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Ease of entry and exit is important for creating a positive first impression of a car and to increase customer satisfaction. Several methods are used within vehicle development to optimise ease of entry and exit, including CAD reviews, benchmarking and buck trials. However, there is an industry trend towards digital methods to reduce the costs and time associated with developing physical prototypes. This paper reports on a study of entry strategy in three properties (buck, car, CAVE) in which inconsistencies were demonstrated by people entering a vehicle representation in the CAVE. In a second study industry practitioners rated the CAVE as worse than physical methods for identifying entry and exit issues, and having lower perceived validity and reliability. However, the resource issues associated with building bucks were recognised. Recommendations are made for developing the CAVE and for combinations of methods for use at different stages of a vehicle’s development.

This paper reports a study which demonstrates the advantages of using virtual-reality based systems for training automotive assembly tasks. Sixty participants were randomly assigned to one of the following three training experience to learn a car service procedure: i) observational training through video instruction; ii) an experiential virtual training and trial in a CAVE; and iii) an experiential virtual training and trial through a portable 3D interactive table. Results show that virtual trained participants, after the training, can remember significantly better (p <.05) the correct execution of the steps compared to video-trained trainees. No significant differences were identified between the experiential groups neither in terms of post-training performances nor in terms of proficiency, despite differences in the interaction devices. The relevance of the outcomes for the automotive fields and for the designers of virtual training applications are discussed in light of the outcomes, particularly that virtual training experienced through a portable device such as the interactive table can be effective, as can training performed in a CAVE. This suggests the possibility for automotive industries to invest in advanced portable hardware to deliver effectively long-distance programmes of training for car service operators placed all over the world.

This article presents a comparative review of the knowledge base regarding human behaviour in emergencies for both aviation and rail domains. Generic models of human behaviour in emergency situations are introduced and specific attention is then focussed on methods of behaviour prediction, exhibited behaviours in emergencies and methods of aiding evacuation across both modes of transport. Using established knowledge from the aviation domain, it has been possible to make observations and comparisons about the rail domain. Traditionally, the aviation domain has been a major focus of research attention and this is used to inform and interpret the rail domain. By drawing comparisons across these domains for human behaviour in emergency situations, the observations are discussed along with recommendations for future policies/planning for emergencies and future research areas.

Virtual Reality (VR) can reduce time and costs, and lead to increases in quality, in the development of a product. Given the pressure on car companies to reduce time-to-market and to continually improve quality, the automotive industry has championed the use of VR across a number of applications, including design, manufacturing, and training. This paper describes interviews with 11 engineers and employees of allied disciplines from an automotive manufacturer about their current physical and virtual properties and processes. The results guided a review of research findings and scientific advances from the academic literature, which formed the basis of recommendations for future developments of VR technologies and applications. These include: develop a greater range of virtual contexts; use multi-sensory simulation; address perceived differences between virtual and real cars; improve motion capture capabilities; implement networked 3D technology; and use VR for market research.

This paper presents a systematic review which explores the nature of assistive technologies currently being designed, developed and evaluated for dementia sufferers and their carers. A search through four large databases, followed by filtering by relevance, led to the identification and subsequent review of papers. Our review revealed that the majority of research in this area focuses on the support of day-to-day living activities, safety monitoring, memory aids and preventing social isolation. We conclude that the majority of AT currently available support day-to-day living activities, safety monitoring and assisting healthcare. However these devices merely address the ‘ease of living’ rather than focusing on ‘quality of life’. Although there are some devices which address social symptoms of Dementia, few address behavioural issues such as aggression and virtually none are available to support recreational activities. After discussing the implications of these findings, we finally reflect on general design issues for assistive technologies in this domain that became apparent during the review.

This paper reports a study which demonstrates the advantages of using virtual-reality based systems for training automotive assembly tasks. Sixty participants were randomly assigned to one of the following three training experience to learn a car service procedure: i) observational training through video instruction; ii) an experiential virtual training and trial in a CAVE; and iii) an experiential virtual training and trial through a portable 3D interactive table. Results show that virtual trained participants, after the training, can remember significantly better (p <.05) the correct execution of the steps compared to video-trained trainees. No significant differences were identified between the experiential groups neither in terms of post-training performances nor in terms of proficiency, despite differences in the interaction devices. The relevance of the outcomes for the automotive fields and for the designers of virtual training applications are discussed in light of the outcomes, particularly that virtual training experienced through a portable device such as the interactive table can be effective, as can training performed in a CAVE. This suggests the possibility for automotive industries to invest in advanced portable hardware to deliver effectively long-distance programmes of training for car service operators placed all over the world.

The outcome of an emergency is largely determined by the behaviour of the people involved. To improve the safety of buildings and to increase the effectiveness of response procedures and training programmes it is often necessary to predict human behaviour in emergency situations. There are several approaches which can be used to make these predictions, but not all had previously been systematically analysed and therefore their appropriateness for any given application was unknown. This thesis describes an analysis of approaches for predicting human behaviour in emergencies. The research focussed on approaches which could be used by human factors professionals to extend the contribution this systems-oriented and user-focussed discipline can make to managing risks and reducing danger. The investigated approaches were evaluated against criteria for judging their quality, including validity, reliability, resources, sensitivity and ethics. In research conducted to test the approaches, fire drills, virtual environments (VEs) and a new talk-through approach, in which participants describe the hypothetical actions they would take in an emergency scenario, demonstrated potential for predicting behaviour in emergency situations. These approaches were subsequently evaluated in a standardised comparison, in which each one was applied to analyse the behaviour demonstrated during an evacuation from a university building. The observed frequencies of behaviour produced by each approach were significantly correlated, as were the sequences of behaviour. All of the approaches demonstrated replicability. The resources required to apply each approach were relatively low, especially for the talk-through approach. Based on the findings from this research, and drawing upon previous work from the scientific literature, guidance was provided for selecting approaches and methods for behavioural prediction in emergency situations. The talk-through approach is suitable for use during the concep

This paper presents development work on a new approach for predicting the human response to an emergency situation. The study builds upon an initial investigation in which 20 participants were asked to predict what actions they would take in the event of a domestic fire [1]. The development work involved a retest with an additional 20 participants to investigate the reliability of the approach. Furthermore, the analysis procedure was improved such that the results represented more accurately those which could be obtained from practical application of the approach. As found in the initial investigation, the frequencies and sequences of the reported acts had significant relationships with a study of behavior in real fires [2] (Spearman’s rho: 0.323, N=55, p<0.05) and (Spearman’s rho: 0.340, N=37, p<0.05), respectively. Further development work is required, but the results indicate that the approach may have use for predicting human behavior in emergencies.

This paper presents a study conducted for the Shades of Grey EPSRC research project (EP/H02302X/1), which aims to develop a suite of interventions for identifying terrorist activities. The study investigated the body movements demonstrated by participants while waiting to be interviewed, in one of two conditions: preparing to lie or preparing to tell the truth. The effect of self-awareness was also investigated, with half of the participants sitting in front of a full length mirror during the waiting period. The other half faced a blank wall. A significant interaction was found for the duration of hand/arm movements between the deception and self-awareness conditions (F=4.335, df=1;76, p<0.05). Without a mirror, participants expecting to lie spent less time moving their hands than those expecting to tell the truth; the opposite was seen in the presence of a mirror. This finding indicates a new research area worth further investigation.

This paper presents a case study of an approach for predicting the human response to a domestic fire, using a combination of a talk-through technique (Kirwan and Ainsworth, 1992) and sequential analysis (Bakeman and Gottman, 1986). 20 participants were asked what actions they would take upon hearing a strange noise in their house, which they were later told was a fire. Each act was recorded and the results were compared to previous research in which people involved in real fires had been interviewed (Canter et al, 1980). A significant relationship was found between the frequency (Spearman’s rho: 0.694, p<0.01) and sequence (Spearman’s rho: 0.441, p<0.05) of acts in this study and those from the interviews with people involved in real fires. More work is needed to develop the approach, but this case study indicates that it might have use as a low-cost method which can be used to predict behaviour in an emergency.

This paper describes the on-going development of a method to elicit perceptions of design ideas for social technologies, through automatically tailoring scenarios presented in online surveys using information gathered from respondents. The work has been driven by a desire to understand perceptions of various information sharing technologies for the home, across a broad population. Reviewing literature in this area from HCI and beyond, we find potential value in generating scenarios that are tailored to each respondent’s own household. We explore the results of a study using this method (n=79) and discuss initial comparisons with the results of studies using alternative methods.

This paper presents a study conducted for the Shades of Grey EPSRC research project (EP/H02302X/1), which aims to develop a suite of interventions for identifying terrorist activities. The study investigated the body movements demonstrated by participants while waiting to be interviewed, in one of two conditions: preparing to lie or preparing to tell the truth. The effect of self-awareness was also investigated, with half of the participants sitting in front of a full length mirror during the waiting period. The other half faced a blank wall. A significant interaction was found for the duration of hand/arm movements between the deception and self-awareness conditions (F=4.335, df=1;76, p<0.05). Without a mirror, participants expecting to lie spent less time moving their hands than those expecting to tell the truth; the opposite was seen in the presence of a mirror. This finding indicates a new research area worth further investigation.

This paper presents development work on a new approach for predicting the human response to an emergency situation. The study builds upon an initial investigation in which 20 participants were asked to predict what actions they would take in the event of a domestic fire [1]. The development work involved a retest with an additional 20 participants to investigate the reliability of the approach. Furthermore, the analysis procedure was improved such that the results represented more accurately those which could be obtained from practical application of the approach. As found in the initial investigation, the frequencies and sequences of the reported acts had significant relationships with a study of behavior in real fires [2] (Spearman’s rho: 0.323, N=55, p<0.05) and (Spearman’s rho: 0.340, N=37, p<0.05), respectively. Further development work is required, but the results indicate that the approach may have use for predicting human behavior in emergencies.

This paper presents a case study of an approach for predicting the human response to a domestic fire, using a combination of a talk-through technique (Kirwan and Ainsworth, 1992) and sequential analysis (Bakeman and Gottman, 1986). 20 participants were asked what actions they would take upon hearing a strange noise in their house, which they were later told was a fire. Each act was recorded and the results were compared to previous research in which people involved in real fires had been interviewed (Canter et al, 1980). A significant relationship was found between the frequency (Spearman’s rho: 0.694, p<0.01) and sequence (Spearman’s rho: 0.441, p<0.05) of acts in this study and those from the interviews with people involved in real fires. More work is needed to develop the approach, but this case study indicates that it might have use as a low-cost method which can be used to predict behaviour in an emergency.

The Internet of Things (IoT) presents huge potential for designing new technologies. However it is not yet clear which of these technologies will actually be accepted as a part of our everyday lives. Alongside the development of prototypes and exploratory evaluations, other research methods could be useful in eliciting responses to future visions, and developing implications that can inform design. In this paper we explore factors that could affect the acceptance of IoT technologies in the home. We present a review of relevant literature from human factors, HCI, sociology and psychology, and analyse the results of a survey in which participants were presented with scenarios of near-future IoT systems in use in the home. Based on this, we develop an initial set of design principles for IoT technologies in the home.

New forms of connections between information and the physical world create opportunities for novel activities around heritage. This paper analyses a technological progression from linking data and content to locations, towards data captured by and linked to everyday objects. The former is exemplified by a study which explored community-based inquiry activities at a historical cemetery site. To explore the latter, we are developing a series of scenarios and visualisations to analyse peoples’ interpretations of contextual footprints – current and historical data gathered through the Internet of Things.

The behavioral experiment presented in this paper investigated deception tasks (both concealment and lying) undertaken in a public space. The degree of risk of deception detection and the demands of self-regulation when deceiving were manipulated. The results showed a significant interaction effect between veracity and risk of deception detection, emerged for the body movement of “hand(s) in pocket(s)”. The incidence of “hand(s) in pocket(s)” was found to increase from truth telling to deceiving conditions when the risk of deception detection was higher, and to decrease from truth telling to deceiving conditions when the risk was lower. Higher risk of deception detection was also found in magnifying the “overall negative and controlled impression” displayed by both deceivers and truth tellers, compared to the lower risk of detection condition. We also discussed the possible effects of risk of deception detection and depletion of self-regulation, on deception behavior. Further studies and the connection between this study and the research community of computer vision and multimodel interaction is also discussed.

There are many situations in which deception may arise and understanding the behaviors associated with it are compounded by various contexts in which it may occur. This paper sets out a coding protocol for identifying cues to deception and reports on three studies, in which deception was studied in different contexts. The contexts involved manipulating risks (i.e., probability) of being detected and reconnaissance, both of which are related to terrorist activities. Two of the studies examined the impact of changing the risks of deception detection, whilst the third investigated increased cognitive demand of duplex deception tasks including reconnaissance and deception. In all three studies, cues to deception were analyzed in relation to observable body movements and subjective impressions given by participants. In general, the results indicate a pattern of hand movement reduction by deceivers, and suggest the notion that raising the risk of detection influences deceivers? behaviors. Participants in the higher risk condition displayed increased negative affect (found in deceivers) and tension (found in both deceivers and truth-tellers) than those in lower risk conditions.

This paper presents a critical review of several applications of drama-related methods of design, discussing their benefits and limitations and providing comment on practical aspects of their implementation. Drama-related methods can shed light on the contexts in which a new product will be used, helping to clarify any potential issues users may have with the design. These methods can improve communication and facilitate more fruitful collaboration between the various stakeholders. Improvisation can be used to improve the effectiveness and reliability of brainstorming sessions. However, the level of acting skill required of the participants needs consideration, and must be appropriate to the purpose of the evaluation. Also, drama methods generally add resources to the design process, and there is a lack of validation studies of tangible improvements to the designed product. We provide recommendations for design-drama approaches with the potential to benefit different stages of a product’s development.

A study was conducted to investigate the body movements of participants waiting to be interviewed in one of two conditions: preparing to answer questions truthfully or preparing to lie. The effects of increased self-awareness were also investigated, with half of the participants facing a mirror; the other half facing a blank wall. Analysis of covertly obtained video footage showed a significant interaction for the duration of hand/arm movements between deception level and self-awareness. Without a mirror, participants expecting to lie spent less time moving their hands than those expecting to tell the truth; the opposite was seen in the presence of a mirror. Participants expecting to lie also had higher levels of anxiety and thought that they were left waiting for less time than those expecting to tell the truth. These findings led to the identification of further research areas with the potential to support deception detection in security applications.

This paper discusses the practical implications of applying cultural probes to drive the design of assistive technologies. Specifically we describe a study in which a probe was deployed with home based carers of people with dementia in order to capture critical data and gain insights of integrating the technologies into this sensitive and socially complex design space. To represent and utilise the insights gained from the cultural probes, we created narratives based on the probe data to enhance the design of assistive technologies.

The ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) can be expected to radically increase the amount of potentially sensitive data gathered in our homes. This study explores the social implications of the presentation of data that could be collected within the household. In particular, it focuses on how ambiguities in these data, combined with existing interpersonal relationships, could influence social dynamics. Thirty-five participants were each presented with three separate household scenarios, involving ambiguous data that were collected and presented via near-future IoT technologies. Each participant was asked to respond to a series of open and closed questions about how they would interpret the data, how they would react to it and their general opinions of the technologies presented. Through qualitative and quantitative analysis of their responses, we contribute an understanding of how people interpret information about those around them. We find a common willingness to make inferences based on ambiguities within the data, even when participants are aware of the limitations of their understanding. We also find that sharing data produced via tagging of everyday objects raises a high level of privacy concern, and that, in a somewhat incoherent stance, users are more comfortable in sharing data publicly than in a targeted fashion with commercial organizations. Our findings also suggest that the age of the target user group has a greater effect on ease of use judgements than the nature of the technology, and we find some evidence that user’s interpretations can be biased by an individual’s age.

Participation in forms of drama and narrative can provoke empathy and creativity in user-centred design processes. In this paper, we expand upon existing methods to explore the potential for responsive scripted experiences that are delivered through the combination of sensors and output devices placed in a home. The approach is being developed in the context of Dementia care, where the capacity for rich user participation in design activities is limited. In this case, a system can act as a proxy for a person with Dementia, allowing designers to gain experiences and insight as to what it is like to provide care for, and live with, this person. We describe the rationale behind the approach, a prototype system architecture, and our current work to explore the creation of scripted experiences for design, played out though UbiComp technologies.

The outcome of an emergency is largely determined by the behaviour of the people involved. To improve the safety of buildings and to increase the effectiveness of response procedures and training programmes it is often necessary to predict human behaviour in emergency situations. There are several approaches which can be used to make these predictions, but not all had previously been systematically analysed and therefore their appropriateness for any given application was unknown. This thesis describes an analysis of approaches for predicting human behaviour in emergencies. The research focussed on approaches which could be used by human factors professionals to extend the contribution this systems-oriented and user-focussed discipline can make to managing risks and reducing danger. The investigated approaches were evaluated against criteria for judging their quality, including validity, reliability, resources, sensitivity and ethics. In research conducted to test the approaches, fire drills, virtual environments (VEs) and a new talk-through approach, in which participants describe the hypothetical actions they would take in an emergency scenario, demonstrated potential for predicting behaviour in emergency situations. These approaches were subsequently evaluated in a standardised comparison, in which each one was applied to analyse the behaviour demonstrated during an evacuation from a university building. The observed frequencies of behaviour produced by each approach were significantly correlated, as were the sequences of behaviour. All of the approaches demonstrated replicability. The resources required to apply each approach were relatively low, especially for the talk-through approach. Based on the findings from this research, and drawing upon previous work from the scientific literature, guidance was provided for selecting approaches and methods for behavioural prediction in emergency situations. The talk-through approach is suitable for use during the concep

This report investigates how different generations within a household interpret individual members’ data generated by the Internet of Things (IoT). Adopting a mixed methods approach, we are interested in interpretations of the IoT by teenagers, their parents and grandparents, and how they understand and interact with the kinds of data that might be generated by IoT devices. The first part of this document is a technical review that outlines the key existing and envisaged technologies that make up the IoT. It explores the definition and scope of the Internet of Things. Hardware, networking, intelligent objects and Human-Computer Interaction implications are all discussed in detail. The second section focuses on the human perspective, looking at psychological and sociological issues relating to the interpretation of information generated by the IoT. Areas such as privacy, data ambiguity, ageism, and confirmation bias are explored. The third section brings both aspects together, examining how technical and social aspects of the IoT interact in four specific application domains: energy monitoring, groceries and shopping, physical gaming, and sharing experiences. This section also presents three household scenarios developed to communicate and explore the complexities of integrating IoT technologies into family life. The final section draws together all the findings and suggests future research.

The outcome of an emergency is largely determined by the behaviour of the people involved. To improve the safety of buildings and to increase the effectiveness of response procedures and training programmes it is often necessary to predict human behaviour in emergency situations. There are several approaches which can be used to make these predictions, but not all had previously been systematically analysed and therefore their appropriateness for any given application was unknown. This thesis describes an analysis of approaches for predicting human behaviour in emergencies. The research focussed on approaches which could be used by human factors professionals to extend the contribution this systems-oriented and user-focussed discipline can make to managing risks and reducing danger. The investigated approaches were evaluated against criteria for judging their quality, including validity, reliability, resources, sensitivity and ethics. In research conducted to test the approaches, fire drills, virtual environments (VEs) and a new talk-through approach, in which participants describe the hypothetical actions they would take in an emergency scenario, demonstrated potential for predicting behaviour in emergency situations. These approaches were subsequently evaluated in a standardised comparison, in which each one was applied to analyse the behaviour demonstrated during an evacuation from a university building. The observed frequencies of behaviour produced by each approach were significantly correlated, as were the sequences of behaviour. All of the approaches demonstrated replicability. The resources required to apply each approach were relatively low, especially for the talk-through approach. Based on the findings from this research, and drawing upon previous work from the scientific literature, guidance was provided for selecting approaches and methods for behavioural prediction in emergency situations. The talk-through approach is suitable for use during the concep

This report investigates how different generations within a household interpret individual members’ data generated by the Internet of Things (IoT). Adopting a mixed methods approach, we are interested in interpretations of the IoT by teenagers, their parents and grandparents, and how they understand and interact with the kinds of data that might be generated by IoT devices. The first part of this document is a technical review that outlines the key existing and envisaged technologies that make up the IoT. It explores the definition and scope of the Internet of Things. Hardware, networking, intelligent objects and Human-Computer Interaction implications are all discussed in detail. The second section focuses on the human perspective, looking at psychological and sociological issues relating to the interpretation of information generated by the IoT. Areas such as privacy, data ambiguity, ageism, and confirmation bias are explored. The third section brings both aspects together, examining how technical and social aspects of the IoT interact in four specific application domains: energy monitoring, groceries and shopping, physical gaming, and sharing experiences. This section also presents three household scenarios developed to communicate and explore the complexities of integrating IoT technologies into family life. The final section draws together all the findings and suggests future research.

A study was conducted to investigate the body movements of participants waiting to be interviewed in one of two conditions: preparing to answer questions truthfully or preparing to lie. The effects of increased self-awareness were also investigated, with half of the participants facing a mirror; the other half facing a blank wall. Analysis of covertly obtained video footage showed a significant interaction for the duration of hand/arm movements between deception level and self-awareness. Without a mirror, participants expecting to lie spent less time moving their hands than those expecting to tell the truth; the opposite was seen in the presence of a mirror. Participants expecting to lie also had higher levels of anxiety and thought that they were left waiting for less time than those expecting to tell the truth. These findings led to the identification of further research areas with the potential to support deception detection in security applications.

The behavioral experiment presented in this paper investigated deception tasks (both concealment and lying) undertaken in a public space. The degree of risk of deception detection and the demands of self-regulation when deceiving were manipulated. The results showed a significant interaction effect between veracity and risk of deception detection, emerged for the body movement of “hand(s) in pocket(s)”. The incidence of “hand(s) in pocket(s)” was found to increase from truth telling to deceiving conditions when the risk of deception detection was higher, and to decrease from truth telling to deceiving conditions when the risk was lower. Higher risk of deception detection was also found in magnifying the “overall negative and controlled impression” displayed by both deceivers and truth tellers, compared to the lower risk of detection condition. We also discussed the possible effects of risk of deception detection and depletion of self-regulation, on deception behavior. Further studies and the connection between this study and the research community of computer vision and multimodel interaction is also discussed.

There are many situations in which deception may arise and understanding the behaviors associated with it are compounded by various contexts in which it may occur. This paper sets out a coding protocol for identifying cues to deception and reports on three studies, in which deception was studied in different contexts. The contexts involved manipulating risks (i.e., probability) of being detected and reconnaissance, both of which are related to terrorist activities. Two of the studies examined the impact of changing the risks of deception detection, whilst the third investigated increased cognitive demand of duplex deception tasks including reconnaissance and deception. In all three studies, cues to deception were analyzed in relation to observable body movements and subjective impressions given by participants. In general, the results indicate a pattern of hand movement reduction by deceivers, and suggest the notion that raising the risk of detection influences deceivers? behaviors. Participants in the higher risk condition displayed increased negative affect (found in deceivers) and tension (found in both deceivers and truth-tellers) than those in lower risk conditions.

This paper presents a critical review of several applications of drama-related methods of design, discussing their benefits and limitations and providing comment on practical aspects of their implementation. Drama-related methods can shed light on the contexts in which a new product will be used, helping to clarify any potential issues users may have with the design. These methods can improve communication and facilitate more fruitful collaboration between the various stakeholders. Improvisation can be used to improve the effectiveness and reliability of brainstorming sessions. However, the level of acting skill required of the participants needs consideration, and must be appropriate to the purpose of the evaluation. Also, drama methods generally add resources to the design process, and there is a lack of validation studies of tangible improvements to the designed product. We provide recommendations for design-drama approaches with the potential to benefit different stages of a product’s development.

This paper discusses the practical implications of applying cultural probes to drive the design of assistive technologies. Specifically we describe a study in which a probe was deployed with home based carers of people with dementia in order to capture critical data and gain insights of integrating the technologies into this sensitive and socially complex design space. To represent and utilise the insights gained from the cultural probes, we created narratives based on the probe data to enhance the design of assistive technologies.

The ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) can be expected to radically increase the amount of potentially sensitive data gathered in our homes. This study explores the social implications of the presentation of data that could be collected within the household. In particular, it focuses on how ambiguities in these data, combined with existing interpersonal relationships, could influence social dynamics. Thirty-five participants were each presented with three separate household scenarios, involving ambiguous data that were collected and presented via near-future IoT technologies. Each participant was asked to respond to a series of open and closed questions about how they would interpret the data, how they would react to it and their general opinions of the technologies presented. Through qualitative and quantitative analysis of their responses, we contribute an understanding of how people interpret information about those around them. We find a common willingness to make inferences based on ambiguities within the data, even when participants are aware of the limitations of their understanding. We also find that sharing data produced via tagging of everyday objects raises a high level of privacy concern, and that, in a somewhat incoherent stance, users are more comfortable in sharing data publicly than in a targeted fashion with commercial organizations. Our findings also suggest that the age of the target user group has a greater effect on ease of use judgements than the nature of the technology, and we find some evidence that user’s interpretations can be biased by an individual’s age.

The Internet of Things (IoT) presents huge potential for designing new technologies. However it is not yet clear which of these technologies will actually be accepted as a part of our everyday lives. Alongside the development of prototypes and exploratory evaluations, other research methods could be useful in eliciting responses to future visions, and developing implications that can inform design. In this paper we explore factors that could affect the acceptance of IoT technologies in the home. We present a review of relevant literature from human factors, HCI, sociology and psychology, and analyse the results of a survey in which participants were presented with scenarios of near-future IoT systems in use in the home. Based on this, we develop an initial set of design principles for IoT technologies in the home.

Participation in forms of drama and narrative can provoke empathy and creativity in user-centred design processes. In this paper, we expand upon existing methods to explore the potential for responsive scripted experiences that are delivered through the combination of sensors and output devices placed in a home. The approach is being developed in the context of Dementia care, where the capacity for rich user participation in design activities is limited. In this case, a system can act as a proxy for a person with Dementia, allowing designers to gain experiences and insight as to what it is like to provide care for, and live with, this person. We describe the rationale behind the approach, a prototype system architecture, and our current work to explore the creation of scripted experiences for design, played out though UbiComp technologies.

New forms of connections between information and the physical world create opportunities for novel activities around heritage. This paper analyses a technological progression from linking data and content to locations, towards data captured by and linked to everyday objects. The former is exemplified by a study which explored community-based inquiry activities at a historical cemetery site. To explore the latter, we are developing a series of scenarios and visualisations to analyse peoples’ interpretations of contextual footprints – current and historical data gathered through the Internet of Things.

Culture plays an essential role in the success of product design, especially in the age of a global economy where there is a high probability of discrepancy between the designer's intention and the consumer's response. However, the role of culture is often challenging to identify and measure. In the current paper, we employed Repertory Grids (RG) to investigate differences in UK and Chinese participants' evaluations of designs, which were themselves from both UK and Chinese students. The techniques of Honey's Content Analysis (HCA) and Principal Components Analysis (PCA) were applied to integrate the analysis of both the collected qualitative and quantitative data. The results show that the two groups tended to focus on a similar range of design aspects (i.e. aesthetics, form/shape, usability, creativity, and functionality), but apply different criteria in evaluating such aspects.The UK and Chinese designs were found to be distinctive from each other and tended to appeal more to the people from the same cultural background. The findings reveal the interplay between culture and design and underline the importance of integrating culture into design education.

Thousands of small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs) employees in Indonesian tin mining companies work in dangerous environments without sufficient safety and health protections. This study’s aim was to investigate the identified factors, such as difficulty in communication among stakeholders (owner, manager, and worker), and workers’ negative attitudes towards and lack of knowledge in the use of personal protective equipment that inhibit the implementation of Participatory Ergonomics in Indonesian tin mining companies. Eighteen participants from five SMEs, encompassing three different roles, i.e. worker, owner and manager, participated in the interview study. The study revealed that the dissemination of occupational safety through a kinship approach and specific safety training were preferred to resolve communication, cultural and knowledge problems. The provision of clear definitions of roles and tasks and the allocation of time and resources were suggested as ways to empower workers and supervisors.

This paper presents part of the outcomes of a programme of research into the influence of the thermal environment on human behaviour in an outdoor public seating area. The research was conducted during one month in summer, autumn and winter of 2015 and 2016. The data gathered consists in the conduct of people using a public square in Nottingham city centre, and measurements of the environmental conditions taken at that place. The data of Number of People and the Size of Groups of people, were analysed according with the thermal environment of the place. The results showed a strong significant correlation between Number of People and Globe Temperature_sun [r = .66, p < .001]. A multiple regression analysis found that the Number of People per minute in a public space can be predicted using the Globe Temperature_sun and the Wind Speed data of that place [R-square of .39, p < 0.001]. These prediction models can be used to forecast the occupancy of the place and the grouping of users under different environmental conditions. The results can assist the design of urban spaces by allowing testing their future use with predicted data of human behaviour. In addition, the data obtained will serve as a foundation for further research about the human behaviour in public spaces.

Virtual Reality technologies are available at a lower cost than ever before. However, such systems are developed mainly for the consumer market, and inaccuracies in spatial judgements may make them unsuitable for specific applications like Engineering Design. There is evidence to suggest that the addition of haptic feedback may improve spatial judgements, but most commercially available haptic systems are impractical and unaffordable outside of specialist research settings and large enterprises. We describe the challenges for developing a multimodal VR system using only low-cost off-the-shelf technologies, and demonstrate a working prototype of a system which aims to overcome these issues.

This case study documents the process followed to produce an alternative design of fire extinguisher. The work focuses on how informative data can be gathered for an ethically challenging product scenario through the use of a range of user-centred research methods, including: literature review; product evaluation; shadowing study; empathy study; expert interview; focus groups; and simulation equipment. Design improvements as a consequence of this process include: reductions in size and weight; refillable cartridges; single-handed operation; intuitive form; minimal clean up post-use; and better portability.

A study was conducted to investigate the accuracy of perceptions of a car load space in a CAVE virtual environment. A total of 46 participants rated load space width, height, depth, usability and overall capacity after viewing either a virtual Range Rover Evoque in the CAVE or the real car. Participants were also asked to estimate how many 100mm3 blocks could fit in the load space in width, depth or height. The only significant difference was in usability, which was rated higher in the CAVE. There was no systematic over- or under-estimation of distances in the virtual environment. Equivalence was demonstrated for width and depth in the block estimation task. The results suggest that virtual environments can be used for car load space design, particularly for estimates of size, but further work is required to be confident that subjective ratings of virtual properties are equivalent to those of real vehicles.

In industrially developing countries (IDC), small and medium enterprises (SMEs) account for the highest proprotion of employment. Unfortunately, the working conditions in SMEs are often very poor and expose employees to a potentially wide range of health and safety risks. This paper presents a comprehensive review of 161 articles related to ergonomics application in SMEs, using Indonesia as a case study. The aim of this paper is to investigate the extent of ergonomics application and identify areas that can be improved to promote effective ergonomics for SMEs in IDC. The most urgent issue found is the need for adopting participatory approach in contrast to the commonly implemented top-down approach. Some good practices in ergonomics application were also revealed from the review, e.g. a multidisciplinary approach, unsophisticated and low-cost solutions, and recognising the importance of productivity. The review also found that more work is still required to achieve appropriate cross-cultural adaptation of ergonomics application. Practitioner Summary: Despite continuous efforts in addressing ergonomics issues in SMEs of IDC, workers are still exposed to poor work conditions. We reviewed factual-based evidence of current ergonomics application to inform future strategies of ergonomics in IDC, using Indonesia as a case study.

Automobile final assembly operators must be highly skilled to succeed in a low automation environment where multiple variants must be assembled in quick succession. This paper presents formal user studies conducted at OPEL and VOLVO Group to identify assembly training needs and a subset of requirements; and to explore potential features of a hypothetical game-based virtual training system. Stakeholder analysis, timeline analysis, link analysis, Hierarchical Task Analysis and thematic content analysis were used to analyse the results of interviews with various stakeholders (17 and 28 participants at OPEL and VOLVO, respectively). The results show that there is a strong case for the implementation of virtual training for assembly tasks. However, it was also revealed that stakeholders would prefer to use a virtual training to complement, rather than replace, training on pre-series vehicles.

This study investigates Chinese consumers’ adoption of the innovative 3D printing systems for small-scale manufacturing in home settings. Empirical studies were conducted in a survey with 256 participants. The number of significant determinants that affect an individual’s decision to adopt 3D printing systems has been identified by applying a model that integrates the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT). A number of moderation effects of demographic variables (e.g. gender, design background) on the association between motivational variables and participants’ adoption have also been analysed with factor analysis, structural equation modelling and hierarchical regression. Our results shed some light on the characteristics of early adopters of home 3D printing systems in China. This study contributes to the early understanding of Chinese consumers’ adoption of innovative 3D printing systems.

Evidence has shown that the trend of increasing obesity rates has continued in the last decade. Mobile phone applications, benefiting from their ubiquity, have been increasingly used to address this issue. In order to increase the applications’ acceptance and success, a design and development process that focuses on users, such as User-Centred Design, is necessary. This paper reviews reported studies that concern the design and development of mobile phone applications to prevent obesity, and analyses them from a User-Centred Design perspective. Based on the review results, strengths and weaknesses of the existing studies were identified. Identified strengths included: evidence of the inclusion of multidisciplinary skills and perspectives; user involvement in studies; and the adoption of iterative design practices. Weaknesses included the lack of specificity in the selection of end-users and inconsistent evaluation protocols. The review was concluded by outlining issues and research areas that need to be addressed in the future, including: greater understanding of the effectiveness of sharing data between peers; privacy; and guidelines for designing for behavioural change through mobile phone applications.

Heuristics evaluation is frequently employed to evaluate usability. While general heuristics are suitable to evaluate most user interfaces, there is still a need to establish heuristics for specific domains to ensure that their specific usability issues are identified. This paper presents a comprehensive review of 70 studies related to usability heuristics for specific domains. The aim of this paper is to review the processes that were applied to establish heuristics in specific domains and identify gaps in order to provide recommendations for future research and area of improvements. The most urgent issue found is the deficiency of validation effort following heuristics proposition and the lack of robustness and rigour of validation method adopted. Whether domain specific heuristics perform better or worse than general ones is inconclusive due to lack of validation quality and clarity on how to assess the effectiveness of heuristics for specific domains. The lack of validation quality also affects effort in improving existing heuristics for specific domain as their weaknesses are not addressed.

This paper reports a study which demonstrates the advantages of using virtual-reality based systems for training automotive assembly tasks. Sixty participants were randomly assigned to one of the following three training experience to learn a car service procedure: i) observational training through video instruction; ii) an experiential virtual training and trial in a CAVE; and iii) an experiential virtual training and trial through a portable 3D interactive table. Results show that virtual trained participants, after the training, can remember significantly better (p <.05) the correct execution of the steps compared to video-trained trainees. No significant differences were identified between the experiential groups neither in terms of post-training performances nor in terms of proficiency, despite differences in the interaction devices. The relevance of the outcomes for the automotive fields and for the designers of virtual training applications are discussed in light of the outcomes, particularly that virtual training experienced through a portable device such as the interactive table can be effective, as can training performed in a CAVE. This suggests the possibility for automotive industries to invest in advanced portable hardware to deliver effectively long-distance programmes of training for car service operators placed all over the world.

Ease of entry and exit is important for creating a positive first impression of a car and to increase customer satisfaction. Several methods are used within vehicle development to optimise ease of entry and exit, including CAD reviews, benchmarking and buck trials. However, there is an industry trend towards digital methods to reduce the costs and time associated with developing physical prototypes. This paper reports on a study of entry strategy in three properties (buck, car, CAVE) in which inconsistencies were demonstrated by people entering a vehicle representation in the CAVE. In a second study industry practitioners rated the CAVE as worse than physical methods for identifying entry and exit issues, and having lower perceived validity and reliability. However, the resource issues associated with building bucks were recognised. Recommendations are made for developing the CAVE and for combinations of methods for use at different stages of a vehicle’s development.