Renovation construction is employed for maintaining the long-term performance of buildings. For the occupants, the building users, renovation contributes to the acceptable levels of convenience and quality of the buildings. However, if the operation continues during the renovation for an area containing several buildings, such as a university campus, the impacts on the occupants are unavoidable. The complicated schedule plan is needed due to the various types of buildings and types of renovation under limited resources. The goal of this study is to build a model that can help the planners to make the renovation schedule plan. Taking a university campus as an example, the occupants’ convenience rate and the long-term quality of the building are analyzed in this paper. Based on the key attributes of building renovation, this study proposes a model integrating the genetic algorithm and simulation to provide the optimal schedule plan to the planners. The model is demonstrated by an application case of a university campus of 11 buildings remaining in operation. It helps the university maintain a good level of long-term performance of buildings.

Smart electric vehicles (SEVs) hold significant potential in alleviating the energy crisis and environmental pollution. The augmented reality (AR) dashboard, a key feature of SEVs, is attracting considerable attention due to its ability to enhance driving safety and user experience through real-time, intuitive driving information. This study innovatively integrates Kansei engineering, factor analysis, fuzzy systems theory, analytic hierarchy process, grey relational analysis, and factorial experimentation to evaluate AR dashboards’ visual imagery and subjective preferences. The findings reveal that designs featuring blue planar and unconventional-shaped dials exhibit the best performance in terms of visual imagery. Subsequent factorial experiments confirmed these results, showing that drivers most favor blue-dominant designs. Furthermore, in unconventional-shaped dial designs, the visual effect of vertical 3D is more popular with drivers than horizontal 3D, while the opposite is true in round dials. This study provides a scientific evaluation method for assessing the emotional experience of AR dashboard interfaces. Additionally, these findings will help reduce the subjectivity in interface design and enhance the overall competitiveness of SEV vehicles.

The National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) is a significant institution in modern medicine in Taiwan. Its West Campus, the oldest medical center in the country, has been recognized as a municipal historic site due to its architectural and historical importance. However, visitors have faced navigation difficulties for a long time. To address this issue, a study was conducted to find navigation solutions within the constraints of architectural structure, hardware, and busy crowds. Blender and Unity were used to recreate the environment, and interactive virtual wayfinding experiments were conducted with 64 participants divided into two groups. Each group completed 12 tasks in two scenarios, and their task performance, wayfinding behavior, and questionnaire responses were collected to evaluate the overall environment. The pretest helped identify problems in the existing signage system and weak areas, leading to redesigning of a new signage system. The main objective of the posttest was to evaluate the new design’s effectiveness. Our research contributes to future signage system layout design references, enhancing readability and information coherence while recommending locations within medical facilities. We set specific design standards to facilitate wayfinding signage systems in complex environments.

In the discussion of the multiple aspects of underground urban facilities, emergency measures during disasters need to be appropriately planned to evacuate and relocate people instantly. People are prone to losing their way in large indoor spaces. Smartphones are equipped with multiple sensors and a multimedia interface; these features are now standard tools that be utilized as personal evacuation guides. Under the mental stress of emergency evacuation, people tend to make different perceptual judgments and decisions when processing the information on an interface. This study summarizes the current smartphone navigation system interfaces on the market as seven samples for the experiment. We chose the most advantageous information elements from the results to design two types of interfaces, namely continuous route view navigation and survey view navigation. Through experimental observation and think-aloud analysis of on-site simulation testing results, the proposed interface is both legible and readable and provides minimum message loading to guide users.

Peer interaction through play is one approach to stimulating preschool children’s growth. The outdoor playground facilities in parks are ideal places for children to practice their social skills. This study utilized nonparticipant observation to observe and record children’s play behaviors and interactions with others to ascertain whether outdoor playground facilities favor peer interaction. We summarized the design elements of peer-interaction-promoting playground facilities to optimize the facilities by determining the types of environments and facilities that trigger peer interaction. This study discovered that children spent most of their time in solo play and the least in peer interaction. Such interaction occurred only in spaces in which children stopped briefly. After installing a new bubble machine designed to increase peer interaction, solo play behaviors and parent–child interactions became less frequent for children younger than six years old, whereas peer interaction became more frequent. During the peer interaction of children aged 3 to 6, the frequency of level one, three, and four interactions increased. They also displayed level five behaviors, which were not observed before the installation. The new facility triggered higher-level behaviors, such as cooperation and playing together, enhancing peer interaction between different age groups.