…my parents for everything. You made me into who I am.

Although writing up the PhD thesis might be the effort of one person, the reason that person even gets as far as starting to write up is thanks to all the people supporting that PhD student. I am grateful for everyone who has been there to support my journey towards the finished thesis. I’m indebted to and grateful for the following persons…

… my main supervisor Stefan Holmlid, for all the support and letting me find my own path whilst at the same time showing me which alternate paths I might be missing. Never forcing, always suggesting suits me perfectly!

… my two co-supervisors Arne Jönsson and Björn Alm. Both of you have provided invaluable outsiders perspectives on my research when most needed. Björn, a special thank you for all the fruitful discussions in general and on the methodological approach in general. And to Arne, thank you for your experience and making sure the research continued to progress towards a finished thesis.

… everyone who has participated in my studies. I am extremely grateful for all your help. In total roughly 50 people have been involved in one way or another in providing the data used in the studies. This thesis would not have been possible to write without your help. An extra warm thank you to everyone in the three agencies I worked in/with for the final study for allowing me to be a part of your work places.

… HCS for providing an enjoyable place to work in. And special thanks to IxS and the fika-crowd. IxS for providing an intellectually inspiring  environment to work in, in which there always are new perspectives to be found when needed – thank you Stefan, Johan, Matti, Johan, Lisa, Eva, Mathias and Tim. And to the fika-crowd for providing many laughs, exciting discussions and a few beers during my PhD studies. So a big thank you to all of you; those of you who were here when I started and now have moved on (Sanna, Maria and Sara), those who have been here throughout most of my PhD (Johan, Amy, Jody and Anna) and all of you have joined the last few years (Lisa, Jonas R, Mattias, Kricke, Falkenskägg, Robin, Tim, Camilla and Karin). Also, thanks to all the administrative staff, especially Lise-Lott and Anne.

… an extra thank you to Johan and Lisa, the ones I tend to turn to first when I have something to discuss. Or just need a break.

… all the photo models. For the cover I want to thank the Zodiaken-staff in general for allowing me to take the photos on the front and back of the thesis cover, and Kristofer Frendesson in particular for getting in front of the camera. Similarly, my thanks go to the “customers” Matti, Lisa, Johan, Amy, Stefan and Tim. Furthermore, many thanks go to Jalal Maleki for taking the photos at Zodiaken. For the examples of visualisation techniques, my thanks go to Anna for modelling and Jonas H for photographing.

… my parents for everything. You made me into who I am.

Research support: The research presented in this thesis has been supported by: Vinnova: SERV project: Service Design, innovation and involvement. Ref no: 2007-03444. European Union: CIP Competitiveness and Innovation Program, research project “Service Design as an approach to foster competitiveness and sustainability of European tourism”.

Contributor: Fabian Segelström

Source: Segelström F (2013) Stakeholder Engagement for Service Design: How service designers identify and communicate insights, PhD, Linköping University

Showing that someone ‘out there’ is interested in what I’m doing has been immensely valuable

First, I would like to thank my friends at Brunel who have taken the greater part of this PhD journey with me, as part of the Cleaner Electronics Research Group and within Brunel Design more generally. In particular, thank you, Dr Alex Plant, Dr Nicola Combe, Fergus Bisset and Richard Young. While we were all doing our own thing, having your support and friendship has meant a great deal during both the good times and those when things haven’t gone so well. This kind of research can be a very lonely experience, and to know, and be able to talk to, others who are going through similar struggles is incredibly important.

Thank you to my supervisors: Professor David Harrison at Brunel, who took a chance on me back in 2007, enabled this whole PhD, and has been a constant source of support and sensible advice, and Professor Neville Stanton (now at Southampton), who has offered his comprehensive knowledge and strategic insights throughout, and to the Ormsby Trust and Thomas Gerald Gray Charitable Trust for their support.

Other colleagues at Brunel, past and present, both staff and students, whose help I have appreciated over the course of this PhD include:

Alexander Ambridge, Dr Marco Ajovalasit, Dr Sharon Baurley, Dr Stewart Birrell, Dr Jane Coughlan, Annemarie Dah, Loic De Buck, Dr Hua Dong, Dr Sam Duby, the late Lyn Edgecock, Chris Ellis, Professor Graeme Evans, Stephen Green, Linda Hartley, Dr Gareth Hay, Tim Holley, Jane Jang, Dr Dan Jenkins, Ron Jackson, Dr Ljubica Lazarevic, Amy Liu, Chris McGinley, Farnaz Nickpour, Dr Alexandre Pelegrini, Rob Phillips, Nick Sardar, Dr Darren Southee, Paul Turnock, Nikii Wang, Dr Yanmeng Xu, Dr Mark Young

I must thank my colleagues at WMG, University of Warwick from 2011-12—Dr Rebecca Cain, Professor Paul Jennings and Dr Seb Giudice—for their support and for showing me that the approach I have taken in this PhD is valued in a different academic context. Most recently, in 2013, I would like to thank my new colleagues at the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, and SustainRCA, at the Royal College of Art, for opening up an infectiously optimistic worldview on the potential of people-centred design for sustainability and quality of life. Thank you to Catherine Greene, Flora Bowden, Rama Gheerawo, Jo-Anne Bichard, Clare Brass and Professor Jeremy Myerson.

The most enjoyable part of this PhD has been meeting a wonderful group of fellow researchers from all over the world, working on similar, intersecting or tangentially related subjects around persuasive technology, behaviour, interaction, design for social benefit and sustainability. Nominally they are situated in lots of different disciplines—with perhaps surprisingly few in `design’—but they share a commonality in considering understanding people to be an important part of understanding technological systems. The help and support they have given ranges from brief discussions to deep, sometimes metaphysical conversations, to a strengthening of a feeling of camaraderie, even when half-way across the world. Everyone has been useful, in one way or another, in getting this PhD done. I would, therefore, like to thank:

Dr Conny Bakker, Dr Magnus Bang, Professor Russell Beale, Lykke Bertel, Professor Robert Biddle, Dr Lennart Bjorneborn, Professor Casper Boks, Dr Kristina Borjesson, Loove Broms, Elizabeth Buie, Dr Stuart Candy, Kara Chanasyk, Jessica Charlesworth, Anne-Kathrine Christensen, Dr Benjamin Cowan, Dr Salmaan Craig, Dr Brian Cugelman, Johannes Zachrisson Daae, Dr Janet Davis, Dr Annelise De Jong, Christel De Maeyer, Sebastian Deterding, Jens Wilhelm Dinesen, Dr Steven Dorrestijn, Filip Drozd, Dr Dean Eckles, Dr Edward Elias, Dr Gloria Elizondo, Dr BJ Fogg, Dr Alain Forget, Dr Jon Froehlich, Gonzalo Garcia-Perate, Louise Norgaard Glud, Sandra Burri Gram-Hansen, Lasse Burri Gram-Hansen, Dr Elke Greifeneder, Victoria Haines, Dr Qin Han, Arjan Haring, Alex Heeney, Jason Hreha, Sadhna Jain, Kirsikka Kaipainen, Elin Olsen Kallevik, Dr Maurits Kaptein, Lucy Kimbell, Lenneke Kuijer, Ksenija Kuzmina, Dr Mark Lacy, Dr Tuomas Lehto, Dr Debra Lilley, Dr Erica Lofstrom, Professor Elizabeth Losh, Kendra Markle, Richard Mawle, Dr Ramia Maze, Dr Christian McLening, Dave Miller, Jordy Mont-Reynaud, Maria Alejandra Moreno, Dr Ruth Mugge, Prof. Sendhil Mullainathan, Dr Sean Munson, Kiersten Nash, Dr Hien Nguyen, Sylvia Nicholles, Prof. Harri Oinas-Kukkonen, Luis Oliveira, Dr Rosie Onions, Ida Nilstad Pettersen, Dr Laura Rafferty, Dr Teppo Raisanen, Dr Rathna Ramanathan, Valentina Rao, Julie Ravn, Dr Wolfgang Reitberger, Sara Renstrom, Mia Ridge, Professor Henrik Scharfe, Dr Melissa Sedmak, Dr Katarina Segerstahl, Anneli Selvefors, Don Steiny, Goril Storroe, Helena Strömberg, Dr Lauren Tan, Professor Harold Thimbleby, Dr Ann Thorpe, Dr Cameron Tonkinwise, Dr Kristian Torning, Nynke Tromp, Dr Marcella Ucci, Fred Van Amstel, Roseliek Van de Velden, Tjebbe Van Eemeren, Professor Peter-Paul Verbeek, Frank Verberne, Tricia Wang, Tristan Weevers, Dr Renee Wever, Garrath Wilson, Jorge Zapico

What set me on this PhD journey in the first place was the confidence that this was an interesting and worthwhile subject, and that I was capable of tackling it. That confidence came, to a large extent, from correspondence with a whole range of people, a few of whom I have still never met in person, from all over the world: people who had read and commented on my blog, or emailed me examples and pictures and references to look up, points of view and contacts who might be useful, and people who urged me to investigate these issues further. Since the toolkit itself in its various forms was made public, another whole wave of people has helped (even if they don’t realise how much) by taking part in workshops, giving me feedback, inviting me to come and talk and run events, suggesting improvements, and so on. Again, that enthusiasm—quite basically, showing that someone `out there’ is interested in what I’m doing—has been immensely valuable and has kept me going during some times when I was close to packing it all in (so, as well as the people named here, I also want to thank the many thousands of anonymous readers who have, in their own way, contributed). Thanks to:

Stephen Anderson, Kate Andrews, Lauren Argenta, Alison Austin, Sophie Barrett, Tim Barrow-Williams, Steve Baty, David Bausola, Martin Belam, Dr Simon Blyth, Andreas Bovens, Cennydd Bowles, James Box, Dr Harry Brignull, Alex Brown, George Buckenham, Andy Budd, Kate Bulpitt, Meagan Call, Emily Campbell, Samidh Chakrabarti, Dr Jennifer Cham, Adi Chambers, James Christie, David Churcher, Giles Colborne, Dr Mary Rose Cook, Dr Fionnuala Costello, Martin Couzins, Ian Crawford, Harriet Creed, Kimberley Crofts, Vicky Cullen, Lauren Currie, Raphael D’Amico, Dawn Danby, Vincenzo Di Maria, Cory Doctorow, Duncan Drennan, Sarah Drummond, Robert Fabricant, Dr Frank Field, Eliot Fineberg, Crosbie Fitch, Seth Godin, David Gray, Adam Greenfield, Mags Halliday, Michael Hallsworth, Rory Hamilton, Tim Harford, Warren Hatter, Edward Horsford, Lydia Howland, Paul Irish, Dr Laura James, Dr Patrick Jordan, Amy Kapell, Aviv Katz, Elizabeth Kessick, Dr Gary Klein, Michael Kohn, Johanna Kollmann, Adrian Leaman, Katy Lindemann, Nick Marsh, Robert Maslin, Adam Menter, Jason Mesut, Felix Mitchell, Jaimes Nel, Luke Nicholson, Mayo Nissen, Dr Bill Nuttall, Oliver Payne, Martyn Perks, Steve Portigal, George Preston, Tom Randall, Ben Reason, Eric Reiss, Chris Risdon, Frankie Roberto, Ayush Saran, Fee Schmidt-Soltau, Joey Scully, Richard Sedley, Adrian Short, Dr Paul Shrubsole, Timothy J Silverman, Clare Sinclair, Matthew Solle, Paula Sparling, Zoe Stanton, Francis Storr, Bruno Taylor, Agnes Tirat, Elle Tweedy, Alice Tyler, Vincent van der Lubbe, Mark Vanderbeeken, Megha Wadhawan, Marney Walker, Laura Walker-Hudson, Adrian Westaway, Dr Duncan Wilson, Jamie Young

I am lucky to have had a wonderful group of friends who have helped me through the last few years, in particular Julian Wood and Michael O’Donnell. I would also like to thank my family—my parents, Barry and Carol and my brother, Tom, for all their support and advice and belief that I was capable of taking on the PhD. And most of all, I want to thank Harriet, who has been endlessly patient, kind, loving and brilliant.

Contributor: @DanLockton

Source: Lockton, D (2013) Design with Intent: A design pattern toolkit for environmental & social behaviour change, PhD in Design, Brunel University

Thanks to all those on #phdchat…for the enormous help, moral support, motivation and kindness

To describe this as a journey is an understatement. It has been hard work, ridiculously difficult at times, but extremely rewarding, and I am surprised and amazed to have made it to this point. I have a number of people to thank for their support in getting this far on this doctoral journey.

First, thanks very much to my supervisor Ron Thompson, for his constant support, advice, calmness and tenacity over the last five years, and also to Roger Crawford my second supervisor for his advice on my draft thesis, and a big thanks to all the tutors who generously gave up their time for me to interview them.

Next on the list, a massive thank you to my husband, Duncan, and my lovely children, Nicola, Sam, and Lauren for all their love and support, for putting up with my moods and grumpiness at times, and for allowing me time away from family stuff to get this thing completed, and to you this thesis is dedicated. I am also forever indebted to my mum and dad for all they sacrificed for us, and thanks also to my lovely brothers: Dave and Pete; and sisters: Janet and Debbie, who are so supportive in whatever I do in my life.

A huge thank you to two very special colleagues: Cath Ellis, for believing in me and giving me the confidence to start on and continue on this doctoral journey; and to Liz Bennett, who I have been lucky enough to have had travelling this same journey alongside me, and whose constant support, practical advice and optimism has helped to keep me going, and dragged me to the finish line. I’d also like to thank Cheryl Reynolds and David Powell for all their support along the way.

Finally thanks to all those on #phdchat on Twitter, too many to name individually, for the enormous help, moral support, motivation and kindness. Phdchat is a great example of the affordances of social media, providing a personal learning network of doctoral students worldwide supporting and collaborating together.

Contributor: @SueFolley

Source: Folley, S (2013) Bridging the gap between face-to-face and online teaching: a case study exploring tutors’ early experiences of teaching online in a UK university 2009-2012. Doctoral thesis, University of Huddersfield

The biggest of all the giants is my Dad

Standing on the shoulders of giants…

Back in 2009, I remember discussing my initial attempt at a literature review with Sal Craig when he asked me, ‘Who are your giants? Whose shoulders are you going to stand on?’. To paraphrase Newton if I have seen any further, it is by standing on the shoulders of my giants, of whom there are several. To them all, I am extremely grateful to for your help, support and encouragement over the last four years.

To my industrial giants Buro Happold, thank you for the generous sponsorship. Thank you to all those I worked with over the last four years throughout my engineering doctorate (EngD). To Lindsey, Christine and Celia for having the patience to read my work. Special thanks have to go Sal and Neil for their advice in the earlier years of the research. Thanks to Zack for all he taught me while completing his own EngD. Mark, thank you for helping me through all the EngD modules and accompanying me on this journey. And to Jonathan, a huge thank you for all the proof reading, cups of tea and the friendship extended to me since the day I started back in 2008.

In the academic world I wish to thank the ESPRC for funding the EngD programme, which I was fortunate to be a part of. Thank you to Eleanor Van Den Heuvel and Linda Paul at Brunel University for helping me coordinate the participants and usability studies. I’d also like to thank all of the study participants who gave up their time to help me, without whom this research would not have been possible.

Within the school of Engineering and Design, Brunel University, I’d like to thank Dr Hua Dong for her invaluable advice throughout the doctorate. Dr Mark Young thank you for the statistical help and advice on study design. Dan Lockton, thank you for pointing me in the right direction and for continuing to encourage me throughout. Your work has been an inspiration as to what research work can achieve. Professor David Harrison, thank you for providing me with the opportunity to undertake the EngD in the first place and for your continued support and reassurance over the years.

The biggest of all the giants is my Dad, who I cannot thank enough for the opportunities he has given me, the constant encouragement he provides and for always being there for me. I am so fortunate to have a champion like you, who is supportive and motivating in equal measures. Alongside my Dad there is Catherine, my sister Emma and the rest of my family in South Africa, thank you for being in my life.

To my friends Julia, Anna, Kat, Anna, and Sarah – thank you for your continued friendship, support, hugs, skype chats, laughs and cups of tea along the way. David, thank you for taking the time to proof read this thesis, your input was invaluable. Thank you Ferg, for all the conversations, philosophical debates and inspirational conversations over coffee and cake. I am truly lucky to count you amongst my friends. And Tim, thank you for all the support and encouragement you give me, and the patience and unwavering faith you have in me. You believe in me even when I don’t believe in myself. For that I am eternally grateful. Love, always.

I would like to dedicate this thesis to the memory of my mother, Jenny Combe (1948-1994), who is a constant source of inspiration. I hope she would have been proud.

Contributor: @niccombe

Source: EngD, Brunel University, 2012