International Journal of

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Technology has had many influences on the Iranian society in different eras. Today, information and telecommunication technologies have revolutionized the basic structures of society and a new network society has been propagated inside the traditional and semi-modern context. In countries like Iran, which are in the process of modernization, a chaos deriving from the transition period is observed that leads to a certain peculiarity. In this transition era the norms of traditional societies, which offer discipline for these societies, have been eliminated in favor of new norms that are not codified yet. The transformation to the new situation and also the confrontation with the electronic world has instigated many disorders and anomalies in the society, with its physical expression becoming visible in contemporary architecture. Today, Iranian architecture is affected by Kitsch Art and has become superficial. Using attractive visual capsules and exploiting the human habit of imitation, information viruses have spread everywhere and have changed the physical world dramatically. The propagation of networks has made this process even faster. This paper reviews the confrontation of Iranian architecture with the electronic realm and investigates the role of visual viruses in the formation of the physical fabric of Tehran. It is argued that in the future, emphasis on design supported by collective intelligence [1] and individual creativity can decrease physical anomalies in the built environment.

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This paper is based on the research which was conducted earlier on Kansei Engineering (KE) and resulted in a new concept for scissors to redesign it with another method called “User Centered Design” (UCD). This is a shift from translation of the consumers’ psychological feeling about a product related to their perception of the design (KE) to focus on designing for and involving users in the design process (UCD). According to UCD process, after understanding and specifying the context of use, specifying the requirements and evaluation of KE concept were simultaneously (by 52 users, 30 female and 22 male), next steps were producing design solutions and evaluating those solutions about requirements (by 41 subjects, 26 female and 15 male). Specifying the requirements and evaluations were by usability test via focus groups and interviews. The final concept obtained high available satisfaction rates defined in the research project. In addition, some comfort design factors for hand tools (e.g. reducing wrist bent while working and reduction of hand pain) were measured and the new designed product achieved a highly satisfactory result. At last a comparison between UCD and KE had been done.This paper is based on the research which was conducted earlier on Kansei Engineering and resulted in a new concept for scissors to redesign it with another method called “User Centered Design” (UCD). Kansei Engineering (KE) as a kind of human ergonomic technology refers to the translation of the consumers’ psychological feeling about a product related to their perception of the design. UCD is a general term for a method which focuses on designing for and involving users in the design process. It can effectively be substituted with those methods only covering the surface requirements of users. UCD includes iterative design and evaluation through gathering the user requirements and understanding the context of use. The collected and produced data yielded some new ideas as well while being eventually evaluated by end-users. The final concept obtained high available satisfaction rates defined in the research project. In addition, some comfort design factors for hand tools (e.g. reducing wrist bent while working and reduction of hand pain) were measured and the new designed product achieved a highly satisfactory result.

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In recent decades, social changes have caused the Iranian family to experience intergenerational structural transformations and lifestyle changes. Studying these changes and their relationship with housing changes can provide a model for the design of desirable housing in the future. Despite the importance of the topic, very few researches were found that reflected the effects of these transformations on the spatial configuration of housing. This study aims to investigate the relationship between the intergenerational changes in the family and the housing configuration system in the context of social changes in Northern Iran. The research method includes a systematic review of previous studies to create a theoretical model using the Sandlovsky and Barroso method, followed by field research that includes the selection of 203 households from the last three generations with a multi-stage cluster sampling method of Sari city houses. The features of their housing configuration were extracted with the depth map software, and the characteristics of the families living in them were extracted with a questionnaire, and then the findings were analyzed. The findings show that some characteristics of the family, such as communication patterns, social relations, women's education and employment, and power equality in the family have increased, and the components of religion, family dimension, and the number of extended families decreased. These transformations were aligned with changes in the housing spatial configuration, including the reduction of the number and types of spaces, rings, the gender function of spaces, and the increase of the function of public and semi-public spaces.