Evaluation Experiment (evaluation + experiment)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Improvement of information filtering by independent components selection

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING IN JAPAN, Issue 2 2008
Takeru Yokoi
Abstract We propose an improvement of an information filtering process with independent components selection. The independent components are obtained by Independent Components Analysis and considered as topics. Selection of independent components is an efficient method of improving the accuracy of the information filtering for the purpose of extraction of similar topics by focusing on their meanings. To achieve this, we select the topics by Maximum Distance Algorithm with Jensen-Shannon divergence. In addition, document vectors are represented by the selected topics. We create a user profile from transformed data with a relevance feedback. Finally, we sort documents by the user profile and evaluate the accuracy by imputation precision. We carried out an evaluation experiment to confirm the validity of the proposed method considering meanings of components used in this experiment. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 163(2): 49,56, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.20519 [source]


Incorporating affective customer needs for luxuriousness into product design attributes

HUMAN FACTORS AND ERGONOMICS IN MANUFACTURING & SERVICE INDUSTRIES, Issue 2 2009
Sangwoo Bahn
In a highly competitive market, customers' product affection is a critical factor to product success. However, understanding customers' affective needs is difficult to grasp; product design practitioners often misunderstand what customers really want. In this study we report our experience in developing and using an affective design framework that identified critical affective features customers have on products and are systematically incorporated into product design attributes. To identify key affective features such as luxuriousness, we utilized the Kansei engineering methodology. This approach consists of three steps: (1) selecting related affective features and product design attributes through a comprehensive literature survey, expert panel opinion, and focus group interviews; (2) conducting evaluation experiments; and (3) developing Kansei models using multivariate statistical analysis and analyzing critical product design attributes. To demonstrate applicability of the proposed affective design framework, 30 customers and 30 product design practitioners participated in an evaluation experiment for car crash pads, and 44 customers and 20 designers participated in an evaluation experiment for two interior room products (wallpapers and flooring materials). The evaluation experiments were conducted via systematically developed questionnaires consisting of a 7-point semantic differential scale and a 100-point magnitude estimation scale. The results of the experiments were analyzed using principal component regression and quantification theory type I method. Using the analyzed survey data, the relationship between luxuriousness and related affective features and product design attributes were identified. This relationship indicated that there was a significant difference in the perception of luxuriousness between customers and designers. Consequently, it is expected that the results of this study could provide a foundation for developing affective products. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]


An Evaluation Crucible: Evaluating Policy Advice in Australian Central Agencies

AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 1 2000
Michael Di Francesco
Policy advice is a core function of government that until quite recently remained outside the formal processes of performance evaluation. Evaluation, by its very nature, is designed to question both the effectiveness and relevance of government activities; applying it to policy advice opens up a traditionally confidential and politically sensitive arena. This paper reports on an evaluation experiment in Australian government , policy management reviews (PMRs) , that sought to evaluate the quality of central agency policy advice. It traces the development of the PMR model around interdepartmental committee processes, the bureaucratic politics that diluted the focus on policy outcomes, and examines how central agencies steered evaluation away from questions of public accountability towards arrangements for achieving more effective control of the processes underpinning production of advice. By targeting the process rather than outcomes of policy advising, PMRs sought unsuccessfully to adhere to the divide between management and policy and, in doing so, marked out the limits to performance evaluation. [source]


Incorporating affective customer needs for luxuriousness into product design attributes

HUMAN FACTORS AND ERGONOMICS IN MANUFACTURING & SERVICE INDUSTRIES, Issue 2 2009
Sangwoo Bahn
In a highly competitive market, customers' product affection is a critical factor to product success. However, understanding customers' affective needs is difficult to grasp; product design practitioners often misunderstand what customers really want. In this study we report our experience in developing and using an affective design framework that identified critical affective features customers have on products and are systematically incorporated into product design attributes. To identify key affective features such as luxuriousness, we utilized the Kansei engineering methodology. This approach consists of three steps: (1) selecting related affective features and product design attributes through a comprehensive literature survey, expert panel opinion, and focus group interviews; (2) conducting evaluation experiments; and (3) developing Kansei models using multivariate statistical analysis and analyzing critical product design attributes. To demonstrate applicability of the proposed affective design framework, 30 customers and 30 product design practitioners participated in an evaluation experiment for car crash pads, and 44 customers and 20 designers participated in an evaluation experiment for two interior room products (wallpapers and flooring materials). The evaluation experiments were conducted via systematically developed questionnaires consisting of a 7-point semantic differential scale and a 100-point magnitude estimation scale. The results of the experiments were analyzed using principal component regression and quantification theory type I method. Using the analyzed survey data, the relationship between luxuriousness and related affective features and product design attributes were identified. This relationship indicated that there was a significant difference in the perception of luxuriousness between customers and designers. Consequently, it is expected that the results of this study could provide a foundation for developing affective products. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]