Design and Use

This area brings together field and laboratory research aimed at gaining a better understanding of how technologies are used, based on theoretical foundations in psychology, ergonomics and computer science. Human use of technology is analyzed using complementary approaches based on the concepts of “behavior” and “activity”. In other words, our work aims to understand the uses of technological devices through the prism of human activity analysis, computer modeling and simulation. The aim is to design technological devices that are better adapted and more adaptive to the men and women who use them to take action. The common thread running through this work is a better understanding of instrumented human activities, the uses to which technologies are put, and the internal and external factors influencing them. It also aims to influence design and technological innovation processes, either to guide them or to set up new forms of participatory design. Depending on the project, this research is carried out using comprehensive, explanatory or predictive approaches.

Ergonomics

In ergonomics, we conduct action research along four main lines

• understand how technologies are appropriated,
• encourage the development of uses by anticipating future human activities,
• develop methods to support technology design processes,
• develop work analysis techniques and methods for designing vocational training programs incorporating new tools.

Computer Science

In computer science, we are interested in multi-agent simulation of human activity, for example, to study and reduce energy consumption. The challenge is to propose models that can bring together experts from very different scientific fields (psychology, ergonomics, energetics, heat engineering, etc.) within a single computer simulation. For example, one of the methodologies adopted combines participatory simulation approaches with statistical data on populations to generate activity diagrams and couple them with consumption data (SMACH project).

Psychology

In psychology, we are particularly interested in platform design choices: to what extent can these guide user behavior? To what extent can the context of interaction guide their use?

In Léonor Philip’s thesis, for example, we examine the nature of the feedback provided by an educational platform for teaching English to secondary school students, and its influence on user engagement during didactic interaction on the one hand, and on the development of language skills on the other. This work was published in the journal Enfance in 2015.

Jean-Baptiste Corrégé’s thesis (2016-2019) aims to explain how normative processes can be integrated into an interactive device and modify user activity. In this way, we have shown that the use of injunctive norms to promote energy-efficient choices when using a building renovation simulation application influences not only the results obtained by users, but also the strategies employed when developing their project, as well as their priorities.

As part of the ANR NARECA project, we studied the impact of the emotional expressivity of a narrator virtual agent when interacting with children. We studied the extent to which children pay attention to the agent’s expressiveness, using eye-tracking in particular. Beyond the study of design choices and their impact on use, this work aims to provide information on the psychosocial processes involved in human-machine interactions, and ultimately to propose specifications for the design of user-friendly devices.