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At least 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Thinking Beyond the Default User: The Impact of Gender, Stereotypes, and Modality on Interpretation of User Needs

Throughout the mechanical design process, designers, the majority of whom are men, often fail to consider the needs of women, resulting in consequences ranging from inconvenience to increased risk of serious injury or death. Although these biases are well studied in other fields of research, the mechanical design field lacks formal investigation into this phenomenon. In this study, engineering students (n = 301) took a survey in which they read a Persona describing a student makerspace user and a Walkthrough describing the user’s interaction with the makerspace while completing a project. During the Walkthrough, the user encountered various obstacles or Pain Points. Participants were asked to recall and evaluate the Pain Points that the user encountered and then evaluated their perceptions of the makerspace and user. Furthermore, the independent variables under investigation were the gender of the user Persona (woman, gender-neutral, or man), the Walkthrough room case (crafting or woodworking makerspace), and the modality of the Persona and Walkthrough (text- or audio-based). Results showed that participants from the Text-based modality were better able to recall Pain Points compared to participants from the Audio-based modality. Pain Points were assessed as more severe when they impacted women users, potentially stemming from protective paternalism. In addition to finding that the gender of a user impacted the way a task environment was perceived, results confirmed the presence of androcentrism, or “default man” assumptions, in the way designers view end users of unknown gender. Promisingly, providing user Persona information in an audio modality significantly reduced this bias compared to text-based modalities, indicating that providing richer detail in user personas has the capability to reduce gender bias in designers.

cognitive-based design↗
DOE OSTI2019

Energetics of electrochemically mediated amine regeneration process for flue gas CO 2 capture

The electrochemically mediated amine regeneration (EMAR) process presents an alternative route to the conventional thermal regeneration of amines for carbon capture from a flue gas source. In this study, chemical and electrochemical measurements were performed to validate the speciation and activity coefficient models that describe the solution thermodynamics. Electrochemical kinetics and efficiencies were identified and process level energetic calculations were performed using these validated models to understand the effects of various operating parameters on the energy demand for CO 2 capture. An isothermal EMAR process requires about 52 kJe/molCO 2 , and the net energy demand can be reduced to about 37 kJe/molCO 2 if waste heat is available at temperatures below 90 °C. The EMAR process is able to desorb CO 2 at pressures up to 20 bar with negligible additional energy penalty. These results suggest that the EMAR process is competitive with the conventional thermally regenerated amine processes. Preliminary assessments also indicate the solvent fomulation with NaCl requires less electric energy among other conventional supporting salt candidates (e.g. Na 2 SO 4 ) for electrolytic processes. Furthermore, advanced process designs, process optimization, and the identification of improved solvents may offer the potential to further reduce the energy demand for CO 2 capture.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗