摘要：Design for manufacturing, design for assembly, and, in general, design for X, are methods helping an effective generation of industrial products. In parallel with the development of these methods, the research about usability engineering has generated many important results, both from the design, and the evaluation and testing points of view. The research described in this paper aims at evaluating the feasibility of the integration of two new usability methods, the design for innovative usability - DFIU -, and the integrated method for usability evaluation and testing - IMUET -, in an existing design for X named design guidelines collaborative framework - DGLs-CF -. Indeed, the DGLs-CF is a design for multi-X method, given that it covers both the manufacturing and the verification phases of the industrial product lifecycle. All these methods are currently under development by the author’s research group. To evaluate this feasibility, the first task of the research aims at describing and classifying the components of the three methods. Next, these components are semantically related to each other. Finally, the last activity verifies the compatibility between the components of the two usability methods and the data structures of the DGLs-CF to check the feasibility from the implementation point of view. The result of this research will consist of precise indications both for the development of a design for multi-X collaborative framework covering homogeneously the design, manufacturing, verification, and use phases of the industrial product lifecycle, and to be used as a reference for researchers interested in considering the integration of usability issues in their design tools, methods, and processes.

摘要：The particular characteristics of Rapid Prototyping technologies, both in terms of constrains and opportunities, often require the reconfiguration of the product model to obtain the best compliance with the product functionalities and performances. Within this field of research, a knowledge-based tool named Design GuideLines Collaborative Framework (DGLs-CF) was developed to support both the designers defining the product consistently with the manufacturing technologies and the manufacturers defining the building setup consistently with the product requirements. Present work is focused on enhancing the DGLs-CF knowledge base and on updating the DGLs-CF knowledge management by using the information gathered on some RP technologies. The added-value of this research is represented by an improvement in the Redesign/Reconfig- uration Package, the final result of the DGLs-CF adoption. This is a list of actions to be performed on the product model and on the process parameters to avoid the limitations of the technology and to exploit at best its opportunities.

摘要：Because of the evolution of markets and technologies, prototyping concerns should be kept updated almost day by day. Moreover, user centered design moves the focus towards interaction issues. Prototyping activities matching such characteristics are already available, but they are not so diffused in the industrial domain. This is due to many reasons;an important one is that a rigorous classification of them is missing, as well as an effective helping tool for the selection of the best activities, given the design context. The research described in this paper aims at defining a new classification of prototyping activities, as well as at developing a selection algorithm to choose the best ones in an automatic way. These goals are pursued by defining a set of characteristics that allow describing accurately the prototyping activities. The resulting classification is made by five classes, based on eighteen characteristics. This classification is exploited by the first release of an algorithm for the selection of the best activities, chosen in order to satisfy design situations described thanks to a different set of eleven indices. Five experiences in the field have been used up to now as a starting point for validating the research outcomes.