Seeking relational information sources in the digital age: a study into information source preferences amongst family and friends of those with dementia

Despite an increasing number of sources providing information and advice about dementia, those living with the condition feel inadequately informed. The reasons for this remain unclear. This study has three aims: to identify where people with dementia and their carers currently access dementia-related information from; to determine how accessible, credible and comprehensible people with dementia and their carers consider the available sources of information; and to determine how people with dementia and their carers would like to receive information. An online or postal survey was completed by 171 female and 41 male participants with a close family member or friend with dementia. Accessibility above quality held the greatest influence over an individual’s use of an information source. Participants preferred relational sources such as healthcare professionals as these were able to give individualised information, yet these were poorly accessible and lacked dementia specific knowledge. Therefore, individuals used non-relational sources such as the internet. However, increased use of the internet was linked to feeling overwhelmed by information. It was not the end result of the information search but the effort taken to reach the information that influenced participant’s perception of information gathering. Future research should look at ways of designing and providing accessible information sources that act and feel like relational contact

Designing the user experience for new modes of electric vehicle charging: A shared vision, potential user issues and user attitudes

ELECTRIC VEHICLE (EV) uptake has been increasing greatly and steadily over recent years. Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G), is an emerging energy system, with the potential to reduce peak loads and support the balance of the electricity grid. To benefit the 34% of the UK population without off-street parking, street furniture charging solutions have been developed. This requires the design of new services and digital interactions for buying, and selling back, electricity to the grid, leading to new customer experiences. The ultimate goal of this research is to understand and design these new user experiences. The overall system is complex, involving energy flows, financial flows, new technology, consumer interaction, and consumer acceptance. To explore the potential issues of a V2G-supported EV charging system and examine consumers’ attitudes towards such system, a mixed-methods approach was employed. Part 1 of this paper specifically explores the creation of a holistic vision of consumers, EVs, street furniture charging solutions, and V2G. A workshop was organised with 22 participants from across the different specialisms within the project team. Consumer motivations, enablers, and barriers were explored. Part 2 of this paper examines consumer attitudes and intention-to-buy based on a scenario of V2G system, which was created with the foundation of the outcome from Part 1. Consumers showed positive views towards EV adoption, while the intention-to-buy V2G-supported EV charging system varied. Consumers tended to be cautious about making a full commitment to V2G packages. This paper also discusses the design implications for future research and practitioners

What passengers really want: Assessing the value of rail innovation to improve experiences

Technology has the potential to provide more up-to-date information and customised services to train passengers and therefore improve the rail journey experience. However, there is a lack knowledge about which innovations and services are preferred by the travelling public. The purpose of this study was to understand the value which passengers placed on technological innovations to improve the overall passenger journey experience. A conjoint analysis survey based on the best-worst scale of preference was developed to evaluate how passengers (N = 398) value different system features proposed to improve passenger experience in the UK. Results show that the automatic compensation for delayed or cancelled trains was valued the highest, and the ability to pre-order special services ranked as least value from a set of ten features. Additional results include the segmentation of responses according to passenger type (commuters, business and leisure) and the similarities and differences in responses from the public versus those working directly in the rail industry. The insights gained from this study suggest which features should be prioritised to improve rail passenger journey experiences

Holistic outcome-based approach towards sustainable healthcare: aligning the system purpose through system visualisation

Presentation at Relating Systems Thinking and Design (RSD7) in Turin Italy. Abstract: Various stakeholders in the complex healthcare systems often prioritise and pursue different purposes, values and outcomes. Understanding/sharing/negotiating the trade-offs between them is a critical action in the development and design of complex healthcare systems. Some approaches like work domain analysis or soft systems methodology attempted to map the complex interactions, but it remains unclear how those maps and visualisations are in line with how people conceptualise in practice. This study aims to explore how designers visualise complex system interactions using healthcare outcomes to define the purpose. A workshop was conducted with 23 designers to generate outcome-based visualisations. The results indicate that designers conceptualise the purpose of the healthcare systems in different ways. Complexity was expressed through organic circles and messy arrows. However, support elements are needed to conduct open visualisations. These results may play a role in developing a visualisation-based method to address the complexity of purpose definition in healthcare

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

Holistic outcome-based visualisations for defining the purpose of healthcare system

Various stakeholders in the complex healthcare systems often prioritise and pursue different purposes, values and outcomes. Understanding/sharing/negotiating the trade-offs between them is a critical action in the development and design of complex healthcare systems. Some approaches like work domain analysis or soft systems methodology attempted to map the complex interactions, but it remains unclear how those maps and visualisations are in line with how people conceptualise in practice. This study aims to explore how designers visualise complex system interactions using healthcare outcomes to define the purpose. A workshop was conducted with 23 designers to generate outcome-based visualisations. The results indicate that designers conceptualise the purpose of the healthcare systems in different ways. Complexity was expressed through organic circles and messy arrows. However, support elements are needed to conduct open visualisations. These results may play a role in developing a visualisation-based method to address the complexity of purpose definition in healthcare

User expectations of partial driving automation capabilities and their effect on information design preferences in the vehicle

Partially automated vehicles present interface design challenges in ensuring the driver remains alert should the vehicle need to hand back control at short notice, but without exposing the driver to cognitive overload. To date, little is known about driver expectations of partial driving automation and whether this affects the information they require inside the vehicle. Twenty-five participants were presented with five partially automated driving events in a driving simulator. After each event, a semi-structured interview was conducted. The interview data was coded and analysed using grounded theory. From the results, two groupings of driver expectations were identified: High Information Preference (HIP) and Low Information Preference (LIP) drivers; between these two groups the information preferences differed. LIP drivers did not want detailed information about the vehicle presented to them, but the definition of partial automation means that this kind of information is required for safe use. Hence, the results suggest careful thought as to how information is presented to them is required in order for LIP drivers to safely using partial driving automation. Conversely, HIP drivers wanted detailed information about the system’s status and driving and were found to be more willing to work with the partial automation and its current limitations. It was evident that the drivers’ expectations of the partial automation capability differed, and this affected their information preferences. Hence this study suggests that HMI designers must account for these differing expectations and preferences to create a safe, usable system that works for everyone

Using the ideas café to explore trust in autonomous vehicles

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2019. Trust has been shown to play a key role in our ability to safely use autonomous vehicles; hence the authors used the Ideas Café to explore the factors affecting trust in autonomous vehicles. The Ideas Café is an informal collaborative event that brings the public together with domain experts for exploratory research. The authors structured the event around factors affecting trust in the technology, privacy and societal impact. The event followed a mixed methods approach using: table discussions, spectrum lines and line ups. 36 participants attended the Ideas Café event held at the Coventry Transport Museum in June 2017. Table discussions provided the key findings for Thematic Analysis as part of Grounded Theory; which found, contrary to current research trends, designing for the technology’s integration with society as equally important for trust as the vehicle design itself. The authors also reported on the emergent high level interface guidelines

DRS2020 Editorial: theme Situations

Situations are an emergent theme in design research that reflect the community’s increasing awareness of positionality, diverse circumstances and contexts. How is design research situated in cross-disciplinary collaboration, navigating cultures, diversity, ethics, sense of place and sense of materials, and the habits of different design communities? Under which conditions does design research flourish and is it able to help create positive impact? What are the dynamics between design research, governments and industry contexts

DRS2020 Editorial: theme Co-creation

Co-creation in all its forms – including participatory design, collaborative design, and co- design is continually an enduring theme at recent DRS Conferences, receiving a large number of submissions. Design researchers increasingly collaborate and co-create with other fields such as healthcare, engineering, political science, social sciences and with a wide variety of societal stakeholders and issues such as wellbeing, in addition to addressing developments such as networked, embedded and intelligent technologies. How can design research engage with people, other fields and support new interdisciplinary ways of working