St Andrews HCI Research Group

03

Apr 2012

Helen Ai He, One Size Does Not Fit All – Applying the "Stages of Change" Model to Eco-feedback Technology Design


<!–Speaker: Helen Ai He, University of Calgary, Canada
Date/Time: 1-2pm April 10th, 2012
Location: 1.33a Jack Cole, University of St Andrews (directions)–>
Abstract:
Global warming, and the climate change it induces, is an urgent global issue. One remedy to this problem, and the focus of this talk, is to motivate eco-behaviors by people. One approach is the development of technologies that provide real-time feedback of energy usage (e.g. in the form of watts, monetary cost, or carbon emissions).
However, there is one problem – most technologies use a “one-size-fits-all” solution, providing the same feedback to differently motivated individuals at different stages of readiness, willingness and ableness to change. I synthesize a wide range of motivational psychology literature to develop a motivational framework based on the Stages of Change (aka Transtheoretical) Model. If you are at all interested in motivation, behaviour change, or designing technologies to motivate behaviour change, this talk may be useful for you.
About Helen:
Helen Ai He completed her Masters in Computer Science (specializing in HCI) at the University of Calgary, Canada, under the supervision of Dr. Saul Greenberg and Dr. Elaine May Huang.
She worked as a software developer in SMART Technologies for a year and a half, and plans to begin an HCI PhD in September 2012. She is particularly interested in topics such as personal informatics, cross-cultural research, technology design for developing regions, and sustainable interaction design. Aside from research, she enjoys doing karate, climbing, artwork, and eating!