Object-Context-Goal analysis

AMP-EMBODYERASMUS Intensive ProgrammeDelft 8-24 July 2013, Netherlands

Object-Context-Goal analysis

Prof. Dr. Christos Spitas


Recall: Challenges• Product Engineering is a subset of product

development.• Challenges, as explored previously, give rise to

the need for systematic product engineering• Advanced Embodiment Design systematises

product engineering, aiming to increase its success rate by maximising impact of prior knowledge, time, human and other resources (i.e. computing/ product validation possibilities)


Q: What is the rate that new products fail?

For every seven new product ideas, about four enter development, 1.5 are launched, and only one succeeds (Cooper, 2011).

Recall: Importance


The human

The business

The product

The rest of the context/ world

Product Engineering

robustness

context relevance

quality of ideas

usability, ergonomy

Safety market relevance

qualified process ownership

cost-price

brand identity consistency


IDEAS AND SYNAPSESA systematic model for the design process: Ontology


Defining ideas• Anything currently/

potentially present to consciousness

• ‘Currency’ for cognition

• Idea comprises of– Name– Attribute(s) (ideas)– Value (idea)

• Null idea• No genetic inheritance:

emergence• Different levels of

abstraction


Classifying ideas: Ontology vs. Activity• Ontology

– Topology– Structure– Shape– Colour

• Exists• True/ False

• Activity– Event– Function

• Happens• True/ False

Conceptual Unification

• It is what it does/ does what it is

• Clear design intent in final product

• Simplicity, elegance


Visualising ideas

x

f

wxf=w

a value of an idea|a|a an idea and its name

b

a

a

b

c

d

e

a peer relationship (e) of ideas (a-d)

b

an idea (a) having another idea (b) as attribute

ora

b

c

d

a

e

truth-state of an idea

p

bodya complex idea (law)

law

or

or

displacement

force

work

formal simplified


Mathematically representing ideas• Idea comprises of

– Name– Attribute(s) (ideas)– Value (idea)

• Design can be fully recorded, reported and understood

• i.e. SHAFT– (list (solid) (cylinder))– (list (solid)

(cylinder(list (diameter

3.20mm)(length

8mm))))

• ‘Value’ visited in next lecture


Organisation of ideas: Synaptic Networks• Ideas ‘connect’ to each

other through common attributes

• Forming larger networks

• i.e. abstract knowledge/ general laws connect to our product, producing more knowledge, which is product-specific

x

f

w

force

displacement work

xf=w


Building an idea network


Design in terms of the creation of ideas and synaptic networks

• Analyse wheelbarrow• Adapt to snow

– Analyse snowboard• Adapt to heavy weights

– Analyse cart• Adapt to high speeds

– Analyse bicycle• Adapt to...

– Analyse Segway

ground

soft snow

hard ground

link


ANALYSIS, HEURESIS, EVALUATION, CHOICE

A systematic model for the design process: Activity


Operations and manipulations of ideas• Analysis

– ανάλυσις (to take apart)– substitution, mapping– same or higher

abstraction• Heuresis

– εύρεσις (to find)– discovery, mapping,

(analogy, synthesis)...– any level of abstraction

• Evaluation– establishing the

(unknown) value of ideas• Choice

– fundamentally from affective domain!


Experimental findings


Experimental findings: Heuresis


OBJECT-CONTEXT-GOAL (OCG) ANALYSIS

Method


Object-Context-Goal classification• goal-related ideas (i.e.

our wishes, requirements)

• object-related ideas: all those (possibly) subject to our intervention and/ or choice (i.e. the product description)

• context-related ideas: all not subject to intervention (i.e. the laws of physics, materials availability, market culture)


Identify ideas

given idea at any level of

specification

state of the art

goal

context

other interim ideas (i.e. ‘criteria’, ‘insights’ etc case-specific/ volatile ideas)

‘things’, systems,

components


Identify and evaluate OCG networks

given idea at any level of

specification

state of the art

goal

context

other interim ideas (i.e. ‘criteria’, ‘insights’ etc case-specific/ volatile ideas)

‘things’, systems,

components


OCG ANALYSIS IN ACTIONCase Studies


Challenges in Product Development• 1/9: Burger King

Pokemon container• Massive original success• Turned out that

hemispherical halves posed suffocation risk

• Product recall

• Challenge: Safety!


Challenges in Product Development• 2/9: Breakfast mates • Did not deliver ‘on-the-

go’ promise (cold milk?)• Poor packaging

ergonomics

• Challenge: Usability!• Challenge: Ergonomy!


Challenges in Product Development• 5/9: Space shuttle • Risks addressed through

inspections & rules• Gasket failure at low

temperature during lift-off

• Catastrophic failure• 32-month stop

• Challenge: Robustness!


Challenges in Product Development• 6/9: Apple Lisa • Pioneering GUI

• High-quality• Cost 50M$ in hardware

and 100M$ in development

• Sold only 10,000 items, brought 100M$

• Challenge: Cost-price!


Challenges in Product Development• 7/9: Apple III • Misplaced involvement

by marketing department in product engineering

• Unusable upon release• Pulled and rereleased 1

year later

• Challenge: Qualified process ownership!


Challenges in Product Development• 8/9: BiC safety lighter • Forcing functions impair

usability• Child safety bypass gets

the most Google hits!

• Challenge: Quality of ideas!

• Moderation in the use of design means!


Challenges in Product Development• 9/9: Itera all-composite

bicycle• Volvo, tech-push• Failures non-serviceable• Incompatible to other

bicycles• Production ended after

30,000 items, stock sold to Caribbean

• Challenge: Context-relevance!


PROCESS ANALYSISA systematic model for the design process


Process convergence: what, when and why?

learn

make

waste of resources?

rushed development?

t

challenge: graduate the abstraction scale


Process stage-gating, control of decision making

learn

make

coarse-grained decision:no/ vague modelsrough predictions

fine-grained decision:precise modelsexact predictions

... (everything in-between)

prior knowledge starting wish

stage-gates turn object into context


Explicit Object-Context-Goal assisted decision-making

goal

goal


Process = sequence of Activities• Analysis

– identify first-level attributes

– assign as attributes• Heuresis

– ‘Idea watching’ (let emerge)

– mapping/ transformation (analogy/ interpolation/ extrapolation, synthesis)

• Evaluation– identify/ calculate values

• Choice– ‘listen’ to internal

process


METHODSPoints of attention


What to do with methods taught in areas of expertise?

• Use at appropriate time, in clear and focused way.

• Methods are taught irrespective of when/ if needed: No spoon-feeding or pushing.

• Methods are integrated into the analysis, heuresis, evaluation, choice pattern. Show them as such.

• Question everything! Review yourselves! Synaptic networks help.


PRODUCT-PROCESS INTEGRATIONPoints of attention


Vital aspects of product-process integration

Situational awareness• Let your situational

awareness co-evolve with the data (ideas and values)

• Use OCG representations (incl. synaptic networks) to communicate intuitively; instead, ‘Making it simple’ often leads to OCG disconnect: Use less rigorous representations carefully

Persistent knowledge• Values are needed to qualify

knowledge for re-use• Knowledge (values) only

valid when associations to the synaptic network are maintained

• Keep explicit: graphical representations and data sheets help (wiki/ linked notes)


Object-Context-Goal (OCG) tips• By advancing through

stage gates, parts of the object become context, mark them!

• Keep sight of the goals at all times, evaluate in terms of OCG clusters

• Persistently identify needs (for ideas): needs drive the process

• Build stage-gates into your project: report on which objects become context & how goals translate

• Keep goals clear and at appropriate granularity/ abstraction

• Design = managing OCG clusters, make them explicit


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content 1process -1 1analysis -0,3338 0,3338 1heuresis/ ideation 0,2036 -0,2036 -0,4738 1evaluation -0,1532 0,1532 -0,513 -0,2431 1choice 0,4838 -0,4838 -0,3486 -0,1651 -0,1788 1none/ unclear -5E-16 3E-16 -4E-16 8E-16 6E-16 -7E-16 1more specific 0,5844 -0,5844 -0,3068 0,1966 -0,1648 0,464 4E-16 1static/ unknown -0,0749 0,0749 0,2508 0,1867 -0,3051 -0,2373 3E-16 -0,4545 1more abstract -0,4854 0,4854 0,0516 -0,367 0,4503 -0,2146 -1E-16 -0,5172 -0,5273 1oral exchange 0,0016 -0,0016 0,605 -0,304 -0,284 -0,2237 6E-16 0,0083 -0,4368 0,4118 1writing/ drawing 0,5445 -0,5445 -0,3922 0,5111 -0,0805 0,0999 -2E-16 -0,0495 0,3127 -0,2532 -0,2517 1calculating -0,123 0,123 -0,3333 0,5599 -0,0342 -0,1162 -6E-16 0,4391 -0,1672 -0,2582 -0,2139 -0,1307 1searching for info -0,2982 0,2982 -0,0834 -0,4076 0,3339 0,2054 -5E-16 -0,2376 0,2852 -0,0474 -0,6104 -0,3731 -0,3171 1silent/ unknown -5E-16 3E-16 -4E-16 8E-16 6E-16 -7E-16 1 4E-16 3E-16 -1E-16 6E-16 -2E-16 -6E-16 -5E-16 1passive/ apathic 0,5007 -0,5007 -0,2053 0,2388 -0,27 0,3858 1E-15 0,8416 -0,3791 -0,4385 0,0975 -0,1318 0,3546 -0,2121 1E-15 1stressed/ anxious 0,5135 -0,5135 -0,4063 0,4869 -0,0319 0,0891 -6E-17 0,0392 0,2372 -0,2653 -0,2607 0,7546 0,1036 -0,3386 -6E-17 -0,2502 1relaxed -0,5985 0,5985 0,8307 -0,3936 -0,4262 -0,2896 1E-16 -0,5547 0,3821 0,162 0,3248 -0,3258 -0,2769 0,0925 1E-16 -0,5116 -0,3375 1flow -0,2856 0,2856 -0,4606 -0,2182 0,8978 -0,1605 4E-16 -0,3075 -0,2664 0,5493 -0,2955 -0,1161 -0,1535 0,4403 4E-16 -0,2837 -0,1871 -0,3826 1good/ plausible -0,0437 0,0437 0,1009 -0,5418 0,283 0,1425 -2E-16 0,0012 0,1615 -0,1563 -0,3268 -0,4485 -0,3251 0,7981 -2E-16 0,0866 -0,4164 -0,0604 0,3585 1unclear -0,2485 0,2485 0,1061 0,2132 -0,2322 -0,1327 4E-16 0,0638 -0,3674 0,2921 0,4797 -0,0173 0,4125 -0,6726 4E-16 0,0396 -0,0845 0,2398 -0,2791 -0,8086 1poor/ mistake 0,4627 -0,4627 -0,3333 0,5599 -0,1026 -0,0268 -7E-16 -0,1023 0,3105 -0,2008 -0,2139 0,7681 -0,1111 -0,2614 -7E-16 -0,2053 0,8205 -0,2769 -0,1535 -0,3812 -0,2357 1


Measuring your process: detail

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content 1process -1 1analysis -0,3338 0,3338 1heuresis/ ideation 0,2036 -0,2036 -0,4738 1evaluation -0,1532 0,1532 -0,513 -0,2431 1choice 0,4838 -0,4838 -0,3486 -0,1651 -0,1788 1none/ unclear -5E-16 3E-16 -4E-16 8E-16 6E-16 -7E-16 1more specific 0,5844 -0,5844 -0,3068 0,1966 -0,1648 0,464 4E-16 1static/ unknown -0,0749 0,0749 0,2508 0,1867 -0,3051 -0,2373 3E-16 -0,4545more abstract -0,4854 0,4854 0,0516 -0,367 0,4503 -0,2146 -1E-16 -0,5172oral exchange 0,0016 -0,0016 0,605 -0,304 -0,284 -0,2237 6E-16 0,0083writing/ drawing 0,5445 -0,5445 -0,3922 0,5111 -0,0805 0,0999 -2E-16 -0,0495

Object-Context-Goal analysis

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