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When facing a design problem, both novice and expert designers tend to rely on a variety of available sources to get inspired during idea generation. Therefore, searching for and collecting diverse stimuli during the early phases of the design process is considered a well-known practice amongst designers. Despite this general assumption, there is no clear empirical evidence on how novice or expert practitioners get inspired, their preferences on various material sources, or how they value such potential resources. A questionnaire for novice and expert designers was developed in order to better understand these issues. The findings indicate that novices and experts alike tend to look for existing design solutions that resemble the problem(s) at hand, potentially neglecting more abstract and distant information. The results suggest that the designers in this survey show a tendency to not fully explore a number of available resources, ultimately leading to hindrances in their creative processes. Further results of this study uncover interesting information strategies of designers which should be considered when developing creative approaches in design education.

A design rationale is a representation of the reasoning behind a design concept, explaining why the solution is designed the way it is. This makes design rationale a critical part of concept development. However, there is little exploration on how to build a design rationale. This study sheds light on professional designers’ reasoning in conceptual design, as we examine how design rationales for different concepts are built based on a longitudinal study in the context of two design studios. Particularly the study provides insight into how a design rationale is initiated, matured and finalized.

Dissertação de mestrado em Bioquímica, apresentada ao Departamento Ciências da Vida da Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra INTRODUÇÃO: A inflamação do sistema nervoso central é uma característica da Doença de Alzheimer (DA). Apesar do papel da inflamação não estar bem esclarecido no processo neurodegenerativo, existem evidências da relação desta processo com a toxicidade da proteína β-amilóide e a patologia da doença. Diferentes estudos sugerem que a inflamação não está presente apenas nos cérebros de doentes de Alzheimer mas também nas células imunes periféricas. Desta forma, o objectivo deste estudo é perceber se existem diferenças nas células do sistema imune periférico de doentes com défice cognitivo ligeiro (DCL) e de doentes de Alzheimer, de forma a perceber o envolvimento do sistema imune periférico no processo neurodegenerativo. MÉTODOS: Foram usados três grupos constituídos por indivíduos com a mesma média de idades. Assim foram recrutados 10 indivíduos sem doenças cognitivas que constituem o grupo controlo; 10 indivíduos diagnosticados com DA através da classificação NINCDS-ADRDA (McKhann, 1984) e 10 indivíduos diagnosticados com DCL, segundo os critérios da escala do ratio da demência clínica (Critérios de Petersen, 2001). Estes indivíduos não eram portadores de doenças como Diabetes, inflamações crónicas ou doenças neoplásicas, nem tomavam medicações susceptíveis de influenciar as variáveis em estudo. A análise das subpopulações de células B, T, NK e macrófagos foi efectuada por citometria de fluxo. Para a detecção de quimiocinas foram recrutados 17 controlos sem doenças cognitivas, 21 indivíduos diagnosticados com doença de Alzheimer e 27 indivíduos com DCL, usando os mesmos critérios. A quantificação das quimiocinas G-CSF, IL-8; MCP-1, MIP-1α, MIP-1β e MIG no soro dos indivíduos em estudo foi efectuada através de um ensaio multiplex que utiliza esferas que emitem fluorescência. Para amostras normais, a comparação entre os grupos foi realizada recorrendo à análise da variância ANOVA. Quando não existiu uma distribuição normal foi efectuado o teste de Kruskal-Wallis. Os resultados com os valores de ρ

Additive Manufacturing (AM) brought new design freedom and possibilities that enable design and manufacturing of products with new forms and functionalities. To utilise these possibilities a new design approach emerged, Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM), that contains methods and tools for supporting AM oriented design process. Designers working with AM are aware of the need to apply DfAM and AM possibilities in conceptual design phase where they have the most significant influence on product architecture and form but are facing a lack of suitable DfAM approaches for early design phases. Therefore, the presented research is investigating possibilities of storing and representing AM knowledge in the form of design principles to be used in the conceptual design phase. The paper proposes conceiving of Design Principles for Additive Manufacturing repository where formalised AM knowledge is stored in the form of design principles and structured based on function criteria. In the paper, various elements of design principle representation are discussed, as well as their role in the conceptual design process.

Use of virtual reality (VR) is considered beneficial for reviewing 3D models throughout product design. However, research on its usability in the design field is still explorative, and previous studies are often contradictory regarding the usability of VR for 3D model review. This paper argues that the usability of VR should be assessed by analysing human factors such as spatial perception and taking into consideration the complexity of the reviewed product. Hence, a comparative evaluation study has been conducted to assess spatial perception in desktop interface-based and VR-based review of 3D models of products with different levels of complexity. The results show that participants in VR more could perceive the fit of user interface elements, and estimation of the model dimensions had a lower relative error than in desktop interface. It has been found that various sensory cues are used to perceive the model size and that the employed sensory cues depend on the level of complexity. Finally, it is proposed that differences between a desktop interface and VR for reviewing models are more evident when reviewing models of higher complexity levels.

Sketching-related activities are considered as an essential form of communication in the early phases of a design process. In the presented study, it is argued that both the sketching and the sketch-related verbalisations are reflected in the level of elaboration of the sketching outputs. Hence, a protocol study was conducted to analyse the frequencies of different sketching-related activities during team conceptual design sessions and the associated levels of elaboration for each of the sketching outputs in the form of concept drawings. The results show that although teams generate sketches of various number, complexity and clarity, there exist commonalities across the studied experiment sessions. For example, teams share a pattern of developing solutions without transformations or using lateral transformations within the first part of the sessions and using vertical transformations to produce final concepts towards the end of the sessions. Moreover, teams used associated sketch elements to start drawing new sketches and then alternated to other activities, most of all verbal explanation, for the sake of elaboration and better understanding.

Studies of design activity have been dominantly reporting on different aspects of the design process, rather than the content of designing. The aim of the presented research has been the development and application of an approach for a fine-grain analysis of the design content communicated between designers during the team conceptual design activities. The proposed approach builds on an engineering design ontology as a foundation for the content categorisation. Two teams have been studied using the protocol analysis method. The coded protocols offered fine-grain descriptions of the content communicated at different points in the design session and enabled comparison of teams’ approaches and deriving some generalisable findings. For example, it has been shown that both teams focused primarily on the use of the developed product and the operands within the technical process, in order to generate new technical solutions and initial component design. Moreover, teams exhibit progress from abstract to concrete solutions as the sessions proceeded and focused on the functional requirements towards the end of the sessions.