Reducing domestic energy consumption through inclusive interface design

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Engineering Doctorate and awarded by Brunel University.With housing in the UK responsible for over a quarter of all building related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the impact of occupant behaviour on such emissions. One area where occupant behaviour contributes largely towards emissions is space heating within domestic buildings. Despite technological improvements in the efficiency of heating systems, controls have become increasingly complex. Hence, there is a need to enable people to use their heating controls effectively in order to help reduce the associated CO2 emissions. This research found that significant numbers of people were excluded from using digital programmable thermostats, in particular people over 50 years old. The first study examined the scale of exclusion relating to digital programmable thermostats installed at a specific housing development. A second study explored in detail the reasons for exclusion from successfully programming a range of digital programmable thermostats. This was an in-depth usability study of heating controls that focused on the usability issues experienced by older people and was published in the Journal of Engineering Design. Based upon the outcomes of the first two studies a more inclusive heating control interface prototype was developed. The prototype demonstrated a reduction in both cognitive demands and associated user exclusion. Task success rates increased by 56.3% amongst older participants, and detailed energy modelling indicated that energy savings of 14.5-15.6% annually could be achievable. This work suggests that a more inclusive heating control interface could enable energy savings in the region of 15% through reducing the cognitive demands. Furthermore, this research challenges the existing paradigm and shows that inclusive design research may contribute to sustainable development in an environmental, as well as social, capacity.This study is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Buro Happold Ltd

Painting the ideal home: using art to express visions of technologically supported independent living for older people in North East England

This paper describes the investigation of the development of future technological products to support older people in everyday living through the agency of a community art group. Recent research has identified a number of challenges facing designers seeking to use traditional participatory design approaches to gather technology requirements data from older people. Here, a project is described that sought to get a group of older people to think creatively about their needs and desires for technological support through the medium of paint. The artistic expression technique described in this article allowed the identification of issues that had also been found by previous research that used a range of different techniques. This indicates that the approach shows promise, as it allows information to be gathered in an environment that is comfortable and familiar using methods already known by the participants and which they find enjoyable. It provides a complement (or possible alternative) to standard protocols and has the potential benefit of extracting even richer information as the primary task for participants is enjoyable in its own right and is not associated with an interrogative process. Furthermore, it is argued that some of the key risks of traditional approaches are lessened or removed by the naturalistic setting of this approach

Towards designing inclusion: insights from a user data collection study in China

Userdatahasbeenidentifiedasoneoftheimportantknowledge basesfor inclusive design. In order to explore the influential factors that may affect the reliability of data and then build up a more effective and efficient data-collection framework,wecarriedoutanexperimentalstudy tocollectdata fromolderpeople (aged 50~70) in China, which included users’ capability, psychological and socialcultural attributes. Users’ actual product interaction performance was also investigated.Threeissueswerediscussedbasedontheoutcome ofdataanalyses:a) mood states have significant effects on respondent’s self-reporting results; b) compared withmaximumsettings,peoplemayhaveawider rangeofperceptionsof “comfortable” settings and it is possible to predict the performance in a “comfortable” settingbasedon“maximum” data; c)social-cultural variables,vision, hearing,dexterity,cognitionandpsychologicalcharacteristics canpredictsuccessful product interaction tasks at different levels by using multiple logistic regression analysis

Designer as Ethnographer: A Study of Domestic Cooking and Heating Product Design for Irish Older Adults

In many ways, the design of domestic cooking and heating products reflects the zeitgeist of Irish culture throughout the 20th and into the 21st century. From domesticity to materialism, these products have evolved to meet fundamental human needs within the home. Concurrent with this, the methods and processes designers use to create domestic artefacts have evolved and changed. The emergence of Design Ethnography illustrates an evolution where Design has appropriated an established method of Anthropology for its own particular objectives. However, the integrity of the ethnography practised by designers has been criticised by many, e.g. Dourish questions whether it creates forms of “discount ethnography” (2006, p.548). The designer ethnographer has different objectives to the anthropologist and the particular principles, methods, and understanding of design ethnography have not been fully elucidated for use by professional designers. Bichard and Gheerawo observe “…if anthropologists and ethnographers appear to be becoming designers as such, then perhaps designers should allow themselves to reflect on their ‘field’ and ‘work’ more as anthropologists and ethnographers”(2011, p.55). The identification and construction of a design ethnography, epistemology, and methodology that is distinct from, while respectful of that of anthropology, is required. Design ethnography has been heralded for its ability to investigate future complex issues for humanity, and to produce powerful, democratising, and radical effects (Plowman, 2003). Meeting the demands of a growing older population will be one of these future complexities. Ireland is rapidly becoming an ageing society with its population living longer in ill health (McGill, 2010). 89% of older Irish people would prefer to live at home rather than in institutional care (McGee et al., 2005). Therefore developing healthy environments in which they grow old must be a priority. Particular attention must be given to the design of domestic products that provide older people with basic daily requirements. Domestic cooking and heating products offer basic health and wellbeing needs in the form of nutrition and heat. Prior to designing these products a deep understanding of older people’s needs must be determined. To achieve this, empathy and sensitivity are essential (Newell et al., 2010). Comprehensive field studies such as ethnographies are important in gaining understanding and eliciting true user insights (Seidel, 2009, Newell et al., 2010) This thesis contributes to two domains. Firstly, it identifies and develops an understanding of the essence of design ethnography, and a process by which designers can harness ethnographic methods for the purposes of design practice. Secondly, it provides an example of a designer ethnographic approach to product design for older people, producing insights and product design requirements for cooking and heating products. The research involved design ethnographic fieldwork over twelve months within the homes of forty older adult participants across Ireland and from various socio-economic groups. Personas, design requirements, and concepts were produced, which allowed the researcher to reflect on the role of design ethnographer and inform future practice. Insights into product requirement were deep and far reaching, revealing important and diverse health and wellbeing needs to be addressed for older people in domestic products. A methods and process framework is formulated for conducting future design ethnography, from fieldwork and data analysis to design practice

Heating controls scoping review project

This report summarises the findings of an evidence review of the energy savings, cost-effectiveness and usability of different types of heating controls

Future bathroom: A study of user-centred design principles affecting usability, safety and satisfaction in bathrooms for people living with disabilities

Research and development work relating to assistive technology 2010-11 (Department of Health) Presented to Parliament pursuant to Section 22 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 197

Heating controls: International evidence base and policy experiences

This report presents a synthesis in the form of narrative summaries of the international evidence base and policy experiences on heating controls in the domestic sector. The research builds on the former Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) commissioned (systematic) scoping review of the UK evidence on heating controls published in 2016 (Lomas et al., 2016), and the Rapid Evidence Assessment of smarter heating controls published in 2014 (Munton et al., 2014). The report consists of two parts. Part 1 involves a (systematic) scoping review of the international evidence base on the energy savings, cost-effectiveness and usability of heating controls in the domestic sector. Part 2 contains the findings from an analysis of the policy experiences of other countries

Exploring a capability-demand interaction model for inclusive design evaluation

Designers are required to evaluate their designs against the needs and capabilities of their target user groups in order to achieve successful, inclusive products. This dissertation presents exploratory research into the specific problem of supporting analytical design evaluation for Inclusive Design. The analytical evaluation process involves evaluating products with user data rather than testing with actual users. The work focuses on the exploration of a capability-demand model of product interaction as the basis for analytical inclusive evaluation. This model suggests that by comparing the measured sensory, cognitive and motor capabilities of a user population to the corresponding product demands, the degree of fit between users and products can be assessed. The research problem was addressed by firstly examining theories of human function and performance together with existing sources of user capability data. It was found that user capability data was fragmented and lacking in terms of predicting design exclusion and difficulty at the population level. More fundamentally, however, it was found that the relationships between measured capability in populations with low functional capacity and real world task performance with products (such as errors, times and difficulty) were not well understood. Given that an understanding of these relationships are necessary to guide capability data collection and to drive valid and robust analytical evaluation methods, the research effort focused on exploring these relationships via empirical and analytical studies. The research process culminated in an experimental study with nineteen users of various functional capability profiles performing tasks with four consumer products (a clock radio, a mobile phone, a blender and a vacuum cleaner). Measures of user capability were related to corresponding product demands (on those capabilities) and task outcome measures. A complex picture emerged, where linear relationships did not generally account for significant variance in task outcome measures. Further, it appeared that multiple capabilities were possibly interacting in unknown ways to support real world interaction. These indicative results point to the further investigation of multivariate and non-linear models for describing capability-demand relationships, and also the replication of similar studies with larger sample sizes to confirm the relationships observed. The resulting overall recommendation, therefore, is that there is a need to direct research efforts in this critical but largely unexplored area of capability-demand model building for Inclusive Design evaluation

Review of state of knowledge regarding the safety, access and usability needs of children with disabilities

Within European countries and the European Union, there is wide recognition that special consideration must be given to the needs of both people with disabilities and to young people. In terms of ergonomics design, consideration needs to be given to access to public buildings, safety in the home, school buildings and educational services, ability to make use of public transport, etc. This research focused on children who also have disabilities, an area that is less well understood and where it is uncertain whether standards or legislation exist. Interviews and discussions with experts were conducted to locate knowledge about design for disabled children in different contexts. This document reports the results of the research sponsored by ANEC (www.anec.org). The study identified relevant standards, legislation or guidelines within Europe and outside which could potentially be employed by the standards bodies within the European Union and promulgated more widely. The report also showed that there are gaps in knowledge indicating a requirement for further research to be carried out to generate suitable guidelines for standards bodies to consider