Poking fun at the surface: exploring touch-point overloading on the multi-touch tabletop with child users

In this paper a collaborative game for children is used to explore touch-point overloading on a multi-touch tabletop. Understanding the occurrence of new interactional limitations, such as the situation of touch-point overloading in a multi-touch interface, is highly relevant for interaction designers working with emerging technologies. The game was designed for the Microsoft Surface 1.0 and during gameplay the number of simultaneous touch-points required gradually increases to beyond the physical capacity of the users. Studies were carried out involving a total of 42 children (from 2 different age groups) playing in groups of between 5-7 and all interactions were logged. From quantitative analysis of the interactions occurring during the game and observations made we explore the impact of overloading and identify other salient findings. This paper also highlights the need for empirical evaluation of the physical and cognitive limitations of interaction with emerging technologies

Turning Up the Heat on Energy Monitoring in the Home

The use of domestic electrical energy monitoring systems is becoming more common however gas usage has received comparatively little attention. This paper presents a new technique for monitoring gas-powered heating and hot water usage in the home integrated into a prototype energy monitoring platform. Compared to usual meter-based approaches this technique provides finer-grained usage data and uses simple temperature sensors. The main motivation for this work is to provide more meaningful energy information to users for inclusion in novel mobile and embedded applications. This is part of ongoing work which aims to reduce energy use among teenagers in the UK and make lasting attitude changes. The development and findings from a prototype deployed in a typical UK house over 7 days are presented. The findings highlight the utility of the technique and simplicity of the sensing approach. The novel requirements that inspired the development of this technique are also presented

Too Cool at School - Understanding Cool Teenagers

Cool can be thought about on three levels; the having of cool things, the doing of cool stuff and the being of cool. Whilst there is some understanding of cool products, the concept, of being cool is much more elusive to designers and developers of systems. This study examines this space by using a set of pre-prepared teenage personas as probes with a set of teenagers with the aim of better understanding what is, and isn’t cool about teenage behaviours. The study confirmed that teenagers are able to rank personas in order of cool and that the process of using personas can provide valuable insights around the phenomenon of cool. The findings confirm that cool is indeed about having cool things but in terms of behaviours cool can be a little bit, but not too, naughty

Exploring the role of messenger effects and feedback frames in promoting uptake of energy-efficient technologies

The persuasive potential for varying messenger types and feedback frames to increase pro-environmental choice was explored in a 2 (feedback frame: financial vs. environmental) × 5 (messenger type: neighbour, government, industry, utilities vs. control) factorial design experiment. Using the context of home heating choice, 493 non-student participants were given information on either the financial or environmental benefits of selecting an energy-efficient heat pump versus a standard boiler, as described by one of four messenger types (versus a no-messenger control). Likelihood of selecting the ‘green’ technology was assessed, as well as any carry-over effects on real-life behavioural intentions. Additionally, we assessed the messenger attributes that appeared to be most important in this context, in terms of whether sources that were perceived to be trustworthy, knowledgeable, or a combination of both dimensions, would hold greater sway over preference formation. Overall, no evidence was found for any impact of messenger type on either preference formation or behavioural intentions. However, message content (i.e. how information on the benefits of pro-environmental choice was framed), was found to have substantial impact on behaviour; with the financial versus environmental decision frame being significantly more likely to encourage uptake of the energy-efficient versus standard technology. We suggest that the level of processing required for the kinds of large-scale purchase decisions we consider here may explain the lack of any messenger effect on choice behaviour. Implications for the development of behaviour change interventions designed to promote consideration of energy-efficient technologies in this context are discussed

Constructing the Cool Wall: A Tool to Explore Teen Meanings of Cool

This paper describes the development and exploration of a tool designed to assist in investigating ‘cool’ as it applies to the design of interactive products for teenagers. The method involved the derivation of theoretical understandings of cool from literature that resulted in identification of seven core categories for cool, which were mapped to a hierarchy. The hierarchy includes having of cool things, the doing of cool activities and the being of cool. This paper focuses on a tool, the Cool Wall, developed to explore one specific facet of the hierarchy; exploring shared understanding of having cool things. The paper describes the development and construction of the tool, using a heavily participatory approach, and the results and analysis of a study carried out over 2 days in a school in the UK. The results of the study both provide clear insights into cool things and enable a refined understanding of cool in this context. Two additional studies are then used to identify potential shortcomings in the Cool Wall methodology. In the first study participants were able to populate a paper cool wall with anything they chose, this revealed two potential new categories of images and that the current set of images covered the majority of key themes. In the second study teenagers interpretations of the meaning of the images included in the Cool Wall were explored, this showed that the majority of meanings were as expected and a small number of unexpected interpretations provided some valuable insights

Exploring the role of alignability effects in promoting uptake of energy-efficient technologies

The current research applies decision-making theory to the problem of increasing uptake of energy-efficient technologies, where uptake is currently slower than one might predict following rational choice models. We explore the role of alignability effects on consumers’ preference for standard versus energy-efficient technologies. Previous research has found that attentional weight given to alignable or nonalignable features varies depending on the decision context, including between-alternative heterogeneity. In a hypothetical choice task, subjects were presented with a choice between similar (boiler vs. boiler) versus dissimilar (boiler vs. heat pump) home heating technologies, each described by a list of alignable and nonalignable attributes. We found a preference for alignability when options were similar; an effect mediated by an increased tendency to infer missing information is the same. No effects of alignability on preference were found when options differed. We draw theoretical and applied implications for (a) the role of alignability effects in contributing to the energy efficiency gap and (b) the type of information structure best suited for the promotion of energy-efficient technologies in future marketing campaigns

Promoting behavioural change to reduce thermal energy demand in households : a review

A reduction in thermal energy consumption in buildings is vital for achieving the reductions in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions that are part of EU-2050 targets. A key challenge faced by behavioural scientists is to understand what encourages people to adopt more efficient ways of achieving a satisfactory thermal experience. We review the psychological barriers to reducing thermal energy demand in the context of energy-efficient technology adoption, and discuss ways these barriers may be overcome. The barriers include: demand on cognitive resources due to decision complexity; tendency to procrastinate and discount future consequences; deferral to simplifying strategies including repeating past experience and copying the behaviour of others; the desire to act in ways that maintain a positive self-image; and inertia due to fear of regret that one's decision might be ‘wrong’. We discuss behavioural approaches to overcome these barriers, such as emphasising public choice of “green” technology, reframing of benefits, simplifying and optimising the choice environment, focusing on symbolic attributes of new technologies, and changing the temporal structure of costs and benefits. We provide a framework of suggestions for future research which together constitute an important first step in informing behaviour change efforts designed to reduce thermal energy consumption in households

The value of nothing : asymmetric attention to opportunity costs drives intertemporal decision making

This paper proposes a novel account of why intertemporal decisions tend to display impatience: People pay more attention to the opportunity costs of choosing larger, later rewards than to the opportunity costs of choosing smaller, sooner ones. Eight studies show that when the opportunity costs of choosing smaller, sooner rewards are subtly highlighted, people become more patient, whereas highlighting the opportunity costs of choosing larger, later rewards has no effect. This pattern is robust to variations in the choice task, to the participant population, and is observed for both incentivized and hypothetical choices. We argue that people are naturally aware of the opportunity costs associated with delayed rewards, but pay less attention to those associated with taking smaller, sooner ones. We conclude by discussing implications for theory and policy

Using behavioural science to reduce littering : understanding, addressing and solving the problem of litter

The main objective of this article is to provide an overview of decision-making literature relevant to littering and to explain behavioural science be applied to tackling the problem of littering. We begin by explaining how littering is a commons dilemma and why, therefore, it is such a complex problem. We use this framework to show how policy-makers, social entrepreneurs and anyone else who wants to reduce littering, can approach the problem. We then move on to describing models and frameworks, taken from behavioural science theory and research, that can be helpful in designing effective anti-littering interventions. Finally, we apply all this knowledge and outline some ideas of such interventions