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Who do you trust: Peers or Technology? A conjoint analysis about computational reputation mechanisms
(2020)
Peer-to-peer sharing platforms are taking over an increasingly important role in the platform economy due to their sustainable business model. By sharing private goods and services, the challenge arises to build trust between peers online mostly without any kind of physical presence. Peer rating has been proven as an important mechanism. In this paper, we explore the concept called Trust Score, a computational rating mechanism adopted from car telematics, which can play a similar role in carsharing. For this purpose, we conducted a conjoint analysis where 77 car owners chose between fictitious user profiles. Our results show that in our experiment the telemetric-based score slightly outperforms the peer rating in the decision process, while the participants perceived the peer rating more helpful in retrospect. Further, we discuss potential benefits with regard to existing shortcomings of user rating, but also various concerns that should be considered in concepts like telemetric-based reputation mechanism that supplements existing trust factors such as user ratings.
Smart home systems change the way we experience the home. While there are established research fields within HCI for visualizing specific use cases of a smart home, studies targeting user demands on visualizations spanning across multiple use cases are rare. Especially, individual data-related demands pose a challenge for usable visualizations. To investigate potentials of an end-user development (EUD) approach for flexibly supporting such demands, we developed a smart home system featuring both pre-defined visualizations and a visualization creation tool. To evaluate our concept, we installed our prototype in 12 households as part of a Living Lab study. Results are based on three interview studies, a design workshop and system log data. We identified eight overarching interests in home data and show how participants used pre-defined visualizations to get an overview and the creation tool to not only address specific use cases but also to answer questions by creating temporary visualizations.
Dementia not only affects the cognitive capabilities, especially memory and orientation, but also physical capabilities, which are associated with a decrease of physical activities. Here, ICT can play a major role to improve health, quality of life and wellbeing in older adults suffering from dementia and related stakeholders, such as relatives, professional and informal caregivers. The aim of the presented system is to increase physical and cognitive capabilities of people with dementia and their caregivers to support them in daily life activities, reduce the strain of the caregivers and improve both their wellbeing.
The megatrends towards both a digital and a usership economy have changed entire markets in the past and will continue to do so over the next decades. In this work, we outline what this change means for possible futures of the mobility sector, taking the combination of trends in both economies into account. Using a sys-tematic, scenario-based trend analysis, we draft four general future scenarios and adapt the two most relevant scenarios to the automotive sector. Our findings show that combing the trends from both economies provides new insights that have often been neglected in literature because of an isolated view on digital technology only. However, service concepts such as self-driving car sharing or self-driving taxis have a great impact at various levels including microeconomic (e.g., service and product design, business models) and macroeconomic (e.g., with regard to ecological, economical, and social impacts). We give a brief outline of these issues and show which business mo dels could be successful in the most likely future scenarios, before we frame strategic implications for today’s automobile manufacturers.
The alternative use of travel time is one of the widely discussed benefits of driverless cars. We therefore conducted 14 co-design sessions to examine how people manage their time, to determine how they perceive the value of time in driverless cars and to derive design implications. Our findings suggest that driverless mobility will affect both people’s use of travel time as well as their time management in general. The participants repeatedly stated the desire of completing tasks while traveling to save time for activities that are normally neglected in their everyday life. Using travel time efficiently requires using car space efficiently, too. We found out that the design concept of tiny houses could serve as common design pattern to deal with the limited space within cars and support diverse needs.
Continued growth in international experiences for U.S. co++6llege students is a favorable trend. However, the most substantial increase has occurred with of short-term study abroad programs. Many of these programs include extensive travel instead of involving a single site. There is great danger that if not properly managed, these types of international educational experience will default into little more than an organized group tour.
In these types of programs it is challenging to induce student participants to engage meaningfully with local residents as the traveling group tends to form into its own portable society. In addition, the current state of wireless communications means that students participating in these types of programs can easily stay plugged into their home social networks which further reduces meaningful interactions in the cultures being visited.
Incorporating well designed research projects into short-term study abroad programs holds the potential to offset some of the inherent limitations of such programs. Research projects can serve both to prepare the students for the trip and promote meaningful cross-cultural interaction while the program is underway.
In this paper, the authors provide suggestions based on their experiences with short-term travel abroad programs which incorporated student research. Several potential problems are identified and suggestions are given for project design.
Trust is the lubricant of the sharing economy, especially in peer-to-peer carsharing where you leave a valuable good to a stranger in the hope of getting it backunscathed. Central mechanisms for handling this information gap nowadays are ratings and reviews of other users. The rising of connected car technology opens new possibilities to increase trust by collecting and providing e.g. driving behavior data. At the same time, this means an intrusion into the privacy of the user. Therefore, in this work we explore technological approaches that allow building trust without violating the privacy of individuals. We evaluate to what extent blockchain technology and smart contracts are suitable technologies to meet these challengesby setting upa prototype implementation of a block-chain-based carsharing approach. In this context, we present our research approachand evaluate the prototype in terms of trust and privacy.
When dialogues with voice assistants (VAs) fall apart, users often become confused or even frustrated. To address these issues and related privacy concerns, Amazon recently introduced a feature allowing Alexa users to inquire about why it behaved in a certain way. But how do users perceive this new feature? In this paper, we present preliminary results from research conducted as part of a three-year project involving 33 German households. This project utilized interviews, fieldwork, and co-design workshops to identify common unexpected behaviors of VAs, as well as users’ needs and expectations for explanations. Our findings show that, contrary to its intended purpose, the new feature actually exacerbates user confusion and frustration instead of clarifying Alexa's behavior. We argue that such voice interactions should be characterized as explanatory dialogs that account for VA’s unexpected behavior by providing interpretable information and prompting users to take action to improve their current and future interactions.
The development of fully automated vehicles is becoming more and more present in the social discussion. The image of fully automated cars is determined by automobile manufacturers and placed in the context of individual traffic. In contrast to fully autonomous private cars, fully automated public transport is already operating in some cities and is to be expanded in the future. Autonomous public transport offers great potential for the development and promotion of sustainable mobility concepts. However, the user acceptance is important for the enforcement and widespread use of these technical innovations. An online study on the acceptance of fully automated public transport based on quantitative data of a sample of N = 201 is presented. The results show a high level of familiarity with the topic and a very high level of overall intention to use fully automated public transport in the future.
Humankind, it can be argued, lives beyond its means and often at the expense of future generations. This paper starkly demonstrates, with the aid of a mathematical model, the imperative for a sustainable existence. In the model, consumption of resources is represented as a closed system, just like our planet. Long-term survival is only possible if consumption is below the ability of the system to regenerate.
Trust is the lubricant of the sharing economy. This is true especially in peer-to-peer carsharing, in which one leaves a highly valuable good to a stranger in the hope of getting it back unscathed. Nowadays, ratings of other users are major mechanisms for establishing trust. To foster uptake of peer-to-peer carsharing, connected car technology opens new possibilities to support trust-building, e.g., by adding driving behavior statistics to users' profiles. However, collecting such data intrudes into rentees' privacy. To explore the tension between the need for trust and privacy demands, we conducted three focus group and eight individual interviews. Our results show that connected car technologies can increase trust for car owners and rentees not only before but also during and after rentals. The design of such systems must allow a differentiation between information in terms of type, the context, and the negotiability of information disclosure.
Regions and their innovation ecosystems have increasingly become of interest to CSCW research as the context in which work, research and design takes place. Our study adds to this growing discourse, by providing preliminary data and reflections from an ongoing attempt to intervene and support a regional innovation ecosystem. We report on the benefits and shortcomings of a practice-oriented approach in such regional projects and highlight the importance of relations and the notion of spillover. Lastly, we discuss methodological and pragmatic hurdles that CSCW research needs to overcome in order to support regional innovation ecosystems successfully.
Over the past two decades many low and middle income countries worldwide have started to extend the coverage and improve the functioning of public social protection systems. The research program on international policy diffusion provides empirical evidence that apart from domestic factors international interdependencies matter as well for national policy change in social protection. However, little is known about the governance structures mediating international policy diffusion in social protection.
Work-related thoughts in off-job time have been studied extensively in occupational health psychology and related fields. We provide a focused review of research on overcommitment – a component within the effort-reward imbalance model – and aim to connect this line of research to the most commonly studied aspects of work-related rumination. Drawing on this integrative review, we analyze survey data on ten facets of work-related rumination, namely (1) overcommitment, (2) psychological detachment, (3) affective rumination, (4) problem-solving pondering, (5) positive work reflection, (6) negative work reflection, (7) distraction, (8) cognitive irritation, (9) emotional irritation, and (10) inability to recover. First, we leverage exploratory factor analysis to self-report survey data from 357 employees to calibrate overcommitment items and to position overcommitment within the nomological net of work-related rumination constructs. Second, we leverage confirmatory factor analysis to self-report survey data from 388 employees to provide a more specific test of uniqueness vs. overlap among these constructs. Third, we apply relative weight analysis to quantify the unique criterion-related validity of each work-related rumination facet regarding (1) physical fatigue, (2) cognitive fatigue, (3) emotional fatigue, (4) burnout, (5) psychosomatic complaints, and (6) satisfaction with life. Our results suggest that several measures of work-related rumination (e.g., overcommitment and cognitive irritation) can be used interchangeably. Emotional irritation and affective rumination emerge as the strongest unique predictors of fatigue, burnout, psychosomatic complaints, and satisfaction with life. Our study assists researchers in making informed decisions on selecting scales for their research and paves the way for integrating research on effort-reward imbalance and work-related rumination.
Digitisation has brought a major upheaval to the mobility sector, and in the future, self-driving cars will probably be one of the transport modes. This study extends transport and user acceptance research by analysing in greater depth how the new modes of autonomous private cars, autonomous carsharing and autonomous taxis fit into the existing traffic mix from today's perspective. It focuses on accounting for relative added value. For this purpose, user preference theory was used as a base for an online survey (n=172) on the relative added value of the new autonomous traffic modes. Results show that users see advantages in the autonomous modes for driving comfort and time utilization whereas, in comparison to conventional cars, in many other areas – especially in terms of driving pleasure and control – they see no advantages or even relative disadvantages. Compared to public transport, the autonomous modes offer added values in almost all characteristics. This analysis at the partwor th level provides a more detailed explanation for user acceptance of automated driving.
The corporate landscape is experiencing an increasing change in business models due to digitization. An increasing availability of data along the business processes enhance the opportunities for process automation. Technologies such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA) are widely used for business process optimization, but as a side effect an increase in stand-alone solutions and a lack of holistic approaches can be observed. Intelligent Process Automation (IPA) is said to support more complex processes and enable automated decision-making, but due to the lack of connectors makes the implementation difficult. RPA marketplaces can be a bridging technology to help companies implement Intelligent Process Automation. This paper explores the drivers and challenges for the adoption of RPA marketplaces to realize IPA. For this purpose, we conducted ten expert interviews with decision makers and IT staff from the process automation sector.
The Peren-Clement Index
(2024)
The Peren Theorem
(2024)
Currently, there is a global problem of an increasing need of energy. There will be less fossil fuel, which will be more expensive in the future. The regenerative energies are becoming more and more important. The subject deals the problem of economical feasibility of geothermal energy systems. Its goal is to analyze necesary conditions and aspects of realizing geothermal energy systems in comparison to and competition with traditional energy sources. The geothermal energy recovery is economically advantageous if the investment costs, esp. the drilling costs, could be reduced significantly. It only seems possible to open up a big opportunity for realizing geothermal energy systems by using a rock melt drilling technology, to reduce the investment costs significantly.
Currently, there is a global problem of an increasing need of energy. There will be less fossil fuel, which will be more expensive in the future. The regenerative energies are getting more and more important. The subject deals with the problem of economical feasibility of geothermal energy systems. Its goal is to analyze nessesary conditions and aspects for realizing geothermal energy systems in comparison to and competition with traditional energy sources. The geothermal energy recovery is economically advantageous if the investment costs, esp. the drilling costs, could be reduced significantly. It only seems possible to open up a big opportunity for realizing geothermal energy systems by using a rock melt drilling technology, to reduce the investment costs significantly.
Smart heating systems are one of the core components of smart homes. A large portion of domestic energy consumption is derived from HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems, making them a relevant topic of the efforts to support an energy transition in private housing. For that reason, the technology has attracted attention both from the academic and the industry communities. User interfaces of smart heating systems have evolved from simple adjusting knobs to advanced data visualization interfaces, that allow for more advanced setting such as time tables and status information. With the advent of AI, we are interested in exploring how the interfaces will be evolving to build the connection between user needs and underlying AI system. Hence, this paper is targeted to provide early design implications towards an AI-based user interface for smart heating systems.
The Decision Tree Procedure
(2024)
Smart home systems are becoming an integral feature of the emerging home IT market. Under this general term, products mainly address issues of security, energy savings and comfort. Comprehensive systems that cover several use cases are typically operated and managed via a unified dashboard. Unfortunately, research targeting user experience (UX) design for smart home interaction that spans several use cases or covering the entire system is scarce. Furthermore, existing comprehensive and user-centered longterm studies on challenges and needs throughout phases of information collection, installation and operation of smart home systems are technologically outdated. Our 18-month Living Lab study covering 14 households equipped with smart home technology provides insights on how to design for improving smart home appropriation. This includes a stronger sensibility for household practices during setup and configuration, flexible visualizations for evolving demands and an extension of smart home beyond the location.
The case for basic human needs in coaching: A neuroscientific perspective - The SCOAP Coach Theory
(2014)
The art of nudging
(2023)
Do simple and subtle changes in the living and study environment improve the eating behaviour of students in an educational setting? This dissertation provides a not-so-simple answer to this simple question based on the outcomes of four studies that explore the effects and design of artwork nudges (specifically the artwork of Alberto Giacometti) on the eating behaviour of students by applying different research designs. Study 1 explores the effects of a Giacometti-like nudge (a more contemporary version of the original nudge) regarding the dietary behaviour of high school students in a controlled setting. Study 2 applies different artwork nudges within a virtual vignette setting to measure their effects on virtual meal choices made. Also, the degree to which individuals were aware of the nudge’s presence is included as an influential factor in nudge effectiveness. Study 3 assesses the susceptibility to nudges as measured with a questionnaire. Susceptibility to nudges is defined as nudgeability. Study 4 assesses the effects of the original Giacometti nudge in a real-world university cafeteria setting. Specifically, the immediate and sustained effects of the original Giacometti nudge on students’ meal purchases in the university cafeteria are considered. In addition, the role of awareness of the nudge’s presence as well as the acceptance of this specific nudge are discussed. The conclusion is drawn that the original Giacometti nudge should only be applied in an educational setting to improve healthy eating behaviour if the intended target groups and environment meet certain conditions. Artwork nudges in general should be applied only after rigorous testing of various types of different nudges and more research reflecting healthy eating in its entirety.
Since its advent, the sustainability effects of the modern sharing economy have been the subject of controversial debate. While its potential was initially discussed in terms of post-ownership development with a view to decentralizing value creation and increasing social capital and environmental relief through better utilization of material goods, critics have become increasingly loud in recent years. Many people hoped that carsharing could lead to development away from ownership towards flexible use and thus more resource-efficient mobility. However, carsharing remains niche, and while many people like the idea in general, they appear to consider carsharing to not be advantageous as a means of transport in terms of cost, flexibility, and comfort. A key innovation that could elevate carsharing from its niche existence in the future is autonomous driving. This technology could help shared mobility gain a new boost by allowing it to overcome the weaknesses of the present carsharing business model. Flexibility and comfort could be greatly enhanced with shared autonomous vehicles (SAVs), which could simultaneously offer benefits in terms of low cost, and better use of time without the burden of vehicle ownership. However, it is not the technology itself that is sustainable; rather, sustainability depends on the way in which this technology is used. Hence, it is necessary to make a prospective assessment of the direct and indirect (un)sustainable effects before or during the development of a technology in order to incorporate these findings into the design and decision-making process. Transport research has been intensively analyzing the possible economic, social, and ecological consequences of autonomous driving for several years. However, research lacks knowledge about the consequences to be expected from shared autonomous vehicles. Moreover, previous findings are mostly based on the knowledge of experts, while potential users are rarely included in the research. To address this gap, this thesis contributes to answering the questions of what the ecological and social impacts of the expected concept of SAVs will be. In my thesis, I study in particular the ecological consequences of SAVs in terms of the potential modal shifts they can induce as well as their social consequences in terms of potential job losses in the taxi industry. Regarding this, I apply a user-oriented, mixed-method technology assessment approach that complements existing, expert-oriented technology assessment studies on autonomous driving that have so far been dominated by scenario analyses and simulations. To answer the two questions, I triangulated the method of scenario analysis and qualitative and quantitative user studies. The empirical studies provide evidence that the automation of mobility services such as carsharing may to a small extent foster a shift from the private vehicle towards mobility on demand. However, findings also indicate that rebound effects are to be expected: Significantly more users are expected to move away from the more sustainable public transportation, leading to an overcompensation of the positive modal shift effects by the negative modal shift effects. The results show that a large proportion of the taxi trips carried out can be re-placed by SAVs, making the profession of taxi driver somewhat obsolete. However, interviews with taxi drivers themselves revealed that the services provided by the drivers go beyond mere transport, so that even in the age of SAVs, the need for human assistance will continue – though to a smaller extent. Given these findings, I see action potential at different levels: users, mobility service providers, and policymakers. Regarding environmental and social impacts resulting from the use of SAVs, there is a strong conflict of objectives among users, potential SAV operators, and sustainable environmental and social policies. In order to strengthen the positive effects and counteract the negative effects, such as unintended modal shifts, policies may soon have to regulate the design of SAVs and their introduction. A key starting point for transport policy is to promote the use of more environmentally friendly means of transport, in particular by making public transportation attractive and, if necessary, by making the use of individual motorized mobility less attractive. The taxi industry must face the challenges of automation by opening up to these developments and focusing on service orientation – to strengthen the drivers’ main unique selling point compared to automated technology. Assessing the impacts of the not-yet-existing generally involves great uncertainty. With the results of my work, however, I would like to argue that a user-oriented technology assessment can usefully complement the findings of classic methods of technology assessment and can iteratively inform the development process regarding technology and regulation.
This 2nd edition compendium contains and explains essential statistical formulas within an economic context. Expanded by more than 100 pages compared to the 1st edition, the compendium has been supplemented with numerous additional practical examples, which will help readers to better understand the formulas and their practical applications. This statistical formulary is presented in a practice-oriented, clear, and understandable manner, as it is needed for meaningful and relevant application in global business, as well as in the academic setting and economic practice. (Verlagsangaben)
This compendium contains and explains essential statistical formulas within an economic context. A broad range of aids and supportive examples will help readers to understand the formulas and their practical applications. This statistical formulary is presented in a practice-oriented, clear, and understandable manner, as it is needed for meaningful and relevant application in global business, as well as in the academic setting and economic practice.
This book is about how computer systems might be designed to serve their users rather better. It deals with how to study the natural behaviour of users to see how computer systems might best help them, and how one might also involve them in the design of computer systems that will assist them in their everyday practices.
There has been increasing interest in designing for dementia in recent years. Empirical investigation is now needed of the long-term role of caregivers in appropriating ICTs into the complex daily life of people with dementia (PwD). We present here the outcomes of a 4-month evaluation of the individual, social and institutional impact of a videogame-based training system. The everyday behavior and interactions of 52 PwD and 25 caregivers was studied qualitatively, focusing on the role played by caregivers in integrating the system into daily routines. Our results indicate that the successful appropriation of ICT for PwD depends partly on the physical, cognitive and social benefits for PwD, but especially on the added value perceived by their social care-network. We discuss the need for design in dementia to develop more socially embedded innovations that can address the social actors involved and thus contribute to practical solutions for professional and private care.
Providing universal access to social protection and health systems for all members of society, including the poor and vulnerable, is increasingly considered crucial to international development debates. This is the first book to explore from an interdisciplinary and global perspective the reforms of social protection systems introduced in recent years by many governments of low and middle-income countries.
Smallholder farmers as a backbone for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals
(2018)
Shared Autonomous Vehicles: Potentials for a Sustainable Mobility and Risks of Unintended Effects
(2018)
Automated and connected cars could significantly reduce congestion and emissions through a more efficient flow of traffic and a reduction in the number of vehicles. An increase in demand for driving with autonomous vehicles is also conceivable due to higher comfort and improved quality of time using driverless cars. So far, empirical evidence supporting this hypothesis is missing. To analyze the influence of autonomous driving on mobility behavior and to uncover user preferences, which serve as an indicator for future travel mode choices, we conducted an online survey with a paired comparison of current and future travel modes with 302 German participants. The results do not confirm the hypothesis that ownership will become an outdated model in the future. Instead they suggest that private cars, whether traditional or fully automated, will remain the preferred travel mode. At the same time, carsharing will benefit from full automation more than private cars. However, findings indicate that the growth of carsharing will mainly be at the expense of public transport, showing that more effort should be placed in making public transportation more attractive if sustainable mobility is to be developed.
Sequencing Problems
(2024)
In general, mathematics plays a central role in our lives because today mathematics regulates our everyday life with techniques, technologies and procedures, for example coding techniques for credit cards or the drafting of curves and surfaces for construction procedures [5]. Obviously, mathematics continues to be an important element of engineering education and it still represents a major obstacle for the students. Lacking the knowledge of several topics, changing learning behavior and inadequate overall conditions at universities for the repetition of school mathematics were mentioned to be causes for the constantly increasing gap between the initial level of mathematics at university and the prior knowledge of the first semester students [2].
Traditionally automotive UI focusses on the ergonomic design of controls and the user experience in the car. Bringing networked sensors into the car, connected cars can provide additional information to car drivers and owners, for and beyond the driving task. While there already are technological solutions, such as mobile applications commercially available, research on users’ information demands in such applications is scarce. We conducted four focus groups to uncover what kind of information users might be interested in to see on a second dashboard. Our findings show that besides control screens of todays’ dashboards, people are also interested in connected car services providing context information for a current driving situation and allowing strategic planning of driving safety or supporting car management when not driving. Our use cases inform the design of content for secondary dashboards for and especially beyond the driving context with a user perspective.
A central objective of the German gambling law is to ensure the protection of minors and players (§ 1 Sentence 1 No. 3 GlüStV 2012). Since the year 2014 gambling facilities for commercial games of chance in gambling halls and restaurants have been certified by the German Safety Standards Authority [Technischer Überwachungsverein – TÜV]. Certification by government-accredited testing organizations based on internationally validated, interdisciplinary scientific expertise "Safeguarding the Protection of Minors and Players with Respect to Commercial Gambling in Germany – 2.0" is a quality assurance instrument from a regulatory perspective. It is in the interests of, in particular, excellent quality providers to ensure that they are also perceived as providing this level of quality. Certification leads to market separation. In so doing, the advantages of end-to-end certification should be greater than any disadvantages. Analysing the international environment shows that certifi cation initiatives are necessary and have been put in place in other sectors of the gambling industry.
The primary aim is quality assurance for a responsible handling of commercial games of chance offerings (responsible gambling). The presented testing catalogue for commercial gambling can also provide an impetus in the international context and, as appropriate, a set standard.
So far, sustainable HCI has mainly focused on the domestic context, but there is a growing body of work looking at the organizational context. As in the domestic context, these works still rest on psychological theories for behaviour change used for the domestic context. We supplement this view with an organizational theory-informed approach that adopts organizational roles as a key element. We will show how a role-based analysis could be applied to uncover information needs and to give em-ployee’s eco-feedback, which is linked to their tasks at hand. We illustrate the approach on a qualitative case study that was part of a broader, ongoing action research conducted in a German production company.
IT-accessiblity is often treated as an orphan in companies. Even though the proportion of disabled people is substantial and people become older and more susceptible to disabilities. Besides cost factors, companies often do not have a plan how to implement and control IT-accessibility successfully. However, most companies are familiar with IT-maturity frameworks to evaluate and improve their own IT-infrastructure. It would facilitate dealing with IT-accessibility, if IT-maturity frameworks consider IT-accessibility and provide recommendations and solutions for a successful implementation. Therefore, this article conducts a review of an acknowledged IT-maturity framework with regard to its capability to enable implementation of IT-accessibility in an organization. The first part of this article will illustrate the motivation and background for the authors concern with such a topic. Afterwards the authors will introduce the reader to the reviewed IT-maturity framework and provide basic knowledge on IT-accessibility. The main part of the article will deal with the review of the applied IT-maturity framework and outline examples of critical capabilities for successfully implementing IT-accessibility in an organization. The final section will derive implications and close with planned future research activities in this field.
The short survey „Green IT 2009“ got a very pleasant feedback. The authors received 132 useful answers within only two weeks of survey (15th January until 31st January 2009). The electronic forms were sent to 1.000 companies in Germany and some neighbouring countries. The results show very clearly that the companies are already acting. Green IT has found its way into the companies in different ways and activities. But Green IT is known as a technical topic of IT management or building services engineering. The investments are made mostly in technical activities (energy saving hardware, virtualisation, cooling and more). From a business view the sourcing departments have to change their strategies and processes. The type and amount of IT investment decisions are not concerned by Green IT activities. The main targets of the companies are saving energy and costs followed by advancements in marketing and innovation.
Results from the EU-project iStoppFalls : feasibility, effectiveness, approach for fall prevention
(2016)
In the course of growing online retailing, recommendation systems have become established that derive recommendations from customers’ purchase histories. Recommending suitable food products can represent a lucrative added value for food retailers, but at the same time challenges them to make good predictions for repeated food purchases. Repeat purchase recommendations have been little explored in the literature. These predict when a product will be purchased again by a customer. This is especially important for food recommendations, since it is not the frequency of the same item in the shopping basket that is relevant for determining repeat purchase intervals, but rather their difference over time. In this paper, in addition to critically reflecting classical recommendation systems on the underlying repeat purchase context, two models for online product recommendations are derived from the literature, validated and discussed for the food context using real transaction data of a German stationary food retailer.
Queueing Theory
(2024)
Project Management
(2023)
Companies are increasingly developing into dynamic and project-oriented organizations. Globalization, innovations and organizational dynamics require more and more projects, and thus a more project-oriented corporate organization and management. As a rule, managers as well as employees already work parallel to their line function in projects or completely from project to project.
At the same time, cross-company and especially international value chains lead to the cooperation of cross-departamental and intercultural teams. For this, the specialists and executives need above all knowledge and experience in project management and the corresponding concepts as well as in the special form of cooperation, team development and communication. Because the most problems in project management are not caused by project goals and methods, but by the many different problem-solving behavior and attitudes, e.g. between engineers and business people, different departments or the different country cultures. The international IT project specialist Tom DeMarco puts it in a nutshell (in Peopleware - Productive Projects and Teams: The major problems of our work are not so much technological as socio-logical in nature. In terms of content here, in contrast to traditional professional textbooks, not only the technologies are priority, but also the social and intercultural aspects of project work.
The book is aimed equally at students of all disciplines with a focus on managerial and project-related work as well as practitioners and entrepreneurs in all private business sectors as well as in NGOs, public projects or PPPs as public-private partnership.
The Peren-Clement index (PCI) is a methodology to analyze country-specific risk for businesses engaged in international trade and direct investment. This index, established in 1998, provides a guideline when deciding which foreign markets offer the possibility for additional business engagement and investment, and to what extent existing engagement or investment can be increased or should be reduced.
Opportunities for Sustainable Mobility: Re-thinking Eco-feedback from a Citizen's Perspective
(2019)
In developed nations, a growing emphasis is being placed on the promotion of sustainable behaviours amongst individuals, or ‘citizen-consumers’. In HCI, various eco-feedback tools have been designed as persuasive instruments, with a strong normative appeal geared to encouraging citizens to conduct a more sustainable mobility. However, many critiques have been formulated regarding this ‘paternalistic’ stance. In this paper, we switched the perspective from a designer’s to a citizen’s point of view and explored how people would use eco-feedback tools to support sustainable mobility in their city. In the study, we conducted 14 interviews with citizens who had used eco-feedback previously. The findings indicate new starting points that could inform future eco-feedback tools. These encompass: (1) better information regarding how sustainable mobility is measured and monitored; (2) respect for individual mobility situations and preferences; and (3) the scope for participation and the sharing of responsibility between citizens and municipal city services.
Opening the Career Counseling Black Box: Behavioral Mechanisms of Empathy and Working Alliance
(2020)
Technological objects present themselves as necessary, only to become obsolete faster than ever before. This phenomenon has led to a population that experiences a plethora of technological objects and interfaces as they age, which become associated with certain stages of life and disappear thereafter. Noting the expanding body of literature within HCI about appropriation, our work pinpoints an area that needs more attention, “outdated technologies.” In other words, we assert that design practices can profit as much from imaginaries of the future as they can from reassessing artefacts from the past in a critical way. In a two-week fieldwork with 37 HCI students, we gathered an international collection of nostalgic devices from 14 different countries to investigate what memories people still have of older technologies and the ways in which these memories reveal normative and accidental use of technological objects. We found that participants primarily remembered older technologies with positive connotations and shared memories of how they had adapted and appropriated these technologies, rather than normative uses. We refer to this phenomenon as nostalgic reminiscence. In the future, we would like to develop this concept further by discussing how nostalgic reminiscence can be operationalized to stimulate speculative design in the present.
New approaches in securing more sustainable urban food futures: case from Cologne-Bonn region
(2018)
Network Analysis Method
(2024)
Taste is a complex phenomenon that depends on the individual experience and is a matter of collective negotiation and mediation. On the contrary, it is uncommon to include taste and its many facets in everyday design, particularly online shopping for fresh food products. To realize this unused potential, we conducted two Co-Design workshops. Based on the participants’ results in the workshops, we prototyped and evaluated a click-dummy smart-phone app to explore consumers’ needs for digital taste depiction. We found that emphasizing the natural qualities of food products, external reviews, and personalizing features lead to a reflection on the individual taste experience. The self-reflection through our design enables consumers to develop their taste competencies and thus strengthen their autonomy in decision-making. Ultimately, exploring taste as a social experience adds to a broader understanding of taste beyond a sensory phenomenon.
In this paper, we provide a participatory design study of a mobile health platform for older adults that provides an integrative perspective on health data collected from different devices and apps. We illustrate the diversity and complexity of older adults’ perspectives in the context of health and technology use, the challenges which follow on for the design of mobile health platforms that support active and healthy ageing (AHA) and our approach to addressing these challenges through a participatory design (PD) process. Interviews were conducted with older adults aged 65+ in a two-month study with the goal of understanding perspectives on health and technologies for AHA support. We identified challenges and derived design ideas for a mobile health platform called “My-AHA”. For researchers in this field, the structured documentation of our procedures and results, as well as the implications derived provide valuable insights for the design of mobile health platforms for older adults.
As a result of ageing societies, the prevalence of dementia, and accordingly the need of care is increasing rapidly. Here, the use of ICT-based technologies may facilitate and promote a self-sustaining life-style for people with dementia and their caregivers. The presented poster describes early findings from the project MobiAssist and outlines the ICT-based training system. The system aims to increase the physical and cognitive capabilities of people with dementia, relief the caregivers and improve wellbeing of involved parties.
Background There is a lack of cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) data regarding mid- to long-term myocardial damage due to Covid-19 in elite athletes. Objective This study investigated mid-to long-term consequences of myocardial involvement after a Covid-19 infection in elite athletes.
Methods Between January 2020 and October 2021, 27 athletes of the German Olympic centre Rhineland with confirmed Covid-19 infection were analyzed. 9 healthy non-athlete volunteers served as control. CMR was performed in mean 182 days (SD 99) after initial positive test result.
Results CMR did not reveal any signs of acute myocarditis in regard to the current Lake Louise criteria or myocardial damage in any of the 26 elite athletes with previous Covid-19 infection. Nevertheless, 92 % of the athletes experienced a symptomatic course and 54 % reported lasting symptoms for more than 4 weeks. In one male athlete CMR revealed an arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) and this athlete was excluded from the study. Athletes had significantly enlarged left and right ventricle volumes and increased left ventricular myocardial mass in comparison to the healthy control group (LVEDVi 103.4 vs. 91.1 ml/m 2 p=0.031; RVEDVi 104.1 vs. 86.6 ml/m 2 p=0.007; and LVMi 59.0 vs. 46.2 g/m 2 p=0.002).
Conclusion Our findings suggest that the risk for mid-to long-term myocardial damage seems to be very low to negligible in elite athletes. No conclusions can be drawn regarding myocardial injury in the acute phase of infection nor about possible long-term myocardial effects in the general population.
Measuring the Understandability of Business Process Models - Are We Asking the Right Questions?
(2011)
This textbook contains and explains essential mathematical formulas within an economic context. A broad range of aids and supportive examples will help readers to understand the formulas and their practical applications. This mathematical formulary is presented in a practice-oriented, clear, and understandable manner, as it is needed for meaningful and relevant application in global business, as well as in the academic setting and economic practice.