Southern right whales (SRWs, Eubalaena australis) typically migrate between summer, high-latitude offshore foraging grounds and winter calving grounds located in coastal, temperate waters.Premodern and modern whaling operations nearly extirpated SRWs; the species declined from about 100,000 individuals in the early 1800s to a few hundred

Shore-based surveys of humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae were performed from Cape Vidal, on the east coast of South Africa (iSimangaliso Marine Protected Area, Indian Ocean), from two independent platforms between 27 June and 7 August in 2018 and 2019, to estimate the relative abundance and growth rate of the C1 breeding substock of the species. Observed whale groups were tracked by analogue survey theodolites, and observed numbers were adjusted to account for daily sighting effort and the proportions of groups missed by observers. Daily sighting frequency was aggregated across the season to result in annual relative abundance estimates of 10 499 (2018) and 11 009 (2019) individuals, with peak frequencies from 28 July to 3 August in both years. When compared with previous estimates from the same study area, we estimated an average annual increase rate of 7.4% to 8.8% over 31 years from 1988. These results indicate a slowing of the rate of increase from previous estimates, which could suggest that the population is approaching pre-exploitation numbers or that yet unidentified threats are negatively impacting the growth rate. Continued monitoring of the recovering humpback whale stocks is critical to identify any possible effects of Southern Ocean ecosystem changes on the stock health of these whales.

An understanding of the need for user-centred and participatory design continues to gain universal momentum both in academia and industry. It is essential this momentum is maintained as the population changes and technology develops. The contribution of this work draws on research from different disciplines to provide the design community with new knowledge and an awareness of the diversity of user needs, particularly the needs and skills of older people. A collection of usability and accessibility guidelines are referenced in terms of their applicability toward designing interfaces and interaction for an ageing population, in conjunction with results from studies that highlight the extent to which familiarity and successful interaction with contemporary products decreases according to age and prior experience, and identifies the problems users experience during interaction with technology. The hope is that more widespread awareness of this knowledge will encourage greater understanding and assist in the development of better design methods and better on- and offline products and tools for those of any age, but particularly those within an increasingly ageing demographic.

Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) are well known for their complex song which is culturally transmitted and produced by males. However, the function of singing behavior remains poorly understood. Song was observed from 57 min of acoustic recording in the presence of feeding humpback whales aggregated in the near-shore waters on the west coast of South Africa. The structural organization of the song components, lack of overlap between song units, and consistency in relative received level suggest the song was produced by one "singer." The unusual timing and location of song production adds further evidence of plasticity in song production.

Despite an increasing awareness of user-centered design (UCD), there is limited discussion of how such approaches can be translated into the resource and time constrained environments of medical engineering departments; yet, much of the work in such environments involves the prescription and tailoring of equipment for an individual. This article explores the suitability of adopting a user-centered design approach to understanding the needs of 10 electromyography standalone switch users who have complex disabilities. This feasibility study was conducted in a busy Rehabilitation Engineering Unit of a National Health Service hospital. A UCD approach was developed and tested using a range of qualitative techniques that included user interviews in the home environment, content analysis, and affinity mapping. This approach enabled clinical engineers to work alongside design researchers to elicit key parameters for future switch designs. A number of themes emerged relating to the day-today use of environmental controls by individuals with a limited range of physical lower limb movements. A key finding concerning switch use was the importance that users placed on the ability of a switching device to increase their independence and have control of their activities; conversely, there was also the revelation that in some cases the effort invested in using an assistive technology was not worth the gain to the user. In such cases having a caregiver perform the task instead was preferential. This paper documents a university-affiliated research team's efforts to guide user-led practice and product insight acquisition with the implementation of a UCD approach.

Despite growing interest in user-centric design (UCD), there is limited discussion and critique of how to implement such an approach in a commercial design environment. This paper examines the approach taken to gain knowledge of product use in order to evaluate a framework for user-research that draws on UCD theory through a number of commercial case studies. User-centric enquiry must fit into the design process where the aim is to create commercially viable output economically and efficiently, and where errors resulting from insufficient user consideration are mitigated cost-effectively; something that is rarely discussed in literature. This paper documents a university-affiliated design team's efforts to guide user-led design practice and product insight acquisition with the implementation of a model-driven, user-centred, design approach.

This paper outlines a simple design insight acquisition exercise that effectively captures user feedback to inform the design and development of more user-friendly, usable, and assistive devices. The easily transferable approach provides the design community with an opportunity to understand the workarounds that were devised by actual users to overcome inadequacies in the original designs. Further, it allows us to consider how such ideas might be filtered into mainstream assistive technology development while reducing the stigma often associated with the typical design of assistive devices.

Younger people appear adept at creating accurate mental models of product interaction and acquiring new and relevant knowledge through experiential learning. This chapter highlights and explains some of the differences in interaction and learning that occur according to age. This is achieved by revealing the existence of age-effects regarding prior experience and their effect upon interaction with a novel contemporary product, chosen at random for its newness to market, and by investigating if young people, based on their experience of contemporary technology, are able to create more accurate mental models of engagement that facilitate superior interaction. The overall aim is to present best practice when involving teenagers and young people in research to optimise their influence on product and interaction design, and to maximise the output of ideation and design insight acquisition exercises. This is explored by framing interaction in terms of Rasmussen’s (1993) Skill, Rule and Knowledge-based Model of Behaviour to determine how knowledge acquisition is facilitated and to identify instances of interactional complexity that could be overcome by better design with input from real users. The work illustrates how insight acquisition activity can drive better and more effective design research in the real world with a greater likelihood of adoption and increased commercial success; designing engaging products for a teenage demographic necessitates their close involvement throughout the design process. This chapter provides examples of how this might be achieved by focussing upon how to better include, motivate and involve teenagers within empirical and commercial research activity.

A methodology was developed for capturing human behaviour as part of a participatory design approach to creating an intelligent mobility aid for older people. The project aimed to anticipate user intent and predict paths posing minimal risk of collision by way of a prediction engine. The paper describes initial work that examined interaction during a simulated shopping activity and categorised behaviour in terms of active and reactive behaviours. This article informs the direction of the project and future studies with the potential to feed directly into the prediction engine’s development.

Traditional design approaches have been accused of failing to engage with users in the design process: compromising commercial opportunity and the interactional experience of users. Alternatively, a participatory design approach was applied to the generation of ideas for new product opportunities in the active wheelchair user market and to the initial stages of a European project aiming to develop an intelligent mobility aid for older people. Users were acutely aware of problems with existing technology or designs, and including them during early discussion and design stages was shown to facilitate new concept generation. This highly transferable approach enhances the user experience and commercial potential of products and services, and will be of interest to product manufacturers, designers, and researchers, alike.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the extent to which prior technological experience of products is related to age, and if this has implications for the success of subsequent product interaction. The contribution of this work is to provide the design community with new knowledge and a greater awareness of the diversity of user needs, and particularly the needs and skills of older people. The focus of this paper is to present how individual's mental models of products and interaction were developed through experiential learning; what new knowledge was acquired, and how this contributed to the development of mental models and product understanding.

The number of over 65s in the European Union (EU) is predicted to almost double by 2060. Those over 80 will be almost triple 2008 figures (European Commission, 2009). Mobility per se, but particularly physical activity, is related to independent living, wellbeing and reduced mortality (Manty et al., 2007). Shopping is a useful way for individuals to stay mobile. It encourages physical activity and reduces social isolation (Kim, Kang, & Kim, 2005). However increased risk (and experience) of falls, and reduced muscle control can result in older adults feeling less confident in their ability to go out independently especially in unfamiliar and crowded spaces. In the EU-funded DALi (Devices for Assisted Living) project, we pursue autonomous mobility through the development of the ‘c-walker’. This mobility aid supports navigation in crowded and unstructured spaces. The device will anticipate the intent of the individual and determine the path that poses minimal risk of accident. The c-walker will recommend a course of action to the user through visual, acoustic, and/or haptic interfaces. As this is an assistive technology, the user remains in charge of ultimate decision making. The expected benefits include reducing the anxiety of navigating such environments, increased likelihood of continued autonomous use of such environments, and increased or maintained personal independence. In this paper we present the initial requirements gathering research. Utilising a mixed methods approach (naturalistic observations, focus groups, interviews, surveys and experimentation) we discuss how older users engage with the shopping environment, the perceived benefits of shopping and, more generally, thought, cognition and decision making processes during shared space navigation.

The recent emergence of mashup tools has refueled research on end-user development, i.e., on enabling end-users without programming skills to compose own applications. Yet, similar to what happened with analogous promises in web service composition and business process management, research has mostly focused on technology and, as a consequence, has failed its objective. Plain technology (e.g., SOAP/WSDL web services) or simple modeling languages (e.g., Yahoo! Pipes) don't convey enough meaning to non-programmers. In this article, we propose a domain-specific approach to mashups that \speaks the language of the user, i.e., that is aware of the terminology, concepts, rules, and conventions (the domain) the user is comfortable with. We show what developing a domain-specific mashup tool means, which role the mashup meta-model and the domain model play and how these can be merged into a domain-specific mashup meta-model. We exemplify the approach by implementing a mashup tool for a specific scenario (research evaluation) and describe the respective user study. The results of a first user study confirm that domain-specific mashup tools indeed lower the entry barrier to mashup development.

Assessing the usability of products, interfaces and artefacts from an inclusive design perspective can widen cross-market acceptability and adoption, enhancing their potential commercial success. This paper is part of ongoing research that attempts to evaluate the design of existing products on the market, in terms of usability and learnability, with a view to improving these facets where deficiencies become apparent across user populations. Individuals were assessed according to the development of their product understanding during increased product exposure, providing concurrent protocol whilst product interaction occurred. The extent of participants’ technological familiarity was also investigated to determine how prior experience may affect product interaction performance. Age related differences were evident in both approaches to problem solving and extent of technological familiarity, and this also impacted overall interactional performance.

Improving product usability through inclusive design consideration can enhance a products potential commercial success, whilst widening it's acceptability across an increasingly divergent market. An experimental approach was developed to encapsulate how individuals perceive, process and respond to stimuli during interaction with products. By presenting a sample of participants with a novel product, we are able to assess how their understanding and internal conceptualisations are developed during increasing product exposure, and indicate how product design can have a significant impact upon these processes. Participants were recorded interacting with the novel product whilst providing concurrent protocol and information elicited regarding the development of internal representations. The extent of participants' technological familiarity was also investigated to determine how prior experience may assist novel product interaction. Age related differences were evident in both approaches to problem solving and extent of technological familiarity, and this was considered to have an impact upon overall interactional performance.

In our previous paper (Wilkinson et al., 2009) a methodology was outlined that was designed to capture how individuals perceive, process and respond to stimuli during interaction with products, how product design can affect this, and to reveal what occurs when individuals have little or no previous knowledge of a specific product. Areas of interest involved the generational effect and the effects of ageing upon interaction. In this larger study, a novel product is presented to a sample of participants who are recorded interacting with it whilst providing concurrent protocol. The expectation was that prior experience with similar products would affect users’ ability to interact with the product, and that age-related effects might be observed.

In keeping with the ethos of Inclusive Design, this paper outlines a pilot study investigating how individuals perceive, process and respond to stimuli during interaction with products, and aims to reveal what occurs during novel product interaction whereupon users may posses limited, or non-existent, internal representations. Other areas of interest included the generational effect and the effects of ageing, upon interaction. A novel product is presented to a small number of participants who are recorded interacting with it whilst providing concurrent protocol and information elicited regarding the development of internal representations. The expectation was that prior experience with similar products would affect users' ability to interact with the product, and that this might be age-related. Whilst this was confirmed to a limited extent in the pilot study, experimentation provided clear evidence of internalised concept development that would, in itself, validate full-scale examination.