Rosa Maimone

Designing motivational features for sustainable urban mobility

This paper describes the User-Centred Design process followed within the SUPERHUB project in order to investigate requirements, elicit user feedback and refine motivational features of a mobile app fostering the adoption of sustainable behaviors for urban mobility. We report the main lessons learnt from focus groups, participatory design sessions, and low-mid fidelity prototyping of the motivational features designed. These lessons are currently informing our implementation work in SUPERHUB and could be of interest for designers in the eco-sustainability field.

A system for automatic detection of momentary stress in naturalistic settings.

Prolonged exposure to stressful environments can lead to serious health problems. Therefore, measuring stress in daily life situations through non-invasive procedures has become a significant research challenge. In this paper, we describe a system for the automatic detection of momentary stress from behavioral and physiological measures collected through wearable sensors. The systems architecture consists of two key components: a) a mobile acquisition module; b) an analysis and decision module. The mobile acquisition module is a smartphone application coupled with a newly developed sensor platform (Personal Biomonitoring System, PBS). The PBS acquires behavioral (motion activity, posture) and physiological (hearth rate) variables, performs low-level, real-time signal preprocessing, and wirelessly communicates with the smartphone application, which in turn connects to a remote server for further signal processing and storage. The decision module is realized on a knowledge basis, using neural network and fuzzy logic algorithms able to combine as input the physiological and behavioral features extracted by the PBS and to classify the level of stress, after previous knowledge acquired during a training phase. The training is based on labeling of physiological and behavioral data through self-reports of stress collected via the smartphone application. After training, the smartphone application can be configured to poll the stress analysis report at fixed time steps or at the request of the user. Preliminary testing of the system is ongoing.

Towards using Segmentation-based Techniques to Personalize Mobility Behavior Interventions

This paper describes our initial work towards a segmentation-based approach to personalized digital behavior change interventions in the domain of sustainable, multi-modal urban transport. Segmentation is a key concept in market research, and within the transport domain, Anable has argued that there are segments of travelers that are relatively homogenous in terms of their mobility attitudes and behaviors. We describe an approach aimed at tailoring behavior change notifications by using segmentation-based techniques for user profiling. We report results from a Mechanical Turk study in which we obtained a crowd-sourced categorization of motivational messages. This is a first step towards understanding how to better deliver persuasive messages to relevant users profiles and situational contexts in the urban mobility domain. We conclude by discussing future steps of our work that should inform the deployment of persuasion profiling techniques to achieve sustainable mobility goals.

Designing a Game-based Solution for In-home Rehabilitation

This paper presents initial concepts and formative evaluation results from a research (REHAB@HOME) investigating the patient-centred design of game environments aimed at raising patients’ motivation and compliance with motor-cognitive rehabilitation programs. During the initial phase of the project five games were deployed through main gaming platforms and interaction devices (Kinect, LeapMotion, Sifteo Cubes). A pilot study involving six patients from two different rehabilitation centres (one in Italy and one in Austria) was conducted to assess usability and motivational factors implied in the initial usage of the solutions proposed. From the pilot study results we derive indications to inform the future design of game solutions for raising patients’ compliance with upper body rehabilitation programs.

A Game-Based Solution for In-Home Rehabilitation

This paper presents initial concepts from the REHAB@HOME project investigating the patient-centered design of game environments aimed to raising patients’ motivation and compliance with motor-cognitive rehabilitation programs. During the initial phase of the project a patient’s client was developed to deploy five rehabilitation games through main gaming platforms and interaction devices (Kinect, LeapMotion, Sifteo Cubes). Also, a professional client was designed to enable clinicians the remote monitoring of patients’ progress in home settings. We discuss main features developed for both clients that can inform the future realization of game-based solutions for upper body rehabilitation programs.

Designing Meaningful Game Experiences for Rehabilitation and Sustainable Mobility Settings

This paper presents the approach followed in two ongoing research projects aimed to designing meaningful game-based experiences to support home rehabilitation, eco-sustainable mobility goals and more in general better daily lifestyles. We first introduce the need for designing meaningful game-based experiences that are well-connected to the relevant nongame settings and can be customized by/for users, then, we show examples of how this approach can be realized in the rehabilitation and sustainable mobility contexts.

iFlit: an ambient display to induce cognitive dissonance and behaviour change

In this paper, we explore how persuasive ambient displays could induce cognitive dissonance to promote positive behaviour change among graduate students. We developed iFlit –an interactive and collective ambient display that enables a group of students to reflect on their burnout level, and sleeping and activity habits. iFlit shows a garden with birds representing students monitored behaviour. Birds move according to users’ activity level, and the garden’s background changes according to each user’s sleeping habits. Users match peers perceived burnout, and sleep and activity habits to induce cognitive dissonance. We argue such displays are more efficient than personal devices to empower individuals’ self-reflection due their capabilities for enabling a playful interaction with their personal data.