Smart home technology—comparing householder expectations at the point of installation with experiences 1 year later

This study, with 19 households, set out to analyse the expected benefits and anticipated challenges to the introduction of smart home technology (SHT), and to compare these to post-use experiences after living with the technology for 1 year. Contextual interviews were undertaken with householders during the installation of a range of SHT, and again approximately 1 year later, when householders had the option to keep the technology or have some or all of it removed. This identified whether initial expectations were met, whether initial concerns persisted and whether new issues, concerns, and benefits (that had not been initially anticipated) arose after an extended period of use. Initial expectations from all households were high—related to comfort, convenience, improved control, energy demand reduction, and integration of technologies. There were also many initial concerns, including reliability, usability, and how these systems would be ‘domesticated’ to fit existing routines. After living with the systems for 1 year, many expectations were met, but the added value (and hence the match between expectations and reality) was higher for households with varied routines and large, partially occupied houses. Some of the anticipated challenges—such as concerns over aesthetics—largely disappeared, issues to do with the awkward location of network components persisted and new issues arose relating to the usability of some components and the time and effort required to configure them. Recommendations are given to maximise the added value that SHT can provide to householders

A persona-based approach to domestic energy retrofit

In order to improve the efficiency of the housing stock successfully, the offered technical solutions also need to meet occupants' needs and match their aspirations. Owner-occupiers present particular challenges: conflicting demands on their use of time and financial resources and their role as decision-makers for their own domestic renovation. A persona-driven study (based on user-centred design) was undertaken to explore the varying behaviours, attitudes and motivations towards home improvement for owner-occupiers who live in 'hard to treat' solid-walled dwellings. Five evidence-based personas are constructed that reflect archetypes, based on the outcomes of a qualitative study involving 33 owner-occupier householders in the East Midlands region of the UK. The adoption of a persona-based approach in response to the socio-technical challenges of energy renovation is important for understanding the specific drivers and appropriate range of policy responses for each persona. The persona development process is described and the success of the approach is evaluated in relation to the needs of policy developers, energy providers and product developers. Tailoring strategies to suit different personas will considerably enhance the diffusion of policy goals for low-energy retrofit and also allow business and technology developers to target an appropriate user. © 2014 The Author(s). Published by Taylor & Francis

Service design and experience design: what unites us is greater than what divides us

This position paper draws on experiences of working within service design and experience design in the UK in order to reflect on the key differences and growing similarities between these two practices. The challenges faced by design agencies are described and in particular those arising from the closer alignment of design and business. This alignment is leading to a need for design teams to deliver process as well as digital products as project outcomes, requiring understanding of how to facilitate lasting transformation within organizations as well as how to design compelling user experiences. A skillset built upon three pillars: working with business, with people and with ideas is proposed to support further convergence of these two disciplines

Intelligent energy saving in the home: a user centred design perspective

Intelligent homes have been a vision for decades, with the ‘Home of the Future’ promising an automated, sophisticated place to live, packed with technology that responds to our every need. With a new focus on energy saving, intelligent homes are again being heralded as the way to a low carbon future. However, history demonstrates that people may not find the proposed technology simple to use, with issues of control, compatibility, trust and accessibility making this a problematic approach. This chapter discusses the potential for intelligent energy saving in the home and explores the human factors that create pitfalls to the successful roll out of smart energy saving devices. The importance of understanding the user needs as a critical success factor and the role of user centred design in the development of intelligent products, services and systems is outlined. Whilst focused on the domestic sector, there are learnings relevant to all buildings where there are users

Let’s Spend Some Time Together:Exploring the Out-of-Box Experience of Technology for Older Adults

This journal article is made available with kind permission of IGI Global.Designing technology for older people has traditionally focused on compensating for the decline in abilities that occurs with ageing. The research described in this paper followed a more holistic approach, focusing on the broader user experience of technology in the home environment. Specifically, this research was concerned with the very first interactions with a new product known as the Out-of-Box Experience (OoBE): how older people acquire their technology, how they unpack it, and how they set it up. This paper describes two exploratory studies that used a design ethnography approach to build a rich picture of the OoBE of new technology for older adults. The findings indicate that older people experience varying benefits from the involvement of other people during the OoBE of new technology. Lastly, the paper discusses the value of social interaction in this context and offers recommendations on the design of the OoBE of technology to engage older adults

Cultural probes and levels of creativity

Cultural probes are a design research method, which has gained prominence for being particularly suited to conducting research on sensitive topics and in personal contexts. This paper reports the methodological process of designing and deploying cultural probes to investigate the meaning of independence for older adults. We describe the rationale behind the development of individual elements of the probe kits, as well as a follow-up qualitative interview. Our discussion focuses on our experience of using this technique, with a view to informing appropriate and empowering research methodologies for older people

Service Ecosystem: Empowering Textile Artisans' Communities towards a Sustainable Future

The global economic and environmental crisis is leading to the end of a linear economy based on consumption and waste, while setting the ground for opening up resilient, flexible and redistributed micro-productions, based on new ethics of sustainability. With this in mind, this research is focused on exploring textile artisans’ communities, bottom-up and human-centred economic aggregations embodying the craft atmosphere of a territory due to physical proximity and shared material cultural background. Such communities are engaged in giving form and meaning to local natural fibres and managing the process of making culturally and socially significant garments. Currently, the textile crafts discourse is mainly based on patchy practices and individual making experiences, overlooking the human and social dimension of artisanship. It is still missing a strategic agenda which could create sustainable interconnections within this complex landscape. Therefore, this research aims to explore how service design can strategically drive textile artisans’ communities towards a sustainable future. This will be done through a holistic process based on a triple bottom line: empowering artisans’ creative assets and social bonds, co-designing collaborative services and scaling up initiatives within an enabling ecosystem of inter-networked textile artisans’ communities at glocal level

Moving Textile Artisans' Communities towards a Sustainable Future – A Theoretical Framework

The current economic crisis is building momentum for designers to challenge the linear take-make-waste model and explore sustainable strategies, services and systems. With this in mind, this research explores how service design can encourage textile artisans’ communities towards a sustainable future, providing social engagement, rescuing cultural heritage, boosting economic development and enhancing environmental stewardship. Service design is here proposed as an approach to empower such communities, co-design collaborative services and sustain innovations within an enabling ecosystem. The paper focuses on the first study of this research where a theoretical framework to help textile artisans’ communities transitioning to a sustainable future was co-developed with academic experts in the field. A Nominal Group Technique and semi-structure interviews were used to collect data; results and findings are presented as barriers, enablers and a manifesto to encourage a sustainable future. To conclude, next steps and challenges posed by the envisioned future are discussed

The over 50s and their motivations for using technology

Despite the growing body of research into older adults‟ use of technology and the Internet, little is known about their motivations for taking up these products and services. The overall image that emerges from the literature is negative: low self-efficacy beliefs, computer anxiety and usability issues, which exacerbated by the decline of abilities that occurs naturally with ageing, prevent older people from using unfamiliar interactive consumer products. However, there is evidence to suggest that older adults want to be able to use new technology in order to feel included in society, and are willing to invest in learning how to use them provided the expected outcomes are perceived as obviously beneficial. This paper details a qualitative study designed to investigate what benefits older adults expect to gain from the technological products they acquire and use. The Technology Biography method was adapted and applied to participants in three age groups: 50-64, 65-75, and over 75 years old. The findings indicate greater acceptance of technology than expected from existing studies. This work is discussed in the context of older adults‟ motivations to use technology, and how their expectations and aspirations affect the uptake of these products

Exploring past home improvement experiences to develop future energy saving technologies

This paper describes a participatory data collection tool designed for use within a multi-disciplinary energy research project. The tool was designed to encourage participants to narrate the story of their past home improvement experiences. The User Centred Designers within the team then used these stories to extract user requirements for use by engineering specialists within the project tea