Understanding and designing data experiences for environmental awareness in the context of wellbeing for the quantified workplace

Abstract

This PhD Thesis responds to the timely topic of the quantification of the workplace and the emerging wellbeing challenges of inhabiting sensory-rich workplaces prior, during and post COVID-19. This PhD Thesis adresses relevant research gaps within Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Human -Building-Interaction (HBI) research through a design-led and mixed-methods methodological approach; responding to the topic in a three-fold way. First, it unpacks the experiences of the occupants of a quantified building while working in the office, at home and in hybrid context; discussing their experiences of data collection and use in these contexts. Second, it maps the emerging wellbeing challenges in the shared, domestic and hybrid workplace; and discusses how these might inform data use for supporting wellbeing in the buildings for work. Third, it addresses the research challenges through designing, deploying, and evaluating a data awareness interface as a means to support wellbeing in the workplace; investigating the experience of air quality data and its representation through a physical customizable display. Key findings of this PhD work relate with how physical aspects influence the perception of privacy in the quantified workplace and may support or inhibit dimensions of wellbeing; emphasizing on the importance of surfacing data in the buildings for awareness and the potentials of engaging with a physical and material design approach for displaying building data to the occupants. An important finding also includes the association between perceived wellbeing and specific environmental aspects; whereby air quality was found to be an important latent aspect for wellbeing while working from home. Finally, an interesting finding includes novel dimensions for biophilic design as key components for designing for wellbeing in the workplace; shaping design directions for physical feedback for environmental data awareness that engages with biomimicry. Responding to the above key findings through materializing and evaluating ActuAir, an air quality data awareness interface, this PhD work opens the design space for customizable soft robotics for physicalizing climatic data in the buildings for work. Key contributions of this PhD Thesis to the field of HBI research include empirical knowledge on the human experience of data collection in the shared and domestic workplace and its use in the buildings for wellbeing purposes; design recommendations for the human-centered design of data-rich workplaces; and design implications for architecture-as-display for environmental feedback in the context of workplace wellbeing.