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The general aim of the work reported in this thesis is to investigate the viability of applying theories and principles from the field of natural language pragmatics to that of human-computer interaction. In pursuing this aim, the research falls broadly into three phases. The first of these is the exploitation and adaptation of the Gricean Cooperative Principle, its maxims and inferential rules to situations of computer use which do not employ natural language as the medium of communication. The purpose of this endeavour is to provide a novel and revealing analysis of non natural language interaction and to establish principles for dialogue design, the application of which enhance the quality of communication between system and user in such situations. The second phase concerns the application of the adapted Gricean principles to the design of a dialogue management system, intended to address some of the problems which other research has revealed users to experience in using the standard UNIX® shell interface. This second phase resulted in the production of the QDOS system, which is both a simulation of part of the UNIX® file system and an implementation of the proposed dialogue management system. This software acts as the vehicle for all subsequent evaluative exercises constituting the third phase. This takes the form of an evaluation of the QDOS system and its theoretical underpinning, based on a two-condition experiment and a protocol analysis, involving a number of experimental subjects. This research provides an original application of the Gricean Cooperative Principle in human-computer interaction and a theoretical and practical demonstration of the validity of this endeavour. It also adduces an analysis of the UNIX® interface and its vagaries in terms of a principled and consistent set of criteria as well as identifying a significant class of dialogue breakdown, the circumstances and incidence of which cut across issues of interface style.

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The discipline of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) was established in the early 1980's on the foundations of cognitive psychology, computer science and ergonomics. In recent years however, claims have been made for the relevance of forms of sociology to this avowedly multidisciplinary field, and a number of sociologists have attempted to contribute to the general enterprise of developing a deeper understanding of the computer user and thereby informing, and improving, software design. This thesis is, in one sense, a continuation of this emerging body of work. However, my contention is that little, if any, critical attention has been given within this work to questions that would seem to be of fundamental importance to attempts at collaboration between disciplines: how is the disciplinary organization of knowledge to be understood, and more specifically, can HCI be adequately described in the simple pluralist terms in which it tends to characterise itself? The primary focus then is on the discipline of HCI. Utilising a theoretical model which considers disciplines as distinctive discourses which constitute their own domains of objects, I analyse the discourse and practice of HCI in order to explicate some of its underlying premises and assumptions, and to argue that it has, unavoidably, set many of the parameters within which contributing disciplines must operate. Texts, audio and video tapes, and ethnographic observation of instances of HCI practice form the empirical basis of the thesis. In addition, an analysis of some recorded human-computer interactions, which like the study as a whole, exemplifies an approach that differs from the prevailing sociological models within the field, is used to support the argument.

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A preliminary examination of day centres for the elderly indicated that there was a lack of detailed research and knowledge relevant to the requirements of users and the design of both social day centres and day care centres. In addition, the potential existed for a mismatch between the changing requirements of the users of social day centres, as they age and become more frail and/or disabled over time and the comparatively static characteristics of architectural setting designed to accommodate independent old people. The aim of this research was to study this problem area in detail. This involved a broad examination of the characteristics of the elderly population and the services provided for them in order to establish the general context in which day centres are provided. This enabled a more detailed investigation to be undertaken and an examination of the different types of day centres provided in terms of the characteristics and the requirements of their elderly users and the architectural settings provided, to be undertaken. From this, three main propositions were formulated. The three main propositions 1, 2 and 3 were tested in a number of comparative case studies based on four day centres which included two social day centres and two day care centres, one of each type was new and one old. Data was collected using a variety of methods on a total of 281 users and 23 staff and four architectural settings. It was found that the fit between the requirements of users and the architectural setting was less close in the old social day centre than in the new social day centre, the new day care centre and the old day care centre, but in all four day centres some constraints were experienced by the users and staff because of some organisational inadequacies and design decisions which indicated a lack of understanding of the users requirements. The conclusions include some design considerations on specific areas of architectural setting in day centres for the elderly providing design information for the design of future day centres.

The US Army Annual Injury Epidemiology Report in 2008 reported that 18.4% of all causes of injuries were attributed to falls/near falls (USAPHC, 2008). The purpose of this investigation was to determine the effect of two military type boots (minimalist and standard) on balance prior to and after a physiological workload. Twentyour healthy male adults completed the study following a repeated measures design and a counter balanced footwear assignment. Participants underwent a balance analysis prior to and after completing a military workload. The dependent kinetic variables from balance tests were analyzed using a 2x2 RM-ANOVA independently, p<0.05. Results demonstrated minimalist boots showed superior balance in most conditions likely due to low mass, low heel-midfoot drop, and thin, hard midsoles; however, standard boots demonstrated greater balance on unstable surfaces likely due to a large sole surface area. Optimal balance would likely be a result of a combination of both boots’ characteristics.

Touch screen technology is rapidly increasing, and at the same time there is a shifting, aging population. As the percentage of the population over the age of 65 increases, adults of the age group are adopting smartphones and tablets more now than ever before. Although older adults are adopting touch screen devices, they face many challenges when interacting with said devices, such as not knowing how to navigate between pages, not knowing where to click for an action to occur, and the touch screen interface is often too sensitive or the buttons are not big enough. Furthermore, the challenges of aging, specifically sensory and cognitive decline resulting from aging affect comprehension and spacial processing, which are critical when navigating through an interface. The purpose of this thesis was to better understand redundancy effect applied to females and males between the ages of 65 and 84. There were two tasks of different lengths, and for each task there were two designs. The first design included text only buttons, and the second included symbol + text buttons, the latter being the redundant interface. Quantitative results yielded no significant results for time for either task. Qualitative results included ratings for ease of navigation, general satisfaction, overall understanding, and button design preference. Preferences between text only buttons were statistically significant; for the task of online grocery shopping and booking a cruise, females prefer text only buttons and males prefer symbol + text buttons (p = 0.0068 and p = 0.0024). Although button design had no significance in completing a task, significant preference results indicate likelihood to return to a given website. Furthermore, although quantitative results were not significant, gender did influence average times per task and average ratings across categories. Further research could be conducted with larger sample sizes, other forms of redundancy, and larger tasks, however it is evident through this experiment that gender has an impact on how adults between 65 and 84 perceive and navigate through touch screen interfaces given the constraints of the symbols used, ages, and task designs. Therefore, concluding recommendations based on the qualitative data suggest that designers should create gender specific interfaces based on gender favored websites, or design based on the ability to customize the interface upon entering a website.

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