Increasing economic, social and environmental problems around the world have shown that current models of economic development cannot be sustained. Thus, new patterns of consumption are needed. According to the literature, global companies are well placed to attempt leveraging sustainable consumption, as their production lines; supply chains; products and services extend across many continents, and as such the cumulative effect of their actions are wide reaching. This research sets out to better understand the intertwined factors that companies in two different contexts (Mexico and the UK), need to consider in order to leverage sustainable consumption. Through the literature review it was seen that sustainable consumption requires a multitude of changes, which have to occur at a systems level. In response to this, user-centred design (UCD) principles were seen as a valuable approach to give a broader account of the complexities around consumption and consumer's behaviour that could be communicated to higher management. A series of interviews, a focus group and a document analysis was undertaken to collect qualitative data. The findings led to the construction of a theoretical framework supported by UCD principles. The theoretical framework was then translated into the Sustainable Consumption Leveraging (SCL) Model and its toolkit. The SCL Model is a mechanism that takes into account the interaction of elements in a specific business context to identify areas of opportunity to leverage sustainable consumption through a consumer-focused approach. During a series of workshops, the SCL Model and its toolkit were tested to distinguish further opportunities of improvement and to understand where global companies stand with regards leveraging sustainable consumption. The research concludes by saying that companies need to work in collaboration with other actors to build a strong sustainability and innovation strategy that could help them to find new ways of doing business that can enhance more sustainable lifestyles.

Recent, innovative developments in the field of gesture interfaces as input techniques have the potential to provide a basic, lower-cost, point-and-click function for graphic user interfaces (GUIs). Since these gesture interfaces are not yet widely used, indeed no tilt-based gesture interface is currently on the market, there is neither an international standard for the testing procedure nor a guideline for their ergonomic design and development. Hence, the research area demands more design case studies on a practical basis. The purpose of the research is to investigate the design factors of gesture interfaces for the point-andclick task in the desktop computer environment. The key function of gesture interfaces is to transfer the specific body movement into the cursor movement on the two-dimensional graphical user interface(2D GUI) on a real-time basis, based in particular on the arm movement. The initial literature review identified limitations related to the cursor movement behaviour with gesture interfaces. Since the cursor movement is the machine output of the gesture interfaces that need to be designed, a new accuracy measure based on the calculation of the cursor movement distance and an associated model was then proposed in order to validate the continuous cursor movement. Furthermore, a design guideline with detailed design requirements and specifications for the tilt-based gesture interfaces was suggested. In order to collect the human performance data and the cursor movement distance, a graphical measurement platform was designed and validated with the ordinary mouse. Since there are typically two types of gesture interface, i.e. the sweep-based and the tilt-based, and no commercial tilt-based gesture interface has yet been developed, a commercial sweep-based gesture interface, namely the P5 Glove, was studied and the causes and effects of the discrete cursor movement on the usability was investigated. According to the proposed design guideline, two versions of the tilt-based gesture 3 interface were designed and validated based on an iterative design process. Most of the phenomena and results from the trials undertaken, which are inter-related, were analyzed and discussed. The research has contributed new knowledge through design improvement of tilt-based gesture interfaces and the improvement of the discrete cursor movement by elimination of the manual error compensation. This research reveals that there is a relation between the cursor movement behaviour and the adjusted R 2 for the prediction of the movement time across models expanded from Fitts’ Law. In such a situation, the actual working area and the joint ranges are lengthy and appreciably different from those that had been planned. Further studies are suggested. The research was associated with the University Alliance Scheme technically supported by Freescale Semiconductor Co., U.S.

In order to make technology easier to handle for its users, the field of HCI (Human- Computer Interaction) has recently often turned the environment and the context of use. In this thesis the focus is on the relation between the user and the technology. More specifically, this thesis explores how roles and professional identity effects the use and views of the technology used. The exploration includes two different domains, a clinical setting and a media production setting, where the focus is on the clinical setting. These are domains that have strong professional identities in common, in the clinical setting neurosurgeons and physicists, and the media setting journalists. These settings also have a strong technological profile, in the clinical setting the focus has been on a specific neurosurgical tool called Leksell GammaKnife and in the journalistic setting the introduction of new media technology in general has been in focus. The data collection includes interviews, observations and participatory design oriented workshops. The data collected were analyzed with qualitative methods inspired by grounded theory. The work with the Leksell GammaKnife showed that there were two different approaches towards the work, the tool and development, depending on the work identity. Depending on if the user were a neurosurgeon or a physicist, the definition of the work preformed was inline with their identity, even if the task preformed was the same. When it comes to the media production tool, the focus of the study was a participatory design oriented development process. The outcome of the process turned out to be oriented towards the objectives that were inline with the users identity, more than with the task that were to be preformed. At some level, even the task was defined from the user dentity.

User-Centred Design (UCD) was proposed in the 1980s and, since then, its philosophy has helped to solve design problems, regardless of the advances in technology over time. The standard ISO 9241:210 (2010), formerly ISO 13407, provides guidance in human-centred design principles and activities undertaken throughout the design lifecycle to further support UCD. In addition, since it was mentioned in ISO 9241:210, UCD has also utilised User Experience Design (UXD) in recent years. There are many approaches that support UCD to ensure it is more attainable when designing. In addition, large firms, such as HP, IBM and Microsoft, use anthropologists in their user research in order to make products more user-centred. However, the concept of UCD should, theoretically, be more widely used in all product design and it is intriguing as to why it is not as popular as it should be. As noticed in the real world, imperfect designs still frustrate us everywhere. The aims of this thesis were to investigate the difficulties of practicing a UCD approach in idea generation and to design solutions for idea generation that would encourage further practice of UCD/UXD. In the first part of the thesis, there is an exploration of the problems encountered when practicing UCD idea generation. When examining the process, a multitude of problems were found, with most blamed as being costly, time consuming and requiring complex skills. In addition, it was suggested that a systematic solution was required to overcome such difficulties. Therefore, later in this research, a systematic model is proposed and evaluated using participants (both designers and target users). Due to the fact that design practitioners are not usually researchers, further help to implement the model in the form of persona application software is needed. Hence, the concept of service design was employed to further assist with the use of the model. In the end, computer-aided development was introduced, together with the integration of the systematic UCD model. The UCD model and the software have been evaluated as effective from both the responses of product design practitioners and end-users. Future recommendations and the research limitations are also discussed in each chapter and the overall results are given in the last chapter. This thesis successfully provided the complete process during the exploration of the low usage problems of UCD, and solutions were presented to assist designers with their UCD/UXD in the future.

The report describes the design of a safe (within EU regulations), ergonomic, attractive, sustainable, versatile and interactive playground toy for children from ages 7 to 11. The product aims to help children develop in different aspects: physical, emotional, social and mental, in a sustainable environment. This was developed from the identification and exploration of the factors that influence the design of playground toys. The design process was divided in the following main stages: an initial research of information, the interpretation of this data, the development of a concept, a test stage and the results. During the research, teachers and parents were interviewed and children were observed. Relevant information was also gathered. For the development, a set of creative techniques were applied and finally tested. Modifications based on the test were made to reach an accurate design. The work done was successful to the extent established initially; although, it can be subject to improvement. The main limit was that no tests were performed on a physical prototype, therefore, there is information not yet gathered and tests that would prove if some of the assumptions were true or false.

User Centred Design is accepted as being essential to good software design, only by involving the users throughout the development process can the developers understand what the end users really want (Sharp et al., 2007). One area which has in the past had little experience of User Centred Design is Assistive Technology, and in particular Augmentative and Alternative Communication software (Waller et al., 2005a). Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) offer the possibility of being able to access communication for people with Severe Speech and Physical Impairments.This thesis describes a software development study which investigated methods currently used in software development and how they could be adapted for use with this population. The way difficulties cited in the literature when working with this population were tackled are also discussed. The study involved four adults with Severe Speech and Physical Impairments in the User Centred Development of a piece of assistive software.The study found that with careful planning it was possible to conduct User Centred Design with participants with Severe Speech and Physical Impairments, the lessons from this study were translated into recommendations and provided to a second developer who wished to work with adults with Severe Speech and Physical Impairments. The second study found similar levels of contribution to the features of the software were found in the pilot study. This work has demonstrated the potential for adults with Severe Speech and Physical Impairments to be actively involved (i.e. contribute a high proportion of the features) in the development of Augmentative and Alternative Communication software. A number of areas for further investigation have been identified including the differences found in usability of devices developed using User Centred Design compared to traditional methods, and also how adults with Severe Speech and Physical Impairments can be more actively included in a range of research fields.

Coeliac disease is an intestinal disorder, requiring patients to maintain a life-long gluten-free diet to ensure better health and reduce the risks of osteoporosis, intestinal lymphoma and other associated diseases. Patients must have access to clear information about the disease and about what foods are safe to eat, detect foods that contain gluten and make adjustments that need to be made to their diet. There is very little well designed information currently available for Coeliac patients. Eating out and shopping in supermarkets can become a nightmare. A User-centred design approach was used to generate information and insights on the Coeliac disease and patients' needs to conceptualise, design and evaluate an information handbook that is both functional and pleasurable to use. Questionnaires, interviews and focus groups were used to generate empirical data that guided a participative design process before the evaluation of the handbook. This project consists of a handbook as practical work that represents the main body of applied research. The practical work and the exegesis constitute 50% each of the thesis value.

The major challenge for multimedia designers is to create user experiences that enrich the reception of content, designer�s traditional reliance on intuition not ensuring audience�s interest or understanding. The developing philosophy of user-centred design argues that designers should begin from an appreciation of their audience. In design there are various positions on how to achieve this, ranging from traditional market research through psychological, ethnographic, anthropological and sociological research to the direct involvement of users in the design process. This study draws on established knowledge about the cognitive processes, psychological motivations and preferences of user groups to advance a model for better-targeted and more effective design. In particular, it uses Howard Gardener�s multiple intelligences theory to extend design thinking. Where a specific audience is apparent multiple intelligences theory implies that (1) the interface should match user�s perceptual tools, cognitive styles and responses and (2) there is far greater scope than presently recognized to vary the design of the graphical user interface. The research explores how interactive multimedia can harness the �language of vision� (Johannes Itten) for certain audiences, in this case Taiwanese drawing students aiming to enter tertiary art and design programs where high academic drawing skills are an important selection criterion. The high �visual intelligence� of the target audience indicates their heightened capacity to process visual concepts and elements. The application of Gardner�s ideas is a speculative one, based on hypothesis and the formulation of an experimental graphical user interface environment built around predominantly visual cues. The designed outcome incorporates knowledge and understanding that is widely applicable to GUI design, challenging designers to develop multimedia products with innovative, imaginative design approaches that cater for the different needs and interests of users where the audience is a specific and identifiable one.

Ubiquitous computing aims to make human-computer interaction as naturalistic and functionally invisible as possible through embedding computing potential within a particular context to support human activity. However, much of ubiquitous computing research is focussed on technical innovation due to the challenges involved with deploying embedded computing, thereby reducing the commitment to the philosophical ideals of ubiquitous computing in research. This dissertation describes the investigation of a participatory approach to technically-complex research in order to understand how our view of the engineering and human challenges changes when the two are approached hand-in-hand. The domain chosen for this system was a dental surgery. Dentistry involves a complex workspace with computer interaction constrained by surgery hygiene. Ubiquitous computing offers a compelling interaction alternative to the keyboard and mouse paradigm in such an environment. A multi-method approach that employed ethnographic research and design prototyping was undertaken with dentists from several different private practices. A series of field studies used ethnographic methods such as observation and interview. Design events explored prototypes with activities such as design games, contextual interviews, role-playing and contextual prototyping. Activities were devised with the aim of providing a level playing field, whereby both designers and participants feel they can contribute equally, with their respective disciplinary knowledge. It was found that methods needed to be carefully chosen, devised and managed, in order to communicate complex concepts with participants and to constrain the design to technically feasible options. The thesis examines the design problem from the perspectives of a variety of different stakeholders within a participatory design framework, reflected upon by means of human-centred action research. Data was gathered through design speculations and observation, and explored using methods such as the Video Card Game and Video Interaction Analysis. Fieldwork was analysed using a multi-stage qualitative analysis process which informed further design collaboration with participants. The analysis of data gathered during design studies with dentists also contributed to the development of a prototype system to validate methodological contributions. The resulting prototype utilised off-the-shelf hardware and software which allowed for innovative customisation and development. In-situ prototyping (defined by the author as “participatory bootstrapping”) and a comprehensive knowledge of the domain afforded the creative application of technology. In addition to contributing to the prototype design, the interpretive understandings drawn from analysis identified how technical ideas were presented and utilised by participants of the studies, and how best to engage busy professionals. The final outcomes of the research were a multimodal ubiquitous computing system for interacting within a dental surgery; the development and implementation of a variety of methods aimed at communicating technical concepts and eliciting user motivations, practices and concerns; and a set of design principles for engineers engaging in design of systems for human use. The research presented within this thesis is primarily part of the field of human-computer interaction, but provides evidence of how engineering development can be influenced by a user-centred participatory approach. The benefits that derive from inclusive methods of design are demonstrated by the evaluation of a prototype that employed such methods. The contribution of this thesis is to demonstrate and delineate methods for developing ubiquitous computing technologies for the context of human use. This led to a set of design principles for the engineering of systems for human use: 1. Technology needs to be robust and simple to appropriate. This allows users to give insights on technology developments and also to allow users to discover for themselves how they would use the technology. 2. An evolving and carefully considered set of methods are needed to elicit communication between practitioners and across disciplines. The gaps in understandings and the different representations that arise across the disciplines provide essential clues to next steps in design. These gaps and differences form tensions that can be exploited productively. 3. Context is important for determining which design steps to take. Rather than abstracting a problem in order to solve it, as is usual in engineering design, the problem should remain grounded in the context of use. It reveals what the real problems are that need to be solved rather than the imagined ones. This requires an appreciation of the situated nature of action and of the variability of work. In turn it also requires an appreciation of what the human can and does do and what the machine should support. 4. Accountability in design is required. There is a fundamental tension between trying to make something work and seeing what really does work; specifically it is necessary to understand when automation is worth it in human machine systems. While engaged in the design process, engineers should ask how much technology should reconfigure human practices because of a useful outcome, rather than attempting to automate and converge devices for its own sake. A clear understanding of the constraints and workings of the work space needs to be balanced with the understandings of the limitations of the technology in order to design a system that improves work practice and empowers the practitioner.

This thesis addresses the research question of how social awareness support in computer systems for groups and communities can be designed in a successful way. While the field of human-computer interaction has been working with similar questions for more than 20 years, many aspects of people’s cooperation and the way those should be considered in system design still need further consideration and research. The thesis presents a number of projects where systems for cooperation have been designed for different settings and different kinds of use with a particular interest in social awareness. Drawing from the experiences of the different projects, design sensitivities around awareness, as a central prerequisite for collaboration, are suggested. Another contribution of the thesis is the presentation of a theoretical model for awareness, called Aether, introduced by us a number of years ago. We will discuss the theoretical implications of the model as well as a number of applications of it based on our own work as well as based on the work of other researchers who used Aether, by this providing confirmation of our model. Based on the findings around awareness, the thesis argues for a ‘translucent’ approach to the issue of socio-technical balance that one has to consider in the design process. Instead of trying to understand and model human behaviour or the social organization of cooperation, in order to ‘code’ them into the computer system, this approach advocates for systems that mediate information in a ‘translucent’ way so that people can retain the control of the organization of cooperation in their given context. By using a ‘reflective practitioner’ approach, the thesis discusses how people-centred methods have been used throughout these projects and looks into how awareness could be considered by using these methods. The focus of this investigation is twofold: on one hand to understand how the used methods have influenced our discussion about awareness and on the other hand it aims to address the practitioners of the field by questioning some of the common beliefs in the field. By investigating social awareness support in collaborative systems, the thesis contributes to theoretical arguments in the field of humancomputer interaction, and the area of CSCW in particular, while at the same time it provides the interaction design practitioner with a number of considerations for practical use. / QC 20100913