Baborska-Narozny, M. and Stevenson, F. orcid.org/0000-0002-8374-9687 (2019) Service controls interfaces in housing: usability and engagement tool development. Building Research & Information, 47 (3). pp. 290-304. ISSN 0961-3218
Abstract
Domestic buildings are increasingly complex, saturated with services that need coherent control if design and inhabitants’ goals are to be achieved. The evidenced inappropriate use of controls linked with a performance gap suggests that effective methods for assessing the inhabitants’ relationship with control interfaces for services are needed within building performance evaluation and practice studies. The development of a bespoke domestic usability tool over two iterations is presented, demonstrating new insights into the relationship between design and inhabitant engagement with controls. Deep contextual development came from trialling the tool in four UK domestic case studies. Understanding the purpose of a control interface and the inhabitants’ role was found to be a fundamental diagnostic for inhabitant engagement. The tool became a prompt for immediate action or further information-seeking for one-quarter of households involved in its application. However, the affordances and physical issues identified could not be addressed without major physical changes, which should have been picked up at the design and construction stages. Organizational learning based on the tool findings was triggered in one of four developers involved. The challenges for developing usability studies are discussed with recommendations provided for different actors in the housing and construction industry on how to progress them.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Building Research and Information. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Building controls; building evaluation; building performance; building services ergonomics; feedback; housing; inhabitants; usability |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > School of Architecture (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EUROPEAN COMMISSION - FP6/FP7 BUPESA - 329258 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 03 Aug 2018 08:59 |
Last Modified: | 14 Aug 2020 10:55 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/09613218.2018.1501535 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:134099 |