3 research outputs found
A Conceptual Framework for Designing Interactive Human-Centred Building Spaces to Enhance User Experience in Specific-Purpose Buildings
Human/User interaction with buildings are mostly restricted to interacting
with building automation systems through user-interfaces that mainly aim to
improve energy efficiency of buildings and ensure comfort of occupants. This
research builds on the existing theories of Human-Building Interaction (HBI)
and proposes a novel conceptual framework for HBI that combines the concepts of
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Ambient Intelligence (AmI). The proposed
framework aims to study the needs of occupants in specific-purpose buildings,
which is currently undermined. Specifically, we explore the application of the
proposed HBI framework to improve the learning experience of students in
academic buildings. Focus groups and semi-structured interviews were conducted
among students who are considered primary occupants of Goodwin Hall, a flagship
smart engineering building at Virginia Tech. Qualitative coding and concept
mapping were used to analyze the qualitative data and determine the impact of
occupant-specific needs on the learning experience of students in academic
buildings. The occupant-specific problem that was found to have the highest
direct impact on learning experience was finding study space and highest
indirect impact was Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ). We discuss new ideas for
designing Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI), e.g. Augmented Reality (AR),
increase the perceivable affordances for building occupants and considering a
context-aware ubiquitous analytics-based strategy to provide services that are
tailored to address the identified needs