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ItemEnvironmental Influences of Quality of Life for Residents of New York City Congregate Site Supportive Housing(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2023-05)The following text explores the question of what environmental influences impact the quality of life of supportive housing residents living in congregate sites in New York City. An extensive review of existing literature was included to provide both the history of supportive housing, which continues to inform the supportive housing model, as well as contemporary studies conducted on supportive housing. The study utilized a grounded, ethnographic method of data collection and analysis. The data used came from eight interviews conducted with both residents and staff of supportive housing programs. The results of the study were subdivided into four sections, based on the four largest influences that were observed as the data was reviewed and prepared for analysis; these four categories were Spatial Relationships, Relationships between Residents and Staff, Community and Resources, and Institutional Factors. These sections were each subdivided down further to provide greater detail about specific influences on residents’ quality of life. The data analysis process revealed that each environmental influence exerted itself independently over residents’ quality of life, and that each influence had a degree of influence on other influences as well, such as the relationship between both Spatial Relationships and Relationships between Residents and Staff. The concluding section of this study discusses the tensions between the positive influences and negative influences of supportive housing on resident quality of life and provides and invites further discussion on the existing congregate model.
ItemUsability Testing in Virtual Reality and Traditional Physical Environments: A Comparative Study(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2023-05)Usability testing is a vital component of user experience design that helps to identify issues and improve the design during product development. With the growth of Virtual Reality (VR), it is important to consider how this technology can be utilized to assist with usability testing. This project aims to compare the effectiveness of usability testing in VR and traditional physical environments to provide insights on how to optimize the testing process in both environments. The result of this study can potentially be used to justify conducting usability tests in Virtual Reality. The study was conducted using a mixed-methods approach, which included both quantitative and qualitative data collection and was organized into user research and evaluation phases. After literary and market research, field research was conducted by deploying online surveys and conducting user interviews. A total of 108 participants were recruited for the online survey study and 10 participants for the user interviews. The goal of the user research phase was to understand the users’ pain points and frustrations when driving. Based on the research data, a solution was designed along with high-fidelity prototypes that were evaluated through usability tests in both a VR environment and a traditional physical environment. There were 14 participants recruited for the usability tests. These tests involved a usability testing session with a high-fidelity prototype of a user interface (UI) using a “Think-Aloud” technique. Each participant completed a series of tasks designed to test both the suitability of the VR and traditional environments for user testing and the usability of the UI design itself. Performance was measured by having each user complete a satisfaction survey after undergoing testing in each environment. This evaluation phase was used to collect feedback from potential users through testing. The findings demonstrate that usability testing of an interactive experience can be effectively conducted in a VR environment. This provides new opportunities for designers to explore innovative ways to engage end-users during the evaluation phase of the design process.
ItemDefining and Parameterizing the Design Space for Cislunar PNT Architectures( 2023-01)Operations in cislunar space are expected to greatly increase over the next decade, which will place a heightened demand on position, navigation, and timing (PNT) architectures. Existing PNT systems will be unable to support this growth, evidencing the need for a new cislunar PNT infrastructure. This study defines and parameterizes the design space for cislunar PNT architecture development, with the goal of enabling design space exploration and architecture trade studies. Design choices such as orbit type, architecture symmetry, and preferred design variables and their ranges are discussed. An environment for modeling and evaluating PNT architectures is developed and demonstrated on a subset of the defined design space. Preliminary results are shown to exhibit the type of data and trends to be expected from these studies. A discussion of optimization algorithms that can leverage this environment to fully explore the defined design space and identify optimal designs is presented.
ItemMaritime Autonomous System Design Methods and Technology Forecasting(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2022-06)As naval architects consider the construction of long-term autonomous maritime systems, the naval design process will be modified. The incorporation of reliability analysis in conceptual design is needed to enable systems incapable of in-theater maintenance. The use of reliability analysis is demonstrated with notional architecture, redundancy, and component requirement trades.