Design, Housing, and Apparel

With increasing changes in our demographic populations and new immigrants settling in the US, there is an increasing need for visual communications that address the diversity of our populations. This paper draws from the results of the researcher's several past research and teaching projects that worked with different cultural populations. These projects examined the theme of multicultural design with a particular focus on user experience for audiences from different cultural backgrounds. The nature of the projects included printed materials, web design, video production, and interactive design. The researcher examined users' preferences for precise language presentation, options of visual layout, cultural related design elements such as images, colors, fonts, and interactive interface design. The goal of this paper is to increase design educators and students' awareness in designing projects for culturally diverse audiences.

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: AA are over-represented on the waitlist for kidney transplant and are often unaware of how waitlist acceptance practices differ across transplant programs and influence access to transplant. We will develop a culturally sensitive transplant program report card to communicate these variations. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR) data will be used to identity clinical factors strongly associated with AA access to transplant. Interviews and focus groups with AA kidney transplant candidates and their families will collect feedback on the SRTR report card and inform the development of the culturally sensitive report card. Additional focus groups will evaluate its effect on knowledge and medical decision making. We will collaborate with the stakeholders, including AA transplant candidates and their families, transplant programs, SRTR, and providers, to identify strategies to disseminate the report card in the AA community RESULTS...

Usability inspection is a major standard for design evaluation in which expert evaluators use heuristics to assess efficiency and quality. However, usability alone is insufficient to assess efficacy in design problems in which the main design goal is not cognitive interaction. For example, goals such as social change (e.g. health promotion), communication, or entertainment, in the field of product and system design, require design evaluation that goes beyond usability. In this paper we argue that rhetorical ability (or rhetorability) is a plausible heuristic evaluation approach in the field of design for social change. We propose nine heuristics based on the three rhetorical appeals, logos (reason), pathos (emotion), and ethos (credibility). The applicability of the method depends on the understanding of the rhetorical situation; thus, the rhetorical ability heuristic evaluator should be an expert in the audience needs, the design goal, and the design problem.

The theory of rhetoric could provide critical foundations for interactive design. One core idea of rhetoric is the rhetorical appeals, which include logos, pathos, and ethos. The authors report a research-based design project with reflections from the design process and usability evaluations. The project explored the application of the rhetorical appeals in the design of a mobile web application for childhood obesity prevention.

Games are increasingly being used to teach content in a variety of courses from elementary to graduate education. This study investigates the effectiveness of using a game, to learning design history content, and it examines students’ preferred learning activities based on learning styles. Forty-two students played a computer game and then responded to a 10-item quiz. Learning style or times played did not impact achievement on the quiz. Students did prefer games as a learning tool, but equally preferred lecture and projects. This study does indicate that games can be used as tools to teach various types of information within a college course. Games added variety to the design history course and made learning facts more fun. The concrete nature of the game was appropriate for this particular group of students, most of whom had concrete learning styles. Finally, the recycling of a previously designed learning object made the project affordable in terms of time and money.

Focus groups of recent Hmong and Somali immigrants provided information about effective design variables for public service brochures. Each immigrant group participated in two sessions. The first session queried subjects on preferences for layout and bilingual text, and appropriate fonts and images. During the second session participants reacted to several variations of a brochure that was designed using findings from the first session. Both Hmong and Somali participants preferred a bilingual layout including both their language and English. Font legibility was important; good contrast between letterforms and background was essential. Images uses should respect cultural expectations. The Hmong participants did not respond favorably to images showing native dress, while images of Somali immigrants must respect cultural aspects of dress.

Patients in the US in need of a life-saving organ transplant must complete a long process of medical decisions, and a first step is to identify a transplant center to complete an evaluation. This study describes a patient-centered process of testing and refinement of a new website (www.transplantcentersearch.org) that was developed to provide data to patients who are seeking a transplant center. Mixed methods, including online surveys and structured usability testing, were conducted to inform changes in an iterative process. Survey data from 684 participants indicated the effects of different icon styles on user decisions. Qualitative feedback from 38 usability testing participants informed improvements to the website interface. The mixed methods approach was feasible and well suited to the need to address multiple development steps of a patient-facing tool. The combined methods allowed for large survey sample sizes and also allowed interaction with a functioning website and in-dept...

Context: Kidney transplant is superior to dialysis for the treatment of end-stage kidney disease, but accessing transplant requires high patient engagement to overcome barriers. We sought to develop an educational counselling intervention for patients along with their social support networks to help patients access the waiting list. Methods: Utilizing an Intervention Mapping approach, we established a conceptual framework to develop a behavioural intervention that can be reproduced across kidney transplant centres. The approach includes needs assessment, identifying behavioural determinants and process objectives and integrating targeted behavioural change theory. Results: The Intervention Mapping process resulted in the development of a group counselling session, titled Journey to Transplant (JtT). This intervention was designed for kidney transplant candidates along with members of their social support networks and guided by a transplant healthcare professional. The session begins with standardized educational information to improve knowledge and normalize emotional barriers to transplant. This education is followed by a tailored counselling intervention, including the presentation of the individual patient's calculated likely outcomes on the kidney transplant waiting list. Finally, JtT incorporates patient and support network goal setting to address the specific barriers for that patient in accessing kidney transplantation. Conclusion: A systematic Intervention Mapping approach to develop the JtT intervention helps ensure the intervention is efficacious, acceptable and feasible for transplant centres to implement. JtT engages the patient's social support network, targeting known barriers to transplant and utilizing established behaviour change theory to motivate concrete actions to improve the likelihood of kidney transplantation.