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- All Subjects: 19765
- Creators: Bernardi, Jose
- Creators: Herring, Donald
Description
Scholars have written much about home and meaning, yet they have said little about the professionally furnished model home viewed as a cultural artifact. Nor is there literature addressing how the home building industry uses these spaces to promote images of family life to increase sales. This research notes that not only do the structure, design, and layout of the model home formulate cultural identity but also the furnishings and materials within. Together, the model home and carefully selected artifacts placed therein help to express specific chosen lifestyles as that the home builder determines. This thesis considers the model home as constructed as well as builder's publications, descriptions, and advertisements. The research recognizes the many facets of merchandising, consumerism, and commercialism influencing the design and architecture of the suburban home. Historians of visual and cultural studies often investigate these issues as separate components. By contrast, this thesis offers an integrated framework of inquiry, drawing upon such disciplines as cultural history, anthropology, and material culture. The research methodology employs two forms of content analysis - image and text. The study analyzes 36 model homes built in Phoenix, Arizona, during the period 1955-1956. The thesis explores how the builder sends a message, i.e. images, ideals, and aspirations, to the potential home buyer through the design and decoration of the model home. It then speculates how the home buyer responds to those messages. The symbiotic relationship between the sender and receiver, together, tells a story about the Phoenix lifestyle and the domestic ideals of the 1950s. Builders sent messages surrounding convenience, spaciousness, added luxury, and indoor-outdoor living to a growing and discriminating home buying market.
ContributorsGolab, Coreen R (Author) / Brandt, Beverly K. (Thesis advisor) / Bernardi, Jose (Committee member) / Schleif, Corine (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The process of this study involves conducting empirical tests on consumer's emotional responses toward tableware designs by statistic measurements (PrEmo), including both Chinese and American cultures. The objective to this study is to research the correlation between consumers' cognitive analysis of Chinese tableware designs and their emotional responses. The author proposes that the correlationship between consumers' cognition of Chinese tableware and emotional responses will lead to a new opportunity in the industrial design industry. Fifty-seven people responded to sixty-seven invitations to join the research project at Chinese restaurants in both China and America. Throughout the process of coding and organizing the survey data, a finding shows that there is a connection between consumer sensitivity toward the products and their emotional bonds to the assigned product designs. The data showed that more people in China are expending greater effort in choosing suitable tableware designs compared to the people in the U.S. Key words: Emotion, Cognition, Culture, Tableware design, Chinese restaurants
ContributorsLiu, Ran (Author) / Herring, Donald (Thesis advisor) / Wolf, Peter (Committee member) / Wang, Ning (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Research has shown that the ability to smell is the most direct sense an individual can experience. With every breath a person takes, the brain recognizes thousands of molecules and makes connections with our memories to determine their composition. With the amount of research looking into how and why we smell, researchers still have little understanding of how the nose and brain process an aroma, and how emotional and physical behavior is impacted. This research focused on the affects smell has on a caregiver in a simulated Emergency Department setting located in the SimET of Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona. The study asked each participant to care for a programmed mannequin, or "patient", while performing simple computer-based tasks, including memory and recall, multi-tasking, and mood-mapping to gauge physical and mental performance. Three different aromatic environments were then introduced through diffusion and indirect inhalation near the participants' task space: 1) a control (no smell), 2) an odor (simulated dirty feet), and 3) an aroma (one of four true essential oils plus a current odor-eliminating compound used in many U.S. Emergency Departments). This study was meant to produce a stressful environment by leading the caregiver to stay in constant movement throughout the study through timed tasks, uncooperative equipment, and a needy "patient". The goal of this research was to determine if smells, and of what form of pleasantness and repulsiveness, can have an effect on the physical and mental performance of emergency caregivers. Findings from this study indicated that the "odor eliminating" method currently used in typical Emergency Departments, coffee grounds, is more problematic than helpful, and the introduction of true essential oils may not only reduce stress, but increase efficiency and, in turn, job satisfaction.
ContributorsClark, Carina M (Author) / Bernardi, Jose (Thesis advisor) / Heywood, William (Committee member) / Watts, Richard (Committee member) / Rosso, Rachel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
ABSTRACT Recent studies indicate that top-performing companies have higher-performing work environments than average companies. They receive higher scores for worker satisfaction with their overall physical work environment as well as higher effectiveness ratings for their workspaces (Gensler, 2008; Harter et al., 2003). While these studies indicate a relationship between effective office design and satisfaction they have not explored which specific space types may contribute to workers' overall satisfaction with their physical work environment. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between workers' overall satisfaction with their physical work environments and their perception of the effectiveness of spaces designed for Conceptual Age work including learning, focusing, collaborating, and socializing tasks. This research is designed to identify which workspace types are related to workers' satisfaction with their overall work environment and which are perceived to be most and least effective. To accomplish this two primary and four secondary research questions were developed for this study. The first primary question considers overall workers' satisfaction with their overall physical work environments (offices, workstations, hallways, common areas, reception, waiting areas, etc.) related to the effective use of work mode workspaces (learning, focusing, collaborating, socializing). The second primary research question was developed to identify which of the four work mode space types had the greatest and least relationship to workers' satisfaction with the overall physical work environment. Secondary research questions were developed to address workers' perceptions of effectiveness of each space type. This research project used data from a previous study collected from 2007 to 2012. Responses were from all staff levels of US office-based office workers and resulted in a blind sample of approximately 48,000 respondents. The data for this study were developed from SPSS data reports that included descriptive data and Pearson correlations. Findings were developed from those statistics using coefficient of determination.
ContributorsHarmon-Vaughan, Elizabeth (Author) / Kroelinger, Michael D. (Thesis advisor) / Bernardi, Jose (Committee member) / Ozel, Filiz (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Some disabled users of assistive technologies (AT) have expressed concerns that their use of those AT devices brings particular attention to their disability and, in doing so, stigmatizes them in the eyes of their peers. This research studies how a wide range of design factors, influence how positively or negatively users of wearable technologies are perceived, by others. These factors are studied by asking survey respondents to estimate the degree to which they perceive disabilities in users of various products. The survey was given to 34 undergraduate Product Design students, and employed 40 pictures, each of which showed one person using a product. Some of these products were assistive technology devices, and some were not. Respondents used a five-bubble Likert scale to indicate the level of disability that they perceived in this person. Data analysis was done using SPSS software. The results showed that the gender of the respondent was not a significant factor in the respondent's estimation of the level of disability. However, the cultural background of the respondent was found to be significant in the respondent's estimates of disability for seven of the 40 pictures. The results also indicated that the size of AT, its familiarity to the mainstream population, its wearable location on the user's body, the perceived power of the user, the degree to which the AT device seemed to empower the user, the degree to which the AT device was seen as a vehicle for assertion of the user's individuality, and the successfulness of attempts to disguise the AT as some mainstream product reduced the perceived disability of the user. In contrast, symbols or stereotypes of disability, obstructing visibility of the face, an awkward complex design, a mismatch between the product's design and its context of use, and covering of the head were factors that focused attention on, and increased the perception of, the user's disability. These factors are summarized in a set of guidelines to help AT designers develop products that minimize the perceived disability and the resulting stigmatization of the user.
ContributorsValamanesh, Ronak (Author) / Velasquez, Joseph (Thesis advisor) / Black, John (Committee member) / Herring, Donald (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
The purpose of the study is to gain a better understanding of baby boomers' attitudes toward video chat applications and software based on their user experiences through the measurement of the level of use, usefulness, usability and aesthetics preferences. 133 participants recruited at a local public library and at three senior centers took the survey and 14 respondents were interviewed. The results of the study indicate: (1) Baby boomers have diverse attitudes and experiences in video chatting, but their attitudes do not present a significant difference from those of older generations; (2) Baby boomers' preferences for interface design are influenced by their psychological characteristics rather than physical changes; (3) Family members and close friends are a great resource for assistance and motivation for boomers. The knowledge of motivational factors and barrier factors could help maintain the existing baby boomer users and encourage potential users by providing an improved video chat experience design for them to connect with younger generations. This research could also lead social services into the telehealth age by bridging the gap between a traditional intervention and modern instant video communication.
ContributorsShi, Ai (Author) / Herring, Donald (Thesis advisor) / Takamura, John (Committee member) / Sun, Fei (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Healthcare is one of the most personal and complex services provided, and as such, designing healthcare environments is particularly challenging. In the last couple of decades, researchers have concentrated their efforts on exploring the elements of the hospital environment that affect patients' health and in finding ways to apply that knowledge in contemporary healthcare design. But despite the growing body of research, there is an element of utmost importance to healing environments that has not been studied very extensively: the patient experience. The interaction of patients with their environment shapes their personal experience, and inversely, focusing on designing experiences rather than services can inform the design of successful healing environments. This shift from designing services to designing experiences has deep implications in healthcare settings because of the stressful situations that patients have to go through; memorable experiences have a positive influence on a patient's emotional health because they help minimize stress and in healthcare environments this translates into improved outcomes. The concept of assembling experiences is not new, especially in the entertainment industry; it was, in fact, the underlying principle behind the creation of the first theme park more than fifty years ago: Disneyland. Today, Disney is an entertainment industry leader and their design concepts and practices have been perfected to achieve the Company's main purpose: to immerse Guests in a happy, unforgettable experience. This research study focuses on examining the principles used by Disney designers, or Imagineers, as they are called within the organization, to generate memorable experiences, and how those theories can be adopted and adapted by healthcare designers to create better healing environments. However, Disney's Imagineering is not the only approach considered in this research. A thorough analysis would not be complete without delving into the concept of experiential design as a design process and from an economical perspective, as well as without analyzing recent notions about the importance of authenticity in businesses and its implications on design. This study, therefore, suggests a new healing environment design model based on a comprehensive review of the literature related to three main design approaches: Disney Imagineering, experiential design and authenticity.
ContributorsDuenas Parra, Betsabe (Author) / Bernardi, Jose (Thesis advisor) / Stein, Morris (Committee member) / Shraiky, James (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
All too often, industrial designers face seemingly intractable obstacles as they endeavor to, as Simon (1996, p. 111) describes, devise "courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones." These problems, described by Rittel and Webber (1973) as "wicked," are insurmountable due to the contradictory and changing nature of their requirements. I argue that that industrial design (ID) is largely subject to Rittel's quandary because of its penchant for producing single solutions for large populations; such design solutions are bound, in some senses, to fail due to the contradictory and changing nature of large and, thus, inherently diverse populations. This one-size-fits-all approach is not a necessary attribute of ID, rather, it is a consequence of the time in which it came into being, specifically, the period of industrial mass production. Fortunately, new, agile manufacturing techniques, inexpensive sensors, and machine learning provide an alternative course for ID to take, but it requires a new way of thinking and it requires a new set of methods, which I will elaborate in this thesis. According to Duguay, Landry, and Pasin (1997), we are entering an age where it will be feasible to produce individualized, one-off products from large-scale industrial manufacturing facilities in a way that is not only cost effective, but in many ways as cost effective as the existing techniques of mass production. By availing ourselves of these opportunities, we can tame the problem, not by defeating Rittel's logic, rather by reducing the extent to which his theories are appropriate to the domain of ID. This thesis also describes a test study: an experiment whose design was guided by the proposed design methodologies. The goal of the experiment was to determine the feasibility of a noninvasive system for measuring the health of the forearm muscles. Such a tool would provide the basis for assessing the true impact and possible pathogeny of the manual use of products or modifications to products. Previously, it was considered impossible to use surface electromyography (as opposed to needle or wire based electromyography) to assess muscular activity and muscular health due to the complexity of the arrangement of muscles in the forearm. Attempts to overcome this problem have failed because they have tried to create a single solution for all people. My hypothesis is that, by designing for each individual, a solution may be found. Specifically, I show that, for any given individual, there is a high correlation between the EMG signal and the movements of the fingers that, ostensibly, those muscles control. In other words, by knowing, with great accuracy, the position and the motion of the hand then it would become possible to disambiguate the mixed signals coming from the complex web of muscles in the forearm and enable the assessment of the forearm's health by non-invasive means.
ContributorsBraiman, Stuart (Author) / Giard, Jacques (Thesis advisor) / Black Jr., John A (Committee member) / Herring, Donald (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
According to the ADA (American Diabetes Association), diabetes mellitus is one of the chronic diseases with the highest mortality rate. In the US, 25 million are known diabetics, which may double in the next decade, and another seven million are undiagnosed. Among these patients, older adults are a very special group with varying physical capabilities, cognitive functions and life expectancies. Because they run an increased risk for geriatric conditions, Type 2 diabetes treatments for them must be both realistic and systematic. In fact, some researchers have explored older adults’ experiences of diabetes, and how they manage their diabetes with new technological devices. However, little research has focused on their emotional experiences of medical treatment technology, such as mobile applications, tablets, and websites for geriatric diabetes. This study will address both elderly people's experiences and reactions to devices and their children's awareness of diabetes. It aims to find out how to improve the diabetes treatment and create a systematic diabetes mobile application that combines self-initiated and assisted care together.
ContributorsLu, Chenyang (Author) / Takamura, John (Thesis advisor) / Herring, Donald (Committee member) / Doebbeling, Bradley (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
The artificial lighting plays crucial role in the human life in the contemporary,
globalized and highly complex world. Its influence on the physical and psychological
health of the humans was studied by numerous reputable scholars from across the globe,
however this study focuses on the impact of light on the college students living in the
dormitories. The study seeks to find whether there is a correlation between light and health
of the student, his/her performance, productivity, mood and feelings. The paper uses a
relatively new housing near Arizona State University Tempe-campus as a case study as an
attempt to substantiate the problem dimensions and suggest feasible solutions.
Basing on the available literature on the topic and the case study evaluation, the
author determined the range of possible recommendations for the lighting professionals in
the industry to maximally satisfy the needs of the students and make their stay and life in
the dormitory comfortable and healthy experience. The relevant conclusions are made
basing on the obtained results.
globalized and highly complex world. Its influence on the physical and psychological
health of the humans was studied by numerous reputable scholars from across the globe,
however this study focuses on the impact of light on the college students living in the
dormitories. The study seeks to find whether there is a correlation between light and health
of the student, his/her performance, productivity, mood and feelings. The paper uses a
relatively new housing near Arizona State University Tempe-campus as a case study as an
attempt to substantiate the problem dimensions and suggest feasible solutions.
Basing on the available literature on the topic and the case study evaluation, the
author determined the range of possible recommendations for the lighting professionals in
the industry to maximally satisfy the needs of the students and make their stay and life in
the dormitory comfortable and healthy experience. The relevant conclusions are made
basing on the obtained results.
ContributorsAlaboudi, Noof Fahad M (Author) / Brunner, Lori (Thesis advisor) / Bernardi, Jose (Thesis advisor) / Mizukami Schoettker, Miho (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019