Comfortable room temperatures 1, 5, 8 Flexible 1, 4, 5, 8 Rooms programming module f Internal and external sensors b Hypothermia, dead plants or pets ¹⁰

Dryhome Healthyplantsandpets d, e 1

Environmental conscience eased by manageable carbon offset

2, 3

Caring for planet Healthy Budget 27

In control of usage and costs, no
excess, unpredictable or unaffordable
expenditure

2, 3, 7 Clear

3, 7
Predictive cost and
usage module
a, b, c, 6
Predictive
algorithms
c

Physical comfort

Dry home

Healthy plants and pets

Caring for planet

Healthy budget

Informative

3, 7

Local and remote
room/home override
g, h, 4, 6
Home alarm Broadband
and sensors links
ha

Comfortable
room
temperatures

Environmental
conscience eased by manageable
carbon offset

In control of usage and costs,
no excess,
unpredictable or unaffordable
expenditure

Carbon footprint display 3 Remote access (Web, iTV, mobile phone) g

Flexible

Informative

Clear

Controllable heat outlets and supply b, f

Rooms Programming
Module

Carbon Footprint Information

Local and remote room/home override

Predictive cost and usage module

Physical _{Discomfort Burst pipes Damp Home} Global Financial _{warming hardship}

9 d, 11 e, 11 12 13 a. Broadband links to energy 1. People and some plants and pets 8. Rooms have different uses utilities’ high-quality can get cold. _{9. Human need for comfort/avoid-} ^{weather forecasting} 2. Increasing concern and awareness ance of physical discomfort b. Monitoring-based models of home 3. Carbon footprints and offsets—a _{10. Biological needs for heat—very} ^{energy efficiency from external/} concrete way to contribute to strong aversions to hypothermia, ^{internal sensors} sustainability dead plants, and pets c. Predictive “intelligent” soft ware 4. People go out irregularly _{11. Caring for household fabric—} d. Water-based systems can freeze 5. People’s plants and most pets aversions to burst pipes and damp e. Houses can get damp stay in homes f. Heat outlets and supply can 6. U. K. Internet usage is rising 12. Environmental values—don’t be controlled rapidly make global warming worse g. Remoteaccessviamobilephones, 7. Pressureon most household 13. Economic needs of households—

Web, and interactive TV access budgets aversions to financial hardship

Aworthsketchevolvesintoaworthmapforacentralheatingcontroller.

Controllable
heat outlets and
supply

Internal and external sensors

Remote access (mobile phone, Web, i TV)

Home alarm and sensors

Broadband links

Predictive algorithms

Physical discomfort

Financial hardship

Damp home

Hypothermia, dead plants or pets

Global warming

Burst pipes

healthy household budget. In this case, the first outcome is due to representing predicted usage as a carbon footprint that directly addresses environmental concerns and action.

Worth maps also connect aversions to design elements and user experiences. Initially, a design team could believe that all aversions can be avoided. Dotted lines in the worth map indicate such “aversion blocks,” i.e., potential adverse outcomes that are blocked by designed features or qualities or through achievable user experience.

This completes the example illustration of sketching out a worth map. At such an early stage in design, its envisaged means-end chains can be only theoretical, an ideal. However, by using lists of initial sensitivities, worth sketches, and maps, we have reframed designing from conceiving artefacts to connecting between creations and people. Worth maps show envisaged connections between human value and design options. They are one way to start worth-centered development (WCD) processes, which are guided by WCD principles that support a

flexible development framework. WCD is not a methodology and thus does not impose rigid methods. Instead, it uses six broad principles to create a flexible structure for a family of design approaches. The first, commitment, begins with the human values that we commit to delivering as design purpose (shown as worthwhile outcomes in worth maps). The second, receptiveness, takes initial sensitivities, fleshes them out, and better grounds them through research and usage studies. The third, expressiveness, requires map elements and associations to be fully communicated via appropriate representations (i.e., not just the labeled boxes and unlabeled arrows above). The fourth WCD principle of inclusiveness requires that all stakeholders will enjoy a good balance of worthwhile outcomes and user experiences. The fifth, credibility, requires that fully expressed elements are realistic and/or feasible, and that all proposed associations can plausibly hold. The last, improvability, requires that many if not all elements be associated with measurable delivery targets; that poor interaction performance

can be explained in terms of worth processing; and that alternative design elements could support required improvements.

In designing for people, we must give humans at least as much attention as technology. This means attending to them fully as people, not just as situated users, consumers, managers, or developers. We need to focus on what people find worthwhile, what motivates them, what demotivates them, and how a balance of worth emerges from complex networks of costs and benefits. It’s time for the “H” to truly come first in HCI.

 

ABOUT ThE AUThOr Gilbert Cockton is the University of Sunderland’s HCI research chair. A NESTA fellowship (www. nesta.org) on value-centred design funded his investigations of designing as a connection between technology and human worth. Gilbert’s career to date has blended education, academic research, childcare, design, consultancy, work for and within business and public sectors, directing large regional economic development projects, and professional service (e.g., CHI 2003 co-chair, past British HCI Group Chair, past IFIP TC13 vice-chair, as well as editor emeritus of Interacting with Computers).

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July + August 2008