Designing and evaluating a behaviour change intervention that introduces modification of time perceptions as a solution to promote sustainable behaviours

This research presents the design and evaluation of an intervention that introduces modification of time perceptions as one of the solutions to promote sustainable behaviours. It is demonstrated in this thesis that unnecessary energy use is often caused by temporal tensions, defined as the relation between actions to be performed and available time. This research proposes that it is possible to deliberately reduce temporal tensions, and this can motivate people to behave more sustainably. Persuasive technology and human-computer interaction provided the tools needed to manipulate time perceptions and therefore bring about changes in the specific behaviours that result in unnecessary energy usage. Previous studies indicate that behaviours play an important role in energy consumption. From the different domains of energy use that could be examined, cooking was chosen to be the platform where the studies on behaviour change and energy use would take place. How behaviours influence energy use motivated the design of empirical studies to understand behaviours related to domestic energy use and identify what are the determinants of these behaviours. Each determinant was related to a strategy to be included on a behaviour change intervention. A wider survey was developed to understand students acceptance of a set of proposed energy saving techniques, and resulted in a vast volume of information about user preferences and intentions to perform the suggested energy saving behaviours for cooking. It emerged that participants rushed into the cooking tasks without much deliberation, consequently not following preparation procedures and thus using more energy. Information gathered during the first studies also showed that participants behaviours were partially motivated by the need to speed up the cooking process in order to reduce boredom when they were waiting for the food to cook, consequently resulting in extra energy usage. The knowledge gathered from the preceding steps and a literature review informed the design of strategies to modify the non-sustainable behaviours and promote energy saving. A user-centred design process involving an idea generation session and scenario analysis was used to provide a set of strategies to be embedded in an intervention, containing the specific methods to tackle the correspondent determinants of behaviours. The specific needs of the cooking activity indicated that an electronic intervention was an adequate platform to be implemented and tested. Two high resolution working prototypes of the electronic interventions were developed as mobile phone applications. The final study comprised the evaluation of the proposed interventions in improving aspects of the cooking activity, the acceptance of the interventions and effectiveness in promoting energy saving

Cooking behaviours: a user observation study to understand energy use and motivate savings

Electric cookers are one of the highest energy consuming domestic appliances, and there are several aspects that can influence the amount of energy used when preparing a meal. Appliance characteristics are shown to influence consumption, but human factors play an important role in the overall electricity usage. A user observation study was conducted among uni-versity students to understand how they use electric cookers. They were asked to perform a specific cooking task, and the elec-tricity usage was measured. Participants’ behaviours were analysed and compared with a set of energy saving techniques. Ap-pliance characteristics that influenced how students use energy were also investigated. The results show that users performed the task in several different ways, presenting diverse energy consumption, the average being 3 times above the necessary to complete the task. This information is now informing the design of interventions to motivate people to change their behaviours whilst cooking

Understanding cooking behaviours to design energy saving interventions

People's behaviours play an important role in energy consumption, especially whilst dealing with high consumption, highly interactive appliances such as cookers. In a user observation study conducted among university students, participants were asked to perform a simple cooking task. Their behaviours were analysed and compared with a set of recommended practices. The electricity usage and time to complete the activity were also measured. The results show that participants performed in several different ways, presenting diverse energy usage. The determinants of these behaviours were also collected, and will help to inform the design of interventions to motivate people to change their behaviours whilst cooking

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

Using social network games to reduce energy consumption

This research is investigating the potential role of online social network based life simulation computer games as a persuasive tool for encouraging users to reduce their domestic energy consumption. Games such as ‘Farmville’ which runs on the Facebook platform have attracted millions of users worldwide who create simple virtual worlds where they interact with others and carry out everyday activities to earn tokens to spend within the game. Applying a User Centred Design (UCD) and in particular persona based design approach, this research is investigating why users find these games so enticing, the characteristics of those who play them, and the context in which they are played. Through an iterative UCD process, a life simulation game will be designed with users who represent a number of key ‘gamer personas’ in order to research how this sort of game could be used to encourage domestic energy saving behaviours

Analysing passengers' behaviours when boarding trains to improve rail infrastructure and technology

Concentrated boarding describes the phenomenon when rail passengers congregate in certain areas of the platform and board the train carriages that stop near these areas. This influences the distribution of passengers throughout the carriages, which can negatively affect passenger comfort, safety at the platform-train interface, efficiency of the rail network, and the reputation of rail travel as a whole. This project aimed to determine whether concentrated boarding occurs in stations in the UK in order to understand its relevance for future rolling stock, infrastructure design and its associated manufacturing research. Video recording technology was used to observe the movements of passengers in Oxford Station and data was collected for nine individual trains. By reviewing the recordings, the number of passengers boarding through each door of the trains was determined, and the boarding distribution along the length of the platform was plotted. Several reasons for noted trends are offered, and potential solutions proposed. The use of real time information could be invaluable to minimise concentrated boarding, as it would allow passengers to make informed decisions as to where they could board trains to have a better journey experience. These findings indicate the relevance of a human-centred design process, particularly the user research stages, in the process of defining priorities for manufacturing and engineering

Phone-based presentation of other commuters’ subjective experiences: impact on car-driver intentions

Previous research demonstrates that people using active modes of transport (e.g. walking or cycling) generally report more positive subjective wellbeing than car drivers. This study demonstrates an experiment investigating the impact of this information on car drivers. We designed a smartphone application (CommuterExperience), which captures drivers’ subjective experiences (via comments and ratings) after the commute and displays similar data from other people using different modes of transport. After a two week trial, participants (n=18) were interviewed and qualitative data were analysed. We evaluate how the application managed to encourage comparison, foster reflection and ultimately influence opinions, intentions to change and, potentially, behaviour

Designing a smart phone app for sustainable cooking

This research is focusing upon the human-computer interaction (HCI), evaluating the relationship between users and cooking appliances mediated by information-communication technologies (ICTs) applications designed specifically to motivate energy saving. User observation, energy monitoring and semi-structured interviews helped to understand user behaviours and its respective determinants. Group discussions and large scale surveys were used to evaluate the acceptance of energy saving techniques and intervention methods. This knowledge informed the development of a persuasive electronic energy saving intervention in the form of a mobile phone application, which is being tested