1 INTRODUCTION

The rocket implementation of smart meters has not only increased but also enhanced the quality
of gas and electricity usage. According to (Davies, 2012) smart meters has played a significant
role by providing convenience in reading and calculating energy usage. Smart meters as said
are to replace conventional gas and electricity meters and the government has the policy to
ensure that homes and business in Great Britain are offered one by 2020. This means that after
installation, energy suppliers can read meters remotely through mobile phone-type signals.
However every home and business will receive a digital display device to show precise power
consumption and cost in real time.

One among many of the smart meters advantages is the understanding of your energy usage.
Smart meters can enable behavioural change in energy usage with direct impact on bills.
Particularly it becomes useful for a customer to track how their usage influences their credit
available.

With the need of having a smart meter, in-home display devices are essentially going to offer
sleek design display which will inform customers about their energy usage by displaying the
cost of usage and communicate consumption in an effective way for people to understand.

As a student undertaking this coursework at Greenwich University, It is, therefore, a task to

design a high fidelity multimedia prototype of an in-home-display (IHD) for smart meters. The
prototype will:

Have content comparable to other in-home display for smart meters.

Capture most vital information customers will need to understand their energy usage.
Follow the study of Interaction Design for a successful work by ensuring that the
current key issues with regards to cognitive psychology, design principles,
methodologies, and evaluation techniques are taking into consideration.
 (Ovoenergy.com, 2017)

Personally, the in-home display above comes with good interaction design. It has many good
points in providing requisite data and statistics to customers, advantageous to see most of their
displays logically separated and content well organized but it also not significant to see the
separation of too many pages.

1.1 CONCLUSION

In conclusion, a high fidelity multimedia prototype for an in-home-display of energy usage will
be developed, an investigation of current issues in interaction design and how the outcome will
be fed into the prototype. Finally, a critical detailed discussion on development process and
evaluation of the final high-fidelity prototype will also be produced.
 2 COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
2.1 INTRODUCTION

According to Ling and Catling 2012, Cognitive Psychology is the way humans study mental
models, perception, learning, memory, recognition, reasoning, problem-solving, decision-
making, manipulating & navigating and emotions of how people quantify information and how
goals are achieved by people. Designing an interactive application for a better and efficient
system to improve user experience has made cognitive psychology now a must-have factor.
This means that cognitive processes have to be considered when developing an in-home display
prototype for smart meters.

2.2 COGNITIVE FRAMEWORKS

There are numerous cognitive frameworks which are used during development to guess and
describe behaviours of humans for interactive designs but the internal and external framework
with some cognitive processes will be considered while developing the prototype.

Internal cognition framework talks about the mental process inside users head. (Brown,
1999) For that reason, this document discusses the internal cognition framework that
emphasizes mainly on mental processes.

A mental model is presumed as a way individuals are particular in understanding what to do

when an instantaneous problem pops-up with a system or in others words when unfamiliar
systems are met. Within cognitive psychology, the mental model is assumed as a core
production of some part of the outside world to enable calculations and suggestions to be
prepared (Davies, 2012) in simple terms, the mental model is making users have confidence
about the use of a system. As a result of this, the prototype developed considered making the
interface of the start-up screen communicate to users effectively to enable accurate reading.
Also, the prototype has been designed obviously to do what it is supposed to do, easy to
understand and intuitive to interact with.

External Cognition is the process which combines humans and cognitive processes to explain
actions when we involve our interactions with different depictions of information such as books
or multimedia (Ling and Catling, 2012). It is normally apprehended as the explanations for
cognitive processes. With a goal to clarify cognitive benefits, the design will, therefore,
consider externalizing the prototype to reduce memory load of users by having a light indicator
to signal low or high energy usage.

2.3 COGNITIVE PROCESSES CONSIDERED WHILE

DESIGNING THE PROTOTYPE

There are several cognitive processes which are categories into experimental and reflective
cognition processes but cognitive processes considered during the development of the
prototype include attention, memory, visual perception and learning. However, these processes
can be mutually dependent meaning that quite some few cognitive processes may be involved
in a single activity.

2.2.1 Attention

Jones and Marsden, explains attention as the approach to control human personality. Moreover,
it is the positive nature of keeping things related to a goal in mind to make a decision based on
credible opportunities available. The use of monochrome and spacing out of icons techniques
were deliberately thought about during the prototype development. Though it would be pretty
to use oodles colours, it would have resulted in a mishmash of the prototype, therefore to avoid
cluttering of the interface with too much information, icons that are self-descriptive were used.
(Jones and Marsden, 2006)

2.2.2 Visual Perception

Visual perception talks about how data is procured for a product through the individual sense
organs and altered into skills, actions, sounds, and tastes. As said earlier, the dependent nature
of cognitive process requires processes such as memory, attention, and language to complete
visual perception. Therefore the prototype for the in-home display has clearly labelled icons
and other graphical depictions which give users meaning and makes it simple to find what they
want. Again text used through the developments are readable and different from the
background (Brown, 1999)

2.2.3 Memory

A versatile approach that enables individuals to do things as it should be by implicating several

forms of knowledge. In other words, people are phenomenal at recognizing things better than
recall. For this reason, memories of the prototype users' will not be loaded with complex
processes as consistently placed icons to supports recognition rather than recalling was
considered for the design. Moreover, people are particularly good at recognizing pictures so
the prototype is designed to make available ways of converting digital information to help users
read and understand their energy usage. (Kim, 2012)

2.2.4 Learning

Learning with regards to HCI is understood as the way user's access systems to know their
purpose. In interaction design learning using technologies such as virtualization and e-learning
provides interactions which would never be present in the traditional way of learning. It is
perceived that learners get the skill to discover ideas and understand perception so easily by
using interactive technologies (Jones and Marsden, 2006). For example, the interactive
multimedia prototype was designed considering that fact most users' prefer to learn via
exploitations so the icons that encourage studies and guide users to choose applicable actions
when learning was used. Again complex electricity and gas units that represent intellectual
conceptions were simplified by using simple meter symbols.

2.4 CONCLUSION

In conclusion, this section of the reports clearly provides an analysis of current issues in
interaction design which includes attention, visual perception, memory, mental models,
learning and how the outcome was fed into the prototype.
 3 INVESTIGATING CURRENT ISSUES IN MOBILE
DESIGN
3.1 INTRODUCTION

The interaction between people and device is generally considered at the design phase,
especially the user interface. An important concern for people who practice human-computer
interaction is the goal of designing usable and accessible devices for the user. Therefore for
designers to provide a good user interface, they must develop systems to bridge the gaps
between human's cognitive model users exploit and computer's understanding of a task. To
curb the common problems most mobile devices shares, designers have made efforts to provide
powerful services for small user interfaces (Zaphiris and Ang, 2009). Therefore the discussion
below is a study made to explore current issues in design for mobile devices with regard to
hardware and software related issues.

3.1.1 HARDWARE ISSUES

Limited Input Facilities. (Huang, 2009) describes the keyboard as one major input facility
for mobile devices. The keyboard allows users to press keys in order for a function to be
performed. Therefore the design of keyboards for mobile devices has always been an issue
since a space for setting up keys on a mobile device is lessened by the size of the device.
However, research proves that mobile devices with keyboard designs are quite tricky and
awkward to use as compared to touch screens, specifically for people with poor manual
dexterity. xxxxx

Limited Output Facilities. Output facilities used on mobile devices have several issues but
the size of a screen is the main common issue among others. A mobile device must be consistent
with all different screen sizes.
 3.1.2 SOFTWARE ISSUES

Limitations of screen real estate. Many designers usually need to understand the limitations
of screen real estate before it's dealt with completely. Screen real estate talks about the available
spaces including arbitrary box, for designers to design in since screen resolutions differ
between devices.

Navigating and Browsing. Navigating and browsing have always been a pain in the neck for
designing devices which comes with small screens. Generally, information displayed on larger
screens, are designed to appear smaller on small screen mobile devices. However, to effectually
bring together information and assist navigation becomes an issue.

Designing for accessibility. It has been an issue for mobile device developer to design mobile
applications that are accessible because of the diverse nature of our communities.

Images and Icons. Images and icons are widely considered important because information
visualization for mobile devices, is however limited compared to desktop computers. Therefore
the display of graphical representations, such as images, diagrams and logos has always been
a pain in the neck for mobile device design.

Information architecture. One the issues for mobile device designer is accepting that mobile
device design is different and does not only relate to the size of the device. Moreover, the
physical specifications of mobile devices disclose different design because mobile devices are
also not heavy.

3.2 HOW TO AVOID THE ISSUES IN THE PROTOTYPE

It is however acknowledged that mobile device used for computing brings much convenience
to people. An earlier discussion of current issues in mobile design with relation to some topics
pointed out why the described issues should be considered in the development of the high-
fidelity prototype of in-home-display for smart meters.

Designing for accessibility. In cognitive impairment, problems related to attention, memory

and reading abilities sometimes makes it difficult for people to understand a complex text and
track complicated instructions. Though the use of an in-home display does not require any
special tools the image below shows how intuitive and self-descriptive icons used in the
prototype resolves issues on accessibility.
 Figure 1

Information architecture. To resolve the issue of information architecture the prototype was
designed using dynamic panel display structure instead of too many pages. The dynamic panel
display structure allows a quick display of content which makes the completions of functions
easy and understandable when it is used for the first time.

Figure 2
Navigating and Browsing. The image below from the prototype shows that there are three
types of consumption history information and instead of requiring three separate pages to
deliver the necessary information, the prototype employed the use of slider design navigation
pattern to allow easy swipes between each information.

Figure 3

Limited Input Facility. As a solution to the earlier issue about limited input facility, the
prototype considered claims that affect the use of a keyboard in a mobile device by designing
a full-blown touch screen. Therefore the image below shows how the prototype will avoid a
tricky and awkward use specifically for people with poor manual dexterity.

Figure 4

Images and Icons. The last of the issues considered for the prototype is the images and icons
used. For the design of the prototype, icons were used to represent the core functionality
required by users to perform tasks. From the scenario, the prototype targets a wide range of
users', therefore, the images and icon used in the prototype are essential for interaction because
an in-depth assumption proves that pictorial icons are able to break language barriers and
present meaning.
 3.3 CONCLUSION

In conclusion, result of an investigation made to explore the current issues in mobile design
and how it was fed into the prototype has been discussed above. The discussion gives well
thought-out on hardware and software-relating issues of mobile devices and a critical approach
to avoid those issues in the final prototype.
 4 DESIGN PRINCIPLES AND METHODOLOGY
4.1 INTRODUCTION

The production of a better prototype which users find friendly and usable requires that the
developer use application design standards to exhibit or present his ideas. This document
discusses a couple of useful principles that meet user's usability and past experience and outline
which ones that will be used and why. Design principles that are purported as expectations,
visual perceptions will also be given a thought before they are applied into the prototype.

4.2 DESIGN PRINCIPLES

In interaction design, a guide that helps in making decisions to produce results in relation to
the methods users communicate and interact daily based on established criteria is however
called the principles of design. Moreover, Design principles do not suggest specific results, but
simply have a capacity within a specific project. (Nielsen, 1991). Therefore, the following
topics, discusses Nielsen, Star Model and Agile design principles and evaluate their use in the
prototype.

Nielsen Design Principles

There are several interaction design principles which were named by Nielsen and his colleagues
as heuristics for interface design. According (Nielsen, 1991) the purpose of using these
principles was to identify problems with user interface design for software. The original
development of the heuristics was done in collaboration with Rolf Molich and a revised set
which was based on 249 usability problems for expounding power was later released. These
principles are easy, fast and cheap to use. Moreover each detected usability problem is
explained fairly to easily generate fixes. The principles bullets below includes the 10 usability
heuristics from Nielsen and his colleagues

User control and freedom

Visibility of system status
Consistency and standards
Error prevention
Flexibility and efficiency of use
Aesthetic and minimalist design
Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
Help and documentation
Match between system and the real world
Recognition rather than recall
The Star Model

The Star Model design is the principles organisations base their design decision on. The model
consists of design policies that is controlled by management to guide the conduct of employees.
The Star Model, includes design policies which are grouped into five categories.

Strategy
Structure
processes
Rewards
people

The Star Model for some time past, had users focused and invested too much time on the policy
categorised under structure and paid little attention to other policies. However, the fast-
changing business operations saw policies under structure becoming less important, while
policies under processes, rewards, and people becoming more important.

Agile Design Principles

Agile labels some set of principles for design, which the requirements and possible solutions
progress through an effective collaboration among the project team. The supportive and
adaptive processes of the principles ensures that rapid and flexible product are produce on time.
The agile principles were based on the agile manifesto to ensure project succeeds in any
uncertain environment because it has the capacity to create and respond to change.

4.3 JUSTIFICATION OF DESIGN PRINCIPLES USED

Fitt's Law

With regards to the wide range of user population, the prototype will be designed to
provide large icons which are well arranged and self-descriptive for easy interaction.
Therefore the consideration of this principle justifies Fits laws which clearly model the
act of pointing, either by a physical touch with a hand. For example, the dynamic panel
display and its icons are large enough to give space to any pointing device. (Nicholson,
1977)
Efficiency & Usability

User interfaces are presumed to be well-organized when it allows users to focus on

completion of tasks in an easy and fast way. Therefore users of the prototype will be
able to use it more efficiently because getting information is easy and quick. For
example, the gas, electricity and consumption panel displays a real-time information on
energy usage and allows for the checking of past energy usage patterns. Moreover,
usability is also an essential issue for most users. Therefore the prototype is concisely
showing the useful features that are required by newbies and keeping away any clumsy
information. For example, the message function included in the prototype will alert
users about messages sent from suppliers and will also allow to view it. (Nicholson,
1977)

Simplicity

For user interface design, simplicity is always essentials. An easier use of an interface
is mostly attributed to its simple user interface. On the other hand, prototypes should
not be designed to consist of fewer functions just to keep the interface simple. The
above reason is justified in the designing of the in-home-display prototype to ensure
that a cleave steadiness is between its functions and straightforwardness. For example,
icons and its functions of the prototype change according to the action designated to
perform. (Norman, 2009)

Consistency & Familiarity

Factors for a good user interface includes consistency & familiarity. The user interface
of the in-home-display prototype is consistent across all panels of the application, from
home to all functions which generally is referred to as internal consistency. For
example, the icons and images that represent the core functions of the in-home-display
prototype are similar to that of the icons used on most user's cell phones. Therefore this
principle will be used. (Norman, 2009)

Accessibility

Accessibility is a very significant principle for designing a prototype. To ensure that

user interface and it related content are perceivable, a user must be able to choose any
type of familiar content that is present. For example, the switch in network signal setting
will allow a user to choose a preferred network. Again an appropriate background
colour, text size, and fonts to facilitate a clear display will be considered in the prototype
so that people with some disability forms can access it. (Norman, 2009)
Grid

The grid is also a component of design principles which structures and sort out
graphical elements such as pictures, panels, and text in a simple way to make works
clear and understandable to a user. The use of grids in the designing of the prototype
for example structures all icons, text and dynamic panels' to make information clear
and understandable to users.