The Use of Live-Prototypes as Proxy Technology in Smart City Living Lab Pilots

Developing smart technologies for a city context can be a challenging endeavor. On the one hand, there is the complexity of a city as a place where diverse elements interplay with the surroundings, the technology and the user. On the other hand, there is limited knowledge on user interactions related to novel technologies, such as IoT, supporting smart city innovations. Some methods and techniques have already tried to bridge this gap (e.g. rapid prototyping, paper mockups...) nevertheless they still remain limited for contextual testing (de Sá & Carriço, 2010). Although de Sá and Carriço (2009) already previously pointed to the benefits of ‘in-situ-design’ and the testing of prototypes in the field, it is only recently that “the focus of a growing portion of the HCI community has moved beyond designing for efficient use to investigating complex matters of human-technology relations.” (Odom et al., 2016, p. 2549). One such method that underlines this importance in an early design stage is Proxy Technology Assessment (PTA). Regarded as a proxy device, PTA resembles a final device under development, introduced to users in their daily setting for a certain period of time (Pierson et al. 2006). Contrary to rapid prototyping, which focuses on specific user needs and participatory design requirements for the final stage of the product, PTA stresses the testing of end-functionalities as early as possible in the social context wherein the device will be used. This technique derives from the domestication theory (Silverstone & Haddon, 1996), where the introduction of a technology to an everyday setting is believed to be the start of a dynamic process wherein actors, technology and context are exposed to continuous change until they reach an equilibrium and the adoption is more or less stable. Now, owing to the development of new low-threshold technologies, possibilities arise for PTA to stand even closer to the end-product. In this paper, we question the possibility of implementing the concept of a prototype into the real-life context and using it to support human interaction research for smart city innovations. Furthermore, the requirements, possibilities and limitations such “live- prototyping” offers in the early stage of an innovation trajectory, are addressed. We therefore present the findings of the case study of Citizen Bike, an experimental set-up that focuses on exploring how we can improve the cycling experience within a city with support of IoT-technologies. For this set-up, we applied a Living Lab approach in which we developed our own live-prototype in an interdisciplinary way. This prototype served as a proxy technology during a two-week real-life pilot by giving different meanings and value propositions to a group of cyclists. The prototype was an IoT-enabled device which included different sensor data from a noise sensor, a GPS and an accelerometer. This allowed us to capture the participants cycling context, such as routes, speed, location etc. In addition, two interaction buttons were included, giving the users the opportunity to perform live reporting. By doing so, we could first of all capture user actions, their context of use and their interactions with the prototype. Secondly, we could use the underlying data to apply additional HCI methods on a near- realtime basis. Our findings demonstrate that the use of live-prototypes as a proxy technology in the early design stage provides different values for HCI research. First, it provides more thorough insights on the specific context of use as it enriches the traditional logging files. This enables to move beyond pure HCI and technical validation. Secondly, it provides a set of objective measured data that not only can be used to validate previous gathered results, yet also to stimulate respondents’ recollection. Lastly, by applying this in a real life set-up we could identify and predict technical issues necessary for further development. The strength of using live-prototypes lies within their fast introduction to a real life-setting and their confrontation with users, even if they are still in a very premature stage. To obtain maximum benefits, we need to overcome the tendency to work exclusively with sophisticatedly designed prototypes and introduce them as fast as possible to their real-life context. Nevertheless it requires a thorough preparation. It is important that the live-prototype includes the key- components under investigation and that meta-data on the use of these components can be recorded. Using prototypes in such a way allows the capture of HCI interactions in their specific context of use, enabling the detection of different requirements and additional, potential use cases. This new form of PTA proves to be a valuable tool to understand user’s interactions. It offers an additional approach in HCI that can address the challenges that the development of new smart city technologies entails. This is especially true as they become more and more intertwined with the city environment and the various settings in which a citizen interacts.

ISBN:978-3-319-91124-3

Jaar van publicatie:2018

Trefwoorden:HCI, Live-prototype, Proxy technology assessment, Smart city design, User experience

Toegankelijkheid:Open