In the future, as world markets become more diverse, designers will be increasingly asked to create products for people dissimilar to themselves. Human issues, such as product pleasure, will also become more important as advances in manufacturing (enabling companies to produce high quality goods more cheaply) will mean companies will look elsewhere to achieve a competitive edge. These changes will affect designers who presently work with little or no user information. This thesis investigates the attributes designers need in resources that offer them an immediate yet broad understanding of users. The research presented in the thesis has a philosophical strand and a design strand. In the design strand, two mock up resources and a prototype resource are developed. These creations are used in the philosophical strand: the mock ups are used to provide focus while collecting opinions from participants and the prototype is evaluated at the end of the research as if it were a real resource. The thesis starts with a literature review; this review reveals that designers need to understand users' physical, psychological and social needs as well as their environments if they are to design appropriate products for them. It explains that designers find much ergonomics information too technical and not visual enough and reveals that no tools or methods exist that offer a broad and instant understanding of users at the start of the design process. Following this, the results from a set of interviews and a focus group are presented. These studies reveal that designers want both personal and general user information that is reliable, video based, contextual and authentic. The results also show that designers want a fast, online resource that allows information to be easily tagged, compared and shared. Next, the thesis describes the development of the prototype resource and its examination using a heuristic inspection. This resource is then evaluated by designers. The evaluation reveals that designers perceived that the resource would be of value to the design process and thought that the videos showing people going about their everyday lives and the virtual tours around people's homes would be particularly useful. The thesis concludes that designers want contextual user information presented as easily navigable video in an Internet based resource. In doing so, it provides an original contribution to knowledge.

This thesis contributes original knowledge through an inclusive design approach to lowering language and communication barriers in healthcare and suggests shifting the discussion from culture to context to lower intra-cultural hindrances towards learning English amongst some ethnic minorities. It offers an adaptable, scalable concept for gathering data on ethnic minorities (considering both different generations and religions) and employs a framework based analysis in design. Over the course of three studies grounded on theoretical insights from literature, primary research lead to the development and testing of innovative aids for communication, including educative and motivational elements. This research began by seeking to understand ethnic minority consumers (EMCs) perceptions of any barriers hindering their take-up of products or services in the UK, and their preferences. This is particularly significant as the UK s EMC population is predicted to double by 2051 and to diversify further, presenting challenges for social cohesion and planning future community goals. EMCs also represent a significant market for service and product providers. The research focussed on EMCs from the Indian Subcontinent based on religions and generations. It highlighted that first generation females lacking English and/or literacy (across religions and age groups) faced problems with services and issues around empowerment . The importance of improved access to healthcare was a strong theme. On investigating NHS staffs perceptions, five barriers were identified (Language barriers; Low-literacy; a Lack of understanding; Attitudes, gender and health beliefs; and Information retention) and that a female subgroup was particularly affected. This study sets out staffs perceptions of the aids currently employed and suggestions of what would help. It identified a (currently) low use of visual communication aids in adult-patient care and that pharmacist-patient communication in pharmacies was low. Ideally, staff would like patients to learn English and to use more low-cost visual communication aids. These findings lead to the development of innovative visual communication aids through inclusive and user-centred approaches and participatory design and brainstorming methods. This enabled the development of aids by considering the needs of NHS staff, EMCs lacking English and/or literacy and indigenous elderly people to promote better patient-staff communication including a take-away educational element for learning English at home.

This thesis is concerned with the problem of designing Mobile Location Services (MLS) - also commonly termed Location-Based Services - that meet user needs. MLS are applications that users access via a portable device such as a mobile phone. They provide services (i.e. information or other functionality) to end-users based on knowledge of the location of individuals and other entities within the environment. The market failure of many mobile services, including MLS, has been attributed in part to failing to provide `value' to the end user. This thesis reviews different theoretical approaches to help understand the notion of `value', and how value may be used to inform design (Chapter 2). Research methods are also discussed, including the particular challenges with doing `mobile' research (Chapter 3). A survey of UK consumers( Chapter4 ) demonstratesa current lack of use, and lack of awarenesso f most forms of MLS in the UK. llowever, overall positive attitudes,a nd a range of behavioural and demographic data, suggest that MLS have the potential to be successful if they can be designed to meet user needs. A qualitative study of users' travelling behaviour (Chapter 5) then demonstrates how effective mobile information delivery can provide considerable value within a dynamic, uncertain and location-varying environment. This added value is highly dependent on contextual and situated factors, including existing information sources, variances in possible outcomes and the intrinsic qualities of information provision. The thesis then focuses on a particular application domain for MLS - drivers navigating in an unfamiliar environment. A literature review (Chapter 6) investigates how drivers navigate, and what their information needs are. Three experimental studies (Chapters 7 to 9) then investigate what information adds value within a navigation context, the impact of contextual influences on driving and navigation performance, and the impact of the quality of the navigation cue on task performance. Good landmarks (such as traffic lights) are shown to add value for drivers navigating an unfamiliar route, depending on the context at particular manoeuvres. This thesis discusses( Chapter 10) how a multi-disciplinary perspectivec an help maximise the acceptance and effectiveness of MLS. 'Value' can be used to design specific services for users, based on offering new freedoms to the individual within a mobile context, employing time and location sensitivity to maximise relevance, taking into account user knowledge, existing information sources and contextual factors, and ensuring impact on real-world outcomes. In conclusion (Chapter 11), specific contributions and avenues for future work are highlighted.

Legally binding targets set by the UK government to reduce carbon emissions by 2050 mean it is imperative that the efficiency of the UK housing stock is improved. Housing currently contributes over 30% of the UK s total carbon emissions and a large proportion of the current stock will still exist in 2050. There is therefore a need to retrofit this existing stock with energy saving measures, as the savings from new builds will not be adequate to meet the stringent carbon reduction targets. Whilst technologies to facilitate energy saving retrofit are available, there has been a low uptake from householders in the UK, in part due to the lack of consideration of user requirements within the design of these technologies. To investigate this issue further, this thesis considers two main questions: How can the design of energy saving measures and the process of retrofit of the existing UK housing stock be improved through the use of user centred design (UCD) and How can UCD methods be applied to the research and development process for energy saving measures in order to improve the outcome? Through the research, it became clear that in order to answer these questions, it would be necessary to work across disciplines and therefore a third Research Question was posed; How can UCD facilitate working across disciplines in the context of an energy research project? The results provide evidence of how UCD can effectively improve the design and development process of energy saving technologies, the process of retrofit and the practice of cross-disciplinary working within a research environment. The research is novel in several ways: firstly, the UCD process has been applied in the area of domestic retrofit, giving new insights into the barriers and opportunities to retrofit; secondly, home improvement has been investigated by viewing the home as a complete, interacting system, using novel methods; thirdly, a set of UCD specifications have been created to inform the design of heat pumps, a specific domestic energy saving technology, and finally, enhancements to the UCD process are made for use within an energy technology project, together with the development of six principles for effective cross-disciplinary working and conceptualisation of the bridge building role which the UCD practitioner fulfills.

This case study provides new insights on the designer role in co-design processes. Co-design has shifted the designer role into a facilitator, which requires a new skillset. In this thesis, this new role is investigated through the three psychological constructs; empowerment, ownership and power dynamics. The process consists of two main parts: pre-study and case study. In the pre-study, designers with different roles are interviewed about co-design. In the case study, three co-design sessions are observed and the facilitators interviewed in retrospect. Several strategies and actions are identified for empowering participants, some for the participants to feel ownership and almost none for balancing out power dynamics. The identified strategies include using straightforward methods and having a selfless mindset. However, there are indications that long term relationships are prioritized over actual outputs. This notion might be explained by the fact that the case companies are consultants. The need to always satisfy the clients makes the facilitators disregard some of the power differences in the room.

The purpose of this research is to critically inquire into the appropriateness of the current human computer interaction (HCI) practices in Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) system design given the contextual constraints and challenges found in developing country contexts. Despite user participation in system design being a buzzword of HCI the form of this participation varies with the different disciplinary perspectives and paradigms and their different methods for engaging users and identifying users' needs. Moreover, a majority of these dominant HCI perspectives are not only rooted in the developed countries context they also mainly focus on organisational management information systems (MIS) and less on information systems (IS) that place emphasis on the socio-economic context of developing countries. Literature review reveal that limited studies focus on the differences brought about by the western influenced methodologies and principles when applied in different contexts and how they affect the user participation process as well as the outcome. Building on past research, this research argues that HCI for ICTD needs to develop new contextualised participatory methods and strategies that consider the broader and complex contexts of the ICTD users. However, shifting the focus to localised forms of HCI in ICTD system design requires a better appreciation of the challenges and constraints encountered when applying the traditional HCI methods and strategies. Based on this argument the research conceptually explores and reflects on the underlying contextual factors and mechanisms present in participatory ICTD system design and the presumed relationships among them. Drawing on this conceptual framework, the research conducts semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and participant observations with three mobile money system design projects in Kenya that engaged the users during the design process to highlight how current HCI practices respond to the multifaceted nature of ICTD system design which present challenges that include social, technical, cultural and infrastructural issues. Findings from this qualitative study provide significant new insights that support the call for contextualised participatory methods and strategies. The findings suggest that there is tension between the underlying assumptions inherent in western HCI methods and strategies and the local context thus justifying the call for the appropriation of the design process. Drawing on the conceptual framework it was found that bias formed from factors such as power relations, diversity in interests for participation and cross-cultural differences moderate the design process and ultimately the participatory outcome. From the knowledge perspective, this research provides an in-depth understanding of the developing country contextual factors that mediate user participation process in ICTD system design. Furthermore, the research extends the knowledge with regards to participatory interventions in the development of IS in Africa. The research also presents a theoretical framework that makes explicit the contextual assumptions and constraints embedded in participatory ICTD system design interventions and how they shape the design process and the participatory outcome. Finally, the recommendations formulated from this research provide HCI designers and practitioners actionable knowledge in regards to reflecting on their current traditional HCI tools and techniques to ensure better localised design processes.

Actuellement, l’interprétation automatique de symboles peut être appliquée à de nombreux types de documents techniques (partitions musicales, plans électriques, etc). L’automatisation de ce type de tâche peut permettre un gain de temps pour des professionnels (Lu, Tai, Su, & Cai, 2005), mais elle peut aussi générer une perte de conscience de la situation par les opérateurs (Endsley, 1995). De plus, ces traitements impliquent un risque d’erreurs d’interprétation des symboles (Orbay & Kara, 2011). Il est donc crucial qu’un humain intervienne pour corriger ces erreurs. L’objectif de cette thèse était d’améliorer la compréhension des interactions homme-machine prenant place dans ce type de tâche afin de déterminer comment améliorer la performance du système. Plusieurs études ont ainsi été réalisées dans le cadre d’une démarche de conception centrée-utilisateur (ISO 9241-210, 2010) d’un logiciel d’interprétation automatique de plans d’architecture. Ces études se sont appuyées sur un cadre théorique varié, puisant à la fois dans la psychologie cognitive, les interactions homme-machine et l’ergonomie des documents multimédias. Elles ont mis en évidence des résultats débouchant sur des préconisations pour la conception de systèmes de reconnaissance. Ainsi, l’affichage de l’interprétation superposée au document interprété facilite la coréférenciation des informations à contrôler. De plus, permettre à l’utilisateur d’assister en temps réel à l’analyse et d’intervenir au fur et à mesure améliore les performances. Enfin, le signalement par la machine des risques d’erreurs est bénéfique, mais cela peut générer une réduction de la vigilance due à un phénomène de sur-confiance / Automatic symbol recognition can currently be applied to a wide range of technical documents (music scores, electrical diagrams, etc.). Automatizing this kind of task can help some professionals save time (Lu et al., 2005), but it can also generate a loss of situation awareness among operators (Endsley, 1995). Furthermore, as these systems sometimes interpret symbols incorrectly (Lu, Tai, Su, & Cai, 2005; Orbay & Kara, 2011), humans need to be able to intervene in the process to correct any errors as and when they arise. The objective of this thesis was to improve our understanding of the human-machine interactions elicited by this kind of task, in order to determine how best to enhance system performance. We conducted a series of studies during the development of a user-centred design (ISO 9241-210, 2010) of automatic interpretation software for architectural plans. These studies were set within a heterogeneous theoretical framework bringing together cognitive psychology, human-machine interactions and the ergonomics of the multimedia documents. The results they yielded led to several recommendations for designing recognition systems. For instance, superimposing the interpretation on the interpreted document makes it easier to cross-check the information. Furthermore, allowing users to monitor the interpretation process in real time and interrupt it at any point increases performances. Finally, while the highlighting of potential errors can also be beneficial, it can also make users over-confident and thus less watchful

Researchers have approached the problem of designing context-aware systems, computer systems that can react intelligently to the context in which they are used, from both software engineering and human-centred perspectives. While engineered context-aware systems have found successful application in optimising technical settings without requiring mundane and explicit interaction from humans, challenges remain in furthering their application to more complex environments. In particular, when technical decisions and human actions are intertwined in sophisticated work environments (rather than, for example, the simple act of transferring a mobile phone call to receive a signal from the nearest tower), the problem of designing context-aware systems demands further examination and calls for a new approach. A natural extension of the software engineering approach in more challenging environments is to try to implement increasingly sophisticated algorithms for managing context in the hope that this will lead to autonomous application behaviour. In contrast, research from a human-centred perspective, grounded in the social sciences and philosophy, demonstrates that context is not entirely objective and measurable but rather is dynamic and created through human action. It may not be easily detected through technical sensing systems, and therefore simply employing more sophisticated algorithms within the technical sphere may not be effective. While engineering approaches have continued to evolve, the problem of how to design interfaces to context-aware applications still remains. The research reported in this dissertation investigated the problem of designing context-aware systems for the complex environment of a dental surgery. I undertook, though a participatory design approach (a) to better characterise the problem of designing context-aware systems, and (b) to understand how design methods could be employed to bridge the human and software engineering approaches. The gap in existing research on context-aware systems is evident in the way that the methods applied to designing systems don't provide an insight into how people actively create the context in which they work (in a practical rather than theoretical sense) they don‘t closely examine the behaviours of people, the role and arrangement of artefacts, and the dynamic relationships between people and artefacts. I found that an understanding of how these features of work and human behaviour are realised in practice in a given environment is fundamental to being able to design an effective context-aware system for that environment. The challenge is to design at the boundary between the technical and the social. The contribution of this thesis is an approach that explores context-aware design through synthesis. The synthetic approach leads to design opportunities and guidelines based on an understanding of the processes through which people actively co-create the context in which they work. I have applied and built upon a number of existing user-centred design and participatory design methods, in addition to creating some new methods in order to develop an understanding of how designers can examine the human aspects surrounding the co-creation of context and apply these in a way that progressively informs the design process. The methods collectively represent a novel approach to designing context-aware applications and differ from the more traditional technical approaches of developing software frameworks and infrastructures, and formal models of context, tasks, users, and systems. The techniques presented have focused primarily on developing an understanding of how humans find meaning in their actions along with their interaction with other people and technology. Participatory design methods help participants to reveal potential implicit technical resources that can be presented explicitly in technologies in order to assist humans in managing their interactions with and amidst technical systems gracefully. The methods introduced and the design approach proposed complement existing research on context-awareness from both a human-centred and software engineering perspective. This research builds on the notion of providing resources which allow users to manage their own context and also manage shifts in control while interacting with other people and with a variety of technical artefacts. It does this by examining a complex work environment, in particular looking at the kinds of resources people use and expect to use (and the constraints around these), the form(s) it is appropriate for them to take, and the patterns of interaction they will ultimately be used within.

In the light of an ageing society with shrinking economic resources, deinstitutionalization of elderly care is a general trend. As a result, homecare is increasing, and increasingly shared between different health and social care organizations. To provide a holistic overview about the patient care process, i.e. to be patient-centred, shared homecare needs to be integrated. This requires improved support for information sharing and cooperation between different actors, such as care professionals, patients and their relatives. The research objectives of this thesis are therefore to study information and communication needs for patient-centered shared homecare, to explore how integrated information and communication technology (ICT) can support information sharing, and to analyze how current standards for continuity of care and semantic interoperability meet requirements of patient-centered shared homecare. An action research approach, characterized by an iterative cycle, an emphasis on change and close collaboration with practitioners, patients and their relatives, was used. Studying one specific homecare setting closely, intersection points between involved actors and specific needs for information sharing were identified and described as shared information objects. An integration architecture making shared information objects available through integration of existing systems was designed and implemented. Mobile virtual health record (VHR) applications thereby enable a seamless flow of information between involved actors. These applications were tested and validated in the OLD@HOME-project. Moreover, the underlying information model for a shared care plan was mapped against current standards. Some important discrepancies were identified between these results and current standards for continuity of care, stressing the importance of evaluating standardized models against requirements of evolving healthcare contexts. In conclusion, this thesis gives important insights into the needs and requirements of shared homecare, enabling a shift towards patient-centered homecare through mobile access to aggregated information from current feeder systems and documentation at the point of need.

Software to display and analyse DNA sequences is a crucial tool for bioinformatics research. The data of a DNA sequence has a relatively simple format but the length and sheer volume of data can create difficulties in navigation while maintaining overall context. This is one reason that current bioinformatics applications can be difficult to use. This research examines techniques for navigating through large single DNA sequences and their annotations. Navigation in DNA sequences is considered here in terms of the navigational activities: exploration, wayfinding and identifying objects. A process incorporating user-centred design was used to create prototypes involving panning and zooming of DNA sequences. This approach included a questionnaire to define the target users and their goals, an examination of existing bioinformatics applications to identify navigation designs, a heuristic evaluation of those designs, and a usability study of prototypes. Three designs for panning and five designs for zooming were selected for development. During usability testing, users were asked to perform common navigational activities using each of the designs. The “Connected View” design was found to be the most usable for panning while the “Zoom Slider” design was best for zooming and most useful zooming tool for tasks involving browsing. For some tasks the ability to zoom was unnecessary. The research provides important insights into the expectations that researchers have of bioinformatics applications and suitable methods for designing for that audience. The outcomes of this type of research can be used to help improve bioinformatics applications so that they will be truly usable by researchers.