DigitalCommons@CalPoly

Going Mobile: A Guide to Mobile Website and Application User Preferences

Kevin M. Weeks — Mon, 14 May 2012 14:31:47 PDT

Mobile devices are rapidly gaining popularity. There is an increasing demand for individuals who can develop quality mobile websites and applications. In the world of mobile, the most important consideration is the end user. Who is the application or mobile website trying to target and what do they want? This study was designed to determine what users value and whether current developers are accurately reflecting these values. Determining this was accomplished through surveys of mobile users, interviews with mobile web developers, and analysis of successful websites and apps through case studies. The survey included questions to determine what qualities mobile users find valuable. The interviews with mobile developers determined what qualities web developers value when designing, and whether the end user is a significant determinant for design. Lastly, an analysis of top mobile websites and apps searched for trends in successful site and app design based on user responses. The study found that users rarely utilize their web browser, preferring native applications to a mobile web site. Simple, intuitive, and clear navigation and layouts are preferred by users. Web developers seem to recognize the importance of the end user and often place themselves in the shoes of the user to determine design. Speed and responsiveness are important considerations for developers. Often, the client inhibits efficient design, but can be swayed when the benefits of a more usable app are explained. The most important consideration for a developer is following the current standards of design.

Moveable Feast

Mark Cabrinha — Mon, 14 May 2012 10:58:10 PDT

The Moveable Feast installation was a two week foundation project in a third year architecture studio entitled Physical Gastronomy. The pragmatic goals for the installation were to present particular material techniques and their associated values of making maximum use of minimal materials. The epistemic goals in developing an installation to host an exquisite meal was to move from an architecture of the object to an architecture of the event. Thus, shifting focus from the installation as a thing to the phenomenal and social experience of the event the installation enables. Presented here is both a sequential, day by day photographic synopsis, and more importantly, the students reflections on the design process. Situated in the current context of digital fabrication, their reflections encourage material play, testing out through full scale, and help to define the place of precision in the design studio.

‘Installing’ a Studio-Based Collective Intelligence

Mark Cabrinha — Mon, 14 May 2012 10:58:06 PDT

Digital tools have had an undeniable influence on design intent, for better and worse. While the now common use of digital fabrication tools has reintroduced material processes with digital processes, they have also extended the seduction of formal novelty enabled by digital tools.This critical evaluation of three installation based studios considers how these tools can impact a wider environmental knowing. Rather than seeing the studio as a room of individuals, emphasized through the one-on-one deskcrit, these studio installations suggest a kind of collective-intelligence: progress by way of differentiation, integration, competition and collaboration. This challenges the notion of authorship of the singular hand, even if extended through digital prosthetics, suggesting a more collective, discursive, and experimental ‘think-tank’ bound through the installation and enabled by the precision and scalar shifts of digital fabrication tools. In testing design as full-size installations, judgment shifts from the designer’s ‘intent’ to the authenticity of experience.

Consumer effects of environmental impact in product labeling

Norm Borin et al. — Mon, 14 May 2012 10:48:32 PDT

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of different levels of environmental information on key consumer metrics. More specifically, it aims to evaluate environmentally benign products against those that have negative environmental impacts.

Design/methodology/approach – Multiple product categories and messages that varied from strongly negative to strongly positive were used to test whether the accuracy/completeness of the information changes consumers’ view of green products.

Findings – The results show that consumer perception of product quality, value, and purchase intentions does not differ significantly between products with positive environmental messages and those without any message. Products with positive environmental messages are viewed better than products with negative environmental messages. It is also found that the impact of environmental information is greater for consumable products.

Practical implications – Clearly presented information can make a significant difference in consumer evaluation of products. If green products highlighted the reasons why products free of harmful ingredients did not have a negative impact on the environment, and if non-green products were required to disclose the harmful impact of their ingredients, green products would be favorably perceived over the non-green alternative.

Social implications – The paper conjectures that if “fair” and clear explanations of environmental impact, both good and bad, are required, consumer evaluations of green products will improve and, ultimately, a larger percentage of consumers will purchase green products. The findings suggest that policy makers should require manufacturers to disclose key product ingredients and their environmental impact.

Originality/value – This project adds to the growing body of literature on environmental labeling, and investigates the effects of different levels of environmental information on key consumer metrics.

Belief or 'Belief': Rush Rhees on Religious Belief Language

Todd R. Long — Mon, 14 May 2012 10:45:38 PDT

The recent book Rush Rhees on Religion and Philosophy contains a stimulating collection of writin~s by Rush Rhees on a variety of topics in the philosophy of religion. Comprising accounts of personal, religious and moral struggles, these essays provide a refreshing change from the often dry, overly technical approach to philosophy writing. Despite spanning more than thirty years, Rhees' s essays disclose a fairly consistent philosophy .of religion with a clear emphasis. Since he was Wittgenstein's student and long-time friend as well as a literary executor ofWittgenstein's writings, it is not surprising that Rhees's comments on the philosophy of religion reveal a distinctly Wittgensteinian approach, both in content and style. Moreover, Rhees's particular way of doing philosophy of religion seems, in retrospect, to have set the course that subsequent philosophy of religion of the Wittgensteinian type would take.

A Selective Defence of Tolstoy's What is Art?

Todd R. Long — Mon, 14 May 2012 10:45:32 PDT

Bell's Spaceships Problem and the Foundations of Special Relativity

Francisco Fernflores — Mon, 14 May 2012 10:45:29 PDT

Recent ‘dynamical’ approaches to relativity by Harvey Brown and his colleagues have used John Bell’s own solution to a problem in relativity which has in the past sometimes been called ‘Bell’s spaceships paradox’, in a central way. This paper examines solutions to this problem in greater detail and from a broader philosophical perspective than Brown et al. offer. It also analyses the well-known analogy between special relativity and classical thermodynamics. This analysis leads to the sceptical conclusion that Bell’s solution yields neither new philosophical insights concerning the foundations of relativity nor differential support for a specific view concerning the existence of space-time.