Wolfgang Reitberger

Social interaction and reflection for behaviour change

This article introduces the theme issue on social interaction and reflection for behaviour change. A large body of research exists on systems designed to help users in changing their behaviours, for instance, to exercise more regularly or to reduce energy consumption. Increasingly, these systems focus on multiple users, often to encourage open-ended reflection rather than prescribing a particular course of action. As background for this theme issue, this article presents a literature review on behaviour change support systems that focus on social interaction and reflection. The review highlights five key approaches amongst these systems: social traces, social support, collective use, reflection-in-action, and reflection-on-action. Each approach offers unique benefits, but also challenges for the design of behaviour change support systems. We highlight how the articles in this theme issue contribute to our current understanding of these five approaches, and beyond that, set out some broad directions for future work.

Enhanced shopping: a dynamic map in a retail store

This article investigates the prototypical implementation of a dynamic map of a retail store and the results of an empirical study in the shopping environment. Due to the distinct characteristics of the context of shopping (e.g. openness to the public, preexisting technologies), this context is particularly fruitful for UbiComp technologies. The prototype consists of a display showing an enhanced store map, which combines the dynamic visualization of customer activity (e.g. hot-spots, sales ranks) with conventional map elements (e.g. product locations, promotions). The results of our three-day in-situ study indicate the relevance and the usefulness of UbiComp technologies for shopping environments.

Hey World, Take a Look at Me!: Appreciating the Human Body on Social Network Sites

Social network sites (SNSs) such as Facebook have the potential to persuade people to adopt a lifestyle based on exercise and healthy nutrition. We report the findings of a qualitative study of an SNS for bodybuilders, looking at how bodybuilders present themselves online and how they orchestrate the SNS with their offline activities. Discussing the persuasive element of appreciation, we aim to extend previous work on persuasion in web 2.0 technologies.

The percues framework and its application for sustainable mobility

This paper presents a framework, design and study of an ambient persuasive interface. We introduce a novel framework of persuasive Cues in Ambient Intelligence (perCues). Based on this framework we designed an application for mobile devices. The application aims to persuade people to abstain from using their cars and to use public mass transportation instead in order to reduce emissions. It contains a bus schedule and information about the pollution status. We evaluated the application in two successive studies regarding user acceptance, opportune moments of use and persuasive effects. The perCues received a high acceptance due to its benefit for the users. The results confirm the importance of opportune moment and user acceptance for persuasion. The findings also indicate the persuasive potential of perCues.

Enhancing the shopping experience with ambient displays: a field study in a retail store

This paper discusses the prototypical implementation of an ambient display and the results of an empirical study in a retail store. It presents the context of shopping as an application area for Ambient Intelligence (AmI) technologies. The prototype consists of an ambient store map that enhances the awareness of customer activity. The results of our study indicate potentials and challenges for an improvement of the shopping experience with AmI technologies. Based on our findings we discuss challenges and future developments for applying AmI technologies to shopping environments.

Persuasion as an ingredient of societal interfaces

the uSe of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to solve societal problems goes back to the pioneers of HCI. In his groundbreaking 1962 article “Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework,” Douglas Engelbart states that his reason for bootstrapping human intelligence is the growing complexity and urgency of the problems that society faces on an increasingly global level [1]. More than a decade later, Ted Nelson points out the potential of computer screens to make people happier and smarter and help them deal with their problems [7]. For some time after Nelson, the HCI community focused mainly on usability issues affecting individuals or groups of users working on PCs in office environments. The bigger societal questions that guided Engelbart’s research moved into the background, while issues like efficiency and ease of use moved to the center of attention. Things have started to change again as the PC loses its dominant position and ubiquitous and mobile technologies lead to a diffusion of ICTs to new groups of users and contexts. The computer escaped from the office into the wild and people started using computers in their home environments, in public spaces, and in other nontraditional settings. This creates a shift of interest in the HCI community, moving from the rather narrow notion of usability to the almost all-encompassing concept of user experience. This diffusion of everyday life with ICTs spurs a renewed and growing interest in how these technologies can be used to address the complex and urgent societal problems that humankind is facing. One of the promising recent approaches to increase human well-being and to solve these societal problems is persuasive technologies. Persuasive technologies are an emerging field in HCI [2]. They facilitate persuasive interaction that leads to a voluntary change of behavior or attitude or both [5]. Persuasive technologies have great beneficial potential for application areas like human health and wellbeing, education, or environmental conservation.

User experience research in the semiconductor factory: a contradiction?

No doubt, user experience (UX) has become of high relevance within the HCI community. Within this paper, we present initial results from a qualitative study on UX in the factory context, more precisely in a semiconductor factory. We highlight the challenges of performing UX research in this particular context and the usefulness of probes for collecting feedback from operators in the factory context within in a limited timespan. The results provide an initial rich description of the operators everyday experiences in a semiconductor factory. From a designers point of view, this allows for a more empathic interaction design informed by a subjective operator perspective.

Cues in the environment: a design principle for ambient intelligence

The aim of this paper is to propose design principles for ambient intelligence (AmI) environments. The question we are investigating is how these environments can be designed to support a group to be able to carry out common goal-oriented activities. The approach we are taking in answering this question is informed by the concept of collective intelligence (CI). We are applying the concept of CI to AmI as we have found it works well in biological and social systems. Examples from nature demonstrate the power of CI stimulated by implicit cues in the environment. We use these examples to derive design principles for AmI environments. By applying these design principles to a concrete scenario, we are able to propose ways to help decrease environmental pollution within urban areas.

Surrounded by ambient persuasion

This workshop will discuss the implications of the use of Ambient Intelligence (AmI) for Persuasion. AmI allows surrounding the user with persuasive technology in their everyday life, giving the possibility for persuasive interventions just at the right time and in the right place. The workshop will focus on the potential of Ambient Persuasion for applications in the area of sustainability, health and well-being and related areas. It will also address the need for theoretical foundations and frameworks on which to ground such applications. The use of AmI for persuasion also raises a number of ethical and privacy questions. These issues play an important part in the overall user experience of persuasive AmI applications, where a special focus of this workshop lies.

An activist lens for sustainability: from changing individuals to changing the environment

Design for sustainability is of much interest in Persuasive Technology (PT) and interventions are often targeted to change individuals behaviour. These interventions aim to change lifestyles to be more ecologically sustainable, however the social and economic circumstances individuals live in often counteract these intentions. Activism has been proposed as a way to address such social circumstances. The contribution of this paper is to further develop an activist lens to present strategies for interventions that address policy makers as well as provide insight into how individuals can engage in activism supported by technology to advance change. Our activist lens points to active data generation and perceived agency by individuals and hybrid forms of interventions. We also address the limitations of technology in such approaches. An activist lens on sustainability and PT might provide a useful new entry point for designing change interventions from the individual to the collective.