This thesis investigates the influence that cultural differences have in the designing of products and services that encourage sustainable lifestyles. This was researched through a case study of dishwashing practices in Mexico and the UK, and the development of a methodological framework for supporting designers working in cross-cultural contexts. Designers can shift user behaviour to be more responsible, and by doing this, reduce a product s impact on the use phase of its lifecycle. Nevertheless, designing products that successfully drive behaviour towards a more sustainable path can only be accomplished if they are conceived to fit the user and the specific context of interaction. In order to do so, designers must truly understand the users, and take into account the complex web of factors that lay behind individual behaviour. A comprehensive review of the literature established an understanding of human behaviour and the emergence and evolution of practices and routines. This brought to light the diverse behavioural patterns in different contexts; and was further investigated with a scoping study in two different locations (Mexico and the UK), exploring general water consuming practices in the home, specifically manual dishwashing practices. The preliminary findings shaped a study that aimed to deepen the understanding of these practices in the selected sites, involving the use of Cultural Probes and videoing people in their common kitchen environment. A robust and clear image of washing-up practices emerged with rich and detailed data presented in different media, ideal to be implemented in a design process. To this end, a series of multicultural Personas were created as the direct outcome of the Cultural Probes and the scoping study, giving way to the design studies phase of the project, carried out with industrial design students in Mexico and the UK. A design brief for sustainable washing up practices was delivered. Design experiments were used to provide interesting evidence of the influence in the design process of the designers understanding of the target user. The findings indicate that designers benefit from exploration and creativity tools tailored directly from the user-research findings in the early design process. This increases the level of empathy towards the user, particularly making it easier to design for users with different needs and contexts than the designers themselves. It also helps designers to better apply design for sustainable behaviour framework to their concept designs.

This thesis begins with a philosophical question: What if we could amplify our waking experience with the aesthetic qualitiesof dreams? Through a discourse on experiential dream related aspects in philosophy, design and daily life it examines what itmeans, and has meant, to dream, and how these qualities already permeate the physical world. I hypothesize that objects capable of representing dream related physiological data as physical output have the potential to amplify our waking experience. To formulate a set of considerations for the design of such objects, an ethnographic study of dream experience, comprising a survey, a cultural probe study and interviews, has been conducted. The text concludes by exploring how dream elements like ambiguity, synesthetic sensibility, and affective self-exploration may benefit interaction design, raising questions about how digital media can facilitate personal, meaningful experiences.

Det finns enorma mängder data att samla in om dagens internetanvändare. Det går idag att med hjälp av människors digitala avtryck avgöra vad de har för intressen, vart de rör sig, samt hur de i framtiden kan komma att agera. I denna studie har det studerats vilken roll attityder och tidigare kunskaper om digitala fotspår har i användandet av internet. Inom ramen för denna uppsats har det också studerats om och hur teorier grundande i begreppen tillit, integritet och egenmakt har haft för inverkan på informanterna. I studien har det använts kulturella sonder för att agera provokatör och inspiratör inför de efterföljande intervjuerna. Resultatet visar att tidigare utbildning och förkunskaper om digitala fotspår har en liten till icke existerande effekt på användandet. Istället verkar det som att tidigare upplevelser och attityder kring digitala fotspår har en större inverkan på användandet av internet. / There are huge amounts of data to collect on today's internet users. Today, with the help of digital footprints, we can calculate people´s interests, where they are moving, and how they may act in the future. In this study, I look at the functions of attitudes and previous knowledge of digital footprints in the use of the internet. In the context of this essay, it has also been examined how theories founded on the concepts trust, integrity and empowerment have had an impact on the informants. In the study, cultural probes have been used to act as provocateur and as inspiration for the subsequent interviews. The result shows that previous education and knowledge for digital footprints have a small to non-existent effect on the use. Instead, it seems that previous experiences and attitudes about digital footprints have a greater impact on the use of the internet.