The accelerated densification of Western European cities driven by economic growth has major spatial implications for their overall livability. Often, new homes must be built within an existing urban fabric, creating higher density environments. However, the impact on the experience of these high-density environments at eye level remains unstudied and unknown. This chapter reviews two experiments that sought to understand the unconscious reception of streetscapes using eye-tracking technology to investigate the sequence of users’ (visual) experience, their behavior and perception. The research project seeks to establish more ‘evidence-based’ design guidelines for streetscapes in high-rise urban settings.This chapter reviews two experiments that sought to understand the unconscious reception of streetscapes using eye-tracking technology to investigate the sequence of users’ experience, their behavior and perception. Eye-tracking results of Experiment 1 show that the movement of pedestrians, cyclists and cars crossing the street created the most eye fixation for most participants. In general, the eye-tracking results from Experiment 2 show that participants’ eyes followed the length of the facades toward the end of the street and the horizon. The preliminary results suggest that the assessed design principles ‘Active ground floor’ and ‘Ornate facades’ might be important factors in predicting dominant eye patterns. The chapter explores the application of eye-tracking technology in urban design to gain a deeper understanding of the physical-behavioral interrelationship of streetscapes in European high-density built environments. The accelerated densification of Western European cities driven by economic growth has major spatial implications for their overall livability.
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Werkgevers in de Europese Unie gebruiken draagbare technologie, zoals smartphones, om er preventief voor te zorgen dat hun bedrijf geen besmettingshaard wordt. Door bron- en contactonderzoek en tracking van werknemers proberen zij dat te bereiken. Maar hoe zit dit in relatie tot de Europese AVG-regels? Stefania Marassi van de Haagse Hogeschool stelt dat er strikte voorwaarden moeten zijn om deze technologie te mogen gebruiken.
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Over the next 10 years, the City of Amsterdam plans to develop major housing schemes provide 90,000 new homes within the existing urban fabric. At the same time, an urban renewal program is being launched to revitalize the most deprived neighbourhoods. Together, these challenges call for more evidence based designprinciples to secure liveable places. Recent development in neuroscience, provides innovative tools to examine in a measurable, cause-effect way, the relationships between the physical fabric, users’ (visual) experience and their behavior in public spaces. In neuroscience, eye-tracking technology (ET) complements brain and behavioral measures (for overview see Eckstein et al. 2017). ET is already used to evaluate the spatial orienting of attention, behavioral response and emotional and cognitive impact in neuroscience, psychology and market research (Popa et al. 2015). ET may also radically change the way we (re)design and thus, experience cities (Sita et al. 2016; Andreani 2017). Until now, eye-tracking pilot studies collected eye fixation patterns of architecture using images in a lab-setting (Lebrun 2016).In our research project Sensing Streetscapes, we take eye-tracking outdoors and explore the potential ET may offer for city design. In collaboration with the municipality of Amsterdam and the local community, the H-neighborhood is used as a single case study. The main focus for urban renewal lies in the “transition-spaces”. They connect the neighborhood with the rapidly developing adjacent areas and are vital for improving the weak social-economic status. The commonly used design principles are validated (Alexander et al. 1977; Gehl 2011, 2014; Pallasmaa 2012) and the consistency of ET is tested, alongside (walk along) interviews and behavioral observations. In the next phase, the data will be analyzed by a panel of applied psychologists and urban designers. The initial results provide valuable lessons for the use of eye-tracking in urban design research. For example, a visual pattern analysis offers more accurate images of the spatial key-elements that matter when moving through transition spaces. More sensory-based city design research is needed to gather a full understanding of the relationships between the configuration of space, users’ (visual) experience, behavioral responses and in turn, perceptual decision making.
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The combination of self-tracking and persuasive eCoaching in healthy lifestyle interventions is a promising approach. The objective of this study is to map the key components of existing healthy lifestyle interventions combining self-tracking and persuasive eCoaching using the scoping review methodology in accordance with the York methodological framework by Arksey and O’Malley. Seven studies were included in this preliminary scoping review. Components related to persuasive eCoaching applied only in effective interventions were reduction of complex behavior into small steps, providing positive motivational feedback by praise and providing reliable information to show expertise. Concerning self-tracking, it did not seem to matter if more action was required by the participant to obtain personal data. The first results of this study indicate the necessity to identify the needs and problems of the specific target group of the interventions, due to differences found between various groups of users. In addition to objective data on lifestyle and health behavior, other factors need to be taken into account, such as the context of use, daily experiences, and feelings of the users.
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The enhancement of GPS technology enables the use of GPS devices not only as navigation and orientation tools, but also as instruments used to capture travelled routes: as sensors that measure activity on a city scale or the regional scale. TU Delft developed a process and database architecture for collecting data on pedestrian movement in three European city centres, Norwich, Rouen and Koblenz, and in another experiment for collecting activity data of 13 families in Almere (The Netherlands) for one week. The question posed in this paper is: what is the value of GPS as ‘sensor technology’ measuring activities of people? The conclusion is that GPS offers a widely useable instrument to collect invaluable spatial-temporal data on different scales and in different settings adding new layers of knowledge to urban studies, but the use of GPS-technology and deployment of GPS-devices still offers significant challenges for future research.
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People in western countries spend approximately 90% of their time indoors. This severely affects their health (WHO 2013; Klepeis et al. 2001). The health risks are exacerbated if people travel between indoor spaces by car or public transport. Buildings on streets specifically designed to create a human scale and connected with the street-space can potentially invite people to walk and enhance their engagement with their surroundings (O’Mara 2019; Ewing et al. 2013). Since the 1960s, influential empirical studies have raised awareness of the walkability of streets (e.g. Jacobs 2008) but reliable evidence on the effectiveness of applied design solutions remains scarce (Spanjar & Suurenbroek 2020). This eye-tracking study focused on the visual ‘scanning’ of streetscapes and people’s appreciation of applied design principles. The aim was to gather together lessons learned from a variety of streetscapes in cities around the world and use them to inform the design of new developments in the Netherlands. Google Street View was used to select 19 images of streets in high-density environments with human-scale attributes in their façades and street-spaces. They were presented in a randomized order in a laboratory setting to 40 participants, who viewed them for 5 seconds. The participants’ visual explorative behaviour was recorded with advanced eye-tracking technology. A survey recorded their overall appreciation of the scenes and mouse-tracking collated their specific areas of interest (see fig. 1). The comparative analysis of the participants’ aggregated eye-fixation images together with the supplementary methods suggests that certain attributes for creating a human scale catch the eye in the first few seconds and are highly appreciated. These include the variety of a street’s façades, a street’s enclosedness, and the level of detail in the transition zone between the private ground floor and the public street (see fig. 2). Green features are particularly valued and might have important restorative qualities for people who spend most of their time indoors (Kaplan 1995; Ulrich 1984). Future research should focus on the design of façades and the street-space itself, taking people’s indoor lives and related stress levels as a starting point.
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People in western countries spend approximately 90% of their time indoors. This severely affects their health (WHO 2013; Klepeis et al. 2001). The health risks are exacerbated if people travel between indoor spaces by car or public transport. Buildings on streets specifically designed to create a human scale and connected with the street-space can potentially invite people to walk and enhance their engagement with their surroundings (O’Mara 2019; Ewing et al. 2013). Since the 1960s, influential empirical studies have raised awareness of the walkability of streets (e.g. Jacobs 2008) but reliable evidence on the effectiveness of applied design solutions remains scarce (Spanjar & Suurenbroek 2020). This eye-tracking study focused on the visual ‘scanning’ of streetscapes and people’s appreciation of applied design principles. The aim was to gather together lessons learned from a variety of streetscapes in cities around the world and use them to inform the design of new developments in the Netherlands. Google Street View was used to select 19 images of streets in high-density environments with human-scale attributes in their façades and street-spaces. They were presented in a randomized order in a laboratory setting to 40 participants, who viewed them for 5 seconds. The participants’ visual explorative behaviour was recorded with advanced eye-tracking technology. A survey recorded their overall appreciation of the scenes and mouse-tracking collated their specific areas of interest (see fig. 1). The comparative analysis of the participants’ aggregated eye-fixation images together with the supplementary methods suggests that certain attributes for creating a human scale catch the eye in the first few seconds and are highly appreciated. These include the variety of a street’s façades, a street’s enclosedness, and the level of detail in the transition zone between the private ground floor and the public street (see fig. 2). Green features are particularly valued and might have important restorative qualities for people who spend most of their time indoors (Kaplan 1995; Ulrich 1984). Future research should focus on the design of façades and the street-space itself, taking people’s indoor lives and related stress levels as a starting point.
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Background: The combination of self-tracking and persuasive eCoaching in automated interventions is a new and promising approach for healthy lifestyle management. Objective: The aim of this study was to identify key components of self-tracking and persuasive eCoaching in automated healthy lifestyle interventions that contribute to their effectiveness on health outcomes, usability, and adherence. A secondary aim was to identify the way in which these key components should be designed to contribute to improved health outcomes, usability, and adherence. Methods: The scoping review methodology proposed by Arskey and O'Malley was applied. Scopus, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and PubMed were searched for publications dated from January 1, 2013 to January 31, 2016 that included (1) self-tracking, (2) persuasive eCoaching, and (3) healthy lifestyle intervention. Results: The search resulted in 32 publications, 17 of which provided results regarding the effect on health outcomes, 27 of which provided results regarding usability, and 13 of which provided results regarding adherence. Among the 32 publications, 27 described an intervention. The most commonly applied persuasive eCoaching components in the described interventions were personalization (n=24), suggestion (n=19), goal-setting (n=17), simulation (n=17), and reminders (n=15). As for self-tracking components, most interventions utilized an accelerometer to measure steps (n=11). Furthermore, the medium through which the user could access the intervention was usually a mobile phone (n=10). The following key components and their specific design seem to influence both health outcomes and usability in a positive way: reduction by setting short-term goals to eventually reach long-term goals, personalization of goals, praise messages, reminders to input self-tracking data into the technology, use of validity-tested devices, integration of self-tracking and persuasive eCoaching, and provision of face-to-face instructions during implementation. In addition, health outcomes or usability were not negatively affected when more effort was requested from participants to input data into the technology. The data extracted from the included publications provided limited ability to identify key components for adherence. However, one key component was identified for both usability and adherence, namely the provision of personalized content. Conclusions: This scoping review provides a first overview of the key components in automated healthy lifestyle interventions combining self-tracking and persuasive eCoaching that can be utilized during the development of such interventions. Future studies should focus on the identification of key components for effects on adherence, as adherence is a prerequisite for an intervention to be effective.
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Self-tracking and automated persuasive eCoaching combined in a smartphone application may enhance stress management among employees at an early stage. For the application to be persuasive and create impact, we need to achieve a fit between the design and end-users’ and important stakeholders’ values. Semi-structured interviews were conducted among 8 employees and 8 human resource advisors to identify values of self-tracking, persuasive eCoaching, and preconditions (e.g., privacy and implementation) for a stress management application, using the value proposition design by Osterwalder et al. Results suggest essential features and functionalities that the application should possess. In general, respondents see potential in combining self-tracking and persuasive eCoaching for stress management via a smartphone application. Future design of the application should mainly focus on gaining awareness about the level of stress and causes of stress. In addition, the application should possess a positive approach besides solely the focus on negative aspects of stress.
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Many students persistently misinterpret histograms. This calls for closer inspection of students’ strategies when interpreting histograms and case-value plots (which look similar but are diferent). Using students’ gaze data, we ask: How and how well do upper secondary pre-university school students estimate and compare arithmetic means of histograms and case-value plots? We designed four item types: two requiring mean estimation and two requiring means comparison. Analysis of gaze data of 50 students (15–19 years old) solving these items was triangulated with data from cued recall. We found five strategies. Two hypothesized most common strategies for estimating means were confirmed: a strategy associated with horizontal gazes and a strategy associated with vertical gazes. A third, new, count-and-compute strategy was found. Two more strategies emerged for comparing means that take specific features of the distribution into account. In about half of the histogram tasks, students used correct strategies. Surprisingly, when comparing two case-value plots, some students used distribution features that are only relevant for histograms, such as symmetry. As several incorrect strategies related to how and where the data and the distribution of these data are depicted in histograms, future interventions should aim at supporting students in understanding these concepts in histograms. A methodological advantage of eye-tracking data collection is that it reveals more details about students’ problem-solving processes than thinking-aloud protocols. We speculate that spatial gaze data can be re-used to substantiate ideas about the sensorimotor origin of learning mathematics.
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