Understanding the design of energy interventions to reduce end-user demand in organisational and domestic environments

Energy demand is on the rise globally due to unchecked factors such as population growth, lifestyle choices, and the industrialization of developing countries. Governments are investing in technologies for efficient and renewable energy in an attempt to secure energy for the future over current dependencies on fossil fuels, but the development costs are high, and the rate of developed technologies is projected to fall far short of meeting global requirements. Overshadowing this growing appetite for energy is the global issue of climate change, igniting the scientific and humanitarian debate over the use of fossil fuels and a need for renewable energy, presenting a societal problem of generating clean, sustainable and secure energy for future generations. As part of understanding how society can make positive changes to daily practices around energy use, many governments have turned to behaviour change, or ‘nudge’ units, that research work on changing energy consumption behaviours. The importance of this is underlined by a focus on reducing end-user energy demand (EUED) by providing contextual energy feedback, interwoven with behaviour change strategies, in both residential and organizational sectors. EUED in large organisations and small-medium enterprises (SMEs) accounts for a significant proportion of a nation’s energy requirements. In Europe, the services sector saw a 34% growth in EUED in the period 1990-2012, with computers and other appliances in the office substantially contributing to this. In the UK, for example, 13% of total energy consumed in 2011-2012 was within the services sector, which accounts for services and business, while the residential sector consumed 30% of total consumption. Given a lack of academic HCI research in the organisational energy intervention space when comparted to domestic, the principle research undertaken in this thesis was to understand employee energy consumption practices and attitudes in the workplace, through a combination of qualitative enquiry and analysis. Additionally, alternative forms of feedback such as aversive stimuli are often ignored in the HCI literature, with favour focused on positive feedback alone as a means for behaviour change. The work in this thesis presents findings on the design implications and considerations that inform the design of in-the-field organisational energy interventions that integrate feedback and antecedent behaviour contingencies. Additionally, research is undertaken in understanding the design of aversive feedback as part of domestic energy interventions. A significant contribution is made to the HCI sustainability literature on understanding the workplace energy intervention design space, and a contribution made on how aversive feedback can in fact be a useful and engaging method for the domestic environment

Exploring the use of constructive journalism to combat misinformation in the mainstream media

Misinformation in the news presents a challenge to democracy’s need for a well-informed citizenry and can carry severe personal and societal consequences. In addition to the ease of information sharing on social media, belief in misinformation is facilitated by various social, structural, and psychological factors, many of which are both mitigated and exacerbated by news media. I investigate the role of news media in the context of misinformation and its spread from a psychological perspective, with a particular focus on constructive journalism, an approach that draws on positive and cognitive psychology to reduce the mental health burden and increase the accuracy of reporting, as a potential response to assuage the negative consequences of news media in the context of misinformation and COVID-19. The thesis consists of four studies where I use several methodologies to explore the boundaries of constructive journalism and the problem of misinformation in the news. An initial survey study investigated the relationship of information consumption to protective behaviours throughout COVID-19 using Bayesian structural equation modelling, through the mediators of anxiety, risk perception, and belief in misinformation among Australian (N = 201) and United States (N = 306) participants. Information consumption was associated with increased protective behaviours, a relationship partially mediated by increases in anxiety and risk perception, while belief in misinformation was associated with decreased protective behaviours in the United States sample. I also conducted semi-structured interviews with an international sample of journalism professionals to investigate the potential benefits and use of constructive journalism in the context of COVID-19 (N = 11), and misinformation (N = 16). Using thematic analysis, I generated two themes and six subthemes concerning the capacity of constructive journalism to assist in reporting on COVID-19, including educating the public without inspiring undue fear and encouraging constructive responses to the pandemic. I generated three themes and six subthemes regarding constructive journalism’s potential benefit concerning misinformation, including audience engagement, democratic conversation and ideas of truth, and news media’s effects on trust and beliefs. The final study consisted of a randomised-controlled repeated-measures experiment (N = 238), investigating the effect of constructive techniques on mood, comprehension, and trust using five articles adapted from existing constructive journalism pieces. Consistent with previous studies, participants in the Constructive Condition reported higher positive mood and lower negative mood relative to the Control group. However, participants in the Constructive Condition also performed worse on the comprehension measure and reported no differences in trust until accounting for mood and interest, at which point they reported a decrease in trust. I investigate constructive journalism techniques – including inclusiveness and diversity, future orientation, and context – as potential mitigators of the belief and spread of misinformation by probing their effects on trust and comprehension. To foreshadow my conclusions, I find constructive journalism a promising way creators of news media (i.e., journalists) can influence individual and social cognition, beliefs in misinformation, and misinformation sharing. I also make several suggestions for further empirical and theoretical development.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 202

The public health potential of mobile applications to increase physical activity

Background: Physical activity (PA) is an important behavioural determinant of morbidity and mortality and is a public health priority. The accessibility, convenience and wide reach of mobile applications (apps) makes these digital interventions a potential mode for delivering PA interventions at scale. At the end of 2017 there were 325,000 health apps available publicly, with “fitness” apps being the largest category of all health apps. However, most apps on the market have not been evaluated and little is known about their quality. Aim: This PhD investigated the public health potential of publicly available PA apps. Methods: The following studies were conducted: 1) a review and content analysis of the most popular PA apps on the market to assess their quality, defined as safety, likely efficacy and positive user experience; 2) a study using regression models to determine the association between popularity and quality of those apps; 3) a feasibility crossover trial assessing two apps for increasing PA; and 4) a qualitative study assessing the acceptability of the trial procedures and exploring the experiences of the two PA apps. Results: Popular apps had high usability but there were issues around their safety and likely efficacy. Popularity was not associated with likely efficacy. The feasibility trial and the qualitative study showed that such a trial would be feasible and acceptable to participants. The enablers and barriers to increasing exercise using the apps were identified. Conclusion: The discrepancy between quality and popularity represents a missed opportunity for behaviour change interventions. Hence, the public health impact of PA apps is unlikely to be achieved when market forces “prescribe” what is used by the public. The motivation to use the apps varied substantially and it is important to identify when, for whom, and in what context PA apps are most likely to facilitate behaviour change

The observing self as a catalyst for behaviour change and wellbeing: Effective personal informatics system design to promote behaviour change in the changing health paradigm

The current study is a user-centred enquiry into how wellness-related personal informatics (PI) systems can be more effectively designed to better promote lasting behaviour change and sustained wellbeing in the context of the changing health paradigm. Until recently, the Western biomedical model with its disease focus has been effective in delivering health care; however, this paradigm does not efficiently support a system in crises - the contemporary health care system which is confronted with complex challenges of modern lifestyle diseases and behavioural disorders. Enabled by the technological revolution, a Systems Medicine model - a preventative, personalised, predictive and participatory (P4) approach - is emerging and PI systems play a significant role in realising this pre-clinical, patient-centric, behaviour-focussed shift in health care. This viewpoint paper argues that design strategies applied in PI systems to promote behaviour change play a vital role in supporting health outcomes, specifically, persuasive and mindful user experience (UX) strategies. By applying a phenomenographic research methodology, a user-centred approach is taken to understand qualitatively different ways in which PI systems (and their inherent design strategies) are experienced by users, to inform more intuitive design of PI systems that balance behaviour change strategies to support more lasting shifts and sustainable states of wellbeing. Drawing together ideas from systems medicine, complexity theory, persuasive and mindful design approaches in conjunction with phenomenography, this study aims to understand experiential nuances to offer implications for the future design of health care through PI systems. The theory built through the research process is applied in a prototype design, which is presented as an example of a PI system design that balances persuasive and mindful strategies and aims to promote lasting behaviour change and enduring states of wellbeing more effectively

Metaverse. Old urban issues in new virtual cities

Recent years have seen the arise of some early attempts to build virtual cities, utopias or affective dystopias in an embodied Internet, which in some respects appear to be the ultimate expression of the neoliberal city paradigma (even if virtual). Although there is an extensive disciplinary literature on the relationship between planning and virtual or augmented reality linked mainly to the gaming industry, this often avoids design and value issues. The observation of some of these early experiences - Decentraland, Minecraft, Liberland Metaverse, to name a few - poses important questions and problems that are gradually becoming inescapable for designers and urban planners, and allows us to make some partial considerations on the risks and potentialities of these early virtual cities

LifeComp: The European Framework for Personal, Social and Learning to Learn Key Competence:

“Personal, Social and Learning to Learn” was set as a key competence in 2018 by the Council Recommendation on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning. The LifeComp framework regards “Personal, Social and Learning to Learn” as a set of competences applying to all spheres of life that can be acquired through formal informal and non-formal education, and can help citizens to thrive in the 21st Century. These competences have been established following a thorough literature research and several consultations with experts and stakeholders. LifeComp has nine competences with three descriptors each. The framework is conceptual and non-prescriptive. LifeComp can be used as a basis for the development of curricula and learning activities fostering personal, and social development, and learning to learn. The description of the competences can help in exploring its implementation and be contemplated as the embryo of a continuous discussion with teachers and educational policymakers.JRC.B.4-Human Capital and Employmen

Internet of Things enabled sedentary behaviour change in office workers: development and feasibility of a novel intervention (WorkMyWay)

Sedentary behaviour (SB) without breaks is associated with adverse health outcomes. The prevalence of prolonged sitting at work among office workers makes a case for SB interventions to target this setting and population. Everyday mundane objects augmented with microelectronics and ubiquitous computing represent a novel mode of delivery for behaviour change interventions enabled by the Internet of Things (IoT). However, there is insufficient research to guide the design of interventions delivered with smart objects. This research addresses this gap by developing WorkMyWay, a workplace SB intervention delivered with IoT-enabled office objects (e.g. smart water bottles and cups), and evaluating its feasibility and acceptability in an 8-week “in-the-wild” study. This thesis made 4 contributions across the disciplines of behavioural medicine and human-computer interactions (HCI). The first contribution is the development of the WorkMyWay intervention, which is informed by findings from a systematic scoping review of prior research in this field (Chapter 3), a diary-probed interview study with 20 office workers (Chapter 4), and a series of technology audit, prototyping, human-centred design, and requirement engineering processes (Chapter 5). Findings from the feasibility study (Chapter 6) suggest that despite technical issues with the data connection, participants perceive high value of WorkMyWay in changing their SB. The intervention is potentially implementable in office-based workplaces, as long as connectivity issues are fixed. Recommendations are made on improvements and a series of future studies in accordance with the Medical Research Council’s guidance on complex intervention development and evaluation. Second, this thesis deepens the theoretical understanding of SB change, by following the Behaviour Change Wheel framework (including the COM-B model, theoretical domain framework, and taxonomies of Behaviour Change Techniques (BCT)) throughout intervention design and evaluation. The intervention contents are specified using the BCT taxonomies (Chapter 5) and informed by the first published COM-B analysis of office worker’s prolonged sitting behaviour at work (Chapter 4). This allows the feasibility study (Chapter 6) to contribute to theory development by matching the interview questions and psychological measures (e.g. strength of habit) with the BCTs (e.g. action planning, prompts and cues) and associated theoretical underpinnings (e.g. goal accessibility). It also allows implementation issues to be considered in light of how well those theories and theory-informed BCTs can work in real-life settings. Third, this thesis makes a methodological contribution by documenting an interdisciplinary approach to develop a digital behaviour change intervention and a model for applying and developing theories of behaviour change in the wild. This helps address the challenge identified in Chapter 3, by bridging the gap between HCI and behavioural medicine, and catalyse the process of feeding technological innovations downstream to health practice and intervention research. Fourth, this research contributes to the HCI literature by proposing a 2×2 matrix framework to guide the design of technology for sustainable behaviour change. On one hand, the framework unifies some of the existing visions and concepts about ubiquitous computing and applies them to the context of behaviour change, by considering the type of cognitive process (automatic versus reflective, based on the dual process model) through which a persuasive design influences the behaviour. For another, the framework considers the required dosage of their technology intervention to maintain the behaviour, or the distribution of changes between the physical world and the human cognition

Strategic Communication in Context: Theoretical Debates and Applied Research

Strategic communication is becoming more relevant in communication sciences, though it needs to deepen its reflective practices, especially considering its potential in a VUCA world — volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. The capillary, holistic and result-oriented nature that portrays this scientific field has led to the imperative of expanding knowledge about the different approaches, methodologies and impacts in all kinds of organisations when strategic communication is applied. Therefore Strategic Communication in Context: Theoretical Debates and Applied Research assembles several studies and essays by renowned authors who explore the topic from different angles, thus testing the elasticity of the concept. Moreover, this group of authors represents various schools of thought and geographies, making this book particularly rich and cross-disciplinary.illustrato