Vasco Branco
University of Aveiro, Communication and Art (DeCA), Faculty Member
The present study was developed in the scope of a Design PhD after identifying a significant gap in the areas of preservation, exhibition, and history of Portuguese Web design. The solution was found in the design of interfaces for a... more
The present study was developed in the scope of a Design PhD after identifying a significant gap in the areas of preservation, exhibition, and history of Portuguese Web design. The solution was found in the design of interfaces for a web-based museum for Portuguese Web design from a design perspective. But before that was necessary to build a historical framework of the Web and Web design in Portugal. After the study finished, it was concluded that in the construction of the museum collection it isn’t enough to preserve the digital artefact ‘per se’. It was also concluded that design practice must also be preserved, highlighting the role of the designer in the construction of the collection. In collaboration with the curator in the role of mediator, together they build the collection. At the same time the "anatomy of use" of the interactive artefacts must be preserved, including the participation of the museum visitor in order to create a comprehensive and representative c...
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... He taught engraving, geometric and typometric skills. Figure 3. Pentateuch (1487) by Samuel Gacon. Page 5. ... An influential person at that time was the Swiss Fred Kradolfer who introduced the taste of New Typography sans serif,... more
... He taught engraving, geometric and typometric skills. Figure 3. Pentateuch (1487) by Samuel Gacon. Page 5. ... An influential person at that time was the Swiss Fred Kradolfer who introduced the taste of New Typography sans serif, defined as Grotesque in Portugal. ...
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... Thus, the cylindrical shape derives from a visual interest in the Phaistos disk (discovered in Crete in 1908) not only because of its writing on both sides but also because of the spiral form of the writing (Fig. 7). ... Fig. 7.... more
... Thus, the cylindrical shape derives from a visual interest in the Phaistos disk (discovered in Crete in 1908) not only because of its writing on both sides but also because of the spiral form of the writing (Fig. 7). ... Fig. 7. Phaistos disk (2000 BC) [5]. View Within Article. ...
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Sumário Ao aumento do poder de cálculo das plataformas computacionais na última década não têm correspondido ganhos de usabilidade dos programas de desenho assistido por computador, pese embora o sucesso das chamadas interfaces de tampo... more
Sumário Ao aumento do poder de cálculo das plataformas computacionais na última década não têm correspondido ganhos de usabilidade dos programas de desenho assistido por computador, pese embora o sucesso das chamadas interfaces de tampo de secretária (desktop). Tal deve-se ao facto de os modelos de construção de objectos e cenas tridimensionais reflectirem mais as características e virtudes da representação computacional desses objectos e não o ponto de vista do utilizador. No presente artigo ...
Sumário GIDeS (Gesture-based Intuitive Design System) é um sistema gestual de modelação que visa ultrapassar as conhecidas insuficiências ergonómicas dos sistemas de CAD actuais no design de formas de objectos em fase de concepção. O seu... more
Sumário GIDeS (Gesture-based Intuitive Design System) é um sistema gestual de modelação que visa ultrapassar as conhecidas insuficiências ergonómicas dos sistemas de CAD actuais no design de formas de objectos em fase de concepção. O seu desenvolvimento teve em vista a utilização de um computador munido de um ecrã táctil e de um estilete, na tentativa de estabelecer uma aproximação dos interfaces de CAD aos tradicionais papel e lápis, normalmente preferidos pelos designers nas fases iniciais do ...
Os dispensadores de medicamentos domésticos, assim como grande parte de produtos desenvolvidos para seniores, por vezes, apresentam-se inadequados para atender às características deste público-alvo. Esta situação torna-se mais preocupante... more
Os dispensadores de medicamentos domésticos, assim como grande parte de produtos desenvolvidos para seniores, por vezes, apresentam-se inadequados para atender às características deste público-alvo. Esta situação torna-se mais preocupante para os públicos de baixa literacia. Os problemas identificados relacionam-se normalmente com a usabilidade do artefato, nomeadamente para este público específico, ou com questões imputáveis à desvalorização da experiência individual, social e cultural das pessoas.
Considera-se que os media tangíveis podem ser uma alternativa para proporcionar uma melhor experiência e engajamento do utilizador de baixa literacia na toma de seus fármacos, mediante o uso de objetos quotidianos e, portanto, próximos ao universo cognitivo do sénior. Desta forma, estariam sendo enfatizadas as capacidades humanas e a suas riquezas multissensoriais obtidas ao longo de uma vida inteira de interação com o mundo físico.
Este artigo pretende abordar as motivações e os instrumentos metodológicos para a realização de uma investigação sobre a experiência do utilizador sénior poli-medicado com artefatos médicos domésticos baseados em tecnologias tangíveis.
Considera-se que os media tangíveis podem ser uma alternativa para proporcionar uma melhor experiência e engajamento do utilizador de baixa literacia na toma de seus fármacos, mediante o uso de objetos quotidianos e, portanto, próximos ao universo cognitivo do sénior. Desta forma, estariam sendo enfatizadas as capacidades humanas e a suas riquezas multissensoriais obtidas ao longo de uma vida inteira de interação com o mundo físico.
Este artigo pretende abordar as motivações e os instrumentos metodológicos para a realização de uma investigação sobre a experiência do utilizador sénior poli-medicado com artefatos médicos domésticos baseados em tecnologias tangíveis.
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With the birth of the World Wide Web in the early nineties of the twentieth century a new artefact arose, the website, an object digital in nature, immaterial, code-based and code-dependent, accessed and experienced through hardware and... more
With the birth of the World Wide Web in the early nineties of the twentieth century a new artefact arose, the website, an object digital in nature, immaterial, code-based and code-dependent, accessed and experienced through hardware and software with short life spans, which render the website rapidly obsolete and easily replaced. An object nearly always short lived and that when it disappears leaves hardly any trace. This nature poses serious difficulties to the exhibition and preservation of a collection comprised of such artefacts, subject that only recently started to be addressed from a Museology design standpoint.
Our research identified only two cases of web-based museums exhibiting artefacts of Web design they are digitalcraft.org and webmuseum.dk. A qualitative research based analysis aimed at observing and describing allowed the identification of issues and possible answers, essential in giving direction towards a future proposal for a Web design museum in the Portuguese context.
Our research identified only two cases of web-based museums exhibiting artefacts of Web design they are digitalcraft.org and webmuseum.dk. A qualitative research based analysis aimed at observing and describing allowed the identification of issues and possible answers, essential in giving direction towards a future proposal for a Web design museum in the Portuguese context.
Research Interests: Web Design and Museum
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Research Interests: Web Design and Museu Web
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We have performed a quantitative study in order to find out the emotional spectrum of Virtual Storytelling in comparison with movies, taking into consideration the Russell’s emotional circumplex model. Via internet forums we gathered... more
We have performed a quantitative study in order to find out the emotional spectrum of Virtual Storytelling in comparison with movies, taking into consideration the Russell’s emotional circumplex model. Via internet forums we gathered videogames that people considered to be capable of eliciting each of the seven basic emotions, distributed around the circumplex. From the 200 videogames collected, we chose 14, following the principle of the two most cited for each of the seven emotions. These videogames were then tested with 33 subjects. These results were compared with Gross & Levenson (1995) study on movies. We found that these videogames were capable of successfully eliciting emotions such as Surprise, Anger, Disgust and Fear. There is also evidence that Happiness could be elicited. It was not possible to verify the existence of Tranquility. The most problematic was Sadness, except when interactivity was absent and emotion propelled through cutscenes.
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Film is a ”closed” medium, so narrative closure is a necessity; VR is a ”wideness” medium, so narrative completeness is not vital. In this paper, we would like to analyse the purposes of narrative film closure in terms of the viewer and... more
Film is a ”closed” medium, so narrative closure is a necessity; VR is a ”wideness” medium, so narrative completeness is not vital. In this paper, we would like to analyse the purposes of narrative film closure in terms of the viewer and explore VR ”wideness” effects within user emotions, to demonstrate that ”wideness” eliminates the necessity of closure through continuous engagement and gratification. From this exploration we allege that VR narrative forms must grant less attention to closure and focus most on their new capacity for ”wideness”.
Sadness is a negative emotion, which aims at a deactivated physiological and behavioural state [21] and so this is easy to develop in film experiencing, where the viewer is passively watching and feeling. Interactive storytelling supposes... more
Sadness is a negative emotion, which aims at a deactivated physiological and behavioural state [21] and so this is easy to develop in film experiencing, where the viewer is passively watching and feeling. Interactive storytelling supposes active physiological behaviours and this raises the problematic – how to create sad deactivated moments during interactive sequences. In this paper we intend to develop and present different ways to approach this problematic and methodologies to implement interactive sad moments in virtual environments, as videogames. These moments will be defined as situations of affective attachment supported by virtual body touching, visually represented by virtual gently stroking body parts (shoulders, hands, hair), bear hugs, soft kissing and lying against each other cuddling.
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Human emotions are known to play an important role in the users’ engagement, namely by activating their attention, perception and memory skills, which in turn will help to understand the story – and hopefully perceive, or rather “feel” it... more
Human emotions are known to play an important role in the users’ engagement, namely by activating their attention, perception and memory skills, which in turn will help to understand the story – and hopefully perceive, or rather “feel” it as an entertaining experience. Despite the more and more realistic and immersive use of 3D computer graphics, multi-channel sound and sophisticated input devices – mainly forced by game applications – the emotional participation of users still seems a weak point in most interactive games and narrative systems. This paper describes methods and concepts on how to bring emotional experiencing and emotional expression into interactive storytelling systems. In particular, the Emotional Wizard is introduced, as an emerging module for authoring emotional expression and experiencing. Within the INSCAPE framework, this module is meant to improve elicited emotions as elements of style, which are used deliberately by an author within an integrated storytelling environment.
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CAD systems have yet to become usable at the early stages of product ideation, where precise shape definitions and sometimes even design intentions are not fully developed. To overcome these limitations, new approaches, which we call... more
CAD systems have yet to become usable at the early stages of product ideation, where precise shape definitions and sometimes even design intentions are not fully developed. To overcome these limitations, new approaches, which we call Calligraphic Interfaces, use sketching as the main organizing paradigm. Such applications rely on continuous input modalities rather than discrete interactions characteristic of WIMP interfaces. However, replacing direct manipulation by sketching alone poses very interesting challenges. While the temptation to follow the paper-and-pencil metaphor is great, free-hand sketch recognition remains an elusive goal. Further, using gestures to enter commands and sketches to draw shapes requires users to learn a command set – sketches do not enjoy the self-disclosing characteristics of menus. Moreover, the imprecise nature of interactions presents additional problems that are difficult to address using present-day techniques. In this paper we approach the three problems outlined above through a combination of different paradigms: First, a calligraphic sketching metaphor provides for a paper-like interaction. Second, dynamic menus – expectation lists – try to expose the state of the application without interfering with the task. Third, an incremental drawing paradigm allows precise drawings to be progressively constructed from sketches through simple constraint satisfaction. Finally, reducing instruction set and command usage allow for a simple and learnable approach in contrast with the complexity of present-day interactive systems. We present a system, GIDeS, which embodies these approaches. Usability testing carried so far yielded encouraging results to warrant further research.
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Page 1. TOWARDS CALLIGRAPHIC INTERFACES: SKETCHING 3D SCENES WITH GESTURES AND CONTEXT ICONS João P. Pereira Joaquim A. Jorge Vasco Branco F. Nunes Ferreira Dep. of Informatics Engineering Computer ...
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Page 1. Volume 13, (1994), number 3 EUROGRAPHICS '94 / M. Daehlen and L. Kjelldahl (Guest Editors), Blackwell Publishers © Eurographics Association, 1994 Sketching 3D models with 2D interaction devices Vasco Branco ...