PISTIL : Persuasive Interaction for Sus TainabILity

International audienc

Deploying Pervasive Sensing for Evidence-Based Management, Services and Sustainable Policy

Services which make use of low-cost pervasive sensor systems have the potential to support evidence-based management, decision support, service provisioning and sustainable policy design in non-domestic buildings. My research aims to understand the sociotechnical factors in the investigation of such systems through deployment case-studies with facilities managers, office workers, and students. I provide recommendations for the design of repurposeable, redeployable and retrofittable sensor toolkits for understanding conditions within the local built environment, utilising that understanding in digital services to provide new perspectives on environmental complaints (e.g. thermal comfort), and creating policy recommendations towards the sustainable management of building infrastructure

Cooking behaviours: understanding energy use to design persuasive applications

Electric cookers and kettles are often high electricity consumers amongst household appliances. Cooking requires several interactions with these appliances, and furthermore people’s behaviours play an important role in the energy consumption. This research is seeking to understand people’s behaviours whilst cooking and also identify the determinants of these behaviours. Energy monitoring, video recording and semi-structured questionnaires were used to gather this information. This knowledge will inform the development of an intervention aiming at reducing energy expenditure

Scenario analysis as a tool for informing the design of behaviour change interventions

This article presents the design process behind the specification of a behaviour change intervention method to promote energy saving. The amount of energy used for food preparation is highly influenced by people’s behaviours. A user-centred design approach based on scenario analysis was applied to provide understanding of context of use and specification of user requirements. This knowledge was applied to the design of behaviour change interventions to motivate sustainable behaviours

Pre-installation challenges: classifying barriers to the introduction of smart home technology

Increasing technological developments indicate potential for a variety of improvements in the domestic environment. As part of an interdisciplinary research project, this study interviewed households prior to the installation of smart home technologies (SHTs) in order to identify critical issues at the pre-installation phase. Semi-structured interviews took place in 16 houses before the installation of SHTs, when a range of smart sensors and controls were presented to households for the first time. At this stage, they started to make key decisions about which devices to use, where to install, and how to position them. Participants mentioned diverse issues surrounding the introduction of SHTs. To guide the qualitative analysis, an organizing framework for research on smart homes and their users was used. This paper indicates that, even though participants appreciate the functional aspects of SHTs and the possibilities of a better living, their concerns related to technology (hardware & software), design (acceptability & usability) and spaces (home as complex places) are numerous. These results complement the existing literature (which focuses more on the use phase) with the perceived enablers and barriers prior to the installation of SHTs

HCI as a means to prosociality in the economy

HCI research often involves intervening in the economic lives of people, but researchers only rarely give explicit consideration to what actually constitutes prosociality in the economy. Much has been said previously regarding sustainability but this has largely focused on environmental rather than interpersonal relations. This paper provides an analysis of how prosocial HCI has been discussed and continues to be defined as a research field. Based on a corpus of published works, we describe a variety of genres of work relating to prosocial HCI. Key intellectual differences are explored, including the epistemological and ethical positions involved in designing for prosocial outcomes as well as how HCI researchers posit economic decision-making. Finally, emerging issues and opportunities for further debate and collaboration are discussed in turn

Scenario Analysis as a Tool for Informing the Design of Behaviour Change Interventions

This article presents the design process behind the specification of a behaviour change intervention method to promote energy saving. The amount of energy used for food preparation is highly influenced by people’s behaviours. A user-centred design approach based on scenario analysis was applied to provide understanding of context of use and specification of user requirements. This knowledge was applied to the design of behaviour change interventions to motivate sustainable behaviours

Hitting the triple bottom line: widening the HCI approach to sustainability

Sustainable Development (SD) in its dimensions – environment, economy, and society – is a growing area of concern within the HCI community. This paper advances a systematic literature review on sustainability across the Sustainable Human-Computer Interaction (SHCI) body of work. The papers were classified according to the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) framework to understand how the pillars of SD play into the HCI discourse on sustainability. The economic angle was identified as a gap in SHCI literature. To meet the TBL of SD, however, a balance needs to be sought across all ‘lines’. In this paper, we propose that HCI can advance the discussion and the understanding of the economic concepts around sustainability through taking a sociology perspective on the economic angle of the TBL. We sustain this claim by discussing economic concepts and the role that digital can play in redefining the established foundations of our economic system