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- Understanding goal setting behavior in the context of energy consumption reductionPublication . Scott, Michelle; Barreto, Mary; Quintal, Filipe; Oakley, IanHome energy use represents a significant proportion of total con sumption. A growing research area is considering how to help everyday users consume less. However, simply determining how to best reduce consumption remains a challenging task for many users. Based on goal setting theory, this paper presents two lab studies (based on the presentation of detailed scenarios and the solicitation of goal selections for the individuals depicted) in order to better understand how users make such decisions. It reveals a preference for goals that are perceived to be easy and specific, rather than those known to be effective (e.g. those that reduce energy consumption) or generic. Goal setting theory suggests that easy goals lead to low levels of commitment and motiva tion, suggesting such choices may be doubly ineffective. Ultimately, this paper contributes to a better understanding of users’ goal selections and argues this is a prerequisite to effectively supporting users in reducing resource consumption.
- Citizen X: designing for holistic community engagementPublication . Ashby, Simone; Hanna, Julian; Oakley, Ian; Vieira, Tatiana; Abreu, Filipe; Campos, PedroCrowdsourcing in urban environments, geospatial annotation, social curation, and engaging citizens through social media applications and community-aware, place-based computing systems are at the forefront of pervasive urban technologies aimed at improving satisfaction, strengthening communities, and empowering citizens as stakeholders. This paper reports on the user-centered design of a holistic community engagement platform that combines the above aims and uncovers insights from both sides of the citizen-government divide for a people's GIS for enhancing urban livability.
- Playing for the planet: designing toys that foster sustainable valuesPublication . Barreto, Mary; Scott, Michelle; Oakley, Ian; Karapanos, Evangelos; Nunes, Nuno J.; Gomes, Sofia; Gomes, JoanaThe children of today are the adults of tomorrow, for this reason it is essential to educate this generation about sustainable values, such as recycling and reducing waste and energy consumption. By targeting children’s main activity of playing and toys, the design of a toy that instills sustainable values is illustrated through PlayGreen, a prototype of an interactive application. We argue that this type of toy should be designed according to children’s cognitive development and their learning skills, as well as conforming to a value centered design process. This paper focuses on Piaget’s cognitive development theory, more specifically, the concrete operational stage processes, which occur between the ages of seven and eleven years old. Our prototype is an application focusing on the value of resource management and allows children to create new toys from household materials. This prototype was tested with 8 and 9 year old children via a Wizard of Oz method. The prototype successfully integrated a value related to sustainability and the users were able to manipulate it easily as it was adequate to their cognitive skills.