selfie Scenario Designs Di Zhu, Ruilin Wang, Ziwei Zhang, Dawei Wang, Xiaohan Meng, and Wei Liu(B) Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, People’s Republic of China {di.zhu,wei.liu}@bnu.edu.cn, {ruilin.wang,ziwei.zhang, 202028061033,202028061023}@mail.bnu.edu.cn

Abstract. This paper takes three selfie projects as cases. Three research teams adopted a project-based learning approach and continuously improved their design concepts through the theoretical study of enterprise cooperation projects with iOS Club at Apple Inc. The projects lasted for two months. Through a series of surveys and user research methods, students obtained a new vision regarding selfpresentation in the Generation Z user group, as well as further development trends in the selfie industry. This was the first time that the students worked as a team and experienced the entire process of applying interaction qualities (IQs) in user experience (UX) design. The three groups each proposed a unique design target using different scenarios. The selfie booth concept aims to help overseas students satisfy their desire to take photos with their families in other places. It also aims to improve the sense of immersion in selfies. The face-covering selfie’s design enables Generation Z female members to better show their ideal self through its smart modification function for faces. Combined with China’s live broadcasting industry development, the dual-scene online streaming design enhances anchor and fan interactions. These three innovative concepts have brought about many surprising inspirations, helping UX researchers understand Chinese Generation Z users and envision future camera products. Keywords: User eXperience · Interaction qualities · Selfie scenario design

1 Introduction Generation Z users post all kinds of selfies on social media, which include specific themes, places, and objects that reflect different social values [1]. As time goes by, the purpose of taking selfies changes. Compared with older people, young people prefer to take selfies [2]. They consider taking selfies a hobby instead of an activity. Generation Z love using phones to capture life’s exciting moments and share them on social media. Smartphone photography fulfills the self-expression needs of users. It is playful, immediate, and friendly. It reports that users prefer to take selfies in private spaces and then share them on media, especially when they visit commercial spaces [3]. Users involve themselves in designing idealized representations of themselves. It is a co-creative relationship between themselves and the tools that take their selfies. This research explores © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 352–357, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_42

Exploring and Reflecting on Generation Z Interaction Qualities

353

selfie-taking opportunities in private spaces. Young women comprise a larger market than other user groups and tend to have the best performance among social groups. They spend longer times shooting, editing, and posting selfies [4]. At the same time, females have a group difference in age [4]. Many users cover their faces to better protect their privacy, reduce social anxiety, and enhance social behavior among their many unfamiliar “friends” on social networks. Smartphone cameras can take selfies and also perform online streaming. E-commerce online streaming has a considerable impact on the retailing market and provides substantial marketing revenue [5]. Everything can be shown and sold online, including makeup, clothing, and food [6]. The presentation of products through smartphones has a heavy influence on revenue. This project aims to create new selfie-taking concepts for China’s Generation Z. It looks for insightful ideas to understand opportunities. For example, how can the experience of interacting with an iPhone’s camera be enriched? How can one take perfect selfies with an iPhone? This project aims to provide Apple and the iOS Club with first-hand user insights, design ideas, and mockups on new ways of taking selfies and interacting with iPhones concerning future opportunities for Generation Z in a Chinese context. There were fifteen students and three groups from diverse backgrounds and disciplines in this study [7]. This setting aimed to enhance an information exchange effectively and trigger more meaningful ideas. Over two months, each group came up with a final design solution to solve a design problem selected from user research.

2 Method The research adopted a user-centered design research process to explore real-world design challenges. In the first phase of research, the research team conducted a literature review and desk research [8]. Finally, the research team screened three topics to perform further research. Table 1. Project name, user group, jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) [9], and IQs [10]. Project Name

iMoonMent

Face-covering

Dual-scene

User group

A Chinese student studying abroad

Young female college students

Beauty makeup live-streaming anchors

JTBD

Makes taking both portraits and new photos straightforward Users can experience the real home environment with immersion in other places

Ingeniously conceals facial flaws in selfies when showing off outfits Vividly conveys the emotions and personality the user wants to express when using stickers in selfies

Shows products purposefully while also showing faces Creates a pleasant mood when the anchor is tired due to extended work

Personalized, focused, and smooth

Entertaining, convenient, and independent

Interaction quality Playful, immersive, personal, and expressive

354

D. Zhu et al.

The research method included qualitative research methods, collages, journey maps, and 1-on-1 interviews. The groups spent time observing and talking with users to better understand the target user groups, including user needs, pain points, and motivations. Each group used JTBD to summarize user research findings and then transforms and prioritizes insights to design opportunities. The group built a low-fidelity prototype based on the IQs of users to collect user feedback and iterate their design. As Table 1 shows, the three research directions are selfie booths, face-covering selfies, and online streaming interaction experiences.

3 iMoonMent Selfie Booth iMoonMent is a selfie booth designed for Chinese overseas students, helping them take photos with their families while away from home. When Chinese students arrive in a new foreign environment, they may experience five stages of cultural shock: euphoria, frustration, adjustment, adaptation, and reverse cultural shock. Each step will have an impact on their physical and mental health. In the face of cultural differences, the reunion aspect of traditional Chinese festivals makes international students’ loneliness more intense. To make Chinese students feel at home, iMoonMent provides them with the atmosphere of China. In China, family members will take a group photo during a festival to preserve their memory of the year. This selfie booth can take photos in two different places and make them look natural, meeting international students’ wishes. At the same time, they want to have face-to-face communication with their parents at home. Under real-world conditions, students can use iMoonMent for video chats with their families and also take long-distance photos with them. Chinese overseas students tend to be fashionable and trendy. Therefore, iMoonMent has various motion-sensing interactions for switching filters, scenes, makeup, and clothing. The usage scenario is as follows: Luna is an overseas Chinese student who has studied in America for two years. She did not spend the Mid-Autumn Festival or Spring Festival with her family last year. In her unfamiliar overseas environment, faced with cultural differences and without family, she felt depressed and lonely. It is the Mid-Autumn Festival again. Luna still cannot be reunited with her family. Many learning tasks and academic pressures are hanging over her, in addition to the loneliness. She thinks, “Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival. Let me go take a break by myself”. Therefore, she decides to hang out in the mall, but unfortunately, there is no round moon in the sky because of the cloudy weather. “The moon in China must have been very round last night,” she thinks. Suddenly she sees a lamp looking like a moon and approaches it—it is an ‘iMoonMent’ selfie booth. She walks into the selfie booth with curiosity. The iMoonMent recognizes Luna’s identity and connection to her mom through her address book. Suddenly, Luna’s parents appear right in front of her on a large, curved screen. She has a face-to-face dialogue with her parents and takes many real photos with her parents. This becomes a “Mid-Autumn Festival with family members.” She walks out of the selfie booth as the moon gradually moves away from the clouds.

Exploring and Reflecting on Generation Z Interaction Qualities

355

4 Face-Covering This research’s target users are females aged 18 to 25 who enjoy sharing their OOTD (outfit of the day). They often share some covered-face selfies (by phone, graffiti, or stickers) on social platforms. Their purpose is to protect privacy, draw attention away from their less-attractive parts, and emphasize their ideal selves. Since China is a collectivist cultural country, females, in particular, are more receptive to mainstream aesthetics. Young females who take selfies regularly will focus on their ideal selves in their photos. They also hope that their friends pay attention to other things they want to show, such as their location, body shape, and outfit. This team designed a plug-in with an internal design and a built-in iPhone camera, which comprises three main functions to help users’ complete selfies more cleverly and conveniently. The specific usage scenario is as follows: Zhang Xinyi is a 21-year-old female college student whose hobby is dressing up. She is going to attend her girlfriend’s birthday party tonight. Therefore, before going out in the morning, she put on her makeup very attentively and covered some newly emerging acne on her cheeks. She has been in class this morning, and in the afternoon, she visits the mall to choose some new clothes to wear at night. In the mall’s fitting room, she matches a set of very nice clothes to show her friends. She uses the local live feature to make the outfits that she wants others to pay attention to “move.” She then sends the dynamic content to friends. Because dynamic content is more effective in attracting people’s attention, her friends immediately understand that she wants to show off the clothes. They praise her clothes as good-looking and suitable for her. She feels that everyone recognizes her taste. She arrives at the party in the evening in a very atmospheric restaurant. She wants to take a few selfies, but her morning makeup is gone, and the acne on her face is not covered. She chooses the gesture-sensing function and taps the acne on her face with her finger on the iPhone camera’s interface. The camera matches her face with a sticker of the same style according to her clothes’ style, just covering her face. She quickly completes this selfie in light of her acne. After the party, everyone is pleased and leaves separately. She finds that the walls are smooth in the elevator she rides downstairs, like a mirror, and she wants to take a picture with her friend to memorialize it. She chooses the Memoji feature. The mobile phone recognizes that they are smiling happily through the front of the camera and replaces the generated Memoji expressions with the portraits taken as selfies from the rear camera’s mirror. She sends the photos to WeChat Moments. Although her friends cannot see the real faces, everyone knows that she is delighted and has had a happy day.

5 Dual-Scene Online Streaming Almost all leading e-commerce platforms in China utilize a live streaming feature. The dual-scene feature aims to help live-streaming anchors have a better experience. This feature is divided into two modes: fixed and tracking. In fixed mode, the phone uses the augmented reality (AR) technology to project a small area on the table in front of the camera. The item is always captured by the camera when placed in this area. In tracking mode, the focus is on the item in the anchor’s hand, and the camera lens moves with the movement of the item. Completing the mode selection, the anchor could enter the

356

D. Zhu et al.

live broadcast state. The interface will be divided into two screens, one showing the anchor’s face to facilitate interaction between the anchor and the audience, while the other shows various product details. This feature can be used in live e-commerce streaming, providing consumers with a richer shopping experience that is interactive, real-time, and reality-based. It can also make live shopping less product-oriented, creating a new form of entertainment and social interaction. For better interaction with the audience, when the application recognizes the anchor exhibiting fatigue through facial expression recognition or brain-computer interface technology, audience comments will automatically appear in front of the anchor in the form of an entertaining bullet screen. This will increase the broadcast’s pleasurable nature and help relieve the anchor’s fatigue. A usage scenario is as follows: Manta is an anchor who live-streams beauty makeup. She wakes up at seven every day and finishes at ten at night. For her three-hour live broadcast every night, she must prepare for six or seven hours in advance and has to do everything by herself. Some viewers will want to see the differences between two lipstick products or the texture of certain beauty products during the live broadcast. At the same time, she needs to try the products on her face; thus, she often has her hands full. Furthermore, by the late stages of the broadcast, she also feels exhausted. Until one day, she starts using the dual-scene feature. During the live broadcast, she wants to show her face while showing details of a lipstick. To do this, she makes a horizontal cut gesture to the screen and goes into dual-scene live mode. After two hours of live broadcasting, an entertaining bullet screen appears on the screen, and she feels slightly more relaxed as she interacts with fans.

6 Conclusion As their first project-based learning course, the students mastered basic user experience research methods and processes. It was a memorable and intense experience in their two years of study. After conducting observation and interviews, the research team defined each user group’s design problems in a specific context, such as taking a group photo with overseas family members, taking selfies with the application covering their faces, and live streaming while interacting with fans. Each group proposed exciting design solutions based on different users’ needs and presented these with storyboards and low-fidelity prototypes. These designs envision future selfie trends for Generation Z and illustrate opportunities in intangible and fun ways. These three innovative concepts brought about surprising inspirations for future camera product improvements and ideations. Acknowledgments. We would like to thank the iOS Club at Apple, the Innovation Center for China-U.S. Youth Exchange at Beijing Normal University, and the class of BNUX 2020.

References 1. Roberts, J., Koliska, M.: Comparing the use of space in selfies on Chinese Weibo and Twitter. Glob. Media China 2(2), 153–168 (2017) 2. Amandeep, D., Torbjørn, T., Ståle, P., Andreassen, C.S.: Do online privacy concerns predict selfie behavior among adolescents, young adults and adults? Front. Psychol. 8, 815 (2017)

Exploring and Reflecting on Generation Z Interaction Qualities

357

3. Boursier, V., Griffiths, M.D.: Selfie-engagement on social media: pathological narcissism, positive expectation, and body objectification – which is more influential? Addictive Behav. Rep. 11, 100263 (2020) 4. Dhir, A., Pallesen, S., Torsheim, T., Andreassen, C.S.: Do age and gender differences exist in selfie-related behaviours? Comput. Hum. Behav. 63, 549–555 (2016) 5. Simon, B., Matt, C., Hess, T.: Consumer use of social live streaming services: the influence of co-experience and effectance on enjoyment. In: Proceedings of the 25th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS 2017) (2017) 6. Zhao, X., Belk, R.W.: Live from Shopping Malls: Blogs and Chinese Consumer Desire. Adv. Consum. Res. 34, 131 (2007) 7. Atwal, A., Caldwell, K.: Do multidisciplinary integrated care pathways improve interprofessional collaboration? Scand. J. Caring Sci. 16(4), 360–367 (2002) 8. Wang, R., Wang, D., Zhang, Z., Zhu, D., Liu, W.: Analyzing selfie opportunities and trends in a Chinese context. In: Russo, D., Ahram, T., Karwowski, W., Di Bucchianico, G., Taiar, R. (eds.) IHSI 2021. AISC, vol. 1322, pp. 895–900. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10. 1007/978-3-030-68017-6_133 9. Kalbach, J.: Maximize business impact with jtbd. Interactions 26(1), 80–83 (2018) 10. Liu, W., Stappers, P.J., Pasman, G., Taal-Fokker, J.: Supporting generation Y interactions: challenges for office work. In: Proceedings of the ACM 2011 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), pp. 669–672 (2011) 11. Barry, C.T., Doucette, H., Loflin, D.C., Rivera-Hudson, N., Herrington, L.L.: “Let me take a selfie”: associations between self-photography, narcissism, and self-esteem. Psychol. Pop. Media Cult. 6(1), 48 (2017) 12. Javadi, M.H.M., Dolatabadi, H.R., Nourbakhsh, M., Poursaeedi, A., Asadollahi, A.R.: An analysis of factors affecting on online shopping behavior of consumers. Int. J. Mark. Stud. 4(5), 81 (2012)

Innovation and Creativity in Business

BossUP! Assessing Potential Hiring Candidates During the Interview Process via an Innovation Diagnostics Card Game Kiahsheng Teo, Jeffrey T. K. V. Koh, Keith Wong, Karin Aue, John Chan, and Bassam Jabry(B) Chemistry Team Pte. Ltd., 17a Jalan Pinang, Singapore 199149, Singapore {Kiahsheng,Jef,Keith,Karin,John,Bassam}@ChemistryTeam.com

Abstract. Assessment and evaluation methods in a job interview have always been very much focused on a person’s performance, knowledge, and experience. However, excelling at a challenging job often requires skills that go beyond the skills and background of a person. And while psychometrics in the evaluation process is nothing new, gamifying the interview process is still considered a novel approach to candidate evaluation. As part of exploring new potentialities for Chemistry’s innovative card game, BossUP!, a study was conducted with the purpose of prototyping a new format of interview engagement and evaluation for the organization. In combination with a pre- and post-questionnaire, coupled with face-to-face gameplay during the interview process, this study explores the boundaries of how interviews can break free of traditional methods, by not only making it a fun and engaging experience via gamification, but to also enhance the evaluation method beyond performance, knowledge, and experience. Keywords: Serious games · Design thinking · Human-centered design · Experience design · Human resources · Hiring processes · Candidate assessment

1 Introduction Originally designed as an innovation readiness and diagnostics card game, BossUP! gets players to work both collaboratively and competitively to solve a fictional organization’s innovation challenge. As the innovation team for a multinational corporation, players take turns pitching solutions based on Trigger Cards, in order solve the challenges presented to them via Challenge Cards. A Design Director decides which solution is the best fit to the challenge faced, and then all players score the solution with Funding Cards. At the end of the game, the player with the highest funding project wins the game, and the player who contributed the highest amounts of funds for the winning project comes in second place. BossUP! was created by Chemistry Team Pte. Ltd. Chemistry is a strategic, practicebased, experiential design consultancy with offices in Singapore and Amsterdam. Practicing for over 20 years, it is a collection of design strategists with design-agnostic backgrounds, ranging in disciplines such as industrial design, communications, spatial © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 361–368, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_43

362

K. Teo et al.

design, UX and business design. Clients include a wide gamut of organizations, from large multinational corporations, governmental and non-governmental organizations, as well as startups, academia, and beyond. The game’s development started out via conversations with Chemistry clients, in order to learn about their internal innovation processes. From here, common, organizational challenges were identified and used to build a rich collection of Challenge Cards for BossUP!. To help address these challenges, the game developers turned to trends in society, culture, technology, management consulting methods, and organizational best practices in order to create a rich set of Trigger Cards. A ruleset was developed around these assets that facilitated a risk-and-reward-style gameplay. Iterations of the game were play-tested with hundreds of players in Asia and Europe. In this paper, we describe a study that focused on the application of the BossUP! game utilized during the internship interview process for internship applicants at the Chemistry Singapore office. Intended to both challenge the internship candidate to think laterally, the game also strives to provide another dimension for assessors to evaluate the candidate applicant, based on their problem-solving skills, creative thinking and communication skills.

2 Previous Works Gamifying the interview process is not just a trend, but rather, what seems to be a legitimate method to help identify and predict an applicant’s potential performance and soft skills for a myriad of potential roles. One such example would be KnackApp, founded by Guy Halfteck in 2010 [1]. His inspiration was to move away from making human employment decisions and career decisions based on resumes and credentials, and move towards looking at the candidate’s abilities and potential - with the goal of knowing something much more fundamental about the person, as well as about the job, and find a better match. Google has been well known for their innovative methods of assessing and evaluating their potential hires [2]. They use a method they call ‘structured interviewing’ to determine who gets hired. Unlike the traditional format where questions change based on the applicant, resume, the interviewer and other factors, Google pre-determines the questions (behavioral and hypothetical) that each candidate will be asked. They then come up with a grading rubric to match. In order to score well on these questions, candidates have to be able to think on their feet and walk through their thought process regarding how they would go about solving that problem. “The candidates are not necessarily trying to drive toward a correct answer interviewers are looking for, but the interviewers are really curious to see how they think,” says Lisa Stern Haynes, Global Staffing Lead and Senior Recruiter at Google.

BossUP! Assessing Potential Hiring Candidates During the Interview Process

363

Based on the above work, and to address the challenges of properly evaluating internship candidates for the level of strategic work required by Chemistry and its clients, a holistic way to evaluate the strategic and creative thinking was needed, along with the nominal assessment criteria of design portfolios found in other creative consultancies, in order to evaluate design skill. With this in mind, BossUP! was seen as a means to assess strategic and creative thinking.

3 Experiment The experiment was broken down into three phases - A pre-interview questionnaire, playing the game in the actual interview, and a post-interview survey. In order for us to gain an initial understanding of the interviewee and their personal characteristics, behavioral preferences, and how they approach problem solving, we crafted the pre-interview questionnaire around Carl Jung’s and Isabel Briggs Myers’ theory of personality type [3]. These findings not only allow us to better understand them and their past experiences, but it also serves as an indicator of job-relevant behaviors. We have also carefully hand-picked a custom deck of BossUP! cards that would be played during the interview. This is slightly different from the original deck of BossUp! cards, and offers a much more focused, yet still adequate mix of pragmatic and ‘leftfield’ challenge and trigger cards that still offer an almost unlimited amount of combination permutations. The gameplay is the same - you are the new Innovation team for a large, established and hierarchical cooperation, and your job is to get your organization innovation-ready. Whilst we would usually explain the game prior, the interviewee would usually go last - this is to allow him/her to familiarize with the gameplay. The usual sharing of their works would continue after a round of BossUP! After the interview, we would send out a post-interview survey to learn more about how they felt and their thoughts on gamifying the interview process. This would then allow us to better refine and design the recruitment and evaluation process. 3.1 Participants Interviews with potential internship candidates were sourced primarily via email. Interested candidates regularly apply for internship via email, most often sent with either a file or link to their portfolio. Based on the initial email as well as contents of their portfolio, candidates were shortlisted by staff at Chemistry. Candidates ranged in ethnographic profile, were primarily local institutes of higher learning, and were currently studying at the undergraduate level. All candidates had academic and/or previous work experience in the design and creative practice-related fields, however their experience was still at the novice level, in terms of their work experience, meaning that all participants had carried out previous internship work, but were still in the midst of completing their first degree of higher learning.

364

K. Teo et al.

3.2 Pre-interview Survey A pre-interview survey using yes/no, as well as Likert scale questions was sent out to shortlisted candidates in preparation for the study, in order to better understand the candidate’s previous experiences with the interview process. A breakdown of the questions and candidate responses can be found in Table 1. Table 1. Data collected via a pre-interview survey from internship candidates. How did you find out about Chemistry?

Have you previously done an internship?

When solving a problem, you would rather follow a familiar approach than seek new ones

You are more inclined to experimentation than to follow a familiar approach

You often act immediately rather than speculate about various options

The more people you speak to, the better you feel

You find it difficult to speak to people whom you have never met before

Through lecturers in school

Yes

2

4

2

5

2

Recommended Yes by lecturer

3

4

4

4

2

From a school senior who previously interned at Chemistry

Yes

3

4

4

4

2

Classmates Yes from NUS and from ex-colleague

2

4

2

5

1

3.3 In-Person Interview and Playing BossUP! Once the pre-interview survey was completed, a time was scheduled with each, individual internship candidate for a one hour, in-person interview. Interviews were conducted in the meeting room at Chemistry Singapore’s offices. Interview setup included a large table with chairs for the internship candidate, two interviewers from Chemistry, and a audio-visual system so that internship candidates could share their work in large format via a projection screen.

BossUP! Assessing Potential Hiring Candidates During the Interview Process

365

During the standard interview, internship candidates were asked to play BossUP! with the two Chemistry staff conducting the interview. Internship candidates were informed of the study, and were asked for consent to use both the pre-interview data that was collected, the details of the BossUP! gameplay, as well as informed of a post-interview survey, which would be sent out after the in-person interview. Upon consent, Chemistry staff and the internship candidate would then proceed to play a three-player game of BossUP! During the interview, Chemistry staff would note down the way in which internship candidates would respond to the situations presented during the gameplay, their pitch and speaking ability, as well as the nature of their creative thinking skills. Upon completion of the game, the interview was completed after some closing remarks and time for the internship candidates to reflect on the experience. An example of gameplay can be found in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. A typical gameplay session of BossUP!

3.4 Post-interview Survey After completion of the in-person interview and BossUP! play session, internship candidates were sent a post-interview survey using yes/no, short answer, as well as Likert scale questions, to better understand the experiences of playing a game during the interview process. The results collected from the post-interview survey are displayed in Table 2.

366

K. Teo et al. Table 2. Data collected via a post-interview survey from internship candidates.

How did you find out about Chemistry?

How nervous were you coming in for the interview?

Have you ever played a game during an internship interview before visiting Chemistry?

Did you enjoy playing our game, BossUP!?

Do you think that playing BossUP! with us at Chemistry helped you express the way you work and think?

If you knew there was a game being played as part of your evaluation, would you have played differently?

Could you share what went through your mind during the interview?

Through lecturers in school

3

No

5

4

1

I was pretty surprised when I realized we were going to play a game, but it was fun! The people interviewing are really nice so I gradually felt more comfortable and less pressured

Recommended 3 by lecturer

No

4

4

2

Want to understand more about the company

From a school senior who previously interned at Chemistry

No

4

4

1

I think it would finish it be how to play the game and express my own opinion as it was the first time I experienced such a format of interview. Other things that went through my mind would be able how to showcase my portfolio and express the kind of design I do and how I could contribute to Chemistry

2

BossUP! Assessing Potential Hiring Candidates During the Interview Process

367

4 Findings and Insights Through the post-interview survey, we found that the interviewees did not experience such an interview format before and generally enjoyed the game. A majority did not think that they would have played their cards differently if they knew that the game was being played as part of an evaluation. They felt that the game had helped them to express the way they work and think, breaking out of the traditional interview format. We spoke to the team who participated in the interviews and they felt that such an interview format was a great way to see how a person reacts, communicates, and thinks spontaneously when dealing with a new, potentially uncomfortable situation and challenge. The natural, unrehearsed and serendipitous activity gave interviewers an insight to the interviewee’s cognitive process, personality, as well as one’s soft factors. This allowed the interviewers to strengthen and contextualize their evaluation method, by exposing spontaneous problem-solving and personality-type dispositions more easily. The game definitely makes the interview session less boring but possibly at the expense of stressing the candidates out more because they might not be familiar with the content contained within the cards (blockchain, procurement, etc.). Through the several rounds of interviews, we also found that the current set up of sitting with multiple members of the Chemistry team, potentially including directors, can be intimidating for more introverted candidates.

5 Future Works With the valuable insights and findings from the study, the next step is to continue to refine the content (more domain-specific depending on the applicant) and the interview process itself, to ensure that whoever the next candidates are, they are able to relate to the content, feel comfortable, and ideally present themselves at their best. It is unfortunate that the current Covid-19 situation has disrupted the traditional way of a face-to-face interview but we are prepared with tools and capabilities to conduct remote interviews, and also in the midst of creating a digital version of BossUP! that would enable us to continue the journey of refining our interview process. In addition, we are exploring new methods to analyze and synthesize these qualitative and quantitative data through codifying the interview dialogue.

6 Conclusion In summary, not only did gamifying the interview process make it a more fun and engaging experience for both interviewers and interviewees, it was also a great way to present ourselves as an innovative design company, as much as we were evaluating the intern candidate, they were also evaluating us as a company to work for. It is also a great opportunity to showcase how we applied our methodology not only in the work we do but in our internal processes as well. There is still definitely a lot of refinements to be made but it has shown that the future of job interviews need not always have to be based on performance, knowledge, and experience; personality and spontaneous problem-solving is just as important to understand.

368

K. Teo et al.

Acknowledgments. This project would not have been made possible without the help of both the extended Chemistry Team staff from both the Singapore and Amsterdam offices, Chemistry partners and clients who participated in providing insights into their organisations, as well as the numerous people who play-tested the BossUP! game with us.

References 1. Kuo, I.: How Playing Games Can Discover True Talent. Gamification Co. https://www.gamifi cation.co/2013/12/23/playing-games-to-discover-talent-knack/ 2. Umah, R.: Google uses this scientifically proven method to tell if you’ll be a successful employee. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/30/google-uses-this-scientifically-provenmethod-to-hire-employees.html 3. Humanmetrics Inc.: Humanmetrics Jung Typology Test. Humanmetrics. http://www.humanm etrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp

Digital Sales in B2B: Status and Application Heiko Fischer1 , Sven Seidenstricker1(B) , Thomas Berger2 , and Timo Holopainen3 1 DHBW Mosbach, Schloss 2, 97980 Bad Mergentheim, Germany

{Heiko.Fischer,Sven.Seidenstricker}@mosbach.dhbw.de 2 DHBW Stuttgart, Kronenstr. 40, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany [email protected] 3 Turku University of Applied Sciences, Joukahaisenkatu 3, 20520 Turku, Finland [email protected]

Abstract. The megatrend of digitalization has transformed the way companies are doing business with their clients. We show that digitizing business-to-business (B2B) sales is not solely a question of technology, but also involves considerations of the buying cycle. Therefore, we discuss the progression from the traditional buying cycle to the customer journey. We illustrate the need for digitizing this journey and outline important customer touchpoints. Afterward, we identify emerging technologies in B2B sales and show how they can be applied to digitize different customer touchpoints. Additionally, we investigate how digitalization in sales revolutionizes the seller organization, briefly discuss our results, and offer recommendations for B2B digital sales. Keywords: B2B · Sales · Digitalization · Buying cycle · Artificial intelligence · Big data · Augmented reality · Virtual reality · Customer journey

1 Introduction Digitalization influences almost every company at different levels. However, because of the complexity of introducing the change that accompanies digitalization, most companies struggle to respond to digital disruption and fail to support salespeople in managing their changing requirements. To explore this, we conducted research focused on digital technologies in businessto-business (B2B) sales. We used databases that included Business Source Premier, EconBIZ, and Science Direct, and we limited the search to studies conducted between 2015 and 2020. We found 113,922 entries after an initial screening, and of these, we retained 170 entries. For the final list of studies, our quality criteria included having at least 25 participants, being published in a peer-reviewed journal, and being published in English. After a complete analysis, we obtained a final list of 71 sources that fulfilled all criteria. We found that almost all publications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and Big Data in B2B sales were rather broad and were not intended for a specific digital application. Thus, we focused on potential applications in sales. Based on the literature review, we decided to consider the phases of the buying cycle and to highlight the customer journey with its touchpoints, as explained in Sect. 2, to © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 369–375, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_44

370

H. Fischer et al.

illustrate the applications of different digital technologies in B2B sales. To serve these touchpoints, we present technologies and corresponding application scenarios within the buying cycle (Sect. 3) and focus on the influence of digitalization on the supplier’s organization (Sect. 4). Afterward, we briefly discuss our results (Sect. 5) and present the conclusion of our research in Sect. 6.

2 Transformation to Digital Sales: The Rise of the Customer Journey As earlier mentioned, the transformation in B2B markets introduces a change in perspective on the buying cycle. Thus, we outline the various viewpoints on the buying cycle that have emerged in the last few decades. An early model of the buying cycle considered only the mutual decision of the customer and the seller who agree on the stated buying conditions. Next, the characteristics of the buying situation were considered, and later, the behavioral factors of the parties involved. Later still, the buying cycle was seen from the viewpoint of the supplier, who is responsible for designing effective marketing material to obtain a successful customer response. Later research considered the dyadic interactions between the supplier and the customer, and later the overall network of relationships. Then, the most recent model arose: the customer journey. It highlights the influence of digital technologies and describes the buying cycle as a holistic process experienced by the individual customer. It is important to look at the customer journey from the customer’s point of view [1]. Mapping the customer journey has become increasingly popular. The customer journey considers the “general” customer, but also underscores that each customer has a unique journey and unique touchpoints with the seller company. To improve the customer experience and better serve the customer, the seller must clearly understand these touchpoints [2]. Typically, customers progress through four stages as stated in the customer journey model: (1) the consideration stage, in which the customers perceive a set of brands; (2) the evaluation stage, in which they include or reject brands based on their evaluation criteria; (3) the buying stage, which leads to a brand selection and the purchase of the product; (4) finally, the customers experience the product and build expectations for the future relationship. This can produce a loyalty loop, where customers buy a new product directly from the same company with shortened consideration and evaluation phases [3]. To best service the resulting touchpoints, companies need to replace analog processes and automate the entire journey. Moreover, companies should be proactive, tailoring customers’ experiences based on their preferences and guiding them through their journey. This contextual interaction requires that the seller tracks the customers along their journey. The constant improvement of the customer journey and awareness of critical touchpoints is the key to success [3–5].

3 Emerging Technologies in B2B Sales As we have already mentioned, the customer journey requires digital technologies to best serve the needs of the customer. However, despite the positive contributions of digital

Digital Sales in B2B: Status and Application

371

technologies, their application in B2B sales does not yet fulfil their potential [6]. Thus, we present three technologies, namely virtual reality (VR)/augmented reality (AR), Big Data, and AI, and show how they can be applied to the customer journey. 3.1 Virtual and Augmented Reality Whereas VR allows users to navigate through a simulated or imagined world, AR adds virtual and real objects to a real environment [7, 8]. In a previous study, we examined popular applications of AR and VR in B2B sales: These technologies are used to present the seller company and its products, to visualize and document customer projects, for training purposes, and to support the installation and maintenance of products after they have been purchased by the customer. We discovered that VR and AR could change the sales process somewhat and assist salespeople in their interactions with the customer. They improve communication with customers because the transfer of complex content becomes easier through visualization, and the customers receive information as active participants in the conversation [9]. 3.2 Big Data The term Big Data is commonly described by the 3 vs: volume, which refers to the high amount of data in an organization, velocity, which refers to the generation and processing of data in real time, and variety, which means the large number of data types [10]. Big Data has the potential to influence the entire operating environment of a company [11] and to enable transformation to a data-driven organization [10]. To unfold its full potential, the large amount of data is translated to information using text analytics, audio analytics, video analytics, social media analytics, and predictive analytics to support decision-making [12]. This can lead to various benefits in sales and makes customers more transparent because they can be tracked and segmented, and thus customer needs can be better understood [11]. This contextual awareness allows personalized marketing efforts, dynamic pricing, and improved customer service due to better problem awareness [10]. Accordingly, it is evident that Big Data enables companies to increase the efficiency of their business operations and to optimize business processes. Information from multiple sources can be acquired to support the decision-making process, especially in sales. Application areas cover the entire customer journey, from creating to maintaining and extending the customer relationship. Thus, Big Data improves, strengthens, and personalizes the customer relationship across the entire journey [13]. Overall, it can be said that Big Data increases a company’s competitive advantage. Big Data can improve cost efficiency and enable greater responsiveness and better decision-making. Automated algorithms can replace human decision-making, enabling new business models to be set-up [10, 14, 15]. Despite the various possibilities of Big Data, several challenges have arisen, How do customers perceive Big Data and its value? Which offerings and segments are most profitable? How can pricing be customized, and what influences the loyalty of customers? [15].

372

H. Fischer et al.

3.3 Artificial Intelligence AI is a technology that exhibits human intelligence and emulates intelligent human behavior in an online environment. It could be said that AI interprets data, learns from it, and exhibits flexible adoption. Due to the characteristics of AI, sales could be considered the department in which AI would have the most meaningful impact. AI can influence sales processes, customer service, and customer behaviors [16, 17]. AI can automate the customer journey in different ways. Using a rich prospect profile, AI can support lead generation and lead qualification, among other things. For instance, it can automate interaction with customers. Although salespeople currently interact personally with prospects to advise them or acquire them as customers, this could be done by AI in the future. AI or a bot could imitate the behavior of salespeople and have real-time conversations with customers. By interpreting customers’ emotions, AI can consult with customers by evaluating a product and negotiating to close the sale. Through enriched customer profiles, AI can also support the after-sales phase [17–19]. Accordingly, AI can augment or replace human interaction. Moreover, AI enables companies to better screen their customers and respond according to their requirements. Companies can better identify most important customers and their needs, and subsequently recognize how they must adjust their business model. However, despite the various advantages, companies are still struggling to operationalize AI at the different customer touchpoints in an effective way [17, 19].

4 Organizational Alignment to Guide the Customer Journey Digitization strengthens the trend of digital servitization that represents the integration of services in physical products [20]. Thus, companies tend to develop from a product provider to a solution provider. To successfully act as a solution provider, companies must change their way of doing business. Revenue streams must change, long-term relationships must be established, and closer collaboration with customers is required. This changes an organization’s sales process [6]. Despite these fundamental changes, the existing literature presents only the traditional skills of a sales organization [21–26]. Based on the studies reviewed, we were able to identify several research gaps, which considered the increasing importance of digitalization in the customer journey. Though there exist various fields of application for the technologies presented in Sect. 3, social selling is still important to B2B sales and has attracted increasing attention. Social selling is defined as leveraging social media platforms for understanding and engaging with customers and prospects at touchpoints along their customer journey. In addition to company and industry factors, the attitude and behavior of salespeople play an important role in the successful application of social selling in B2B sales. However, these characteristics were not considered in the reviewed studies in a meaningful way [27]. Hence, we can state that an organization must rethink its structure and processes. Value is no longer delivered via well-established routines in sales organizations. Not only is the type of value is changing, but so is how it is delivered to customers.

Digital Sales in B2B: Status and Application

373

This is why sales organizations must become more customer-centric and develop new skills [28].

5 Discussion The progression from a buying cycle to the customer journey reveals that digitalization plays an increasing role in customer service. New technologies are required to guide customers through the journey. Thus, the viewpoint of the seller is changing. Formerly they focused on product sales, now the view of the customer has become increasingly important. Along the entire customer journey, the seller must analyze each customer touchpoint and discover what the customer really wants and how value can best be delivered to the customer. To best guide customers through this journey, digital technologies, such as VR/AR, Big Data, and AI are required. The technologies presented can support almost every phase of the customer journey. However, despite the various opportunities, many questions have arisen. A sales organization must determine how the massive amount of data can be processed, and which data and features are really needed for supporting salespeople and their customers. According to the theory of customer journeys, we should not neglect the attitudes of the customers toward digital technologies: Is it really their desire to become completely transparent and to be advised by bots instead of human salespeople [9, 10, 17, 29]? Keeping these questions in mind, the organization must decide how to guide customers through their journey. Therefore, organizations need to identify digital technologies and decide how to apply them in sales to serve customer needs and how to best address customer touchpoints. To do so, organizations need to become more customercentric and salespeople must develop new competencies. What these are, and how they differ in the respective markets should be addressed by future studies in this field. Furthermore, organizations can establish new disciplines to guide the customer journey. For instance, a journey product manager could observe customer behaviors in more detail, explore what attracts customers, and find ways to optimize the entire journey [3]. Another professional that takes customer-centricity into account is the customer success manager. They proactively use information about customers to advise them, establish trustworthy relationships, and finally guide them for maximal success with their products [30].

6 Conclusion It can be concluded that digital technologies enable salespeople to access a considerable amount of information about their product offerings and their customers. Thus, digital technologies can simplify the management of customer relationships in sales, allow faster reactions, and offer a competitive advantage. The customer journey requires digital technologies like VR, AR, Big Data, and AI to serve customer needs. We outlined the potential of these technologies and how they can be applied in B2B sales. Finally, we briefly discussed that digital sales requires changes in the sales process of an organization and new capabilities for salespeople. To best guide customers, and to consider and fulfil their needs, two new disciplines are conceivable: product journey managers and customer success managers.

374

H. Fischer et al.

References 1. Steward, M.D., Narus, J.A., Roehm, M.L., Ritz, W.: From transactions to journeys and beyond: the evolution of B2B buying process modeling. Ind. Mark. Manage. 83, 288–300 (2019) 2. Rosenbaum, M.S., Otalora, M.L., Ramírez, G.C.: How to create a realistic customer journey map. Bus. Horiz. 60, 143–150 (2017) 3. Edelman, D.C., Marc, S.: Competing on customer journeys. Harv. Bus. Rev. 93, 88–100 (2015) 4. Toman, N., Brent, A., Gomez, C.: The New Sales Imperative, vol. 95, pp. 118–125 (2017) 5. Lemon, K.N., Verhoef, P.C.: Understanding customer experience throughout the customer journey. J. Mark. 80, 69–96 (2016) 6. Rodríguez, R., Svensson, G., Mehl, E.J.: Digitalization process of complex B2B sales processes – Enablers and obstacles. Technol. Soc. 62, 101324 (2020) 7. Bonetti, F., Warnaby, G., Quinn, L.: Augmented reality and virtual reality in physical and online retailing: a review, synthesis and research agenda. In: Jung, T., tom Dieck, M.C. (eds.) Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. PI, pp. 119–132. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-319-64027-3_9 8. Gallardo, C., et al.: Augmented reality as a new marketing strategy. In: De Paolis, L.T., Bourdot, P. (eds.) AVR 2018. LNCS, vol. 10850, pp. 351–362. Springer, Cham (2018). https:// doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95270-3_29 9. Fischer, H., Seidenstricker, S., Poeppelbuss, J.: Extended reality in business-to-business sales: an exploration of adoption factors. In: Ahram, T.Z., Taiar, R., Groff, F. (eds.) Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing: Human Interaction, Emerging Technologies and Future Applications IV: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies: Future Applications (IHIET-AI 2021), 28-30 April 2021, Strasbourg, France, vol. 1378, pp. 123–130. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-03074009-2_16 10. Lee, I.: Big data: dimensions, evolution, impacts, and challenges. Bus. Horiz. 60, 293–303 (2017) 11. Sanders, N.R.: How to use big data to drive your supply chain. Calif. Manage. Rev. 58, 26–48 (2016) 12. Gandomi, A., Haider, M.: Beyond the hype: big data concepts, methods, and analytics. Int. J. Inf. Manage. 35, 137–144 (2015) 13. Hallikainen, H., Savimäki, E., Laukkanen, T.: Fostering B2B sales with customer big data analytics. Ind. Mark. Manage. 86, 90–98 (2020) 14. Fosso Wamba, S., Akter, S., Edwards, A., Chopin, G., Gnanzou, D.: How ‘big data’ can make big impact: findings from a systematic review and a longitudinal case study. Int. J. Prod. Econ. 165, 234–246 (2015) 15. Akter, S., Wamba, S.F.: Big data analytics in e-commerce: a systematic review and agenda for future research. Electr. Mark. 26, 173–194 (2016) 16. Chui, M., et al.: Notes from the AI frontier: Insights from hundreds of use cases (2018). http://straty.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/McKinsey-AI-Frontier-paperApril-2018.pdf. Accessed 20 Jan 2021 17. Davenport, T., Guha, A., Grewal, D., Bressgott, T.: How artificial intelligence will change the future of marketing. J. Acad. Mark. Sci. 48(1), 24–42 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11 747-019-00696-0 18. Paschen, J., Wilson, M., Ferreira, J.J.: Collaborative intelligence: how human and artificial intelligence create value along the B2B sales funnel. Bus. Horiz. 63, 403–414 (2020) 19. Paschen, J., Kietzmann, J., Kietzmann, T.C.: Artificial intelligence (AI) and its implications for market knowledge in B2B marketing. JBIM 34, 1410–1419 (2019)

Digital Sales in B2B: Status and Application

375

20. Kamalaldin, A., Linde, L., Sjödin, D., Parida, V.: Transforming provider-customer relationships in digital servitization: a relational view on digitalization. Ind. Mark. Manage. 89, 306–325 (2020) 21. Koponen, J., Julkunen, S., Asai, A.: Sales communication competence in international B2B solution selling. Ind. Mark. Manage. 82, 238–252 (2019) 22. Busch, T.K.: Determining competencies for frontline sales managers in for-profit organizations. Adv. Dev. Hum. Resour. 15, 296–313 (2013) 23. Lacoste, S.: From selling to managing strategic customers - a competency analysis. J. Pers. Selling Sales Manage. 38, 92–122 (2018) 24. MySkillsProfile.com Ltd.: Sales Competencies Questionnaire (2014). http://www.myskil lsprofile.com/Guides/Sales%20Competencies%20Questionnaire%20User%20Manual.pdf. Accessed 7 Dec 2021 25. Lapoule, P., Colla, E.: The multi-channel impact on the sales forces management. Int. J. Retail. Distrib. Mgt. 44, 248–265 (2016) 26. Powers, T.L., Jennings, J.A.C., DeCarlo, T.E.: An assessment of needed sales management skills. J. Pers. Selling Sales Manage. 34, 206–222 (2014) 27. Barney-McNamara, B., Peltier, J., Chennamaneni, P.R., Niedermeier, K.E.: A conceptual framework for understanding the antecedents and consequences of social selling: a theoretical perspective and research agenda. JRIM ahead-of-print, vol. 267 (2020) 28. van den Hemel, C., Rademakers, M.F.: Building customer-centric organizations: shaping factors and barriers. J. Creating Value 2, 211–230 (2016) 29. Singh, J., et al.: Sales profession and professionals in the age of digitization and artificial intelligence technologies: concepts, priorities, and questions. J. Pers. Selling Sales Manage. 39, 2–22 (2019) 30. Vaidyanathan, A., Rabago, R.: The Customer Success Professional’s Handbook. How to Thrive in one of the World’s Fastest Growing Careers-While Driving Growth for your Company. Wiley, Hoboken, New Jersey (2020)

A Business Transformation Model for Legacy Carriers as a Response to the Rise of Low-Cost Carriers Evangelos Markopoulos1,2(B) and Fabian Jan Friedrich Hesse1 1 HULT International Business School, Faculty of Management and Entrepreneurship,

35 Commercial Road, London E1 1LD, UK [email protected], [email protected] 2 Queen Mary University of London, School of Business and Management, 327 Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK

Abstract. The aviation travel industry offers today a commodity product that attracts all types of customers. However, many clients are price-sensitive and often look for the cheapest product offering. As legacy airlines’ core strengths do not align well with the new customer preferences, this research work investigates the background of the rise of the low-cost carriers and consequently proposes a wholistic transformational model for legacy airlines. This paper presents a business transformation model with five strategic areas. The first two areas, which are Modernization and Environmental Sustainability, advise legacy carriers to focus on digitizing large parts of their business and establish operations within a sustainable business model. The next two areas are the adaptation of products offered with stronger people-centric marketing and communication strategies. The final area is the optimization of portfolio management, where legacy carriers are urged to rethink their investment strategy and possibly divest from low-cost carrier subsidiaries. Keywords: Strategy · Business strategy · Market analysis · Business model · Transformation · Innovation · Sustainability · Society · Process · Aviation · Airline Industry · Low-cost carriers · Applied philosophy · Aristotle · Framework · Golden mean

1 Introduction The European airline industry is characterized by a highly competitive market environment. Multiple large and established players are fighting over market share, in a market defined by consolidation. There are two groups of players that can generally be divided into legacy carriers (LC) and low-cost carriers (LCC). Both offer distinct products and services to their customers and operate different business models. However, this had not always been the case. Since the late 1980s, the European airline market has undergone big changes that had a large impact on customer preferences. Today, the aviation travel industry is offering a © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 376–385, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_45

A Business Transformation Model for Legacy Carriers

377

commodity product that attracts all types of customers which are mostly price-sensitive and often look for the cheapest product offering. As legacy airlines’ core strengths do not align well with these new customer preferences, this research work investigates the background of the rise of the low-cost carriers, highlights five strategic areas to focus on, and consequently proposes a wholistic transformational model for legacy airlines. If these players utilize the proposed model and focus on their core strengths while satisfying societal needs, they can defend their business model and secure their position in the European airline market.

2 The Liberalization Impact on the European Aviation Market Up to the late 1980s, the European aviation market was fragmented and highly dependent on bilateral air service agreements (ASA) between countries. It was common for each country to have a national airline – ‘flag carriers’ – as this was the only airline permitted to fly between countries on the basis of the ASAs. These airlines were often only permitted to serve one route, were fully government-owned and received competition-distorting state aid. Although the countries argued that the ASA system was in place to keep prices stable and to favour consumers, the reality closely resembled a monopolistic market environment. On most routes, the flag carriers ‘enjoyed 50% of the traffic between countries’ and ‘the capacity that was offered by each bilateral partner was restricted’ [1]. Evidence shows that the ASAs by no means created a fair market environment. The reliance on ASA did not ‘generate an efficient air transport system for Europe’ as it ‘tended to protect inefficient operations’, ‘acted as a restraint on trade’, and ‘had associated with it the same undesirable economic implications as tariffs’ [1]. From 1988 until 1993, the European Council of Ministers liberalized the European aviation market via three distinct packages which have ‘proven a decisive influence in expanding the industry and making its benefits available to more people’ [2]. The overall effect of the liberalization packages was the creation of an international aviation market in which any European airline could serve an unlimited number of passengers on any route for any chosen price. New routes between city pairs were opened, new airlines entered the aviation market, and the frequency of services on both existing and new routes was increased. The effects of the liberalization packages can be divided into three phases. From 1990 until 1993, the first phase, there was low market growth as the average route frequencies remained stable at 16 flights per week, while at the route level, the number of effective carriers did not yet increase [3]. The main reason for this was the economic downturn in Europe and the prevailing market uncertainty. However, the growth rates picked up during the second phase from 1994 until 2000. It can be characterized as the growth period of the legacy carriers (LC, the former flag carriers) as they adopted the hub-andspoke system. This led to ‘rapid growth in the number of flights relative to the increase in the number of routes, resulting in an increasing average weekly frequency per route’ which was further boosted by a stable European Economy [3]. Nevertheless, the third phase from 2000 until today is the one where the liberalization packages show their highest impact by initiating the era of the low-cost carriers (LCC). While these carriers

378

E. Markopoulos and F. J. F. Hesse

tested the market in the second phase, they took the opportunity to enter and penetrate the market and undercut prices of the LC. They set up hubs in multiple European countries, something that LC very rarely did, and they were able to operate point-to-point route networks across the continent. LCC established route density ‘by serving an extended catchment area by using a low unit cost base to charge low fares, generating new market demand and serving routes at a lower frequency than the full-service carriers’ [3]. This, in combination with the early adoption of direct internet booking platforms, enabled their rapid growth from the end of the 1990s until today.

3 The Low-Cost Carries Phenomenon To beat the LC incumbents in the European aviation market, the LCC reinvented the airline business model. Since in aviation, economies of density are more effective than economies of scale, LCC aim to maximize the hours of operation of each of their assets [4]. In 2004, Ryanair’s planes flew on average 11 h per day, while British Airways’ planes flew 9.2 h per day and SN Brussels Airlines’ planes 7.7 h per day [5]. The LC tried to catch up to their low-cost competition, but economies of density remain a LCC strength. LCC are also infamous for exercising pressure on their workforce to save costs on human resources. The annual income of a pilot at a low-cost airline was estimated to be 28% lower than that of a legacy pilot despite flying 25% more hours [6]. While the pressure exercised on the workforce is a crucial part of the LCC business model to reduce unit cost, it is also a major weakness to the reliability of the service when staff members revolt [7]. LCC are further aiming for the highest possible load factor. Ryanair is the world’s best airline in terms of passenger load factor with a result of 96% in 2019. This is far above the industry average of 80% and the best legacy carrier in the world, KLM, with 88.4% [8]. By filling almost all seats on every flight, LCC effectively lower the costs per passenger and can offer a lower ticket price. They also standardized their entire fleet (plane model and interior design), which results in crews being able to operate on any given plane in the fleet without needing specialist training. Additionally, these aircraft are in a full-economy configuration with as many seats on board as possible to maximize the number of passengers that can be transported in each flight [5]. LCC do not offer complimentary drink or food services on board. They rarely offer connecting flights to minimize the booking and baggage handling complexity per flight, resulting in lower turnover times per plane. Furthermore, they almost exclusively set up their hubs at secondary airports where they incur lower costs per slot and have more negotiating power with the airports who are dependent on the LCC. While these factors alone lower the variable costs per flight, the cumulative cost effect of all factors gives LCCs their competitive advantage. The feasibility of the LCC business model can be explained by three key reasons. The first one has already been mentioned in Sect. 2 – the establishment of the European international aviation market. By instating the liberalization packages, the market entry barriers were lowered significantly, and new services and new routes could be offered in, to, and from all member states of the EU [9]. Secondly, the aviation sector is cyclical. In economic

A Business Transformation Model for Legacy Carriers

379

downturns, airlines are facing immense fixed costs while generating low revenues. These situations favour LCC over LC as they can lower their variable costs per flight more effectively [10]. Finally, the third reason is that ‘the price of air transport often remains a limiting factor for a large portion of the population’, but the LCC managed to break the industry stalemate and offered their services at a much lower price, attracting previously non-existing groups of customers [11]. As mentioned in Sect. 2, the LCC experienced significant growth from 2000 until today and managed to gain a large share of the market. Due to their low-cost offering, new customers were gained, and some were won over from the LC. They largely managed to avoid direct competition to the incumbents and focused on perfecting their business model. However, after years of exponential growth until around 2014, LCC experienced a slow-down as LC learned their lessons and the market began to saturate. Therefore, LCC like Ryanair changed their strategy and started to compete with LC directly at their primary hubs in airports like London Heathrow or Frankfurt am Main [12]. This direct competition prompted a price war between LC and LCC as LC aimed to defend their superiority in their hubs and to prevent passengers from switching to the low-cost competition.

4 Research Methodology and Results The research methodology utilizes inductive reasoning as the research approach. Inductive reasoning promised to be most useful for this paper because, contrary to deductive reasoning, does not assume that all predictions hold true but merely assigns a probability to them. The paper also utilizes the principle of triangulation as the strategy of choice. Hence, three types of data were collected: academic primary and secondary research based on an international literature review, a survey with 65 participants and 3 interviews with experienced pilots and executives from a leading airline. The international literature review explained the reasons for the success of LCC and the feasibility of their business model. The most important point, however, is that they have changed their strategy in recent years and entered into direct competition with the LC. This change in direction forces the legacy carriers to react. The survey allowed for further insights into changing customer preferences. The rise of the LCC attracted more price-sensitive customers that now represent a large customer segment on which both the LCC and the LC are dependent. Therefore, LC need to understand these customer preferences and react accordingly. The survey revealed that during a flight, customers most value seat comfort, seamless service pre-, during, and post-flight and leg space. These areas used to be the unique selling proposition of LC, but they started lowering their standards to decrease their variable costs. Furthermore, customers stated a preference of flying with LCC on shorthaul flights but LC on long-haul flights. This, paired with the fact that customers are most willing to pay more for a complimentary check-in bag as well as food and drinks and a conveniently located airport, indicates the need for a LC strategy that focuses on their core strengths. Finally, customers indicated that they perceive the value-for-money to be higher when flying with LCC as they are often unable to differentiate legacy carriers from their low-cost carrier competitors, which points to the need for differentiation strategies.

380

E. Markopoulos and F. J. F. Hesse

The expert interviews indicated similar findings. They all stated that LC should focus on digitalization to differentiate themselves from the low-cost competition. Sustainability, while not as important to customers as expected, will continue playing a major role in the future of aviation. The experts disagreed, however, on the strategy that should be deployed by LC to fight off the LCC. One expert advised a continuation of the current strategy to operate both a hub-and-spoke system with the core airline and a point-to-point system with the low-cost subsidiary. On the other hand, the other two experts recommended that LC should focus more on their core capabilities and regain their status of delivering quality, punctuality, and safety. The survey showed that customers currently do not believe that LC are offering these benefits and therefore LC need to improve their marketing and communications in parallel with reworking their product offering. In summary, the research indicated that the current strategy deployed by legacy carriers is unlikely to successfully fulfil customer demands.

5 Key Strategic Areas for Legacy Carrier Business Transformation Based on the research results the paper recommends LC to focus on five key strategic areas. These are digitization, sustainability, product offering, marketing and communications, and portfolio management (Fig. 1). The first area, digitization, serves as a crucial differentiation lever while improving LC’s profitability. This can be done by lowering costs on process steps such as check-in or baggage handling and increasing revenues mainly through simplifying the customer journey, vertical integration in the aviation industry, and data-driven product offerings. However, it is crucial to renew and simplify the IT systems as, for many players, these are quite outdated. For the second area, sustainability, LC should leverage their position as the middleman between customers and aircraft manufacturers by only purchasing the most efficient and sustainable airplanes. This forces manufacturers to supply more fuel-efficient airplanes while the LC send the right signals to customers and the capital markets. Other sustainability measures such as reusable cutlery and cups as well as packaging should also be pursued to help stop the effects from flight-shaming. The third area is product offering. The research showed that customer preferences have changed and that a large share of clients is very price sensitive. However, to compete with LCC, the legacy carriers have lowered their standards significantly, which lowered their differentiation. Today, flights with LC are still more expensive than those of LCC while not offering any significant advantages. Survey respondents indicated that they would be willing to pay extra for additional amenities. LC already have many amenities included in their product offering but continue cutting this product offering. Instead of trying to lower their quality standards to save costs and directly compete with the LCC, legacy airlines should differentiate themselves by focusing on their strengths and offering a high-quality, medium-cost, and overall solid product. This ties to the fourth area – marketing and communications. Effective marketing that showcases the benefits of the legacy airlines over the LCC will help attract and maintain customers. Instead of further engaging in price wars, legacy airlines should

A Business Transformation Model for Legacy Carriers

381

appeal to customers with their advantages in terms of convenience and services. Only if customers are aware of the benefits that LC offer over low-cost carriers will they be willing to pay the additional fee. Finally, legacy carriers that are part of an airline group and have a low-cost subsidiary in their portfolio should re-evaluate whether this is the right strategic move. The strategic reasoning behind operating one airline with a hub-and-spoke and another with a pointto-point system is clear – the goal is to be a dominant player in both markets. However, the feasibility of this strategy is not given. Many legacy carriers struggle with integrating the LCC into their operations, the synergies promised to capital markets are minimal and oftentimes both the LC and the LCC in the portfolio are weighed down by the partnership. Furthermore, the incumbent LCC have more flexible systems, a more standardized fleet, their workforce is less unionized, and they overall have better capabilities to offer lowcost products. Therefore, it might be beneficial to drop this portfolio strategy entirely and only focus on the four strategic areas mentioned above.

Fig. 1. Relationships between key recommendations for legacy airlines.

6 Legacy Airline Holistic Business Transformation Strategy The five strategic areas can be executed through a holistic approach driven by a staged innovation transformation. The innovation needed for the modernization of the first area can move the LC from the red ocean, they are in today, to blue oceans they seek to find and enter. Extending the innovation from profit-driven to sustainable-driven, LC can extend their operations from the blue ocean to the green ocean. Following this transformation process, the third strategic area can further move them from the green to pink oceans by adjusting their product offerings to social needs. The fourth area can be interpreted as the dissemination strategy legacy airlines shall follow to communicate their blue, green, and pink innovations and achievements to the market and the society. Lastly applied philosophical thinking is needed in the fifth area to achieve continuous improvements based on the golden mean principle of Aristotle to

382

E. Markopoulos and F. J. F. Hesse

avoid exaggerations, but also the continuous thinking of Plato to follow the needs of the people and the society, escaping from the governmental protection cave. Figure 2 presents this holistic transformation strategy in an innovation-driven process map.

Fig. 2. Ocean-driven holistic legacy airline transformation model.

The process begins with the current state of the LC that operate withing a red ocean, an existing market space, struggling to beat the competition and exploit the existing demand by making value-cost trade-offs and attempts to align their activities with a strategic choice of differentiation or low cost [13]. This cut-throat competition shall be managed with the adaptation of an innovation-driven strategy. In the airline industry innovation in aircraft technology is a long, time consuming and very expensive process. Therefore, other forms of innovations shall be explored such as the utilization of the existing state of the art technology (Internet of Things, Artificial intelligence, Virtual Reality, etc.) that can make the difference and lead LC into blue oceans, characterized by uncontested markets where competition is irrelevant, and new demand can be created and captured by breaking the value-cost tradeoff and aligning the organization’s activities in pursuit of differentiation and low cost [13]. However, blue oceans become red sooner or later. Therefore, LC can utilize the financial and reputational benefits blue oceans provide to invest in their journey towards the exploration of green oceans. Green oceans capture social market spaces, target shared value competitiveness, shift the value-cost tradeoff and align the firm’s activities with its human intellectual capital for differentiation or low cost [14]. In the airline industry, meaningful sustainability strategies must include replacement and upgrades of the aircraft fleet to meet the airline environmental regulations and

A Business Transformation Model for Legacy Carriers

383

standards. Therefore, sustainability is a current global trend and need which requires significant investments for both the organizations and the customers to demonstrate their environmental awareness and commitment [15]. Achieving the second key strategic area through Green Oceans, LC must create a closer relationship with their clients who form not only the market but society as well. An extension of the sustainable innovation strategy is the social innovation strategy. Being ‘green’ indicates care for the environment but being ‘pink’ indicates care for the people. It is up to the LC to decide which strategy they shall follow after securing the financial sustainability from the blue ocean’s disruptive innovations. The Pink Ocean strategy, driven by social innovation, is an alternative path to the Green Ocean strategy, which is driven by sustainable innovation, but both are needed in the proposed LC transformation strategy. The Pink Ocean strategy satisfies the third strategic area with people-centric products and services, but also generates knowledge, democratizes innovation, and creates geo-entrepreneurial opportunities when people are globally heard [16]. Pink Oceans shape a compassionate market space, coincide with the competition, create and shift the demand, share the value-cost tradeoff and align the firm’s activities in pursuit of care, love and support to achieve and sustain human dignity above all costs [17]. LC who successfully crossed the oceans from the Red to the Blue, to the Green and the Pink must communicate this achievement towards all directions related to each strategy. Strategic partners and financial investors, in particular, seek the financial stability Blue Oceans offer but also seek organizations with sustainable and social goals and achievements. Such organizational performance is measured with the ESG index (Environmental, Social, Governance) and impacts investor’s decisions tremendously. In 2018, the sustainable, responsible and impact (SRI) investment assets reached the 12 trillion dollars from which the 11.6 trillion (8.1 trillion in 2016) is handled by asset managers that consider the ESG criteria [18]. ESG goals and metrics can be achieved through the Green and the Pink Ocean strategies on sustainable development, social impact, and ethical management [19]. The communication strategy shall also address societal needs which directly impacted the results of sustainable and social achievements. The effectiveness of such communication strategies is related to the innovation efficiency achieved in each strategy; therefore, the fifth key strategic area is the continuous optimization of the efforts done and the achievements accomplished. This continuity is quite challenging as it does not depend on the experiences learned so far, on tangible technologies or measurable management practices but on the philosophy of the organization to operate by following the Aristotelian principle of the golden mean and the Platonic idea of thinking more. Sustaining success is not a management or leadership skill but applied philosophy mastered only with self-awareness at individual or organizational level. LC faced, and keep on facing tremendous problems not because they were not able to solve them, but because they were not able to identify them in the first place. Losing balance on what is called common sense is easy when problems and success levels are below or above expectations. Therefore, the fifth key strategic area which is based on the works of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle through the Delphic maxims of ‘know yourself’,

384

E. Markopoulos and F. J. F. Hesse

‘metron ariston (being just)’ and ‘miden aga (no exaggeration)’ is the most challenging as common sense is not that common, after all.

7 Limitations and Areas of Further Research The research conducted for this paper was merely the basis of work required to deliver a detailed strategy for legacy airlines. While the high-level strategic aspects were investigated in a detailed manner, extended research would lead to a more refined and specific solution overall. This further research could encompass more detailed strategic initiatives as part of each strategic area defined in this work. Furthermore, and since many issues have already been identified, it is very likely that more issues that threaten the business model of the legacy airlines to be discovered. While the survey already reflected the preferences from a large part of an airline’s customer base it would be very useful to also conduct further interviews with business customers which is an important customer segment for legacy carriers. Also, interviews from experts working with low-cost carriers would be a good way to deepen the research. Furthermore, interviews with employees, experts on the aviation value chain, and regulators of this industry would have delivered additional insights. Lastly, it would be a good initiative to further expand on secondary research and conduct a more detailed cause-effect analysis of the current market situation and the identified trends.

8 Conclusions This research provides detailed insights into the reasons why the liberalization of the European airline market helped the rise of the low-cost carriers and proposes a business transformation model where legacy carriers can adopt to regain competitiveness. The research indicated that the liberalized market environment led to a change in consumer behaviour towards price sensitivity. This goes against the business model of legacy carriers, which should therefore make a strategic change. legacy carriers could either try to continue their current strategy of competing directly with low-cost carriers, or they can reverse back to their former high-quality medium-price product. The research results suggest that the legacy carriers should decide on the latter strategy and deliver a holistic transformational model to enable a differentiation strategy. By utilizing a variety of widely known business as well as leadership concepts, the proposed holistic transformational model provides the top-management of legacy carriers with a hands-on guide on making the changes within the five strategic actions. They can therefore accelerate digitalization, focus on sustainability, shift their product offering, market this offering more effectively, and rethink their portfolio strategy. Responsible managers at legacy carriers can utilize the proposed model by focusing on the airline’s core strengths while satisfying societal needs. This can help legacy airlines defend their business operations, regain market share, and secure their position in the European, and global airline market.

A Business Transformation Model for Legacy Carriers

385

References 1. Button, K.: Deregulation and liberalization of European air transport markets, innovation. Eur. J. Soc. Sci. Res. 14(3), 255–275 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1080/13511610120102619 2. Intervistas. The Economic Impact of Air Service Liberalization (2006). http://www.interv istas.com/downloads/Economic_Impact_of_Air_Service_Liberalization_Final_Report.pdf 3. Burghouwt, G.: EU Air Transport Liberalisation - Process, impacts and future considerations. International Transport Forum, Brussels (2015) 4. Caves, D.: Economies of Density versus Economies of Scale. Why Trunk and Local Service Airline Costs Differ. Wiley, Chicago (1984) 5. Dobruszkes, F.: An analysis of European low-cost airlines and their networks. J. Transp. Geogr. 14(4), 249–264 (2006) 6. European Cockpit Association. Low-cost Carriers in the European Aviation Single Market. ECA Industrial Sub Group, Brussels (2002) 7. Franke, M.: Competition between network carriers and low-cost carriers—retreat battle or breakthrough to a new level of efficiency? J. Air Transp. Manage. 10(1), 15–21 (2004) 8. IATA: European carriers continue to post highest load factor. IATA (2019). https://airlines. iata.org/news/european-carriers-continue-to-post-highest-load-factor 9. Diaconu, L.: The evolution of the European low-cost airlines’ business models. Procedia-Soc. Behav. Sci. 62, 342–346 (2012) 10. Hätty, H., Hollmeier, S.: Airline strategy in the 2001/2002 crisis - the Lufthansa example. J Air Transp. Manage. 9(1), 51–55 (2002) 11. Flouris, T., Walker, T.: Financial comparisons across different business models in the Canadian airline industry. In: 46th Annual Transportation Research Forum. Transportation Research Forum, Washington (2005). https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:ndtr05:208157 12. Ryanair: Ryanair 2014 Annual Report. Dublin: Ryanair (2014) 13. Kim, C.W., Mauborgne, R.: Blue Ocean Strategy. How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant. Harvard Business School Press, New York (2005) 14. Markopoulos, E., Kirane, I.S., Piper, C., Vanharanta, H.: Green ocean strategy: democratizing business knowledge for sustainable growth. In: Ahram, T., Karwowski, W., Pickl, S., Taiar, R. (eds.) IHSED 2019. AISC, vol. 1026, pp. 115–125. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-030-27928-8_19 15. Markopoulos, E., Gann, E.L., Kirane, I.S., Vanharanta, H.: Green capitalism: democratizing sustainable innovation by recycling intellectual capital energy. In: Ahram, T., Taiar, R., Gremeaux-Bader, V., Aminian, K. (eds.) IHIET 2020. AISC, vol. 1152, pp. 507–519. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44267-5_77 16. Markopoulos, E., Markopoulos, G., Vanharanta, H.: Democratizing innovation. a geoentrepreneurial analysis and approach through the company democracy model. In: Markopoulos, E., Goonetilleke, R.S., Ho, A.G., Luximon, Y. (eds.) AHFE 2020. AISC, vol. 1218, pp. 3–16. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51626-0_1 17. Markopoulos, E., Ramonda, M.B., Winter, L.M.C., Al Katheeri, H., Vanharanta, H.: Pink Ocean Strategy: Democratizing Business Knowledge for Social Growth and Innovation. In: Markopoulos, E., Goonetilleke, R.S., Ho, A.G., Luximon, Y. (eds.) AHFE 2020. AISC, vol. 1218, pp. 39–51. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51626-0_5 18. US/SIF: Sustainable investing assets reach $12 trillion as reported by the US SIF Foundation’s biennial Report on US Sustainable, Responsible and Impact Investing Trends (2018) 19. Markopoulos, E., Kirane, I.S., Gann, E.L., Vanharanta, H.: A democratic, green ocean management framework for environmental, social and governance (ESG) compliance. In: Ahram, T., Taiar, R., Gremeaux-Bader, V., Aminian, K. (eds.) IHIET 2020. AISC, vol. 1152, pp. 21–33. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44267-5_4

Innovation and Creativity in the Independent Market of Comic Books in Brazil Rodrigo Sergio F. de Paiva, Fernando Henrique Athayde, and Christianne Falcao(B) Master in Creative Industries at Catholic University of Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brazil [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. This paper aims to map the independent production of comic books in Brazil. To this end, a questionnaire was applied with artists from the field, enabling the understanding of the formation and dissemination of works of national authorship, which configure not only in a field of professional performance, but also in a form of cultural expression to be preserved. From this perspective, the research intends to create a solid information base on the publishing of comic books. Based on data that investigate the current editorial trade, the study counted on the voluntary contribution of 175 Brazilian comic artists in order to clear the way for beginning authors and to strengthen the existing links between those already established in the market. As a result, not only was a database created, but also an organic and expandable base of stories and artist experiences in the creative sector of the comic books in Brazil. Keywords: Creativity industry · Editorial market · Independent production

1 Introduction The production of independent comic books in Brazil has already become a marketing reality, which illustrates a significant segment of the publishing market. However, the precarious conditions and difficulties faced by the comic artists create the idea that there are untruths behind these statements, considering that a segment like this should be larger and less troubled to the point of being seen as a relevant sector to the eyes of society. This type of complex relationship between creativity and economics is not new, although, according to Howkins [1], it remains imperceptible to human eyes. When a creative idea moves to a marketable product, the tenuousness between both perceptions is evident. However, the economic value that is now attributed to an intellectual property such as a book or magazine can be identified through intangible concepts such as supply, demand, brands and patents. The comics genre is configured not only as a field of financial and professional performance for artists, but also represents a form of cultural expression to be preserved and valued within the creative industries. However, this creative product in Brazil deals with challenges that are characteristic of independent editorial production, namely: the search for accessible printing and distribution of the material produced, the considerable © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 386–393, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_46

Innovation and Creativity in the Independent Market

387

time required to make a work and its derivations, and the need for evidence the publication before the media specializing in comic books. Having identified such obstacles, the present article seeks to map the market context described from the following question: How is the current independent comics market in Brazil and its artists configured? Through a questionnaire spread via e-mails and social networks such as Facebook and Instagram, a direct dialogue was created with the investigated professionals and their respective works. From the collected data, it was possible to create a solid base of pertinent information on the paths traced during the necessary steps for an autonomous publication. The study intends to gather information, but, above all, to build a proficient repertoire for novice comic artists and motivate the performance of professionals already established in the Brazilian market, considering also the current times marked by the editorial and health crisis accentuated by Covid-19.

2 Results and Discussion Based on the defined objective of mapping the current market of independent national comics and their respective artists, a questionnaire (Table 1) was created on the Google Forms platform, which allows the management of surveys, information collection and the application of registration forms. Questions were designed to identify the profile of the Brazilian comic artist today, with predominantly objective answers. Contrary to the formalities characteristic of academic inquiries, a good-natured language was used to create an informal and empathic relationship with the artists involved. It is observed that the proposed script outlines from basic information about the identification of the authors and their respective projects as data that allows to understand the relationship of these artists with the job market in its different interfaces. After designing the questionnaire, the research unfolded with the construction of a spreadsheet with names recognized at the national level. Among the comic artists listed, priority was given to those who have already published independent productions, available on specialized websites and/or who have already joined the Artists’ Alley1 of Comic Con Experience. Portals dedicated to the sale of comics such as Comix Book Shop [2] and Ugrapress [3], which have specific subpages for autonomous publications, were investigated. Based on the annals available in both, it was possible to create a preliminary list, which includes both authors and other professionals who were related to the works made available in these collections. Then, the form was shared directly with each interviewee through direct messages via social networks, which emphasized the objectives of the research and its academic nature. Next, the main data collected will be discussed from the infographics. Based on the data in Fig. 1, it is observed that most of the investigated comic artists are between 26 and 35 years old. 79.4% of respondents have already participated in a collection, that is, a set of continuous publications that aggregate the stories of one or more artists. A smaller number have already participated in an independent comic book 1 Area for artists from Brazil and other countries, who come together to present and sell original

art, comic books, posters, prints, sketchbooks and other materials [4]. Available at: https://www. omelete.com.br/ccxp/ccxp19-anuncia-artists-alley. Accessed on: 02.02.2021.

388

R. S. F. de Paiva et al. Table 1. Questions from the questionnaire on the independent comic book market.

“Searching comic books” Question 1. What's your name? 2. And your email? 3. How old are you? 4. Say the name of your works! hehehe 5. Have you ever participated in a comic book collection? 6. Have you published through an independent comic book label? 7. If you answered "yes", does the label have its own store (physical or virtual)? 8. Do you have your own channel for selling your work?

9. If you answered "no", which channels do you use to sell your work?

10. Is your work (s) physical (s) or digital (s)? 11. If you answered "digital (s)", have any of them been transposed to physical media? 12. Do you use (or have you used) crowdfunding? 13. If you answered "yes", which crowdfunding platform? 14. Do you perform other activity (s) in the labor market besides the production of independent comics? 15. If you answered "yes", what activity (ies) would be?

16. What is the average initial circulation of your publication (s)?

Answer short and open answer short and open answer ( ) 16 - 25 years ( ) 26 - 35 years ( ) 36 - 45 years old ( ) 46 or more short and open answer ( ) I participated! ( ) I participated in nothing ( ) Yes ( ) No ( ) Yes ( ) No ( ) Yes ( ) No ( ) Informal selling (social networks) ( ) Amazon ( ) Traditional book market ( ) Others... ( ) Physics (s) ( ) Digital (s) ( ) Both ( ) Yes ( ) No ( ) Yes ( ) No short and open answer ( ) Yes ( ) No short and open answer ( ) No circulation (virtual platforms) ( ) 100 - 400 copies ( ) 500 - 1000 copies ( ) 1000 - 2000 copies ( ) More than 2000 copies

(continued)

Innovation and Creativity in the Independent Market

389

Table 1. (continued)

17. Did any of your work run out of print?

18. What impact did the comic book events held in Brazil in the last decade have on your work?

( ) Yes and had reprint ( ) Yes and no reprint ( ) No and there was no reprint ( ) It didn't have much impact, no ( ) It had an impact, but nothing extraordinary ( ) The impact was so great, that my audience graduated there!

“Thanks, guys!”

label, equivalent to 64% of the total calculated. 59.3% have their own store for the sale of their products, be it a physical or virtual space. According to Fig. 2, 56.6% have their own channel for these transactions, which resulted in a specific investigation on the means used by those who do not have a particular space. Responses included social networks, personal websites, events, the traditional book market, partner stores, services like Amazon, melee sales and bookstores. Some mention virtual channels under construction and generalized forms of informal sales. Printed publications remain a prevalent reality, as 84.9% of webcomics have been transposed to physical environments. 60% are found in both spaces, which means a tendency for tangible works to be made available as e-books and vice versa (Fig. 3). However, the use of crowdfunding proves to be a necessary propensity to meet traditional publishing expenses, which occurs mainly in portals such as Cartase, Kickstarter, Indiegogo and Apoia-Se. These collections should also be contributed by other activities carried out in the labor market, as shown in Fig. 4. The following areas and activities were carried out as alternatives to the production of comics: Illustration, music, journalism, teaching, art direction, academic research, comedy, proofreading, lyrics, layout, designer, audiovisual, advertising, book publishing, games, painting, cultural production, animation cinema and translation. Also revealed were sectors and professions more distant from the humanities, such as metallurgy, post office, tattoo, finance, library science, among others. Most are correlated with the comic book profession, being associated with the construction of texts and images. In sequence, the average circulation of national autonomous publications and their sales performance were surveyed (Fig. 5).

390

R. S. F. de Paiva et al.

Fig. 1. Results of the Questions 3, 5, 6 e 7

Innovation and Creativity in the Independent Market

Fig. 2. Results of the Question 8 from the questionary

Fig. 3. Results of the Questions 10 to 12

391

392

R. S. F. de Paiva et al.

Fig. 4. Results of the Question 14

Fig. 5. Results of the Questions 16 and 17

While few works are limited to virtual platforms, more than 50% had a print run of more than 400 copies, while 73.1% had their first print runs out. Finally, there was a strong impact of specialized events in comics in Brazil, which provide a face-to-face intermediary between comic artists and their readers (Fig. 6).

Innovation and Creativity in the Independent Market

393

Fig. 6. Results of the Question 18

3 Conclusion The proposed research aimed to map an entire production chain involving independent comic artists in Brazil and their ways of acting. As a result, not only a database was created, but also an organic and expandable base of reports and experiences, contributed by original infographics and recent information on the creative sector investigated. This article is configured as a device presumably capable of strengthening the ties between artists already experienced with an unstable market in Brazil and, at the same time, able to open the way for those who are building a career in the midst of unstable scenarios and that reshape themselves to each day. Once trends such as the reduction of physical points of sale, the increase in production costs, the internationalization of comics and the increasing use of social networks have been identified, tangibility seems to give an increasing space for intangibility, especially in times of isolation. Social and economic decay. On the other hand, it is expected that parallel media such as cinema, television and streaming can contribute to providing the production of national comics, autonomous or not, viewed with interest by Brazilian society. In addition, the present authors are grateful for the dedication of each artist, friend and partner who had the time and patience to assist with the market research carried out. The engagement and reception from respondents exceeded previously created expectations, which strengthens the construction of a more transparent profile of those who mobilize daily to keep comic art alive and in evidence.

References 1. Howkins, J.: The Creative Economy: How People Make Money from Ideas. Penguin UK (2002) 2. COMIX BOOK SHOP. Independente. http://www.comix.com.br/quadrinhos/independentes. html. Accessed 09 Feb 2021 3. UGRAPRESS. Independente. https://www.ugrapress.com.br/quadrinhos/independentes/. Accessed 09 Feb 2021 4. Avila, G.: CCXP19 | Mais de 500 artistas são confirmados no Artists’ Alley desta edição (2019). https://www.omelete.com.br/ccxp/ccxp19-anuncia-artists-alley. Accessed 02 Feb 2021

Managing Interdisciplinary Human Intellectual Capital for Project and Organizational Development Evangelos Markopoulos1,2(B) , Philipp Robl1 , and Emma Luisa Gann1 1 HULT International Business School, Faculty of Management and Entrepreneurship,

35 Commercial Road, London E1 1LD, UK [email protected], {probl2016, egann2017}@student.hult.edu 2 Queen Mary University of London, School of Business and Management, 327 Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK

Abstract. Due to outdated evaluation systems and their misleading parameters, organizations increasingly struggle to manage Human interdisciplinary intellectual Capital (HIIC) regarding project and general development. The education of current experts is not able to keep up with the speed of nowadays disruptive evolution of modern challenges, making the managing process of HIIC within organizational projects increasingly inefficient. This paper aims to develop a framework which can be used as a tool for organizational and project development to accurately identify and manage Human intellectual capital (HIC) free from inaccurate parameters. Such parameters are values that serve to make judgements about progress and performance and are historically a rather static assessment tool. The framework uses the concept of applied philosophy for organizational culture and the Company Democracy Models for knowledge management. This research identifies and redefines human intellectual capital parameters under a modern perspective in order to better reflect the HIIC challenges. Keywords: Human intellectual capital · Human interdisciplinary intellectual capital · Project management · Evaluation parameters · Agile · Applied Philosophy · Aristotle · Socio-ecological skills · Framework · Intrapreneurship · Company democracy Model · Golden Mean · Change management

1 Introduction Managing Human interdisciplinary intellectual capital towards project and business development turns increasingly inaccurate due to the use of misguiding evaluation methods and their outdated qualification indicators.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 394–402, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_47

Managing Interdisciplinary Human Intellectual Capital for Project

395

Experts, who spend their whole career in a specific field, struggle to keep up with the pace of nowadays disruptive evolution of modern challenges and education, resulting in a lack of understanding how to define such modern dynamics and a loss in the ability to efficiently manage the process of Human interdisciplinary intellectual Capital (HIIC) [1]. One of the reasons could be the transition from self-conducted expert problem solving to team-based problem solvers, deriving from a new work life balance trend that strives for more flexibility [2]. These two workforce generations can be characterized as the static generation, which created a successful foundation through hierarchical leaded organizations in the past, and the fast-moving flexible agile generation of the future [3]. Primary research has shown that indicators used for evaluation and management, don’t have the same expression anymore and therefore they need adjustment to include modern dynamics and changes. Socio-ecological skills developed around the way people measure qualification, such as the importance of team building or intrapreneurship as an answer to the rising difficulty to compete with the technological advancement, are still not reflected within the current evaluation and management systems. If the public and the private sector will not emphasize on adapting democratized innovation into organizational development, they will face disruptive economical threats in the transition from today’s management to the future that will be led by younger generations [4].

2 Teams and Teaming Challenges Technological advancement and globalization are changing people’s behaviors to-wards complex and uncertain dynamics. In order to keep up with global challenges, people are obliged to gain a better understanding of these changes since they are knowledge related and therefore crucial for competing [5]. Modern organizations have to address a vast variety of constantly changing dynamics to respond to trends, stay competitive and create meaningful disruption. This only can be effectively done with the collective output, feedback and especially awareness of teaming [6]. Considering the complexity of such constantly evolving economical dynamics it is unlikely they can be fully comprehended individually, therefore teaming with the right interdisciplinary intellectual capital (IIC) is crucial. The Company Democracy Model (CDM) [7], and its democratic teaming derivatives offer accurate insights and teaming practices that enable organizations to efficiently detect such unknown dynamics, understand the circumstances better and achieve increased interaction with the market changing parameters [8, 9]. By offering interdependent agile flexibility, as well as the organizational culture, in which everyone can deliver valuable input to maximize the overall understanding, a certain democratized innovation is created that effectively covers and targets the rising challenges of managing HIIC [4]. However, the major difficulty relies on proper selection of the individual IIC since these dynamics come along with yet unknown qualification requirements. Therefore, new indicators need to be researched to create a process that effectively evaluate the capabilities of team members timewise. Teams in the past were built on knowledgebased requirements where every member was expected to deliver the best possible work needed to serve a project. It was supposed to only use internal resources to fulfill the

396

E. Markopoulos et al.

common goal and to stay within their boundaries [10]. Now, due to the challenges of the current fast-changing dynamics like trends, customer behavior, business strategies, business models, competitive landscape, and most important technology, the applicable parameters are fluctuating and therefore make the traditional teaming process quite challenging and questionable. As every project is different, following a generalized approach on team building and teaming is ineffective. Modern dynamics require individualized parameters that focus on diverted external abilities to develop accuracy. Social interaction outside a team to support innovation within the team becomes crucial [11]. The better the interaction with the external environment is, the more agile the team will be, increasing its consistency, awareness and effectiveness towards project and organizational development.

3 The Challenge of Agile Teaming Indicators The major difficulty in managing HIIC for project and organizational development origins from the complexity to specifically identify and allocate individual agile teaming indicators that are impacted by the new dynamics. The modern parameters which are necessary to form effective agile teaming are constantly evolving due to human advancement and make accurate evaluation difficult as they move away from the static concepts [12]. Even though there is an abundance of literature in the field of change management, such as Kotter’s “Leading Change” [13], the challenge lies in capturing and re-framing parametrical perceptions of the relationship between the contribution of experience, qualification and socio-economical skills to such measurements [14]. Over the past 50 years, outdated industrial systems used measurement methods like the evaluation of various efficiency degrees, performance metrics and scores to generalize interdisciplinary intellectual capital and individual credibility [15]. This used to be a reasonable approach, considering that the flow of information happened at a much slower pace and from a limited number of sources compared to today. Henceforth, such knowledge-based changes are responsible for making this static approach outdated. Due to technology, certain indicators do not have their justification anymore but are yet taken into account for every evaluation. The easy access to knowledge and tools through technology has shifted these indicators from gradable qualifications to agile and intangible. Many, if not most, of the business problems can be traced back to inefficient use of knowledge; even though the right knowledge is available to businesses, but not effectively extracted and explored [16]. A paradigm shift from industrial expert learning towards agile and democratic information processing can be observed.

4 Research Methodology and Results Due to the fact, that there is limited research work on individual parameters and indicators that are valuable for managing HIIC, empirical research is conducted to gather current real-life data. The academic stock available for literature, defines how HIIC was evaluated in the past and where indicators are impacted by modern dynamics. The correlating outcome from present quantitative and qualitative re-search in form of a specified survey and interviews, offer insights about the change of perception. Concluding, this correlation

Managing Interdisciplinary Human Intellectual Capital for Project

397

can generate new Key indicators that are used to effectively identify agile teaming parameters in order to develop a modern management approach of HIIC towards projects and organizations. Similar to Karl Sveiby’s IC model [17] to measure Intellectual capital by intangible assets [18] or the Kirckpatrick’s four Level model [19], the quantitative research was categorized into demographics, academic competence, internal capability and external credibility. This serves as a control group and aims to show a clear depiction of the shift between evaluating traditional static- and modern agile indicators in the context of how dynamics have changed them. One outcome that offers a vivid example, was the evaluation of static indicators like educational career. The change from the focus on grades or the subject studied, to the evaluation of the institutions ranking and how to cope with such social structures, underlines the theory that outdated indicators are still use to actually measure undefined parameters. 49% of those surveyed, mentioned that the name of the institution is used as a far more important indicator for Human Intellectual capital than the actual expression like the GPA or the subject studied, which only was highlighted by 26%. This proves that the actual applied indicator is secondary for evaluating credibility due to modern changes, thus the right selection for teaming and managing HIIC becomes increasingly inefficient. Analysis of the research conducted, demonstrated fields which are still rated as crucial and which expressions over the time give a better insight into modern credibility, capacity, consistency, and effectiveness. These fields form 16 key indicators, that when put together in the right model, form a new and efficient approach to identify HIIC for either teams, employers or every individual kind of project. By creating this new model, which accounts static and agile indicators, a new mean merged parameter is created. Due to this, the outcome of selecting the right HIIC free from invaluable parameters will be maximized and adjusted to the nowadays speed of processing information. Applying this new approach in identifying valuable IIC enables organizations to manage HIIC more efficiently while offering a productive perspective to-wards changing dynamics and future trends by including the overall awareness of effective teaming.

5 Degree of Interdisciplinary Intellectual Capital After creating an indicator data pool from empirical research, a comparison is conducted to define indicators that used to be evaluated in the past (Observation) and expected to be accurate, for any kind of qualification, in the future (Table 1). This comparison will then be transformed, with the help of Aristoteles golden mean theory [20], into a new mean-indicator to measure truthfully modern interdisciplinary intellectual capital which has its position between old, proven, new and necessary.

398

E. Markopoulos et al. Table 1. Extraction of correlating parameters.

Static

Observation

Agile

Observation

Academic Education

Knowledge

Added Value

Self-innovation

Contacts/Network

Society

Environment

Culture

Soft skills

Expertise

Appearance

Communication

Self-esteem

Secureness

Emotions

Psychological

Transparency

Capacity

Background

Consistency

Work ethics

Awareness

Fairness

Strategical

Problem solving & learning

Dynamic

Reaction

Behavior

Moral

Learning curve

Loyalty

Integrity

6 Aristotelian Applied Philosophy By applying Aristotle’s golden mean theory used for the new framework static and agile parameters are set in order to create a score which considers the modern dynamics. The model uses a shift on a scale between 1–10 to evaluate the degree of HIIC between the traditional and modern approach (Fig. 1). The numerical values of the synergetic parameters are then used to calculate the Sum of Total Interdisciplinary Capital. This applied philosophy [21] framework must be conducted by an evaluator and the evaluated team members to deliver, as observed in Fig. 2, scores for the predetermined IC as well as for the observed IC in order to assure individual accuracy.

Fig. 1. Golden mean parameter framework.

Managing Interdisciplinary Human Intellectual Capital for Project

399

The measured scores of the synergetic expression in the center from Fig. 1, is then transferred to Fig. 2, which accurately calculates the Sum of Total Interdisciplinary Capital. When the required indicators are allocated before teaming or the team evaluation process, and compared to the parameters observed, then this can assure a truly transparent, credible and accurate outcome of the evaluated IIC. Once both numerical data points are transferred into the separate colons then they are multiplied. These results are summed and averaged, resulting in a number (MIC) that gives an exact expression about how much of the new agile capacities are fulfilled. After both MIC values are extracted, from the evaluator and from the evaluated, they are compared with a simple percentage calculation offering insight about how much the modern qualification level is fulfilled.

Fig. 2. Framework for calculating sum of total intellectual capital.

7 The Interdisciplinary Intellectual Identification (I2 ID) Canvas Similar to the Lean Canvas template which is used to visualize a business idea by breaking it down into its core propositions, the I2 ID Canvas, as the capstone of this framework, aims to depict certain parameters and deliver an understandable expression of the core competences. The result of the developed framework delivers a flexible and agile method to make a reasonable decision whenever managing HIIC in a modern context. Using this framework together with the pre-determined indicators allocated through the golden mean framework, offers a tool that has the ability, for every party involved, to show transparency towards the expressions stated in the first two steps. If the examples filled in the Canvas match the value and expression from the first two frameworks, an accurate evaluation can be observed offering total accuracy, free from inaccurate

400

E. Markopoulos et al.

qualification indicators. This framework is only conducted from the evaluated team members and used by the evaluator in order to prove if the in-tangible expressions from Fig. 1 are consistent (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3. The I2 ID Canvas.

8 Limitations and Areas of Further Research The I2 ID canvas process is developed to help organizations, teams or projects to identify Human Interdisciplinary Intellectual capital towards project and organizational development, free from the impact of outdated measurement methods and specified threw new and time accurate parameters. By including modern dynamics such as technological achievements, personal development, and trends like convenience, work-life balance or the support of soft skills which were not taken into account, this framework aims to offer a tool for any organization to manage agile and flexibly while still being precise with traditional expectations. The framework tested on limited subjects and therefore revealed a small amount of its potential. If this process would be conducted on a significantly higher scale and on a corporate level with the use of big data, more parameters could be extracted to develop even more time accurate expression for HIIC indicators. Further research on such new parameters could also improve the frameworks results. In the test case of this research, the use of big data could help the framework prove to modern society the need to reform educational systems in order to match future demands and maximizing the use of potential HIC [22]. HIIC operates under ethical management principles where credibility and commitment in team building, and management are related with organizational ethos in a balanced way between static and agile management. The framework is a contribution to sustainable management thought the effective utilization of the human intellectual capital in interdisciplinary environments.

Managing Interdisciplinary Human Intellectual Capital for Project

401

9 Conclusions The research conducted introduced an applied philosophy framework based on the Company Democracy Teaming model for knowledge democratization on team building and the Aristotelian golden mean applied philosophy for a wisdom driven organizational strategy and individual wisdom virtue identification [23]. To avoid and to minimize risk and failure, the developed framework offers a way to help Teams, organizations but also individuals to use expressions (Golden mean parameters) which were observed to create a guide for individuality but also valuable credibility. Using such unfamiliar but yet time accurate frameworks, enables organizations to manage the potential of HIIC more efficiently while innovating the traditional project development process. Modern knowledge has to be approached with modern methods to reveal its full potential, while managers are obligated to always adjust their systems and indicators to tackle the greatest socio-economic issue which is lack of knowledge.

References 1. Adelman, S.: Intellectual Capital: A Human Resources Perspective — Enterprise In-formation Management Institute, vol. 4, no. 5 (2010) 2. Xavier, G.: Investigating flexibility and information technology as key elements for competitive advantage. J. Inf. Knowl. Manag. 2(03), 261–277 (1997) 3. Ashby, P.: How Agile can Influence Educators: Kent, United Kingdom: Agile Business Cnsortium (2018). https://www.agilebusiness.org/news/459583/How-Agile-can-Influence-Educat ors.html 4. Markopoulos, E., Vanharanta, H.: Company democracy model for development of shared value. Procedia Manuf. 3, 603–610 (2015) 5. Dolfsma, W., Soete, L.: Understanding the Dynamics of a Knowledge Economy. Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, Cheltenham (2006) 6. American Management Association. https://www.amanet.org/articles/delegation-without-dis ruption/ 7. Markopoulos, E., Vanharanta, H.: Democratic culture paradigm for organizational management and leadership strategies - The company democracy model. In: Charytonowicz, J. (ed.) Advances in Human Factors and Sustainable Infrastructure. 5th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics, vol. 20, pp 190–201 (2014) 8. Markopoulos, E., Vanharanta, H.: Project teaming in a democratic company context. Theor. Issues Ergon. Sci. 19(6), 673–691 (2018) 9. Markopoulos, E., Kirane, I.S., Balaj, D., Vanharanta, H.: Artificial intelligence and blockchain technology adaptation for human resources democratic ergonomization on team management. In: Ahram, T., Karwowski, W., Pickl, S., Taiar, R. (eds.) IHSED 2019. AISC, vol. 1026, pp. 445–455. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27928-8_68 10. Edmondson, A., Harvey, J.: Cross-boundary teaming for innovation: integrating research on teams and knowledge in organizations. Acad. Manage. Annual Meeting Proc. 2017(1), 10856 (2017) 11. Cash, J., Earl, M., Morison, R.: Teaming up to crack Innovation and Enterprise Integration. Harv. Bus. Rev. 86(11), 90–100 (2008) 12. Shattock, M.: Entrepreneurialism in Universities and the Knowledge Economy: Diversification and Organizational Change in European Higher Education. Open University Press (2008)

402

E. Markopoulos et al.

13. Kotter, J.: Leading Change. Harvard Business Review Press, Boston (2010) 14. Elias, J.J.U., Scarbrough, H.: Evaluating human capital: an exploratory study of management practice. Hum. Resour. Manage. J. 14(4), 21–40 (2004) 15. Serrat, O.: A primer on intellectual capital. In: Barath, T. (ed.) Knowledge Solutions, pp. 197– 205. Springer, Singapore (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0983-9_20 16. Gates, B.: Business @ the Speed of Thought: Succeeding in the Digital Economy. Warner Books, New York (1999) 17. Bontis, N.: Assessing knowledge assets.: A Review of the Models Used to Measure Intellectual Capital (2000). http://capitalintelectual.egc.ufsc.br/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/4-bon tis2.pdf 18. Miller, M.: Measuring and reporting intellectual capital from a diverse Canadian industry perspective: Experiences, Issues and Prospects. OECD Symposium (1999). http://www.oecd. org/industry/ind/1947855.pdf 19. Gomez, A.K.: An analysis of the evaluation practices of employer-sponsored training in the financial services industry. Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University (2003). https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/4268471.pdf 20. Markopoulos, E., Vanharanta, H.: Delphic maxims based applied philosophy for business and governance management. In: Kantola, J.I., Barath, T., Nazir, S., Andre, T. (eds.) Advances in Human Factors, Business Management, Training and Education. AISC, vol. 498, pp. 33–45. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42070-7_4 21. Vanharanta, H., Markopoulos, E.: The applied philosophy concept for management and leadership objects through the Company Democracy Model. Theor. Issues Ergon. Sci. 20(2), 178–195 (2018) 22. Levine, A.: The Schools aren’t Broken, They Are Outdated. Columbia University (2000). https://www.tc.columbia.edu/articles/2000/september/the-schools-arent-broken-the yre-outdated/ 23. Vanharanta, H., Markopoulos, E.: Visualization of the wisdom cube scientific knowledge space for management and leadership. In: Kantola, J.I., Nazir, S. (eds.) AHFE 2019. AISC, vol. 961, pp. 14–25. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20154-8_2

Sustainable Leadership Wisdom Cube: Sustainable Leadership Style Evaluation Application to the Wisdom Cube Scientific Knowledge Space Evangelos Markopoulos1,2(B) , Lisa Marie Carolin Winter3 , and Hannu Vanharanta4 1 School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London, 327 Mile End Road,

London GB E1 4NS, UK [email protected] 2 Faculty of Engineering and Business, Turku University of Applied Sciences, Joukahaisenkatu 3, ICT-City, C-wing, 20520 Turku, Finland 3 UVEX Winter Holding GmbH and Co. KG, Wuerzburger Street 181, 90766 Fuerth, Germany [email protected] 4 School of Technology and Innovations, University of Vaasa, Wolffintie 34, 65200 Vaasa, Finland [email protected]

Abstract. The triadic combination of wisdom, strategy, and democracy in a sustainable and social context introduces a new area in management and leadership where thinking replaces believing for the benefit of human beings, society, and the economy. Humanity requires sustainable leaders who advance by education and personal growth for the people and the planet through prosperity, peace, and partnerships. Drawing and processing data, information, and knowledge with established business methods such as the Wisdom Cube and applying sustainable leadership, wisdom is generated and inherited based on its four dimensions. This synthesis demonstrates the Sustainable Leadership Wisdom Cube (SLWC) model developed to benefit anyone who can be provided with the right tools and resources to adapt themselves to suit society. This framework is based on understanding the various wisdom characteristics, focusing on business innovation within the Pink and Green Oceans strategies under sustainable and social management and leadership. Keywords: Sustainability for leadership · Agenda 2030 · Sustainable development goals · Wisdom Cube · Sustainable leadership · Pink Ocean Strategy

1 Introduction In the immediate sense of unsustainability, the current data, information, and knowledge are critical for social change through sustainable development [1]. Leaders must guide the world during times of global crisis and prevent new ones. New technological alternatives © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 403–413, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_48

404

E. Markopoulos et al.

emerge in the face of this consumer-driven era, which pushes planetary limits. This crisis, which requires a behavior change, involves cultural, social, and individual transitions. The 2030 Agenda of the United Nations identifies 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which offer a framework for a holistic interpretation of what sustainability requires. This framework focuses on the premise that sustainability and sustainable growth have a social, economic, and environmental aspect, assuming that social and ecological elements are related/interrelated and that social and economic components depend on environmental frameworks (Fig. 1) [2]. We have recognized the need to consider and evaluate sustainability for leadership. This work, therefore, emphasizes current business leaders who are not sustainability experts themselves. The success of a leader lies in the understanding that humans behave complicated. They respond to the traditional concept of the ‘carrot and stick’ methodology and drive loyalty, love for the good and the beautiful, apathy, self-doubt, and all dimensions and patterns of thinking, acting, and feelings make each one a unique individual [3].

Fig. 1. The 17 sustainable development goals [2]

2 Problem Formulation Inevitably, the intricate environmental impact will directly affect business, the social system, and ecosystem functions; and with far-reaching regulations, governments will seek to mitigate its effects [4]. Thus, the global response is fundamental to long-term sustainable development, seeking booming economic, social, and environmental prosperity. Businesses need to strengthen their potential viability, sustainability, and resilience rather than retreating from core issues [5]. This paper attempts to answer if leadership can have a sustainable dimension, i.e., how informed, committed, and skilled, sustainable leaders allow companies to generate growth, profit, and maintain environmental, societal, and long-term sustainable development? These attempts lead to three sub-sections: What must be adapted in leadership today to work towards sustainable development in the future? How can leaders motivate

Sustainable Leadership Wisdom Cube

405

and guide others to care for the common goals of a long-term sustainable future? What character traits must a sustainable leader have?

3 Research Methodology This research paper uses interviews, surveys, case studies, and secondary research to collect and sample qualitative and quantitative data and information. The methodology allows the collection of objective data explicitly focused on Sustainable Leadership (SL). Qualitative information is derived from semi-structured interviews with managers of different sized enterprises. To avoid prejudice, we selected a range of interviewees. Invariably one female and one male manager from start-ups, small-to-medium-sizedenterprises, and large enterprises. For quantitative data collection, a survey contains many individuals to identify sustainable leaders’ needs and requirements in society and return business. The method allows an understanding of sustainability awareness in the general community today. We gathered more information about SL with three case studies, i.e., Vandana Shiva, Jacinda Ardern, and Albert Arnold Gore Jr., to help analyze people’s character traits and personal attributes within the sustainability leadership style.

4 Leadership Styles The four main types of Leadership are Entrepreneurial, Aspirational, Experiential, and Revolutionary. Entrepreneurial Leadership focuses on doing more with less than anyone thinks possible [6]. Aspirational Leadership strives for more than pure success in business; it aspires to purpose and prosperity [7]. Experiential Leadership emphasizes concrete results more than innovative impact, as disruptive innovations and business models can reshape markets and industries; however, past performance is a more reliable predictor of potential effects [8]. Revolutionary Leadership underlines tangible progress and practical approaches as the most unlikely places can give the essential contributions [9]. Within these four leadership types lie nine universal leadership styles; Transactional-, Transformational-, Servant-, Democratic-, Autocratic-, Bureaucratic-, Laissez-Faire-, Charismatic- and Situational Leadership. The Situational Leadership style focuses on flexible leaders who adapt to their environments and circumstances [10]. Figure 2 represents the main types and leadership styles. Science and research have identified the need for leaders who can benefit human, social and economic values. However, for a future-orientated organization to succeed in ever-changing environments, leaders must also adapt their leadership capacity, capabilities, competencies, and skills to grow environmental matters and values for the more significant and common good.

5 The Pink Ocean Strategy The Pink Ocean Strategy (POS) is an approach that can significantly affect the lives of millions worldwide while maintaining social and sustainable requisite resilience through productivity development and scale-out market operations (Fig. 3).

406

E. Markopoulos et al.

The POS goal is to create the development space that leads and encourages innovations to create a social innovation ecosystem. Companies must move from the blue to the reach pink oceans, as creativity is required for advancement outside rivalry [11].

Fig. 2. Map of the leadership styles with the different leadership types.

Research and development have created tools and metrics to lead organizations into future-driven business environments. However, human capital remains the key element to successfully guide businesses into new, sustainable, and prosperous waters [12]. Thus,

Fig. 3. The Red, Blue, Green, and Pink Oceans transitioning [11]

Sustainable Leadership Wisdom Cube

407

it is clear that only a specific leadership style can guide companies through these everchanging, blue, pink, and green oceans of social and sustainable opportunities. Specifically, green and pink character traits are required to succeed in such a business transition to succeed socially (pink), environmentally (green), financially (blue).

6 The Wisdom Cube Sustainable Leadership Framework Knowledge on sustainability, the understanding and reasoning of sustainability, the technical implementation of sustainability, and the practical implementation of sustainability form a methodological approach that provides the basis for the identification and demonstration of values, frameworks, and definitions of ontologies applicable to the SDGs for the evaluation of practical leadership competencies and character traits. The Wisdom Cube Framework (WCF) can create a functional leadership model program for sustainability (Fig. 4). In the WCF, the proportions of wisdom can be visualized because each one briefly defines vital characteristics. Through the WCF, one can discover the planes that occupy the content of each dimension. Episteme, Sophia, Techne, and Phronesis are the critical aspects as knowledge was described and expressed by the ancient Hellenic philosophers [13].

Fig. 4. The Wisdom Cube with the four dimensions of wisdom [13].

Episteme is the Scientific Dimension of Wisdom, which means that what is objectively understood can be explained. So intangible things become more of an art than real knowledge. Sophia is the Theoretical Dimension of Wisdom. Sophia’s ancient Greek term has been represented in different forms by the terms’ smart, wise, intellectual, knowledgeable,’ meaning the human being’s wisdom. Techne is the Technical Dimension of Wisdom. According to Aristotle, Techne is a ‘representative of the imperfection

408

E. Markopoulos et al.

of human emulation of nature’. Phronesis is the Practical Dimension of Wisdom. It is an ancient Greek term meaning a kind of insight or intellect [13]. The WCF allows leaders and managers to assess their current position and degree of successful leadership qualities and think of new potential functions using a well-known definition of creative tension 6.1 Framework Implementation The effort to develop a framework for the successful implementation of Sustainable Leadership is based and considered an add-on to the current business practices and not a replacement. Thus, a key factor is the different existing characteristics, and leadership styles managers currently embody. Leaders mustn’t implement this framework due to external pressures but because they seek long-term sustainable development. Thus, a successful implementation is based on individual leaders’ intentions to a sustainable culture throughout the business, which can be achieved with education and communication. Teaching and learning lead to extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies, allowing an organization to develop and make sense of the world in ways that others cannot. The long-term success of this framework depends on the relationships and mindset portrayed within the business culture. 6.2 Sustainable Leadership Style Evaluation The Sustainable Leadership theory comes from the concept of sustainable development in business. Sustainable leaders are dissatisfied with the status-quo and thus accumulate data, information, knowledge, and resources to convert their organization to benefit the planet and the people while also focusing on their businesses’ profits and growth. Sustainable Leadership dimensions allow managers to adapt and develop their current leadership style to relate or be useful in business operations by listening, understanding, and emphasizing. They utilize compassion, trust, and honesty to convey their persuasive, confident, and enthusiastic environmental and social sustainability approach. They are selfless to achieve their apparent goals of long-term, future-oriented growth, driven by sustainability for every decision. In non-sustainable choices, they make their decisions consciously and communicate them directly. Nonetheless, sustainable leaders keep these decisions pending until they access tools and resources to adapt to sustainable decision making. This leadership style leads with purpose and creates meaningful change. However, it isn’t easy to adopt it if leaders do not embody the real will, passion, and understanding of its benefits. Figure 5 indicates the relation to other leadership styles based on the four main types of leadership. However, Sustainable Leadership is fixed at high purpose, moves along the y-axis of creativity based on the leader adopting Sustainable Leadership.

Sustainable Leadership Wisdom Cube

409

Fig. 5. Sustainable Leadership (SL) in correlation to other leadership styles

7 Sustainable Leadership Wisdom Cube The SLWC (Fig. 6) breaks the Sustainable Leadership theory into various characteristics to understand the essence of wisdom and reveals how important it is to use this information for educational purposes and growth in the light of sustainability.

Fig. 6. Sustainable Leadership Wisdom Cube (SLWC).

The four original knowledge attributes of the Wisdom Cube Framework can be applied to the context of sustainability. These are required for the successful implementation of sustainable leadership; however, the context must be adapted. In the light of sustainable leadership, Episteme focuses on the scientific research that has been identified to analyze social and environmental wellbeing. This information is

410

E. Markopoulos et al.

universal and necessary as it impacts the global population. The 2030 Agenda embodies all targets humanity must reach for prosperity and supports knowledge to understand viability and sustainability in all its forms. Sophia focuses on the human traits of intelligence. Asking ‘why’ and understanding its importance is essential for authentic, sustainable leadership. The SDGs embody crucial knowledge related to future-oriented business for organizations, society, and humanity. This theoretical wisdom can be portrayed internally and externally to create full sustainability in leadership and business. Techne focuses on the tools derived by research to become socially and environmentally sustainable without compromising business growth, such as the Triple Bottom Line, Corporate Social Responsibility, Environmental Social Governance, the Company Democracy Model, or the Pink Ocean Strategy. Primary research has identified several systems businesses put in place to measure their sustainability. Phronesis focuses on the implementation of Sustainable Leadership. This actionoriented approach is universal to implement any concept. Thus, for the Sustainable Leadership Wisdom Cube (SLWC), the original information is accurate. Leaders need to be role models and demonstrate sustainability verbally and physically, thus eliminating hypocrisy and focusing on authenticity through actions.

8 Sustainable Leader Traits Sustainable Leadership is a new leadership style that emerged due to situational circumstances of climate change. Sustainability requires fulfilling one’s own needs without undermining future generations’ abilities to fulfill their own needs. Sustainable leaders embody skills to make them successful, sustainable, and future-oriented leaders were focusing on a scientific, theoretical, technical, and practical implementation. Sustainable leaders embody eight abilities (Fig. 7). These are persuasion, listening, confidence, compassion, trustworthiness, enthusiasm, honesty, and sustainability.

Fig. 7. The eight Sustainable Leadership (SL) character traits

Sustainable Leadership Wisdom Cube

411

When applying these characteristics, three aspects must be considered: (a) Alignment of the team and business culture with Sustainable Leadership, (b) Capable resources and tools available to leaders to lead into sustainable development while also growing it, and (c) Leaders must have personal belief systems aligned with sustainable development. Where some leaders already embody some of these qualities, some do not at all. This leadership model is highly aware that not every person is the same. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a range of supportive frameworks appropriate for any individual to implement Sustainable Leadership traits.

9 Impact All sustainable leadership character traits align with viability and sustainability and thus link directly to the 2030 Agenda. A sustainable leader fosters the development and implications of SDGs in business, leading to adopting the Social Progress Index (SPI). (Fig. 8). SPI contains three pillars: Basic Human Needs (ex. nutrition and primary medical care), Foundation of Wellbeing (ex. access to basic knowledge), and Opportunity (ex. personal freedom and choice). [14]. Basic Human Needs are achieved if the sustainable leader is a role model, showing compassion to the issue, listening where the problem comes from, being honest about the attainability, enthusiastic about solving a crisis, confident, and persuasive to build and lead teams.

Fig. 8. Sustainable Leadership character traits aligned with the 17 SDGs.

412

E. Markopoulos et al.

10 Limitations and Areas of Further Research This work has been delivered under the Covid-19 pandemic, where access to study leaders in their workplace was limited. The pandemic also impacted the secondary research as five out of six interviewees were German. Finally, the western way of thinking studies from the interviews cannot be compared with the international literature used to support the SLWC model. Thus, the validity of the data is restricted. The involvement of international participants, especially from developing and underdeveloped countries, could have demonstrated a more relevant and fundamental social perspective. To develop this research further, in the preliminary study, the SLWC model should be tested on managers globally to identify time implementation methods in general, as well as how different leaders from different regions apply this model. It is essential to highlight that this leadership style should be tested in developed and underdeveloped areas and adopted accordingly. After the testing phase, further research application of the SLWC model should be undergone. Since this framework can also be applied to business innovation, it would be tested if innovation within the Pink and Green Oceans could be achieved successfully using the SLWC model. Additionally, the development of an assessment tool for managers in business today would increase the reach of potential SLWC framework adopters. Furthermore, this concept should be adopted by political and social leaders rather than business managers.

11 Conclusion If the global objectives are met by 2030, matters must be completed differently. Importance to social change must be assigned, and international approaches must be scaled up. These global goals are a monumental moment, as the world’s leaders have vowed to deliver them. The SLWC model was developed with the impression that anyone shall be provided the right tools and resources to adapt themselves to suit society. It gives the awareness of the impact business and people have on the world and an understanding of what one can change to find a sustainable role and place within the community. A single action alone might not change the world. However, working towards sustainable development in communality can create a worldwide positive impact.

References 1. Markopoulos, E., Gann, E.L., Kirane, I.S., Vanharanta, H.: Green capitalism: democratizing sustainable innovation by recycling intellectual capital energy. In: Ahram, T., Taiar, R., Gremeaux-Bader, V., Aminian, K. (eds.) IHIET 2020. AISC, vol. 1152, pp. 507–519. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44267-5_77 2. United Nations. Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. United Nations, New York City (2015) 3. Prentice, W.: Understanding Leadership. Harvard Business Review, New York (2004) 4. Reinhardt, F.L., Porter, M.E.: Business Climate. Harvard Business Review, New York (2007)

Sustainable Leadership Wisdom Cube

413

5. Schwartz, P.: Risk: Investing in Global Security. Harvard Business Review, New York (2012) 6. Esmer, Y., Dayi, F.: Entrepreneurial Leadership: A Theoretical Research. In: Proceedings of the 25th International Academic Conference, OECD, Paris (2016) 7. Harris, J., Kim Barnes, B.: Inspirational leadership: involving senior leaders in developing the next generation. Industrial Commercial Training, pp. 196–200 (2006) 8. Cerni, T., Curtis, G., Colmar, S.: Cognitive-Experiential Leadership Model: How Leaders’ Information-Processing Systems Can Influence Leadership Styles. J. Leadersh. Stud. 32 26– 39 (2014) 9. Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R., McKee, A.: Primal leadership. IEEE Eng. Manage. Rev. 37(3), 75–84 (2009) 10. Blanchard, K., Zigarmi, D., Nelson, R.: Situational leadership® after 25 years: a retrospective. J. Leadersh. Stud. 1(1), 21–36 (1993) 11. Markopoulos, E., Ramonda, M.B., Winter, L.M.C., Katheeri, H., Vanharanta, H.: Pink ocean strategy: democratizing business knowledge for social growth and innovation. In: Markopoulos, E., Goonetilleke, R.S., Ho, A.G., Luximon, Y. (eds.) AHFE 2020. AISC, vol. 1218, pp. 39–51. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51626-0_5 12. Markopoulos, E., Kirane, I.S., Piper, C., Vanharanta, H.: Green ocean strategy: democratizing business knowledge for sustainable growth. In: Ahram, T., Karwowski, W., Pickl, S., Taiar, R. (eds.) IHSED 2019. AISC, vol. 1026, pp. 115–125. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-030-27928-8_19 13. Vanharanta, H., Markopoulos, E.: Visualization of the wisdom cube scientific knowledge space for management and leadership. In: Kantola, J.I., Nazir, S. (eds.) AHFE 2019. AISC, vol. 961, pp. 14–25. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20154-8_2 14. Qaiser, B., Nadeem, S., Siddiqi, M., Siddiqui, A.: Relationship of social progress index with gross domestic product. Pakistan J. Eng. Technol. Sci. 7(1), 25 (2018)

Competitiveness and Innovation on the Frontier of Knowledge: 25th Anniversary Postgraduate in Administration TecNM Tijuana Rodolfo Martinez-Gutierrez(B) , Maria Esther Ibarra-Estrada, Carlos Hurtado-Sanchez, Carmen Esther Carey-Raygoza, Beatriz Chavez-Ceja, and Artemio Lara-Chavez Tecnológico Nacional de México/IT de Tijuana, Calzada Del Tecnológico S/N, Fraccionamiento, Tomas Aquino, 22414 Tijuana, Baja California, México {rodolfo.martinez,eibarra,carlos.hurtado,carmen.carey, beatriz.chavez,alara}@tectijuana.edu.mx

Abstract. Tecnológico Nacional de México (TNM) is the largest Technological Higher Education Institution in Latin America. The TNM is made up of more than 260 Institutions, among them the Tijuana Technological Institute, which offers the Postgraduate Master’s Degree in Administration since 1994. Professional practice in any discipline after 5 years on average, naturally generates the challenges of manage: the resources, people and processes under its responsibility; In this context, the development and application of professional skills and applied research becomes essential for successful professional development in a city as competitive as Tijuana, to direct public or private organizations that impact the country’s competitiveness. The administration is considered like a science because it possesses an ordered set of knowledge about a common object of study, the "organization"; It is considered as a technique because it has procedures, principles and rules that, in its exercise, provide those who develop it with expertise and skills in solving problems; and as an art, because it is the creative application of the person who executes that set of scientific knowledge and principles in particular circumstances and for specific purposes, which requires simple, harmonious and integrative solutions. The graduate profile is a competent professional to analyze, create and manage projects aimed at continuous improvement through the systematization and optimization of processes and resources; diagnose, design and develop strategies, and make decisions in intervention processes in organizations of the productive sector of goods and services, according to the socioeconomic and cultural reality of the country, fostering the competitiveness of the region and the growth of the country with a vision global. The Tecnologico Nacional de Mexico Campus Tijuana has trained for almost half a century (50th anniversary 1971-2021) the Mexican professional talent and for more than 25 years the Postgraduate in Administration, has provided new applied research skills, on the most dynamic border between Mexico and the United States of America, the CALI-BAJA mega region. Keywords: MBA · Postgraduate in administration · Frontier of knowledge

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 414–419, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_49

Competitiveness and Innovation on the Frontier of Knowledge

415

1 Introduction In 1994, the Tecnologico Nacional de México Campus Tijuana [1], through the Department of Economic-Administrative Sciences in coordination with the area of the Division of Postgraduate Studies and Research, laid the foundations to offer a postgraduate degree in Administration which would respond to the Needs to train leaders and staff from the various sectors of the city of Tijuana and the populations of the State of Baja California, it has even been a national and international benchmark to train multidisciplinary talent from the interior of Mexico, as well as foreign people from various countries throughout more than 25 years of leadership in the region [2–6].

2 Framework Within the framework of the 25th anniversary of the Master in Administration, several projects and initiatives have been undertaken to strengthen the postgraduate program, as is the objective of the evaluation to be a part of the PNPC of CONACYT [7], even though the Master in Administration program It has a professional approach, which makes the profile of the students be people who work and seek to strengthen their labor and professional skills, as well as strengthen applied research skills as a strategy to achieve better conditions for professional development within their organizations. The evaluation before PNPC is a method that is based on the academic premises of the postgraduate course shared by the institutions of Mexico and the world, among which stand out: frontier of knowledge, articulation in training-research-innovation-linkage, cultural diversity, equity, non-discrimination and inclusion of the gender dimension, transparency and universal access to knowledge. The Master in Administration (see Table 1) contemplates an graduation profile: Competent professional to analyze, create, develop and manage projects aimed at continuous improvement through the systematization and optimization of processes and resources; diagnose, design and develop strategies, and make decisions in intervention processes in the organizations of the productive sector of goods and services, according to the socio-economic and cultural reality of the country, fostering the competitiveness of the region and the growth of the country with a global vision. Table 1. Subjects of the Master’s program in Administration Basics • Fundamentals of Administration • Financial administration • Production and Operations Administration • Human capital

Optative • Leadership and Organizational Behavior • Strategic management • Human Talent Management • Administration of SMEs • Supply Chain Management • Quality assurance • Quality management Structure for 4 semesters: with 3 Research seminars and Thesis Development

416

R. Martinez-Gutierrez et al.

The program has a total of 100 credits, the subjects are classified as 4 basic and 4 optional, each one is 6 credits, 3 Research Seminars are 4 credits, and in the last semester the subject called Thesis is taken, with The purpose that the student prepares his dissertation and present his degree examination to obtain his Master’s degree in Administration, the program must be developed in 2 years, 4 semesters, to cover the indicators of terminal efficiency, variables of an evaluation and accreditation of National Postgraduate Quality Programs (PNPC) of CONACYT in Mexico. The Master’s Degree in Administration has traditionally been a benchmark for the training of skills and abilities of professionals who rise to responsibilities at the managerial or directive level, including the sense of being an entrepreneur and updating themselves in the necessary competencies for a better vision of the business and alliances in supply chains, strengthening of business linkage strategies, the subjects of the Master of Administration program, facilitate that applied research projects generate a strengthening, profitability and with them in the competitiveness of companies in the region, likewise the sense of sharing the best business practices among students with experience and the generational crossing of knowledge and expertise. Generating environments conducive to learning and case study in each session and in each subject, the program enjoys a high reputation at the local, national and international level. The objectives and goals of the Master of Administration projects in recent years within the framework of the 25th anniversary (2017–2020), is set out in Table 2. 2.1 Model and Methodology Considering the institutional guidelines of the Tecnologico Nacional de México and the requirements of CONACYT itself, as a sectoral linkage strategy, the Fifth Helice Systemic (QHS) methodology will be used as an intervention action and integral articulation with the different sectors of society. Likewise, the DCS methodology will be used to design and development of the Model and Methodology of Dictionaries of Sectorial Competencies [8–10], required for the development of this institutional project, is the Methodology of the Fifth Systemic Helix [11–13] that will allow, through the involvement of all the participants in the sector strategy (Government, Education, Companies, Associations-Clusters and Consultants-Society), define the Sectoral Development Agenda (SDA); Based on them, the priority topics of each Sector can be defined to develop the Sector Skills Dictionaries (SCD) and, consequently, the roadmap for the development of the Dictionary of Sectorial Competencies (DCS) can be developed. This article is part of a collection of dissemination products of the Academic Body Academic Body called: Competitiveness and innovation for sustainable regional development, made up in the Department of Economic-Administrative Sciences that integrates the postgraduate Master’s Degree in Administration and the Project Doctorate in Administration from the Tecnologico Nacional de México Campus Tijuana (TecNM Tijuana).

Competitiveness and Innovation on the Frontier of Knowledge

417

Table 2. Master of Administration Projects (2017–2020) Project

Objective and Goals

1

Sectorial linkage in the cities of Tijuana, Ensenada, Tecate, Rosarito and Mexicali

2

Increase in academic productivity with articles between professors and students of thesis projects

3

Achieve that the Master in Administration is accredited as a verification unit of the Municipal Development Plan by INAFED of the Ministry of the Interior

4

Submit a proposal for Sector Skills Dictionaries projects according to the National Development Plan to strengthen sector competitiveness

5

Opening of closed postgraduate programs with educational and business institutions

6

Active participation with Chambers and Clusters of the region

7

Integration of sector research activities through the Vice-presidency of CIRIEC Mexico North Region

8

International Relations with Universities of Costa Rica, Spain, Brazil, Colombia and Chile

9

Hold the Honorary Presidency of the Commission of Social Economy in the Economic Development Ecosystem of the Tijuana City Council

10

Participation in the Metropolitan NODESS of Social economy of the Tijuana Rosarito region for a social entrepreneurship project

11

Increase the number of postgraduate students of the Master’s degree in Administration from 24 to 100 students in 3 years with a project of 200 students in 5 years

3 Conclusions The 25th anniversary of the Master in Administration (1994–2019) of the Tecnologico Nacional de Mexico Campus Tijuana, generates a reflection of the challenges to undertake and continue working, in the inkwell is the continuation of a sister program that offers the opportunity to follow preparing the new generations of entrepreneurs in the Cali-Baja region, also cementing the Doctorate in Administration or Doctorate in Administrative Sciences project as an avant-garde strategy on the frontier of knowledge that the state of the art demands in the mega region of Tijuana and San Diego, border cities and leaders in the international economy. Projects to eventually be replicated: New Master’s in Administration projects for the Association of Customs Agents of Tijuana and Tecate (AAATT) [14–16], strengthening skills and competencies in senior management and foreign trade, as well as in supply chain, new generation of masters in Administration for Professors and Students of the Technologic University of Tijuana to support the academic strengthening and commitment of their academic, medical and research bodies, to support new generations of Master’s in Administration for the Technological Institute of Ensenada [17], and to strengthen the international link with stays and exchanges of students and professors,

418

R. Martinez-Gutierrez et al.

joint publications, the development of an indexed research journal with international impact, as well as crystallizing the project of the Doctorate in Administration or Doctorate in Administrative Sciences at the Tecnologico Nacional de Mexico Campus Tijuana, and continue to raise the institutional slogan of the TecNM “Excellence in Technological Education” and the slogan of the Technological Institute of Tijuana “for a youth integrated to the development of Mexico” [18, 19].

References 1. Tecnologico Nacional de México Campus Tijuana (TecNM). https://www.tijuana.tecnm.mx/ 2. Maestría en Administración del Tecnologico Nacional de Mexico Campus Tijuana. https:// www.tijuana.tecnm.mx/maestria-en-administracion-celebra-25-aniversario-de-fortalecercompetitividad-del-talento-humano-en-baja-california-y-mexico/ 3. Tecnologico Nacional de Mexico Campus Tijuana en Feria de Competitividad. https://www. tijuana.tecnm.mx/el-tecnologico-nacional-de-mexico-campus-tijuana-de-nueva-forma-fueinvitado-especial-en-el-panel-de-competitividad-del-sector-academico-en-baja-california/ 4. Comisión de Impulso a la Economía Social de Tijuana. https://www.tijuana.tecnm.mx/ins talan-comision-de-impulso-a-la-economia-social/ 5. Ecosistema de Desarrollo Economico de Tijuana. https://www.tijuana.tecnm.mx/%EF% BB%BFitt-colabora-en-comision-de-economia-social-del-ecosistema-para-el-desarrolloeconomico-de-tijuana/ 6. Foros de Consulta Plan Municipal de Tijuana. https://www.tijuana.tecnm.mx/maestria-enadministracion-participa-en-los-foros-de-consulta-para-plan-municipal-de-desarrollo-20202021/ 7. CONACYT PNPC Marco Normativo. https://www.conacyt.gob.mx/index.php/el-conacyt/ convocatorias-y-resultados-conacyt/convocatorias-pnpc/marcos-de-referencia-pnpc 8. Martínez Gutiérrez, R.: Quinta Hélice Sistémica (QHS), un método para evaluar la competitividad internacional del sector electrónico en Baja California, México. Investigación Administrativa [en linea] 2012, (Julio-Diciembre) : [Fecha de consulta: 20 de agosto de 2018] Disponible en. ISSN 1870–6614. http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=456045338003 9. Martínez Gutiérrez, R.: Análisis de productividad y trazabilidad académica caso:Quinta Hélice Sistémica 2010–2020 [Reseña]. Administrar Lo Público, 8va. Compilación, vol. 8, pp. 62–81, ISBN 978-9-96-89323-6-3 CICAP - Universidad de Costa Rica, San José (2020) 10. Martinez-Gutierrez, R.: Methodology of dictionaries of sector competences (DCS), to design standards of professional competences, research and labor. In: Nazir, S., Ahram, T., Karwowski, W. (eds.) AHFE 2020. AISC, vol. 1211, pp. 323–329. Springer, Cham (2020). https:// doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50896-8_46 11. Martinez-Gutierrez, R., Correa, M.E.S.: Dictionary of competencies for sustainable development in the municipalities of Northern México. In: Kantola, J.I., Nazir, S., Salminen, V. (eds.) AHFE 2020. AISC, vol. 1209, pp. 312–317. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/ 978-3-030-50791-6_40 12. Martínez Gutiérrez, R.: Quinta Hélice Sistémica (qhs), un modelo para el desarrollo de políticas públicas. Revista Cooperativismo Desarrollo 20(101), 28–51 (2012) 13. Martinez-Gutierrez, R.: Methodology of the fifth systemic helix for the development of public sector policies. J. Competitiveness Stud. 22(3–4), 147–168 14. Aduanales y Tecnológico Tijuana fomentan con maestría comercio exterior. https://www. 20minutos.com.mx/noticia/369549/0/aduanales-y-tecnologico-tijuana-fomentan-con-mae stria-comercio-exterior/

Competitiveness and Innovation on the Frontier of Knowledge

419

15. Asociación de Agentes Aduanales de Tijuana y Tecate ofertará Maestría en Administración. https://www.elsoldetijuana.com.mx/local/asociacion-de-agentes-aduanales-de-tij uana-y-tecate-ofertara-maestria-en-administracion-1679624.html 16. Universidad de Costa Rica - Visita Académica de Estudiantes de Maestría del ITT, México. http://www.eap.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/visita-academica-de-estudiantes-de-maestria-del-ittmexico 17. Proyecto de Maestria en Administración para Instituto Tecnologico de Ensenada. https:// www.tijuana.tecnm.mx/inician-maestria-en-administracion-los-sabados/ 18. Video 25 Aniversrio Maestria en Administración TecNM Tijuana. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=VnXvAUI5YK4 19. Video 25 Aniversario Maestria en Administración – Cronologia de Gestión 2017–2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHwUVrlGSWc 20. Participa TecNM en la 2da. Feria de Competitividad en Comercio Exterior y Aduanas 2018. http://sitio.dgest.gob.mx/academicas/participa-tecnm-en-la-2da-feria-de-competiti vidad-en-comercio-exterior-y-aduanas-2018

Communication of Design

Mascot Endorsement Provoke the Audiences’ Engagement Kevin Tsz Chun Kwok(B) and Amic G. Ho Department of Creative Arts, School of Arts and Social Sciences, The Open University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

Abstract. Mascot endorsements are always applied in advertising to increase consumers’ interest in the products and brands. They have been investigated that are effective strategies to create positive impacts from a marketing perspective. However, there is limited understanding of why mascots can be so attractive and even influence consumers’ behaviours. Also, limited studies examine how mascots could enhance the audiences’ predilections in visual? Therefore, this study aimed to examine the reason mascot endorsement creates an attraction to the audiences and the types of attractive mascot. In order to achieve them, the literature review and a questionnaire are conducted. Based on the result of this study, the reason mascot endorsement creates attraction is examined. The primary criteria and type of appealing mascot design are also understood. Keywords: Mascot · Mascot endorsement · Emotion & design · Emotional attachment · Advertising & communication design

1 Introduction Mascot endorsements are kind of popular techniques to use widely in marketing motivations and advertising promotions because they are profitable strategies. For example, Ronald McDonald for promoting a corporate image, Kumamon in Japan for city branding and Big Waster from HK Environment Bureau for building up an ambassador of the promotion in public service announcement. Some mascot endorsements even go viral for social media in recent years, such as Line friends and Kakao friends. They develop their stories, character profile and animations, stickers online and in specific stores. It is increasingly that mascot endorsement acts an outstanding role in corporate identity. Mascot endorsement’s studies have been discussed by different scholars for many years and they examined mascot endorsements are effective strategies from a marketing perspective that creates a positive impact on promotions. However, there are some questions that why mascots can influence consumers and even be rooted in global viral? Are they elicit the audiences’ emotion more intensively? This paper aimed to examine why the mascot endorsement creates an attraction to the audiences and how it could enhance the audiences’ predilections and motivations for the products and advertising in visual. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 423–431, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_50

424

K. T. C. Kwok and A. G. Ho

2 Mascot Endorsement Mascots are the advertising ambassadors, brand icons, brand-equity, trade characters and non-celebrity spokes-characters [1–5]. They are non-human spokes-characters or mascot that promote an idea, service, product or brand, such as Qoo from Coca-Cola and M&M characters from Mars Incorporated [1, 6, 7]. Since the product cannot promote by itself, the brand needs mascots to speak for them that are similar to the brands using celebrities as the endorsers [8]. They are cartoon characters which design base on objects, animals and people [1, 2, 9, 10]. Their design also uses anthropomorphism that assigns human characteristics, for example, human-like appearance (hand and foot, facial features) and mental capacities (intentionality, emotion, cognition), to cartoon characters [11]. 2.1 Benefits of Mascot Endorsement When the brands use mascots in their promotion or commercialisation, they act as never retires brand advocates and ambassador that have various uses [12, 13]. They are different from an abstract or textual logo which only uses as a trademark and emotionally less appealing [12]. Moreover, mascots make brands become lively with human qualities of emotion, personality and thought [14]. They are more emotion acceptable and have emotional bonding between customers and brands that give brand connotations and emotional attachment with consumers [13, 15]. Malik and Guptha [8] confirm the most important reason for mascots impact consumers’ buying behaviours is that they make an emotional touch on consumers. Mascots also arise brand awareness and establish customers’ engagement [8, 9]. They build brand trust, loyalty, association, awareness [1–5, 16]. Besides, mascots can attract consumers who lack interest in the products [12, 17]. When the products are similar to competitors’ products, using mascots can highlight them [18]. Furthermore, mascot endorsements can bring positive attitudes to products, purchasing intention that taps specific buyer groups, especially children and some adults [8, 9, 12, 19, 20]. Kraak and Story [21] found that brand mascots affect children choosing products that they prefer products with brand mascots.

3 Personification in Advertising Personification means that represents objects as a living and feeling person by giving them human-like characteristics [22, 23]. The human attributes include any elements of human beings, such as desires, beliefs, intentions, plans, goals, psychological states, will and powers [22]. Personification is usually applied in brand strategies [24]. For example, anthropomorphise the advertising that a car appears as a smiling face in a printed advertisement [25, 26]. Moreover, the creation of a brand mascot also comes from anthropomorphism because it assigns human characteristics to nonhuman things [11].

Mascot Endorsement Provoke the Audiences’ Engagement

425

3.1 Advertising Personification and Emotion People have a natural tendency to anthropomorphism [11]. Such as people often treat pets like friends emotionally and so it is natural that integrate personification into daily life and brings positive emotions [25]. When an advertisement uses personification, the emotional response is created and it acts similar to a real spokesperson that bring more positive emotions and increase emotional connection between consumers and brands [4, 25]. Then, more positive impacts are caused, for example, the sense of belonging, preference for brand personality and improved attitudes toward the brand [26].

4 Emotional Attachment The term of emotional attachment is from psychology originally and it describes the emotional phenomenon of mother-infant that the disagreeable and painful feeling will be caused in the distance while pleasure is created in other’s company and expression of affection [27–30]. When it transfers to brand contexts, it means customers can develop emotional connections to brands and attachments are associated with stronger feelings of affection, love, connection and passion [27, 28]. This emotional attachment motivates consumers to an emotional bond with the brand and brings benefits because it will influence consumers’ motivation, judgement, and purchase decision [31–33]. When the affective bond is powerful, ultimate loyalty will be evolved that consumers have a deep desire to preserve connection with the brand and repurchase at all costs [32, 34]. They are willing to pay higher prices and overlook the brands’ mistakes [35, 36]. Therefore, the profit and revenue from emotionally bonded are hard to disrupt [34]. In addition, consumers are more loyal to the attached brands compared to those who are less emotionally attached [35–39].

5 Homophily and Emotion Homophily means the degree to which people who interact are similar in beliefs, education, social status and the like [40]. These similarities could also be match in demographic characteristics and psychographic traits [41]. The similarity can intensify affective bonds to facilitate interpersonal relationships, strengthen interaction and connection [42, 43]. Therefore, the more two people alike, the more emotional attachment, efficient interact and communication are created [44, 45]. In brand contexts, homophily can increase communication effectiveness [44]. Hanks et al. [46] report that the similarity to other customers in services-cape can impact selfimage and self-brand congruence. In addition, Al-Natour et al. [47] find that similarity influences online customers’ perceptions of a shopping assistant’s usage, trustworthiness, usefulness, level of enjoyment, social presence and reuse intentions.

426

K. T. C. Kwok and A. G. Ho

6 Relationship Between Mascot Endorsements and Emotional Attachment Personification is applied in the mascot design that assigns human characteristics. For example, human-like appearance (hand and foot, facial features) and mental capacities (intentionality, emotion, cognition). Therefore, the mascot is similar to and homophily with human beings. Consumers create an emotional attachment to the mascot and they are attracted by the mascots. It finally brings benefits to brand and campaign, for example, brand loyalty, awareness, trust, association and preference to purchase products.

7 A Pilot Study for Exploring Criteria of Attractive Mascots in Visual This study aimed to examine why the mascot endorsement creates an attraction to the audiences and how the mascot could enhance the audiences’ predilections in visual. The former question is found that the anthropomorphic design of mascots can provoke audiences’ emotion attachment to make them attractive. To investigate another question, the analysis of three mascots from Hong Kong government departments is held. They are Big Waster, Ah Tak and Lazy Lion (Fig. 1). Before the analysis, a pilot study is proceeded and collect both quantitative and qualitative data for the insight of audiences’ preference for mascots.

Fig. 1. The design of three mascots from Hong Kong government departments. They are Big Waster, Ah Tak and Lazy Lion from left to right respectively. Download from the official social media of Hong Kong government departments.

7.1 Research Methods In order to get the insight, four selected mascots from two abroad instant communications app brands are chosen for the pilot study. These mascots are Brown, Cony from Line and Ryan, Apeach from KaKaoTalk (Fig. 2). Thirty local participants are invited to answer a questionnaire about their preference for four mascots. The reasons for preference are also asked in the questionnaire.

Mascot Endorsement Provoke the Audiences’ Engagement

427

Fig. 2. The design of four selected mascots. They are Brown, Cony, Ryan and Apeach from left to right respectively. Download from the official website of Line Friends and Kakao Friends.

Two phases of comparisons has proceeded. Base on the similarity, the mascots of Brown and Ryan form a group while Cony and Apeach form another group. In the first phase of comparisons, these two groups are compared by participants. In the second phase of comparisons, participants compare the two mascots, which they think is more attractive in the first phase. The objective of the questionnaire is to find out the recognised types or criteria of an attractive mascot in visual from consumers’ perspectives. There are questions in the questionnaire: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Which group of mascots (Brown, Ryan or Cony, Apeach) is more attractive? Why this group of mascots is more attractive? Which mascot (Brown or Ryan) you like more? Why do you like this mascot more? Which mascot (Cony or Apeach) you like more? Why do you like this mascot more?

7.2 Research Results and Discussion The participants compare and provide comments to questionnaires. The data are collected for further thematic analysis. Their responses reflect audiences’ predilection to mascot design. In the first phase of the questionnaire, a great majority of participants deems that the mascot group of Brown and Ryan is more attractive in design (Fig. 3). After analysis the comments from participants, the main reason for this discrepancy of preference is provided. These two mascots are more attractive among participants is that they look more wooden and foolish. General mascots have copious facial expression to look lively, like Cony and Apeach. However, Brown and Ryan are contrary and so they seem adorkable. Moreover, participants deem they look like bears and so it creates a fat and downy image for them, which is a positive feeling. Brown and Ryan are recognised as attractive mascot’s type in the first phase. Thus, it is confirmed that mascots that look adorkable and foolish are more appealing among audiences. In the second phase of the questionnaire, participants compare the two mascots, which they think is more attractive in the first phase, to find out the criteria of an attractive mascot deeply. Since Brown and Ryan are recognised as attractive mascot’s type in the first phase, the data of their comparison are analysed.

428

K. T. C. Kwok and A. G. Ho

Fig. 3. The percentage of participants’ preference to two groups of mascots (Brown, Ryan and Cony, Apeach).

Yet, there is no explicit result when comparing their predilection to Brown and Ryan mascot design. The percentage of the supporters are half-half (Fig. 4). It means that there are no obvious criteria proved by comparing. Therefore, the comments on both Brown and Ryan also can be the characteristics of adorkable and attractive mascot design. After summarising participants’ feedback in questionnaires, there are four aspects of characteristics to design a mascot to be more adorkable: “simple and rough facial features”, “thick and fat bodies”, “less facial expressions”, “round-shaped face”.

Fig. 4. The percentage of participants’ preference to two mascots (Brown and Ryan)

Mascot Endorsement Provoke the Audiences’ Engagement

429

8 Conclusion The objective of this study is to examine the reason mascot endorsement creates an attraction to the audiences and the types and criteria of an attractive mascot in visual. The literature reflects that the anthropomorphic design of mascots is the reason to provoke audiences’ emotion attachment and make them attractive. Moreover, the insight of an appealing mascot’s type is reflected in the questionnaire of the pilot study. Mascots with adorkable and wooden appearance are more popular. More investigations on approaches for devising a good mascot that is attractive are needed.

References 1. Garretson, J., Niedrich, R.: Spokes-characters: creating character trust and positive brand attitudes. J. Advert. 33, 25–36 (2004) 2. Garretson, J., Burton, S.: The role of spokescharacters as advertisement and package cues in integrated marketing communications. J. Mark. 69, 118–132 (2005) 3. Brown, S.: Where the wild brands are: some thoughts on anthropomorphic marketing. Mark. Rev. 10, 209–224 (2010) 4. Phillips, B.J.: Advertising and the cultural meaning of animals. Adv. Consum. Res. 23, 354– 360 (1996) 5. Phillips, B.J.: Defining trade characters and their role in American popular culture. J Pop. Cult. 29, 143–158 (1996) 6. Phillips, B., Lee, W.: Interactive animation: exploring spokes-characters on the internet. J. Curr. Issues Res. Advert. 27, 1–17 (2005) 7. Callcott, M., Lee, W.: A content analysis of animation and animated spokes-characters in television commercials. J. Advert. 23, 1–12 (1994) 8. Malik, G., Guptha, A.: Impact of celebrity endorsements and brand mascots on consumer buying behavior. J. Glob. Mark. 27, 128–143 (2014) 9. Pairoa, I., Arunrangsiwed, P.: The effect of brand mascots on consumers’ purchasing behaviors. World Acad. Sci. Eng. Technol. Int. J. Soc. Behav. Educ. Econ. Bus. Ind. Eng. 10(5), 1612–1615 (2016) 10. Ito, S., Yamashita, T.: Applying rough set to analyze psychological effect of mascot character design. Int. J. Affect. Eng. 13, 159–165 (2014) 11. Waytz, A., Cacioppo, J., Epley, N.: Who sees human? Perspect. Psychol. Sci. 5, 219–232 (2010) 12. Patterson, A., Khogeer, Y., Hodgson, J.: How to create an influential anthropomorphic mascot: literary musings on marketing, make-believe, and meerkats. J. Mark. Manag. 29, 69–85 (2013) 13. Sonawane, Y.R.: Emotional branding by mascot: role of mascot branding an Indian case study (2019) 14. Weszka, P.: FIFA World Cup brand elements and local inspirations. Sports Mark. Q. 20(3), 174–184 (2011) 15. Mohanty, S.S.: Growing importance of mascot & their impact on brand awareness – a study of young adults in Bhubaneswar City. IJCEM Int. J. Comput. Eng. Manag. 17(6), 42–44 (2014) 16. Chang, E.: Influences of the spokes-character on brand equity antecedents. Asia Pac. J. Mark. Logist. 26, 494–515 (2014) 17. Lin, R., Lin, P., Ko, K.: A study of cognitive human factors in mascot design. Int. J. Ind. Ergon. 23, 107–122 (1999)

430

K. T. C. Kwok and A. G. Ho

18. Hoolwerff, D.V.: Does your mascot match your brand’s personality? An empirical study on how visual characteristics of a brand mascot can function as a tool for transmitting an archetypical brand personality. Master thesis, Communication Science, University of Twente (2014) 19. Jacobson, L.: Children and Consumer Culture in American Society. Praeger, Westport (2008) (gotochikyara) and (yurukyara) – the fusion of pop culture in place 20. Tan, C.: branding in Japan. Int. J. Bus. Tour. Appl. Sci. 6(1), 73–89 (2014) 21. Kraak, V., Story, M.: An accountability evaluation for the industry’s responsible use of brand mascots and licensed media characters to market a healthy diet to American children. Obes. Rev. 16, 433–453 (2015) 22. Epley, N., Waytz, A., Cacioppo, J.: On seeing human: a three-factor theory of anthropomorphism. Psychol. Rev. 114, 864–886 (2007) 23. Mitchell, R., Thompson, N., Miles, H.: Anthropomorphism, Anecdotes, and Animals. State University of New York Press, Albany (1997) 24. Cohen, R.: Brand personification: introduction and overview. Psychol. Mark. 31, 1–30 (2013) 25. Delbaere, M., McQuarrie, E., Phillips, B.: Personification in advertising. J. Advert. 40, 121– 130 (2011) 26. Aggarwal, P., McGill, A.: Is that car smiling at me? Schema congruity as a basis for evaluating anthropomorphized products. J. Consum. Res. 34, 468–479 (2007) 27. Dwivedi, A., Johnson, L., Wilkie, D., De Araujo-Gil, L.: Consumer emotional brand attachment with social media brands and social media brand equity. Eur. J. Mark. 53, 1176–1204 (2019) 28. Thomson, M.: Human brands: investigating antecedents to consumers’ strong attachments to celebrities. J. Mark. 70, 104–119 (2006) 29. Ainsworth, M., Bell, S.: Attachment, exploration, and separation: illustrated by the behavior of one-year-olds in a strange situation. Child Dev. 41, 49 (1970) 30. Bowlby, J.: Attachment and loss (1982) 31. Kotler, P., Keller, K., Dubois, B., Manceau, D., Kotler, P., Kotler, P.: Marketing Management. Pearson Education , Paris (2009) 32. Bagozzi, R., Gopinath, M., Nyer, P.: The role of emotions in marketing. J. Acad. Mark. Sci. 27, 184–206 (1999) 33. Berry, L.: Cultivating service brand equity. J. Acad. Mark. Sci. 28, 128–137 (2000). https:// doi.org/10.1177/0092070300281012 34. Oliver, R.: Whence consumer loyalty? J. Mark. 63, 33–34 (1999) 35. Batra, R., Ahuvia, A., Bagozzi, R.P.: Brand love. J. Mark. 76(2), 1–16 (2012) 36. Thomson, M., MacInnis, D., Whan Park, C.: The ties that bind: measuring the strength of consumers’ emotional attachments to brands. J. Consum. Psychol. 15, 77–91 (2005) 37. Carroll, B.A., Ahuvia, A.C.: Some antecedents and outcomes of brand love. Mark. Lett. 17(2), 79–89 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-006-4219-2 38. Fournier, S.: Consumers and their brands: developing relationship theory in consumer research. J. Consum. Res. 24, 343–353 (1998) 39. Vlachos, P., Theotokis, A., Pramatari, K., Vrechopoulos, A.: Consumer-retailer emotional attachment. Eur. J. Mark. 44, 1478–1499 (2010) 40. Eyal, K., Rubin, A.: Viewer aggression and homophily, identification, and parasocial relationships with television characters. J. Broadcast. Electron. Media 47, 77–98 (2003) 41. Shen, Y., Huang, C., Chu, C., Liao, H.: Virtual community loyalty: an interpersonal-interaction perspective. Int. J. Electron. Commer. 15, 49–74 (2010) 42. Smith, D., Menon, S., Sivakumar, K.: Online peer and editorial recommendations, trust, and choice in virtual markets. J. Interact. Mark. 19, 15–37 (2005) 43. Zhang, K., Barnes, S., Zhao, S., Zhang, H.: Can consumers be persuaded on brand microblogs? An empirical study. Inf. Manag. 55, 1–15 (2018)

Mascot Endorsement Provoke the Audiences’ Engagement

431

44. McCroskey, J., Richmond, V., Daly, J.: The development of a measure of perceived homophily in interpersonal communication. Hum. Commun. Res. 1, 323–332 (1975) 45. Lee, J., Watkins, B.: YouTube vloggers’ influence on consumer luxury brand perceptions and intentions. J. Bus. Res. 69, 5753–5760 (2016) 46. Hanks, L., Line, N., Yang, W.: Status seeking and perceived similarity: a consideration of homophily in the social servicescape. Int. J. Hosp. Manag. 60, 123–132 (2017) 47. Al-Natour, S., Benbasat, I., Cenfetelli, R.: The adoption of online shopping assistants: perceived similarity as an antecedent to evaluative beliefs. J. Assoc. Inf. Syst. 12, 347–374 (2011)

Understanding Fashion Brand Awareness Using Eye-Tracking: The Mix-and-Match Approach Pilar Contero-López1 , Carmen Torrecilla-Moreno1 , Carmen Escribá-Pérez2 , and Manuel Contero1(B) 1 I3B, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain

{maconlo2,carespe,mcontero}@upv.es 2 Dto. de Economía y C. Sociales, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain

[email protected]

Abstract. The aim of this work is to examine the effect about the combination of fashion luxury brands and fast fashion brands, the stylistic elements that allow the subject to recognize the luxury fashion brand and the impact of logos of the luxury fashion brands in the identification process. The work is based on an experimental study that will use the Gazepoint GP3 eye-tracking system and the OGAMA analysis software. The experimental study evaluates the response of a sample of subjects to a set of visual stimuli related to the “mix-and-match” concept. Research has revealed that the “mix-and-match” effect carries a reduction in the recognition capacity of luxury fashion brands (in absence of logos) when combined with fast fashion brands. The study has also determined that the accessories of the luxury fashion brands are the stylistic elements that facilitate the recognition (except for Chanel) in the most effective way. Keywords: Brand awareness · Eye-tracking · Mix-and-Match fashion trend

1 Introduction The concept of “luxury” has evolved [1] because of social, cultural and technological trends that influence consumer behaviour. Globalization has managed to overcome the cultural barriers of each country through the internalization of luxury brands. In this way, the perception of luxury is established as something exclusive, of high quality and high price [2]. The incorporation of new consumers in the luxury industry has led to the origin of new classes of users that were not previously considered by the brands themselves [3], such as the so-called HENRYs (High-Earners-Not-Rich-Yet) and the younger segments of the population characterized by their close connection with technology and social networks in their day-to-day lives: Millennials and Generation Z. The digital age has given rise to a new way of relating luxury to regular and future customers. Access to new technologies has allowed an increase in the visibility of luxury brands and a greater interaction of these with users, mainly through the online sales channel and social networks. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 432–440, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_51

Understanding Fashion Brand Awareness Using Eye-Tracking

433

Currently, the luxury consumer no longer only seeks to buy a luxury product but goes further with the search for experiences and emotions that luxury brands can offer [4]. For this reason, one of the greatest challenges in the luxury sector is to meet and satisfy customer expectations through the implementation of the omnichannel strategy. Considering the above trends, fast fashion emerges because of the impact of globalization and new technologies in the fashion industry. The objective of fast fashion companies to increase their flexibility and ability to adapt to market changes has been based on reducing the times of product supply chains [5] and on the promotion of ecommerce. For this reason, fast fashion is characterized by offering consumers the latest trends at affordable prices and in the shortest possible time. The “mix-and-match” consumption trend [6] consists of the combination of products from fast fashion brands and luxury fashion brands. This trend arises from the interest of consumers in the search for different products, the desire to save on fashion purchases and the own creation of a unique style. Consumers who make use of this new concept by searching for different products highlight those with a high purchasing power level and are attracted by the speed that fast fashion brands have in designing, producing, and marketing new products in the latest trend. Consumers who have the economic limitation of being able to purchase luxury accessories and combine them with other luxury products are also part of this concept [7]. The own creation of a unique style is related to the potential offered by this consumption trend. Thus, the opportunity to mix and match products from different brands positioned in the market allows the individual to choose between multiple styles and options to define himself in a personalized way [1]. The implementation of the “mix-and-match” concept has also been possible thanks to the versatility of fast fashion brands in offering trendy products at affordable prices. These brands have known how to establish their stores in the most strategic commercial places in the world’s cities, often standing alongside luxury fashion stores. Also contributing to this trend are the so-called “luxury excursionists” [8], those consumers who do not have a very high level of purchasing power, but who occasionally and sporadically access to luxury fashion brands.

2 Research Aims, Hypotheses and Objectives The purpose of this work is to examine the effect about the combination of fashion luxury brands and fast fashion brands, the stylistic elements that allow the subject to recognize the luxury fashion brand and the impact of logos of the luxury fashion brands in the identification process. The hypotheses assumed by the experimental study are partially based on the research carried out by Amatulli et al. [6]. Specifically, the first and second hypotheses are based on said research. H1. Consumers more easily recognize a luxury fashion brand when it is combined with a fast fashion brand. In this hypothesis, it is intended to see the effect of the application of the “mix-andmatch” trend through the recognition of the luxury brand (in the absence of logos) when paired with a fast fashion brand.

434

P. Contero-López et al.

H2. Consumers recognize a luxury fashion brand more easily through accessories than through other stylistic elements. This second hypothesis seeks to know what stylistic elements are decisive to identify a luxury fashion brand. H3. Consumers more easily recognize the products of luxury fashion brands when they appear with their corresponding logos. In this case, the hypothesis seeks to test the effect on the subject of the identification of the luxury brand through the logo.

3 Method 3.1 Sample Selection The research was carried out in Spain and developed in two stages. In the first stage, a screening survey was elaborated to extract the sample of the main study and in the second stage, eye-tracking technology was used to know the behaviour of the selected individuals when faced with the recognition of luxury fashion brands and the “mix-andmatch” trend. The survey was elaborated based on the questionnaire used by O’Cass [9] and Amatulli et al. [6] and administered to 125 individuals. In the first part of the questionnaire, 12 items were presented to measure the respondents’ level of involvement with fashion and their responses were recorded using a five-point Likert scale. The second part of the questionnaire aimed to assess the ability of the respondents to recognize luxury fashion brands through 10 multiple-choice questions that included images of luxury fashion outfits. The answer options were three: the correct luxury brand, a fast fashion brand that has a certain similarity in style to the luxury brand selected as correct, and a third luxury brand that differs from the first. The images were taken in their entirety from international fashion magazines, and all of them have been characterized by showing a luxury accessory, in this case, a bag. To select the sample of the main study, a group of individuals with homogeneous characteristics who had a high involvement in fashion and a high capacity for recognition of luxury fashion brands was chosen, specifically, those who had recognized at least 8 of the 10 images proposed in the second part of the questionnaire. As a result of applying these selection criteria, the main study sample consisted of 40 participants with ages between 18 and 65 years. 3.2 Main Study The main study aimed to verify the three hypotheses presented above, using eye-tracking technology, and completing a questionnaire. The program used to record and analyze the eye-tracking has been the OGAMA software [10] running with the Gazepoint GP3 eye tracker. The fixation calculation used by OGAMA is based on a dispersion-type algorithm that searches for sequences of points where the subject’s gaze is fixed that remain relatively close. Specifically, the values of the fixation parameters used in OGAMA have been the maximum distance in pixels that a point may vary from the average fixation point and still be considered part of the fixation and the minimum number of samples that can be considered a fixation, of 20 and 5 gazes, respectively.

Understanding Fashion Brand Awareness Using Eye-Tracking

435

The main study has been divided into three sections of 4 stimuli each. Each stimulus has been shown for a time of 8 s [6] and subsequently the participants have answered some control questions about their choices. In the first and second sections (both in the absence of logos) have been tested the participants’ ability to recognize luxury fashion brands through stylistic elements and the application of the “mix-and-match” trend. However, in the third section, has been tested the participants’ ability to recognize luxury fashion brands through the presence of their logos. Section 1. Each stimulus has been presented through three total look images from the same luxury fashion brand and the participant has been asked about the brand to which they belong and at least three stylistic elements that have been decisive for recognizing the proposed luxury fashion brand. It should be noted that the stylistic elements have been distinguished in accessories (e.g., bags, shoes, belts, scarves or iconic accessories of the selected firms) and non-accessories (e.g., fabric, design or style or print). Section 2. Each stimulus has been shown by two images of similar looks where one of them has belonged to the same luxury fashion brand selected for section 1, and the other to a fast fashion brand. In this case, the participant was asked which of the two looks presented was luxury-branded, the identification of the luxury fashion brand, and the stylistic element that was decisive in recognizing the proposed luxury fashion brand. Section 3. Each stimulus has been exposed through two total look images from the same luxury fashion brand (previously presented in sections 1 and 2) with the presence of its corresponding logo. The participant has been asked the luxury fashion brand to which the looks belong. The images of the stimuli have been chosen from the Internet and international fashion magazines. All the selected stimuli have presented a bag as a common accessory and have been part of the 2018, 2019 and 2020 collections. The fashion brands selected in the main study were those that belonged to the main luxury goods [3] and fast fashion companies based on their latest annual sales [11].

4 Results 4.1 Hypothesis 1 In the first section, the luxury fashion brands most recognized by the participants were Chanel with 77.5% brand recognition, followed by Christian Dior with 55%, Gucci with 45%, and Louis Vuitton with 40%. However, the second section experienced a decline in the recognition of these luxury fashion brands when they were paired with fast fashion brands. Specifically, the brand recognition of Chanel and Louis Vuitton decreased slightly by 1.2% and 1.3%, respectively, and the brand recognition of Gucci and Christian Dior decreased remarkably by 16.1% and 18.2%, respectively. To compare both sections, a Wilcoxon difference range sum test for paired samples was run, with significant differences between section 1 (Mdn = 0.5) and section 2 (Mdn = 0.25) z = −2.24, p = 0.025 and r = −0.25. As a result, hypothesis 1 was rejected. Even though luxury fashion brands are less easily recognized when paired with fast fashion

436

P. Contero-López et al.

brands, a high participant’s ability to identify the luxury fashion look was observed when it was combined with a fast fashion look. This finding and the percentages of luxury fashion brands recognition for both sections are shown in Fig. 1. √ The effect size r was calculated as r = z/ N , where N is the total number of observations. A significance level of 5%, has been used throughout the paper.

Fig. 1. Luxury fashion brands recognition in sections 1 and 2 and identification of the luxury fashion looks in section 2.

4.2 Hypothesis 2 In the first section, the luxury fashion brands identified by the participants correctly through accessories were Gucci and Christian Dior for 53.7% and 53% respectively, and through non-accessories were Chanel and Louis Vuitton for 69.9% and 62.5% respectively. However, in the second section, the luxury fashion brands identified by the participants correctly through accessories were Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Christian Dior for 83.3%, 100%, and 85.7% respectively, and through non-accessories, it was Chanel for 58.6%. Figure 2 shows these stylistic elements, but in this case, through the corresponding relative fixations of the subjects who correctly identified the looks of the luxury fashion brands presented in both sections.

Fig. 2. Relative fixations of the participants in sections 1 and 2.

The previous data revealed a differentiated behaviour in the recognition of the Chanel brand through non-accessories for both sections. Consequently, this brand was analysed individually and the other luxury fashion brands together. These analyses were carried

Understanding Fashion Brand Awareness Using Eye-Tracking

437

out based on the responses to the study questionnaire by the subjects who correctly identified these luxury fashion brands and their relative fixations, obtained for each area of interest (AOI) defined in the presented stimuli. Chanel. To compare the stylistic elements of section 1, a Wilcoxon sum of ranges of differences test for paired samples was conducted, with significant differences between non-accessories (Mdn = 2) and accessories (Mdn = 1), z = 3.89, p < 0.001 and r = 0.49. Again, for section 2 a Wilcoxon difference range sum test was applied for paired samples, however, it was determined that there were no significant differences between non-accessories (Mdn = 1) and accessories (Mdn = 0), z = 0.93, p = 0.35 and r = 0.12. Because of the discrepancies in the previous analyses, the corresponding relative fixations of the subjects for both sections were examined to determine the stylistic elements that facilitate the identification of the Chanel brand. For this reason, a Wilcoxon sum of difference ranges test for paired samples was used to compare these relative fixations, with significant differences between non-accessories (Mdn = 0.67) and accessories (Mdn = 0.31), z = 2.76, p = 0.006 and r = 0.25. As a result of this finding, hypothesis 2 was individually rejected, thus determining that the Chanel brand is more easily recognized through non-accessories than through other stylistic elements. Figure 3 shows the stylistic elements defined in the stimuli presented for the Chanel brand with their corresponding total number of fixations.

Fig. 3. AOIs of the stylistic elements and totality of fixations of those subjects who identified the Chanel brand in sections 1 and 2.

Remaining Luxury Fashion Brands. To compare the stylistic elements of section 1, a Wilcoxon sum of ranges of differences test for paired samples was run, with no significant differences between non-accessories (Mdn = 2) and accessories (Mdn = 1), z = 0.54, p = 0.59 and r = 0.05. Again, for section 2 a Wilcoxon difference range sum test was applied for paired samples, however, it was determined that there were significant differences between accessories (Mdn = 1) and non-accessories (Mdn = 0), z = −4.77, p < 0.001 and r = −0.55. Because of the discrepancies of the previous analyzes, the corresponding relative fixations of the subjects for both sections were examined to determine the stylistic

438

P. Contero-López et al.

elements that facilitate the identification of the luxury fashion brands presented. For this reason, a Wilcoxon sum of ranges of differences test for paired samples was used to compare these relative fixations, with significant differences between accessories (Mdn = 0.67) and non-accessories (Mdn = 0.25), z = −2.59, p = 0.01 and r = −0.19. As a result of this finding, hypothesis 2 was accepted, thus determining that luxury fashion brands (with the exception of Chanel) are more easily recognized through accessories than through other stylistic elements.

4.3 Hypothesis 3 The presence of logos in the third section represented the full recognition of luxury fashion brands. To compare section 1 (luxury fashion without logos) and 3 (luxury fashion with logos), a non-parametric test was used such as the Wilcoxon sum of difference ranges test for paired samples, with significant differences between section 3 (Mdn = 1) and section 1 (Mdn = 0.5), z = −5.15, p < 0.001 and r = −0.57. As a result, hypothesis 3 was accepted. This finding can be seen illustrated in Fig. 4 through the representation of the fixations of the 40 participants in two aggregated heat maps of two stimuli.

Fig. 4. Aggregate heat maps of two stimuli from section 3.

4.4 Discussion and Conclusions One of the factors that may have influenced the discrepancy of our results (of the first and second hypotheses) with Amatulli’s et al. [6] has been the selection of different luxury fashion brands in each study (except the Gucci brand). The brands chosen by Amatulli et al. [6] were all-Italian luxury fashion brands, and the study was carried out in Italy. Probably the brands were better recognized by participants due to this fact. The main study has revealed that the “mix and match” trend reduces the consumers’ ability to recognize luxury fashion brands (in the absence of logos) when paired with fast fashion brands. However, this trend represents a competitive advantage for luxury fashion due to the differentiation strategies promoted and which have been verified through the excellent ability that consumers have to identify luxury fashion versus fast fashion. Also,

Understanding Fashion Brand Awareness Using Eye-Tracking

439

the study carried out has determined that the accessories of luxury fashion brands are the stylistic elements that most facilitate their recognition (except for Chanel) and logos allow their full identification. Consequently, it is suggested according to Amatulli et al. [6] the incorporation of ads from luxury fashion brands (in presence of their logos at their promoted products) in magazines where fast fashion brands have an advertising presence. The high capacity of luxury fashion identification and the incorporation of logos will guarantee the full recognition of luxury fashion brands by “luxury excursionists” [8], and by non-target customers whose recognition will increase the social value of such brands. Given the findings revealed and taking as reference the segmentation of consumers carried out by Kapferer and Bastien [2] about the social functions that luxury brands satisfy through the choice of brands for their own value as part of the consumer lifestyle (the individual appreciates the authentic and genuine characteristics of the product itself) and by choosing brands for their extrinsic value (the individual values the accessory component of luxury products, thus giving importance to logos), luxury fashion brands are encouraged to direct their communication to established segments and their nontarget customers. Concerning the Chanel brand, the ability to recognize it through non-accessories stands out. This is due to the continuous reinterpretation of the Maison linked to its origins through the most unique stylistic elements such as design, style, and fabric. Given Chanel’s leadership in this field, it is proposed to the remaining luxury fashion brands to intensify their emblems on their products through innovation based on tradition. In this way, target customers who value brands for their own value as part of their lifestyle will be able to acquire the most authentic stylistic codes and, in parallel, their greater visibility can be the differentiating germ of the identification of luxury fashion brands beyond the presence of their corresponding logos by future generations of consumers.

References 1. Okonkwo, U.: Luxury Fashion Branding. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke (2007) 2. Kapferer, J.N., Bastien, V.: The Luxury Strategy: Break the Rules of Marketing to Build Luxury Brands. Kogan Page, London (2012) 3. Deloitte: Global Powers of Luxury Goods (2019). https://www2.deloitte.com/content/ dam/Deloitte/ar/Documents/Consumer_and_Industrial_Products/Global-Powers-of-Lux ury-Goods-abril-2019.pdf 4. McKinsey: The age of digital Darwinism. https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/ind ustries/retail/ourinsights/luxuryintheageofdigitaldarwinism/the-age-of-digital-darwinism. ashx 5. Bhardwaj, V., Fairhurst, A.: Fast fashion: response to changes in the fashion industry. Int. Rev. Retail. Distrib. Consum. Res. 20, 165–173 (2010) 6. Amatulli, C., Guido, G., Mileti, A., Tomacelli, C., Irene Prete, M., Longo, A.E.: “Mix-andmatch” fashion trend and luxury brand recognition: an empirical test using eye-tracking. Fash. Theory J. Dress Body Cult. 20, 341–362 (2016) 7. Amatulli, C., Mileti, A., Speciale, V., Guido, G.: Global marketing strategies for the promotion of luxury goods. In: Mosca, F., Gallo, R. (eds.) Advertising and Branding: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications, pp. 244–265. IGI Global, Hershey (2016)

440

P. Contero-López et al.

8. Dubois, B., Laurent, G.: The functions of luxury: a situational approach to excursionism. Adv. Consum. Res. 23, 470–477 (1996) 9. O’Cass, A.: An assessment of consumers product, purchase decision, advertising and consumption involvement in fashion clothing. J. Econ. Psychol. 21, 545–576 (2000) 10. Voßkühler, A., Nordmeier, V., Kuchinke, L., Jacobs, A.M.: OGAMA (Open Gaze and Mouse Analyzer): open-source software designed to analyze eye and mouse movements in slideshow study designs. Behav. Res. Methods 40, 1150–1162 (2008) 11. Fast: Industry ranking: major global apparel manufacturer and retailer. https://www.fastretai ling.com/eng/ir/direction/position.html

Brand Marks Analysis. Criteria and Evaluation Components to an Analysis Tool Daniel Raposo1,2(B) , Fernando Moreira da Silva1 , João Neves1,2 , José Silva1,2 , Rogério Ribeiro2 , and Ricardo Correia2 1 CIAUD, Lisbon School of Architecture, Portugal and RETHINK, Research Group on Design

for the Territory, Universidade de Lisboa, Rua Sá Nogueira, 1349-063 Lisbon, Portugal 2 Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco, Av. Pedro Álvares Cabral, nº 12, 6000-084 Castelo Branco, Portugal {draposo,joaoneves,jose.silva,r.correia}@ipcb.pt

Abstract. Brand Mark is one of the most relevant visual identity elements for the differentiation and identification of a brand and often the most used sign in various media. Although the effectiveness of some contemporary brand visual identity systems does not depend heavily on an easily recognizable symbol and/or logotype, Brand marks still play a very relevant role in most cases, especially in small systems. Previous studies were dedicated to the definition of selection and design criteria, as well as to the identification of connotations and Brand marks typologies in specific markets. However, the need for a tool for analysis and evaluation of Brand Marks persists, detecting graphic sectorial codes and the characteristics that determine symbolic and graphic effectiveness, power of fascination and comprehension. This work takes Visual Identity as research field of study and Brand marks as the research topic. The investigative process deals with the Semantic and Syntactic analysis of its infrasign of Brand Marks, in its relationship with the brand image. Based on literature review and framework of other studies or previous proposals, our main results are the definition of design principles and the identification of components that integrate the Brand Competitors Map for analysis of visual identity systems and of Brand Marks in particular. Keywords: Brand mark · Brand competitors map · Brand marks evaluation criteria · Brand marks evaluation components Criteria · Brand marks analysis tool · Brand visual identity

1 Introduction The brand visual identity is not only about the Brand mark and is far from depending only on it. By making this statement we are not contradicting our abstract, nor do we intend to dismiss the importance of Brand marks for the success of brand communication,

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 441–451, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_52

442

D. Raposo et al.

we simply want to oppose exaggerated ideas that circulate in the design professional environment, overvaluing the brand marks [1]. The Brand marks do not communicate, they mean [2], so their analysis must be observed in terms of compatibility and correlation in a given context, at the level of the assigned meaning, in terms of flexibility of use, in terms of differentiating value and by the expressive power and shape connotations. Moreover, the analysis or the Brand mark evaluation should not be done based on the Brand mark on a blank sheet of paper, since they need a use context to give them meaning, as they are elements of the brand visual identity system and together, they constitute a set with typography, colour, imagery, the 5th element, other graphics, formats, textures and language (which works as a system code) [1]. The notion of an identity is created by the conjugated expression and style, by the way visual identity elements are articulated to shape a brand language, with a rhetorical brand tone or discourse used in brand storytelling [1, 3, 4]. The redesign of contemporary brands such as Burberry, Yves Saint Laurent, Citroën and Volkswagen, among many others, show how a Brand mark can have a more aseptic expression and shape or lose the logotype or symbol, without compromising the success of the brand communication, as long as the visual brand identity system is adequate, coherent and consistent. On the other hand, brands like OCAD University, NYC, Oi or Visit Nordkyn and Citte, show how Brand Marks can be a complex identity system on their own, which serves as the basis of the brand language and visual identity system. The visual identity system plays an important role in the creation of brand awareness and positive reputation, if articulated with other dimensions of business management through the Branding process. This function of visual identity includes the need to identify, relate, differentiate, express, inform and persuade and it is in these dimensions that Brand mark plays a relevant role in the unification and association between artifacts, whether products or media [3, 4]. The brand’s visual identity works as a cultural interface that mediates between an idea associated with a business or entity and a set of publics and stakeholders. And in a more globalized and more digital world, brands operate in national and international markets, adjusting to different cultures, languages and consumption behaviours, as well as to a growing number of types and formats of communication media, which require flexibility in brand visual identity, sometimes customization [1]. Positioning, repositioning and managing a brand requires monitoring visual identity in each market and in the light of its constraints, namely the comparison to competitors and brand perception by the audiences (brand image) [5, 6]. Brand auditing is the process of collecting data to assess the effectiveness and contribution of all business components (including visual identity) to the brand image, making a diagnosis (deviation curve between the intended brand image and the real one). One of the components of brand auditing is the Visual Identity audit, where this article fits in [7, 8]. On the other hand, in case there is no condition or need to develop a brand audit, the visual identity audit and the study of competitors continue to integrate the basic steps of methods of brand visual identity design such as integrating research as common practice among design professionals and students [9, 10].

Brand Marks Analysis

443

This article is part of a study that aims to develop processes of detection and analysis of Brand Competitors Map, graphic trends and sectorial graphic codes, from which more informed decisions can be made in the selection and design of Brand marks [11]. Based on the literature review, the main objective of this article is the definition of parameters, criteria and analysis components of Brand marks based on the following questions: Which are the criteria of analysis of the quality and adequacy of a Brand mark? Which typologies and components of a Brand mark should be considered and analysed in order to assess its quality and suitability?

2 Framework of the Study A Brand is an intangible or mental network made up from a set of concepts, ideas, symbols, values and feelings. In different moments, we can understand the brand as the concept object to be represented through visual identity or in terms of brand image, what people mentally perceive when they look at the visual identity (the interpretant). While the first dimension is related to the visualization of concepts (making graphically visible) and meanings, the second is related to perception and understanding conditioned by the culture of the viewer (Pragmatics) [12, 13] (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Brand sign typologies: Audible signs and Brand marks. Source: Adapted from Costa [14]

In this context, as Brand marks are graphic signs which stand for a brand (Sign in itself or Representamen) and they all depend and function by social convention (an agreement and correlation in the attribution of meaning that allows one to pass over what is drawn) and which represents an absent object (the brand) made mentally present by association and memory (brand image) [13]. This semiotic operation of the Brand mark is complex, insofar as the meaning attributed (Semantics) to the sign or Representamen vary with the Syntactic (the way

444

D. Raposo et al.

and style in which the sign is designed) and its understanding will always depend on the interpretation of the receiver according to his culture (Pragmatics) [12]. Frequently the referent or object in the real world, used in the sign, does not have a direct correspondence to the products, services or visible characteristics of the brand, but represents an idea associable to characteristics of the brand concept. An example of this are the symbols of brands like Apple, Puma and Shell (although in these cases the name is also represented), but also Peugeot, Dodge, Audi and Nike (whether more iconic, more schematic or abstract. Moreover, the same referent can be used by different brands gaining a different attributed meaning, as exemplified by the eagle of the USA and Germany, or adapt to different cultures or languages, as has happened with logotypes of Fagor, Coca-Cola, CNN, IBM and Carlsberg and symbols such as red cross, red crescent and red crystal. Buck [15] was a pioneer as author of a book dedicated exclusively to trademarks, making use of concepts and language that remain current. In another pioneering publication, Costa [16] established an essential correlation between logo, symbol and colour for the effectiveness of the visual identity system, pointing out quality requirements such as semantic concordance with the brand, synthesis and recognizable graphic structure, differentiation and ease of memorization and flexibility of use in different sizes and media, but also that it be designed with longevity, also depending on consistent use. Major studies have focused on the definition of categories and criteria for selecting and designing Brand Marks [17–23], in the study of graphic connotations to create value [1, 24–28] or the definition of Brand marks typologies in specific markets [29–33]. Nevertheless, in the professional context, there have been project practices based on an empirical analysis of the visual language of the brand and particularly on Brand marks [34–36, among others]. Schechter [24] notes that Brand marks with a symbol are very dependent on the symbol, while logos have a strong affiliation to the name. Haig & Harper [21] indicate that the Brand mark plays an essential role in the credibility of a business, stating that its effectiveness depends on ethos (personality and characteristics of the brand), pathos (the emotional nature of the audience) and logos (the Brand mark). In the case of logos, the Brand mark should be based on credibility and attributes appropriate to the company; symbolize the true competence or activity of the company; a design aligned with the brand promise; form articulated with the strategy; complement the logo with a symbol; be simple and evident; good articulation symbol-logo; consistent, permanent and constant use. However, according to Henderson & Cote [22] the quality factors of a Brand mark depend on the situation and the objectives, highlighting the design quality and its ability to generate recognition with positive association, namely: iconic or pictorial marks have better results in recognition and positive associations; stylistic synthesis and highlighting of a single element; contrast and familiarity of form (integration into the culture); use of natural forms (relation degree to commonly experienced objects) as an alternative to abstraction or exaggerated geometry or schematization. With regard to the study of connotations, unlike previous study, Doyle and Bottomley [26] studied the perception of Brand marks in their context (company, product or service in the industry).

Brand Marks Analysis

445

The study by Chen, Cai, Huang and Kuo [36], based on the elements and principles of composition, with a view to proposing an evaluation method for graphic design, Brand marks in particular, showed that balance and contrast are crucial facts and showed little relevant correlations between Contrast, repetition and symmetry, strong correlations between balance, symmetry and harmony or between rhythm, gradation and proportion, as well as between unity, harmony and simplicity. Georgiev, Nagai, Taura and Morita [28] studied how the characteristics of Brand marks create meaning, proposing to support the design process through a classification with three morphology levels (complementary to Mollerup taxonomy based on motifs), since they consider that previous taxonomies are based on motifs or techniques: 1st level – description of part of a shape, sub-shape and element; 2nd level – Single closed shape considering interaction and space between elements; 3rd level – relations and perception of the mark components as a united whole. Previous studies and proposals have the constraint of lack of consensus on the applicable lexicon, but also on the components and parameters of analysis (Table 1). From a semiotic perspective, the term symbol has a broad meaning that includes letters and logotypes. However, for the sake of language simplification, many designers and researchers use the term symbol to refer to the non-linguistic graphic component or letters that are usually not pronounced. On the other hand, the concept of logo refers to the graphical representation of the brand name through letters and therefore excludes other symbols. According to Costa [14] logotype and symbol are two different ways of giving visible form to a synthesis of what the brand is. As Jenkins [37] explains the logo is the visualization of the brand name through letters, while the symbol is a visual referent associated by convention. Nevertheless, over time, we have found several classifications or taxonomies of Brand marks, both as a structuring system of books and as a model for study. Classifications take into account what is represented (taking into account the actual object or the or of letters); how it is represented (technique and style); the degree of similarity to the conventionalized object [12]; approach to semiotics during the attempt to propose terminology. However, books tend to organize taxonomies, by alphabetical order, by sector of activity or by the object represented, so we consider it more appropriate to adopt the Vienna Classification. As regards the primary elements of style, these are form (including also proportion), colour (including also contrast and symbolic associations) and line (including rhythm, sensations, meaning and direction) [38]. On the semantics and rhetoric of symbols Gonzáles Solas [39] points out the need for graphic synthesis and a selection of style depending on the brand, also establishing a relationship between the classes of the taxonomy proposed by Mollerup [40] and proposing a morphological classification based on style (filter, structural synthesis in 2D/3D, norm element in lines or angles, continuous or discontinuous stroke, distortion), structural syntactic/composition (symmetry, repetition of forms, inscription) and relational syntactic/integrative (transformation/sequence, compenetration, confrontation, substitution, extern induction). The relationship between Rhetoric and Graphic Design has been established and studied by several researchers, namely Gérard Blanchard [17–19], Fernández Iñurritegui

D. Raposo et al. Table 1. Proposals for Brand marks classification or taxonomy systems. Author

Term

Category

Subcategory

Classes

Subclases

Trademar a ks Trade-mar ak

Buck (1916)

Pictur t e Figure Arbi r tr t ar a y fform Trade-nam a e Disti t nct styl t e or Lett tttering i Common styl t e or Lett tttering i Trade-phrase

Nap a oles (1951)

Slogan a Symbol m s Descript i ive symbol m s Abstr t act symbol m s Typographi a c symbol m s

Valls (190/81)

Symbol m s

rup (1997) Per Molleru

Trademar ak

Iconic Realisti tc Figurat a ive Abstr t act Linguisti tc Acronym Initi t al Iconic-lingui i stic Pictur t e Mar a ks

Figurat ative Mar arks

Lett t er Mar a ks

Noun-fi f gurat ative mar a ks Nam a e mar a ks

Abbreviat ations

Descript i ive mar a ks Metha t aphor mar a ks Found mar a ks Properr naames Descript i ive names Metha t aphoric nam a es Found Nam a es Artifi f cial nam a es Innitial abbr a eviat a ions

Acronyms Non-acronyms initi t al a abbr a eviat ations

Moriok a (2000)

Non-initi t al abbr a eviat a ions

Morioka (2006)

W eeler (2003) Wh

Chav a es y Bellu l ccia (2003)

Author

Mar a ks

d Term

k

Brand a mar ak

Non-graphi a c mar a ks Descript i ive mar a ks Symbol m ic mar a ks Typographi a c mar a ks i S b l

Category

Subcategory

Iconic Symbol m s Abstr t act symbol m s Alpha l abeti t c symbol m s Logotypes Standa a rd ttypographi a c logotype t Retouched ttypogr aphi a c logotype t Exclus l ive typogr t a c logotype aphi t Typographi a c Iconised logotype Singular a logotype The logotype t with t s tabl a e accessory

Brand a mar ak

Symbol m Pictorial Abstr t act Logotype Wordmar a ks Lett t erfor f m

Mar ak Trademar ak Signat ature Wordmar ak Monogram a Symbol m Brand a mar ak Symbol m

Costa (2006)

Realista Nat aturalista Car a icat aturesca Esquemat a izada Sígnica Geométr t ica Abstr t acta Simból m ica Heráldica Logotype Caligráfi f ca Tipogr i áfi f ca Logotipo i Anagram a a Alfa fanumérica Inicial Symbol m

Str t unck (2007)

Abstr t act Figurat ative Phonogram a s Ideogram a s Logotype Draw a n lett t ering Typographi a c logotype t Retouched ttypogr aphi a c logotype t Logo/Brand a

á dez Espinosa (2018) Fer e nán

446

Visual Signat ature Symbol m s

Logotypes

Corporat a e signat ature

Symbol m s Pictogram a s Ideogram a s Typographi a c symbol m s Abstr t act symbol m s Char a acters Image or illus l tr t at a ion symbol m s Cyneti t c symbol m s Logogram a s aand rebus e Containers Logotype t s Wordmar a ks Initials aand monogram a s

Classes

Subclases

Brand Marks Analysis

447

[27], Gamonal Arroyo [41] and Helmann and Switzer [42]. We take as reference the proposal of Helmann and Switzer [42] since, contrary to the others, it deals only with Brand marks and brand names, adjusting to this study only to characterize symbols and logotypes. According to Helmann and Switzer [42], graphic metaphors are organized into: Tropes – Figures of Circumscription (Metaphor, Metonymy, Synecdoche, Onomatopeia, Emphasis, Euphemism, Hyprbol); Schemes – Figures of addition (Alliteration, Annaphora, Polyptoton, Diaphora, Climax and anticlimax); Schemes – Figures of transposition (Parenthesis, Anastrophe); Schmes – Figures of omission (Elipsis). Vinyeta [43] says that Brand marks emerged to identify and distinguish ownership, then authorship and only later an idea. Thus, regarding the requirements of a Brand mark, considering the need to inscribe or print them on a wide variety of objects and materials, but also to ensure their quick memorization and recognition, they must: quickly and easily readable; make use of recognizable symbolism; flexibility of application in different media. Parramón [44] refers to originality, expressiveness and memorability. Buck [15] considers that the Brand mark quality criteria are the use of common and familiar forms (circles, triangles, ellipsis, squares, and others); originality and distinctiveness making it possible to register; avoid national and other proacted symbols; simplicity; working in monochrome; surface area close to the area of a square; flexibility of reproduction; possibility of downsizing; avoid shades that are too dark or too light; avoid fashions; moderate comic motifs and avoid negative associations. The importance of the basic geometrical shapes is taken up and valued by Krause [45]. And according to Thomas [46] the design criteria of a Brand mark are contrast and visibility; flexibility in applications; differentiation and registration, simplicity and universality, strength of retention/memorization, that works in monochrome, association to the key idea of the brand without describing products, durable in time, modularity and applicability in different media, preserve the graphic legacy with history. On the other hand, Morioka [47] says that a Brand mark should not explain but rather serve to identify, and should be concise, flexible in different media, easily measurable, express sensations, have longevity, be the foundation of the identity system and be strong through consistency. Chaves and Belluccia [48] have proposed Quality Indicators to assess Brand marks empirically, as they rely heavily on the designer’s judgement and on his/her professional and personal experience and culture: Generic graphic quality, Adequacy of what is represented to the context; Adequacy of style to the context; Semantic compatibility; Versatility with brand discourses; Longevity; Reproducibility in different media and sizes; Legibility/recognizability; Intelligibility/familiarity; ability to be remembered; Level of empathy; Singularity; Deployment. According to Strunck [49], the style of the logo and symbol must have a correlation so that they combine and proposes the following quality analysis parameters: concept; legibility; personality; contemporaneity; easy memorability; flexibility of use. On the other hand, according to Gernsheimer [50] the Brand mark quality criteria require it to be concise, distinctive, attractive, cohesive, enduring, legible, memorable, relevant, sophisticated and versatile, indicators coinciding with those indicated by Napoles [51].

448

D. Raposo et al.

Wheeler [7] refers to the Brands visual identity ideals, pointing vision, meaning, authenticity, coherence, differentiation, flexibility, sustainability, commitment and value.

3 Conclusions Due the increasing number of brands, and because they operate in different cultures and markets (with different cultural differences, social frameworks and languages), the design of a Brand mark becomes more demanding, which is why one should know the market and the competitors well, ensuring differentiation and recognition [7]. The term Competitive Landscape designates the entrepreneurial method that aims to study and understand the business context, identifying and analysing direct or indirect competitors, namely their mission, vision, core values, market niches, strengths and weaknesses [52, 53]. However, Budelmann, Kim & Wozniak [54] consider that the Competitor Landscape can be used to define the style of the Visual Identity, positioning it vis-à-vis competitors. Johnson [55] also highlights the importance of knowing the market where the brand is going to operate, stating that each sector of activity or product/service range tends towards unanimity or visual similarity, almost a herd mentality: Examples are the heraldic association by the universities, the handwritten lettering and the use of different colours in the place brands, the initial M of the subways, the handwritten lettering in the food sector, among others. We follow similar principles in adopting concepts and terms to coin the Brand Competitors Map for Brand mark analysis. As noted, over time authors have adopted different terminologies, but also there appears to be a lack of consensus. We have adopted the term mark is a sign designed and used in a consistent and enduring way to represent someone, an organization, company, services or goods, meanwhile trademarks are words, names or devices used to identify a business, goods or services during commercial communications or transitions [56, 57]. We can observe that the criteria and requirements of a Brand mark do not change significantly in the different proposals of the reviewed authors. Thus, based on the common denominator, the criteria of analysis of the quality and adequacy of a Brand mark are: Power of fascination to cause impact, empathy and memorization; Capacity of differentiation (including contrast and colour use); Familiarity of forms in a culture; Graphic synthesis; Flexibility of reproduction in the identity system in different technical media; Semantic compatibility of what is represented and the referent’s style with the brand; and Longevity. However, these requirements are difficult to delimit and often correlate. About the typologies and components to analyse Brand marks, we think that the analysis of Brand marks can be done based on their taxonomy or classification and considering the requirements or criteria of graphic-semantic quality, as long as the analysis takes into account the context of use (main media and market). Thus, without wishing to propose a new taxonomy, we adopt Brand mark subdivided into symbol and logo, without subdivisions, referring this detailed analysis to syntactics level, through the observation of the design of graphic infrasigns, elements and principles of composition [30], including the rhetorical and typographic perspective. We consider that the iconicity scale [12] and the rhetorical analysis proposed by Helmann and Switzer [42] complement each other and allow a deeper analysis beyond what is possible with the

Brand Marks Analysis

449

subdivision of the symbol in classes, which we do not ignore either. On the other hand, the strong relationship of the logo to lettering and typography leads us to conclude that the integration of a typographic classification system, complemented by the perceptual and rhetorical analysis, is more appropriate. The analysis of the Brand mark should be considered in the graphic, symbolic and utilitarian perspectives. And in this sense, it is important to consider its use in different media, as well as the role it plays in the visual identity system in articulation with the other elements of brand language. Oliveira’s [34] proposal highlights the relevant role that diagrams can play in the decomposition and systemic analysis of visual brand identity, while Rijo [35] shows how it is possible to draw conclusions from visually treated data and to inform the Brand mark design process. Since the Brand Competitors Map allows characterizing common denominators, patterns or graphical trends that describe a market of competitors in a given context from a sample of Brand marks, as demonstrated by Valls [30, 31] and Bowie [32], which is already relevant, we consider it essential to go beyond a snapshot of the market. In this sense, as a perspective for future studies we consider essential to study how diagrams can contribute for more relevant interpretation than statistical data. Acknowledgments. CIAUD, Lisbon School of Architecture, Universidade de Lisboa, Rua Sá Nogueira, 1349–063 Lisboa.

References 1. Raposo, D.: La Letra como Símbolo de Identidade Visual Corporativa: Codificación y descodificación visual del sistema de identidade. Ph.D. Thesis. FA-UTL, Lisbon University (2012) 2. Costa, J.: Design para os olhos. marca, cor, identidade, sinalética. Dinalivro (2011) 3. Raposo, D., Oliveira, F., Farinha, L.: From identity into brand visual identity: finding and defining the intangible brand DNA. In: Farinha, L., Raposo, D. (eds.) Handbook of Research on Driving Industrial Competitiveness with Innovative Design Principles, pp. 66–85. IGI Global (2020). https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-3628-5.ch005 4. Balmer, J.: Corporate identity, corporate branding and corporate marketing Seeing through the fog. Eur. J. Mark. 35(3/4), 248–291 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1108/03090560110694763 5. Wally, O., Elinor, S.: Corporate Identity Audit. Financial Times Prentice Hall, Hoboken (1999) 6. Tajada, L.Á.: La auditoria de la imagen de empresa: métodos y técnicas de estudio de la imagen. Editorial Sintesis, Madrid 7. Wheeler, A.: Designing Brand Identity: A Complete Guide to Creating, Building, and Maintaining Strong Brands. John Wiley & Sons Inc., Hoboken, NJ (2003) 8. Raposo, D.: A statment on branding and visual identity – Branding process. In: 4th DIGICOM – International Conference on Design and Digital Communication (2020) 9. Olins, W.: Brand New: The Shape of Brands to Come. Thames and Hudson, London (2014) 10. Martins, N., Martin-Sanroman, J., Suárez-Carballo, F.: The Design Process in the improvement of the experience between a brand and its target audience through a digital product: the Lexus Portugal’s used car website case study. Adv. Sci. Technol. Eng. Syst. J. 5(5), 620–629. (2020). https://doi.org/10.25046/aj050576

450

D. Raposo et al.

11. Raposo, D., Ribeiro, R., Amaral, M., da Silva, F.M., Martin Sanromán, J.R.: The brand mark competitors map as visual research tool. using graphic and symbolic data in the brand visual identity project. In: Rebelo, F., Soares, M.M. (eds.) AHFE 2019. AISC, vol. 955, pp. 91–102. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20227-9_9 12. Laginha; C., Raposo, D., Neves, J.: La escala de iconicidad en el ámbito de las marcas gráficas. In: Fernández Iñurritegui, L., Herrera, E. (eds.) Libro de Actas del Primer Congreso de Diseño Gráfico: Marcas Gráficas de Identidad Corporativa. Donostia (San Sebastián): Grupo de Investigación en Diseño Gráfico y Tipografía/Universidad del País Vasco, pp: 153–160. (2016) ISBN: 978-8-49-082425-2 13. Noth, W.: Handbook of semiotics. Indiana University Press, Bloomington (1995) 14. Costa, J.: La Imagen de Marca. Paidós Diseño, Barcelona (2004) 15. Buck, G.: Trademark Power. Munroe & Southworth Publishers, Chicago (1916) 16. Costa, J.: La Identidad Visual. Edicions Club Master7, Barcelona (1977) 17. Blanchard, G.: Pour une sémiologie de la typographie. Ph. D. Thesis. Ecole des beaux-arts de Besançon. R. Magermans, Andenne (1979) 18. Blanchard, G.: La Letra. Ediciones CEAC, Barcelona (1988) 19. Blanchard, G.: Aide au choix de la typo-graphie. Cours supérieur. Atelier Perrouseaux (2003) 20. Haig, W. L.: How and Why Credibility-Based Company Logos are Effective in Marketing Communication in Persuading Customers to Take Action: A Multiple Case Study Toward a Better Understanding of Creativity in Branding. Ph.D. Thesis. Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia (2006) 21. Haig, W.L., Harper, L.: The Power of Logos: How to Create Effective Company Logos. International Thomson Publishing Company, New York (1997) 22. Henderson, P., Cote, J.: Guidelines for selecting or modifying logos. J. Mark. 62(2), 14–30 (1998). https://doi.org/10.2307/1252158 23. Henderson, P.W., Giese, J.L., Cote, J.A.: Impression management using typeface design. J. Mark. 68(4), 60–72 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.68.4.60.42736 24. Schechter, A.H.: Measuring the value of corporate and brand logos. Des. Manage. J. (Former Ser.) 4, 33–39 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1948-7169.1993.tb00124.x 25. Childers, T.L., Jass, J.: All dressed up with something to say: effects of typeface semantic associations on brand perceptions and consumer memory. J. Consum. Psychol. 12, 93–106 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327663JCP1202_03 26. Doyle, J.R., Bottomley, P.A.: Dressed for the occasion: font-product congruity in the perception of logotype. J. Consum. Psychol. 16, 112–123 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327 663jcp1602_2 27. Fernández Iñurritegui, L.: El discurso del diseño gráfico. Los signos de Identidad Corporativa como textos visuales. Bilbao: diseiñu. Ikus komunikazioa (2007) 28. Georgiev, G; Nagai, Y.; Taura, T.; Morita, J.: Coordinating meanings of logotypes for support of the design process. In: ConnectED 2007 International Conference on Design Education. (CD-ROM), p. 4, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (2007) 29. Coelho, R.: Semiótica da Marca: Contributos para a construção de uma Sintaxe e Retórica Visual na Prática do Design de Identidade. Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade do Porto, Porto (2013) 30. Valls, F. d’A.: Del poder de los símbolos a los símbolos del poder: apuntes para un análisis de la simbología financiera en el mundo. Documentos del CIAC – Imagen de Empresa – Comunicación: Mass media, diseño, casos práticos. CIAC, Noviembre, Barcelona (1980) 31. Valls, F. d’A.: La simbología financiera en el mundo. Documentos del CIAC – Imagen de Empresa – Comunicación: Mass media, diseño, casos práticos. CIAC, Enero, Barcelona (1981) 32. Bowie, J.: Innovation, Imitation, Legitimacy and Deviance in the Design of Graphical Trademarks in the United States, 1884–2003. Ph.D. Thesis. The University of Arizona (2005)

Brand Marks Analysis

451

33. Ribeiro, M.: Marcas Territoriais em Portugal: uma análise semiótica. 1º Congresso Internacional em Marcas/Branding. Leiria. Instituto Politécnico de Leiria, Portugal (2014) 34. Oliveira, F.: Diagramas & Marcas: Contributos sobre a utilização de diagramas na conceção e análise do discurso visual das marcas. Ph.D. Thesis. Lisbon University. (2015) 35. Rijo, C.: Graphic expression and semantic analyze on brand mark creation. In: Raposo, D., Neves, J., Silva, J., Correia Castilho, L., Dias, R. (eds.) Advances in Design, Music and Arts. EIMAD 2020. Springer Series in Design and Innovation, vol. 9. Springer, Cham. (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55700-3_5 36. Chen, Y.-T., Cai, D., Huang, H.-F., Kuo, J.: An evaluation model for graphic design works. In Proceedings of Sixth Asian Design Conference, pp. 14–17, Tsukuba, Japan (2003) 37. Jenkins, N.: La identidad visual de la empresa. Deusto, Bilbao (1993) 38. Schmitt, B., Simonson, A.: Marketing y estética: la gestión estratégica de la marca, la identidad y la imagen. Ediciones Deusto, Bilbao (1998) 39. Gonzáles Solas, J.: Identidad Visual Corporativa: La imagen de nuestro tiempo. Editorial Sintesis (2004) 40. Mollerup, P.: Marks of Excellence: The History and Taxonomy of Trademarks. Phaidon Press, Londres (1997) 41. Gamonal Arroyo, R.: Logos, ethos, pathosretórica y creatividad en el diseño gráfico. Ph.D. Thesis. Universidad Complutense de Madrid (2011) 42. Helmann, E.; Switzer, B.: Rhtoric of logos. A primr for a visual Language. Niggli, Zurich (2017) 43. Vinyeta, M.: Dibujando marcas. Creación de marcas comerciales, letras y símbolo. Su aplicación práctica. CEAC, Barcelona (1969) 44. Parramón, J.M.: Lettering & Logotypes. Watson-Guptill Publications, New York (1991) 45. Krause, J.: The logo Brainstorming Book. A Comprehensive Guide for Exploring Design Directions. How Books, Georgetown (2012) 46. Thomas, G.: How to Design Logos, Symbols & Icons. How Design Books, Cincinnati (2000) 47. Morioka, A.: Logo Design Workbook. A Hands-On Guide to Creating Logos. Rockport Publishers, Massachusetts (2006) 48. Chaves, N.; Belluccia, R.: La marca Corporativa: Gestión y Diseño de símbolos y logotipos. Paidós, Buenos Aires (2003) 49. Strunck, G.: Como criar identidades visuais para marcas de sucesso. Rio Books, Rio de Janeiro (2007) 50. Gernsheimer, J.: Designing Logos. The process of creating symbols that endure. Allworth Press, New York (2008) 51. Napoles, V.: Corporate Identity Design. John Wiley & Sons, New York (1951) 52. Bettis, R.A., Hitt, M.A.: The new competitive landscape. Strat. Mgmt. J. 16, 7–19 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250160915 53. Nestor, D.-B.: The competitive landscape of online platforms, No 2017–04, JRC Working Papers on Digital Economy, Joint Research Centre (Seville site) (2017). https://EconPapers. repec.org/RePEc:ipt:decwpa:2017-04 54. Budelmann, K., Kim, Y., Wozniak, C.: Essential Elements for Brand Identity. Rockport Publishers, Beverly (2010) 55. Johnson, M.: Branding in five and half steps. Thames & Hudson, London (2019) 56. Carter, D.A.: Corporate Identity Manual. Art Direction Books, Glenbrook (1998) 57. Melissa, D.: More than a Name. An introduction to Branding. Ava Academia, London (2005)

Organizational Design Towards the Configuration of a Media Communication Model Jorge Brandão Pereira1(B) and Vítor Quelhas2(B) 1 ID+ Research Institute for Design, Media and Culture/School of Design,

Polytechnic Institute of Cavado and Ave, Barcelos, Portugal [email protected] 2 ID+ Research Institute for Design, Media and Culture/uniMAD/School of Media Arts and Design, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Porto, Portugal [email protected]

Abstract. Design is transforming many aspects of our life and covering many different practices that evolve with new professional methodologies, the development of technologies and a reformulation of organizational culture. Invested with a broader meaning, design captures expectations relating to strategic planning, vision and market positioning. In this, the challenge consists in turning it into communicable knowledge, so that design and design management as knowledge first have to be learned by enterprises. Design becomes involved in issues beyond its traditional configuration and territory; it is not confined to its traditional roles and is with innovation. It extends towards other areas, using its integrative profile in order to promote interaction with different stakeholders. The purpose of the following paper is to provide insight into the field of organizational design, acknowledging its scope and its justification by many organizational needs. In this organizational and corporate interpretation, it becomes a constituent for development. Keywords: Design · Strategy · Organizations

1 Design Process on Economic Strategies Communicating the value of design and how designers can contribute to any organization is a continuous challenge. Heskett [1] develops the relation between design and economy, concerning about creating economic value by design, offering a window to business activity that enables designers to communicate the value of their work. By the description of theoretical positions on Economy, the author endorses that is “possible to construct an extension of them that specifically addresses what the economic contribution of design can be in terms that business managers can understand” [1, 73]. Martin [3], a proponent of the use of design as a metaphor for business and economics, proposes a model of value creation in businesses that reconciles two existing models: © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 452–458, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_53

Organizational Design

453

—one model based on rigorous quantitative analyses, which organizes itself and searches for truths and certainties about the world. This model is based on inductive and deductive logic; —a second model centered on creativity and innovation, as a reaction to the growth of the analytical model of management. This model promotes entrepreneurial creativity, while conditioned by the previous model, which relies excessively on quantitative analyses. In Martin’s view, these two models are antagonistic. The analytical model creates resistant structures, scale and size. However, they are businesses that have difficulty reinventing themselves as they are constructed to maintain the status quo. In organizations where the intuitive model prevails, innovation happens faster and more intensely. The author argues that the two models are essential for the development of organizations, and posits a third way, capable of uniting the two models. For the author, design thinking facilitates the movement along the “knowledge funnel” [3, 4], it is a model for practice. This proposal has parallels with other “problem-solving” models, in particular in design methodology. The interest in Martin’s proposal lies in the identification of abductive logic at the model’s core, this “design of business”. The logic of the design process is based on the proposal of solutions that must be tested, evaluated, until a suitable solution is reached. This relationship does not develop a new perspective in regards to design. On the contrary, design has been incorporating it. This provides a proper balance between “reliability” and “validity”, a “50/50 mix.” [2, 53]. Economies and markets develop and pass-through distinct phases, and in current times design is a strategic tool.

2 Design Towards Strategy Studying Kretzschmar [3] is more categorical when describing the analysis conducted in Danish companies about the economic effects of design: “analysis indicate a very clear correlation between the employment of design and the economic success businesses achieve, which in turn benefits society as a whole. The correlation is so marked that it cannot be disregarded or questioned.” [3, 35] The survey showed that design makes a difference in business and that adopting a comprehensive and systematic approach to design enhances the value of the organization. It should be regarded “as the first step towards developing a method base with which to assess the economic benefits of design” [3, 6], since no other analysis has been carried out before. This survey, conducted by the Danish Design Center, analyzed the design investment by Danish companies and their performance in relation to design. It constitutes as an important case study, as it draws quantitative conclusions that justify, in clear figures, the surplus design brought to Danish economy at the time. Mozota [4], Clark and Smith [5], Neumeier [6] and Verganti [7] expand design to a global strategic methodology, investigating the construction of knowledge concerning the act of designing and how this designing happens. Design constitutes itself as an advantage and competitive source both to enterprises and territories, considered by the European Community as a key connection between creativity and innovation [8, 9]. This connection demands a restructured perspective that turns innovation into a process

454

J. B. Pereira and V. Quelhas

that demands proximity and cooperation and depends from the historical background and heritage and from the cultural, political, and institutional specificities. If design is associated with originality, creativity and innovation, to interpret it as a set of management tools brings it closer to control and planning of this creativity, then verifying that together with management relates to strategic models and policies that comprise a process of decision making. Mozota [4] argues the role and importance of design in itself within the organization, close to management, because both are creative, coordination and problem-solving activities, which follow a systematic, logical and orderly process. “Design is a management tool that creates differentiation (…). Design is no longer seen as the output of design-form, but as a creative and management process that can be integrated into other organization processes.” [4, 114]. In today’s world, organizations need differentiation, and this is achieved through innovation. Design is touted as an engine of innovation, stressing that creativity, in its many manifestations, is a driver of economic growth. “The ballooning demand for design is shaped by a profound shift in how the First World makes its living. Creativity in its various forms has become the number-one engine of economic growth.” [6, 12] The author describes a series of “levers for change” [6, 83], that should be an attribute of everyone involved in an organization. In total, sixteen are presented and he explains the methodology as adaptable to the specifications inherent in each particular organization. We give particular relevance to “weave a rich story”, as it relates design towards the configuration of this media centered communication model, with storytelling to an effective impact of the organization’s value. Neumeier devotes part of his analysis to the value of the brand as an argument for innovation, and that is exactly where design comes in. The model that brought us to the current stage of development is not able to move us forward from here. The structure bound by the assembly line is being replaced by the network structure. And it is in this process that the designer is the professional who has the necessary attributes to revolutionize the way the model is established. Verganti [7] proposes design-driven innovation as the innovation of “meaning”: “A design-driven innovation, by definition, differs substantially from the dominant meaning in the industry” [7, 11]. This approach opens up an important contribution to a radical innovation, connected to people and the particular interpretation given by each of them to their needs, desires and the products and services they acquire. The cultural capital of each individual—their personality, their culture, the environment in which they operate, the uses they make of artifacts—is the fuel for innovation, i.e. what is central and is a motivator for change is the meaning that these products have for each individual. When the emphasis is on technology, the thinking is on how to solve a problem; when thinking about meaning, we think of “why”, anticipating a need and suggesting a vision. This relates to the organizational design construct endorsed by Krippendorfff [10] who argues that meaning is a collectively constructed relationship. Within this context, design influences the strategy and the organization themselves, as much as it is influenced by them. A movement is begun to transform the corporate culture, with systemic thinking, teamwork, user-centered solutions.

Organizational Design

455

3 Strategy, from Efficiency to Creating Value to Organizations Originally, the definition of strategy meant the general plan of a military campaign, distinct from the concept of tactics—the achievement of short-term goals (such as winning a particular battle). In an economic and business environment, increasingly competitive, strategy becomes a relevant methodological tool. Business strategy has been defined in different ways. In general, strategy is understood as the ways organizations behave in order to achieve long-term objectives, including competitive advantage. Determination of vision, mission and long-term objectives, as well as the development of policies and programs to achieve these objectives, are the elements needed to develop a strategy. In a dynamic context, the strategy has to be constantly adapted to ever-changing situations. Gluck et al. [11] endorse strategy as competitive advantage, in order to evaluate and improve corporate planning systems. Design may link strategy’s asset of efficiency to a creation of value asset. Lockwood [12] comprises case studies that present the role of design. In the author’s line of thought—where design is integrated in strategies—innovation appears as an economic keyword, attributing its success to organizational knowledge, experience and technological capabilities, in order to generate new processes, products and services. The history of implementing specific policies and programs for design that involve public and private actors in their promotion already has a considerable body of research. The study of these policies finds that design is a tool that operates in two complementary dimensions: (i) it adds value to the product; (ii) it contributes to the improvement of productivity in organizations. However, these findings are often the confirmation of assumptions, validated by an empirical analysis of contexts and outcomes. The greatest difficulties currently observed derive from obtaining indicators to quantitatively evaluate the relevance of the design component in the development of organizations. This analysis is often crossreferenced—and even confused—with technological innovation and the results of economic growth per se. Design policies are inserted into macroeconomic strategies with a view to global competitiveness. This is an acknowledged need for an integrated, balanced development, with the breadth to liaise with organizations of varying scale. Invested with a broader meaning, design captures expectations relating to strategic planning, vision and market positioning. In this, the challenge consists in turning it into communicable knowledge, as Archer [13] stated, so that design and design management as knowledge first have to be learned by enterprises.

4 Design as a Strategic Constituent for Development Design is at the center of economy and culture or, in a more tangible way, of creative economy. Design’s definition ought to be understood in a holistic perspective, both strategic and integrated: traversing economic development, social cohesion and urban culture. Design aims at contributing to business development, as a strategic constituent

456

J. B. Pereira and V. Quelhas

acting in management processes and changes. Thus, in search for a shared vision, creative processes aim at optimizing corporate performance. This performance envelops innovation, quality, product appearance, environments, communication and brands, involving industries, publics and markets. The materialization of ideas is the result of the focus on developing the right solution for each project, reinforcing the message, linking codes and languages, enhancing affections and considering the needs and desires of the audience. And in this framework, in an economic environment that valuates the outcome, the concept of innovation comes up associated with design, because design gives, by its activities, a creative vision for the implementation of the strategy. Innovation can be understood in a more extended sense, as a process of generating new opportunities and solutions, closely linked to creativity and idea generation, applied to something to which it recognizes usefulness. This definition extends the concept into a multidisciplinary approach towards organizational design as concept and model. It comprises the innovation process as a set of strategically related actions that can occur simultaneously, and bridging to three necessary elements: knowledge, strategy and partnerships. These elements constitute the metaphor of innovation, interpreted as warranted for the proposed strategic development of organizations. Design is interpreted as a dimension for assessing the capacity for innovation, in what Laestadius et al. [14] define as design intensity. “As regards design intensity we may include a broad design concept including parts of what hitherto has been included in the design of R&D.” [10, 11, 14] Design starts to be interpreted as a central discipline in the definition and development of this organizational innovation, and a broader view, summarized as “design innovation”. Design is thus incorporated in the structure and organization. It is a relevant constituent of organizations in defining the level of knowledge, strategy and partnerships. In this field, Junginger and Christensen [15] refocus the research and discourse on design and innovation around organizational culture, a relevant contribution to this review. These viewpoints endorse an institutional role for design, interpreted as an innovation metaphor. The meaning of the word has been trivialized, taking part of public discourse, in strict relationship with other buzzwords such as creativity and innovation. The development models that are successful tend to be replicated in different locations, industries or markets—a consequent interpretation of McDonaldization, in terms of organizational design strategy.

5 The Symbolic Value of a Organizational Design Model Using visual strategies associated with communication, design has developed a language, for which a visually literate audience reads not just a literal message, but also how it is woven within their cultural contexts. The act of communicating among individuals is a built and acquired process. These viewpoints endorse an institutional role for design, interpreted as an innovation metaphor. The meaning of the word has been trivialized, taking part of public discourse, in strict relationship with other buzzwords such as creativity and innovation. The development models that are successful tend to be replicated in different locations, industries or markets—a consequent interpretation of McDonaldization, in terms of organizational

Organizational Design

457

design strategy. This understanding has profound implications for design theory and design practice. It shifts the concept of design as an organizer of facts, towards design as a generator of facts. In other words, design can no longer be regarded as something “objective” or “neutral”, and should instead be viewed as the “sediment of interpretations” [16, 42]. Design releases itself from the set of operational methodologies and will incorporate an important social control. It finds itself moving towards the territory of organizational strategy, since it is through action that messages will be present. It shifts the focus of analysis and understanding of communication messages as unique expressions, towards reading them as a convergence of multiple sources. The formulation reflects the context—the message is an interpretation, not a fact. These viewpoints endorse an institutional role for design, interpreted as an innovation metaphor. The meaning of the word has been trivialized, taking part of public discourse, in strict relationship with other buzzwords such as creativity and innovation. The development models that are successful tend to be replicated in different locations, industries or markets—a consequent interpretation of McDonaldization, in terms of organizational design strategy. This understanding has profound implications for design theory and design practice. It shifts the concept of design as an organizer of facts, towards design as a generator of facts. In other words, design can no longer be regarded as something “objective” or “neutral”, and should instead be viewed as the “sediment of interpretations” [16, 42]. Design releases itself from the set of operational methodologies and will incorporate an important social control. It finds itself moving towards the territory of organizational strategy, since it is through action that messages will be present. It shifts the focus of analysis and understanding of communication messages as unique expressions, towards reading them as a convergence of multiple sources. The formulation reflects the context—the message is an interpretation, not a fact. The focus of design, in this sense, is in communication, in creating conditions so that an “audience” understands and incorporates the message and feels its benefits. In doing so, the expressive resources are strategically structured and reasoned after studies of meanings, benefits and risks. This process has, now more than ever, a multidisciplinary feature, meshing areas such as communication, marketing, psychology, sociology, management and technology.

6 Closing Remarks The development of new organizational models, methods and processes demand a wide interpretation of organizational design. In this study, we identified relevant inputs for the comprehension of design and strategy, and how these two core organizational concepts promote the configuration of a media communication model. To enhance this, design is included in policies and upheld as a promoter of development. This paper acknowledges design as an enhancer for the interpretation of organizational strategy, an innovation model that branches into the economic and creative spheres. It evolves to discuss organizational design as a lever and constituent for the development.

458

J. B. Pereira and V. Quelhas

References 1. Heskett, J.: Creating economic value by design. Int. J. Design 3(1), 71–84 (2009) 2. Martin, R.: The Idea of Business. Harvard University Press, Boston (2009) 3. Kretzschmar, A.: The economic effects of design. National Agency for Enterprise and Housing (2003). https://boligejer.dk/file/1924/the_economic_effects_of_designn.pdf 4. Mozota, B.B.: Design Management Design to Build Brand Value. Allworth Press, New York (2003) 5. Clark, K., Smith, R.: Unleashing the power of design thinking. Design Manag. Rev. 19(3), Summer (2008) 6. Neumeier, M.: The designful company. Design Manag. Rev. 19(2), Spring (2008) 7. Verganti, R.: Design-Driven Innovation – Changing the Rules of Competition by Radically Innovating What Things Mean. Harvard University Press, Boston (2009) 8. EU: Design as a Driver of User-Centred Innovation. Commission of the European Communities (2009) 9. EU: Implementing an Action Plan for Design-Driven Innovation. Commission of the European Communities (2013) 10. Krippendorff, K.: On the essential contexts of artifacts or on the proposition that design is making sense (of things). Des. Issues 5(2), 9–39 (1989) 11. Gluck, F.W., Kaufman, S.P., Walleck, A.S.: Strategic management for competitive advantage. Harvard Bus. Rev. July (1980) 12. Lockwood, T. Introduction. In: Lockwood, T., Walton, T. (eds.) Building Design Strategy. Using Design to Achieve Key Business Objectives. Allworth Press, New York (2008) 13. Archer, B.: The nature of research. Codesign, Interdiscipl. J. Design. 6–13 (January 1995) 14. Laestadius, S.; Pedersen, T.E.: Towards a new understanding of innovativeness – and of innovation based indicators. In: Proceedings of Low-Tech as Misnomer: The Role of NonResearch-Intensive Industries in the Knowledge Economy, Brussels (2005) 15. Junginger, S., Christensen, P.R.: design and innovation: organizational culture as making. In: Proceedings of 10th European Academy of Design Conference – Crafting the Future (2013) 16. Bruinsma, M.: The revolt of the mobs – the culture of engagement. In: Catalysts! ExperimentaDesign – Bienal de Lisboa, Lisbon (2005)

Investigation the City Environment with the Help of Typographic Communication Design Perspectives Ruth P. W. Chau(B) and Amic G. Ho(B) Department of Creative Arts, School of Arts & Social Sciences, The Open University of Hong Kong, Homantin, Hong Kong SAR

Abstract. The signboard can be said to be the face of the store. Well-designed typefaces, symbolic images, and unique colours help express the business’s individuality and make viewers deeply impressed. A unique sign is a good sign. Signboards that are beautifully formative expressions with enough margins make viewers feel visually enjoyable. It is also an important medium that allows designers to help the business parties and shops enhance their brandings and increase their business credibility. From the customer’s perspective, a beautiful sign is a good sign. No matter how fantastic a signboard is, it cannot impress people if it does not fit their surroundings. A sign that looks good in harmony with the characteristics of the area where the business is located, and its shape and colour is a good sign. This study investigated the application of communication design theories in signboard design among Asian cities includes but not limited to Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo. Keywords: Emotion design · Communication design · Emotional concerns · Decision-making · Design evaluation

1 Introduction Many previous studies on ‘character studies’ are taught in high school vocational art. This study focuses on teaching drawing skills and rarely explains related principles. Moreover, they all stayed in the 1990s, and it is naturally impossible to mention the carrier’s radical changes in the following two decades [1]. It is lack of easy-to-understand research study that is close to this area. It is not talking about the skills of drawing Asian fonts (included but not limited to Chinese, Korean, Japanese) or how to use Illustrator and InDesign. What we want to bring to everyone is their story. Middle school students all know that Asian characters start from oracle bone inscriptions, go through ‘bronze inscriptions’ [2], ‘big seal’ [3] and ‘small seal’ [4], ‘official script’ [5], ‘cursive script’ [6], ‘running script’ [7], and then to a ‘regular script’ [8]. The evolution of thousands of years has made the appearance of Asian characters quite rich [9]. However, since the regular script

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 459–465, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_54

460

R. P. W. Chau and A. G. Ho

of the Tang Dynasty was established? ‘Song Ti’ [10], ‘Ming Ti’ [11], ‘Hei Ti’ [12], and all kinds of strange fonts in the past hundreds years [13], how did it happen? How did the ancient text run on the screen? Why are the indicators of the transportation system primarily in bold? Why is the Ming style mainly used in printing? Wait a minute, is there any difference between Ming Ti and Song Ti? There are endless stories behind these problems.

2 Fonts Are Important Elements As mentioned above, under the trend of applying richness material and luminous methods, the new detailed body does solve sticking together [14]. However, the new detailed body enlarged to the size of the index does not. It is easily noticeable and unsightly. Some people may say that ’function is important, but function and beauty are not opposite concepts. They are both parts of the user experience. Of course, the concept of modern design pays attention to whether it can solve the problem, but it has never ruled out the dimension of ‘beauty’ [15]. Aesthetics is also part of the function, making the people who use the utensils more pleasant and immersed in it. It is also related to the current image and brand. After all, for newcomers, the design of the airport is the first impression. What’s more, the new detailed body as an indicator cannot meet the functional requirements of ‘visibility’. To balance function and beauty, design teams often have to experiment repeatedly to get satisfactory results. The index design of Hong Kong Airport and Taoyuan Airport stops at the (half-toned) functional aspect. Without further thinking about how to balance function and beauty. An excellent model of international airport indicator design. For example, for the Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport and Tokyo Narita Airport indicators, there are more careful research and management on lighting methods, back panel materials, font design, and typesetting. The Frutiger font used by many international airports and stations was initially designed for Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport in France. The current international design trend is to introduce the concept of universal design into the index. There are also ’UD fonts (UD is the abbreviation of Universal Design) [15, 16] designed for this purpose. Perhaps designers can consider introducing UD fonts. However, Taoyuan Airport’s indicators are not only in fonts but also in light-emitting methods, backing materials, font design, and the presentation of the information flow have been greatly transformed. As a representative of the building’s navigation and image, the index system is a worthy investment in ‘user experience’ design [17, 18], not just a trivial facade decoration project.

Investigation the City Environment

461

3 Legibility and Communication Along the Streets In terms of usage, specially designed fonts can prevent unnecessary misunderstandings. When most people read, they distinguish words through rough outlines instead of analyzing them one by one. No matter Asian or English, some characters are easy to confuse because the outlines are too close. The ‘dishes’ and ‘medicines’ mentioned above are just an example. The proper term for font design: ‘legibility’ (legibility) [19] is about whether ’which word is this’ can be recognized quickly and accurately. The handwriting legibility is relatively poor, and it is easy to confuse, misunderstand, or even write the wrong words at all. That is why this time of mustard fright. If the note attached to the outside of the package is printed in a particular font, it might be clearer to convey the words ‘all mustard’. Generally speaking, most font products are specially designed to have better identification, effectively reducing the trouble caused by misreading. In this way, there will be no such entertaining public security incident.

4 Readability, Hierarchy and Communication Along the Streets However, what may cause serious trouble to passengers is the issue of readability. In contrast to ‘identification’ and ‘visibility’, most of which depends on the design of the font itself [20], the readability of the font design represents whether the internal font is visually symmetrical and balanced so that the reader is comfortable to forget the font The presence. However, at the similar time, ‘readability’ also includes the application of fonts. In most cast, the layout of communication design develops a prominent focus as well as a clear hierarchy [21]. The application created the information flow reasonable and easy to absorb. The font may be more eye-catching, but it does not mean that the information it conveys is easy to absorb. Without proper level distinction, some passengers may still not understand where they are. There are three types of information on the MRT platform sign (as shown in Fig. 1) [22]: station name, transfer direction and destination station. In the past, these three types of information were distinguished: the station name, which looked larger; the transfer direction and the terminal station were in bold, which looked much more minor. With the hierarchical distinction of font style and size, the protagonist and the supporting role can be easily distinguished.

Fig. 1. The figure illustrated the hierarchy on the MRT platform sign [22].

462

R. P. W. Chau and A. G. Ho

5 Research Process The research process of this study is arranged as follows. This study’s first research objective is about the three essential concepts, all about the ‘functionality’ of fonts. This problem often appears in traffic indicators. Perhaps the advantage of graphic design is that it is not dangerous; at best, it is ugly. However, on these occasions, the performance of the font may be a matter of personal safety. This study’s second research objective, we entered the world of Asian characters from walk-in fonts and discovered that Asian’s favourite font is a regular script [23]. As the orthodox of Asian characters, the writing of regular script has been passed down from the Tang Dynasty to today, laying the foundation for Asian characters’ appearance. However, it’s not just out of the writing style. In fact, the beauty of regular script profoundly influences today’s printed fonts. To understand the type of Asian characters, designer cannot ignore the regular script. However, what is strange is that, in Taiwan today, why are regular script calligraphy and printed fonts turned into opposite ends? Exploring the causes of conflicts may allow designers to enrich the meaning of fonts better. The regular script is the ancestor, and many Asian fonts carry the genes of regular script. However, in the last forty years, a whirlwind has blown from Japan, and Asian characters’ appearance has changed dramatically. This study’s third research objective is to introduce the results of this new trend and the original Asian characters. Facing the impact of technological evolution and the world’s design trends, the development of Asian characters is diversified, and some have absorbed the characteristics of modern design; others have reflected on it and returned to the tradition to find nourishment. Moreover, they all appear actively in our daily lives. Fonts are the intersection of many topics: history, aesthetics, design and social culture. In essence, it is still a technological product. For the last research objective, the technological and industrial aspects of Asian ‘fonts’ was investigated. How is the Asian font designed? As a creative and labor-intensive brainchild, should the use of fonts be authorized? Why is the result on the screen separate from the printed result? What is the cloud font? How will the Asian font develop? The answers to more questions are waiting for designers to explore in detail.

6 Research Results The three factors determining the communication effectiveness within city Environment with the Help of Typographic Communication Design Perspectives: Legibility, Readability and Emotions in Communication. According to the primary investigation of the signs in Soul conducted, three factors determining the communication effectiveness within city Environment with the Help of Typographic Communication Design Perspectives: Legibility, Readability and Emotions in Communication were found as illustrated in Fig. 2.

Investigation the City Environment

463

Fig. 2. The figure illustrated the three factors determining the communication effectiveness within city environment with the help of typographic communication design perspectives: legibility, readability and Emotions in communication.

7 Conclusion The signboards are the first impression, and all aspects of design will affect tourists’ perception of the local area; The complex space facilities also need suitable guidance to prevent passengers from getting lost. In an emergency, the indicators must play a role promptly, guide safe escape routes, and protect passengers’ life safety. The process of thinking, improving and adjusting according to the actual situation takes designers in a specific direction for determining the communication design. However, ‘May I ask what font should I use?’ It is the most common problem we encounter. This is an era when everyone has fonts available. Anyone can ask this question. Whether designers want to help the company design a logo or help the parents who set up a stall to do business, it all has to do with the font. This problem was not common in the past. Because before the advent of computer fonts, they still rely on hand-made plates. Designers who choose fonts like Window shopping will first think about ‘what do I want to feel’, ‘what kind of message I want to convey’ and so forth. After the advent of the computer, this process was subverted. Many people first looked at the font menu and directly chose the most dazzling font, lacking in thinking about the problem. However, if designers are entirely unfamiliar with fonts, they cannot think about it. The relationship between designers and fonts is like a chef to ingredients. A chef does not necessarily need to know how to farm, but he must understand the characteristics of the ingredients to know how to make use of the specialties of the ingredients and make the cooking more delicious. This book is like an exquisite general guide to ingredients, hoping to help ‘chefs’ better understand the Asian characters they are in touch with every day but are still unfamiliar.

464

R. P. W. Chau and A. G. Ho

References 1. Ho, A.G.: Humanistic teaching pedagogy in typographic communication design. In: Ho, A. (ed.) Advances in Communication of Design. AHFE 2017. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol. 609, pp. 3–12. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3319-60477-0_1 2. Shaughnessy, E.L.: Imprint of Kinship: Studies of Recently Discovered Bronze Inscriptions from Ancient China. The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, Wydawca (2017) 3. Lin, Y., Yuan, H., Lin, L.: Chinese typography transfer model based on generative adversarial network. In: 2020 Chinese Automation Congress (CAC), pp. 7005–7010. IEEE, November 2020 4. ZHANG, X.: Akchessima: Latin Type Design for Digital Chinese (Seal Script) Typefaces. Rochester Institute of Technology , Rochester (2017) 5. Sun, H., Hong, C.: On the aesthetic characteristics of Chinese characters in art design. In: 2018 8th International Conference on Social science and Education Research (SSER 2018), pp. 761–768. Atlantis Press, May 2018 6. Qiu, Q., Watanabe, S., Omura, K.: Emotional responses to Chinese characters: exploration for simplified, traditional Chinese and Japanese Typefaces. Int. J. Affect. Eng. 20, 79–85 (2020) 7. Zhou, F.: Typographic landscape, indexicality and Chinese writing: a case study of placemaking practices in transitional China. Soc. Semiot. 1–22 (2020) 8. Wang, Z.: The development of Hanwen regular script and its influence on Italic typography. In: 3rd International Conference on Art Studies: Science, Experience, Education (ICASSEE 2019), pp. 282–285. Atlantis Press, November 2019 9. Meng, L., Aravinda, C.V., Uday Kumar Reddy, K.R., Izumi, T., Yamazaki, K.: Ancient Asian character recognition for literature preservation and understanding. In: Ioannides, M., et al. (eds.) Digital Heritage. Progress in Cultural Heritage: Documentation, Preservation, and Protection. EuroMed 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 11196, pp. 741–751. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01762-0_66 10. Mullaney, T.S.: The Chinese Typewriter: A History. MIT Press, Cambridge (2017) 11. Castelli, A.: Chinese postmodernism: a decadent nostalgia. Res. J. Hum. Cult. Stud. 2(1), 11–25 (2016) 12. Li, B.: Communication, Civilization and China: Discovering the Tang Dynasty, pp. 618–907. Springer Nature, Dordrecht (2020) 13. Chang, J., Gu, Y.: Chinese typography transfer. arXiv e-prints, arXiv-1707 (2017) 14. Hang, B.K.S.: Landscape of light. Chinese typography and visual communication on Hong Kong’s Neon Signs. Hong Kong J. Soc. Sci. 52 (2018) 15. Rogers-Shaw, C., Carr-Chellman, D.J., Choi, J.: Universal design for learning: guidelines for accessible online instruction. Adult Learn. 29(1), 20–31 (2018) 16. Harsritanto, B.I.: Universal design characteristic on themed streets. In: IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, vol. 99, p. 1. IOP Publishing, December 2017 17. Peng, Q.: Storytelling tools in support of user experience design. In: Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 316–319, May 2017 18. Hu, B., Zelenko, O., Pinxit, V., Buys, L.: A social semiotic approach and a visual analysis approach for Chinese traditional visual language: a case of tea packaging design. Theor. Pract. Lang. Stud. 9(2), 168–177 (2019) 19. Boeing, G.: Spatial information and the legibility of urban form: big data in urban morphology. Int. J. Inf. Manag. 56, 102013 (2021) 20. Chen, Y.H.S.: Wayfinding recommendations for the navigation of Taipei’s subway system through improved graphic design and sign design. Iowa State University (2006)

Investigation the City Environment

465

21. Korn, C.W., Ries, J., Schalk, L., Oganian, Y., Saalbach, H.: A hard-to-read font reduces the framing effect in a large sample. Psychon. Bull. Rev. 25(2), 696–703 (2017). https://doi.org/ 10.3758/s13423-017-1395-4 22. Linder, J., Arvola, M.: IPA in UX research: interpretative phenomenological analysis in a user experience design practice. In: Proceedings of the European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics 2017, pp. 17–24, September 2017 23. Bredikhina, L.: Variable fonts from pioneer perspectives. In: Handbook of Research on User Experience in Web 2.0 Technologies and Its Impact on Universities and Businesses, pp. 55–72. IGI Global, Hershey (2021)

Guidance and Public Information Systems: Diagnosis and Harmonization of Tourist Signage João Neves1,2(B) , Fernando Moreira da Silva1 , Daniel Raposo1,2 , José Silva1,2 , Rogério Ribeiro3 , and Ricardo Correia3 1 CIAUD, Lisbon School of Architecture, Universidade de Lisboa, Rua Sá Nogueira,

1349-063 Lisbon, Portugal 2 Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco, Av. Pedro Álvares Cabral, nº 12,

6000-084 Castelo Branco, Portugal 3 RETHINK-CIAUD, Higher School of Applied Arts, Campus da Talagueira,

6000-767 Castelo Branco, Portugal [email protected]

Abstract. The greater influx of tourists to certain territories raised the need to inform, guide and communicate basic messages, with a universal language, expressed through various analog and digital supports. This proliferation of means has led to a profusion of guidance and public information systems, some of which are regulated (such as the traffic signs system, signaling of routes and paths or the signaling of protected areas) and other unregulated systems (such as the signaling of religious, equestrian, municipal, historical, heritage and cultural routes, etc.). This article is the result of an ongoing research project, which aims to systematize tourist signage in Portugal, in order to satisfy and induce the potential or real demand for guidance, direction and information of tourists, in a clear and precise way, in addition to transmitting a unique and homogeneous image of the tourist product. Its scope will provide a clear reference framework, which facilitates the implementation of a normalized system by the organizations responsible for the standardization and implementation of tourist signage in Portugal. Keywords: Design · Tourist signage · Information systems · Guidance systems · Systems normalization

1 Introduction In Portugal, the tourism sector is the largest economic export activity, being responsible for 52.3% of services exports in 2019 and 19.7% of total exports. Tourist revenues registered an 8.7% contribution to the national GDP [1]. In a country with approximately 10.2 million inhabitants, in 2019 the tourist accommodation sector registered 27.1 million guests, which generated 70.2 million overnight stays [2]. In 10 years (2009/2019), Portugal has more than doubled the number of guests. The increase in tourists raised the need to inform, guide and communicate basic messages in a universal language, expressed through various analog and digital media. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 466–473, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_55

Guidance and Public Information Systems

467

This proliferation of means has led to a profusion of guidance and public information systems, some of them regulated, such as tourist and cultural signage (of the traffic system), signs of routes and circuits (pedestrian and clickable routes), signs of protected areas and others unregulated systems, such as the signaling of religious and equestrian routes, municipal routes, historical, heritage and cultural routes, among others. This article has as its research field information design and its theme is guidance and public information systems, with a focus on Portuguese tourist signage. This article is the result of an ongoing research project, which developed an in-depth diagnosis of the current state of tourist signage in Portugal, based on the analysis and evaluation of the various systems and proposing to develop a uniformized tourist signage manual for Portugal. The objective of the project is to systematize tourist signage in Portugal in order to satisfy and induce potential or real demand for guidance, direction and information from tourists in a clear and precise manner, in addition to transmitting a unique and homogeneous image of the touristic product. Its scope will provide a clear frame of reference that facilitates the implementation of a harmonized system at the level of information design, graphism and visual ergonomics. The investigative process starts from a mixed methodology, in a first noninterventionist phase, using several exploratory methods such as literature review, exploratory interviews and case studies, applying to the pre-results an interventionist methodology through applied research and experimental development that will have as expected result a tourist signage manual that systematizes tourist signage in Portugal, centered on information design, guidance and public information systems, in standardization, user-centered design and visual and cognitive ergonomics.

2 The Tourism and the Signage in Portugal The large-scale cultural and social changes, which occurred mainly after World War II, decisively influenced the tastes and desires of tourist demand [3]. The technological and social transformations of the last decades, combined with a growing globalization on a scale never seen before, have altered the traditional notion of time and distance. The vast road networks that connect different countries and continents, the production of faster, safer and more comfortable cars, the new high-speed trains of an international scope, the sumptuous cruise ships and especially the great growth of low-cost flights, boosted a significant increase in tourist activity. Tourist destinations have undergone a profound restructuring process in order to adapt to a new and increasingly demanding demand, which aims to live together and exchange experiences, although with different motivations and needs. Tourism has generated a greater influx of people to certain territories, raising the need to guide these people in an unknown space and communicate basic messages with a universal language [4]. The need for universal communication, irrespective of language, is enshrined as a fundamental principle in the Manila Declaration on World Tourism adopted on 17 September 1980. The use of symbols for depicting tourist attractions is a decisive step in this direction. Tourist signs and symbols must express their meaning in the most universal and simple language possible [5]. However, the set of signs (system) requires a thorough and

468

J. Neves et al.

systematic study of a code in which, due to the number of symbols, their characteristics are not always apprehended, sometimes causing disrespect and alienation from the message emitted. However, tourist signs suffer from a widespread problem, for which the solution is slow to emerge. It is the development of a system for tourist information and guidance, similar to the traffic signs system, common to several continents. Both the United Nations Organization, the World Tourism Organization, and the national tourism entities, have not yet been able to glimpse the benefits of a standardized and uniformed system, or as generalized as possible, which would allow the user to master a common code. Not even the authorities, legislators and organizations that intervene at the level of regulation of tourist signage in the country-territories, manage to implement a standardized system. To the problem, are added various regional signage systems for intermunicipal communities, tourist information systems for municipalities, museums, public buildings, etc. Therefore, in practice, the systems are very diverse and in no way contribute to a standardized national or international system for tourist information and for the visitors.

3 The Tourist Signage in Portugal The first attempts to sign paths or localities in Portugal date back to immemorial times, from stones as signs used in Portuguese camps and settlements, to the Roman roads and their information system expressed through milestones. In the Middle Ages, with the process of evangelization, a number of symbolic manifestations arose all over the world, expressed through multiple artefacts, such as crosses and other religious elements that replaced the previous pagan symbols. With the expansion of Christianity and the great pilgrimages, countless points of support for pilgrims were built, having also evolved the signaling and following the transformations occurred in the paths themselves. In this context, the first guides and maps to support pilgrims emerged. With the invention of the steam engine and the emergence in 1895 of the first automobile in Portugal, greater social mobility was generated which triggered the need to inform, emerged from there the first signaling systems and tourist symbols. The expansion and widespread use of the car in Portugal required the regulation of its circulation from 1901. In the early 1920s, the road signs were started by the Vacuum Oil Company (which would give way to Mobil in 1955) and in May 1928 the Road Code is approved, which normalizes the first traffic signs. With the accession of Portugal in 1949 to the Geneva Protocol on road signs, there are significant changes to traffic signage. In 1954, with the approval of the Road Code Regulation, the first signs of guidance and information were regulated. In 1998, with the new Traffic Signaling Regulation, the tourist-cultural signaling was finally standardized, which was intended to transmit indications about places, properties or sets of buildings and other motives that have a special relevance in the cultural, historical-heritage or landscape. With the significant increase in travel, there has been a profound development of tourism, attractions and infrastructures throughout Portugal in the 20th century and as an increase in demand, the evolution of information systems and the emergence of multiple tourist signage systems and for visitors. Currently, this proliferation has made it difficult to cohabit the multiple systems of guidance and public information, as happens in tourist signs in Portugal, with the

Guidance and Public Information Systems

469

implementation of tourist and cultural signage (of the traffic system), the signaling of routes and paths by multiple entities (walking and clickable paths), the signaling of protected areas (by the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests) and other nonregulated systems, such as the signaling of religious, equestrian, historical, heritage and cultural routes, among others.

4 The Tourist Signage Systems The information and public guidance systems in Portugal and in the world are very diverse, designed essentially to facilitate the communication and orientation of users with the spaces, whether they are natural, built or others. These systems, defined as sets of interrelated elements that interact for the performance of a communicative function, are developed by countless entities, with the most varied purposes and almost always with the same objective: a single system, for a certain function, but that invariably does not relate to other systems, generating multiple signs for the same message. Thus, there is a need to carry out an in-depth diagnosis of the various Portuguese tourist signage systems, in order to develop a standardized manual, which can be used by designers and competent entities for the development and application of tourist signage projects. 4.1 Tourist-Cultural Signaling The tourist-cultural signaling applied to roads in Portugal is regulated by the Traffic Signs Regulation of 1998 [6], with the amendments of 2002, 2003, 2010, 2011 and 2019. It should be used to sign regions that stand out for their heritage and/or landscape values, to highlight reasons of cultural, historical-heritage and landscape relevance, such as monumental ensembles and museum-cities; sets of heritage and landscape interest and sets of historical interest; monuments and archaeological sites; churches, palaces and castles. Geographical accidents and natural or national parks, the set of places of touristcultural interest of public access that constitute a tourist itinerary and the localities with indication of the reasons of tourist, geographic-ecological and cultural interest must also be marked trough tourist-cultural signage. 4.2 Walking Routes Signaling The walking routes in Portugal are very diverse, related to different themes and implemented by multiple entities. We will make a description of the approved walking routes and the religious routes. The rules and discipline of the process of homologating pedestrian trails and the respective use of the signaling marks, are established within the scope of the Homologation Regulation of Pedestrian Routes approved by the Portuguese Federation of Camping and Mountaineering, which holds the regulatory powers within the scope hiking [7]. It can promote the implementation of walking paths associations, companies or institutions, defining the regulation normalizing principles for directional marks, colors and

470

J. Neves et al.

signage supports (start and end of the path signs, information panels, direction signs, panels with the indications of place or curiosity, etc.). In Portugal, stand out for their dimension the “Fátima Paths”, routes spread throughout the country and the “Santiago Paths”, less numerous but equally expressive. Although most of the religious routes in Portugal are carried out in a pedestrian way, they do not follow the process of standardization and homologation of the walking routes. The “Fátima Paths” date back to the date of the apparitions of Fátima (1917) and correspond to the paths taken by pilgrims who go to the Sanctuary, in the Center of Portugal. Although the existing forms of signage are very diverse, the result of decades of marking the paths by different institutions, in 2019 they were identified and developed by the National Culture Center, in partnership with multiple institutions, a network of religious and cultural itineraries and respective signage, which includes the graphic mark “Fátima Paths” in white on a blue background, followed by a direction arrow to follow. Also cross the European and Portuguese territory various routes corresponding to the Way of St. James (Camiños de Santiago), addressed to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. In order to standardize the application of signage in the different paths, the Council of Saint James defined in 2018 guidelines for the signage of the Way of St. James, in order to avoid the graphic and technical diversity of signage, to improve information to pilgrims and harmonize the system, applications and technical characteristics of this signaling, with homogeneous criteria for countries and regions that share the different routes. 4.3 Cyclable Paths Signaling Portugal presents excellent natural conditions for cycling practice, to which high quality services and accessibility are added, but also an enormous human and patrimonial wealth, guaranteeing an unparalleled attractiveness for an increasing number of practitioners, for whom the routes duly selected, mapped and maintained, are decisive in the choice of destination [8]. In the absence of signage for clickable routes, in 2018 Portugal Tourism Institute publishes a guiding document for National Signage for Cyclable Paths [9], proposing a new symbol of geographic and ecological indication applicable to cycling routes to be used on the roads, regulating the signage of direction, of access, of warning, informational, points of interest, and technical characteristics of the signs for cycling routes. In May 2019, the Portuguese Cycling Federation approved the Homologation of Cycling Routes and Centers “Cyclin Portugal” Regulation [8], which aimed to standardize the classification and validation of the different routes, but also to guarantee technical and logistical conditions for the cycling practice. The Regulation presents definitions, standards and technical specifications related to signaling of routes and implementation of infrastructures, presenting the general characteristics of signage, placement and limitations to the placement of signage, paths in protected areas, tourist and cultural routes and, finally, shared routes with other outdoor sports.

Guidance and Public Information Systems

471

4.4 Environmental Signaling The signaling models for the purpose of identification and information related to the conservation of nature and biodiversity in the Portuguese network of protected areas and in other areas integrated into the National System of Classified Areas, are defined by Ordinance No. 98/2015 [10]. This defines a set of panels and structures that sign the approach of protected areas, staging points, specific locations with an interpretive theme, walking routes signage and the limits of the respective areas. The document presents, in addition to the panel models, the dimensioning, characteristics, materials, dimensions and rules for placing the models and signaling structures. 4.5 Signaling of Other Routes and Paths In Portugal, in addition to the various entities responsible for the homologation, standardization and application of tourist signs on routes and paths, there are still multiple organizations that, on their own initiative, create new systems, not always successful in their purpose, being in some cases redundant, other times unclear and abundantly without functional quality for the user. There are few Municipalities and other public entities linked to tourism that do not develop their own information and guidance systems, as well as a number of nonstandard tourist signage solutions, inclusively organizations and projects with high notoriety in Portuguese territory, such as the cases of Historical Villages, the Schist Villages, Romanesque Route, the various Wine Routes, Gastronomic Routes, Municipal Routes, Trail Running Routes, Equestrian Routes and an endless menu of solutions.

5 Conclusions Tourism in Portugal grew steadily and consistently, being the largest export economic activity, corresponding to 8.7% of Portuguese GDP in 2019. The number of guests went from 13.5 million in 2010 to 27 million in 2019, estimating that the number of nonresident tourists arriving to Portugal in that year increased by 7.9% to 24.6 million. The growth seen in the number of tourists, combined with domestic demand, motivated the need to implement systems that would allow informing, guiding and communicating messages to a heterogeneous audience, coming from very different countries and cultures, with the domain of different codes and different forms of experience the places. However, the development and implementation of information systems took place in an unregulated manner, giving rise to multiple tourist signaling systems that are not related, resulting in a difficulty for the autonomous mobility of visitors and citizens. In addition, the tourist signs are regulated by multiple entities, allowing the profusion of differentiated systems that in no way contribute to the normalization of a country-system. The cases are diverse, such as tourist and cultural signaling for public roads regulated by law, signaling of routes and paths regulated by Federations or sectoral institutions, signaling of protected areas approved by a public institute and other non-regulated systems, such as signaling of religious, equestrian, municipal, historical, heritage, cultural routes, etc.

472

J. Neves et al.

This article presents preliminary results of an ongoing post-doctoral research project, in which a thorough diagnosis of tourist signaling in Portugal was developed, based on literature review, exploratory interviews and case studies. It was thus possible to analyze the lack of regulation of Portuguese tourist signage, to study each of the systems in isolation and to define the objective of the investigation: The development of a Tourist Signage Manual, addressed to designers and competent entities for the development and application of the systems, which systematizes tourist signage in Portugal, centered on information design, guidance and information systems, standardization, user centered design and visual and cognitive ergonomics. In addition to the diagnosis of tourist signage in Portugal, the study allowed the definition of guiding principles for the Tourist Signage Manual to be developed, as a standardization guiding object. Starting from the questions enunciated by Martins and Araújo [11], regarding the measurement of the success of an artifact or the analysis of problems that a given object may contain (Why are we developing? Who are we developing for? What problem exist?), the principles for the development of the Manual were defined: What are the Object’s contributions; Definition of target audience; Problem definition. The Manual to be developed aims to harmonize the various Portuguese signage systems in a single object, having already defined an editorial structure, which begins with the contextualization of the manual, legal framework, defined the chromatic, typographic and iconic codes of the various signage systems and presented the various programs (tourist-cultural signaling; signaling of walking routes and paths; signaling of clickable routes; equestrian routes; signaling of protected areas). The research already carried out and the expected results of the development of the Manual, will be extremely relevant for the regulation of tourist signs, contributing to the implementation of more inclusive systems, for autonomous mobility, for the clear and unequivocal transmission of information and for the design of systems centered on the tourist, thus improving the experience of the visit. For the entities responsible for the development and implementation of guidance and public information systems, the results of the investigation will result in a determining instrument for territorial planning and the definition of public policies for inclusion. For the tourism sector and its agents, it will be a strategic tool for the promotion of attractions and mobility resulting from tourist activity. For the tourist, the receiver of the signaling, it is intended to contribute to the development of systems that enhance the process of cognition, interaction and adaptation of the user to the system, in order to improve the processes of perception, memory, learning and language (the code). Human behavior is generally influenced and modified in several ways, conditioned by a stimulus that will posteriorly receive a response, which can be analyzed, in the case of tourist signs, such as reading and understanding the message [12]. For future investigations, it is in the message, in the perceptive, mental and motricity processes that the research is intended to be centered. It is intended to deepen the study and development of guiding principles for the design of user-centered information systems, with a focus on visual and cognitive ergonomics.

Guidance and Public Information Systems

473

References 1. Turismo de Portugal. Turismo em Portugal: Visão geral (2020). www.turismodeportugal.pt 2. Turismo de Portugal. Turismo em números - 2019 (2020). www.turismodeportugal.pt 3. Bursztyn, I.: Políticas públicas de turismo visando a inclusão social. (Un-published master’s thesis). Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro (2005) 4. Neves, J., Raposo, D., Silva, J.: User and mobility: the contribution of information and guidance systems design for the knowledge of the territory. Convergências - Revista de Investigação e Ensino das Artes X(19) (2017). http://convergencias.ipcb.pt 5. Organização Mundial do Turismo: Sinais e símbolos turísticos: Guia ilustrado e descritivo, 1st edn., Roca, São Paulo (2003) 6. Decreto Regulamentar n.º 22-A/98 (1998-10-01). Aprova o Regulamento de Sinalização do Trânsito. Diário da República. I Série-B. (227), 2–119 (1998) 7. Federação de Campismo e Montanhismo de Portugal: Regulamento de Homologação de Percursos Pedestres. FCMP, Lisboa (2006) 8. Federação Portuguesa de Ciclismo: Regulamento de Homologação Percursos Cicláveis e Centros “Cyclin’ Portugal”. Federação Portuguesa de Ciclismo, Lisboa (2019) 9. Turismo de Portugal: Sinalização Nacional para Rotas Cicláveis: Documento orientador. Turismo de Portugal, Lisboa, I.P. (2018) 10. Portaria n.º 98/2015 (2015-3-31). Modelos de sinalização para efeitos de identificação e informação relativa à conservação da natureza e da biodiversidade na rede nacional de áreas protegidas. Diário da República, Série I, (63), 1725–1728 (2015) 11. Martins, N., Araújo, T.: Gravitim APP and the contribution of digital media in the process of pregnancy. In: Raposo, D., Neves, J., Silva, J. (eds.) Perspective on Design: Research, Education and Practice, pp. 189–202. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3030-32415-5_14 12. Brandão, D., Silva, B., Martins, N., Raposo, D., Neves, J., Silva, J.: The potential of narrative devices in a video promoting the use of an ambarscience didactic toy in classrooms. In: Raposo, D., Neves, J., Silva, J., Castilho, L., Dias, R. (eds.) Advances in Design, Music and Arts, pp. 177–193. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55700-3_13

Investigation of the Application of Humanized Design Concept in the Evolution Process of Chinese Bed Li Xu(B) , Xueting Wang, Yeqing Lu, and Xiuhua Zhang School of Art Design and Media, East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST), M.BOX 286, No.130 Meilong Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai 200237, China

Abstract. With the development of economy, humanization is paid more and more attention to in the field of design. The bed-couch, as a necessity for human survival and development, must be fully considered in the course of thousands of years’ development. In this paper, the evolution of China’s bed, summed up the concept of human design principles in which the embodiment, with a view to China’s bed design and inheritance to provide new ideas. Keywords: Humanized design · Bed design · China

1 Introduction With the progress of society and the development of mankind, people gradually have a demand for humanized bedding. The human-oriented design concept is the inevitable trend of the development of the times. Although China is still at a disadvantage in the humanized design of bedding, when it comes to humanized home design, we first think of Nordic design. However, China has advocated “Tian Ren” since ancient times. The idea of “Oneness”, the human-oriented design concept in the long-term bed development and evolution is naturally deeply imprinted in the blood of the famous people, and it is worthy of our in-depth study. Therefore, on the basis of absorbing and learning international advanced technology and excellent design theory, we must carry out the exploration of the design theory of our own nation and country, and provide new ideas for the future application of humanity in design in the process of studying classical design cultural concepts.

2 Humanized Design Concept 2.1 The Concept of Humanized Design Humanization means that relevant departments and units strive to achieve perfection from the perspectives of ergonomics, ecology and relations when designing product solutions, respecting people’s individual needs, so as to truly realize the human-oriented purpose of science and technology, and make users very convenient and comfortable to use. Is © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 474–482, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_56

Investigation of the Application of Humanized Design Concept

475

the scientific realization of the various needs of consumers [1]. The purpose of design is to meet the needs of people. The so-called humanized design is to put people first in the design process, highlight the role of people, and ensure that the designed industrial products meet the actual needs of people. Specifically, the concept of humanized design means that the designer gives the design object by injecting “humanized” factors in the form and function of the design with full consideration of the user’s ability, behavior, physical and psychological needs. “Humanized” character, so as to design products that are reasonable, rich and diversified in terms of technology, emotion and style. Humanized design is a design method that is increasingly being promoted in today’s social production, because it brings convenience and comfort to human life. By optimizing products, designers can respect and satisfy people’s psychological and physical needs and spiritual pursuits, achieve the perfect and harmonious combination of people and objects, and people and nature, embodying the core of human-oriented design. It is the highest design pursuit in the sense of human existence and makes human social life better (Fig. 1). 2.2 Principles of Bed Humanized Design

Fig. 1. Classification of bed humanized design principles

2.2.1 Comfort Comfort is the primary consideration in the design of a bed. One third of a person’s life is spent on the bed. Therefore, the comfort of a bed is directly related to the quality of people’s life. Comfort includes two aspects: visual comfort and tactile comfort. Visual comfort requires designers to design the appearance, color, and shape of the interior space in line with the aesthetic and psychological feelings of customers. Tactile comfort requires designers to select space materials or furniture selection and detail processing to make users comfortable, relaxed, and pleasant to use. First of all, comfort must be in line with humans and machines. As long as it is a product used by “humans”, it should be considered in ergonomics. The size, shape, and material of the bed are all factors that affect comfort, so it must be considered in the design. For example, according to research conducted by Japanese scholars, the width of the bed directly affects people’s sleep-turning activities. People who sleep in narrow beds will turn over more often than in wide beds, so it is natural to sleep in narrow beds. I can’t sleep soundly. The physical

476

L. Xu et al.

activity space of a person during sleep is larger than the body width itself. Taking into account the need for turning over, the minimum bed width should be 70 cm. Smaller than this size will seriously affect the quality of sleep. For example, the train sleeper, which has been criticized for a long time, has a hard sleeper width of only 60 cm and a soft sleeper width of only 70 cm, causing great discomfort to passengers. Therefore, comfort is the primary consideration when designing a bed. 2.2.2 Functionality The basic function of a bed is to meet people’s sleep needs. If a bed cannot guarantee people’s sleep quality, psychological and physical symptoms such as anxiety, depression, headaches, and palpitation will occur, which will negatively affect people’s recovery from their own diseases effect. Therefore, the bed must first have the function of “aiding sleep and restful sleep”; secondly, from the perspective of function, analyze the daily behaviors of different groups, and integrate some functions that can satisfy people’s activities into the bed. Such a bed is not only It can meet the basic requirements of sleep, but also meet the needs of people’s daily activities, such as sitting. If the product category is divided into professional products and general products, professional products will have more consideration in ergonomics, which is more focused on the physiological level; while general products must take into account the psychological level. Many meet the needs of humanity. The function of the current bed is no longer single. What people need is no longer just to provide people with rest, but also to provide convenience, not only to provide people with a sense of comfort, but also to give people a psychology of value for money Feeling satisfies people’s need for versatility. 2.2.3 Security The people-oriented principle is to fully affirm human behavior and spiritual needs, and adhere to and maintain people’s basic values [2, 3]. As a sleep tool used by people at night, the safety of the bed is also a principle that must be considered. This safety not only refers to physical safety. For example, the guardrails of children’s beds and dormitory beds are designed to prevent users from falling down; safety also refers to psychological safety. In the dark environment at night, design When designing, the teacher must provide users with a safe living environment, which is also the embodiment of the designer’s humanized design. 2.2.4 Aesthetics With the rapid economic development, after people meet the basic practical functional needs, the pursuit of art has become a higher-level pursuit. People’s needs have become more personalized. The pure product functional needs can no longer satisfy human beings. Personal tastes and hobbies, the pursuit of fashion, and the psychology of showing individuality influence people’s choice of products. Consumers’ needs have gradually become diversified. Monotonous design styles are difficult to maintain different levels of product needs. Product design is based on “human commonness”. Transformation from “centeredness” to “centeredness of human personality”. Frog Design Company believes:

Investigation of the Application of Humanized Design Concept

477

“Consumers are not only buying products, they also purchase the value, experience and self-awareness contained in them in a pleasing form.” An aesthetically pleasing bed not only allows users to obtain visually the spiritual enjoyment of beauty can also decorate and beautify the interior space, and enhance the artistic sense of the entire interior space. The beauty of the bed is determined by factors such as shape, decoration, color, material, etc. Products such as bed have a clear material function purpose, and these material functions need to be realized with the help of a certain form. In turn, the function of the form is also very clear. Some specific forms realize some specific functions. The shape of the furniture product cannot be completely designed according to the designer’s wishes. The surface of the bed used for sleeping must be flat and cannot be designed to be inclined or uneven. To make it beautiful, we can focus on the design of the bed. Headboard and other parts as well as decoration, color, top.

3 The Application of Humanized Design in the Evolution of Chinese Beds 3.1 The Concept of Humanized Design

Fig. 2. The evolution of the bed in China

In the Paleolithic period, people generally slept in low stone cave nests. People spread natural materials (such as small rocks, bark, weeds and animal skins) on the ground to keep cold and warm. This is the original form of the “mat”. In the Neolithic Age, people became accustomed to the lifestyle of building wood for nests and living near the water, and people invented Tukang, which has the functions of removing dampness and cooking (see Fig. 3). From the discovery of the Banpo Village site in Xi’an about six to seven thousand years ago, Banpo people began to build a rectangular soil bed about 10 cm high with soil and stones in the middle of the house. This is the embryonic form of the bed (Fig. 2). During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, human beings left the cave life. People realized that the simple soil bed was not enough to resist the cold and humidity. They began to spread thatch, leaves, wood or animal skins on the soil bed, and the shape of the mat appeared (Fig. 4). The appearance of Xi also opened up the ancient lifestyle of sitting on the ground centered on seats. At this time, the bed is not exclusively for sleeping, but also serves as a seat and bedding. In addition, relatively mature painting techniques

478

L. Xu et al.

have appeared in the Shang Dynasty, and they have been applied to the decoration of furniture such as beds and tables.

Fig. 3. Tukang in the stone age

Fig. 4. The appearance of the seat

During the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period, the bed began to be used as a sleeping utensil. The earliest bed-shaped object found in a large Chu tomb at Changtaiguan in Xinyang is painted with delicate patterns, surrounded by railings, 6 short feet, with upper and lower openings on both sides, the bed surface is a movable drawer board, and the height is only 19 cm. The whole body is decorated with painted lacquer. This kind of fenced bed is designed by people adapting to the living habit of sitting on the floor. People put a desk on the bed, and they can write, read, and eat on the bed (Fig. 5). In the Qin and Han dynasties, people used the height of the bed to show their status. Ordinary people mostly sit on the floor, while high-status people sit on special “couches”. In addition to rest and sleep, they are also used as tools for social gatherings and festivals (Fig. 6). The evolution from sitting on the floor to sitting on the foot is a major change in the history of furniture. During this period, furniture decoration developed rapidly. After lacquer decoration, some are also equipped with gilt and copper ornaments, which is more luxurious. In addition, various jewelry and glass are often used as decorative materials for furniture.

Fig. 5. Fence bed

Fig. 6. The couch that appeared in the portrait bricks of the Han Dynasty

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, ethnic minorities from northwestern China moved into the Central Plains and brought tall furniture that sat down on their feet. This was a transitional period in the history of ancient Chinese furniture. The bed changed from low to high, and the height and width were enlarged, liberating Kneeling, sitting and lying down, people begin to enjoy a natural and comfortable life (Fig. 7). The height of the bed drawn in the “Nu Shi Zhen Tu” by Gu Kaizhi, a famous

Investigation of the Application of Humanized Design Concept

479

writer in the Jin Dynasty, is about the same height as it is today, with the addition of a bed top, a bed net, and a removable multi-folding multi-folding screen. The use of tall furniture in the Tang Dynasty made sitting with feet down gradually become the main sitting posture. As a result, the seat function of the couch has been constantly weakened, and the bed has gradually become a device exclusively for sleeping and sleeping. People in the Tang Dynasty were open-minded and willing to accept new things, so the design of the bed took comfort and beauty into consideration (Fig. 8). The upper part of the bed of the big family often has a long silk curtain or screen, and there are detachable low screens all around. The Song Dynasty advocated etiquette. The Taoist philosophy of “ruling by doing nothing” is prevalent and advocating natural Taoism. The design of the bed is very practical and the shape is beautiful and concise. The improvement of manufacturing skills and modeling techniques in the Ming and Qing dynasties, people’s higher requirements for furniture production, and Zheng He’s voyages to the West to promote cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries brought the Chinese bed to the golden age of manufacturing technology and plastic arts. In the early Ming Dynasty, the craftsmanship level was greatly improved on the previous basis. The skill of lacquer bed in the middle and late Ming Dynasty also reached its peak. People have great demands on the production and design of home furnishings, and the peak lasted until the early Qing Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, the handicrafts and commerce developed, and the bed was characterized by ingenious design and exquisite decoration, which had high aesthetic value (Fig. 9). There were many types of beds in this period, and the types that best represented China’s beds appeared-screenless beds, Luohan beds, canopy beds and Babu beds.

Fig. 7. Sit down

Fig. 8. The application of beds in Tang Dynasty in banquets

3.2 The Application of Humanized Design Principles in the Evolution of Chinese Beds From the above changes in the historical background, function, shape, and decoration of the beds in various dynasties in China, we can see the role of “people” in the development of the entire bed. Although the concept of humanized design concept was really put forward in modern times, it has always existed in the blood of Chinese bed design. From the stone age bed only to meet the basic physiological needs of warming from the cold, to the multifunctional bed formed by people’s open mind in the Tang Dynasty, to the aesthetics of the modern new Chinese bed, all embody the humanized design concept.

480

L. Xu et al.

Next, the author will use several cases to illustrate the application of humanized design concepts in the development and evolution of Chinese beds. People in the Tang Dynasty made an organic combination of beds and couches, and this form has been used even today. After tables and chairs appeared in the Tang Dynasty, people used to sit on chairs for daily life and food, and no longer move around on the bed. The bed is made from a kind of multifunctional furniture and turned into a special thing for sleeping and sleeping. The chaise couch is a couch for women in ancient times. Now many people like to place a European-style chaise couch in their homes. In fact, it originated from the Tang Dynasty. It was based on the original couch with a fence and engraved with exquisite carvings. The shape is exquisite, suitable for sitting and lying, and it is naturally luxurious. The back of the sofa is curved, and the back and the armrests are connected as a whole. You can sit on the cushion and relax the body and recline, which is deeply loved by ancient women. The “chaise concubine” couch surface is relatively narrow and is built based on the petite body of a woman. At this time, there is already a man-machine and individualized mind. The fine polishing techniques of the imperial concubine couch in the Ming and Qing Dynasties have reached the point of perfection. The fences, handrails, and couch legs are covered with complicated carvings. The design of every detail is more refined, and it is a landscape when you put it freely. It is very beautiful; At the same time, it has practical value. It can be used as a bed or a sofa to meet people’s multi-functional needs for sitting and lying (Fig. 10).

Fig. 9. Canopy bed in Ming and Qing Dynasty

Fig. 10. Chaise couch

The canopy bed is the bed most used by the ancients, and is also known as the most scientific bed. It is usually done by installing columns at the four corners of the bed and covering the top of the bed. There are fences on three sides of the bed, and some have two more columns on the front. We call it a six-post canopy bed. The columns at the corners of the bed are used to support hanging curtains. It greatly increases the privacy of the bed, makes people relax, and meets the needs of comfort; secondly, There are guardrails around the canopy bed, so that even people who sleep on the bed will not be in danger of falling out of the bed again, giving people a sense of security; the uprights hang curtains to keep warm in winter and avoid insects in summer, which meets people’s functional needs; the status is noble People will emboss patterns such as tigers and dragons on the four sides of the bed to meet the aesthetic requirements (Fig. 11). As one of the representatives of the Chinese bed development process, the canopy bed embodies the principles of humanized design in all aspects, so it has been deeply loved by people until now (Fig. 12).

Investigation of the Application of Humanized Design Concept

Fig. 11. Ancient canopy bed

481

Fig. 12. New Chinese style improved canopy bed

A slidable U-shaped table designed by the cutting-edge furniture designer Chen Dari, which improved the traditional Chinese couch, designed a sliding U-shaped coffee table on the couch, breaking the dull feeling of the traditional Chinese couch, not only. The practical dual-use functionality also provides users with an interesting sense of experience. Instead of using the sharpness of traditional Chinese furniture, it has rounded corners. It embodies a more humane concept; Chen Darui also believes that furniture is like a sculpture, which can be appreciated in 360°, with landscapes on all sides, and all the details are “elements of extreme beauty”. The overall design of the couch is only a simple combination of cuboid, which meets the modern people’s demand for simplicity and beauty (see Fig. 13).

Fig. 13. U-shaped table designed by Chen Darui

4 Conclusion The development of the bed is also a microcosm of the historical development of China. We can see the development of people’s material and spiritual living standards. Whether it is changes in shape or function, it contains the role of humanized design concepts. The development of human society is inseparable from the progress of design. The advancement of design concepts affects the development and progress of human society, and all designs are carried out around human needs. Design is the starting point of human civilization, it carries human creation and innovation, and humanized design can better enrich and serve human life [5]. Therefore, humanized design that meets the needs of the public will be one of the inevitable trends in future design development. As a designer, while inheriting China’s long history and culture, he should always grasp advanced design concepts and integrate them into future design activities reasonably.

482

L. Xu et al.

References 1. Mei, J., Xiao, C.: Research on the application of humanized design in residential interior design. Juye 08, 19–20 (2020) 2. Mei, J., Xiao, C.: Research on the application of humanized design in residential interior design. 3. Yu, Q., Hui, T.: Research on humanized design of campus office space. Design 33(22), 139–141 (2020) 4. Keyi, S.: Humanized design concepts under different era backgrounds. Design 21, 58–59 (2016) 5. Ruifeng, C., Feiran, D.: Talking about the humanized design of lamps and lanterns. Ind. Des. 10, 67–68 (2020)

Analyze the Relationship Between Chinese Painting Strokes and Qi on Inspiration of Art Education-A Study on Jian Bi Stroke Xue Hu(B) , Eakachat Joneurairatana, and Sone Simatrang Design Arts Program, Decorative Arts Faculty, Silpakorn University, Bangkok, Thailand [email protected]

Abstract. Chinese painting strokes are part of the unique essence of Chinese painting; it is the cultural carrier for the inheritance of Chinese paintings. Qi is the source of all things and contains the driving force of artistic activities. How to learn Chinese Painting Strokes practical and enlightening? As a unique type of Chinese Painting Strokes, it is represented by Jian Bi Stroke, the relationship between Strokes and Qi is analyzed, and its characteristics are obtained. According to the characteristics of this article, it adopts the Action Research Approach to conduct research. The research objective of this article is to use Jian Bi Stroke and Qi as a research case to analyze the relationship between the two. The experiment aims to create vivid and rhythmic works by combining Jian Bi Stroke and Qi, to clarify the direction in which art education should guide students to learn and train. Furthermore, provide training channels for art education so that stakeholders can appreciate the cultural charm and artistic characteristics of Chinese painting through training and perception. Keywords: Chinese painting strokes · Qi · Art education · Inspiration

1 Introduction As the most expressive strokes in Chinese painting that has formed its unique Formal art language in the long historical development [1]. The inheritance and development of Chinese painting strokes are of significance to art education, but because of the characteristics of Chinese painting itself, most of the learning of Chinese painting requires learners to experience their feelings [2]. How to transform intangible feelings into enlightening and practical art teaching has become a problem to be solved. Jian Bi Stroke is one of the strokes of Chinese figure painting. Tracing the roots of Jian Bi Stroke is described in the ancient book Ma Dai’s Painting Treasure: Jian Bi Stroke is suitable for concise the number of clothing pleats but writing the stroke should be vigorous and powerful; Painters Ma Yuan and Liang Kai mainly used Jian Bi Stroke [3]. The characteristics of Jian Bi Stroke can be drawn from it: concise, powerful, and extremely expressive. The Jian Bi Stroke absorbs the brush technical principles of cursive calligraphy that stroke seems casual and vivid, but concise and vigorous [4, 5]. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 483–489, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_57

484

X. Hu et al.

The effect of the Jian Bi Stroke presents a sense of quickness and strength. The difference between Jian Bi Stroke and most strokes lies in that its brushwork is more flexible and changeable, pays more attention to the fun of freehand, and uses few brush strokes to express richer emotions [6]. Qi is a philosophical concept; Qi has multiple meanings: 1) Lao Tzu believes that Tao produces Qi the interaction of yin and yang. The cause of all things comes down to the fusion and dispersal of Qi and Qi is considered to be the origin of heaven and earth [7]. 2) All movements in nature are the natural effects of Qi. Qi contains yin and yang, in the interaction of yin and yang that Qi continuously circulates and changes. The cycle of all things alternates in the four seasons, forming the phenomenon of harmonious growth in nature [8]. 3) Qi gives vitality to art. With the rhythm of Qi, Chinese painting can have its unique form of expression. Focusing on the painting is regarded as an organic whole [9]. The spirit of the creator’s spirit is transformed into a rhythm, harmony of Qi through the brush, to realize the vividness of the painting. As a representative type of stroke in Chinese painting, this article uses Jian Bi Stroke as an example to analyze the relationship between Jian Bi Stroke and artistic Qi [10], get how to achieve vividness and harmony in art, and draw attention to what needs to be attention in artistic creation and education [11].

2 Research Method The research goal of this research is to analyze the relationship between Chinese painting strokes and Qi that the experiment uses this as a source of inspiration, observes the feasibility and inspiration of Chinese painting creation. To provide practical channels for art creation practice and education. According to this characteristic, this article selects the Action Research Approach for research. The Action Research Approach emphasis research methods that combine actual actions and research. Its main purpose is to explore the workers’ decision-making methods and practice processes that strive to propose practical improvement guidelines, to promote professional improvement, or obtain problems solve. The Action Research Approach includes 1) Planning: to formulate the problem to be solved, and the content includes the overall implementation plan and each specific action step; 2) Action: by the implementation plan, implement flexible action procedures; 3) Observation: collects and observes the process, results, background, and characteristics of the actors of each action program; 4) Reflection: summarizes the current situation observed or felt to describe the process and results of the cycle, make judgments on it, point out the inconsistency between the plan and the result, and form a basic idea and plan the action plan for the next cycle.

3 Planning and Action Process The planning of this research is to first analyze the relationship between Chinese painting strokes and Qi, analyze the role of Qi in artistic creation, and come up with steps on how to achieve the vivid rhythm of Qi. Try to execute the planning steps with two sets of experiments to verify the feasibility of the plan.

Analyze the Relationship Between Chinese Painting Strokes and Qi

485

3.1 Analyze the Relationship Between Chinese Painting Strokes and Qi The connotation of Qi has penetrated literary and artistic creation after a long development process. The ultimate goal of Chinese painting is to pursue the vividness and rhythm of the paintings. How to achieve this goal has always been pursued by artists. Chinese painting strokes are one of the most expressive and formal beauties of Chinese painting. To explore Chinese painting strokes relationship with Qi, can start with Guo Xi’s theory. Guo Xi, in the Northern Song Dynasty outstanding painting theorist and painter, that expounded how the painter’s spirit and the spirit of nature fit together in his aesthetic point of view: 1) When humans observe mountains and rivers, they must be approached, and also take the initiative to grasp. This theory not only refers to the artist’s mutual equality and close relationship with nature in spirit but also refers to the artist’s in-depth observation of the landscape in nature, putting emotions into the nature that landscape under this observation is full of human emotions. (2) In this process, the scenery and the human body are all organic life forms. They all have blood veins (mountains and rivers), hair (trees), and even expressions (clouds). This theory refers to nature and the human communicate spiritually to achieve unity. Many of the words describing mountains and rivers are used to describe the body and spirit of humans but used to express the shape of nature, which shows the vivid spirit in nature. Using human emotions to depict nature and using natural scenery to depict human emotions. Observing nature with a life-like vision, which nature and humans communicate with the same emotion and spirit. Through Guo Xi’s theory, it can be found that the artist’s attitude towards nature and human is communication and respect, hoping to achieve a state of harmony between human and nature, and the insights gained through the communication between human and nature can be used in artistic creation. So how to achieve this goal? There requires the penetration of Qi, the Qi in nature mainly refers to the yin and yang that is the origin of the world. The natural spirit or the Qi of the heavens and the earth is visible. The Qi of humans mainly refers to the vitality and spirit of humans, the vitality of humans is the overall vitality and mental state reflected by the whole of the human body, and the mind also refers to self-cultivation, which is visible. Art’s Qi mainly refers to the Spirit Resonance of the painting, a harmony, and breakthrough of rhythm. Art’s Qi through artist use brushwork expression of humans’ emotion and thought, which is tangible. Nature, humans, and art can communicate with each other. Through the penetration of Qi, a relationship is established between the three. The Confucian believed that Qi is the source of the inner spiritual cultivation of human. Humans gain insights and energy from nature, and at the same time, human activities affect nature. Chinese paintings show the Spirit Resonance between humans and nature with its unique artistic conception and are displayed the painting through brushwork. From this, the relationship between Nature’s Qi, Human’s Qi, and Art’s Qi can be drawn (Fig. 1 shows an example). 3.2 Realization Process of Spirit Resonance of the Painting The Qi of the artistic creation of Chinese painting is the vivid, rhythm, and artistic conception of the painting. The transformation of artistic Qi into tangible requires 1. The creator’s spirit and thought, 2. Obtaining insights and feelings from nature, 3. Skilled

486

X. Hu et al.

Fig. 1. The relationship between Human’s Qi, Natural’s Qi and Art’s Qi

brushwork as a carrier of expression and realization. Then it is to first have the inner thought and spirit that the subject of artistic creation wants to express, find the carrier that the thought and spirit from nature, outline the Qi rhythm and dynamic draw between the two, and choose the appropriate brushwork to express. The strength of the brush is an inner spirit that is also the manifestation. Then the steps to summarize the Spirit Resonance expression of Chinese paintings are (Fig. 2 shows an example):

Fig. 2. The steps of spirit resonance expression of Chinese paintings

3.3 Action 1) The creator wants to express the harmony between humans and nature in Chinese paintings, in harmony with nature, and to respect the spiritual thought of nature. 2) Extracting mountains from nature as samples, to better reflect the integration of human and nature, at the same time selecting human body shapes as samples. Select two sets of mountains and human body shapes of pictures. 3) Combine the mountain and the human body to outline the rhythm of Qi.

Analyze the Relationship Between Chinese Painting Strokes and Qi

487

4) As a representative type of Chinese painting strokes, Jian Bi Stroke is characterized by simplicity, boldness, and force that different from the previous thin and soft strokes. Jian Bi Stroke mostly in the form of splashing ink and the brushwork is flexible and concise. But it has a strong sense of Zen. Use Jian Bi Stroke to describe the cycle and blending of Qi.

Fig. 3. The first group of Chinese painting creation experiment

Fig. 4. The second group of Chinese painting creation experiment

4 Observation and Reflection The process of selecting the shape of the mountain and the human body in the first group is randomly matched which is no purposeful selection. In the random pairing, the Qi painting is created according to the morphological characteristics of the mountain and the human body. It is difficult to control the structure and rhythm. To express the

488

X. Hu et al.

harmony and unity between humans and nature, the cycle and rhythm of the internal Qi painting play a decisive role in expressing these with Jian Bi Stroke. The second group selects the mountain and the human body shape after a purposeful screening, the mountain shape matches the human body shape better. When creating the Qi painting, the rhythm and dynamic can be expressed more accurately, and in the end, the brushwork is more coherent and bolder when describing the expression with Jian Bi Stroke. After conducting creative experiments on the first group and the second group, it was found that the final painting effect of the second group can better express the creator’s ideas and spirit that the painting is more Zen. The mountains and the human body in the first group are randomly matched which is difficult to conceive the structure diagram of Qi. The selection of the mountain and human body in the second group was selected, the process of integration was smoother, and the expression of thoughts and themes were more prominent. It can be seen that the shape of the mountain and the human body has a great influence on the creation of the painting and the expression of the spirit of the theme, so in the following research and creation, the selection of the shape of the mountain and the human body needs to be screened purposefully, and the matching degree needs to be higher.

5 Conclusion Through analysis that the relationship between humans, nature, and art is obtained. The vitality contained in nature is naturally affected by human activities that humans gain spirit and vitality from nature. The spirit and vitality of nature are expressed by humans through art. However, humans, nature, and art need to be integrated through Qi. So, human’s Qi and natural’s Qi interaction effect, realize the vivid rhythm of the painting through the Art’s Qi. And get the steps to summarize the Spirit Resonance expression of Chinese paintings are 1) The thought and spirit of the creative subject; 2) Find a carrier from nature; 3) Draw a Qi rhythm painting; 4) Choose brushwork to achieve. Furthermore, observing and reflecting on the works created by the two groups of experiments provides a practical way to create functional art education. With this kind of inspire art creation, if stakeholders want to realize the vividness of art creation, they need to actively improve their internal self-cultivation that is a longterm training process. In this process, stakeholders actively feel and comprehend the inner culture of Chinese painting that appreciates the inner spiritual core of Chinese painting. This study provides a training sample that can be used for reference. In the following research, the cultural essence similar to Chinese painting can also use this functional creation method to guide and inspire stakeholders.

References 1. Xiangguo, J.: Chinese Figure Painting for Beginners. Foreign Languages Press, Beijing (2007) 2. Shucun, W.: Chinese Folk Painting. Beijing Arts and Crafts Publishing, Beijing (2003) 3. Shuping, W.: Compilation of Chinese Paintings. Tianjin Ancient Books Publishing, Tianjin (1997)

Analyze the Relationship Between Chinese Painting Strokes and Qi

489

4. Xiaorong, W.: Lines of Chinese Figure Painting. Chinese Academy of Fine Arts Press, Hang Zhou (2011) 5. Tingyou, C.: Chinese Calligraphy the Art of Handwriting. China Intercontinetal Press, Beijing (2010) 6. Ze, H.: Ancient Buddha Painting Collection. Hubei Fine Arts Publishing, Wuhan (2014) 7. Sirén, O.: The Chinese on the Art of Painting: Texts by the Painter-Critics, from the Han through the Ch’ing Dynasties. Henri Vetch, Beijing (2013) 8. Medley, M.: A Handbook of Chinese Art for Collectors and Students. Harper & Row, New York (1964) 9. Ci, L.I.N.: Chinese Painting. China Intercontinetal Press, Beijing (2018) 10. Fusheng, F.: Eighteen Strokes of Chinese Painting. Shanghai People’s Fine Arts Publishing House, Shanghai (2017) 11. Jenyns, S.: A Background to Chinese Painting. Schocken Books Inc., New York (1968). https://doi.org/10.2307/597268

Application of Emotion-Based Design in Brand Communication—Taking KFC as an Example Xiaoning Jiang(B) and Fan Zhang School of Design, Shanghai Jiaotong University, No. 800 Dongchuan Road, Minhang District, Shanghai 200240, China {JIALI1,fanzhang}@sjtu.edu.cn

Abstract. Emotion can span the gap of human cognition, bridge cultures and enhance ties. This paper starts with the definition and understanding of emotionbased design, and analyzes the emotion-based design in KFC’s online and offline localized brand communication from perspective of instinct, behavior and reflection through literature research method, case analysis method, naturalistic observation method and interdisciplinary research method. The research covers interdisciplinary subjects, including marketing, design, psychology, etc., and analyzes the integration of disciplines embodied in emotional design, analyzes emotional conveyance and emotional appeal behind marketing in a more perceptual manner and pursue a new perspective for design and explore the reason for successful localization of a brand from connection between the emotion of users and communication of brand. Keywords: Emotionalization · Emotional design · KFC · Localization · Brand communication

1 Function and Method of Emotional Design 1.1 Function of Emotional Design The word “emotional design” invented by Donald A. Norman in Emotional Design in 2005 opens a gate for design from a new perspective. It is mentioned in the book that in the early 1990s, Masaaki Kurosawa and Shikashimura Xiang found in their experiments that emotion could change the way cognitive system works, i.e., “beauty can remedy the deficiency of people’s function” [1]. The author thinks this theory actually proves that the sense of aesthetics embodied in design can transform rational emotion into perceptual emotion, and directly create an intersection between design and emotion, which is beyond the boundary between designers and users and narrows the gap between them. Owing to this theory, it is extremely urgent to study emotional design. At present, any successful design cannot be realized without emotional research. Almost all designers are intentionally or unintentionally exposed to emotional design although they don’t have such idea. A wider theoretical popularization can greatly improve the utilization and inheritance of design. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 490–497, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_58

Application of Emotion-Based Design in Brand Communication

491

Emotional design has permeated into all walks of life and appeared in every meaningful design and communication. In the Industrial Age, it is no longer a trend for machine to replace human being in future, but science and technology will collide with the horizon of mankind. However, only design cannot be replaced, because emotion is the soul of design. Only by creating resonance can “we remember forever, and there must be echoes.” The machine may probably make design by instinct - a delicious fried chicken, but it cannot bring us a reflective design - a memory of enjoying KFC in childhood. In KFC, what can be achieved is far from everything that remains the same on the menu. A delicious meal may be impressed deep in mind for a month. However, the memory with friends and family members as well as the moment of laughter and reunion in the restaurant are the highest design. It is emotional and permanent, regardless of race and country. Under the trend of start-up venture, the transnational catering industry is developing rapidly. The originally dominant catering brands are now exposed to great challenge from the emerging brands. However, still on the top of list in 2020, KFC shows its unshakable position in the community of catering brands across China. This essay is designed to analyze the emotional design method adopted in KFC’s existing marketing strategy, highlight its role in localized communication of brand, and draw lessons from it. It is expected to apply it to the overseas communication of domestic brands, and finally convey Chinese culture through the media of emotion. 1.2 Methods of Emotional Design Based on the reflection on emotional design concluded by Norman, it is well known the emotional design is associated with consciousness, feeling, emotion and perception, and for different groups of people, only by designing of various products can we manage to satisfy their extensive demand. In emotional design, a designer should not seek to satisfy the emotion of everyone, and should try to adopt analogy in multiple situations. In design, it is essentially important to give priority to emotional value of product. For instance, in the opinions of later generations, diamond is “the largest marketing fraud in the 20th century”. For people in modern times, a diamond can signify faithful love. A diamond is more an emotional gift and sincere dedication than a stone. In addition to the classic advertising slogan, in fact, the presence of diamond is also a means of marketing. Motivated by De Beers’ advertising campaign in 1980s, the binding between diamond ring and surprise has once again stimulated the rising sales of diamond. When we think of diamond, the wonderful occasions, weddings and delight will flash into our mind, as if the peak of emotional advertising marketing design. Emotional design gives products emotional value beyond the commercial value of products, and bring us miracles [2]. For the same purpose of emotional marketing, it is necessary to capture emotion accurately among some groups of people. When diamond is out-of-stock, challenge against each other to occupy the stores has become more and more fierce. But in recent years, DR diamond ring has stood out above all the other competitors. When you visit its official website or enter its store, you will catch sight of an advertising slogan “Only one diamond customized for a man in his lifetime”. On the basis of love implied by diamond ring, a word “unique” is added to the advertising design to arouse customers’ aspiration for consumption. In the light of new idea, fast food love and materialistic

492

X. Jiang and F. Zhang

desires are increasingly popular and the demand for security and the expectation for love are getting stronger and stronger. According to the marketing philosophy of DR diamond ring, emotion design is followed for advertising slogan to emphasize women’s yearn for security. With the emotional core, follow-up promotion and marketing will get twice the result with half the effort. Finally, a successful emotional design is not once for all. Although the sales of diamond has already shown the marketing is driven by successful emotional design, the sales of crude diamond dropped by 26% in 2019, with little prospect of recovery in 2020 after the rise of artificial diamond and the disclosure of marketing fraud. It is obvious that one-sided emotional design seems weak for different groups of people, changes of times and updating of ideas, so we should constantly change our brand concept and communication means based on emotional design. From the perspective of emotional design, the performance is not limited. It either reflects human nature to induce contemplation, sets up circumstances to increase sense of substitution, raises spiritual height to arouse resonance, or involves national background to stimulate cultural pride, etc. There remain many undiscovered subjects worthy of our exploration, and the most importantly, it is necessary to establish the personality of brand, build emotional connection with customers, and give value beyond brand products. In the trend of emotional design, we can predict that the audience of marketing will become younger and younger in the future, and the burden of pressure nowadays is required to be released through emotion. At the same time, the accelerated rhythm will lead to less individualized communication. It is necessary to enhance self-affirmation and identity. Therefore, emotional design is not only the first step for business planning, but also the second step for pressure relief and soul therapy [3].

2 Emotional Design in KFC’s Communication According to “Internet Weekly & eNet Research Institute Selection Ranking List”, Tricon Global Restaurant, Inc., to which KFC is affiliated, ranks first in the 2020 China Catering Service Ranking List. In the shadow of pandemic, KFC managed to rank the third after Starbucks and McDonald’s in the “2020 Most Valuable Catering Brand in the World” released by Brand Finance, a British organization, in August 2020. KFC can be found everywhere in Shanghai, at least one KFC in almost every large and medium shopping mall. As a successful localized enterprise in China, the emotional design is indispensable when you keep your eyes on its development history and marketing strategy. This essay is designed to analyze the outstanding aspects of KFC’s brand from Norman’s three levels. 2.1 Emotional Design Based on Instinct Level in KFC Communication Process The instinct level is aroused based on human physiology. In a KFC store, it refers to food taste, appearance, etc. At the instinct level, customers prefer the purpose demand, i.e., “what to eat”. Therefore, the empathy and localization of KFC’s emotional design is reflected during brand communication in this stage.

Application of Emotion-Based Design in Brand Communication

493

In China, breakfast is the most important. After the changes of times, breakfast has been diversified upon evolution. After KFC entered China, it was keenly aware of distinctive preference of local people and offered to serve the KFC breakfast from 6: 00 to 10: 00. When developing new products, KFC set up the China Health Food Advisory Committee to integrate Chinese traditional elements into Western food and beverage, and add Chinese characteristics while retaining the original style of KFC brand. In 2002, KFC introduced porridge for the first time. With emphasis on nutrition, KFC breakfast package is combined with Western breakfast to win high praise by shaping difference from other breakfast stores and embodying local Chinese culture. Encouraged by the previous foundation, KFC launched “Old Beijing Chicken Roll” in 2003, which is a wonderful combination of sauce of Old Beijing Roast Duck (a famous local delicacy in capital of PRC) and chicken, with a Chinese regional name added to highlight its localization charm. When they hear the word “old Beijing”, customers will recall a familiar taste that can be traced back to their childhood, even reunion of their families to eat roast duck in Beijing quadrangle courtyard. To achieve such effect, KFC must have concentrated its efforts on field investigation for emotional design. It cannot be realized without a profound understanding of local culture and life. In the light of successful emotional design, KFC has diversified tastes to satisfy different groups of customers. So far KFC has launched breakfasts favorite to customers from all walks of life, such as “stuffed pancake rolls”, “big rice balls”, “breakfast panini”, etc. They are all popular breakfast to local residents and can wake up their memory of breakfast [4]. The most important Chinese festivals include Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Spring Festival and other auspicious days that convey a message of reunion. KFC launched new products for these festivals with traditional cultural significance, such as the fresh meat moon cakes first launched in Mid-Autumn Festival in 2017. Moon cake is a snack with Chinese characteristics that is not available in the West, but it is an extremely important implication in China. KFC well knows the value and embarks on its marketing campaign. The brand is gradually localized and deeply rooted in the hearts of people one festival after another. From initial surprise to familiarity, and then to habits, even when the festival is approaching, customers will expect KFC’s new holiday products that year, wait for the festival, look forward to KFC, and finally bind KFC with the festival, and get engrossed in their emotion. Only with emotional products can emotional marketing be launched based on the original factors of products. KFC fills emotional connotation into its products to enhance the emotional value in the heart of customers. The customers will naturally pay extra “emotional expenses” for KFC products. Meanwhile, food is already the carrier of emotion, arousing resonance from customers and increasing KFC’s “native” cognition [5]. 2.2 Emotional Design Based on Behavior Level in KFC Communication Process Please check that the lines in line drawings are not interrupted and have a constant the behavior level is based on human behavior. KFC’s efforts on marketing are visible both online and offline. The emotional design at behavior level is mainly composed of keynote and small details.

494

X. Jiang and F. Zhang

The main audience of KFC’s offline stores are young people, followed by middleaged people. KFC’s marketing strategy aims to build localized image of its stores in China. Contrary to McDonald’s marketing strategy, KFC is working hard to highlight kinship, family and friendship in all round manner. Based on the original audience, the old aged customers ignored by Western restaurants have been attracted in an effort to avoid competition with other Western catering brands. In KFC’s offline environment, doors are available everywhere to present open space, creating a relaxed, transparent and positive atmosphere emotionally, so that customers can enjoy KFC foods without restraint. In the space design, the semi-curved shape is employed to create the lightness of space. In the flexible proportion of space, sofa seats and hard seats, counter seats and square tables are available for customers to choose at their discretion. There is no partition between most seats to improve the utilization of space and the convenience for people when they are walking. The layout of tables and chairs lays a good foundation for audience of all ages. The tables and chairs in KFC stores are made of wood and mostly decorated black and white to avoid the monotonous space. The contrast between black and white enhances the pleasure of color indoors. The decorative elements are oriented by mostly images of food and slogans about food to give customers emotional hints when they enter KFC stores. The illustrations and carefully designed words can add color to interior space, increase the inner charm and human touch, and improve the relations with customers. The illustrations and slogans are all titled in English to adapt customers consciously to western dining atmosphere and convey brand culture. One of the disadvantages of fast food restaurants is that there is significant customer flow at noon and evening, so it is easy to cause crowding and dissatisfaction when customers are ordering food. KFC has found three particular solutions as follows: First, the screen menu above head is used to display the food to be served, some food packages and some orders in an effort to offer more options for customers, imperceptibly promote new products and improve the efficiency of ordering. When customers look up at the screen, they not only know current discount campaign but also kill their time and reduce the anxiety of waiting. Second, customers can directly see what happens in the kitchen behind counter when they order food. It is helpful to assure safety and enhance the interest and appetite of customer when they wait in line. Third, in addition to ordering at the counter, self-service ordering is available to make it convenient for customers to order and take food. The new products, promotions and other advertising message are displayed on the screen homepage of automatic ordering machine. It will give double impression on customers effectively once again and enable some customers to order food on their own from an emotional point of view so as to strengthen their self-identity. There is a sauce and straw self-service area beside the counter to reduce the workload of KFC staff and complaints against them, give customers a sense of trust, and enable them to choose for themselves, thus enhancing their favorable impression. KFC’s online ordering is also outstanding. Unlike “McDonald’s+”, “i McDonald Ordering” and “i McDonald”, KFC has only one main applet and one key software to significantly reduce the impatience and psychological burden of customers. For many brands, the decision made by a customer is complicated and important. By virtue of a

Application of Emotion-Based Design in Brand Communication

495

psychological process, few online software can guide customers to have simpler psychological expectations. In the online ordering interface, KFC selects red to keep harmony with overall tonality and atmosphere of offline brand. There is only the largest buttons of “deliver to home” and “pick it up at store” in homepage. The ordering interface gives priority to discount products. The smooth and simple process can satisfy the emotional appeal of customers for “one for all”, so that customers will have a good first impression on KFC. At the connection of different interfaces, KFC adopts hamburger production process as its waiting icon. The design style of skeuomorphic icon will prompt customers to associate it with food in the store, reduce the impatience of customers in ordering, and give customers pleasure and familiarity. When customers order food, there will be interactive design of small icons, i.e. a ball will hit into the box in the lower left corner to show that the food is ordered. The dynamic process will enhance customers’ sense of pleasure and accomplishment, and create an easy-to-understand and easy-to-use interface in sensory experience to make customers prefer to accept and depend on it [6]. At the behavioral level, KFC manages to address the problems faced by customers in ordering, optimize the emotional experience of customers, and establish a good emotional foundation for KFC brand. In this way, localized marketing is not obvious, but a good foundation can move customers deeply and carry out localization-oriented emotional marketing in a step by step manner. 2.3 Emotional Design Based on Reflection Level in KFC Communication Process The reflection level is affected by emotion, and the changes at reflection level should follow up on the aesthetics, interests, identities, pursuits and morals embodied by the audience of brand. In different native places, it is necessary to deal with the bottom line of different groups of people through cross study in domain of sociology, psychology and other disciplines. The emotional design made by KFC at this level is composed of brand image design and brand marketing design. The brand marketing design can be further divided into advertising design and user experience design. Semiotics theory indicates that consumption in any civilized society is not only material consumption, but also the possession of symbols and the consumption of meaning, i.e., goods can be regarded as symbols, and symbols can replace goods. In the framework of KFC brand image, Colonel Harland Sanders is the image and symbol of KFC. KFC has made full use of it in brand communication. Since Harland Sanders became its logo in 1952, the purpose of change is to transform complication into simplicity to effect deep impression on customers in brand communication [7]. Colonel Harland Sanders of KFC lost his wealth and lived in absolute poverty after World War II, but he did not give up until he succeeded again in 1952. The effort and hardship in the story became the best brand culture and background of KFC. When we look at the white-haired and smiling old man in the logo, it conveys the emotional interaction embodied in the brand, which adds inspirational and positive cultural tonality to KFC. The apron in the brand image represents the cooking style of KFC. It enhances the affinity of the image while spreading the local culture to convey fresh and delicious emotional hints to customers. In the emotional design of advertising, it can be categorized into copywriting and film video. From 2010, KFC’s slogan “Life is so charming” is inspired by “Qinyuanchun

496

X. Jiang and F. Zhang

Snow”, a famous poem of Mao Zedong, in which the original text is “The landscape of our motherland is so charming”. All Chinese customers are familiar with the slogan and well understand the connotation. Close to Chinese culture, it is highly identified and interesting. In the advertising, KFC engages Chinese popular stars and sports elites to represent KFC. Among them, the popular stars in China are mostly young men, such as TFBOYS, who are highly appreciated by teenagers, to narrow the gap from young customers, and reveal excellent appeal and inspiration. For sports elites, the world champions, such as Lin Dan, are invited to enrich the brand image and positioning, reinforce the cultural pride of customers and enhance the favorable impression on local customers in China. Owing to its outstanding spokespersons, KFC manages to satisfy extensive hobbies and needs of different customers. In movies and TV shows, the background of “Life Theater” is often adopted to, in which ordinary families play a leading role with their daily life as main topic, to bring KFC closer to the public and evoke their special memories and associations with KFC brand. According to Norman’s theory, it is emphasized that reflection level is the meaning and feeling of people who are infatuated with the object. It is a continuous interaction. KFC constantly refreshes customers’ memory, cognition and understanding of KFC in video advertising to make KFC brand more representative in communication. Through emotional maintenance, KFC localization is further realized, and customers change from “forced acceptance” to “active understanding” and finally become a part of communication [8]. In the design of user experience, KFC has adopted a variety of schemes to keep pace with the progress of times. For instance, the “Pocket Fried Chicken Store” launched in 2018 is a successful emotional design. As planned, KFC payed attention to the spread of WeChat platform. In this scheme, customers can have their own KFC stores without any entry barrier on WeChat platform, and can get popularity and coupons when someone else buy something in such store. Both customers and buyers can get a lot of discounts by using pocket fried chicken, and friends can buy and sell freely, share stores, create their own store style, and earn popularity. There is ranking of pocket fried chicken stores as well. Emotionally, it opens a window for customers to have pride and interactive experience, so the emotional maintenance between KFC and its customers is enhanced and the competitiveness is significantly improved to make the scheme last forever.

3 Research Conclusions and Future Prospects From KFC’s emotional design, it is not difficult to realize KFC’s profound understanding of Chinese local culture. In other brand communication, it is also necessary to take grasp of the tonality of communication area. Emotional design can be applied in many aspects. Brand communication is only the integration of emotional design. It is actually reflected in graphic design, packaging design, store design, film video design and other design applications of mature marketing for top fast food brand. It is possible for all the interdisciplinary subjects involved in the research to be integrated individually or as a whole, so it is worth studying. There is still room for KFC to improve emotional design online, such as the construction of social culture. Only Pocket Fried Chicken Restaurant remains monotonous. On this basis, comments, messages, likes, evaluation videos and other communities in applet

Application of Emotion-Based Design in Brand Communication

497

and APP that allow customers to express themselves and accept others’ expressions. It is conducive to boosting aspiration for social communication. The customers would like to open KFC software to check messages even if they have no need to order. However, in offline stores, the restaurant aisles are still crowded at noon and evening on weekends. In the overall construction of store, we can refer to Starbucks’ horizontal queuing to give more opportunity for customers to contact with each other and prevent the aisles from being occupied by crowds. At the same time, we can offer more preferences for customers if they prefer to use self-service ordering machines. KFC’s prospects are still promising. In a short time, the food quality control of KFC will be well performed and will not be caught up or surpassed by other brands. For other multinational brands, we can reflect on the flaws of brand’s emotional design at three levels, recognize and understand the cultural gap in different countries, establish emotional ties to investigate the demand of audiences and customers, and enhance customers’ awareness and impression of the brand in an effort to achieve success for KFC in communication.

References 1. Norman, D.A.: Design Psychology 3: Emotional Design. CITIC Publishing House, Beijing (2015) 2. The most wonderful marketing fraud: Diamond proves how ridiculous the world is. S (33), 5–6 (2016) 3. Yushi, N., Yinuo, L.: Emotional research on visual language of advertising design. In: Shenyang Municipal CPC Committee and Shenyang Municipal People’s Government, Collected papers of the 17th Shenyang Science Academic Annual Conference. Shenyang Municipal CPC Committee and Shenyang Municipal People’s Government, Shenyang Science and Technology Association, vol. 4 (2020) 4. Yanchang, L.: KFC’s localization marketing strategy in China and its enlightenment . Shop. Mall Modern. 14, 53–55 (2020) 5. Hong, W.: Research on application of emotional value from the perspective of emotional marketing. China Bus. 23, 35–36 (2014) 6. Yuwan, Z.: Emotional design of mobile app interface. Art Educ. Res. (17), 72 (2017) 7. Xiaoxiu, S.: Research on the brand image construction of KFC in China based on advertising localization. Jiannan Liter. (Classic Teaching House) (09):291–293 (2011) 8. Jia, D.: Analysis of KFC’s localization communication in China. Brand Res, (06):37–38+41 (2018)

Pupil Dilation, Emotion Valence, and Recall of Visual Images Mritunjay Kumar1(B) , Rajesh Ranjan2 , Braj Bhushan1 , Satyaki Roy1 , and Ahmed Sameer3 1 Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, India 2 University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia 3 Indian Institute of Technology (ISM) Dhanbad, Dhanbad, India

Abstract. Visual Images (pleasant and unpleasant) has a significant role in cognitive processing. Visual design disciplines intentionally create affective products and images that influence user’s behavior. Thus, it is vital to understand the human factors involved in processing pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral images. Pupillometry is one such feature to measure the psychological process sensitive to the visual stimulus. This study examines the role of the affective images on pupil dilation and recall. Thirty graduates from a technical institute participated in the study. They were shown pictures that varied across emotional valence (pleasant and unpleasant) and also across categories (child, adult, animal, and landscape). Eye-tracking was used to capture pupil size variation in response to the emotional valence of the stimuli. The participants were later asked to recall the pictures. Bayesian model comparison using Bayes Factors approach was utilized for analyzing data. Results did not produce evidence for the main effect of either emotional valence or picture category; instead, the interaction of both influenced pupil size and recall. The cross-over interaction is discussed in light of the previous finding in the literature. Keywords: Pupil dilation · Human factors of visuals · Affective images · Pleasant and unpleasant images · Recall of affective images

1 Introduction Visuals are a prominent part of our lives. We are constantly bombarded with them through different mediums such as media, television, AR, and VR, to name a few. Emotional imagery influences us and significantly impacts our decision-making [1, 2], making it an important research area. Several studies have endorsed better memory of emotional stimuli [3]. In an eventrelated potential (ERP) study comparing encoding of emotional pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral images, Dolcos and Cabeza [4] found a better memory of emotional events. They found more positive ERPs for emotional images (pleasant or unpleasant) than neutral ones. Further, the recall of emotional images (pleasant or unpleasant) was also better than for the neutral ones. However, some studies do contest strong memory of negative stimuli [5] and explain it on evolutionary grounds. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 498–505, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_59

Pupil Dilation, Emotion Valence, and Recall of Visual Images

499

Systematic examination of pupil diameter while looking at visual images can be an excellent indicator to study somatic reaction during cognitive processing of images. Researchers have reported papillary dilation changes pertaining to sympathetic and parasympathetic systems’ functioning in response to affective (emotional) and cognitive factors [6, 7]. Pupil size has been considered ’a low-level unconscious indicator of affective processing’ [8]. Researchers have also reported pupil size enlargement while viewing pleasant images and constriction while viewing unpleasant images [9, 10]. However, some researchers have reported enlarged pupil size for unpleasant stimuli [11, 12]. Given the importance of visual images on pupil size variation, we also attempted to compare pupil diameter while viewing pleasant and unpleasant images in view of such mixed findings. Thus, the present study attempted to examine the effect of valence on recall of visual stimuli (images) and pupil size variation.

2 Method 2.1 Participants Thirty graduates (22 males and 8 females) from a technical institute volunteered to participate in the study. The mean age of participants was 26.7 years (SD = 4.5). Institute Ethics Committee involving Human Participants of Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK/IEC/2015-16/2/11) duly approved the study. The participants had normal or corrected-to-normal vision, and none of them were using eyeglasses. Those with a background in design or aesthetics were excluded from the study to control visual aesthetics bias. 2.2 Test Stimuli Thirty Stimuli consisted of a pool of 60 images from the Geneva Affective Picture Database [13]. The GAPED pictures are rated according to valence, arousal, and the congruence of the represented scene, and hence we selected images depicting emotion valence (pleasant/unpleasant). These images were classified on two parameters—valence and image category. 40 images were emotional in nature (20 pleasant and 20 unpleasant), whereas the remaining 20 were neutral in nature. Further, these images were classified into four categories (children, adults, animals, and landscapes) based on their visual elements. Thus, ten images showed children, ten adults, ten showed animals, and the remaining ten had landscapes. Of the ten images in each category, five were pleasant and five unpleasant. The twenty neutral images did not have these image categories; rather, they depicted objects such as bags, toothbrush, and so forth.

500

M. Kumar et al.

2.3 Ratings of Images Participants’ were required to rate the image for the intensity of emotion it provoked using the Self-Assessment Manikin method (SAM) [14]. This was required to get access to all the database images available on http://www.affective-sciences.org/researchmate rial. Although SAM is a non-verbal pictorial assessment measuring pleasure, arousal, and dominance associated with one’s affective reaction to the stimuli, we measured only pleasure.

3 Procedure The participants sat at a distance of 65 cm from the Tobii TX300 eye-tracking monitor that had a resolution of 1920 × 1080. Thereafter, 5-point calibration was done. Participants’ were asked not to move their heads during the experiment. After successful calibration, the images randomly appeared on the screen for 5000 ms. Each image display was followed by a response screen where the participants rated the intensity of the emotion depicted in the image using the SAM method (see Fig. 1). The participants were instructed to remember the images for a subsequent memory test. Pupil size data, which served as a predicted variable, was extracted using Tobii Studio 3.2.1 software. Pupil diameter was recorded every 17 ms during the stimulus presentation. Other metrics such as eye fixation and visit were not taken because the full image was defined as the area of interest (AOI). Recall accuracy of the participants served as the second predicted variable. It was defined as the correct recall of the images that were shown to the participants. After exposing all the images and taking their ratings, the participants were asked to recall as many images as possible in three minutes. They were provided with a blank sheet of paper and were instructed to write down the keywords explaining the image. These image-specific details were included for analyzing the result of the recall. Redundant information was excluded from the study. Bayesian model comparison using Bayes Factors approach was utilized for analyzing the data with JASP 0.7.1 software. The null model was used as the base model for the comparison of various models.

Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of the experimental procedure.

Pupil Dilation, Emotion Valence, and Recall of Visual Images

501

4 Results 4.1 Pupil Size Dilation As mentioned earlier, behavioral science research has considered matching papillary response in both eyes. Therefore, we analyzed pupil size data to examine papillary dilation across images. For pupil size, Bayesian model comparison produced extreme evidence favoring the effect of the category of the picture (see Table 1). The model that turned out to be the best, however, included the interaction between the emotional valence of images and category along with emotion and category as predictors. The cross over interaction between picture valence and category can be seen in Fig. 2. Table 2 summarizes the Bayesian model comparison for emotion and category using averaged pupil size dilation for the left and right eyes, and Fig. 3 illustrates pupil size comparison between left and right pupils across experimental conditions. Table 1. Bayesian model comparison for emotion and category using averaged pupil size dilation (both eyes). Models

P(M)

P(M|data)

BFM

BF10

Null model (incl. subject)

0.2

1.011e−24

4.044e−24

1

Picture

0.2

9.403e−25

3.761e−24

0.93

Category

0.2

4.517e−17

1.807e−16

4.468e+7

Picture+Category

0.2

6.802e−17

2.721e−16

6.727e+7

Picture+category+Picture*category

0.2

1

3.534e+16

9.890e+23

Table 2. Bayesian model comparison for emotion and category using averaged pupil size dilation respectively for left and right eye. Models

P(M)

P(M|data)

BFM

BF10

Left eye

Right eye

Left eye

Right eye

Left eye

Right eye

Left eye

Right eye

Null model (incl. subject)

0.2

0.2

4.207e− 17

2.322e−25

1.683e−16

9.290e−25

1

1

Emotion

0.2

0.2

4.275e−17

5.302e−24

1.710e−16

2.121e−23

1.016

22.831

Category

0.2

0.2

7.066e−13

8.585e−10

2.827e−12

3.434e−9

16795.496

3.697e+15

Emotion+Category

0.2

0.2

9.404e−13

2.569e−7

3.762e−12

1.02−6

22352.734

1.106e+18

Emotion+Category+ Emotion*Category

0.2

0.2

1

1

2.428e+12

1.552e+7

2.377e+16

4.306e+24

502

M. Kumar et al.

Fig. 2. Averaged pupil size variation across experimental conditions: valence and category.

Fig. 3. Pupil size comparison between left and right pupils across experimental conditions: valence and Category

4.2 Recall of Images This study also investigated the recall preference of pleasant and unpleasant images. We did this analysis already in our previous study [15]. The summary statistics of the recall of pleasant and unpleasant images based on their categories are shown in Table 3. Unpleasant images had the highest recall, followed by pleasant images. A Bayesian model comparison (see Table 3) produced a Bayes factor of 36:1 against the null favoring a model, including the effects of picture valence, category, and interaction. Since models including a) picture, b) category and c) picture+category did not produce positive evidence. It seems likely the interaction of picture and category best explains the data. There is a cross-over interaction in recall preference (see Fig. 4). Table 3. Bayesian model comparison for recall preference (printed with permission) [15]. Models

P(M)

P(M|data)

BFM

BF10

Null model (incl. subject)

0.2

0.027

0.11

1

Picture

0.2

0.01

0.041

0.383

Category

0.2

0.004

0.014

0.131

Picture+category

0.2

0.001

0.005

0.047

Picture+category+picture*category

0.2

0.958

91.632

35.752

Pupil Dilation, Emotion Valence, and Recall of Visual Images

503

Fig. 4. Recall preference across experimental conditions: Valence and Category

5 Discussion Literature has established that pupil size enlarges with increasing attentional demands and emotional arousal. Our findings are consistent with the current dominant view that pupil size increases in response to emotionally arousing stimuli. There was a difference in pupil size across pleasant and unpleasant conditions except for the landscape pictures. However, this difference was not much pronounced in pictures of adults where there was almost no difference between pleasant and unpleasant conditions. The pupil size enlargement while viewing unpleasant stimuli is consistent with the findings of [11] and [12]. The pattern of pupil size does not show a consistent pattern across valence or category of the images. Changes in papillary dilation has been attributed to the functioning of sympathetic and parasympathetic systems in response to affective stimuli [6, 7]. Bradley et al. [6] have associated papillary changes with emotional arousal and increased sympathetic activity. However, the present study did not examine the arousal level, and thus we cannot derive a conclusion on this ground. Participants’ recall preference brings out a picture that does not interpret the main effects of either picture valence or category; however, a strong cross-over interaction is present. Overall recall preference for unpleasant images of children and adults were remembered better than pleasant ones. No difference was found for the images of animals. Better recall for unpleasant pictures can perhaps be due to the content of the pictures, which depicted life-threatening situations activating a virtual preservation response and can be explained on evolutionary grounds [5]. Landscape pictures, however, were better remembered when they were pleasant, as they are likely to generate more interest. We observe this everywhere. Mean recall of landscape pictures was highest when they were pleasant and dropped nearly to half for unpleasant contexts. This could be because pleasant landscape pictures depicted commonly occurring real-life situations and could be easily brought to memory while unpleasant ones tended to be avoided. This is in line with the findings of [16]. The finding that there is no difference in recall preference for animal pictures, maybe indicating a lack of arousal and thus poorer recall. Consistent with earlier literature, this indicates that emotional aid in the recall is a property of both emotional valence and arousal [17, 18]. Although the results of pupil size and recall preference show a near consistent pattern with enlargement in pupil size, generally indicating better recall. However, it is difficult to come to a firm conclusion due to interaction effects. It seems as if another variable,

504

M. Kumar et al.

i.e., arousal, was more dominant in aiding recall. As mentioned above, we did not systematically manipulate the level of arousal due to the pictures, and assuming arousal aids recall, results of pupil size and recall do not map well on to each other. Further investigation is warranted to see how arousal varies with variation in images’ valence. This will also shed light on why some images are more arousing in pleasant situations while others in unpleasant situations. Studies suggest that luminance also affects pupil size [19]. It is important to note that colored images were used as stimuli in the present study. This could be considered one of our study’s limitations, since researchers have suggested a change in pupil diameter due to color [20, 21]. However, we adopted a repeated measures design to take care of this source of variation. 5.1 Implications of This Study Use of pictures (and other visual stimuli such as videos) is now being encouraged everywhere, from marketing to academics. The American Psychological Association (APA) guideline suggests using graphs instead of tables for effective power-point presentations. Our study is relevant here because it brings out the human factors such as the image recall and the valency attached to that image. Pupil Dilation is another human factor that could be taken into consideration when designing a visual graphic. For instance, after creating the visual representations, designers can do statistical testing to see which images were categorized as pleasant or unpleasant based on the test subject’s pupil dilation. In our study, unpleasant (i.e., painful) pictures of humans were better remembered and had more pupil dilation. Thus, in communicating topics of social relevance, pictures of such a nature can be used. The 1928 Dutch safety poster by Herman Heyenbrock (https://www.pinterest.co.kr/pin/190136415492218346/) had a strong unpleasant visual to create strong recall of safety measures. Other novel studies could be done in the area of mental research. For example, visuals could be designed to support the treatment of dementia. The role of the visual communication designer becomes crucial here. A pupillometry device could be designed to continuously monitor the pupil variation (for example, a google glass) and the associated affective states related to the created visuals. Pictures convey a lot of information that does not require too much conscious mental processing, but they hugely impact our’s lives as they change our perceptions and emotions. Elements and principles of design, for example, shapes, forms, colors, textures, proportions, perspective, the composition of the images, Gestalt principles, to name a few, are the standard cannons to design a well informed visual image to achieve a goal. However, designing to elicit unpleasant effects or pleasant ones depends on context and ethics. For example, who would decide the ethics behind creating an extreme graphic to influence human behavior? Won’t this lead to violent behavior in humans (a cause and effect relationship)? These are some open questions that need to be answered before deciding upon the category of visuals that is to be made.

References 1. Lurie, N.H., Mason, C.H.: Visual representation: implications for decision making. J. Mark. 71(1), 160–177 (2007)

Pupil Dilation, Emotion Valence, and Recall of Visual Images

505

2. Katahira, K., Fujimura, T., Okanoya, K., Okada, M.: Decision-making based on emotional images. Front. Psychol. 2, 311 (2011) 3. Buchanan, T.W.: Retrieval of emotional memories. Psychol. Bull. 133(5), 761 (2007) 4. Dolcos, F., Cabeza, R.: Event-related potentials of emotional memory: encoding pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral pictures. Cogn. Affect. Behav. Neurosci. 2(3), 252–263 (2002) 5. Baumeister, R.F., Bratslavsky, E., Finkenauer, C., Vohs, K.D.: Bad is stronger than good. Rev. Gen. Psychol. 5(4), 323–370 (2001) 6. Bradley, M.M., Miccoli, L., Escrig, M.A., Lang, P.J.: The pupil as a measure of emotional arousal and autonomic activation. Psychophysiology 45(4), 602–607 (2008) 7. Steinhauer, S.R., Siegle, G.J., Condray, R., Pless, M.: Sympathetic and parasympathetic innervation of pupillary dilation during sustained processing. Int. J. Psychophysiol. 52(1), 77–86 (2004) 8. Powell, W.R., Schirillo, J.A.: Hemispheric laterality measured in rembrandt’s portraits using pupil diameter and aesthetic verbal judgements. Cogn. Emot. 25(5), 868–885 (2011) 9. Goldwater, B.C.: Psychological significance of pupillary movements. Psychol. Bull. 77(5), 340 (1972) 10. Hess, E.H.: Pupillometrics. A method of studying mental, emotional, and senosory prrocesses. In: Handbook of Psychophysiology, pp. 491–531 (1972) 11. Tinio, F., Robertson, M.: Examination of two indices of hostility: fantasy and change in pupil size. In: Proceedings of the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association. American Psychological Association (1969) 12. Kawai, S., Takano, H., Nakamura, K.: Pupil diameter variation in positive and negative emotions with visual stimulus. In: 2013 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, pp. 4179–4183. IEEE, October 2013 13. Dan-Glauser, E.S., Scherer, K.R.: The Geneva affective picture database (GAPED): a new 730-picture database focusing on valence and normative significance. Behav. Res. Methods 43(2), 468 (2011) 14. Bradley, M.M., Lang, P.J.: Measuring emotion: the self-assessment manikin and the semantic differential. J. Behav. Ther. Exp. Psychiatry 25(1), 49–59 (1994) 15. Kumar, M., Ranjan, R., Bhushan, B., Sameer, A.: Preferences in recall of pleasant and unpleasant images. In: Chakrabarti, A., Chakrabarti, D. (eds.) ICoRD. SIST, vol. 66, pp. 695–703. Springer, Singapore (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3521-0_59 16. Walker, W.R., Skowronski, J.J., Thompson, C.P.: Life is pleasant—and memory helps to keep it that way! Rev. Gen. Psychol. 7(2), 203–210 (2003) 17. Bradley, M.M., Greenwald, M.K., Petry, M.C., Lang, P.J.: Remembering pictures: pleasure and arousal in memory. J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 18(2), 379 (1992) 18. Canli, T., Zhao, Z., Brewer, J., Gabrieli, J.D., Cahill, L.: Event-related activation in the human amygdala associates with later memory for individual emotional experience. J. Neurosci. 20(19), 99 (2000) 19. Diamond, J.P.: The Pupil. Anatomy Physiology and Clinical Applications. Lowa State University Press, Lowa city (2001) 20. Kohn, M., Clynes, M.: Color dynamics of the pupil. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (1969) 21. Miller, R.L.: The clinical validation of the pupillary response: the effect of chromatic and achromatic stimuli upon pupil responsivity. Doctoral dissertation, ProQuest Information & Learning (1967)

Advertising and Lifestyle: A Brief History of Contemporary Chinese Advertising and Lifestyle Transition Wenhua Li1(B) , Jia Xin Xiao2 , and Jiaying Huang1 1 Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Guangzhou 510000, China 2 Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510000, China

Abstract. Advertising is not only a mirror reflecting social and cultural trends, but also capable of shaping society [1]. In China, transitional advertising industry has been undergoing numerous changes with social ideology, globalization, cultural value transformation, lifestyle and attitudes of consumers. This paper examined how advertising has developed in China since 1978, the year of the Open and Reform Policy; how products and brands were promoted, and the transition of lifestyles during different periods, which will help researchers and advertisers to reflect on the advertising issues and understand the prevailing trends of advertising in emerging markets. Keywords: Advertising · Lifestyle · Experience

1 Introduction Although its economy and society have developed significantly within the last 30 years, China is still recognized as being the largest untapped consumer and advertiser market in the world [2]. Compared to the slow development of social transformation in Western societies, China’s unique situation reveals that its social structure transferred from one form to another during a very short time [3]. The Chinese advertising industry has been developing under such a unique context of economic reform and social transformation. The transitional advertising industry has been undergoing numerous changes with social ideology, globalization, cultural value transformation, lifestyle, and attitudes of consumers [2]. Today, mass media and advertising always discusses about lifestyles. Magazines tell us how to wear clothes properly and how to decorate our homes. Books teach us how to taste wine, cheese and caviar. IKEA not only sells us furniture, but also sells us northern European lifestyles. Lifestyle has become such a popular concept used by brands and individuals in order to express attitudes. With the convenience of the Internet, individuals can easily and frequently express and share their lifestyles on social networking sites. Lifestyle is no longer an individual thing anymore. Just as Featherstone said, lifestyle becomes an individual brand, and a long life project for us [4]. From imitative European and American lifestyles to innovative Chinese lifestyles, the process © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 506–513, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_60

Advertising and Lifestyle: A Brief History

507

of lifestyle cultivation has been greatly influenced by the advertising industry. In turn, mainstream lifestyles have been shaping the way products and services are produced, promoted, and advertised [1]. In order to understand Chinese consumers, we need to examine the advertising history and lifestyle transition within Chinese society.

2 A Brief History of Contemporary Chinese Advertising and Lifestyle Transition 2.1 1978–1985: Renaissance of the Advertising Industry Before 1979, advertising was considered a key totem of an advanced capitalist culture and criticized in China’s “cultural revolution”. The “reform and opening” policy was implemented by the central government that reintroduced commercial advertising in 1979. To remove the negative reputation of advertising, Ding [5] wrote an editorial in the Shanghai Wenhui Daily defending the legitimacy of advertising and supporting its use in a socialist way as an effective tool for promoting economic development. This editorial is considered to be an announcement of the beginning of the advertising renaissance. Along with the increasing number of advertisements in newspapers and on television, the government and advertising practitioners also increased their efforts to explain to the public the differences between capitalist and socialist advertising, as well as the advantages of advertising [6]. The central government supported advertising for its functions of linking manufacturers and consumers, bringing in foreign exchange, and transmitting economic information about surpluses and shortages to those who may need it, which could eliminate waste [6]. In fact, along with the transformation of the planning economy into a market economy, the Chinese advertising industry played an important role in promoting the economy and Chinese modernization. At the beginning, the design patterns and styles focused on informing consumers of a product’s existence and benefits. In the 1980s, many of the products advertised in newspapers and magazines were industrial equipment and materials. The discourse of advertising was still influenced by political ideology. In addition to products and machines for factory use, advertisements oriented toward individual consumption were also recognizable, such as food, beverage, and electronic appliances. Outdoor advertisements became enjoyable views of the cityscape. TV commercials were considered as entertainment because TV programs were limited and boring. Before 1978, goods and material supply were centrally controlled under planning economy. Standardized goods at set prices were only sold in a few stores without consideration of consumer demand. In planning the economy, consumer needs, preference and taste were totally ignored. In fact, before 1978, there was no concept of “consumer” [7]. The generation of the 1950s was mainstream consumers during this period. They were “the contradictory generation”. They grew up in a collective economy and everyone was called “comrades” who lived in similar conditions. Their lifestyle was cultivated by an external political and economic environment and internal mentality. The generation of the 1950s felt safe to conform to social mainstreams, so they wore similar, used similar tools, and desired similar lifestyles.

508

W. Li et al.

2.2 1986–1991: Exploration of Modern Advertising From the mid-1980s to the 1990s, the Chinese economy presented a strong momentum of development. Meanwhile, the advertising industry led a prosperous growth that drove media development. After years of absence or supply shortage, durable goods of various brands, materials, styles, and functions appeared in stores, providing rich people with a wide range of options. Diverse consumer groups were formed in order to express various consumer needs. In this period, the concepts of modern advertising design and branding were brought to China. The advertising industry became more self-confident [7]. Various types of advertising were shown to Chinese consumers, receiving both praise and criticism. Their influx accelerated the evolution of modern advertising in China. Scholars and practitioners proposed the importance of “marketing”. They advocated “consumer-centered” advertising, which was contrary to the traditional advertising which centered on manufacturers [8–11]. Compared with informative advertisements for manufacturers, advertising campaigns for consumers focused on creativity and affection, as well as persuaded them with scientific and creative strategies [12]. An increasing number of scholars in the mass communication and advertising fields started to pay attention to creative advertising design, advertising planning, and consumer psychology research [11–13]. This period was the beginning of consumer lifestyle research. Advertisers realized the function of advertising in guiding and shaping new lifestyles and, thus, attempted to understand the lifestyle and psychology of targeted consumers [11]. At the beginning of the 1990s, images of ideal lifestyles and appeals were adopted frequently in order to attract audiences and arouse their possessive desire [11]. The most desirable lifestyle during this period was perceived to be modern and Western [7]. As television quickly became popular, watching TV commercials was accepted as a part of modern lifestyles, receiving a warm welcome from audiences. Advertising no longer appeared only before and after programs. Featured programs introducing fashion, beauty, music, and home decoration started to be broadcast, thereby guiding mass consumption. Young people at that time discarded uniformity and drabness and started to wear fashionable clothes to express their identities. Jeans, pop music, break dancing, and rock bands grew in popularity and were adopted as symbols to show distinction and attitude. Numerous cosmetic advertisements also encouraged women to pursue beauty and express feminine charm. Discourses such as “become a real woman” hinted that women should abandon the old images of Iron Girls in the Cultural Revolution who dressed in androgynous blue garb without female identity and reacquire their feminine beauty and self-confidence [7]. Domestic cosmetic brands and international brands, such as Avon, dramatically changed the lifestyles of urban women. In 1988, the fashion magazine “ELLE” was published in China and began teaching young female readers how to be beautiful, stylish, and fashionable. Some advertisements used Western actors to exude elegant, modern, rich, and romantic lifestyles in European- or American-style settings. Western middle-class lifestyles were novel, interesting, desirable, and fascinating for many Chinese people during this period. They chose to possess the products that Westerners have in order to acquire the lifestyles depicted in the advertisements.

Advertising and Lifestyle: A Brief History

509

2.3 1992–1998: Rational Development of the Advertising Industry In 1992, Deng Xiaoping, the reformist leader of China, visited southern China and delivered various speeches about economic reform and institutional innovation, which accelerated the development of the economy. The advertising industry entered its most prosperous period. Meanwhile, the concepts of scientific advertising and advertising education were introduced. The relationship among product, brand, advertising, and marketing became clear. The situation of short supply was changed to surplus supply. At the same time, mass consumption became weak. In this period, branding became important in stimulating consumption needs. Advertising was used to distinguish certain products from similar products and connect brand value with a consumer’s individual identity. Instead of hard selling, advertising started to create desires and cultivate lifestyles for specific social groups. Economic patterns transformed into a “brand-oriented economy” during this period. Advertising research mainly focused on theories of brand image, corporate identity system (CIS), consumer behavior, and cultural value transformation [11]. CIS emphasizes the distinctive culture and philosophy of a corporation, allowing audiences to identify with a brand and develop a sense of belonging with the brand [15]. CIS transforms a single advertisement design into a whole system of brand image establishment, including design and strategies. The implementation of CIS in the advertising industry resulted in the success of brand marketing. In this period, researchers began to reflect and criticize the negative influence of advertising from a sociocultural perspective, and proposed the social responsibility that advertisers should take [16–18]. During the brand economy age, products were not sold as single functional objects but as part of a lifestyle series. An increasing number of portraits about the ideal middleclass lifestyle appeared in the mass media, shaping the lifestyles of Chinese consumers. Advertising in the 1990s started to establish symbolic meanings for brands, connecting brand values with the cultural values of consumers to stimulate consumption [3]. Advertisements at that time guided daily consumption and shaped the value system. In the mid-1990s, some scholars started to reflect on and criticize the blind worship of Western lifestyle, suggesting that the advertising industry should return to the Chinese culture. Some advertisements used Chinese traditional culture to reflect cultural taste. Those advertisements were welcomed by the public. International brands also used localized strategies to resonate with Chinese consumers. Patriotism was emphasized by advertisers in the late 1990s. Numerous popular slogans expressed patriotic feelings. Meanwhile, traditional cultural values of family, love, and responsibility were used frequently in advertisements. 2.4 1999–2005: Globalization of the Chinese Advertising Industry At the end of the 1990s, the Chinese advertising industry increasingly participated in global competitions. Globalization, demutualization, and professionalization became the leading trends in the industry [2]. After China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO), its advertising industry underwent great changes in its laws, regulations, cooperation, and competition with foreign-invested advertising companies. To train advertising professionals and prepare the advertising industry in dealing with the challenges of the

510

W. Li et al.

WTO, the first advertising college opened in Beijing in 2000 [19]. Multinational advertising agencies replaced local ones and became top-ranking agencies because many multinational corporations preferred to cooperate with them for global advertising strategies. In 2013, the top five creative advertising agencies in China according to new business bills were Ogilvy & Mather, McCann, Saatchi and Saatchi Great Wall, J. Walter Thompson, and Leo Burnett [20]. The debate between globalization and localization strategies became hot. Many researchers had realized that global standards should meet local market needs in order to maximize the effects of advertising [2]. The advertising industry in China faced a unique context of economy, ideology, culture, and value system after China entered the WTO, which brought opportunities and challenges to practitioners. During this period, consumers had increased options in multinational brands because tariffs were reduced. Consumption patterns transformed from subsistence to enjoyment. Consumerism culture has grown from the 1990s and well absorbed by the generation of the 1970s. According to an investigation conducted by Hakuhodo [21] in 2013, the generation of the 1970s perceives money and social status as success. Therefore, the generation of the 1970s works hard to get more money, higher social status and higher quality of living. A product of big brands will attract their interest. They have strong motivation to show their economic capitals through consumption. The consuming pattern of the new rich generation of the 1970s is similar to what Veblen called “conspicuous consumption”. The motive of conspicuous consumption is “a desire to live up to the conventional standard of decency in the amount and grade of goods consumed” [22]. Chinese new rich class acquires their wealth through hard working, while leisure class may acquire fortune from heritage or investment. For the generation of the 1970s, the main purpose of hard-working is to climb up to the top of social hierarchy. After they reach a certain level, the most common way to show their status is luxury consumption and enjoyment. In order to keep their positions safe, they have to use certain brands accepted by the groups they belong to. Many international fashion and lifestyle magazines were brought into China and published a Chinese version, introducing European and American elite styles of living, and teaching Chinese people how to appreciate fashion and choose admiring lifestyles. If the generation of the 70s started symbolic consumption, then the generation of the 80s promoted consumer culture and symbolic consumption. Post-80s needs symbols to prove their success, to identify their social positions and to show elite lifestyles. People distinguish the differences of social relationships and identify their social status through consumption [23]. For the post-80s generation, the best way to express themselves is to buy big brand products and luxury goods. They prefer famous brands, or celebrities used, or well acclaimed products. Elite culture is popular in urban China. We can find various templates of elite lifestyles from advertising, such as descriptions of ideal family patterns, definitions of success and high quality life, fantasy of gender relationship, and stories about human concerns. The images of elite class were used frequently in advertisements to stimulate consumers’ desire of consumption in order to be admired by people around them. 2.5 2006–2010: New Media Reshapes the Advertising Industry The ecosystem of advertising was evolving with the rapidly developing information technologies and changing media landscape. The market share of traditional media was

Advertising and Lifestyle: A Brief History

511

gradually decreased since new digital media arose. The term “digital media” refers to digital, interactive communication, which is mainly associated with the Internet, mobile phones, digital television, and other digital devices [24]. Emerging new media changed the way advertisements were created, disseminated, and perceived. Digital advertising changes the relationship between brand and consumer. In the past, we delivered brand stories and product information to persuade consumers to buy. Today, we appeal to consumers to share brand information. Sharing and participating in brand promotion have become two of the most important purposes of digital advertising. At this stage, the price of products was considered a less important factor for the elite and the middle class because they wanted experience than functions [25]. Even the symbolic meaning of brands can no longer satisfy cultivated consumers. Goods and services are external factors to consumers, whereas experience is personal, unique, interactive, and positive. Consumers can participate in brand activities on the physical, emotional, intelligent, and even spiritual levels [25]. The generation of the 1990s grew up with the development of digital technology, new media, and the Internet, which have brought them new lifestyle and consumption patterns in network society. They depend highly on the Internet. Most of their social activities, studying, and consumptions are carried out online. The information on the Internet upgrades fast, just like the interests of young people. They keep fast changing their interests on things. Some editorials claim that post-90s consumers have a lack of loyalty. It is difficult for marketing to catch their attention and keep brand stickiness. It is also a good opportunity for those innovative brands seeking interesting experience and interaction with their consumers. 2.6 2010–2020 Individual Experience First: Advertising from Information Deliver to Experience Provider In entering a network society where everyone is connected and surrounded by too much information, brand-oriented propaganda is no longer enough to attract consumers’ attention. The traditional massive distribution of advertisements constantly floods users with rarely interesting commercial offers. The excess of irrelevant advertisements leads to disaffection toward the advertised products. Pine and Gilmore [25] depicted the process of business model transformation as an agrarian, industrial, service, and experience economy. Experience is the result of the participation and interaction among people, objects, and environments. The experience economy offers consumers special interaction and creates memories for people. In an experience economy, consumption is not only performed to purchase a product but to consume physical, emotional, and even spiritual experiences. Advertisements are used to express the meanings and symbolic values of brands, connect brand values with consumers and, thus, differentiate the advertised brand from other brands with similar products and services. In an experience economy, brands attempt to provide meaningful experiences to people. Advertisements must be precisely positioned based on cultural backgrounds, personal value systems, consumption behaviors, brand preferences, identities, and lifestyles in order to connect with their consumers. Advertising is turning out to be an experience provider in the digital age. Consumers are expected to acquire meaningful and memorable experiences from brands

512

W. Li et al.

[26]. Network technology with big data system enables advertisers to deliver contextually relevant advertising to certain users [26]. Precise positioning advertisements based on a big data system, with the information of personal cultural background, value system, consumption behavior, brand preference, identity, and lifestyle can well resonate with consumers. A big data system has the power to predict behavior according to personal online records [27]. Great opportunities are offered to advertisers and marketers hoping to understand users’ lifestyles so they can successfully persuade potential customers to purchase. Abundant data are collected and processed by a ubiquitous computing system to analyze and predict our behaviors. In the digital age, understanding users is the primary mission for advertising practitioners. The role of advertising changes from the information deliverer to the experience provider. To provide a positive brand experience to relevant consumers, advertising practitioners must know their consumers well. Consumer insights on more detailed market segments are needed.

3 Conclusion People belonging to different generations enjoy different lifestyles and consuming patterns. Their attitudes to advertisements are different. Before the mid-1980s, most Chinese wanted to own similar products, because they wanted to conform to the general public. Most of their material needs were to satisfy the fundamental needs of being human, including food, clothes, and working equipment. During this period, advertising design was simple and informative. After the mid-1980s, living conditions had been improved and Chinese people wanted a more comfortable life. They desired modern and Western lifestyles shown in advertisements and magazines. They perceived imported or Westernstyle products as better quality and brand reputation. During the 1990s, brand awareness had been developed to stimulate consumption needs. Advertising was used to distinct certain brands of similar products and connect brand value with consumer’s individual identity. Consumerism culture and symbolic consumption emerged and greatly changed consumer behavior and lifestyles in China. The generations of the 1970s and 1980s are typical symbolic consumers, who value meanings more than functions. Entering into network society where everyone is connected and surrounded by too much information, brand oriented propaganda is no longer enough to arouse consumer’s attention. Growing up in affluent economic conditions, the prices of products and symbolic meaning of brands are considered less important for young people; they want special experience. Marketers and advertisers realized the experience needs of consumers and proposed the concept of “experience economy”. Experience economy brands try to provide meaningful experiences to people for an understanding of human value. This study of advertising history reveals the unique process of Chinese advertising development, which is different from American advertising history. Reviewing the history of the advertising industry in China helps researchers and advertisers to better understand the prevailing trends and developmental issues in emerging markets.

Advertising and Lifestyle: A Brief History

513

References 1. Sivulka, J.: Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes: A Cultural History of American Advertising: A Cultural History of American Advertising. Cengage Learning, Boston (2012) 2. Hung, K., Tse, C.H., Cheng, S.Y.: Advertising research in the post-WTO decade in China. J. Advert. 41(3), 121–146 (2012) 3. Chen, S.: Changes in Chinese Citizen’s Advertising Consciousness during the Transformative Period. Xiamen University Press, Xiamen (2011) 4. Featherstone, M.: Consumer Culture and Postmodernism. Sage, Thousand Oaks (2007) 5. Ding, Y.: The restoration of advertising. Shanghai Wenhui Daily, 14 January 1979 6. Stross, R.: The return of advertising in China: a survey of the ideological reversal. China Q. 123, 485–502 (1990) 7. Croll, E.: China’s New Consumers: Social Development and Domestic Demand. Routledge, London (2006) 8. Fang, Z.: Traditional advertising facing challenge. China Advert. (2) (1983) 9. Fu, H.: Brief talk on the relationship of marketing and advertising. China Advert. (2) (1982) 10. Yin, D., Wang, S.: What is modern design? China Advert. (1) (1984) 11. Yu, H., Deng, Z.: The History of Contemporary Chinese Advertising. Hunan Science and Technology Publisher (1999) 12. Chen, L.: Creativity: changing ideas in advertising design. China Advert. (2) (1987) 13. Huai, C., Zhong, Y.: The purpose, requirement of advertising planning and organization structuring of advertising agency. China Advert. (2) (1988) 14. Yuan, J.: The creativity of advertising design. China Advert. (4) (1992) 15. Balmer, J.M.T., Gray, E.R.: Corporate identity and corporate communications: creating a competitive advantage. Ind. Commer. Train. 32(7), 256–262 (2000) 16. Li, W.: What is advertising? China Advert. (1) (1996) 17. Lu, K.: The cultural connotation of advertising. China Advert. (3) (1995) 18. Zhang, X.: The professional ethics of advertisers. China Advert. (1) (1996) 19. Liu, L.: Accelerated Growth of China’s Advertising Industry: 1979–2003. Huaxia Press, Beijing (2004) 20. China Advertising: New Business Investigation of Advertising Agencies in China During 2013. http://www.ad-cn.net/content.php?id=1112. Accessed 30 Dec 2020 21. Hakuhodo: The Dynamics of Chinese People 2013. Wenhui Publisher (2013) 22. Veblen, T.: The Theory of the Leisure Class. Houghton Mifflin, Boston (1973) 23. Baudrillard, J.: The system of objects (1996). Translated by James Benedict. London/New 24. Wei, R., Jiang, J.: New media advertising and its social impact in China. In: Advertising and Chinese Society. Copenhagen Business School Press (2009) 25. Pine, B.J., Gilmore, J.H.: Welcome to the experience economy. Harv. Bus. Rev. 76, 97–105 (1998) 26. van Waart, P., Mulder, I., de Bont, C.: Meaningful advertising. In: Müller, J., Alt, F., Michelis, D. (eds.) Pervasive Advertising, pp. 57–81. Springer , London (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/ 978-0-85729-352-7_3 27. Raine, L., Wellman, B.: Networked. The New Social Operating System. MIT Press, Cambridge (2012)

An Impression Evaluation of Robot Facial Expressions Considering Individual Differences by Using Biological Information Kai Yu, Muhammad Nur Adilin Mohd Anuardi(B) , Peeraya Sripian, and Midori Sugaya Shibaura Institute of Technology, 3-7-5 Toyosu, Koto, Tokyo 135-8548, Japan {al17125,nb17106,peeraya,doly}@shibaura-it.ac.jp

Abstract. The application of the robot services has been in high demand due to the declining birthrate and aging society. However, one robot’s expression could have different perceptions. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to improve the robot’s impression by estimating human emotions using biological information. Here, a machine learning method was proposed to consider individual differences from the impression evaluation and the combined measurements of electroencephalography (EEG) and pulse rate. This method was evaluated based on three patterns of robot expressions: same as human emotion (synchronize), against human emotion (reverse synchronize), and funny facial expressions. A machine learning method was implied to create a classification model to decide the facial expression of a robot that suits users’ preference. As a result, the individual differences were observed and the machine learning approach reached 80% accuracy. Keywords: Emotion · Biological information · Robot expression

1 Introduction In recent years, due to the declining of birthrate and increase in aging population, it leads to labor shortage where the application of the robot services has been expanding in commerce and welfare facilities [1]. To apply a robot for the service, the robot’s facial expressions is an important factor because it could affect people impressions [2]. For instance, robots need to give a good impression to human especially when communicating with elderly people in welfare facilities and nursing care. In addition, robots are also expected to support people’s daily life in the future [3]. Not only that, but it is also necessary for the robot to have good impressions of its facial expressions in terms of business reception for customers in commerce and even in other various situations. However, one robot’s expression could have different perceptions. Therefore, we need to consider individual differences based on human preferences in order to improve the robot’s impression. The perceptions are always said related to empathy. Empathy is an important aspect of human communication where it could help people express and © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 514–521, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_61

An Impression Evaluation of Robot Facial Expressions

515

understand feelings. Empathy is very instinctive and spontaneous where it could not be controlled. In fact, it is desirable to have a robot capable of detecting and emphatically responding to human emotions. In this study, we proposed a method to develop robot facial expressions according to human emotions that change in real-time by considering different perceptions of the individuals. This method used biological information to decide on the three patterns of robot expressions: same as human emotion (synchronize), against human emotion (reverse synchronize), and funny facial expressions. It has been said that biological information such as brain wave and pulse rate varies among individuals. Therefore, it is possible to estimate each human emotions from their biological information measurement. The impression on three patterns of the robot expressions then will be evaluated using “like-dislike” assessment in order to understand human preferences. From the previous study, Yamano et al. determined the robot facial expressions that synchronized with the estimated human emotions. The emotions for the facial expressions were estimated by using voice recognition. The results showed that synchronization reinforces the positive impression of the robot [4]. Kurono et al. and Sripian et al. also proposed the method of synchronizing the expression of the robot with human emotion [5, 6]. Based on this idea, Kajihara et al. recently designed the robot facial expression that is synchronized and inversely synchronized with human emotions which estimated from the combination of the brain wave and pulse rate measurements. The results have shown that the impression of intimacy items can be improved by expressing the synchronize facial expression especially for positive emotion [7]. However, the impression can be different from each person for the same facial expression. For example, when a negative emotion has been estimated, the impression may improve when the robot synchronizes and gives a negative facial expression. On the other hand, when the robot reversely synchronizes and gives a positive facial expression, the impression also may improve for some people. Here, we realized that the system not yet considers individual differences. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to propose a system that expresses the robot facial expression which can effectively improve the impression after considering individual differences due to the human emotional preferences based on biological information and subjective evaluation.

2 Proposed Method To achieve the purpose stated, (1) the facial expression of the robot is determined from the combination of the human biological information measurements of brain wave and pulse rate. The subjects will then rate their impression on the robot facial expression. Next, (2) an optimal facial expression model based on individual preference which considers individual differences by using a machine learning approach. 2.1 Emotion Estimation Using Biological Information Figure 1(a) shows the method to determine the robot’s facial expression. The robot facial expressions were decided based on the emotions estimated from biological information of brain wave and pulse rate. For estimating the emotions from biological information,

516

K. Yu et al.

we referred to the method used by Ikeda et al. and Kajihara et al. [7, 8]. The emotions were estimated from the integration of biological information measurements of brain wave and pulse rate. NeuroSky’s MindWave Mobile electroencephalograph (EEG) was used to measure the brain wave, while Switch Science’s pulse sensor was used to measure the pulse rate. The values measured from both EEG and pulse sensor then were used to classify the emotions according to Russell’s circumplex model as in Fig. 1(b). The y-axis represented the arousal level which calculated and measured from the difference of Attention and Meditation (Attention-Meditation) of the EEG. The Attention-Meditation value is one of the indexes measured by MindWave Mobile EEG. Meanwhile, the x-axis was defined as the valence level which calculated and measured from the pNN50 of the sensor. The pNN50 value is the commonly used heart rate variability (HRV) index [9].

(a)

(b)

Fig. 1. (a) Robot facial expression determine method. (b) Russell’s circumplex model.

2.2 Type of Robot Facial Expressions We include five facial expressions to be evaluated in this study. The four facial expressions were based on Russell’s circumplex model which were happy, sad, anger, and relax. The last facial expression was funny, which determined based on the survey as in Fig. 2. Figure 2 shows a survey result of the expressions that could improve the first impression of the salesperson. Based on Fig. 2, bright expression and full of expression were stated as the facial expressions that could improve people’s first impression. Therefore, we decided to include funny facial expression, since funny is bright and full of expression [10]. For each facial expression, the preferences among people vary which lead to individual differences. Therefore, based on these five facial expressions, we decided to investigate individual differences as in Fig. 3. These five facial expressions of the robot will be determined based on the emotion estimation measured.

An Impression Evaluation of Robot Facial Expressions

517

Fig. 2. A survey on expressions that improve people’s first impression.

Fig. 3. A survey on facial expressions that improve people’s first impression.

2.3 Three Patterns of Robot Facial Expressions Decision Table 1 shows the three robot facial expression patterns to be used as the robot facial expressions: same as human emotion (synchronize), against human emotion (reverse synchronize), and funny facial expressions. In the case of the synchronize pattern, let say the estimated emotion is happy, the robot also expresses happy facial expression. However, in the case of the reverse synchronize pattern, when the estimated emotion is happy, the robot expresses sad facial expression. Lastly, in the case of the funny pattern, the robot expresses a funny facial expression regardless of the estimated emotion as summarized in Table 1.

518

K. Yu et al. Table 1. Robot facial expression patterns. Pattern

Estimated emotion Robot facial expression

Synchronize

Happy

Happy

Anger

Anger

Sad

Sad

Relax

Relax

Reverse synchronize Happy

Funny

Sad

Anger

Relax

Sad

Happy

Relax

Anger

Happy

Funny

Anger

Funny

Sad

Funny

Relax

Funny

3 Experiment 3.1 Overview The purpose of the experiment was to investigate the individual differences in the impression of the robot facial expressions. We asked subjects to listen to the music that evoked their emotions while having their brain wave and pulse rate measured. At the same time, we estimated their emotion by using biological information measurement. Then, the estimated emotion will be used to determine the robot facial expressions in three patterns: synchronize, reverse synchronize, and funny facial expressions. The following experimental procedure details were performed for three subjects. 1. Set up the EEG, pulse sensor, and earphones on the subject. 2. 75 s of emotion evoked music start at the same time with EEG and pulse sensor measurement. The robot facial expression is determined based on the emotion estimated in real-time. 3. Subjects evaluate the impression of the robot facial expression by choosing like or dislike with the mouse regarding the robot facial expression. (The mouse click results will be explained in the machine learning approach.) 4. Rest for 1 min. 5. Steps 2, 3 and 4 were repeated for each pattern. 3.2 Results Figure 5 shows the valence level of the subject when the robot facial expression changes based on the negative music listened, while Fig. 6 shows the valence level of the subject

An Impression Evaluation of Robot Facial Expressions

519

when the robot facial expression changes based on the positive music listened. In Fig. 5, where the emotion has been induced by positive music, all subjects had the highest valence level during the synchronized pattern of robot facial expression. In fact, all subjects result expressed significant differences for each pattern. Meanwhile, according to Fig. 6, where the emotion has been induced by negative music, subject A has the highest valence level during resting state. However, the highest valence level was observed during the funny pattern of robot facial expression for subject B. For subject C, the valence level is the highest during the reverse synchronized pattern of facial expression, but there is no significant difference. From the results, we understood that there are individual differences in the preference for the pattern of the robot facial expressions based on the biological information measurement.

Fig. 4. Valence level when the robot facial expression changes induced by to positive music.

Fig. 5. Valence level when the robot facial expression changes induced by negative music.

4 Machine Learning Approach By considering individual differences using machine learning, we believed that we could have the robot expresses the facial expressions that suit our preferences. In determining

520

K. Yu et al.

individual differences, a classification model was created based on the analysis of the biological information measurement and the results of the subjective evaluation (likedislike of the robot facial expression) using logistic regression. The subjective evaluation data from the impression evaluation was used as the objective variable and the combination of (Attention-Meditation) and pNN50 data were used as explanatory variables for machine learning method as in Fig. 7.

Fig. 6. Machine learning classification model.

The model also shows the individual differences where the preference of subject A is classified on the right side while the preference of subject B is classified in the middle based on the biological information. 4.1 Accuracy Table 2 shows the classification verification was performed to obtain accuracy. In both models of subject A and B, 8 biological information data that correctly classified as “like” and 2 biological information data that are misclassified. In addition, the same results are observed for “dislike”, where 8 biological information data that are correctly classified and 2 biological information data that are misclassified. Based on Eq. (1), both subjects A and B machine learning model learned with 80% accuracy. Table 2. Classification verification. Classification result

Like

Dislike

Like

Correctly classified (TP)

Misclassified (FP)

Dislike

Misclassified (FN)

Correctly classified (TN)

An Impression Evaluation of Robot Facial Expressions

Accuracy (ACC) =

True Positive (TP) + True Negative (TN) TP + False Positive (FP) + False Negative (FN) + TN

521

(1)

5 Discussion and Conclusion The results stated that there are individual differences in the preference on the pattern of the robot facial expressions from the biological information measurement. From the classification model by machine learning, it was found that it is convincing to analyze the individual differences from biological information after understanding the subjects’ preferences, which is considered to give a hint on their personality. In the future, the authors are planning to investigate other machine learning methods in order to compare accuracy and create an optimal model for individuals. In addition, the authors also planning to design and implement the proposed system on the actual robots. Lastly, the number of subjects also need to be increased in order to obtain more robust data since biological signals vary among individuals.

References 1. Nikkei Inc.: Fuji Keizai Group Announces Global Market Research Results for Business and Service Robots. https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXLRSP534619_W0A520C2000000/. (in Japanese) 2. Ueda, S., Nojima, K., Murakado, C.: Gender differences in influence of facial expression on facial impression judgments. Jpn. J. Cogn. Psychol. 7(2), 103–112 (2010). (in Japanese) 3. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications: Necessity and issues of partner robots. http://www.soumu.go.jp/johotsusintokei/whitepaper/ja/h27/html/nc241350.html. (in Japanese) 4. Yamano, M., Hashimoto, M., Usui, T.: Evaluation of human-robot interaction method based on emotional synchronization. In: The Proceedings of JSME Annual Conference on Robotics and Mechatronics (Robomec), 1P1-E08 (2009). (in Japanese) 5. Kurono, Y., Sripian, P., Chen, F., Sugaya, M.: A preliminary experiment on the emotion of emotion using facial expression and biological signals. In: Human-Computer Interaction. Recognition and Interaction Technologies HCII 2019. LNCS, vol. 11567 (2019) 6. Sripian, P., Kurono, Y., Yoshida, R., Sugaya, M.: Study of empathy on robot expression based on emotion estimated from facial expression and biological signals. In: 28th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), pp. 1–8. New Delhi, India (2019) 7. Kajihara, Y., Sripian, P., Sugaya, M.: Proposal of sympathetic robot by sentiment analysis by biological information and synchronization method of facial expression (biometrics). IEICE Tech. Rep. 119(445), 81–86 (2020). (in Japanese) 8. Ikeda, Y., Horie, R., Sugaya, M.: Estimate emotion with biological information for robot interaction. In: 21st International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems (KES-2017), pp. 6–8. Marseille, France (2017) 9. Egawa, S., Sejima, Y., Sato, Y.: Proposal of an estimation method of emotional centroid based on the Russell’s Circumplex model for quantitative evaluation of affect. Trans. Jpn. Soc. Kansei Eng. 18(3), 187–193 (2019). (in Japanese) 10. Sales Lecture, Human Brain: First impression questionnaire about sales staff. https://itoshin. jp/contents-enquete-report-201307/. (in Japanese)

Status Quo and Improvement Design of Nanjing “Qinhuai Gift” Cultural and Creative Products—Take “Zhuang Yuan Lang” as an Example Yongyan Guo(B) and Bingqing Sun East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, People’s Republic of China

Abstract. Nanjing’s cultural and creative industries have made some achievements in recent years and has become a new economic growth point, thanks to its high urban innovation enthusiasm and creative trend of industry development. Under the background of the traditional culture with Qinhuai culture as the core, combining with the characteristic regional culture, the cultural creation industry of Confucius Temple scenic spot in Nanjing develops rapidly. This article will analyze the status quo of the “Qinhuai Gift” cultural and creative brand’s representative IP product, “Zhuang Yuan Lang” doll and series products, to find out its existing problems and put forward relevant suggestions to improve them. Keywords: Nanjing Confucius Temple · Cultural and creative products · “Qinhuai Gift” · “Zhuang Yuan Lang” · Qinhuai culture

With the continuous improvement of the economy and living standards, cultural consumption has increasingly become the focus of people’s attention and an important factor in product selection. In recent years, culture has combined with tourism and other surrounding derivative industries with its powerful energy and vitality, effectively driving the economic development and humanistic construction of a region. Therefore, cultural and creative products have increasingly become the object of people competing for research and design. This article will take the Qinhuai culture as the background of regional cultural and creative products, and take the “Zhuang Yuan Lang” doll and its series of products in the tourist cultural products of Nanjing Confucius Temple as the research object, from the perspectives of culture, creativity and service design, to analyze the current situation and existing problems of the cultural creative products, and provide some ideas for improvement for its sustainable development.

1 Regional Cultural Background Nanjing Confucius Temple is located in Gongyuan Street on the north bank of Qinhuai River in Qinhuai District of Nanjing. It is China’s first national high school and one of China’s four major Confucian temples. Jinling is a place where history and humanities gather and its culture is originate from Qinhuai culture. Historically, Nanjing was the © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 522–529, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_62

Status Quo and Improvement Design of Nanjing “Qinhuai Gift”

523

political, cultural, and economic center of the regions south of the Yangtze River for a long time. As a result, Qinhuai culture which was mainly composed of Confucian culture and imperial examination culture was formed. There are many scenic spots along the banks of the Qinhuai River, including the Nanjing Confucius Temple, the Meixiang Tower built to commemorate Li Xiangjun, the Zhanyuan with the oldest existing history in Nanjing and one of the four famous gardens in the south of the Yangtze River, and the largest imperial examination venue in ancient China—ongyuan (also known as Nanjing Gongyuan) and so on. These famous cultural relics have all witnessed the strong local Confucian cultural thoughts. In the 1980s, in order to protect the traditional cultural heritage, the Nanjing Municipal Government and the Qinhuai District Government renovated the Nanjing Confucius Temple and its surrounding cultural monuments, turning the Shili Qinhuai and surrounding cultural relics into a national 5A tourist attraction. At the same time, the influence and popularity of Qinhuai culture combined with regional characteristic cultural resources develop a cultural creative brand “Qinhuai Gifts”. It promots the development of tourism and cultural industries in Nanjing [1].

2 Introduction to Cultural and Creative Products 2.1 “Zhuang Yuan Lang” Doll The “Zhuang Yuan Lang” doll is well-behaved and cute, and carries the positive meaning of champion. The authentic taste of old Nanjing is integrated with the trendy “net celebrity fan” to promote Nanjing’s cultural elements across the country, as shown in Fig. 1. The cultural creative team was based on Nanjing Qinhuai culture, systematically combed its cultural connotation, and extracted its characteristic cultural elements, such as “Zhuang Yuan”, imperial examination, boiled salted duck, blue whale and other popular themes. After a series of rigorous cultural creation, they created the “Zhuang Yuan Lang”, a super cultural and creative IP for the little champion in Nanjing.

Fig. 1. “Zhuang Yuan Lang” doll

2.2 “Zhuang Yuan Lang” Series of Cultural and Creative Products 2.2.1 “Zhuang Yuan” Stationery Spree The “Zhuang Yuan” Stationery Gift Pack is a customized and practical product. It includes 6 kinds of products: pencil case, pencil sharpener, pencil, eraser, ruler, and

524

Y. Guo and B. Sun

sticky note. It is 100% customized and developed with the IP image of the “Zhuang Yuan” in the Imperial Examination Museum of Qinhuai Confucius Temple. Its innovative packaging has vertical handles that makes it easy to carry, and it is auspicious. All products are divided into male and female models to better meet the needs of children, as shown in Fig. 2. 2.2.2 “Zhuang Yuan” On-car Decoration These three works are called Good Luck, Everything Goes Well, and Top Rank. The adorable little champion represents good luck and talent. The addition of the function of on-car doll shaking head makes the whole image more vivid and lovely. Qinhuai characteristic elements such as lotus lanterns and carp jumping over the dragon gate are incorporated into the design to make the “Zhuang Yuan” IP more local, as shown in Fig. 3. 2.2.3 “Zhuang Yuan” Bookmark and Set The originality of the “Zhuang Yuan” bookmark comes from the story of Wu Zi Deng Ke. The adorable little champion represents good luck and talent. The five characteristic bookmarks designed with the champion image are all made of brass, metal hollowed out and colored, and matched with five different auspicious meanings. The three most popular types are selected to form a set. The combination of human, scenery and meaning is appropriate, and the packaging is light, thin and portable, as shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 2. “Zhuang Yuan” stationery gift package.

Fig. 3. “Zhuang Yuan” car decoration

2.3 “Qinhuai Gift” Cultural and Creative Products “Qinhuai Gifts” flagship store and series of theme stores have introduced the essence of traditional culture, combined with non-genetic inheritance memory and original design.They are based on the Qinhuai cultural elements----”Zhuang Yuan Lang”, Qinhuai Lantern, Qinhuai Eight beauties, Qinhuai scenery, gifted and beautiful people, Tourist souvenirs, cultural and creative products with multiple themes such as “Xiangjun Fan” and so on.”Qinhuai Gift” tells visitors from all over the world the culture of lanterns and the story of Nanjing, and their characteristic products that reflect the local history and humanities of Qinhuai bring Nanjing’s cultural elements to all parts of the country.

Status Quo and Improvement Design of Nanjing “Qinhuai Gift”

525

Fig. 4. “Zhuang Yuan” bookmark and set

3 Product Status and Market Analysis 3.1 Product Status The Q version of “Zhuang Yuan Lang” has become popular nowadays, showing an increasingly stronger “carrying capacity”. According to statistics, the “Zhuang Yuan Lang” series of cultural and creative products have launched more than 600 models which are sold in the flagship store of “Qinhuai Gifts” located in Gongyuan Street of Confucius Temple. The “Zhuang Yuan Lang” series of dolls, parent-child T-shirts, and stationery sets have always been hot spots for people to buy. Data shows that in 2018, the sales of cultural and creative products of Confucius Temple Cultural Tourism Group were nearly 38 million yuan, of which the “Zhuang Yuan Lang” series had become “explosive”. 3.2 Market Environment 3.2.1 The Enthusiasm for Urban Innovation is High, and the Creative Industry is Showing a Good Trend Nanjing creative industry in recent years presents a good situation. There are Nanjing Innovation week, creative bazaar and other creative activities that gather all kinds of creative brands IP and form a good channel of communication and communication. They stimulate people’s enthusiasm for innovation and show foreign tourists a cultural city full of creative vitality and fashion charm. 3.2.2 Qinhuai Culture Has a Long History, Combining Culture and Tourism to Create Characteristic IP Qinhuai is the core area of the ancient city of Jinling with the most complete historical context, the richest historical resources, and the most profound historical influence. It is complemented by numerous intangible cultural heritages with different appearances and distinctive characteristics. Therefore, the Qinhuai tourism cultural and creative brand “Qinhuai Gifts” developed with the Qinhuai culture as the foundation can always attract people’s attention, and the “Zhuang Yuan Lang” series of products designed with the imperial examination culture as the core also attract many tourists.

526

Y. Guo and B. Sun

3.2.3 Favorable Conditions for the Promotion and Development of Local Cultural and Creative Products in Nanjing “Nanjing Design Gallery” is a platform to help cultural and creative enterprises go global. Since 2014, it has provided platform services for product operation, which displays and sales to creative design talents, entrepreneurs and designers throughout the city. While consolidating the design power of Nanjing, it also reduces the production and sales costs of corporate cultural and creative products [2]. At the same time, the government invested in physical stores in important transportation hubs. In addition, many cultural and creative products in Nanjing develop APPs to establish small communities, establish niche art exchange communities, offline physical stores, etc., which will help realize user diversion and increase revenue.

4 Finding Problems and Suggestions for Improvement 4.1 Finding Problems 4.1.1 Insufficient Cultural Integration of Products Cultural and creative products should be designed to extract valuable and meaningful cultural elements after designers have a thorough understanding of the background culture, combine with product creativity, reconstruct and redesign, and then form a new type of cultural and creative product. However, some cultural and creative products of the existing Confucius Temple directly copy and pile cultural elements on top of the products, lacking a sense of integration between design culture and products, and no natural beauty. 4.1.2 Product Modeling Homogenization, Lack of Creativity Through investigation, it can be found that similar cultural and creative products in the scenic area have many similar and single problems, and lack creativity. For example,” Zhuang Yuan Lang “series of cultural and creative products’ doll modeling is not rich, at the same time, some of its peripheral derivatives are simply” Zhuang Yuan Lang “image implanted. The product has no characteristics, and cannot achieve harmony with the IP image. Actually, this is an abuse of IP image, which not only makes it difficult to enhance the added value of products, but also destroys the impression of “Zhuang Yuan Lang” in people’s hearts. 4.1.3 Product Packaging Quality is Low-End According to the survey, in addition to some high-grade goods and a very small number of cultural and creative products using better packaging, the packaging of other products is not careful and very few packaging can reflect the cultural characteristics of Nanjing Confucius Temple. Packaging design is relatively low. Some products even use ordinary plastic bags without features instead or without packaging, which lacks aesthetic sense and enhances the added value of goods.

Status Quo and Improvement Design of Nanjing “Qinhuai Gift”

527

4.1.4 Ignoring the Emotional Needs of Consumers Because it is a tourism cultural product, the way of mass production often leads producers to ignore the important factor that souvenirs need to meet the emotional needs of consumers. First of all, producers may produce some single and shoddy handicrafts mixed in the souvenir market because of too much consideration of costs. Goods can not achieve the quality and significance of souvenirs and deceive consumers or just blindly pursue the accumulation of elements, and ignore the different aesthetic needs of different people for products. 4.1.5 Marketing Methods Are Not Perfect The marketing concept, as a “consumer demand as the center and market as the starting point” business guiding ideology, covers the range from product development and design, to packaging, store environment, and shopping experience [3]. Some of the poor sales of products and some cultural and creative souvenirs have not been improved in time are related to the developer’s marketing concept is not deep enough. The entire process from design and production to sales and after-sales feedback should be improved. 4.2 Suggestions for Improvement 4.2.1 Natural Integration of Culture and Products Cultural elements are the spiritual life form of a nation that has been passed down for a long time. It mainly includes people’s outlook on life, values, aesthetic appeal, thinking habits and lifestyle. It can be expressed not only through its inner form. You can also use external forms to communicate between cultures. The designer should refine the cultural elements of Nanjing Confucius Temple scenic spot. Deepening one’s own understanding and thinking of the target product culture, combining the elements and connotations of culture with the actual functions of the product, and designing cultural and creative products that not only conform to modern people’s aesthetics and usage habits, but also reflect traditional culture. At the same time, it also helps to reduce the homogeneity of product design [4]. 4.2.2 Do a Good Job in Packaging Design to Increase the Added Value of Products, and Details Determine Success or Failure Products with lasting vitality in the market must pay attention to the grasp of details and have more subtle strategies. Nowadays, tourism, cultural and creative products are becoming more homogeneous, and how to stand out among similar products at this time, the details will determine the consumer’s choice intention. For example, packaging design will become the details to enhance the added value of products. Do a good job in packaging design and incorporate elements of the Qinhuai culture of the Confucius Temple into the packaging design [5]. This will not only better promote traditional culture, but also attract some consumers whose purpose is to give gifts to relatives and friends. We should fully consider the needs of consumers on the basis of practical functions, so as to maximize the commercial value of the product.

528

Y. Guo and B. Sun

4.2.3 Understand Consumers’ Purchasing Motivation and Satisfy Their Emotional Needs Tourists are often perceptual when buying tourism products. They may buy tourism cultural and creative souvenirs only because they feel the cultural connotation of Jinling Qinhuai, but also because the products are practical, novel, and beautiful, so they want to keep them as a trip to Nanjing. Therefore, customer needs will determine the product’s viability in the market. The tourist cultural and creative souvenirs of Nanjing Confucius Temple should reasonably display the excellent cultural connotation of Qinhuai, while meeting the emotional needs of consumers, so that customers can feel the profound cultural heritage of Nanjing through cultural and creative products and perceive the cultural connotation of Nanjing through souvenirs. And then produce emotional resonance. This will facilitate the marketing of the product [6]. 4.2.4 Provide High-Quality Service and Experience Design In a social environment where consumers’ buying behavior is becoming more and more rational, to achieve a more successful marketing of “Qinhuai Gifts”, it is necessary to accurately grasp the emotional needs of customers and use “emotion” to move people. For example, create an elegant and suitable store environment with a strong cultural atmosphere to make customers psychologically recognize. In such an experience environment and providing customers with high-quality services, they will be more able to encourage customers to consume and preserve a precious memorial [7]. Therefore, the quality of products and the environment and services of the store are the key to experience marketing. Doing these well will enable foreign tourists to feel the humanistic qualities in Nanjing’s culture. While marketing and promotion are successful, they will also be more effective for tourists to beautify your impression of Nanjing in your heart.

5 Summary Tourism cultural and creative souvenirs carry the important task of cultural transmission and realization of economic value. However, from a commercial point of view, it has a commodity nature, and the product ultimately faces consumers. Therefore, the design and production of products must not only consider the organic unity of cost, content and the market, but also pay attention to and grasp the emotional needs of consumers and communicate in time to obtain feedback, so that tourism, cultural and creative souvenirs can better meet the needs of customers to obtain lasting vitality, so it can do a good job in conveying the “sentiment” and “intention” of the product and will be the key to the success of cultural and creative products. As for the Nanjing Confucius Temple scenic spot, its core culture is Qinhuai culture. A good grasp of the elements of Confucian culture and imperial examination culture will be more helpful for the development and promotion of related cultural and creative products.

References 1. Dongdong. W.: Searching for Wenchuang footprint —— Nanjing Wenchuang product research. Beauty Times 7(1), 31–33 (2017)

Status Quo and Improvement Design of Nanjing “Qinhuai Gift”

529

2. Yaru, Z.: A study on product design and marketing promotion of Nanjing local Wenchuang. Art Educ. 15, 140–141 (2017) 3. Wenwen, B.: A study on the marketing strategy of Nanjing Tourist Wenchuang Souvenir. Ind. Technol. Forum 17(20), 22–23 4. Wei, W., Han Peng, S., Jing., S.: Analysis and research on the present situation of cultural and creative products in Confucius temple scenic area of Nanjing. China Creat. Design Sour. 01, 63–67 (2018) 5. Deming. K.: On the Operation of Wenchuang in Nanjing Nanjing Academy of Art (2019) 6. Shiyu, W.: Gongzi night. A study on product design of Nanjing intangible cultural heritage. Asia Pacific Educ. 2, 5 (2019) 7. Qiao, Z.: On product design and development of Nanjing characteristic element. Popul. Liter. Art 14, 86–87(2018)

The Role of Auditory Description in Comprehension of Demonstrators: A Pilot Study Aleksandra Sviridova(B) , Stefanie Everaerts, Laura Tas, Salma Yachchou, Lotte van Hoofstat, and Jouke Verlinden Product Development Department, Faculty of Design Sciences, University of Antwerp, Ambtmanstraat 1, 2000 Antwerpen, Belgium {Aleksandra.Sviridova,Jouke.verlinden}@uantwerpen.be, {Stefanie.Everaerts,Laura.Tas,Salma.Yachchou, Lotte.VanHoofstat}@student.uantwerpen.be

Abstract. Demonstrator can be described as a versatile concept combining design, art and engineering and can be used in many aspects from decision-making to creating an impact on different innovation markets. This paper focuses on a communication side of a demonstrator on the example of one recently designed for a local research institute Flanders Make to highlight advantages of their new optimization algorithm. A pilot study was conducted to evaluate how effective this message can be conveyed by using a combination of verbal and non-verbal communication types. A comparison of three different lengths of audio descriptions accompanying the visuals was made to identify the equilibrium point at which the explanation enhances the understanding without distracting from the video. Keywords: Demonstrator · Verbal communication · Exhibition · Human-exhibition interaction

1 Introduction A demonstrator of advantages of using a new optimization algorithm was built in the laboratory at Product Development of Univserity of Antwerp for an external research institute called Flanders Make. It was supposed to be part of an exhibition during their annual symposium and highlight a novel optimization method developed by their engineers. Thus, the demonstrator can be considered as a medium tool between them and their auditory. Since the conveyed message about the idea and principles of the algorithm is very abstract, it was decided to convert this information into visuals by means of a race metaphor. This metaphor also refers to one of the possible areas of application of the algorithm, which is automotive design. The animation shows two cars that represent different algorithms. Before the race begins, the components of the cars are modified according to the external circumstances these algorithms base themselves on. What this metaphor wants to convey, is that under © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 530–538, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_63

The Role of Auditory Description in Comprehension of Demonstrators

531

certain weather conditions you have the best chance of success when opting for the new algorithm. Designers wanted to balance utter abstraction of the algorithm with concrete physical interaction with the project. Therefore, the demonstrator consists of two parts: a physical part, engaging to interaction and a projected animation, explaining the new technology and entertaining (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. The demonstrator rendered view and an example of the projected animation appearance.

Due to the Covid situation, the planned exhibition was changed to guided tours, when one of the engineers accompanying visiting groups provides the detailed information about the project. Thus, it was not possible to conduct a field experiment and it was decided to combine the visuals with an audio explanation and show it to target groups in order to assess the effectiveness of the demonstrator as message conveyor.

2 Theoretical Framework 2.1 The Role of Auditory Description in Human-Exhibition Communication Process Communication can be considered as an activity that is performed [1] or as the transmission of a message from a sender to a receiver via a medium of transmission [2]. Hence, it can be viewed as intended interactions. It also works the other way around. This process can be described in the terminology of the extended framework of human-exhibition interaction suggested by Wang and Xia [3], where Flanders Make is client (sender), exhibition visitors are audience (receivers) and demonstrator is medium, transmitting the message encoded by designers (Fig. 2). Hall developed a model which explained that message-transforming is the encoding and decoding of a message [4]. Before a message can have an ‘effect’, it must be decoded [5] so that the message that is interpreted is meaningful [6]. For this research, the effect is ‘understanding’, which in this respect can be considered as the process of finding a configuration of schemata which offers a representation of a situation [7].

532

A. Sviridova et al.

People have schemata for various topics, which ultimately form the basis for understanding. However, there is a difference between ‘knowing’ and ‘understanding’. When someone knows something, he or she can tell the knowledge or demonstrate the skill upon demand [8]. Understanding is more ambiguous and complex matter, which goes beyond knowing. It means being able to do various thought-demanding activities with the topic, such as explaining, generalizing, or analyzing it [9].

Fig. 2. Basic framework of communication process between stakeholders.

Some mediums are more effective for the successful transportation of the message [10]. In terms of preferred input mode, reading-while-listening was considered the most comfortable by most subjects; a sizable minority favored reading-only, while no one explicitly favored listening-only [11]. Auditory descriptions are also considered to be more enjoyable and enhancing understanding [12]. 2.2 Development of a Hypothesis Due to the high abstractness of the transmitted message, there was a risk that auditory would not understand it without additional audio explanation. However, since there will be no expert around the spectators to fill the understanding gaps, this explanation has to be clear, comprehensive and yet not overwhelming. The research question is as follows: “How short can you make your audio description accompanying the video and still make the respondents understand the message behind the demonstrator?”. To see how people react on the length of the audio-message, three types of videos were created. The first video contains an introduction, a middle and an ending. In the second one, the audio is shortened and the third video is cut to the chase with its audio description.

The Role of Auditory Description in Comprehension of Demonstrators

533

In all cases the video remains the same. The names of the videos are respectively the longexplained video, mid-long explained video and short-explained video. The hypothesis is that the long-explained video guarantees the best comprehension, while the shortexplained one gives a wrong vision of the algorithm.

3 Pilot Study 3.1 Participants 115 students from the fields of Engineering, Design, Physics, Technical and Economical Science, Business management and Computer Science were surveyed. For the experiment, all participants completed an online questionnaire on a voluntary basis after watching one of three randomly arranged videos. As the study investigates the understanding of the algorithm presented in the animation, there was no preference in age, sex or particular level of professional experience. Due to the cancellation of the exhibition, the research was conducted among available auditory from relevant professional areas with main focus on general understanding. 3.2 Data Acquisition The survey was driven online by Qualtrics and included one of three different videos followed by a questionnaire about the principles and applicability of the algorithm. Each contained the same visuals and were of equal length, the only variable was an audio description. In the first video, the essence of the race cars was clear, but it was accompanied with extensive additional information. The second video was an intermediate video that captured the essence but talked more about the cars metaphor. Finally, the third video had a limited amount of audio description and only captured the essence of the race car-metaphor. Participants started with a pre-questionnaire that asked two personal questions. Basically, it was needed to validate the sample. To pre-test the knowledge, each respondent was asked one multiple choice question. The pre-questionnaire also contained three questions of an ITQ-test. The post-survey consisted of three parts. The first part contained seven multiplechoice questions to test the knowledge of the respondent after watching the video. The multiple-choice test was a standard, prompted recognition four-choice test with the correct meaning and three distractors. The subjects were asked to indicate the answer they thought was referring the best to what the video explained of the algorithm. Besides a multiple-choice test, there were two more types of questionnaires: one open question gave the point of view of the user, while a set of five Likert-scale questions provided with a clear overview of the perception of the respondents and their comprehension. After the pre-and post-survey, points were given accordingly to the answers. The data was analyzed using SPSS. The understanding rate was set from 0 to 12. To compare the groups and their level of understanding on SPSS, a cross tabulation was performed. The percentages of correctly answered questions were measured to appraise the respondents’ comprehension. When comparing these percentages between the videos,

534

A. Sviridova et al.

it is desired to see a linear correlation between correctly answered questions and the length of the audio description. In percentages, 50% of correctly answered questions is seen in this research as a sufficient level of comprehension of the message. A result of 70% correctly answered questions is seen as an optimal level of comprehension.

4 Results 4.1 The Correlation of the Level of Comprehension and the Amount of Given Information To see if the level of comprehension increases with the length of given information, a cross tabulation was used to measure the scores of each respondent with the given video. The results of comprehension were calculated into a mean score for each video. For video 1 (long-explained) the average score was 8.29; for Video 2 (mid-long explained) it was 8.63; and for video 3 (short-long explained) it was 7.58 (Fig. 3). In this research, the short-long explained video did not suffice as much as the other two videos for reaching the same level of comprehension. However, the results of this survey are not strong enough to conclude that with the amount of given information the level of comprehension of the topic increases.

Fig. 3. Number of respondents visualized per score out of twelve, per video.

The Role of Auditory Description in Comprehension of Demonstrators

535

4.2 Sufficient (50%) and Optimal Levels (70%) of Comprehension Depending on the Length of the Audio Description Based on the bar chart presented above, the amount of people that scored more than 50% and 70% can be calculated. The number of participants that had at least 50% of all the answers correct is relatively high for all three videos. The best results are found for the mid-long video. For the comprehension of this topic, the short-long video was not as sufficient in gaining comprehension as the others. The difference in percentage of the long and mid-long length video is insignificant; therefore, no strong conclusion can be made which one is the most successful in providing a sufficient level of comprehension. 4.3 A Correlation between the Results on the Post-test and Respondents’ Own Perception of Comprehension To explore if the participants’ actual comprehension of the video corresponds with their own evaluation their score on the post-test is compared with their answer by Likert scale question “After watching the video, I felt like it was not enough to feel like I understood it”. What is remarkable is that people who indicated that they strongly agreed with it, had an average score of 10.3 out of 12 which is quite a high score. People who agreed or somewhat agreed with it, had a little lower score around 7.8 out of 12. The average scores are all around 7 or 8 out of 12, even for respondents who indicated that it felt like it was not enough to understand it. People who indicated to strongly disagree or disagree with it, still had an average score of 8.14 out of 12 and even 8.9 out of 12. Similar results were obtained with questions “After watching the video, I understood it directly without hesitation” (Table 1) and “After watching the video, I felt like I missed the essence of the message”. Table 1. Answers to the question “After watching the video, I understood it directly without hesitation”.

These results can mean that the message was received in an implicit way, probably through the metaphorical narrative of the animation [13], since metaphors work as linking mechanism sensorimotor domains with domains of subjective experience [14]. The answers to the question “After watching the video, I as a future stakeholder see potential in the algorithm Murphy.” can be found in Table 2. Regardless the respondents’ indication, the average scores on the post-test were between a 7.33 and 8.8 out of 12. It means that the demonstrator, in total, was effective in drawing interest to such an abstract concept as optimization algorithm.

536

A. Sviridova et al.

Table 2. Number of respondents per score out of twelve “After watching the video, I as a future stakeholder see potential in the algorithm Murphy”.

5 Discussion 5.1 Balancing Information Density and Comprehension The aim of this research was to explore possible directions in understanding and evaluating performance of demonstrators. The mid-long audio description gave the best result, in spite of the stated hypothesis that the long-explained video would be the best. After the result, we understood that superfluous information might cause cognitive overload. Such result might also mean that with the right balance of input modes, even a very abstract notion of a novel optimization algorithm can be understood by a broad scope of people with no prior knowledge about such concepts. This notion of balance resembles the Maxims of Conversation, set forth by Grice [15]. The comprehension of a complicated topic like this might not be that relevant for all the different stakeholders. While stakeholders from technical areas of expertise might need to fully comprehend such messages because they might be involved in the process of developing the actual algorithm in the future, ones from economics and management, however, do not necessarily need to fully comprehend it but rather understand its economic benefits, feasibility or market position. 5.2 Limitations The sample size of participants in the study threaten generalizability of our findings. 24 entries were left with one or two unanswered question of the pre-test, so they were considered invalid by the program and randomizer could not assigned videos to them. This led to uneven distribution with some categories having little respondents. Another limitation was unavailability the actual target audience due to the cancellation the public event because of the Covid situation. As a result, the participants had to watch the video designed for projection on their screens, which might have imposed additional perception limits. Lastly, the survey and video were presented in English. Most of the respondents were native Dutch speakers, so might not only have tested their comprehension of the algorithm, but also the comprehension of the language.

The Role of Auditory Description in Comprehension of Demonstrators

537

6 Conclusions This study explored the possible tools and methods that can be used for evaluating an effectiveness of demonstrators as new media. A combination of different communication types such as tactile, verbal and non-verbal that inherent to a versatile essence of demonstrators make them an effective boundary object to engage and provide shared understanding among stakeholders in cases when there is not yet a complete product or if this product is too abstract or difficult to be understood without prior knowledge. The results of the survey conducted with 115 participants from various fields of expertise who were shown video explanation of an optimization algorithm with three different lengths of audio description showed that the majority comprehended the message and scored above 50% and 70%. Together with the demonstrator appealing appearance, this fact opens new perspectives in enhancing exhibition design from both business and art perspectives [16]. Further research should be conducted to investigate the effectiveness of other aspects of demonstrator such as its attractiveness, economical benefits, technological advantages and so on. In line with the current findings, such research might highlight more options of using demonstrators and give knowledge of how to effectively design them. Acknowledgements. This demonstrator was funded by Flanders Make, and implemented in close collaboration with Gabriel Abedrabbo and Carlos Lopez (Flanders Make) and Drim Stokhuijzen and Danny Stoop (University of Antwerp).

References 1. Cushman, D., Whiting, G.C.: An approach to communication theory: toward consensus on rules. J. Commun. 22, 217–238 (1972) 2. Schiffman, L.G., Wisenblit, J.: Consumer Behavior. Pearson, New York (2019) 3. Wang, N., Xia, L.: Human-exhibition interaction (HEI) in designing exhibitions: a systematic literature review. Int. J. Hosp. Manag. 77, 292–302 (2019) 4. Hall, S.: The “Structured Communication” of Events. Routledge, Abingdon (1973) 5. Procter, J.: Encoding/Decoding. Blackwell Encyclopedia Sociolo (2007) 6. Durham, M.G., Kellner, D.M.: Media and Cultural Studies: Keyworks. Blackwell Publishing, Hoboken (2006) 7. Rumelhart, D.E.: Schemata: the building blocks of cognition. In: Theoretical Issues in Reading Comprehension: Perspectives from Cognitive Psychology, Linguistics, Artificial Intelligence and Education (2017) 8. Dávila Rubio, A.M.: Wiggins, G., McTighe, J.: Understanding by Design, 2nd (edn.). Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development ASCD, Alexandria. Colomb. Appl. Linguist. J. 19, 140 (2017) 9. Perkins, D., Blythe, T.: Putting understanding up front. Educ. Leadersh. 51, 4–7 (1994) 10. Elgart, D.B.: Oral reading, silent reading, and listening comprehension: a comparative study. J. Reading Behav. 10, 203–207 (1975) 11. Brown, R., Waring, R., Donkaewbua, S.: Incidental vocabulary acquisition from reading, reading-while-listening, and listening to stories. Reading Foreign Lang. 20, 136–163 (2008) 12. Novey, L.T., Hall, T.E.: The effect of audio tours on learning and social interaction: an evaluation at Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Sci. Educ. 91, 260–277 (2007)

538

A. Sviridova et al.

13. Kuniavsky, M.: Smart Things. Elsevier, Amsterdam (2010) 14. Lakoff, G., Johnson, M.: Philosophy in the Flesh. The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought. Basic Books, New York (1999) 15. Grice, P.: Studies in the Ways of Words. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (1991) 16. Ahmad, S., Abbas, M.Y., Taib, M.Z.M., Masri, M.: Museum exhibition design: communication of meaning and the shaping of knowledge. Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci. 153, 254–265 (2014)

Architecture Design of Intangible Cultural Heritage Games Based on WeChat Mini Programs - Chongming Biandan Opera as an Example QianYu Zhang, Wei Ding, Jie Zhou(B) , Xiaolin Li, and Xinyao Huang East China University of Science and Technology, 130 Meilong Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai, China

Abstract. As an important part of Shanghai’s intangible cultural heritage, Chongming Biandan Opera has high inheritance value. With the emergence of interesting and interactive cultural communication methods, the dissemination of intangible cultural heritage among the youth groups dominated by college students has been hindered, which causes a gap during the process of inheriting of this culture. In the context of digitization, the emergence of new communication carriers based on WeChat mini programs has altered the previous transmission methods of oral and personal teaching, and broadened the scope and channels of intangible cultural heritage transmission. This article first analyzes the current functional intangible cultural heritage game APP and mini programs architecture, then summarizes their advantages and disadvantages, finally integrates the parts that can be used for reference. Design and research on the game framework of the Biandan Opera mini program, so as to improve the interaction and recognition of the Biandan Opera with new generation. This game mainly includes five main sections: stage setting, clay sculpting, color painting, ventriloquist interaction, and playing. In this research, the youth group is taken as target, questionnaire is applied as research method, to obtain the game interaction form and the mini program sharing motivation expected by the target user. This essay focuses on giving full play to the advantages of WeChat Mini Programs’ large user base, convenient communication and open mode of operation, so to satisfy users’ experience of intangible cultural heritage and functional gameplay. Thereby, increase youth’s interest in Chongming’s Biandan Opera culture and achieve promoting the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage. Keywords: Chongming Biandan Opera · Mini programs · Intangible cultural heritage game · Architecture design

1 Introduction Chongming Biandan Opera is a form of drama of Chinese folk tradition, which began in Jiaqing years and was moved from Suzhou to Shanghai, and has a history of more than © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 539–546, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_64

540

Q. Zhang et al.

one hundred years. However, with the vigorous development of social economy, the traditional culture of Biandan Opera has no inheritors and gradually disappeared. In recent years, exploring the integration and development of games and culture has gradually become a hot spot for the dissemination of intangible cultural heritage. Among them, the game developed on WeChat mini program has stimulated the younger generation’s interest in traditional culture, such as Traveling around “Dunhuang Animation Drama”, “Paper-Cut Master”, etc. How to make full use of WeChat’s huge user base, give full play to the advantages of small programs. It is worthy of the attention of academic circles and related industries to make traditional culture, which is not recognized by the public, enter the life of contemporary young people. Therefore, this study to Shanghai Chongming Biandan Opera as an example, to set up a stage, clay sculpting, color painting, ventriloquist interaction, and playing as the focus of the plate, to build an intangible cultural heritage game architecture based on WeChat mini program.

2 Research Status 2.1 The Spread of Biandan Opera At present, many performance artists of Biandan opera are through the character performance to spread the drama. This form of performing immediately upon invitation has made the public feel close during the communication process. However, in the era of mobile Internet, this mode of communication also has certain limitations. Most of the research on the spread of Biandan opera focuses on singing innovation, media innovation and so on. But there is less analysis of it in this area of Chongming, Shanghai. Liu Yuanyuan (2017) compiled the current situation of the Biandan opera in Xincai County, and proposed to break through the traditional mode of communication by making props and designing lyrics, etc. [1]. Rong Gongting (2010) and others compiled the history of Biandan opera, described its dissemination time and space, and mentioned the advantageous cultural heritage advantage of multi-body media [2]. Multidimensional heritage of intangible cultural heritage, and further enhance contemporary young people’s awareness of Biandan opera culture through new media. 2.2 Intangible Cultural Heritage Game The research of intangible cultural heritage games is mainly from the perspective of mobile phone design, development and architecture, explain the integration and innovation between intangible cultural heritage and games. Ge Pei (2019) and others proposed the game framework and ideas of Nantong Blue Calico Printing and Dyeing App from the perspective of interface and interactive design, and explained the importance of digital development [3]. Zhang Ting (2018) and others used the horizontal and vertical design process as a guide, based on semantics, graphic creativity and other theories, the App architecture and prototype of the bronze drum culture theme are designed [4]. Du Jie (2019) and others divided the intangible cultural heritage game modules by audience. Through the design of knowledge modules and functional modules, the needs of different groups of people can be met in a targeted manner [5]. Yang Yuanyuan (2018) and others introduced traditional culture to children’s education. Based on the four basic game

Architecture Design of Intangible Cultural Heritage Games

541

elements of American designer Jesse Schell, the game of “Logic Huayao” is designed from four aspects: game mechanism, story setting, aesthetic performance and technical interaction [6]. The above theoretical basis provides reference for the research of this paper. 2.3 WeChat Mini Program The aspects related to this research mainly involve the advantages of small programs and communication strategies. Yang Wanjing (2019) put forward the concept of “light application”. It explains the micro-interaction design based on user experience from three aspects: function and usability, sensory and gun experience, and value experience [7]. Chen Hongyang (2018) and others explained the advantages of the WeChat applet platform, such as ease of use, large user base, multiple terminal adaptations, and no registration. Building the learned knowledge into a level-breaking game to improve user engagement and the playability of the system [8]. In terms of communication strategy, Hu Bo (2018) proposed that small programs can make full use of WeChat’s user base and achieve social resonance through sharing [9]. Through the combing of academic history, we can find that how to make full use of the advantages of WeChat applets, construct the Chongming Biandan opera interactive game framework, and innovate the traditional cultural communication form is a problem that needs further consideration.

3 Intangible Cultural Heritage Game Case Study By analyzing existing WeChat applets and apps, summarize the current advantages and disadvantages of intangible cultural heritage game products from the aspects of information architecture and interaction design, and select the advantages to be applied to the design of mini programs. 3.1 Mini Program Games In the small program game mainly selected “Dunhuang Animation Dram”, “Paper-Cut Master”, “Facial Masks Master” as the representative intangible cultural heritage game (Fig. 1). Among them, “Dunhuang Animation Drama” is based on voice interaction, and the “Paper-Cut Master” and the “Facial Masks Master” both interact with the game by sliding the touch screen. These three mini games are mainly divided into a threelevel structure. The interactive game is usually started at the third level, the information architecture is brief, as well as the interactive operation is very easy, which fully embodies the flexibility and convenience of mini programs. The main disadvantage is that some mini program games enjoy the huge user base brought by WeChat, they have not yet developed a WeChat friend ranking section to take full advantage of the convenience of its dissemination.

542

Q. Zhang et al.

Fig. 1. Case analysis: intangible cultural heritage game mini program

3.2 APP Games The intangible cultural heritage games “Pottery” and “Folding Fan”, which use App as the platform, are mainly based on the production process that simulates traditional cultural craftsmanship. And its interactive design has various forms, which is worth learning. “Mortise and Tenon Joint” are mainly in the form of knowledge and science, and the design of interactive experience is relatively simple. The game observes the structure of the mortise and tenon joint by clicking on the touch screen, but it is less playable. In terms of information architecture, “Pottery” and “Folding Fan” entered the game experience stage at the second level. Usually the app also contains shopping malls, product displays and other sections. However, compared with small programs, App lacks the user base of WeChat itself, which may hinder the effective spread of the product (Fig. 2). It can be seen from the analysis of related competing products that the current mini program intangible cultural heritage game experience mode is relatively single. And the interactive attributes are weak and cannot fully meet the learning needs of users. Combining the previous questionnaire survey and user interview data, it is found that 82.4% of the surveyed have never heard of the Biandan opera. The vast majority of users hope to experience and understand this opera culture through games, short videos and other popular forms. Therefore, in the design of intangible cultural heritage games based on mini programs, it is necessary to combine the advantages of mini programs and App design. And designing different interactions for different processes and having a clear information architecture.

Architecture Design of Intangible Cultural Heritage Games

543

Fig. 2. Case analysis: intangible cultural heritage game APP

4 Design of Biandan Opera Game Based on WeChat Mini Program The famous American designer mentioned in the book “Game Design Art” that a successful game usually consists of four basic blocks: mechanism, story, aesthetics and technology [10]. Therefore, in the design process of the Biandan opera mini program game, the main line is the drama story, and the five processes of stage setting, clay sculpting, color painting, ventriloquist interaction, and playing are connected in series (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3. Biandan opera theatre mini program architecture

544

Q. Zhang et al.

4.1 Mechanism Design Game mechanics usually refer to the rules of the game, which are the basis for the interaction between the game and the user [11]. Based on the understanding of the list of Chongming Biandan Opera and the performance form, the traditional operas “Wang Xiaoer Fighting Tiger”, “The Tang Priest’s Journey for Scriptures” and “Zhu Bajie Marries a Wife” are the representative dramas in the design process. Users can choose the drama they want to experience, and gradually unlock the five sections of stage setting, clay sculpting, color painting, ventriloquist interaction, and playing. In order to understand the whole process of making and performing the Biandan Opera. After five steps, the user will see the points of the corresponding work and the ranking in the friend list. At the same time, points can also be used to unlock unfinished steps. 4.2 Opera Story Due to the special properties of the opera, the whole game with a story series may be slightly monotonous. Therefore, in the game design of the “Biandan Opera Theatre”, we chose three representative and familiar plays this time. Through different scenes, props and dubbing, users can experience the performance of folktales and legends in the Biandan Opera. 4.3 Aesthetic Expression The visual expression of the game can directly affect the experience of the target user. The aesthetic expression of mini program games is not limited to UI interfaces. The extraction of traditional element images is also an important factor. In terms of element images, it mainly extracts the characters in Biandan opera. At the same time, this graphical element is easier for users to operate in the coloring section. In order to avoid over-design and messy game style, the UI interface is mainly in a simple style (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4. Biandan opera pictures (from the Internet) and some elements extraction

4.4 Interactive Design The interactive design of this Biandan opera mini program covers voice and touch screen, which is mainly reflected in the five modules of opera experience. The stage setting

Architecture Design of Intangible Cultural Heritage Games

545

section guides the user to slide the scattered wooden bars into the already designed dotted frame to complete the stage. Clay sculpting is to extend the height of the soil by sliding upward, swiping to the left and right correspondingly reduces and lengthens the width of the soil. And based on the contours of the characters in the background, the dramatic image is initially constructed. Color painting is intended to select colors through the color circle and drag them into a predetermined color block. So as to complete the color painting of the characters. The ventriloquist interaction module selects simpler lines and ventriloquist performance content in the opera. At the same time, this section can also invite relatives and friends to participate in dubbing through WeChat. Performance is to generate a dramatic performance video after completing the contents of the first four sections. It is hoped that through a simple interactive experience, more users can experience local intangible cultural heritage.

5 Conclusion As an excellent intangible cultural heritage, Chongming Biandan Opera cannot meet the requirements of the digital age only by relying on the transmission method of the inheritor. It is more likely to limit the breadth and depth of the spread of traditional cultural heritage [12]. Based on the advantages and characteristics of WeChat mini program, this research designed a gamified intangible cultural heritage experience framework for traditional drama culture. It hopes to increase the interest of contemporary youth in the culture of Biandan opera, and also provide a reference for the architectural design of other intangible cultural heritage programs.

References 1. Liu, Y.: Research on the status quo and protection of Henan Xincai “Biandan Opera” from the Perspective of Intangible Cultural Heritage. J. Art Eval. 16, 20-21+40 (2017) 2. Rong, T., Liu, Y.: A Probe into the Performing Arts of Biandan Opera. J. Ethnic Art Studies. 23(06) (2010) 3. Ge, P., Chen, H.: Reflections on the dissemination mode of intangible cultural heritage APP games from internet perspective——taking Nantong Blue Calico printing and dyeing as an example. J. Nantong Voc. Univ. 03, 33–36 (2019) 4. Zhang, T., Chen, G.: APP product architecture design focus on the Guangxi Zhuang Bronze drum culture. J. Packaging Eng. 39(12) (2018) 5. Du, J., Gao, Y.: The APP design of Fengxiang wood engraving picture based on the protection of intangible cultural heritage. J. Packaging Eng. 40(22) (2019) 6. Yang, Y., Ji, T., Zhang, D.: Design and application of traditional culture in children’s educational games: taking the logic Huayao design practice as an example. J. Zhuangshi. (12) (2018) 7. Yang, W.: Micro-interaction design of WeChat applet based on user experience. J. Media. 05, 56–58 (2019) 8. Chen, H., Long, Y.: Research and design of “gameplay” learning platform based on WeChat mini program. J. Wirel. Internet Technol. 15(05), 75–77 ( 2018) 9. Hu, B.: Main features and communication strategies of game mini programs. J. Youth Journalist. 24, 85–86 (2018)

546

Q. Zhang et al.

10. Schell, J.: Game Design Art. Publishing House of Electronics Industry, Beijing (2016) 11. Zhang, D., Luo, P.: Tourism experience design under gamification methods aiming for cultural sustainability. J. Packaging Eng. 41(14), 36–42 ( 2020) 12. He, X.: Study on the Communication of Intangible Cultural Heritage. China Book Press, Beijing (2013)

Transnationality, Socialism, Modernity: Text Spread of the Bauhaus and Emergence of Modern Design in China Yuxi Zhou1(B) and Shuwang Zhao2 1 School of Design, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

[email protected] 2 School of Art Design and Media, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai,

People’s Republic of China

Abstract. Examining the early spread of Bauhaus in China is of great significance to understand the emergence of modern Chinese design. From the perspective of historical documents, the spread started in the early 1930s, when two Chinese artistic publications concerning Bauhaus were published. Through a thorough literature study, this paper found that the theoretical studies on modern design and the plan of modern design school were meanwhile conducted during the spread, though the information about Bauhaus was relatively fragmented. It showed some modern Chinese design scholars had already formed a preliminary cognition and understanding of modern design, Bauhaus and its ideas, which consequently promoted the modernity rising of native design in China. Also, the whole process was closely concerned with socialist thoughts. Keywords: Bauhaus · Artistic publications · Modern design · China

1 Introduction Admittedly, numerous factors, such as practice, research and publications, have contributed to the modernization of design in China. However, limited by lack of and related documents, the vague spread of the Bauhaus from Germany to China hinders the further understanding of the rise of modern design in early-20th-century China. Thus, in this paper, two neglected publications in previous studies were utilized as research materials. Through a thorough literature study, at first, this paper found that the spread of Bauhaus in China started no later than the year of 1930, when the Chinese edition of the monograph The Art of Contemporary Europe by the Hungarian art theorist Ivan Matsa was published in Shanghai. Through a seven-page section titled 威马尔底 BAUHAUS (The Bauhaus in Weimar), this translation book first introduced Chinese readers to the Bauhaus Weimar, its experimental art practices and ideas [1]. Nevertheless, unlike the other contemporary Bauhaus-theme monographs, The Art of Contemporary Europe uniquely adopted the research method of Marxist art theory, to critically analyze the nature of the development of the Bauhaus in the socio-economic context. Accordingly, © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 547–553, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_65

548

Y. Zhou and S. Zhao

this paper raised further questions, that is, why did Matsa study Bauhaus from this special perspective? And why did his monograph become the earliest known book introducing Bauhaus in China?

2 Transnational Spread of Bauhaus: Translation Work of Proletarian Art Theorists Reasons mainly lay in the of Matsa’s own dramatic experience as well as the macro historical background of the international communist movement in the early 20th century. On account of the obvious features of expressionism, socialism and utopia, the Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar quickly gained the attention of the Soviet proletarian art scholars of the same period. Especially Ivan Matsa (Hungarian: Mácza János, 1893–1974), a Hungarian art theorist living in the Soviet Union, was one of the pioneers of Hungarian avant-garde art in his early life. In the 1910s, owing to the impacts of German art and literary magazines including Der Strum and Die Aktion, his literature and art works showed a significant tendency of German Expressionism. It is worth mentioning that both Der Strum and Die Aktion were established in Berlin and published between the 1910s and 1930s. While the former was mostly edited by the artist Lothar Schreyer who also took over the stage workshop at the Bauhaus in 1921 but left abruptly in 1923, the latter focused on political issues, literary Expressionism and other left-wing politics. Apparently, they had made impacts on not only Matsa’s creative practice but also on his political thoughts. After the Great War, he was away from the Hungarian Activism (Hungarian: Magyar Aktivizmus, MA) circle so that he could devote himself to the revolution led by the Party of Communists in Hungary (KMP). During the shortlived Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919, as the co-director of the National Theater in Budapest, Matsa tried to develop the synthesis of literature, training and performing arts, which also was a kind of the experimental practice of the Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art). More exactly, the term “Gesamtkunstwerk” was proposed by the German opera composer Richard Wagner in his 1849 essays Die Kunst und die Revolution and Das Kunstwerk der Zukunft, where he spoke of his ideal of unifying all works of art via the theater [2]. Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus, held similar thoughts concerning the Gesamtkunstwerk. First, the word “Bauhaus” created by him carried the connotation of the Gesamtkunstwerk in itself: Gropius understood architecture not as the achievement of an outstanding designer, but the work by a well-trained team, as once in the medieval huts. Students and the different workshops in Bauhaus were involved in every design project. In so doing, Gropius attracted the best talents in the 1920s from all over Central Europe to Germany to invent modernity. Then, in the Bauhaus Manifesto, he put forward the exact goal “der neue Bau der Zukunft” (the new building of the future) that resembled the Wagner’s essay title Das Kunstwerk der Zukunft. Meanwhile, after the Great War, Gropius joined several left-wing or revolutionary artistic and architectural groups, which had a close connection with his initial plan of Bauhaus as well as his understandings of art and design. More specifically, in 1918, he became a member of the Novembergruppe (November group) that was made up of German expressionist artists as well as architects (e.g., Bruno Taut, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe) and aimed to incorporate the impulses of

Transnationality, Socialism, Modernity

549

the revolution in art [3]. He also contributed to the Gläserne Kette (Glass Chain) which was a chain letter initiated by Bruno Taut and a correspondence of architects. It formed a basis of expressionist architecture in Germany [4]. Furthermore, from 1919, Gropius headed the Arbeitsrat für Kunst (Work Council for Art, or “Art Soviet”) that developed as a response to the Workers and Soldiers’ councils of Berlin. It consisted of a radical group of architects, painters and sculptors, some of whom were also the founders and members of the Bauhaus, such as Otto Bartning (architect, chairman of the Arbeitsrat für Kunst Teaching Committee in 1918, who worked with Walter Gropius to formulate the basic aspects of the education program that Gropius implemented at the Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar), Lyonel Feininger (who was one of the first masters recruited to the Bauhaus by Gropius in 1919, also the creator of the woodcut “Cathedral” adorning the cover of the Bauhaus Manifesto) and Gerhard Marcks (who was one of the masters of form at Bauhaus and set up the pottery workshop). Besides, the others appointed as the first masters at the Bauhaus Weimar were mainly expressionist artists, like Johannes Itten, Oskar Schlemmer, Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky. Accordingly, unlike in Dessau, the Bauhaus Weimar was hailed as “the Bauhaus of the expressionist period” [5]. It indicated that revolution (or left-wing), Gesamtkunstwerk and expressionism were the key words of Gropius’s work and life between 1918 and the early 1920s, which might impress contemporaneous Matsa who held the common revolutionary and artistic beliefs most. Of course, Gropius was not a communist, but he firmly believed art and architecture should serve the masses. Hence, Matsa still stayed focus on the development and practice of the Bauhaus Weimar, even though he had begun his life in emigration since the defeat of the Hungarian Soviet Revolution in 1919. In 1923, he settled in Moscow and joined the Bolsheviks, then he became a proletarian art theorist since his scientific work in the 1920s focused on the fields of aesthetics theory and theory and history of architecture. In the first few years in the USSR, with the experience of his artistic and literary practice, he finished the book Ickycctvo covpemenno Evpopy (The Art of Contemporary Europe). In this book, written in Russian between 1922 and 1924 and published by the State Press of Moscow and Leningrad in 1926, Matsa presented what seemed to be the first detailed account of the avant-garde art from the Western to Eastern European countries, even including Czech and Yugoslavia. Along with German Expressionism and Activism, the Bauhaus Weimar was also regarded as an avant-garde artistic group rather than a school engaging in exploring modern design. As to the main content of this section, by utilizing Marxist art research methods, Matsa critically analyzed the essence of the development of the European art schools including the Bauhaus in the first two decades of the 20th century. First, he divided the book into two parts, “war and revolution” and “revolution and counterrevolution”, while the section of Bauhaus belonged to the former. Second, Matsa very much emphasized the principle of collectivity at Bauhaus. For instance, throughout the full text, he did not mention the personal contributions of the early vital members at Bauhaus like Gropius and Johannes Itten, but rather defined the Bauhaus as an art studio established by the “Commune of German art” after the 1918 revolution. According to the author’s further explanation, obviously, the “Commune of German art” means the Arbeitsrat für Kunst. However, when it was referred to in the book, Matsa preferred directly using the Frenchorigin word “commune” rather than using the corresponding Russian word “kommyna”,

550

Y. Zhou and S. Zhao

which might be attributed to the potential impact of the Paris Commune of 1871. Besides, he pointed that Bauhaus members believed painting, sculpture, architecture and drama finally would be unified into an art form, which corresponded to the goal of creating a new building consisted of architecture, sculpture and painting in the Bauhaus Manifesto. Intrinsically, as an attempt of the Gesamtkunstwerk, this final goal of Bauhaus symbolized not only the synergy of all art categories but also social unification. Following the principles of the Gesamtkunstwerk, this book pointed that Bauhaus members conducted a series of artistic practices in various workshops. For example, Kandinsky directed the wall painting workshop to teach and paint expressionist works, the joinery workshop explored the diverse items of furniture design, such as constructivism style. And in the renovation project of Jena Theater (1921), Bauhaus members cooperated to complete the entire design work comprised of architectural design, carpentry, ironwork and windows, by which Matsa was shocked and impressed. He believed that Bauhaus had created a kind of new artistic style no matter in the form or the practice. However, this section was finished in the summer of 1924 when the Bauhaus Weimar was still running, so he mentioned that he had no idea about how this Bauhaus style would develop and what it would achieve in the future. Hence, the comprehensive application of Marxist art research methods and formal analysis made The Art of Contemporary Europe soon attracted the attention of proletarian art theorists in various countries, particularly the East Asian countries. In 1929 Japanese art theorist Kurahara Korehito ( 蔵原惟人 ) and drama director Ry¯okichi Sugimoto ( 杉本良吉), both of whom were members of the Japanese Communist Party (JCP), translated it into Japanese. Given the frequent communication of the left-wing literary and artistic movements between China and Japan in the 1920–30s, based on the Japanese edition book [6], The Art of Contemporary Europe was also translated into Chinese by the main leader of the Chinese left-wing literary and artistic movement, FENG Xuefeng, who joined the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 1927. Therefore, the publication of the Chinese edition of The Art of Contemporary Europe in June 1930 signed the start of the spread of the Bauhaus in China. However, in the early 1930s when the revolution and counter-revolution struggled fiercely, entire China was shrouded in extreme white terror. So, along with many other pro-communist and anti-government books, The Art of Contemporary Europe was banned by the Republic of China (ROC) government led by Kuomintang (Nationalist Party of China) in 1934, which directly resulted in a negative impact on the Bauhaus’s spread in modern China. Fortunately, after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the Xinyi Press of the All-China Woodcut Association re-released The Art of Contemporary Europe, which consequently made this book return to the public after more than ten years.

3 Inspiration from Bauhaus: Avant-Garde Exploration by Early Chinese Design Scholars The Chinese design scholars also promoted the spread of Bauhaus in China by means of the professional publications. In January 1930, in order to unite industrialists, scientists and art craftsmen to guide the improvement and promotion of the techniques of production and craft in China, Prof. CHU Xiaoshi ( 储小石 ) and others initiated the

Transnationality, Socialism, Modernity

551

establishment of 生产工艺协进会(the Association of Production & Craft, APC) in Peiping (Beijing), and meanwhile founded the professional journal 生产工艺 (Production & Craft). The second issue (August 1931) published a group of illustrations related to “Bauhaus 工艺学校 ” (Bauhaus Crafts School) in three pages, which were also the earliest images of the Bauhaus Dessau in Chinese native publications. By examining the two remaining issues of Production & Craft, it could be found that the illustrations of the magazine generally referred to the separate arts and crafts work, and less information was reflected by the texts and illustrations. However, the illustration group concerning Bauhaus in this issue illustrated relatively much richer information. In addition to two “conventional” pictures of Bauhaus design works, there were many “unconventional” illustrations, such as the photographs of the architectural appearance and interior corridor of the well-renowned Bauhaus main building in Dessau, which described the building was full with air and light, that was the characteristics of the recent architectural tendency. Besides, this issue published pictures of the Bauhaus campus life that depicted female students who were resting in front of the cafeteria. The portraits of Gropius and Hans Mayer, the two headmasters of Bauhaus, were also showed. By publishing a group of illustrations to introduce a European modern design school from design works, school buildings, campus life and school leaders, was rarely seen in Production & Craft. In this regard, this paper believed that there were two main reasons for this. On one hand, the APC members made a lot of constructive discussions on “ 美术工 业” (art industry), which could be easily found that Production & Craft published many articles concerning the art industry and crafts. For example, in the article 生产工艺问题 (On production and craft) [7], Prof. CHU Xiaoshi at Jinghua College of Fine Arts in Peiping believed that the art industry was an industry, based on art design and manufacturing technology, utilized materials, machinery and power developed by the modern science to produce daily necessities and decorations for culture and life. In the course of the practice of art industry, the primary problem was how to satisfy the “beauty that human beings have, namely, the taste of beauty”, and the key to solving this problem was adopting good-quality materials, mass production and scientific and economic knowledge. Also, the article 美术与工业 (Art and industry) [8] by Prof. JIAO Ziyan ( 焦自严 ) at the School of Arts at the National Peiping University (today’s Peking University), proposed that the art industrial products had both the principles of practicality and beauty, and had a market tendency, so the producers have to cooperate with the most middle-class. Furthermore, the production standard of the art industry lay in the aesthetic taste of the masses, but it must produce the fine arts that meet their desires and the progressive art industrial products. Besides, three articles studying proletarian art showed that the relationship between art, society and the masses was paid attention to by Production & Craft. For example, in the article ᰐ਽㢪Ӫоᯠ⽮Պ (Anonymous artists and new society) [9], WANG Junchu ( 王钧初 ), an assistant at the School of Arts at the National Peiping University (pen name was HU Man 胡蛮, joined the CPC in 1932, then served as the secretary of the standing committee of the Chinese Artists Alliance, and member of the executive committee of the Left-wing Cultural Confederation), criticized the capitalist art that had become the entertainment of a particular class from the perspective of Marxist art theory. He advocated the laborers need to create art that belonged to the working class, as only the

552

Y. Zhou and S. Zhao

art of the laborer is the real creation. Another example is the initial issue of Production & Craft published two long articles by Japanese famous proletarian art and literary theorists Hirabayashi Hatsunosuke ( 平林初之輔 ) and Aono Kiyoshi ( 青野季吉), which introduced the basic situation of the development of proletarian culture and art theory in detail. On the other hand, it is due to the efforts of the APC to design education. The APC considered that in order to enable the Chinese production and craft industry at that time to achieve substantial development, education is the only effective weapon to solve. Consequently, the APC in 1930 developed a detailed plan of design school named 国立北平工艺学院 (National Peiping Institute of Crafts, NPIC) [10], was actually a modern design school similar to Bauhaus. According to the situation of China’s industrial education and various other industries in the 1930s, NPIC planned to set up seven departments (subjects) consisted of Graphic Pattern, Sculpture, Metal, Precision Machinery, Joinery, Printing and Photography. While three departments, Sculpture, Metal as well as Joinery, crossed each other in training, the Department of Precision Machinery aimed to cultivate design talents in physics, chemistry, photography, printing, medical care and even military. And the application scope of the Joinery Department included architecture, furniture, musical instruments, toys, etc. Through interdisciplinary education, NPIC would involve subjects like architecture, ceramics as well as weaving, which were not included in the plan. In these seven subjects, less than half of the courses were traditional paintings or patterns while most of the courses were closely linked to the flourishing industries and sciences of modern times, such as chemistry, trade, foreign languages, electrical engineering, materials science and forestry. Hence, the department setting of the NPIC plan had similarities with the Bauhaus workshops in the systems of classification and cooperation. Moreover, based on the four-year training, NPIC planned to establish a postgraduate system similar to Bauhaus, recruiting outstanding graduates with relevant education backgrounds to conduct further studies, in order to cultivate high-level talents in crafts of China. Obviously, this ambitious plan had planned one of the most modern design schools in China, which would lead the other schools of the same kind in China in the early 1930s no matter in subjects setting and training levels. Unfortunately, as a result of the too large-scale plan and the financial constraints of the ROC government, this forward-looking Chinese modern design school had to remain words on paper and failed to implement. Thus, perhaps in the view of the APC members, Bauhaus was a model of the modern design school that had been built.

4 Conclusion In summary, Bauhaus quickly gained the attention of the Soviet proletarian art theorists on account of the remarkable expressionist art, socialism and utopian characteristics in Weimar period (1919–1925). In 1926, The Art of Contemporary Europe, the monograph studied the Bauhaus by Ivan Matsa was published, and soon introduced to the other end of Eurasia. This is mainly because since the 1920s, the international communist movement had flourished and Sino-Japanese political and cultural exchanges had been getting closer. Therefore, in the early 1930s, as the international metropolis in the Far East and the center of the left-wing literary movement led by the CPC, Shanghai provided a

Transnationality, Socialism, Modernity

553

platform for the introduction and publication of Soviet art theory. Consequently, through the translation of The Art of Contemporary Europe by the CPC member FENG Xuefeng who engaged in literary and art work, Bauhaus was first introduced into China in the year of 1930, and started its circuitous and difficult spread in China. It thus could be seen that the understanding of art industry by the APC members was a kind of processing industry based on industrial development and centered on art design and manufacturing processes. It took human needs and aesthetic preferences as the standards for production and evaluation, emphasizing the selection of appropriate materials, industrial-based mass production, scientific as well as economic knowledge, and attention to the art and social needs of different classes such as the middle class and the proletariat. Apparently, these considerations combined with industrialization, standardization and social ideas had formed an approximate definition of modern design, which also was quite close to the thoughts of the Bauhaus, particularly in the integration of art and technology, the cooperation of artists and entrepreneurs, and potential idealization with socialist tendencies. Above all, from the perspective of historical documents, when Bauhaus was still running in Germany, its spread in China has already begun. Although the information related to Bauhaus was relatively scattered, it involved the development of Bauhaus in different periods, and therefore reflected the modern Chinese design scholars’ introduction and active exploration of the world’s emerging art trends, practice and frontier theories. In this spread, particularly the thinking of modern arts and crafts, which demonstrated some art scholars in the early 1930s already had formed a preliminary cognition and understanding of modern design, Bauhaus and its ideas. Finally, it contributed to the modernity rising of design in China.

References 1. Matsa, I.: The Art of Contemporary Europe, pp. 167–173. Dajiang Bookstore, Shanghai (1930). (in Chinese) 2. Juliet, K.: Modernism After Wagner, pp. 17–19. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis (2010) 3. Long, R.W.: German Expressionism, Documents from the End of the Wilhelmine Empire to the Rise of National Socialism, p. 62. University of California Press, Berkeley (1993) 4. Timothy, B.O., Edward, D.: Expressionist Utopias: Paradise, Metropolis, Architectural Fantasy, p. 48. University of California Press, Oakland (2001) 5. Magdalena, D.: Bauhaus, pp. 34–36. TASCHEN GmbH, Cologne (2019) 6. Matsa, I.: The Art of Contemporary Europe. Sobunkaku Books, Tokyo (1929). (in Japanese) 7. Chu, X.S.: On production and craft. Prod. Craft 1, 5–8 (1930). (in Chinese) 8. Jiao, Z.Y.: Art and industry. Prod. Craft 1, 9–11 (1930). (in Chinese) 9. Jun, C.: Anonymous artists and new society. Prod. Craft 1, 13–14 (1930). (in Chinese) 10. Chu, X.S.: A plan of crafts school. Prod. Craft. 2, 5–26 (1930). (in Chinese)

Running Community Solidarity and Well-Being Motivated by Instagram Multimodal Communications Under the COVID-19 Pandemic Sunny Sui-kwong Lam(B) The Open University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China [email protected]

Abstract. This paper investigates how the city runners of a local running group maintain a sense of belonging and commitment to the running group and running exercises under the new abnormal living situations by the COVID-19 pandemic. A netnographic approach to study the running group’s Instagram posts and the members’ responses shows how community-based solidarity and interventions provide both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations to shape the members’ self-regulated behaviours and running practices by interactive and multimodal communications. Their self-regulated physical exercises and collective and connective activities help to promote community health and well-being when the formal community-based running exercises are suspended. Keywords: Community solidarity · Instagram · Motivations · Multimodal communications · Netnography · Pandemic · Running group · Well-being

1 Introduction Hong Kong city dwellers possess very long working hours and stressful living conditions in their everyday lives. The COVID-19 pandemic further constrains their everyday activities and prohibits them from traveling. In accord with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) definition of health, a holistic health of human being in a society should be a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being [1]. People’s mind and body and their living environment are interdependent, which influence community health and well-being [2]. Sport activities and interactive communications among Hong Kong people are believed to be one of the important factors to maintain the city dwellers’ health and well-being. Many Hong Kong people join community-based running groups to do their running exercises after work. This study applies self-determination theory to investigate the significance of interactive communications and motivations for the running community solidarity and well-being of a local running group “Hong Kong Harbours Runners” (HR) under the new abnormal living situations by the pandemic. Group running is very popular in Hong Kong, but it is fundamentally speaking restricted by the new social distancing rules for the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 554–561, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_66

Running Community Solidarity and Well-Being Motivated

555

employs a netnographic approach to analyze how Harbour Runners maintain a sense of belonging and commitment to the running group and weekly running exercises, thus promoting community solidarity and well-being by physical and mobile communications within their abnormal lives. Their collective and connective activities of sports and running exercises are investigated to discern the intrinsic and extrinsic motives from restricted physical interactions and multimodal communications such as the posts of images and messages in the HR official Instagram account and the runners’ responses. These motives shared among Harbour Runners explain the community-based interventions on psychological health and well-being by means of personality development and behavioural self-regulation. It is the truth that all large-scale community-based weekly running exercises and global and local marathons and running activities have been suspended by the pandemic. Fortunately, Harbour Runners and other city runners are not lonely runners but enjoy collective and connective activities by community-based physical and mobile-mediated interactions.

2 Sport, Psychological Health and Well-Being Sport is largely undervalued in the health system’s communication because of an emphatic orientation towards the prevention of illness that excludes the important concept of fitness promoted and constructed by sports and physical activities [3]. Sports almost exclusively take the responsibility for promoting well-being through physical exercises and activities in everyday lives [3]. However, a holistic health of human being is not only the absence of disease, that is, overemphasized by the health discourses of the world under the COVID-19 pandemic [4–6], but also a state of people’s complete physical, mental and social well-being in a wellness model of health [1, 2]. People’s overall quality of life should consider the interrelationships among the physical, psychological, emotional, social, spiritual, and environmental factors that make the highest possible enjoyment [2]. Sport exercises and physical activities can reduce city dwellers’ levels of depression and anxiety [7]. Especially team sports such like mass sports events and community-based running groups “within a context of social participation” generate higher levels of happiness compared with individual sports and encourage regular physical activities and social interactions, thus improving the participants’ psychological health and well-being [7–9]. Community-based running groups such as parkrun in Britain and Australia and Harbour Runners in Hong Kong demonstrate a self-determined model of community health and well-being. Collective and connective activities of the city runners based upon the running group’s weekly running exercises and social media communications satisfy different dimensions of psychological health and well-being [2, 8]. Especially social well-being and emotional well-being can be highly influenced by community-based social support and interventions. Social well-being is the ability to develop positive social relationships and effective communications with others, while emotional wellbeing refers to the ability to cope with emotions and take responsibility for individual behaviours [2]. City dwellers who do not have a strong sense of self-efficacy for sport exercises, who do not enjoy their form of exercise, who are not extroverted and sociable, and who have negative attitude toward sports and physical activities are more likely reliant upon social support and motivations from community-based sports and running groups to keep regular exercises [10].

556

S. S. Lam

3 Self-determination by City Runners Human beings who are inherently proactive tend to act on and master both the inner forces of thoughts and emotions and the external forces of social and environmental situations to concern their own strengths and positive outcomes [11]. City dwellers are human beings paying considerable effort, agency and commitment to master their lives under the rapidly changing social-contextual conditions to satisfy their inherent tendencies toward growth, development and self-actualization through the fulfillment of innate psychological needs for competence, autonomy and relatedness [12, 13]. Some people are more proactive and engaged while the others are passive and alienated because of different social conditions that enhance versus undermine “the natural processes of self-motivation and healthy psychological development” respectively [13]. This study applies self-determination theory from a first-person perspective to treat city runners’ subjective experiences of the new abnormal living situations under the pandemic as the proximal motivational forces to shape their self-regulated behaviours [12]. City runners’ continuous participation in their self-motivated running exercises and other collective and connective activities are highly reliant on their evolved inner resources for community-based behaviour change and health behaviour adaption [13]. The runners receive both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations through social media interactions. Their identification with a social group of community solidarity motivates them to maintain and enhance psychological health and well-being by the perception of social support to improve their ability to cope with adversity and by the perception of emotional support to help them decrease psychological stress under stressful situations [14]. Sometimes individual runners reject to take the responsibility to continue regular exercises or adapt new physical behaviours when their spirit is crushed by the subjective feelings of loneliness and social isolation, which very likely happens under the abnormal situations of the pandemic [13, 15]. 3.1 Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations Intrinsic motivation is the most important internal factor to affect intrinsic regulation of people’s self-determined behaviours. It represents the human nature of the inherent tendency to seek for new experiences and challenges, associates with cognitive and social development within a dynamic source of enjoyment and vitality in living practices and needs supportive conditions for its maintenance and enhancement [13]. Vitality is regarded as a source of physical and mental energy, which makes people more active and productive, facilitates better self-regulation of negative emotions, and increases the capability to cope with stress and life challenges [16]. Generally, the fulfillment of innate psychological needs facilitates intrinsic motivation for people’s personality development and self-regulation of behaviours [11]. For instance, positive feedback, communications and rewards on city runners’ performance in a community-initiative running activity can induce feelings of competence, which enhance intrinsic motivation accompanied by a sense of autonomy [11, 13]. In the running group, choices of running pacing, acknowledgement of feelings, and self-direction opportunities can provide the participants a better sense of autonomy [13]. In addition, a

Running Community Solidarity and Well-Being Motivated

557

strong sense of security and relatedness within a community can provide social contexts to further flourish intrinsic motivation for the members [11, 13]. Extrinsic motivation comes from external sources. It refers to people’s performance of an activity that is instrumental to attain some separable consequence rather than intrinsic enjoyment and aspiration [11, 13]. Within self-determination theory, four different types of extrinsic motivation - external regulation, introjection, identification, and integration - affect people’s capability to act upon external directives for internalization of the regulations of their behaviours [12, 13]. External regulation refers to people’s behaviours that are least autonomous but performed to fulfill the external demands of reward and punishment [13]. Introjected regulation is related to behaviours relatively controlled by external regulations that people adopt but not fully accept them as their own [12]. With introjected regulation, people feel the pressure from within whereas they get the pressure from external sources with external regulation [11]. Identified regulation is a more autonomous type of extrinsic motivation by people’s conscious valuing of their self-regulated behaviours as their own of personal significance [13]. Integrated regulation is the most autonomous type of extrinsic motivation when identified regulations of people’s behaviours are evaluated with their personal values and needs and fully assimilated to their self [12, 13]. 3.2 Community Solidarity and Interventions A group of people of a sense of solidarity should share similar beliefs, engage in related behaviours, and interact with each other in a social setting [17]. Community and emotional solidarities reflect the social and affective bonds binding individuals together by perceived emotional closeness, social identification, and degree of contact [18]. This sense of belonging to a community with a feeling of being part of a collective provides a source of security and social support [19]. The sense of group solidarity and shared social identity in the community motivate the group members to maintain and enhance physical activities and well-being at the collective level [14]. Community solidarity and commitment explain the active participation of some members who are willing to pay extra effort to improve the group’s quality of life [19]. In addition to physical interactions, social media provide new opportunities of collective and connective activities to engage the members and build community solidarity by interactive communications and flexible identifications based on personal lifestyles and social networks [20, 21]. In community-based running groups, interventions that provide social support to reinforce community health and well-being are in a mixed mode of both social media and interpersonal communications [10]. Their communitybased interventions help city runners to identify life purpose and life satisfaction and encourage community engagement by physical and mobile-mediated interactions [15].

4 Netnography and Multimodal Communications This research investigates how a local running group “Hong Kong Harbour Runners” (HR) maintains a sense of community solidarity and motivates city runners to keep weekly running exercises and sport activities within the social constraints under the

558

S. S. Lam

pandemic. The suspension of formal large-scale group running to prevent the COVID19 spread in the community by controlling social contact and group gatherings [22, 23] has enforced the reliance on social media networks to communicate and connect with Harbour Runners. The HR’s Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/harbourrunners/) as a visually oriented mobile networking platform plays a critical role to build the community and provide social and emotional support for the well-being of Harbour Runners [24, 25]. Its Instagram posts of visual stories and inspirational messages by multimodal semiotics generate motivational resources for a sense of belonging to the community, a structure of behavioural regulation, and a feeling of life purpose to encourage the runners’ continuous and regular running exercises by shared norms, values and routines [24, 26]. Netnographic studies of the HR official Instagram posts and its members’ responses show how the organizers and the members use mobile-mediated multimodal communications to maintain social and emotional bonds with meaningful ties by intimate and supportive interactions of trust, acceptance and reciprocity [26, 27]. The posts reveal a rich symbolic world of cultural experiences reflecting the needs, desires and choices of community-based running practices and other activities [28]. Reflexive observations and analytic interpretation of the posts and the corresponding interactions unveil the cocreation of cultures, value and knowledge of the running community by the members’ social media practices and online and offline behaviours [29]. Interviews with some Harbour Runners provide tacit knowledge and social contexts to make trustworthy interpretations of the Instagram posts of multimodal representations and explain the influences of community-based interventions on their running practices and psychological well-being [26, 28].

5 Harbour Runners’ Solidarity Through Instagram HR is one of the most long-established, stable, community-based running groups of very diversified demographics of members in Hong Kong since 2010. The running group’s community solidarity was mainly developed by its weekly running exercises on every Wednesday evening and interactive communications among Harbour Runners. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic led to the global implementation of nonpharmaceutical interventions including quarantine and travel restrictions, curbs on group gathering, and social distancing requirements [22]. These social constraints immediately stopped many Harbour Runners’ plans to join local and global marathons and running activities. The HR regular weekly running exercises have also been suspended since January 29, 2020. Except the short resume on July 8, Harbour Runners have been restricted to solo or small group running exercises. Social media communications have become a major source of social support and interventions to reinforce community solidarity and well-being. All the HR Instagram posts after the suspension of the community-based weekly running exercises from January 29 to August 31, 2020 were studied. The data collection included the date, the image(s), the text, the hashtags, the number of likes, and the comments of every post. Within the period, there were 78 posts of 84 images. At least one post was issued every week and mostly contained only one image. The most popular hashtags were #harbourrunners, #cityisourplayground and #werunourcity to

Running Community Solidarity and Well-Being Motivated

559

represent the running group’s social identity and facilitate keyword searches by runners, thus building the community and encouraging social networking [25]. Indeed, before the pandemic, there were always some foreign runners who had found HR by online searching and joined the weekly running exercises during their visits to Hong Kong. The hashtags #hrsolonotsolo and #ourownharbourrun were frequently used to encourage solo and small group running exercises during the pandemic. Likes represent a form of recognition of the Instagram community and facilitate the development of social networks and connective activities among the followers [26]. However, as supported by the interviews in this study, Harbour Runners mostly viewed the HR Instagram posts to achieve information, a sense of belonging, and social and emotional support without leaving likes and comments. Table 1. Motivational forces from a HR Instagram post to shape the runners’ self-regulated behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic. Regulations by different motives “Visual image” of an Instagram post

“Text message” of an Instagram post

Intrinsic regulation

+



Integrated regulation

+

+

Identified regulation

+

+

Introjected regulation



+

External regulation



+

Unlike many other Intagram communities, HR put emphasis on both images and texts to create motivational posts for the community members who achieved information and support from a trusted community for their social and emotional well-being [26]. Therefore, a focus of analysis was put on each post’s “text message” and “visual image(s)” for multimodal communications. Table 1 demonstrates how the “visual image” and the “text message” of a HR Instagram post on August 26, 2020 were tabulated to discern the community-based interventions on Harbour Runners’ intrinsically and extrinsically motivated behaviours during the pandemic. The “visual image” was solo run by a Harbour Runner with a running headlamp in a dark evening. The visual representation of the photo image and the graphic design of a white logo of HR and the typography of “AUG26 | 19:45”, “SOLO RUN” and “#HRSOLONOTSOLO” recalled Harbour Runners’ sense of belonging to the community and inherent drive to seek for challenges and new running experiences from the memories of their participation in the former community-based running exercises scheduled at every Wednesday 19:45. This created intrinsic motivation to support the runners accepting the new challenge of solo run. The “visual image” also worked along with the “text message” to shape the runners’ extrinsically motivated behaviours by integration and identification. The quotation of Roosevelt’s motto “A Smooth Sea never made a skilled sailor” symbolized the values and needs of competence for assimilating the new practices of solo or paired run with the runners’ self-behaviours by integrated regulation. Some texts reminded the runners

560

S. S. Lam

of staying healthy themselves and choosing to run solo or in pair for the community. These implied a conscious valuing of the new running practices as self-behaviours of personal importance by identified regulation for both personal and community health. Furthermore, some texts such as “run at odd hours to avoid a high density of people” and “Do it for the community, do it for the city” reflected introjected regulation of the runners’ behaviours by contingent self-control to attain feelings of worth for the city and the community. Finally, those statements of the government’s safety guidelines of social distancing and wearing a mask during a run explained that the new running behaviours by external regulation were requested to fulfill an external demand. In the interviews with the 11 Harbour Runners, most agreed that HR provided a sense of group solidarity and motivational forces to maintain their regular running exercises. Some more proactive runners could keep physical health and well-being by weekly running exercises in small groups on Wednesday in response to the calling of the HR Instagram posts and their collective and connective activities of both restricted physical gatherings and social media interactions. Some passive runners explained that the motivations from social media posts could not fully replace those from physical participation and social gathering in the former regular weekly running exercises. Under the COVID-19 pandemic, community-based solidarity and interventions maintained by the HR Instagram posts played important roles to encourage community engagement with new running practices of social and physical constraints. The multimodal representations of the posts helped the running group members to identify life purpose and social connectedness, thus promoting both emotional well-being and social well-being [15]. However, prolonged periods of external regulations lead to enduring decreases in intrinsic motivation, vitality and well-being [12] that would be unfavorable to the development of community solidarity as a source of security and relatedness. Acknowledgments. This paper resulted from research fully supported by Katie Shu Sui Pui Charitable Trust Research and Publication Fund (Applied Research) (Project Reference No. KS 2019/01).

References 1. World Health Organization: Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization as Adopted by the International Health Conference, New York, 19–11 June 1946 (1948) 2. Edlin, G., Golanty, E.: Health & Wellness, 12th edn. Jones & Bartlett Learning, Burlington (2016) 3. Michelini, E., Thiel, A.: The acceptance of “sport” in the communication of the health system. A sociological analysis. Eur. J. Sport Soc. 10(4), 325–344 (2013) 4. Das, N., Bhatt, P., Khan, S., Mirza, S.: Should New Zealand be really enthusiastic about zero cases in the middle of a pandemic: A thought. Med. J. Dr. D.Y. Patil Vidyapeeth 14(1), 105–106 (2021) 5. Malhotra, R., Gautam, D., George, J., Goyal, D., Ansari, M.T.: Conducting orthopaedic practical examination during the Covid-19 pandemic. J. Clin. Orthop. Trauma 11, S448–S455 (2020) 6. Tran, T.P.T., Le, T.H., Nguyen, T.N.P., Hoang, V.M.: Rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic: Vietnam government’s experience and preliminary success. J. Glob. Health 10(2), 1–14 (2020)

Running Community Solidarity and Well-Being Motivated

561

7. McMahon, E.M., et al.: Physical activity in European adolescents and associations with anxiety, depression and well-being. Eur. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry 26(1), 111–122 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-016-0875-9 8. Grunseit, A., Richards, J., Merom, D.: Running on a high: parkrun and personal well-being. BMC Public Health 18(1), 59 (2017) 9. Stevinson, C., Hickson, M.: Exploring the public health potential of a mass community participation event. J. Public Health 36(2), 268–274 (2014) 10. Taylor, S.E.: Health Psychology, 10th edn. McGraw-Hill Education, New York (2018) 11. Deci, E., Vansteenkiste, M.: Self-determination theory and basic need satisfaction: understanding human development in positive psychology. Ricerche Di Psicologia 27, 23–40 (2004) 12. Koole, S.L., Schlinkert, C., Maldei, T., Baumann, N.: Becoming who you are: an integrative review of self-determination theory and personality systems interactions theory. J. Pers. 87(1), 15–36 (2019) 13. Ryan, R.M., Deci, E.L.: Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. Am. Psychol. 55(1), 68–78 (2000) 14. Inoue, Y., Funk, D.C., Wann, D.L., Yoshida, M., Nakazawa, M.: Team identification and postdisaster social well-being: The mediating role of social support. Group Dyn. Theory Res. Pract. 19(1), 31–44 (2015) 15. Feller, S.C., Castillo, E.G., Greenberg, J.M., Abascal, P., Van Horn, R., Wells, K.B.: Emotional well-being and public health: proposal for a model national initiative. Public Health Rep. 133(2), 136–141 (2018) 16. Ryan, R.M., Deci, E.L.: From ego depletion to vitality: theory and findings concerning the facilitation of energy available to the self. Soc. Pers. Psychol. Compass 2(2), 702–717 (2008) 17. Durkheim, E.: The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. Free Press, New York (1995) 18. Woosnam, K.M.: Testing a model of Durkheim’s theory of emotional solidarity among residents of a tourism community. J. Travel Res. 50(5), 546–558 (2010) 19. Zanbar, L.: Sense of belonging and commitment as mediators of the effect of community features on active involvement in the community. City Community 19(3), 617–637 (2020) 20. Bennett, W.L., Segerberg, A.: The logic of connective action. Inf. Commun. Soc. 15(5), 739–768 (2012) 21. Canadian Association of University Teachers: Using social media to engage supporters & build solidarity. CAUT Bull. 64(4), 7–9 (2017) 22. Hall, C.M., Scott, D., Gössling, S.: Pandemics, transformations and tourism: be careful what you wish for. Tour. Geogr. 22(3), 577–598 (2020) 23. The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region: Social Distancing, 24 February 2021. https://www.coronavirus.gov.hk/eng/social_distancing.html 24. MacKean, R., Abbott-Chapman, J.: Older people’s perceived health and wellbeing: the contribution of peer-run community-based organisations. Health Sociol. Rev. 21(1), 47–57 (2012) 25. Thornton, L.-J.: The photo is live at Applifam: an Instagram community grapples with how images should be used. Vis. Commun. Q. 21(2), 72–82 (2014) 26. Foster, I., Kesselman, C.: The Grid: Blueprint for a New Computing Infrastructure. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco (1999) 27. Czajkowski, K., Fitzgerald, S., Foster, I., Kesselman, C.: Grid information services for distributed resource sharing. In: 10th IEEE International Symposium on High Performance Distributed Computing, pp. 181–184. IEEE Press, New York (2001) 28. Foster, I., Kesselman, C., Nick, J., Tuecke, S.: The physiology of the grid: an open grid services architecture for distributed systems integration. Technical report, Global Grid Forum (2002) 29. National Center for Biotechnology Information. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Cultural Communication Design Strategies of Primary School Environment from the Perspective of Cultural Cognition Jingyi Xia(B) and Fanqiang Kong Songjiang Experimental School Affiliated to Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, Baoshan Experimental School of Shanghai Education Society and Xitan Primary School, Daxu Town, Tongshan, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China

Abstract. This paper conducts a questionnaire survey on the cultural cognition of 70 teachers and parents in 3 primary schools from the dimensions of the definition of campus culture, the degree of importance, and the degree of cultural communication. Based on the in-depth analysis of the status quo and the environmental design theory, 3 campus cultural environment communication design strategies are proposed: 1. Materialize the elements of campus culture into the actual design to effectively spread the campus culture; 2. Establish a public display area to the campus in order to effectively publicize campus culture; 3. Pay attention to the cultural design of parent waiting areas in order to effectively deepen campus culture. Keywords: Communication design · Campus cultural environment · Culture cognition

1 Introduction At present, the effects of primary school environment’s cultural communication design are limited in China, and there are big problems with design that does not stand from the perspective of users’ the cultural cognition. Cultural communication design is a closed loop that repeats itself, that is school communication- school user receptionschool user understanding- school user dissemination-community reception-community understanding-community communication. The famous American political scientist Harold Laswell published an article “The Structure and Function of Social Communication” in 1948. The article clarified the five basic elements in the communication process: who and What to say (what), who to say (whom), what channel, what effect [1]. In the design and dissemination of campus cultural environment, “who and whom” are mainly elementary school students and faculty, and secondly are students’ parents and other social figures; “what” is the essence of campus culture; “what channel” is the campus cultural environment, including offline and online New environment; “what effect” will have a subtle and positive effect for elementary school students, faculty, students’ parents and other social figures. Campus © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 562–568, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_67

Cultural Communication Design Strategies of Primary School Environment

563

culture is the bloodline of the campus and it can influence people. It is the core of campus soft power. Campus culture affects elementary school students, teachers, staff, parents, and social figures in the way of thinking, aesthetic appeal, value orientation, ethical principles, and moral concepts [2]. Primary education is the foundation of a country’s education. The overall quality of primary school students indicates the future development trend of the country. Therefore, the campus culture deeply affects the survival and development of the country and nation [2]. Without it, the entire country may be ruined. Campus culture can subtly enable elementary school students to create productivity, improve competitiveness, enhance attraction, and form cohesion [2]. The cultural environment of a primary school can have an important impact on primary school students, teachers, and parents. The degree and effect of campus cultural environment design dissemination also have a direct effect on the impact of the environment on campus users. This paper studies the relevant content of campus cultural environment communication design, finds its problems, and proposes relevant solutions based on campus cultural environment design.

2 Research Process 2.1 Participants As adults, their cognitive abilities, comprehension abilities, and expression abilities are far better than primary students, and their acceptance of the campus cultural environment and the ability to communicate campus culture are far better than primary students. Therefore, the main research objects of this article for the campus cultural communication design are primary school teachers and students’ parents. A survey of 70 teachers and parents of 3 elementary schools on cultural cognition was conducted, and a questionnaire survey was conducted from the dimensions of the definition, importance of campus culture, and the degree of dissemination of culture. Among them, males accounted for 22.86% and females accounted for 77.14%; primary school teachers accounted for 55.71%, and students’ parents accounted for 47.14%. There were 2 subjects who were both primary school teachers and students’ parents; students or children’s grade distribution: first grade (21.43%), second grade (24.29%), third grade (25.71%), fourth grade (10%), fifth grade (14.29) %) and sixth grade (4.29%); age distribution: 18–25 years old (30%), 26–30 years old (30%), 31–40 years old (37.14%) and 41–50 years old (2.86%). 2.2 Research Method This article adopts the questionnaire survey method, that is, the questionnaire method, which is a survey method [3] in which the surveyor uses a uniformly designed questionnaire to learn about the situation or opinions from randomly selected survey subjects. It is a research method to collect data by asking questions in writing. Through inquiring about the views and opinions of a certain phenomenon or problem, we understand the real thoughts and perceptions of the students’ teachers and parents on the campus cultural environment design.

564

J. Xia and F. Kong

Almost all the options of the questionnaire survey are text content. In order to facilitate various later analysis, we replace the text content with corresponding numbers, as follows: student parents (1), elementary school teachers (2); male (1), female (2); 18– 25 years old (1), 26–30 years old (2), 31–40 years old (3), 41–50 years old (4); 1st grade (1), 2nd grade (2), 3rd grade (3), 4th grade (4), 5th grade (5), 6th grade (6) face-to-face chat with classmates (1), play with classmates (2), read/study (3), play electronic/mobile games (4); playground (1), classroom (2), corridor (3), toilet (4), small garden (5); yes (1), no (2). Through descriptive statistics and data analysis, including correlation analysis and regression analysis, we scientifically find out the relationship between related variables, and get relevant conclusions.

3 Research Result 3.1 Description Understanding of the Definition of Campus Culture 91% of teachers and parents believe that school spirit, school motto, school badge, and school song are the category of campus culture. More than 70% of teachers and parents believe that school rules and regulations/codes of conduct, campus environment (including architecture, greening, etc.), and interpersonal relationships (such as Teacherstudent relationship, student relationship, etc.) belong to the part of campus culture, but the school management organization structure and the school website/WeChat official account and other platforms have a low sense of campus culture identity. Awareness of the Importance of Campus Culture 70 teachers and parents scored 8.27 points for the importance of campus culture (out of 10 points). Only 6 teachers and parents scored 6 points or less. At present, close to all teachers and parents have certain recognition of the importance of campus culture. Cognition of Campus Culture Nearly half of the participants’ school did not have school songs, and 10 primary schools were involved. This shows that the current primary school campus culture construction is not perfect. In terms of school history and culture, there is a certain gap between students and their parents. 64% of teachers and parents have a better understanding of school history, but only 37% of ‘students understand the history of their school. Only 51% of schools in subject have school history display areas. The school history display area has great significance to the dissemination of campus material cultural elements, but the dissemination of material cultural elements does not spread well. Cognition of the Cultural Category of Campus Environment Participants’ cognition of the campus environment and culture is relatively consummate, but they have a weaker understanding of the campus environment and culture of the school history display area, landscape sketches, and campus websites/public platforms. It is directly related to the lack of cultural construction. Campus users cannot have a

Cultural Communication Design Strategies of Primary School Environment

565

correct understanding because the current campus cultural construction does not spread well precisely. Awareness of the Importance of Cultural Elements of Campus Environment Participants ranked the importance of the following campus cultural environment elements as follows: classrooms, campus buildings, school gates, corridors, stairwells, waiting areas, landscape greening, playgrounds, school history display areas, landscape sketches, and platforms such as school website/WeChat official account. The choice of teachers and parents is basically based on the principle of the daily path in the campus, that is, the time or frequency of the place which one person stays as the criterion for ranking. Cognition of Campus Cultural Dissemination of Campus Environment According to the cultural dissemination, the participants scored as follows: school gate (7.51), waiting area (7.1), ground (7.07), sign (7.54), stairwell (7.43), classroom door (7.47), Classroom windows (7.44), classrooms (8.16), corridors (7.63), campus buildings (7.74), landscape sketches (7.33), landscape greening (7.71), playground (7.71) and school history display area (7.2). The scores are relatively average, but the scores of the waiting area and the school history display area are relatively lower. Participants generally believe that the waiting area and the school history display area have not achieved good results in spreading campus culture. 3.2 Related Analysis The specific related analysis is given in Table 1. Identity Among 25 aspects, most of them are negatively related to identity. Whether to know history, whether to know the school motto/school spirit/style of study, and the place where the person is alone has a higher positive correlation with identity, which are 0.312, 0.296 and 0.122. Teachers have a better understanding of school history and school motto/school spirit/style of study. More teachers’ choice of places where pupils are alone is in the classroom, but some parents of students will choose corridors; There is a high negative correlation between the place of multi-person activities, the evaluation of landscape sketches and the evaluation of corridors and identity, which are −0.347, − 0.253 and −0.252. Gender Among 25 aspects, 36% are negatively related to gender. Whether to sing the school song, the evaluation of school website/WeChat public account, etc., and the importance of campus culture has a high positive correlation with gender. Compared with women, men do not know the school song; women have a higher evaluation of the importance of school websites/WeChat public accounts and campus culture. Generation A few aspects are negatively correlated with age groups, and the correlation between all aspects and age groups is weak. Only whether to understand history is more relevant.

566

J. Xia and F. Kong Table 1. Related analysis of identity, gender, generation, and grade. Identity

Things to do after class Place for multiplayer activities A place to be alone

Gender

0.067309 −0.12073 −0.34731

Generation Grade −0.00585

0.124344 −0.11389

0.122465 −0.15035

−0.28241 0.082393

0.006749 −0.10403

Evaluation of the importance of campus −0.13408 culture

0.159438 −0.04619

−0.03131

−0.21414

0.284687 −0.16306

−0.08263

Whether to sing the school song Whether to know history proper safety education Whether to know the school motto/school spirit/style of study Whether to meet the students’ needs

0.312568 −0.02029 −0.11574

0.088599

0.296361 −0.1088 0.07859

School gate

−0.15556

Waiting area

−0.15147

Ground (such as floor tiles, etc.)

−0.02664

Signs

−0.0543

Staircase

−0.24913

−0.01833

0.230677

0.121042

0.049734 −0.14583 0.191737

0.058576

−0.05266

0.007907

0.047348 −0.05726

0.260608

−0.06433

0.019024

0.002436 −0.05423 −0.04468 0.087943

0.125684 0.214694

0.065761

0.133077

0.009907

0.019338

Classroom door

−0.08288

0.031413 −0.14859

0.147454

Classroom window

−0.14698

0.114401 −0.01787

0.177687

Classroom (such as wall, blackboard, etc.)

−0.12229

0.032935 −0.06679

0.092115

Corridor

−0.25276

0.100208

0.088638

0.119168

Campus buildings (architectural style, exterior walls, etc.)

−0.18414

0.145634

0.075227

−0.04199

Landscape sketches (such as sculptures, −0.25314 amusement facilities, etc.)

0.142654

0.041713

0.1968

Landscape greening

−0.18561

0.109182

0.09217

0.114843

Playground

−0.01569

0.064032 −0.00383

0.149602

School history display area

−0.04987

School website/WeChat public account, −0.17255 etc. Total score

−0.17434

−0.15954

0.156658

0.175732

0.172982 −0.07041

0.252815

0.053939

0.182595

0.018208

Younger teachers understand school history better, middle-aged teachers have the least knowledge of school history. Grade There is a negative correlation between the grade and the things done after class, and the evaluation of the school gate, school website/WeChat official account, etc. and the

Cultural Communication Design Strategies of Primary School Environment

567

ground (such as floor tiles, etc.) has a high correlation with the participant’s grade. Participants aged 18–25 and aged 31–40 have higher evaluations of the school gate, school website/WeChat official account, etc. and the ground (such as floor tiles) than participants aged 26–30 and 41–50.

4 Conclusion 4.1 Summarize the Elements of Campus Culture and Materialize Them into Corresponding Design Elements This article divides the elements of campus culture into material cultural elements, institutional cultural elements, management cultural elements, and interpersonal cultural elements. Material cultural elements refer to the physical environment on the campus, that is, infrastructure, such as architectural facilities, teaching buildings, landscaping, and classrooms, etc.; Material cultural elements are characterized by history, tradition, culture, and sociality; institutional cultural elements mainly refer to the school’s rules and regulations, which have a strong inheritance effect, and are fundamental to the design of campus cultural environment. The elements of management culture are divided into rigid and flexible management cultures, mainly referring to the school spirit and motto. Rigid management culture is the foundation of the entire campus culture construction. It is developed and derived in all aspects of campus culture construction. The school also hopes to transform their management culture to profoundly affect teachers, students, and parents in the present and future, and hopes that their rigid management cultural content can be spread well; the cultural element of interpersonal relationship refers to the relationship culture between organizations, groups, and individuals. 4.2 Make Effective Use of Offline and Online Spaces, Establish Public Display Area The main nodes of the school are the spaces where campus users spend the longest time, such as classrooms, corridors, and activity spaces. In addition to long−term study and class, users in the above space will also have leisure and entertainment after class. The form and content of campus activities are part of campus culture. The design of activities that can make users remember deeply or has campus characteristics can enable users to perceive campus culture and understand more when participating in campus activities. The influence of campus culture on users must be more profound. In addition to the main offline space nodes, it is also necessary to increase the school’s electronic screen/new media platform to display the campus organizational structure, to publicize the deeds of outstanding students and graduates such as principals and other important leaders, excellent faculty and staff profiles and examples. 4.3 Attach Importance to the Cultural Design of Parent Waiting Areas, and Effectively Deepen Campus Culture Based on this research, it is found that the participants have a weak sense of presence of the waiting area, not to mention the degree of campus cultural communication. Culture

568

J. Xia and F. Kong

needs to be shared, and the waiting area is a very good place to convey the school’s culture to parents. Although parents know the school culture, they do not have deep memories of chemical reactions with their psychology.

References 1. Jing, W.: The university museum space design to promote the dissemination of campus culture. (in Chinese) 2. Shucun, Z.: The power of culture. (in Chinese) 3. Shuwen, T.: The behavioral development status and related factors of Uyghur and Han children aged 3–6 years in Urumqi. Xinjiang Medical University (2008). (in Chinese)

The Hidden Art of Transmedia Storytelling Across Cinema and Video Game David Kei-man Yip(B) HKUST, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong [email protected]

Abstract. Various forms of digital media such as computer game have borrowed greatly from cinematic art and expression in terms of its world building and narrative structure [1, 2]. Cinema and video game share similar screen, character and time-based properties. They are time-based because they have time dimension in duration and structure. Time itself is invisible and intangible. Time-based media employs the dramatic art of storytelling and content design sometimes with hidden effects invisible to untrained eyes. Despite these characteristic similarities, cinema and video game as both time and character-based media do function and entertain differently. Narrative and experience design can be invisible and relevant to the creation and experience of cinematic storytelling and video game. This article aims to offer an extended perspective of transmedia storytelling [3, 4] by discussing both the differences and also the hidden similarities of cinema and game specifically on the topic of tension building. In storytelling media and video game, the hidden arts and design continue to do their invisible magic tricks and their hidden contributions are as importantly as the design of visual spectacle and sound effects. As the consumer market is embracing more and higher picture resolution and format, it is the art of the visual as well as the unseen storytelling that work together behind the scene to create the magic. Keyword: Creative arts · Cinematic arts · Visual storytelling · Game design · Transmedia storytelling · Narrative theory

1 Introduction In analyzing a work of creative art, one should not just focus on the visual and overlooks all the hidden design behind the visual. The visual can appeal directly to our sensation but the invisible can work on a deeper psychological level of our perception that can be easily overlooked because of its hidden nature. The psychology and perception of color, shape and motion are important subjects in visual communication; on the other hand, the psychology and perception of invisible storytelling such as tension building receive relatively lesser attention than it deserves. This article focuses on the hidden aspects of storytelling in cinema and game, both of which are visual, narrative and time-based in nature. One way to understand this time-based media is that it needs to generate screen content to engage with the audience or player. Arguably, holding the audience or player’s interest onto the screen with designed content and structure over time is the ultimate goal of time-based media. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 569–573, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_68

570

D. K. Yip

2 Linkage Between Cinema and Game Cinema, as the oldest and dominant form of visual narrative media, has advanced greatly since it was first invented more than a century ago. Since then, it has evolved artistically and technologically and it has continued to entertain and inspire through storytelling. Thanks to the advancement of camera motion technology, more cinematic shots have been designed as long continuous uninterrupted shot similar to a dominant camera view of a competitive game showing the main character(s) in action battling waves of enemy attacks from all sides. Video game has also greatly evolved with computing power since the late 70s and it has become widely popular with the rise of personal and mobile technology. Although the history of video game is just about one third length of the history of the cinema, the two mediums have become looking more similar, to be more exact, looking more cinematically similar. More movies have been influenced by video game and they have been made to look like each other visually. Some were made to look like video game in terms of their imagery or visual treatment such as The Matrix (1999) and Dredd (2012); some were made to look like video game in plot structure such as Snowpiercer (2013) and Edge of Tomorrow (2014). Ironically, study has shown that movies adapted from games are often poorly received in box office [5]. However, this adaptability of cinema and game content will continue to extend beyond just Sci-Fi genre. The famous international sensation Pokémon Go (2016) were originated from TV and movie and has become mobile game global phenomenon. There are also countless more video games that have been made to look like a movie with great cinematic visual spectacle. Big screen TV or computer monitor have given good reason for this cinematic treatment of video game for high resolution viewing and more immersive experience. Famous examples of successful transmedia contents from game to movie are Tomb Raider (2001, 2018) Angry Birds (2016, 2019). There are of course game genres that do not involve any form of storytelling. Famous puzzle game such as Tetrix that does not have a story to tell without any character. However, the same non-narrative game mechanics can easily be translated or transformed into narrative story with different game graphics. If the graphic images of the falling bricks in Tetrix were replaced with graphics of human figure, the same game would have had a completely different meaning [6]. The famous puzzle game Candy Crush featuring different side characters popping up between each level that seems to imply some sort of power struggle and crisis in the Candy Kingdom. All stories are about changes as the result of choices. In both cinema and game story, there are always big and small, sometimes life and death, decisions for the main character to make in their journey of discovery, exploration and adventure. In cinema, the choices or decisions have been determined for the audience, who can only experience this journey as a passive observer. However, film audience can emotionally and intellectually connect with the inner thoughts of the character. Although there is no physical interaction, viewing a good film can be a form of active emotional and mental participation. In cinema, the film characters are often multi-dimensional driven by internal and external desires and motivations resulted from their past and present situations. In video game, a player gets to act on the physical action reaction for the game character through a range of pre-set choices or illusion of choices pre-programmed by game designer. Game characters are mainly defined by their physical abilities in relation to each other in a

The Hidden Art of Transmedia Storytelling

571

game. Nevertheless, all stories are about character transformation through their decision making. In the hero’s journey of transformation [7], a series of obstacles and challenges appear in story or various game levels serve as the agents for character growth and development. In cinema, growth can appear in many physical or mental transformation in the form of triumph or downfall. In game, character growth focuses on physical strength. Both film and game character can win or lose in their own journey except that game character always gets to start over again in a new journey in the next game.

3 Conflict and Rising Tension Cinematic story often begins with setting up a dramatic conflict in the form of problem or crisis that is aimed to attract audience interest. Character desire must be met with life struggle and obstacles or else such desire without conflict is not worthy for our empathy. For game, game conflict works similarly with game character’s short and long-term objectives in the game world, except they are created primarily for excitement and fun. All these are parts of the hidden game mechanics that work together with rules, procedures and levels to form the quest structure [2] and the game experience for the game player. Conflict design for movie and game is similarly predetermined and creatively designed to be expressed in a story and/ or experienced in a gameplay. One of the differences of cinema and video game is their treatment of time. The concepts of time, conflict and tension are also important and interrelated in time-based media. In cinema, time can be frozen, stretched, condensed, slowed down, speeded up or played backwards or forwards in linear and/or non-linear fashions with parallel or multiple timelines. In game, the focus is on now. Although some games have playback functions, unlike flashback in movie, playback in game does not create new meaning or experience in the gameplay. In game, there are many split second decisions for the game player to make and act on that will ultimately determine the outcome of the game. Especially in competitive game genre, reward or punishment depends on the strategic decision and actions made. Game reward in the form of points and player’s sense of achievement as emotional reward provide the overall gamified experience of gaming. The higher the risk, the higher the reward would be in return. So is the chance to lose. Point deduction and/or level down are usually the form of game punishment in a gameplay. This win-or-loss dilemma creates tension of the game. Dubbelman [8] describes ‘building tension through spatial conflict’ as part of the narrative game mechanics and ‘suspense is built through the protagonist’s engagement with the surrounding, hostile environment’. The endless cycle of challenging oneself in taking more risks by overcoming different levels of game conflict in exchange for rewards and level progression is called game loop. Game loop can certainly go the other way for player who lose and want revenge or redeem the lost points. Whether it is a point gained or lost in a loop, the sum of small game loops forms the big game loop for the overall gameplay. In storytelling, it can be called rising action triggered by the character’s need to overcome conflicts. Similar to game loop, the sum of all small conflicts also forms the big conflict in the story [9]. Both story and game need conflict to build loop, rising action or tension to make the content more interesting and exciting over time. In a three-act narrative structure, dramatic conflict first sets off the tension followed by a series designed plot points arranged and structured

572

D. K. Yip

to intensify the conflict that builds the tension over time. In game, instead of using the three-act structure, level design is the term to describe how conflict and tension builds up or becomes intensified from one level to the next with harder game rules and challenges over time. In other words, movie plot or game level work similarly. They serve to add tension by intensifying the conflicts to the audience or player. One way to do that is to raise the stake of the character in film story or raise the difficulty through level design in game. Time spent on a game is transferred into the player’s skill in the game. Skill is what the player needs for the cycles of game loop in each successive level one after next with rising difficulties. The upwards movement works similarly in narrative structure as the protagonist is challenged successively with rising tensions in the form of challenges, one bigger than the other. All of these intangible narrative and game elements work respectively in cinema and game in their own hidden and subtle ways beneath the surface of the visual. The major difference is that the rising actions or tension building of cinema move vertically upwards most of the time; unlike game, it is a one way process and does not go the other way. However, the punishment of a lost game with points lost or level down could mean that game action can go upwards or downwards or unchanged on the Y-axis (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Csikszentmihalyi’s flow channel theory [10]

Csikszentmihalyi’s [11] flow theory is about positive psychology that encourages creativity and play with a good balance of skill and difficulty. Adapted in the context of gaming and game design, it illustrates the importance of proper balance between designed progression in difficulty and skill level for game players to keep positively engaged in the gameplay without feeling too anxious or bored as the result of either one of the levels being set too high or low than the other. The above chart also incorporates a series of game loops represented by stairs within the flow channel as rising actions. Its

The Hidden Art of Transmedia Storytelling

573

escalating direction also resembles the tension building of narrative and the story arc of three-act structure with rising actions.

4 Conclusion Cinema as an art form can inspire different interpretation and evoke different emotional responses. Game design is considered a young dynamic interactive media with vast potential in art and expression beyond just entertainment and educational purpose. This article focuses their common conflict-driven tension building, which operates on a more subtle and hidden level of the storytelling and game mechanics. Their role and contribution to good storytelling and gameplay experience should not go unnoticed. Further study is needed in this fast-changing dynamic topic with more in-depth content analysis and case study.

References 1. Jenkins, H.: Game design as narrative. Computer 44(53), 118–130 (2004) 2. Aarseth, E.: A narrative theory of games. In Proceedings of the International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, pp. 129–133. ACM (2012) 3. Jenkins, H.: Transmedia storytelling 101: Confessions of an ACA-Fan, 22 March 2007 4. Jenkins, H.: Transmedia storytelling 202: Further Reflections, on Confessions of an Aca-Fan (2011) 5. https://stephenfollows.com/are-video-game-movies-the-worst-type-of-movie-adaptations/ 6. Koster, R.: Theory of Fun for Game Design. Reilly Media Inc., Sebastopol (2013) 7. Campbell, J.: The Hero with a Thousand Faces, vol. 17. New World Library, Norman (2008) 8. Dubbelman, T.: Narrative game mechanics. In: Nack, F., Gordon, A.S. (eds.) ICIDS 2016. LNCS, vol. 10045, pp. 39–50. Springer, Cham (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-31948279-8_4 9. Mamet, D.: On Directing Film. Viking, New York (1991) 10. Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow Channel Theory. http://www.brandba.se/blog/2017/1/19/gamificat ion-as-a-game-changer-a-comprehensive-guide-to-gamification-and-how-to-get-it-right 11. Csikszentmihalyi, M., Abuhamdeh, S., Nakamura, J.: Flow. In: Flow and the Foundations of Positive Psychology, pp. 227–238. Springer, Dordrecht (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/97894-017-9088-8_15

The Dark Art of Transmedia Storytelling David Kei-man Yip(B) HKUST, Kowloon, Hong Kong [email protected]

Abstract. As one of the major art movements, German Expressionism of composing unbalanced images of high contrast geometric line and shape can often be seen as a distinct visual style in cinema, animation and video game. This article focuses on this particular visual style highly influenced by German Expressionism and has a rather dark tone in form and content. The visual style of Film Noir has occupied a very important part of cinema history from the 40 s that tell sinister crime and mystery stories. Film Noir is also called Dark Cinema. This article discusses that Film Noir or its revived form Neo Noir as more than just a film and game genre. It is a visual linkage of digital content across media. As a visual narrative media, cinema has influenced many works of visual and time-based media in animation and game, which in turn also influence cinema. The worlds of Neo Noir created by computer animation and game are darker in form and content. This article also aims to enrich the decade-long debate between the narratology and ludology in game design through discussing the shared topics on world building, an important aspect of transmedia storytelling. The visual aspect of world building offers an extended perspective of Jenkins’ media convergence [1] and transmedia storytelling [2, 3], which is also about the making of a story world where timelines and side characters can be expanded and intertwined across media. This article examines this unique visual style and content in transmedia setting. It also examines the complex interrelation between visual form and content across media. Keywords: Cinematic arts · Film art · Creative arts · Visual arts · Game design · Art of storytelling · Film noir · Neo noir

1 Introduction Brightness can attract our eyes but darkness can capture our imagination. In darkness, there is no sense of control and direction. There is nothing more effective than darkness itself to create a sense of mystery, suspense, anxiety and powerlessness. We are afraid of the things that we can’t see in the dark but yet we can also be fascinated by darkness. In visual media, darkness often associates with mystery, guilt, crime and the underworld. This article aims to address this dark aspect of world building in transmedia storytelling [2–3], which describes ‘the flow of content across media’ in creating an integrated whole with different meaningful pieces. In a networked society with media convergence [1], transmedia storytelling is also regarded as the art of creating a fictional world with potentials to further extend its timeline and side characters whose stories can be further © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 574–579, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_69

The Dark Art of Transmedia Storytelling

575

dispersed across media [4]. However, transmedia storytelling offers little discussion about the visual and thematic aspects of world building. This article aims to discuss examples of one distinct visual style of world building in transmedia storytelling.

2 From Film Noir to Neo Noir in Cinema and Game Noir is the French word for darkness. Film Noir, first coined by French critics, refers to a series of post-war films from late 40s throughout the 50s that shared similar form of visual darkness and content of pessimistic themes. It was also this period in history that began the cold war and the fear of communist ideology, antithetical to the western capitalism. The world of film noir was dominant by sinister themes of crime, corruption and entrapment covering a wide range of topics on espionage, psychological thriller, scientific and the surreal. This oppressive atmosphere of anxiety and desperation was visualized by stylistic images of sharp geometric line and shape composition, low and Dutch angles and low-key high contrast lighting. Film Noir was influenced heavily from the early German Expressionist films such as Nosferatu and Metropolitan. Expressionist film master of the silent era such as F.W. Murnau, who gave us the classic vampire film Nosferatu with its unforgettable haunting image of the vampire. Combined with dark atmosphere with cinematic language, this haunting image of vampire looked scary even to today’s standard. Another expressionist film master Fritz. Lang whose masterpiece was the classic Metropolitan also used sharp high contrast visual style of the expressionistic tradition to distinguish the rich and the underclass slaves in the film. This visual style later influenced what became known as cyberpunk visual style in many later sci-fi classic film such as Blade Runner. From expressionism to film noir, our contemporary visual artist and film master Tim Burton had wonderfully mixed this dark visual style with his unique sense of dark humor by creating many dark tales featuring many memorable outcast characters who possessed certain dark human quality haunted by dark secrets from the past. They were mysterious, sometimes frightening but also sympathetic. Like many of us, they struggled with their existential identity and they also battled in the world of lies and deception (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Influence of German expressionism in cinema [5]

576

D. K. Yip

The worlds and characters of Tim Burton have been adapted from comic drawing to stop motion animation, cinema and video game. One can easily see the influence of German Expressionism in all his creations. His art has grown from alternative art to mainstream popular and commercial culture. What make this transmedia storytelling uniquely Tim Burton’s is his consistent mixture of dark visual style with dark comedy.

3 Art of the Dark World Building Filmmaker and game designer often begins their creation by building a fictional world of crisis and conflict [6]. As seen in the famous noir games like Limbo and its sequel Inside, both of which feature a dark world in the noir tradition. Limbo features a lone boy who somehow found himself trapped in a surreal hostile world full of dangerous obstacles. There is a strong feelings of helplessness and isolation in this ambiguous and absurd dark world where the boy was constantly being chased and attacked by larger-thanlife monsters and deadly killing machinery. The main theme was survival and the main gameplay was to overcome the physical obstacles by getting around them and sometimes by solving puzzles. Limbo’s sequel Inside was another dark atmospheric game genre in the tradition of noir. Like Limbo, the dark world continues to be ambiguous and absurd with better game graphics and sound effects. Improved game graphics enhanced the immersiveness of the strange dark world with stronger feelings of helplessness and isolation. Both games featured a lone boy in a surreal hostile world constantly being attacked and chased by bizarre creatures, monsters and killing machinery. The world of Inside also featured some secret sinister activities going on in the background where zombie-like creatures could attack but could also come to the boy’s rescue. Both Limbo and Inside are the only two games created by the game studio Playdead. Both games featured very dark world building with great atmospheric effects created in the visual tradition of noir. These games do not explain why the worlds were the way they were and let players to create and construct their own story or mental experience of the story through their actions within and outside the gameplay [7] (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2. Influence of german expressionism in video games [8]

World building created in sharp black and white lighting contrast was a dominant visual style of the noir tradition as seen in films and video game. Film noir tradition

The Dark Art of Transmedia Storytelling

577

had evolved into color with a term called Neo Noir, which of course meant more than just a color version of noir. In neo noir, the intense conflict and struggle between social classes and divisions continued. Many of these neo noir stories were set in the near future dystopian world of cyberpunk featuring a dark world of inequality between the technologically affluent and the underclass. The neo noir visual contrast of cyberpunk also extended the same influence from German Expressionism as shown in the classic expressionist film Metropolitan, which depicted a division of the rich and the underclass in sharp visual contrast. The dark vision of cyberpunk world was also why the city of Hong Kong was chosen as the backdrop of some of these famous neo noir films such as the original and the Hollywood remake versions of Ghost in the Shell and Blade Runner [9]. Hong Kong as a mixture of high tech buildings in sharp contrast with many run-down populated urban areas in poverty had given cyberpunk a great living visual reference. Neo noir themes continued to explore the many film noir themes of despair, fatalism entrapment with new themes on existential identity crisis and struggle between human and cyborgs. Ultimately, it was also the theme of survival in a hostile world. The three parts trilogy of Blade Runner as parts of the classic Blade Runner franchise were good examples of neo noir world building in transmedia storytelling. These films consistently and coherently inherited the world of darkness; they continued to express oppressive atmosphere and themes of pessimism, anxiety, fatalism and entrapment. The original Philip Dick’s novel and the classic film Blade Runner dealt with the theme of what it meant to be human. They explored the conflict between human and cyborgs who were slave in the new world and were given only limited lifespan and fake memory. The sequel of the 1982 classic was released in 2018. The old and new films of Blade Runner were thirty years apart between the year 2019 and 2049 in story time and about thirty five years apart in reality. The film director Denis Villeneuve of the new Blade Runner 2049 wanted to see for himself, before embarking on the new film, what happened between the two settings of franchise thirty some years apart. He commissioned two artists, animator Shinichi Watanabe and filmmaker Luke Scott, to make three short films to fill the gap years about the ongoing conflict and struggle in this dark sinister cyberpunk world of inequality. These three short films had become important parts of the Blade Runner franchise (Fig. 3). From animation to live action, these three short films set in the different times of the world of Blade Runner, during which the conflict of human and cyborgs intensified with heavy costs to both sides. Blade Runner 2022: Blackout was the first instalment of this series, which was about a major blackout of the city as a revenge plot of a group of cyborgs in response to the violence of the Human Supremacy Movements and the many years of oppression from the human. The second instalment Blade Runner 2036: Nexus Dawn was about the reaction from the human authority by prohibiting the building of new cyborgs until a blind corporate scientist came up with his ‘perfect’ solution by introducing a new model of cyborg, one that was only capable of showing absolute obedience including taking an self-destructive order from the human master. The final instalment Blade Runner 2048 Nowhere to Run was the continuous prosecution of the remaining replicants in exile and the introduction of the new blade runner as the indifferent hunter of these replicants. These three short films as parts of the Blade Runner franchise were released on the Internet before the release of the film.

578

D. K. Yip

Fig. 3. The three short films of Blade Runner franchise 2022–2048 [10]

4 Conclusion In the world of noir and neo noir, it is not just the visual style but also the recurrent themes that consolidate the different pieces of content together in transmedia of world building. Moreover, the three short films of Blade Runner not only helped extend the franchise; they also served a particular function in connecting the dots and filling the missing gap of the two major film stories told in very different timeframes. Further study on the topic of visual and thematic content adaptation in transmedia world building is needed as media platforms and content are becoming more interconnected.

References 1. Jenkins, H.: Convergence? I diverge. Technol. Rev. 104(5), 93 (2001) 2. Jenkins, H.: Transmedia Storytelling, Vol. 1, 56p. (2009) 3. Jenkins, H.: Transmedia Storytelling 202: Further Reflections, En Confessions of an Aca-Fan (2011) 4. Jenkins, H.: Game design as narrative. Computer 44(53), 118–130 (2004) 5. https://medium.com/@DaniaAtHome/the-influence-of-german-expressionist-cinema-onthe-films-of-tim-burton-7e660e36f583 6. Aarseth, E.: A narrative theory of games. In: Proceedings of the International Conference On The Foundations Of Digital Games, pp. 129–133. ACM (2012) 7. Dubbelman, T.: Narrative game mechanics. In: Nack, F., Gordon, A.S. (eds.) ICIDS 2016. LNCS, vol. 10045, pp. 39–50. Springer, Cham (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-31948279-8_4 8. https://www.greenmangaming.com/zh/games/inside-limbo/

The Dark Art of Transmedia Storytelling

579

9. Yuen, W.K.: On the edge of spaces: “Blade Runner”, “Ghost in the Shell”, and Hong Kong’s cityscape. Sci. Fiction Stud. 1–21 (2000) 10. http://www.btglifestyle.com/blog/2017/10/09/blade-runner-2049-short-films/

Analysis of the Impact on Mexican Consumers of the New Precautionary Legends in Processed Foods with Excess Nutriments Mariel Garcia-Hernandez1(B) , Fabiola Cortes-Chavez2 , Marco Marin-Alvarez1 , Alberto Rossa-Sierra2 , Elvia Luz Gonzalez-Muñoz3 , and Brenda Denisse Rivero-Orozco2 1 Unidad Azcapotzalco, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Av San Pablo Xalpa 180,

02200 Col. Reynosa Tamaulipas, CDMX, Mexico [email protected] 2 Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Panamericana, Álvaro del Portillo 49, 45010 Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico {fcortes,lurosa}@up.edu.mx 3 Centro de Investigaciones en Ergonomía, Universidad de Guadalajara, Calzada Independencia Norte No. 5075, Huentitán El Bajo, 44250 Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico [email protected]

Abstract. In Mexico, processed foods usually contain critical nutrients and ingredients that represent a risk to consumer health, which is why, on October 1, 2020, modifications were made to the Official Mexican Standard NOM-051SCFI/SSA1-20101, which aims to provide the final consumer with commercial and health information on caffeine content, excess saturated fat, sodium, sugars, calories and/or use of sweeteners. The objective of this research is to determine the deterrent effect on consumption that the new precautionary legends established by this standard may have in prepackaged foods that have excess sugar, fats, transgenic fats, sodium and/or calories in young Mexican consumers between 19 and 31 years old. Likewise, it will be analyzed whether the knowledge of the presence of these critical nutrients in processed foods will have any influence on their future consumption habits of this type of food. Keywords: Information design · Label · Public health · Ergonomics · User centered design

1 Introduction In Mexico, obesity and overweight represent a public health problem, since 70% of the population is overweight and almost a third are obese [1]. These conditions increase the risk of other diseases such as diabetes mellitus, heart-related conditions, hypertension, cerebrovascular diseases, and cancer, which decrease the quality of life and increase the risk of premature death among those who suffer [2]. It has been shown that overweight and obesity have a multifactorial origin, one of the causes of these conditions is due to © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 580–587, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_70

Analysis of the Impact on Mexican Consumers

581

an energy imbalance, which results from a higher caloric intake. The diet of the Mexican population, as analyzed, is characterized by a lower consumption of vegetables, fruits, legumes and whole grain cereals and a high consumption of foods with high energy density, such as prepackaged foods, which contain high amounts sugars or refined fats and flours, low in fiber and excess sodium [2]. To combat this public health problem, the Government of Mexico, through the Ministry of Health, has implemented a series of strategies, such as updating and strengthening the legal framework for the implementation of policies and programs for the prevention and control of obesity, promote a food system that favors the consumption of healthy diets and minimizes environmental impacts, implement interventions to ensure healthy food environments, safe recreational spaces and food education in schools, maintain and strengthen fiscal measures (taxes/subsidies) to increase the cost of unhealthy foods and beverages and reduce the cost of healthy foods, facilitate and promote active lifestyles and improve public spaces, increase detection and improve the quality of care for patients with obesity and its comorbidities, develop a communication plan for behavior change related to overweight o and obesity, based on evidence, with a life course focus and with national scope (reference if it is textual, write the page). A final measure, which is the one that concerns this study is the modification of the Official Mexican Standard NOM-051-SCFI/SSA1-20101, section 4.5 was added that talks about nutritional labeling, and specifically point 4.5.3.4 referring to Current front labeling system for food and beverages based on the recommendations of experts in nutrition and health, this modification came into force on December 1, 2020, one of the objectives of this standard is that the front labeling that is presented in prepackaged products report truthfully, clearly, quickly and simply on the content of critical nutrients in them [3]. According to studies, prepackaged foods represent 69% of the dietary consumption of Mexicans [2] (Image 1).

Image 1. Precautionary labels for excess nutrients in prepackaged foods. Official Mexican Standard NOM-051-SCFI/SSA1-2010, March 2020, p. 21.

The front labeling on prepackaged foods that this standard proposes consists of seven stamps when a product has excess calories, sodium, transgenic fats, sugars and/or saturated fats, as well as the presence of sweeteners and/or caffeine. The amount of these nutrients in the products is established based on the Nutrient Profile of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). These labels seek to alert the consumer about

582

M. Garcia-Hernandez et al.

the purchase of foods whose consumption causes damage to health and thus influence the selection of healthy foods at the point of sale [1].

2 Test The objective of this research work was to know the perception and dissuasive effect that front labels have on prepackaged foods with excess nutrients harmful to health in young Mexican consumers, as well as whether these labels influence their future purchase decisions. User. The users that were analyzed were young Mexicans between the ages of 19 and 31, who resided in the Mexican Republic, their sex, socioeconomic level and last degree of studies being indistinct. In Mexico, there are three million Mexicans within that age range, so a random sample of 395 users was chosen, with a 95% confidence level in their selection. Instrument. The results presented are part of a larger study that considers seven sections: 1) general data, which included questions about the weight and height of the user, 2) consumption habits, 3) perception about the clarity of the information presented on the front warning labels, 4) perception of the front labels on prepackaged foods with excess nutrients, 5) conceptualization of terms related to this type of products, 6) Perspective of their future purchase decisions of these foods and 7) perception about the implementation of front labels as an awareness strategy on the part of the Mexican Government about the consumption of prepackaged foods with excess nutrients. The sections described in this article are explored below. In section number three, it was inquired whether the user knew the real meaning of each of the front labels (seven in total) that may appear on pre-packaged foods with excess nutrients. This section of the test was developed in accordance with what is established by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) [4], the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) [5] and the World Health Organization [6] as excess sodium, in calories, saturated fat, sugar, etc. In this section, multiple-choice answers were implemented, where the user was given the option to answer what he considered to be true in terms of the meaning of the labels. Regarding section number five, the objective was that, after the user shared what was the meaning of each of the labels, having this insight fresher in his memory, he would continue to consume or not pre-packaged foods with excess nutrients. Finally, in sections six and seven, the user was asked if he considered that this strategy of implementing front labeling on prepackaged foods with excess nutrients harmful to health would make a change in the consumption habits of the Mexican population, as well as, what other strategies should they implement in order to achieve this consumer deterrence.

3 Results 395 users were analyzed; 67.5% identified with the female sex, the other 32.8% with the male sex and the 1.5 with non-binary sex, with an age range between 19 and 31 years

Analysis of the Impact on Mexican Consumers

583

of age, with an average weight of 65.6 kg and an average height of 166 cm in height, likewise, the user studied in its 74.6% studied until the bachelor’s degree. After having examined the results of the questionnaire used to carry out this study, the following could be observed: In section number two, through a 5-point Likert scale, the user was asked to indicate whether or not he understood the information that was presented on the front labels, where 54.1% of the users marked a trend. if they agreed to understand the information on said labels, on the other hand, 20% indicated the parameters that indicate not understanding what was proposed to them on said labels and 25.9% showed a neutral position in the face of this assertion. In section three, where users were asked about the meaning of each of the seven labels, the results indicate that users do not recognize five of the seven seals and ignore the meaning of two of them (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Perception about the clarity of the informtion presented on the front warning labels.

Regarding section number four, users chose various concepts to qualify pre-packaged foods, in Fig. 2 the concepts are presented, highlighting that those that have a negative connotation prevail. In section number five, the user was asked if they would continue to buy products that contain the precautionary legends on excess nutrients in their packaging, where 77.8% indicated yes and the remaining 22.2% indicated no. Within this section, they were asked to share the reason why whether or not they will continue to buy this type of food, in the part of the sample of users who declared that they will not continue consuming, the results are presented in Fig. 3, in where the concepts that recognize the harmfulness of these foods predominate.

584

M. Garcia-Hernandez et al.

Fig. 2. Conceptualization of terms related to this type of product.

Fig. 3. Outlook on your future purchasing decisions for these foods; part of the sample that indicated that I will not continue to consume prepackaged foods with excess nutrients

On the other hand, regarding the section of the sample that indicated to continue consuming this type of food despite presenting the frontal warning labeling, the following responses can be observed in Fig. 4.

Fig. 4. Outlook of your future purchasing decisions for these foods; part of the sample that indicated that I will continue to consume prepackaged foods with excess nutrients

Analysis of the Impact on Mexican Consumers

585

In section number six, the user was asked if he considered that implementing the precautionary legends in foods with excess nutrients was a good strategy to reduce the consumption of this type of products; 52.8% answered no and 47.2% said yes. In the percentage of users who answered that they will work, it was observed that the answers are related to decision-making based on information and the generation of consumer awareness (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5. Perception about the implementation of front labels as an awareness strategy on the part of the Mexican Government about the consumption of pre-packaged foods with excess nutrients; part of the sample that considered it a good strategy.

On the other hand, in the part of the sample that responded that the implementation of these front labels in said foods is not a good strategy, the reasons that they argue are presented in Fig. 6, where the views about the uselessness of this type of food predominate. warning and highlighting the importance of consumer habits for users.

Fig. 6. Perception about the implementation of front labels as an awareness strategy on the part of the Mexican Government about the consumption of the pre-packaged foods with excess nutrients; part of the sample that considered its not a good strategy.

In the last section of the questionnaire, the user was asked what would be an adequate solution for the Mexican consumer to stop consuming these foods with excess nutrients

586

M. Garcia-Hernandez et al.

that are harmful to their health. It was observed that 44.2% think that education programs on healthy eating are needed, on the other hand 24.4% responded that the price of healthy foods should be reduced, the other 24% of the users surveyed responded that marketing should be avoided of prepackaged foods with excess nutrients harmful to health and, finally, the remaining 8% indicated that there is no way to stop consuming these products (Fig. 7).

Fig. 7. Appropriate solutions so that the Mexican consumer stop consuming these foods with excess nutrients that are harmful to their health, according to the analyzed sample.

4 Findings From the results obtained from the experiment, we can say that, for the most part, the respondents have a wrong or almost no idea of what the seven seals established in this standard mean, however, they consider whether to really know the meaning of these labels. According to this assertion, we could be facing a very serious problem of misinformation by the analyzed user, since there is no clarity in the meaning of the terms stated in these labels. Something also relevant is that, although more than 72.2% of those surveyed relate prepackaged products with excess nutrients critical to health with the concepts “harmful to health” and “artificial”, 77.8% in this position of the sample total asserts that if they will continue to buy these foods, since they argue for the most part that these products are part of their daily and family diet, evidencing the fact that there is no real notion of the adverse effects of these foods and the lack of effective food education programs in Mexico. 52.8% of the users surveyed argue that the implementation of these labels is not a prudent strategy to reduce the consumption of these prepackaged foods with excess nutrients critical to health and therefore, curb the increase in obesity and overweight rates in Mexico, since the respondents point out that these are not taken into account because they are not clear in the information they transmit and that they can be ambiguous, since these labels do not indicate what is the parameter of quantity of the nutrient to be considered as an excess. For this reason, we can say that these labels do not comply with the objective established by the Official Mexican Standard NOM-051-SCFI/SSA120101 to inform in a truthful, clear, fast and simple way about the content of the nutrients critical to health in prepackaged foods [c], leading to the strategy being considered wrong. In accordance with the previous assertions, we can observe that in young Mexican consumers between the ages of 19 and 31, there is no clear and truthful knowledge about what a balanced and healthy diet is, much less the terms proposed by the seven seals

Analysis of the Impact on Mexican Consumers

587

established by the Official Mexican Standard NOM-051-SCFI/SSA1-20101, confronting us not only with a problem of public health but also of education.

5 Conclusion To conclude this research work we can sustain that the strategy of implementing front warning labels on prepackaged foods with excesses of critical nutrients for health established through the reforms made to the Official Mexican Standard NOM-051SCFI/SSA1-20101 seeking reducing the consumption of these foods and, in addition, the rates of obesity and overweight in Mexico does not meet its objective and is insufficient, since from the results obtained in this article, it is observed that the real problem is the lack of food education in the Mexican population, this being the most relevant cause of these health ailments in Mexicans. For this reason, it is suggested to create education programs on healthy eating that are effective for the Mexican population, from a multiplural and multicultural approach such as that observed in Mexico, under a clear and precise discourse, taking into account the previously mentioned approaches. noted. It is also suggested to establish an information strategy to the population about the meaning of these warnings, and the benefits they bring to their health.

References 1. Instituto de Seguridad y Servicios Sociales de los Trabajadores del Estado: “La Obesidad en México”. ISSSTE, Instituto de Seguridad y Servicios Sociales de los Trabajadores del Estado. 2020. Gobierno de México. 2 December 2020. https://www.gob.mx/issste/articulos/ la-obesidad-en-mexico 2. Dommarco, J.R., et al. (eds.): La obesidad en México, estado de la política pública y recomendaciones para su prevención y control. Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Cuernavaca (2018) 3. Official Mexican Standar NOM-051-SCFI/SSA1-2010, Especificaciones Generales de Etiquetado para Alimentos y Bebidas Preenvasados. Diario Federal de la Nación (Secretaría de Gobierno 2020). 4. American Diabetes Association: “Healthy Living”. American Diabetes Association. 3 December 2020. https://www.diabetes.org/healthy-living 5. American Academy of Pediatrics: “Sweeteners and Sugar Substitutes: Parent FAQs”. American Academy of Pediatrics. 3 December 2020. https://www.healthychildren.org/Spanish/healthyliving/nutrition/Paginas/Sweeteners-and-Sugar-Substitutes.aspx 6. Organización Mundial de la Salud. “WHO plan to eliminate industrially-produced transfatty acids from global food supply”. Organización Mundial de la Salud. 3 Decembre 2020. https://www.who.int/es/news/item/14-05-2018-who-plan-to-eliminate-industriallyproduced-trans-fatty-acids-from-global-food-supply

The Adaptation of a Design Research-Action for Social Innovation Within the Criminal Justice System in Times of Pandemic Caio Miolo de Oliveira1(B) , Rita Assoreira Almendra1 , Tiago Leitão2 , and Ana Rita Alves Lourenço2 1 Lisbon School of Architecture, CIAUD, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal 2 Aproximar – Cooperativa de Solidariedade Social, Amadora, Portugal

Abstract. Action research is identified as an intensely participatory methodology, as it is associated with an action or problem solving, so that researchers and participants work together to develop a process of change. When using it to develop social innovation processes through Design, it becomes even more participatory, as in this context it is necessary to empower the participants so that they themselves can solve problems or generate new opportunities. In this context, the article reveals how an investigation carried out through action research during the COVID19 pandemic had to be adapted. This investigation intends to favour the social reintegration of (ex) offenders through training courses for the different actors related to the problem. Although the participants are not adapted to codesign works and in a completely online way, the training sessions were evaluated as positive and ended up corroborating their replication. Keywords: Action-research · Design for social innovation · Criminal Justice System

1 Introduction The action research methodology is recognized by its authors for being intensely participatory, as it is associated with an action or problem solving, so that researchers and participants work together to develop a process of change and thereby understand the entire process and not just its outcome. In this process, the actors identify problems, implement and evaluate the results achieved [1]. In order to develop an action research, qualitative methods are used that allow a deeper understanding of the topic, since they employ a more open approach, in a way that allows spontaneous dialogues with the participants [2]. When using the action research methodology to develop processes of social innovation through Design, the participatory dimension is even more important because the designer needs to enable the participation of the actors involved with the problem so that they themselves can solve problems or generate new opportunities. From this interaction comes the figure of a researcher designer who interacts with the community or organization, helping to explain skills, understanding needs and desires, designing participatory © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 588–595, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_71

The Adaptation of a Design Research-Action for Social Innovation

589

strategies that aim to achieve well-being for the community [3]. The performance of the designer can take place at different levels, such as: construction of innovative scenarios, facilitation of the initiatives to be proposed, development of communication strategies, design of tools to support the visualization and understanding of the interaction, among others [4]. In this context, this article reveals how the process of action research took place, which is part of a doctoral research in Design, carried out in Lisbon (Portugal), that started in 2017 and will be completed in early 2021. The research plan had to be adapted during the pandemic COVID 19, which prevented sessions from being held in person. The investigation intends to favour social reintegration (ex) offenders, that is, people who serve or have served time (in prison or in the community) through the articulation with different agents of this problem. First, in 2018, a training course was implemented for offenders in reclusion, exploring activities to develop skills for employability. In 2019, training sessions were held with professionals from the Criminal Justice System of Portugal, with the purpose of creating and helping them develop strategies to involve the community in the problem of social reintegration of (ex) offenders; and a third part, during the year 2020, a training course for other professionals who act as agents of social reintegration of (ex) offenders and will be trainers of training courses for employability that is aimed at offenders from 16 to 30 years old serving time in the community. This paper focus on how the implementation of the third part of the investigation took place, with the participation of 15 professionals, who were not used to working with codesign and online platforms. The training was implemented synchronously, with adaptation of the tools to be carried out through common software, in Power Point and using multimedia to be carried out by the participants in an asynchronous way. The training was evaluated as positive by the participants and the way it was carried out, online, facilitates the replication of the course, which can be easily done with the participation of professionals living in different cities in the country, thus reducing their cost of training implementation. It is worth mentioning that the entire research was carried out in co-design with a Portuguese cooperative, “Aproximar - Cooperativa de Solidariedade Social”, based in Alfragide, Lisbon. The lead author of the article initially participated as a volunteer and after a year he started working for the organization. It should also be noted that the first two parts of the action research were part of projects co-financed by the European Union (Erasmus + program). In addition to this introduction, the article is structured in five other sections. The second is dedicated to action research methodology; the third refers to Design for social innovation; the fourth points out the problem faced in the context in which the research was carried out, the Criminal Justice System; the fifth has to do with the investigation that is being carried out, starting with the implementations before the pandemic COVID19 and then, during the pandemic, on the third cycle of action research, carried out online; and finally on the sixth section we have the conclusions.

2 Action Research Action research is a methodology that is carried out in association with an action or problem solving, so that researchers and participants work together to develop a change

590

C. M. de Oliveira et al.

process, which will start by identifying problems, implementing actions and evaluating the results achieved. Action research is not limited to an action but proposes an understanding of the non-trivial phenomenon that is occurring [1]. This methodology focuses on specific situations and localized solutions and does not aim to achieve generalizable results as in other approaches. Basically, in an action research and qualitative methods are used that allow greater depth on the theme, as they employ a more open and subjective approach favouring spontaneous dialogues with the participants [2]. In order to develop action research, providing the means of interaction between researcher and participants and to find ways to achieve a certain objective and evaluate its effectiveness, a Basic Routine divided into three phases is applied: Look; Think and Act. These work in a spiral and can be repeated during the investigation. In summary, in the first phase, work is done to clarify the question investigated and to discover the experiences of the different actors involved (stakeholders) in relation to the defined problem. In Think, we seek to analyse the data collected in the first stage. In Act, the researcher is seen as a facilitator, who acts as a catalyst to help the different actors involved to define their problems and support them while working towards effective solutions to existing issues [2].

3 Design for Social Innovation Social innovation is identified here from Design authors [5–10], who recognize it as a process of searching for new forms of society organization, to solve social needs and create opportunities for new, more sustainable ways of life. For this, tools are provided to empower its members to participate in a collaborative and active way in the search for solutions or to generate opportunities. The results obtained must be improvements to society, as well as the development of the capacities to act and collaborate. When it comes to Design for social innovation, there is the Design professional developing tools and/or strategies to empower its members to participate in a collaborative and active way in the search for solutions or generate opportunities. Their performance can be present in different activities of a social innovation process, such as: researching opportunities for the community, interpreting the social needs they have, facilitating the initiatives to be proposed, developing communication strategies, designing tools to support the visualization and understanding the interaction, among others [4]. Its performance can be as much in parts of the process, as in the whole. By facilitating the process of social innovation, on multiple project levels, the designer ends up playing a catalytic role in this path [8, 11]. In other words, with the function of accelerating actions, stimulating them to happen, enabling relationships. For this, the designer must relate the different disciplines, techniques and methods, in a way that makes it easier for communities to design products and services necessary for the social movement to be carried out [8].

4 Criminal Justice System The Criminal Justice System (CJS), specifically in Portugal, where the research was developed, operates within constitutional and legal limits, and must be effective in discovering the material truth of the facts, as well as in punishing the guilty, in protecting

The Adaptation of a Design Research-Action for Social Innovation

591

victims and the enforcement of criminal sanctions. Among the members of this system we identify: the Public Ministry, judges, lawyers, public security police, criminal sanctions enforcement services, DGRSP (Directorate-General for Reinsertion and Prison Services), among others [12]. Amid the main problems faced by the CJS, mainly by the DGRSP, the main body related to the issue, is the difficulty for an adequate social reintegration of (ex) offenders. There are many interrelated factors for this fact, starting with the individuals themselves, their possible difficult temperament, mental illness, abuse of toxic substances, learning difficulties, psychological and physical effects during imprisonment, and external factor related to family, education, low levels of education, relationship with colleagues, poverty, lack of housing, little work experience, difficulty in finding a job, among others [13, 14].

5 The Action Research Developed In this section, the process of action research carried out during the investigation, before the pandemic and during it, is revealed in a synthetic way.

Fig. 1. The three cycles of action research carried out.

In summary, as shown in Fig. 1, the process carried out is divided into three cycles of action research, each with a target group, in order to work on the different needs involved with the problem. In 2018, a training course for offenders serving a sentence in reclusion was implemented to develop skills for employability. In 2019, training sessions were held with professionals from the Criminal Justice System of Portugal (DGRSP), with the purpose of developing with them strategies to involve civil society organizations for the problem of social reintegration of (ex) offenders; and the third cycle, in 2020, during the pandemic, was a training course for professionals who act as agents of social reintegration of (ex) offenders and will be trainers of a training course for employability that is aimed at young people from 16 to 30 years old serving time in the community, i.e., people who have committed lighter crimes who are not doing time in prison, but doing some kind of community work, wearing an electronic bracelet, etc.

592

C. M. de Oliveira et al.

5.1 Before the Pandemic Initially, during the first cycle held with offenders in seclusion, eight sessions of two hours each over five weeks were carried out to develop skills for employability. It was done with those diagnosed in the Look phase related to the achievement of a job. A manager from the Aproximar cooperative and the volunteer designer conducted the sessions. The regular voluntary participation of 12 offenders was obtained. During the sessions, digital presentations shown through a projector and a tool kit co-created by the designer and the cooperative manager were used, which was handed over to prisoners to fill in, interact, collaboratively during each session. Among the 20 tools contained in the kit, were, for example: “Who represents me?”, with the objective of knowing the prisoners in the first section, creating a more favourable environment for communication, are badges containing in each one an image of an animal, requesting that each of the participants choose the badge with the image that better represents it and explain the reason for the choice; and the “Touchpoint map”, so that the participants identify what each one of them can do at different moments before or after leaving the prison, in order to facilitate their social reintegration. The second cycle, carried out with SJC professionals to recognize stakeholders who could help them in the social reintegration of (ex) offenders and to develop strategies for this, took place through two sessions of about four hours each and with the participation of the designer, two colleagues from Aproximar and six professionals from DGRSP. During the sessions, participants could choose from the 24 tools created, those they wanted to explore during the work methodology composed of five phases: to identify the problem, identify stakeholders, create strategies, monitor the implementation and evaluate the process. Both training courses carried out in the first two cycles were evaluated (through paper forms) as positive by the participants, who confirmed their relevance to develop the objectives they were proposing. The second cycle helped DGRSP professionals to identify the Aproximar cooperative as an entity capable of offering a training course, similar to the one carried out in the first cycle with reclusive offenders, but for young offenders serving time in the community. Thus, they asked Aproximar to do training for future trainers, that is, professionals from the DGRSP itself who work as technicians for the social reintegration of offenders. This proposal gave rise to the third cycle of action research, revealed in the following subtitle.

Fig. 2. Cycles carried out with offenders in seclusion and with SJC professionals.

The Adaptation of a Design Research-Action for Social Innovation

593

In Fig. 2 there are two distinct moments: on the left, offenders completing one of the activities proposed during the first cycle, and in the second, there are members of Aproximar and SJC professionals exploring the methodology and tools created and printed on A4 or A3 paper. 5.2 During the Pandemic As requested by SJC professionals participating in the second cycle of action research, a training course was planned and created for young offenders serving time in the community. However, this third cycle was implemented to train the trainers of this course. The planning started to be done in December 2019, to be carried out in July 2020. At the beginning, before the pandemic, it was planned to hold three face-to-face sessions, of 4 h each. Still, close to the implementation phase, with the worsening of the pandemic, it was decided to adapt the training to be done entirely online. The sessions were reduced to two synchronous sessions, of four hours each and in addition, we created multimedia content to be performed by the participants asynchronously, before the synchronous sessions. The contents of the asynchronous part were planned to be explored by the participants within 4 h. These were basically theoretical, to prepare participants for synchronous training and more practical, exploring tools that they would learn to be able to apply with the final public, young offenders doing time in the community.

Fig. 3. Asynchronous and synchronous sessions of the third cycle.

In Fig. 3 there are two parts of the course, on the left figure we have the modules to be done asynchronously, they are very interactive, so that the participants explore the content in a more engaging way. On the right one, there is a moment of one of the synchronous sessions, carried out through the Zoom video call platform, when the participants, together with the trainers, explored in group one of the proposed activities. As it was not possible to fill out the paper tools, all the tools of the course in Power Point format were sent to the participants, before the synchronous sessions, with the text blocks arranged in order to facilitate the filling of the more lay accustomed to the software participants. Another strategy explored during the synchronous sessions was to divide the participants into smaller groups, with about 4 people, to fill in a specific tool, in which one of the components of the group was responsible for filling in the received Power Point document. After filling in it, the groups shared with everyone, in an oral and visual way, what they had filled out. The synchronous sessions had 3 trainers in each session and 15 DGRSP professionals.

594

C. M. de Oliveira et al.

Both sessions were evaluated (through digital questionnaires) as good, very good or excellent in all the questioned criteria and it was possible to perceive a good engagement of the participants.

6 Conclusions From the research carried out, it was possible to understand that the action research that was being developed could be adapted during the pandemic, to be done completely online. Although it was a little more difficult to perform, since the participants are not yet so used to codesign work and completely online, the training sessions were evaluated as positive. Through the training carried out, it was possible to accomplish everything that was proposed, which was to approach theoretical contents, addressed mainly in an asynchronous manner, as well as practical contents, carried out through synchronous sessions, exploring tools, which aimed to empower participants to use and apply in training courses that will make young offenders serving time in the community with the final public. It was possible to verify that the fact that the research had been adapted to be carried out in a totally online way really facilitates its replication, since we can count on the participation of professionals from all over the country, who did not have to move to participate in training. As for the performance of the designer within the scope of the SJC, developing strategies for the different actors related to the problem of social reintegration of (ex) offenders was recognized as a process of social innovation, as it favours the social reintroduction of these people, ending up by favouring society as a whole. In fact, society is also impacted by this problem as it also ends up suffering from the crimes of those offenders. This fact also corroborates for the validation of action research as a favourable methodology to develop processes of social innovation through Design. Through research it was also possible to verify the potential that Design has in facilitating social innovation processes, mainly in view of having to be completely online, which can sometimes be difficult to implement.

References 1. Thiolent, M.: Metodologia da pesquisa-ação. Cortez, São Paulo (1996) 2. Stringer, E.T.: Action Research. Sage Publication, Thousand Oaks (2007) 3. Del Gaudio, C., Oliveira, A., Franzato, C.: Intersecções entre design estratégico e pesquisaação para promover processos participativos de reapropriação do espaço urbano. In: Freire, K. (ed.) Design Estratégico para a Inovação Cultural e Social, Kazuá, São Paulo (2015) 4. Cantú, D.: Ideas Sharing Lab. Community centred design for multifunctional and collaborative food services. Doctoral thesis, Politécnico Di Milano (2012) 5. Jégou, F., Manzini, E.: Collaborative services: social innovation and design for sustainability. Edizioni Poli.design, Milano (2006) 6. Meroni, A.: Strategic design: where are we now? Reflection around the foundations of a recent discipline. Strat. Des. Res. J. 1(1), 31–38 (2008) 7. Meroni, A., Sangiorgi, D.: Design for Services. Gower Publishing, Farnham (2011) 8. Chick, A.: Design for Social Innovation: Emerging Principles and Approaches (2012)

The Adaptation of a Design Research-Action for Social Innovation

595

9. Manzini, E., Staszowski, E.: DESIS Network, Public and Collaborative: Exploring the Intersection of Design, Social Innovation and Public Policy. The New School (2013) 10. Freire, K.: Design de Serviços, Comunicação e Inovação Social: um estudo sobre serviços de atenção primária à saúde. Dissertação de Mestrado – Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (2011) 11. Meroni, A.: Strategic design to take care of the territory. Networking creative communities to link people and places in a scenario of sustainable development. In: P&D Design 2008, 8º Congresso Brasileiro de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento em Design, São Paulo (2008b) 12. Justiça: Tipos de penas em Portugal (2019). https://justica.gov.pt/Justica-criminal 13. Hai, N.K., Dandurand, Y.: The social re-integration of offenders. VNU J. Sci. Legal Stud. 29(3), 24–38 (2013). https://js.vnu.edu.vn/ 14. Ekunwe, I.: Re-entering Society Begins Prior to Release. Tampere University Press, Tampere (2011) ij

Visual Analytics of Urban Informality and Infrastructure Planning with Tableau for Sustainable Urban Design Research Strategies in Lagos Metropolis Oluwole Soyinka(B) and Alain Chiaradia Department of Urban Planning and Design, Faculty of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong, KB808, Knowles Building, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong SAR, China {soyinka,alainjfc}@hku.hk

Abstract. Urban informality and infrastructure planning (UIIP) are global phenomena. Studies in urban informality are nearing 50 years with diverse research strategies to resolve the threat of infrastructure availability and quality to urban development. Information technology and artificial intelligence in humanities, social sciences and environmental sciences research are described as the current paradigm shift for contextualising and resolving complex urban challenges such as UIIP. This study assessed urban development factors with visual analytics techniques to understand the issues of UIIP for sustainable urban design research strategies in Lagos metropolis. It adopts case study methods with triangulation techniques, mixed methods of data collection with SPSS and Tableau software for visual presentation analysis. The findings revealed the descriptive statistical relationship between socioeconomic, environmental, and infrastructural factors of sustainable urban development towards UIIP in Lagos metropolis and suggests an inclusive research design strategy with integrated urban design research strategy. Keywords: Urban analytics · IT · AI · Sustainable development · Urban design strategies

1 Introduction Urban informality and infrastructure planning (UIIP) can influence urban growth or halt sustainable urban development [1]. Globally, several attempts have been made to improve or ameliorate UIIP challenges with different approaches [2]. [1], states that the formal sector activities are below the national average of 40% and the informal sector occupies above 55% of the global economy with significant numbers from the Sub-Sahara African countries. The International Labor Organization (ILO) with several other research institutes, NGOs, and organisations such as Ove ARUP among others, opined that the informal economy had been subjected to several studies and debate over the years, yet sustainable urban design strategies remain a significant concern [3]. While, some schools of thought advocate renovation, others support redevelopment © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 596–607, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_72

Visual Analytics of Urban Informality and Infrastructure Planning

597

strategies [4]. Thus, the diverse debate on theoretical and practical strategies to resolve UIIP suggests a need to understand the issues of UIIP further to adequately identify the research strategies for decision making and policy formulation [5]. [1], described UIIP as a global issue with significant impact in Sub-Saharan African countries and Lagos metropolis situation requiring urgent strategies to resolve its challenges [6, 7]. [8], described UIIP in Lagos from street vendors activities as the primary source of job opportunities with up to five jobs for every job provided by the formal sector. In Lagos metropolis, the strength of UIIP is beyond economic opportunities, but it includes social, environmental, and community participation benefits. Regardless of the support provided by UIIP in deprived urban communities, they are often regarded as a threat to urban development based on several other factors identified in these communities. These threats in Lagos metropolis includes haphazard environment, inadequate health, and general well-being with growing vulnerability to urban liveability. The facilities and services in the metropolis are either insufficient in supply or low in quality. The management effort is limited in dealing with the spatial-temporal changes and challenges associated with UIIP in the metropolis. The physical reality and theoretical perspectives of UIIP in Lagos metropolis therefore validate the rethink of UIIP research strategies to improve the situation [7]. [9], identified the need for new strategies in urban studies with broad acceptability of urban analytics with information technology (IT) and artificial intelligence (AI) for resolving complex urban challenges such as UIIP. The application of IT and AI in humanities, social sciences, and environmental sciences research, including visual analytics of UIIP, is described as the current paradigm shift for contextualising, analysing, and resolving urban research problems [10]. Visual analytics with software such as Tableau allows interactive data query, relational database and online analytical processes with spatial mapping functionality that present a different perspective of understanding urban issues [11]. Considering the growing gap in UIIP research strategies and the significant challenges of UIIP in Lagos metropolis - with the opportunities presented by urban visual analytics with Tableau to understand complex urban challenges. This study assessed the different factors (socioeconomic, environmental and infrastructure) of urban development with visual analytics approach to understand the challenges of UIIP in Lagos metropolis and identify sustainable research strategies to improve the issue. It answers the question of what is the condition of UIIP in Lagos metropolis. The study contributes to research knowledge the descriptive understanding of UIIP in Lagos metropolis for stakeholders (researchers, resident and policymakers) urban decision making and suggests sustainable research strategies to improve UIIP.

2 Literature Review Urban informality is a complex urban phenomenon and terminology used by different experts in a different context. In this study, urban informality refers to a settlement and/or an area that experience either of the following condition: (a) lacks land use tenure, and the structure range from squatter sheds with temporary or permanent materials and/or shelters; (b) the neighbourhood lacks or is cut off from necessary facilities and

598

O. Soyinka and A. Chiaradia

services; (c) housing structures do not comply with planning regulations and/or are located within the haphazard environment [12]. Urban informality is associated with factors of urban development such as social, economic, environmental and infrastructure. Urban informality provides accommodations for socially excluded citizens, marginalised groups, migrant population, and the urban poor [2, 13]. The description of infrastructure is broad, and it’s referred to as the “social overhead capital” by development economists, a network of transport, communication links and public facilities and services by environmentalist. It is also called the functional services of a system that stimulate urban development. It is a set of interconnected and equally beneficial facilities and services provided for the enhancement and general well-being of a community [14]. Infrastructure as a public or social service is referred to as the utilities or amenities provided for the people’s communal benefit. It includes water supply, healthcare, education, postal agency, power supply, telecommunication services and so on [15]. Adequate infrastructure is essential for the physical, social, and economic development of a nation and well-being of its people. The degree of availability or appropriateness of facilities and services contributes to a nation’s success or failure to expand production, manage population growth, reduce poverty, and improve the community environmental condition [14, 15]. Sustainable urban development is commonly described as using earth resources without jeopardising its capacity for future generational use. It is the sustained ability of a resource over a period. It adopts the trio of social, economic, and environmental factors to measure or assess the resources’ current use to meet future needs. The summary of the literature review on sustainable urban development with regards to [16] described it from the trio of economic, environmental, and social features as: “Economic: ‘An economically sustainable system must be able to produce goods and services on a continuing basis, to maintain manageable levels of government and external debt, and to avoid extreme sectoral imbalances which damage agricultural or industrial production’. Environmental: ‘…system must maintain a stable resource base, avoiding overexploitation of renewable resources system….’ Social:‘A socially sustainable system must achieve distributional equity, adequate provision of social services including health and education, gender equity, and political accountability and participation” [16, pp. 5–6]. [16], further state that it may be easier to identify unsustainable development through urban analysis than the sustainable development, and this identification can motivate us to make necessary urban decision and policy adjustment. Thus, urban analytic research with IT and AI for visual description of urban studies is significant for sustainable urban development research and critical urban phenomena such as UIIP. [9], states that there is no specific way of defining urban analytics, however, it can be described based on its different uses. The study states that urban analytics originated from urban analysis, but it is more than urban analysis because ’analytics’ implies a set of methods that can be used to explore, understand, presents, and predict the urban system’s properties. It is the application of quantitative, computational, and illustrative strategies for spatial and morphological structures of a city. It is a set of

Visual Analytics of Urban Informality and Infrastructure Planning

599

tools adopted to deal with big data, urban simulation, and geodemographic urban issues from vast data resources, including crowdsourcing and social media. [10], defined urban analytics as the strategies for capturing big data resources from different sensor devices, crowdsourcing, and social media data to visualise and understand urban characteristics in policy formulation and management. The study identified five application layers of urban analytics in urban studies as (1) the built environment, (2) human interaction, (3) transport and traffic, (4) the natural environment, and (5) infrastructure. The study also identified visual analytics as one of the essential strategies for urban analytics. Visual analytics in urban studies include the graphical representation of the cities formation data based on the urban characteristics’ quantitative and computational research design [11]. Visual analytic research exists in different forms, ranging from sketch drawing, visual geometric with 2D or 3D to the various audio-visual receiver (AVR) forms in urban studies. As a research approach, visual analytics is often integrated with several other techniques and used differently. Visual analytics with software such as Tableau allows interactive data query, relational database and online analytical processes with spatial mapping functionality that present a different perspective for understanding urban issues [11]. 2.1 The Context of Lagos Metropolis [17, 18], states that urbanisation effect, rapid population growth with inadequate resource availability and distribution led to the current urban challenges in the metropolis. [19], claimed that the challenges of an informal settlement in Lagos metropolis are enormous with more than half of Lagosian’s been a tenant and squatter’s in a different part of the city due to different economic hardships, social and physical development factors. Despite the state’s potential economic prosperity, the inadequate distribution of economic resources with managerial difficulties has contributed to the metropolis’ UIIP menace [8, 13]. Corruption practices between policy and implementation systems, inequalities, injustice, poor leadership, and unstable governments’ system are identified as the administrative challenge of UIIP in Lagos. Based on these challenges, Lagos metropolis’ urban characteristics are often described with homelessness, illegal housing, inadequate and insufficient facilities, and services. The development of squatter settlements, squalor, sprawl, and slum development among other forms of inhuman housing conditions. [20], further described UIIP in Lagos metropolis from the context of land use policy. The study argued that land use policy, management and administration is significant to the threat of UIIP in the metropolis. It states that before 1978 land use administration in Nigeria, had been predominantly steered by customary laws without much challenges. Customary law is a situation where the people’s interest in land is recognised with the equal right of all citizens to land, the chief or head of families are only trustees. While this structure seems to be perfect, the introduction of Land Use Act of 1978 which vested all authority on land to the Governor of that state creates several controversies that degenerated to the current land use challenge and UIIP menace in the city. [21], corroborated this perspective and state that the security of tenure for the urban poor is the basis of UIIP, poverty, poor resident well-being, livelihood, and inadequate urban development.

600

O. Soyinka and A. Chiaradia

This study revealed that the understanding of UIIP in Lagos metropolis is ambiguous, and there is a need to identify strategies to analyse and present UIIP characteristics for sound stakeholder’s decision making. Considering the magnitude of UIIP and its significance in Lagos metropolis, this study adopts the visual analytical approach to understand and present UIIP traits characteristics in the study areas. It assessed the social, economic, environmental and infrastructure attributes, focusing on identifying UIIP threats in the study area for stakeholders’ decision-making in urban policy formulation and management.

3 Methodology 3.1 Case Study The case study area is Lagos metropolis - located within the latitude of 6o 23 N and 6° 41 N and longtitude 2° 42 E and 3o 42 E on an estimated geographical land area of 3,577 Sq. Km with a total population of over 17 million. The study area is adopted considering the growing concern of urbanisation, demographic, physical (spatial) development issues in the metropolis with increased UIIP challenge and limited research strategies of resolving these menace [6–8]. The study areas are adopted with regards to the theoretical and physical indications of the menace of UIIP. These areas include the 16 Local Government Area of the metropolis which entails the Lagos Island Region and the Mainland Region for adequate generalisation of the metropolis results. Table 1 further presents the study area with the methods adopted. 3.2 Methods The study adopts case study methodology with triangulation techniques, mixed methods of data collection and analysis with SPSS and Tableau software for visual representation. The main sources of data used in this study are primary (survey questionnaire) and secondary (data obtained from previously published documents) sources. The triangulation techniques are adopted as tactics of data collection which include more than two techniques of data collection such as (1) preliminary site study (reconnaissance survey), (2) direct or onsite questionnaire survey, and (3) through online; email (Microsoft-word developer) and survey monkey. The questionnaire survey is structured in open and closedended questions in numeric and Likert scale rank from 1 to 5 where 1- represents very inadequate, 2–inadequate, 3–neutral, 4–adequate and 5–very adequate. The survey question includes the socioeconomic and environmental questions with variables such as the level of education, income, household size, type of housing and construction materials, among others. The study sample frame embraces the selected areas’ total population, while the sample size adopted the research advisors sample size table at 95% confidence level of continuous data. The sampling techniques adopt the multi-stage sampling procedures and simple random selection approach within the study area. The data retrieved through the questionnaire survey were analysed with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM SPSS Statistic 24) and Tableau (2020.3) software for urban visual analytics. The analysis was presented with descriptive methods such as pictures, statistical tables, charts retrieved SPSS and Tableau.

Visual Analytics of Urban Informality and Infrastructure Planning

601

Table 1. Describes the study area with the sample frame, and sample size adopted [22]. Lagos metropolis Region

No. of LGAs

Lagos island 16 region

Lagos mainland region

Research area/ LGA

Sample frame and sample size Selected wards

Household size/sample frame @ 5.0

Sample size

Eti-Osa LGA

Ilado/Eti-Osa environs

261,173

142

Lagos Obalende area island LGA

228,333

123

Lagos mainland LGA

Iwaya

170,755

92

Ikeja LGA

Ipodo/Seriki Aro/ Wemabod Estate

172,268

112

832, 529

469

BADORE

Makoko

Alausa/Oregun/Olusosun Total

4 Result and Discussion 4.1 Socioeconomic Factor Analysis of UIIP The socioeconomic analysis as illustrated in Fig. 1 revealed that significant percentage of the residents in the study areas earn between #20,000-#50,000 average monthly income except for Obalende in Lagos island where #50,001–#80,000 is the highest average monthly income at 9.57%, while #20,000-#50,001 average monthly income is next at 9.15%. The resident’s educational level revealed secondary education, followed by territory education as the highest education level, respectively. At the same time, business and privately employed are the forms of occupation in the study areas. At Badore in EtiOsa, the room availability is high with 4 rooms at approximately 50% of the resident, 3 rooms at estimated 10% of the resident at Ipodo, 3 rooms at about 20% resident of Obalende in Lagos Island, 2 rooms below 20% of the resident at Olusosun in Ikeja, while Iwaya and Makoko in Lagos Mainland have 3 rooms below 10% of their resident. The reflection of the socioeconomic analysis across the study area highlights the association of socioeconomic factor inclusiveness and how it affects urban development. The findings show that most residents’ socioeconomic in-capabilities or inclusiveness creates their engagement in the substandard quality of life activities such as housing (below planning regulation, squalor and squatter settlement, among others) and several other challenges that halt sustainable development. Perhaps the high cost of living and housing in Lagos metropolis as the commercial hub of the country with the low average monthly income of #20,000–#50, 000 in the study areas contributed to the rapid growth

602

O. Soyinka and A. Chiaradia

of UIIP, squatter settlement and other urban development challenges identified in the study area.

Fig. 1. Socioeconomic visual analysis of UIIP characteristics of Lagos metropolis

Fig. 2. Environmental visual analysis of UIIP characteristics of Lagos metropolis

4.2 Environmental and Infrastructure Factor Analysis of UIIP Figures 2 and 3 described the physical development factors of the study areas, including the environmental and infrastructural factors regarding sustainable development. The

Visual Analytics of Urban Informality and Infrastructure Planning

603

Fig. 3. Infrastructure visual analysis of UIIP characteristics of Lagos metropolis

types of building in the study area reflect flats as the highest type of building with 17.79% in Badore, and 9.11% at Olusosun, followed by Traditional compound at 12.69% at Obalende, 5.75% at Iwaya and 5.64% at Ipodo, while Duplex is the highest at Makoko at 8.13%. The building use revealed that most of the building is mixed-use with commercial and residential as the highest. The environmental factor characteristics identified in the study areas reflect the aftermath of socioeconomic exclusion on environmental and infrastructure factors to create sustainable urban development threats. Therefore, the outcome is an environmentally degraded condition of living with damaged facilities and services, which also creates poor well-being. The identified consequences include litter and abandoned items in the public space with redundant facilities and services. The results revealed that there is a relationship that influence changes between the variables of socioeconomic, environmental and infrastructures such as education, occupation, income, household size, available rooms, building types, construction materials, health infrastructure, sewage, water supply, road, and electricity towards UIIP. It argued that urban inequality and well-being is associated with several factors and to improve the condition urban development. Urban development planning design research of UIIP is a function of adequate integration of all elements of socioeconomic, environmental and infrastructure planning effectively.

5 Sustainable Urban Design Research Strategies for UIIP Based on the visual analysis of Figs. 1, 2 and 3, and the descriptive discussion in Sect. 4, this study identified inclusive sustainable urban design research strategies for UIIP research for stakeholder’s urban decision and policy formulation. This includes integrating socioeconomic, environmental and infrastructure factor in planning designs and community participation planning design. The significant of these identified research strategies for UIIP research is based on this study’s theoretical and analytical findings.

604

O. Soyinka and A. Chiaradia

5.1 Inclusive Urban Planning Design Research Strategies This approach advocates an integrated social, economic and infrastructure factors perspectives with any urban planning design research strategies to resolve the menace of UIIP in Lagos metropolis. It identifies that urban challenges exist with an interrelated relationship with one another and thus, resolving a particular urban challenge should be addressed from its social, economic, environmental and infrastructure perspectives. For instance, to improve the challenge of bad roads, traffic and transportation challenges of UIIP in the metropolis, its immediate social, economic, and environmental perspective should be considered and integrated in the improvement research strategies. This approach should also be evident in the plan production, where there will be documents produced to detail the social, economic, environmental and infrastructure details (relationships) on UIIP and urban development. This strategy also identified the need to incorporate community participation planning design research. It is an approach that most urban administrators often neglect in urban planning design. Therefore, this study suggests that from the research initiation to the implementation stage; the community participation planning design with integrated principles of sustainability should be adopted and the community participation should be without bias and must be all-inclusive.

6 Conclusion This study assessed the factors of sustainable urban development that associate with UIIP (socioeconomic, environmental and infrastructure) with SPSS and Tableau for visual analytics to understand the challenges of UIIP in Lagos metropolis. It answers the question of what is the condition of UIIP in Lagos metropolis. The study contributes to informal economy research knowledge with the descriptive understanding of UIIP in Lagos metropolis for stakeholders (researchers, resident and policymakers) urban decisions. The study identified sustainable research strategies to improve the issue of UIIP in Lagos metropolis. These strategies suggest integrating urban development factors with the urban poor in active UIIP research decision and promoting sustainability. The contribution of this study is relevant for academic, practitioner and policymakers.

Visual Analytics of Urban Informality and Infrastructure Planning

Appendix

605

606

O. Soyinka and A. Chiaradia

Visual Analytics of Urban Informality and Infrastructure Planning

607

References 1. UN-Habitat: Habitat III Issue Papers, 22- Informal Settlements, pp. 1–9. New York (2015) 2. Schneider, F.: Size and measurement of the informal economy in 110 countries. In: Workshop of Australian National Tax Centre, ANU, Canberra (2002) 3. ILO: Measuring informality: A statistical manual on the informal sector and informal employment. International Labour Office (2013) 4. Wu, F.: State dominance in urban redevelopment. Urban Affairs Rev. 52(5), 631–658 (2016) 5. Dell’Anno, R., Solomon, H.O.: Informality, inequality, and ICT in transition economies. East. Eur. Econ. 52(5), 3–31 (2015) 6. Soyinka, O.: Urban informality and infrastructure planning: the study of Hong Kong SAR and Lagos metropolis for sustainable urban design strategies. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (2018) 7. Akiyode, A.: Spaces of the informal economy: reimagining street trading through accessibility distribution analyses in Lagos. Cardiff University (2017) 8. Lawanson, T.: Illegal urban entrepreneurship? The case of street vendors in Lago Nigeria. J. Architect. Environ. 13(1), 45–60 (2014) 9. Batty, M.: Urban analytics defined. SAGE Publications Sage, London (2019) 10. Ibrahim, M.R., Haworth, J., Cheng, T.: Understanding cities with machine eyes: a review of deep computer vision in urban analytics. Cities 96, 102481 (2020) 11. Chen, Z., et al.: Exploring the design space of immersive urban analytics. Visual Inf. 1(2), 132–142 (2017) 12. Soyinka, O., Siu, K.W.M.: Urban Informality and Infrastructure Planning in Hong Kong and Lagos Metropolis: Professionals Perspectives. In: Charytonowicz, J. (ed.) AHFE 2017. AISC, vol. 600, pp. 282–293. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-31960450-3_27 13. Farinmade, A., Soyinka, O., Siu, K.W.M.: Assessing the effect of urban informal economic activity on the quality of the built environment for sustainable urban development in Lago Nigeria. Sustain. Cities Soc. 41, 13–21 (2018) 14. Carroli, L.: Planning roles in infrastructure system transitions: a review of research bridging socio-technical transitions and planning. Environ. Innov. Soc. Trans. 29, 81–89 (2018) 15. Otegbulu, A.: Economic valuation of poor road infrastructure Lagos a focus on urban households. Global J. Hum. Soc. Sci. Res. 11(10), 1–9 (2011) 16. Harris, J.M.: Basic principles of sustainable development. In: Global Development and Environment Institute Working Paper. Tufts University Medford, MA (2000) 17. Adetokunbo, I., Emeka, M.: Urbanization, housing, homelessness and climate change adaptation in Lagos, Nigeria: Lessons from Asia. J. Des. Built. Environ. 15(2), 15–26 (2015) 18. Oduwaye, L.: Challenges of sustainable physical planning and development in metropolitan Lagos. J. Sustain. Develop. 2(1), 159 (2009) 19. Omole, F.K.: Basic Issues in Housing Development. Stebak Books and Publisher, Akure, Nigeria (2001) 20. Olajide, O.: Confronting the Lagos Informal Land Use: Issues and Challenges (2010) 21. Aluko, B.T., Amidu, A.-R.: Urban Low Income Settlements, Land Deregulation and Sustainable Development in Nigeria. In: Promoting Land Administration and Good Governance. FIG Regional Conference, Accra, Ghana, pp. 8–11 (2006) 22. Lagos State Government: Nigeria Lagos State Development Plan 2012–2025, Budget, Lagos State (2013)

Quantitative Method of Regional Color Planning – Field Investigation on Renewal Design of Jiangchuan Street Lingling Chen(B) and Fanqiang Kong School of Design, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan Road, Minhang District, Shanghai, China

Abstract. At present, Chinese cities are facing the realistic dilemma of the convergence of color appearance and the extinction of regional color. The existing research on the macro city color planning is more, while the meso and micro level of regional and street color planning and design scheme is less. Color planning lacks operability and effectiveness. There are many studies on the planning, design and management of architectural colors, but few on the color research and design of street squares, environmental sketches, lights and plants. Based on the practical project of Street Renewal Design of Jiangchuan road in Minhang District of Shanghai, the detailed investigation and color quantification method of regional and street color planning at meso and micro levels are proposed. Through the comparative analysis of color card comparison method, photography and color correction method, spectrophotometer method, this paper constructs a multi-dimensional Munsell color database of the site, including: site architectural color, plant color, visual interface color, public facilities environment color, street signboard color, theme color. The research results lay a good foundation for the following operable and refined regional color planning and design. Keywords: Regional color planning · Color quantization methods · Street Renewal · Lose effectiveness of urban color planning · Delicacy management

1 Introduction Through bibliometric analysis method, retrieval theme of “color planning” or “urban color” or “regional color” or “colour” or “street” or “landscape” related literature on China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) literature retrieval platform, across the library choose journals and doctoral thesis, eliminate the “education”, “product”, “movie” theme, as of August 2020, get 5981 search results. The overall publishing trend of color planning related literatures on CNKI platform can be divided into four stages according to the number of published literatures. The first stage is the gestation and development stage from 1995 to 2002, the second stage has a steady growth from 2003 to 2006, the third stage has a significant growth from 2007 to 2013, and in the fourth stage, the research popularity has been growing slowly and falling slightly since 2014 (Fig. 1). © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 608–617, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_73

Quantitative Method of Regional Color Planning

609

Fig. 1. Overall trend of the number of color planning papers on CNKI platform

The existing periodicals and papers related to color planning can be divided into six themes: (1) Research on different subjects of color planning (architectural colors, public facilities, signboard colors, plant landscape colors, lighting colors), (2) Study on the color of historic buildings or traditional blocks, (3) Urban chromatography and color planning, (4) Quantitative methods of color planning, (5) Study on the operability and effectiveness of color planning, (6) Insufficiency of existing research or color planning and design. At present, the existing design of urban color and regional color planning mainly focuses on the overall positioning of urban color, the planning, design and management of architectural color, while the regional integrated color design of street square, environmental sketch, lighting color, mobile and temporary color landscape, visual interface color and plant color is still relatively lacking. There are some failures in the process of overall positioning of urban color and architectural color design from planning to implementation, and then to the later management and maintenance. This paper will explore the regional and street level color planning and design of local, systematic design methods; refined management methods; color planning effectiveness and operability. Based on the practical project of Street Renewal Design of Jiangchuan road in Minhang District of Shanghai, the detailed investigation and color quantification method of regional and street color planning at meso and micro levels are proposed. In order to suit measures to local conditions, from the perspective of color harmony, active business and community, and stable traffic, this paper puts forward strategies for street renewal, and provides data basis for quantitative and qualitative analysis of street color.

2 Research Objectives 2.1 Regional Color Planning In the visual design of the environment, “form” and “color” are two extremely important factors that constitute and affect the effect of the urban landscape environment [1]. The relationship between light and color is inseparable, and color is a physical phenomenon produced by the existence of light [2]. As the most intuitive visual element, color is one of the important symbols that reflect the regional culture and image. Proper environmental color artistic expression can improve street recognition and play an important role in image communication [3]. Urban color can be interpreted in a broad sense and a narrow sense. In a broad sense, it includes the sum of all colors that can be perceived in urban space. In a narrow sense,

610

L. Chen and F. Kong

urban color emphasizes the readability of urban spatial form and the identification of urban image, including building, greening, water body, paving, advertising, street tools, sculpture, night scene lighting and other elements [4]. Aiping Gou and Jiangbo Wang concluded that after the reform and open policy, Chinese cities are into cosmical construction, the context of urban color is the continuing of color preference of location, culture, material, and custom, which has been destroyed [5]. Cristina Boeri explored and verified the prerequisites of an approach to urban color and saw a possible way of coexisting between the needs of continuity and renewal [6]. 2.2 Site of Field Investigation Xiangzhang Street, Jiangchuan Road, is located in the southwest of Minhang District, Shanghai, starting from Humin Road and extending to Ruili Road. The surrounding area is dominated by residential, industrial and commercial areas, with numerous schools and rich educational resources. Jiangchuan Road was built in 1958 when it was called the No. 1 Road, after 1959 it was known as Minhang Street. In 1957, as Shanghai’s industrial zone and satellite city, a large number of mechanical and electrical industrial zone enterprises with heavyduty casting and forging, large-scale generator development and heavy-duty machine tool processing settled in Minhang. In order to serve the old town of Minhang and the new workers’ villages of steam turbine and electric machinery, the first phase of the “Minhang Street” project started construction on April 3. It took only 78 days to pave an asphalt Avenue, 13 buildings rose up along the avenue (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2. Location map of design practice project area of Xiangzhang street, Jiangchuan Road

In the 1950s and 1960s, the “Four King Kong” referred to the four major factories located in Minhang, Shanghai, namely: Electric Machinery Factory, Steam Turbine Factory, Boiler Factory, Heavy Machinery Factory. Min Hang is an epitome of the industrial development of Shanghai in that era. Because of the world’s first double water cooling turbo-generator, of the ten thousand tons of hydraulic press, and of the “four king kong”, industrial development in Minhang was particularly brilliant.

Quantitative Method of Regional Color Planning

611

3 Research Methodology 3.1 Environmental Color Survey Method The main tools used in the color survey of Jiangchuan Street include: hardware tools including CBCC Chinese building color card (1026 colors), X-Rite ColorChecker passport (standard 24 color color card, white balance color card, camera calibration software), Canon EOS 600D camera, colorspec high-precision colormeter (portable spectrophotometer), and outdoor handheld infrared laser rangefinder. Software tools include ColorChecker camera calibration, Capture One photo management software, Photoshop, R language & rtools & munsellinterpol, ColorImpact color scheme design tool, etc. 3.2 Color Data Acquisition Method Color Card Comparison Method: The CBCC Chinese architectural color card (1026 color) was used to visually compare the facade of the building and the surface of public facilities, and the closest color value was selected. The advantage of color card contrast method for color value measurement lies in its intuitiveness, which is suitable for color value extraction of architectural colors. The disadvantage is that the number of color cards is limited, so most colors in the environment cannot be defined accurately. Photography and Color Correction Method: The X-Rite ColorChecker Passport (24 color cards) is placed in the scene, the DSLR camera is used to take a photo in the correct RAW format, and then any photo can be taken in the same scene. The advantage of photography and colorimetric measurement lies in its ability to obtain street scene images close to the real situation and rich information. The disadvantage is that there is still a significant color difference between photos and human eyes based on different types of photography and display equipment. Spectrophotometer Method: The Colormeter spectrophotometer was used to align the black calibration of the air and the white calibration of the white board, and the color selection port was placed close to the surface of the color selection object. The absolute value of the color Lab of the object was obtained by combining with the mobile App or single machine measurement. The advantage of colorimetric method for color value measurement is that it is suitable for any color that can contact the flat surface. Lab color value extraction is fast, convenient and accurate, and is not limited by the number of color cards. Time Conditions for Site Color Data Collection: In order to ensure the accuracy and operability of data collection, the time of shooting and instrument color measurement should be selected for the period of 10:00 am–15:00 pm, and the environmental light source with clear sky illumination close to D65 standard [7].

612

L. Chen and F. Kong

3.3 The Experimental Process of Color Data Investigation Through the same color object, three different color measurement methods: color card comparison method, photography and color correction method, and spectroscopic color measurement instrument method, respectively get the color measurement value, and carry out the comparative analysis of their color difference. It is concluded that the color survey will be based on the spectrophotometer method, supplemented by color card contrast method, photography and color correction method (Fig. 3 and Table 1).

Fig. 3. Photos of Field investigation: example of colormeter color data collection

3.4 Color Data Integration Statistical Method Photo Calibration: convert RAW photos with 24 colors cards to TIFF format through PS, and import the TIFF image into the ColorChecker Camera Calibration software attached to the color card passport. The software will automatically recognize the color card and generate ICC profile. Import the TIFF image into the Capture One software, match the ICC profile with parameters and options, and get the image of the actual scene as accurately as possible. After photoshop filter - pixelation - Mosaic, ColorImpact software is imported to obtain the color spectrum of the photos and the ratio of each RGB color (Fig. 4). Load the munsellinterpol toolkit in R language environment, and convert the RGB values obtained from the Lab value and ColorImpact measured by the Colormeter into a unified Munsell color value for easy interpretation and management. But there may be the possibility of color value inaccuracy or error in the process of munsell color value conversion. Statistical sorting in Excel table: various color values (color, Lab, HVC color value, RGB value) obtained through color card, color meter and photo measurement. Finally, the distribution of color values in munsell chromaticity chart is visualized according to hue/value and hue/chroma, then the law of street color status is summarized.

Quantitative Method of Regional Color Planning Table 1. Examples of colors Examples of architectural color Color measurement method Photos of the scene

Color card comparison

Photography and color correction

Lab color value

L:93.8, a:-4.4, b:12.6

Munsell value

Visual approximate color value: 8.1Y 9/1.2 or 9.4Y 9/1.2

Before color correc- L:92.2, a:-0.4, tion: L:88, a :0, b :1 b:11.5 After color correction: L:66, a :-1, b :0 Before color correc- 2.6Y 9.2/1.4 tion: 2.3Y 8.8/0.13 After calibration: 3.5BG 6.5/0.18

Photos of the scene

L:70.8, a:20.4, b:12.3

Munsell value

6.3R 7/5.2

Color measurement method Photos of the scene

Color card comparison

Examples of Plant color

Munsell value

Color difference and contrast E color cardPhotography (after color correction)=22.8; E color card -- Colormeter =4.9; E photography (after color correction) -- Colormeter =21.2; E photography (before color correction) -- Colormeter =8.6

E color card -- photography =9.0; E color card -- Colormeter =5.2; E photography -- Colormeter =7.2

Lab color value

Lab color value

Colormeter color measurement

Deep: L:40.8, a:-15.4, b:17 Shallow: L:61, a:-13, b:55.2 Deep: 7.5 GY 4/3.6 Shallow: 0.6 GY 6/7.6

Photos of the scene

After color correction: L:62, a:16, b:4 0.56R 6.1/3.9

L:65.1, a:17.8, b:14.8 9R 6.4/4.7

Photography and color correction

Colormeter color measurement

Deep: L:26, a:-13, b:20 Shallow: L:52, a:18, b:58 Deep: 5.5 GY 2.6/4.1 Shallow: 2.4 GY 5.1/8.4

Lab color value

Pavement: L:40.8, a:0.5, b:7 Curb: L:61, a: 0.34, B:8.6

Pavement: L:34, a:1, b:-1 Curb: L:41, a:0, b:2

Munsell value

Pavement: 3.1Y 4/1 Curb: 2.5Y 6/1.2

Pavement: 5.4P 3.4/0.26 Curb: 4.2Y 4/0.28

Deep: L:32.4, a:8.8, b:13 Shallow: L:54, a:-13.5, b:38 Deep: 5.6 GY 3.2/2.6 Shallow: 2.3 GY 5.3/5.5

Pavement: L:32.3, a: 0.2, b:3.4 Curb: L: 45.3, a:1.2, b:9.4 Pavement: 3.6Y 3.2/0.52 Curb: 2.1Y 4.4 / 1.4

Color difference and contrast Dark green leaves: E color card -- photography =12.2; E color card -- color meter =8.6; E photography -- color meter =6.6 Light green leaves: E color card -- photography =8.7; E color card -- color meter =8.8; E photography -- color meter =6.7

Pavement: E color card -- photography =9.2; E color card -- color meter =7.7; E photography -- color meter =4.5 Curb: E color card -- photography =20.6; E color card -- color meter =15.3; E photography -- color meter =7.2

613

614

L. Chen and F. Kong

Fig. 4. Operation flow of photo color correction & color data integration statistics

4 Research Results 4.1 Color Database Establishment In order to understand the distribution and tendency of color measurement values obtained from field investigation, a similar chart was drawn by referring to the Munsell chart in the book of environmental color planning written by Yoshida Shinzo. In this Munsell chart, the color solid which needs three-phase coordinates of hue, value and chroma is represented on the same two-dimensional plane. Munsell chart divides the color value of (hue value/chroma) into two graphic coordinates: hue/value and hue/chroma. As shown in the figure below, a color value is represented by two coordinate points in the Munsell chart. The labeling method of hues (R, YR, Y, GY, G, BG, B, PB, P, RP) is from 0 to 10. The first 10 is the starting point 0 of the original tone and also the end point of the previous tone. The tone labeled “5” is the pure tone of the color. The representation of the hue regions (high, medium, low, and bright) in the Munsell chart is shown in the figure below on the right, which is shown in the regional division of the two tables of hue/value and hue/chroma. The data in the current table are all from the results of colormeter spectrophotometer and CBCC Chinese building color card, excluding the color data extraction after photo color correction (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5. Munsell chromaticity chart & Munsell chart of architectural colors

4.2 Building Color Statistics A total of 27 color samples were obtained by colormeter spectrophotometer and CBCC Chinese architectural color card. The overall appearance of the residential buildings

Quantitative Method of Regional Color Planning

615

along the street in Xiangzhang street is as follows: in terms of hue, the range is 5.3r– 7.5Y (red phase, yellow red phase, yellow phase); in terms of chroma, the range is concentrated in the low and medium color areas of 2–5.1; in terms of value, the range is concentrated in 4.2–9° area, high brightness area. Most of the houses and balconies are decorated with various kinds of windows and balustrade. The facade color of housing buildings is divided into upper layer and lower layer (1–2 floors) according to parts. The upper layer and lower layer are mostly of the same color series. The color of the lower building is similar to that of the superstructure, and the lightness is lower. 4.3 Plant Color Statistics A total of 43 samples were obtained from the leaves and trunks of the seedlings on Jiangchuan Road through a Colormeter, including 8 color leaf samples. The overall appearance was as follows: in terms of hue, the range was 2.4R–8GY (18 samples in total were red phase, yellow-red phase and yellow phase, accounting for 42%, and 25 samples were yellow-green phase, accounting for 58%). In terms of chroma, the range is concentrated in the low chromaticity area and the medium chromaticity area of 1.1–5.3. In terms of value, the range is concentrated in the low and middle brightness areas of 1.6–5.2. Compared with architectural color, plant color is slightly lower in chroma and value than architectural color in overall trend (Fig. 6).

Fig. 6. Munsell chart of plant colors & Munsell chart of communal facilities colors

4.4 Public Facilities Environmental Color Statistics A total of 35 environmental color samples of public facilities (traffic poles, traffic kiosks, Posting boxes, etc.) were obtained by taking colors of ground tiles, pavement, seats, curb stones and public facilities (traffic poles, traffic booths, Posting boxes, etc.) with a colorimeter. Overall color presentation: in terms of hue, the range is 9.7R–9.1Y (yellowred phase, yellow phase). In terms of chroma, the range is concentrated in the low chrominance area of 0–3.4. In terms of value, the range is concentrated in the low and medium lightness regions of 2.9–6.4. Traffic poles, signs, warning isolation piles, road traffic construction signs (traffic road signs), etc., the use of safety color (warning color) in the color: the range is concentrated in the high color area and bright color area, in the lightness: the range is concentrated in the middle brightness area (Fig. 7).

616

L. Chen and F. Kong

Fig. 7. Munsell chart of Signboard & Munsell chart of theme color

4.5 Shop Signboard Color Statistics The shop facade was colored by a colormeter, and 77 color samples were obtained. Overall color presentation: in terms of hue, the range is concentrated in R, YR, Y, PB, N (red phase, yellow-red phase, yellow phase, blue-purple phase, no color system). Among them, there are 9 samples in R phase series, accounting for 11.7%. In YR, Y, yellow-red phase and yellow phase, there are a total of 31 samples, accounting for 40.2% in the whole series. Since the chromometer cannot reflect the property of “glossiness”, the yellow-red phase and the yellow phase series also include 11 gold (general) or special color series, accounting for 14.3% of the total. In PB blue-purple phase series, there are altogether 6 samples, accounting for 7.8% in the whole series. 4.6 Theme Color Extraction The color of the exterior wall of Jiangchuan Road subway station, the side wall tiles of Minhang department store, the green painted wood or iron railings with a sense of age, and the door and window frames were selected with a spectrophotometric colorimeter. A total of 9 theme color samples were obtained. In terms of chroma, the range is concentrated in 1.7–4.7 low chromaticity and medium chromaticity. In terms of value, the range is concentrated in 2.8–7.1 low color zone, medium lightness zone.

5 Conclusion By comparing the color difference results of the same color measuring object, color card contrast method, photography and color calibration method, and spectroscopic color measuring instrument method, the advantages and disadvantages of the three kinds of color measuring methods are obtained. After comparison, in the Jiangchuan Road Xiangzhang Street color survey, mainly using color card contrast method and spectroscopic color measuring instrument method, photography and color calibration method as the auxiliary color survey method, finally obtain the detailed color impression survey results of Jiangchuan Road. Constructing a

Quantitative Method of Regional Color Planning

617

Fig. 8. Jiangchuan road current architectural color atlas

complete multi-dimensional color database of Jiangchuan Road, including architectural color, plant color, public facility color, shop sign color and theme color (Fig. 8). The building color hue of Jiangchuan Road is dominated by R red phase, YR yellow red phase, Y yellow phase and N colorless hue, which the chroma is in low chroma and medium chroma, and the lightness is in the medium lightness area and the high lightness area. Based on the summary of the current color map of a street of camphor on Jiangchuan Road, the color of Jiangchuan Road can be divided into commercial district, residential district and industrial district according to its function and current typical color distribution. The typical color and characteristic color are mainly evergreen camphor tree plant color. The summary of the current map will lay a good foundation for the regional color planning of Jiangchuan Road.

References 1. Xin, Y.: Theoretical Research on Environmental Color and Exploration of Landscape Design Practice. Huazhong University of Science and Technology Press, Wuhan (2019) 2. [Han] Jin, R.: Color Psychology in Design. Posts and Telecommunications Press, Beijing (2011) 3. He, X.: A brief discussion on the influence of media publicity on urban color art expression. J. Contemp. Telev. 10, 56–57 (2017) 4. Gou, A.: From Color to Space: Street Color Planning. Southeast University Press, Nanjing (2010) 5. Gow, A.P., Wang, J.B.: Research on the location characters of urban color plan in China. J. Color Res. Appl. 33(1), 68–76 (2008) 6. Boeri, C.: Color loci placemaking: the urban color between needs of continuity and renewal. J. Color Res. Appl. 42(5), 641–649 (2017) 7. Tan, M.: Quantitative Research on Landscape Color Composition. D. Doctor, Southeast University (2018)

The Post-1995 Generation Color Preference Based on Social Software Ren Long and Zheqian Peng(B) School of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, East First Floor, Wuhan, China [email protected]

Abstract. The Internet has been developing rapidly, and the way people get information is also developing, and image information is becoming more and more important in social media. The post-95 generation is the main user of the Internet and is most influenced by the Internet. In social media information, color information is very important and has strong guidance for users. This article focuses on the color preferences of the post-95 generation on social media. We collect the information of images shown by the post-95 generation on social media, analyze the uniqueness they show, use different methods to collect the information, and then analyze the color information, and finally get the color preferences of the post-95 generation on social media. Keywords: Color preference · The post-95 generation · Images

1 Introduction China’s Internet started its initial stage in 1994 and entered a rapid growth stage in 1997, so the growth of the post-95 generation is synchronized with the development of the Internet, and different aspects of the Internet are shaping the consumption habits and lifestyles of the post-95 young people. In the age of social media, the subjectivity of the audience has been fully highlighted, and the position of the media as information provider and discourse controller has been weakened [1].With the gradual maturity of age, the post-95 group is gradually becoming the main force of Internet users. The post-95 generation is accustomed to obtaining information, services and socializing through the Internet. The information in social media has formed a diversified influence on the culture of the post-95 generation, shaping the personalized and symbolic culture of the post-95 generation. In the communication of social media, the rich expression of color information is in line with the pursuit of personalization and symbolization of the post-95 generation, and the reasonable use of color information can effectively form a personalized impression and shape the labeling information for the post-95 generation. This paper is an exploration of the color preferences of the post-95 generation based on social media, and a preliminary understanding of the information behavior of the post95 generation in social media related to personal labeling, and through this information © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 618–624, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_74

The Post-1995 Generation Color Preference

619

to collect picture information, and then make an analysis of user color preferences, with the characteristics of the post-95 generation as the indigenous people of the Internet combined with the widespread use of social media, so as to make a preliminary research reference for the information on the color preferences of users growing up in the environment of the Internet in the future is of great significance.

2 Data Collection and Analysis 2.1 Information Survey We surveyed 120 members of the post-95 generation to get a list of information about their own labels. We asked the surveyed post-95 generation users some questions to get the data we needed. According to our survey, the post-95 generation uses social media for a longer period of time, basically between 1 h and 5 h, and the most frequently used social media is Sina Weibo, because it can take in real-time information from different aspects, such as social news, daily sharing of friends and content of interest. The surveyed post-95 generation prefers to receive information in a multi-sensory way, such as information with rich pictures and text or video information. Whenever we look at pictures, watch a video or listen to audio recordings, our conscious attention efforts focus on the observable content, but our cognition spontaneously perceives intentions, beliefs, values, attitudes and other constructs that, while being outside of our conscious awareness, still shape our reactions and behavior [2]. Images can affect people emotionally [3]. So it is clear that the surveyed post-95 generation cares a lot about the way of carrying information and the ability to display information. The surveyed post-95 generation users said that in browsing social media content, information content about color is very attractive, and they basically have their own preferences for color. Among the information carriers containing color information, the information carriers in the form of graphics and pure pictures are more attractive to the surveyed users of the post-95 generation, and such a form allows users to obtain color information quickly and intuitively. Combined with the overall research results, the new media platform carrier about the color preference of the post-95 generation is chosen to be microblogging, which has a more diversified form of information relaying, graphic and video co-existence, and therefore has higher research-based and provides more credible information for the subsequent research. 2.2 Information Collection According to the user interviews, the researched users were able to feel that they represented the post-95 generation with multiple tag words and a generalization of their own characteristics. After integrating some of the tag words, they were divided into four main keyword intentions, which are optimistic and positive, self-exploration, niche emotion and chic trend. As shown in Table 1.

620

R. Long and Z. Peng Table 1. Post-95 generation respondents tag words.

Tag words Optimistic and positive

Self-exploration

Niche emotions

Chic trend

High appetite

Youthful

Free

Ethnic dress

Travel

Social needs

Open-minded

Love music

Optimistic

Sports

Storytelli

Sneakers

Pets

Netflix

Anime

Shapes

Active

Health

Unique

Fitness

Leisure

Practical benefit

Two dimensions

Management

Takeaway

Self-reliance

Entertainment

Ethnic trends

Video

Language

Blind box

National style

Sugar

Work

Live performance

Electronic

Vlog

Exams

Otaku

Rhythm

Makeup

Money

Exhibition

Solitude

Healing

College entrance

Art

Desire

Laziness

Quality

Stargazing

Procrastination

Poverty

Stay up late

Cosplay

Games

Talent show

Good learning

Lolita

Hip hop

Dance

Shopping

LGBT

Sub-pressure

The four keyword intentions analyzed from the research results were quasi-swapped for labeled information in the later study. Optimistic and positive: The optimistic and positive category refers to people who have high requirements for comfort in general. These people like to live a convenient and comfortable life, have a positive and optimistic attitude towards life, have high social needs, and like to explore things that can increase the comfort level of life. Because of their high demand for comfort in life, they like elements that can express rich emotions, like to focus on optimistic and positive content on new media platforms, have the habit of collecting, and like items that can make them happy. Self-exploration: Self-exploration category refers to people whose life is mainly focused on self-exploration and self-improvement, who do not have high social needs, are lonely, like to be alone, are not good at communication, and have delicate emotions but do not like to express them. These people like to pay attention to works with delicate emotions on new media platforms, which can evoke the empathy of these people, as well as teaching, lecture and science content that can improve themselves, and have a certain curiosity to explore the unknown and are very independent.

The Post-1995 Generation Color Preference

621

Niche emotions: These people like niche and non-mainstream culture, have a high demand for emotions, want to be unique, have a certain desire to create and express themselves, like non-mainstream culture, and are eager to be recognized by people with the same interests. In the new media platform like to pay attention to emotional, not mainstream, art atmosphere heavy, so that they can boast of their own content, more only focus on their favorite niche culture content, like the visualization effect of strong content, even for the mainstream cultural content has a certain resistance. Chic trend: The chic trend category refers to people who always pay attention to the current trend in life, these people like more mainstream culture, have high sensitivity to fashion hotspots, always find and follow the current Internet cultural hotspots, have high social demand, these people like to pay attention to the content with trend on the new media platform, like to have personalized, emotionally rich and visually excellent and mainstream content. They love music and content that can mobilize emotions and make people excited.

3 Color Information Analysis According to the results of the preliminary research, the new media platform carrier of the post-95 generation’s preferred color information is microblogging, which has a variety of information transmission forms, images, text and video content, rich functions, and a large user group, and the content classification involves almost all aspects of life, which naturally it has become the main user of the post-95 generation under the guidance of interest. Microblog content information contains many emotional factors, and emotional stimulation of the mind is 3000 times faster than rational thinking [4], so post-95s are attracted by the emotional information in Weibo when they use it. As one of the most rapidly developing social media in recent years, Weibo is attracting the post-95s with its timeliness, accuracy, and emotionality, so this study has a high degree of credibility. In the contextual framework of social media platforms, the color characteristics of images can predict the expressed psycholinguistic emotions [5]. Therefore, to collect color information carriers in social media based on the labeled information words as the main search words for this labeling, the main color information can be extracted in the carriers, and the psychological emotion in them can be analyzed based on the color information. The search was conducted in the microblogging platform based on the tag words of Optimistic and positive, Self-exploration, Niche emotions and Chic trend, and 12 groups of images were collected for each category, 9 images in a group, totaling 108 images, with a total of 432 images for the four categories. The images were combined and then blurred and mosaic processed, and finally the color information was extracted from the processed images.

622

R. Long and Z. Peng

The most relevant color information for the Optimistic and positive category, with RGB numbers #0F50A7, #6DA5D8, #A3A658, #FFC787, #FFC7C8, can be seen in the soft color palette of Optimistic and positive, which is vibrant and jumpy, and very lively overall. Fresh and vibrant field green creates a fresh and natural tone, angel blue is refreshing, dark rose exudes an understated neutral charm, light gold renders the comfort of a warm summer, and pink renders the vitality of modern youth (Fig. 1). The most relevant color information for the Self-exploration category, RGB color codes are #243F73, #8EA4BE, #DACFC7, #BF744A, #8D8482. It can feel the independence and autonomy revealed in the color, which can stabilize the mind, calm the mood and meet the challenges of the future, and also has a quiet and peaceful feeling, low-key but intriguing (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Optimistic and positive and self-exploration color extraction

The most relevant RGB color information for the Niche Emotion category is #9153B0, #AC507F, #4063B8, #32454E, #83956B. As you can see, the Niche Emotion category is based on a unique purple-red color palette, with a mysterious, special and intriguing feel to the whole. There is a group of labeling the feeling of self, like visualization effect is strong (Fig. 2). The most relevant RGB colors for the Chic Trend category are #28254E, #0934BF, #56F20A, #888DBC and #A72725. The color numbers are #C4F221, #459BC9, #DA2A1C, #8C8C8C, #3A373A. The Chic Trendy category is based on a dark tone with a sense of pioneering, and the whole is full of hard, powerful and trendy feeling, which can feel the individuality and rich emotion revealed in the color, with a sharp and hard feeling (Fig. 2).

The Post-1995 Generation Color Preference

623

Fig. 2. Niche emotions and Chic trend color extraction

4 Conclusion By examining the social media-based color preference information of the post-95 generation, the color information obtained varies widely depending on the labeling of the user, so we can know that in social media, the post-95 generation is highly concerned about color information, and the color information contained in the information posted in social media is closely linked to the personalization of the user. The four sets of color preferences obtained from the article explain well the emotional personalization of colors. The emotional information contained in social networks is visualized in colors, and different color biases can be used to elaborate this emotion, for example, Optimistic and positive colors are relaxed and bright light tones, self-exploration is calm and serious neutral tones, niche emotions are mysterious and ambiguous cool tones, and chic trend is bold and impactful complementary tones. The emotional factor contained in color information is sufficient, so when designing for different types of users, the emotional information contained in the type should be collected, and then derived from the emotional information to color information. Personalized design is a sustainable development direction, and exploring the color preferences of the current post-95 generation will help the color preferences of future users. The article has some limitations, for example, the data collection method for the post-95 generation can be improved, the color information analysis is not deep enough, and the color information needs to be further explored and developed for application. Acknowledgments. This paper is funded by the University-level Educational Reform Project of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Project No.: 2020003.

624

R. Long and Z. Peng

References 1. Liu, Z.S.: A study on social media dependence and media needs - taking college students’ microblog dependence as an example. J. Univ. 01, 124–134 (2013). (in Chinese) 2. Cristani, M., et al.: Unveiling the multimedia unconscious: implicit cognitive processes and multimedia content analysis. In: The 21st ACM International Conference. ACM (2013) 3. Machajdik, J., Hanbury, A.: Affective image classification using features inspired by psychology and art theory. In: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Multimedea 2010, Firenze, Italy, 25–29 October 2010. ACM (2010) 4. Tang, J., et al.: Quantitative study of individual emotional states in social networks. IEEE Trans. Affective Comput. 3(2), 132–144 (2012) 5. Amencherla, M., Varshney, L.R.: Color-based visual sentiment for social communication. In: Information Theory, pp. 1–5 (2017)

Author Index

A Ahtiainen, Jesse, 343 Ai, Mengchao, 259 Aigbavboa, Clinton, 275 Akinradewo, Opeoluwa, 275 Almeida, Ana, 65 Almendra, Rita Assoreira, 588 Anselmi, Laura, 24 Anuardi, Muhammad Nur Adilin Mohd, 514 Aro-Heinilä, Ville, 343 Athayde, Fernando Henrique, 386 Aue, Karin, 361 B Bakir, Dennis, 49 Balaj, Dea, 206 Benahmed, Ghazi, 162 Berger, Thomas, 369 Bhushan, Braj, 498 Bilibashi, Anxhela, 73 Bruno, Carmen, 24 C Canina, Maria Rita, 24 Carey-Raygoza, Carmen Esther, 414 Chan, John, 361 Chau, Ruth P. W., 459 Chavez-Ceja, Beatriz, 414 Chen, Lingling, 608 Chiaradia, Alain, 596 Condeça, Sara, 65 Contero, Manuel, 432 Contero-López, Pilar, 432 Correia, Ricardo, 441, 466

Cortes-Chavez, Fabiola, 580 Cruz-Cárdenas, Jorge, 181, 199 Cueva-Ortiz, Sonia, 181 Cunningham, Stuart, 335 D da Silva, Fernando Moreira, 441, 466 Dangelmaier, Manfred, 217 de Oliveira, Caio Miolo, 588 de Paiva, Rodrigo Sergio F., 386 Deyneka, Olga, 199 Ding, Wei, 539 Ding, Xifan, 244 Dubois, Jakob, 268 E Engels, Florian, 49 Escribá-Pérez, Carmen, 432 Everaerts, Stefanie, 530 F Falcao, Christianne, 386 Fang, Huai, 235 Fischer, Heiko, 369 G Gan, Lin, 300 Gann, Emma Luisa, 85, 94, 189, 394 Garcia-Hernandez, Mariel, 580 Gonçalino, Inês, 65 Gonzalez-Muñoz, Elvia Luz, 580 Gouveia, Raquel, 65 Griffiths, Jillian, 335 Gu, Liwen, 142

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 E. Markopoulos et al. (Eds.): AHFE 2021, LNNS 276, pp. 625–627, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9

626 Guadalupe-Lanas, Jorge, 199 Gui, Siming, 244 Guo, Yongyan, 522

Author Index M Ma, Longxin, 123, 300 Maldonado, Paulo, 65 Marin-Alvarez, Marco, 580 Markopoulos, Evangelos, 73, 85, 94, 153, 162, 189, 206, 225, 268, 343, 376, 394, 403 Markopoulos, Panagiotis, 225 Martinez-Gutierrez, Rodolfo, 414 Mathis, Lesley-Ann, 217 Meng, Xiaohan, 352 Minighin, Davide, 24 Motała, Daria, 104 Mthimunye, Innocent, 275

H Hesse, Fabian Jan Friedrich, 376 Hillner, Matthias, 56 Ho, Amic G., 423, 459 Holopainen, Timo, 369 Hoxhallari, Egi, 153 hu, Rui, 31 Hu, Xue, 483 Hu, Zhiqian, 136 Huang, Jiaying, 506 Huang, Jinge, 300 Huang, Xinyao, 539 Hurtado-Sanchez, Carlos, 414

N Neves, João, 441, 466 Ni, Xiao, 128

I Ibarra-Estrada, Maria Esther, 414

O Oke, Ayodeji, 275

J Jabry, Bassam, 361 Jiang, Xiaoning, 490 Jing, Yuchen, 123, 300 Joneurairatana, Eakachat, 483 K Kirane, Ines Selma, 206 Koh, Jeffrey T. K. V., 361 Kong, Fanqiang, 562, 608 Kumar, Mritunjay, 498 Kwok, Kevin Tsz Chun, 423 L Lam, Sunny Sui-kwong, 554 Lara-Chavez, Artemio, 414 Leitão, Tiago, 588 Li, Qingchuan, 285 Li, Wenhua, 506 Li, Xiaodong, 31 Li, Xiaolin, 539 Li, Xiaoyu, 323 Li, Yue, 315 Lin, Hanqing, 294 Liu, Amanda, 123 Liu, Long, 142, 259 Liu, Wei, 123, 300, 352 Long, Ren, 618 Lourenço, Ana Rita Alves, 588 Lu, Yeqing, 474 Luimula, Mika, 162, 225, 343 Luo, Jing, 128, 235 Luximon, Yan, 128, 235, 285

P Parise, Chiara, 24 Peng, Zheqian, 618 Pereira, Jorge Brandão, 452 Q Quelhas, Vítor, 452 R Ranjan, Rajesh, 498 Raposo, Daniel, 441, 466 Ravyse, Werner, 343 Ren, Lisha, 315 Ribeiro, Rogério, 441, 466 Ricardo, Ana, 65 Rivero-Orozco, Brenda Denisse, 580 Robl, Philipp, 394 Rossa-Sierra, Alberto, 580 Roy, Satyaki, 498 S Sameer, Ahmed, 498 Schmidt, Ruth, 3 Seidenstricker, Sven, 369 Sheen, Kimberly Anne, 335 Shen, Liangyan, 142 Shen, Xiaoyu, 123 Shigemoto, Yuuki, 16 Silva, José, 441, 466 Simatrang, Sone, 483 Soyinka, Oluwole, 596 Springer, Leonardo, 11 Sripian, Peeraya, 514 Staggl, Alexandra, 94

Author Index Stenger, Katelyn, 3 Sugaya, Midori, 514 Sun, Bingqing, 522 Sun, Zhe, 315 Suominen, Taisto, 162 Sviridova, Aleksandra, 530 T Tan, Zheng-tang, 306 Tas, Laura, 530 Teo, Kiahsheng, 361 Terenzi, Benedetta, 251 Tong, Xinyuan, 259 Torrecilla-Moreno, Carmen, 432 Tu, Xiaohan, 136 V van Hoofstat, Lotte, 530 Vanharanta, Hannu, 73, 94, 153, 206, 403 Verlinden, Jouke, 530 Vignati, Arianna, 251 W Wang, Dawei, 352 Wang, Ruilin, 352 Wang, Xiaohan, 123 Wang, Xueting, 474 Wang, Zhen, 306 Weisbecker, Anette, 217 Weng, Minghan, 31 Wilson, Derren, 335 Winter, Lisa Marie Carolin, 403 Wong, Keith, 361 X Xi, Tao, 112 Xia, Jingyi, 562 Xiao, Jia Xin, 506

627 Xiao, Shimeng, 142 Xie, Xin, 285 Xu, Li, 474 Y Yachchou, Salma, 530 Yang, Qinxue, 259 Ye, Cristina, 225 Yip, David Kei-man, 569, 574 Yu, Kai, 514 Yu, Xiaobao, 294 Yuan, Long, 40 Z Zabelina, Ekaterina, 199 Zhang, Antong, 300 Zhang, Bowen, 123 Zhang, Fan, 173, 490 Zhang, Jiaxin, 285 Zhang, Jun, 40 Zhang, Liqun, 31 Zhang, Qi, 300 Zhang, QianYu, 539 Zhang, Xiuhua, 474 Zhang, Ziwei, 352 Zhao, Dan-hua, 306 Zhao, Liuyi, 300 Zhao, Shuwang, 547 Zheng, Mingyu, 300 Zhou, Jie, 539 Zhou, Sheng, 173 Zhou, Yu-fan, 306 Zhou, Yuxi, 547 Zhou, Zhiwei, 112 Zhu, Di, 352 Zhu, Yancong, 123 Ziegler, Daniel, 217