Understanding Awareness in Modern Smart Products Design

Smart products have the potential to change the lifestyle and working processes of their users. However, a perceived complexity of interaction with these hightech artefacts may confound even the keen technology adopter. In response, human-value driven technology design approaches such worth-centred design, empathic and aesthetic design, and design for pleasure have emerged. Still, with increased availability of sensors and the wide spread of internet, the more technology-driven approach is prevailing. Further, Artificial Intelligence in form of complex reasoning and deep learning algorithms is making impressive comeback. In this sense, to balance and reflect technological complexity, User Psychology as a design discipline should be more taken in new products and services design. Humans use and create tools and artefacts that are meaningful to them. Motivation is a reason for people’s actions, desires and needs. Hence, the motivation constructs and respective psychological theories such as Selfdetermination theory of motivation, Activity theory and related psychology of human awareness should be more taken into design of technology to maximize the benefits to the user and thus to make technology more acceptable. This thesis explores the role of awareness as a psychological construct in determining human behaviour and consequently, its influence on how humans respond to the technology. The general design principles in form of design questions and vocabularies, which facilitate designer with systematic knowledge on awareness to be taken in technology design, are defined here. This thesis utilizes the Design science research paradigm in which questions relevant to human problems are answered via studying application domain, experimenting and the creation of innovative artefacts to come up with a solution to a defined problem. Further, the Design science research approach is combined with methods from Explanatory science, which are taken as a ground towards a theoretical synthesis of experimental findings. Conceptual analysis as a method of Foundational Analysis is used to investigate the content of experimental concepts through their recomposition and reconstruction to find more accurate cognitive science grounded understanding of respective concepts