School staff
Victoria Haines
Research Fellow
Head of User Centred Design Research Group
Tel +44 (0)1509 226915
Email V.J.Haines@lboro.ac.uk
Location LDS 2.15
Personal profile
Victoria Haines heads the User Centred Design Research Group in the Loughborough Design School. She is a Research Fellow and holds a degree in Ergonomics, a Diploma in Professional Studies and a Professional Certificate in Management. She is a Fellow of the Ergonomics Society and a Registered European Ergonomist.
Victoria has worked extensively on projects with commercial and industrial partners as well as other academics, focusing on ergonomics and user-centred design.
Victoria currently is Co-Investigator on two EPSRC/E.ON funded projects: CALEBRE (Consumer Appealing Low Energy Technologies for Building Retrofitting) which is investigating user behaviours and comfort relating to the implementation of retrofit energy saving technologies in the home and is focusing on owner-occupied, solid-walled houses; and CCC (Carbon, Control and Comfort) which is investigating user-centred control systems for comfort, carbon saving and energy management, with a focus on social housing.
Victoria also led ESRI's contribution to the Equipment Management and Services Aggregation Trials for the DTI (2002-2005) under 'The Application Homes Initiative'. These multi-partner projects researched and developed new systems to provide householders with targeted information about domestic energy use. ESRI's role was to identify what information people wanted (as opposed to what the technology could offer) and how it should be presented. Researchers conducted home trials with retrofitted equipment to establish the benefits and necessary design improvements.
Victoria is responsible for managing a team of 15 human factors experts, who can bring user-centred design methods and expertise to the research. Her research focuses on how people interact with their environment and the products and services they use, particularly in the domestic energy field.
Professional Membership
- Fellow of the Ergonomics Society
- Registered European Ergonomist
- Member of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention
- Registered Expert ECOSA European Safety Network
Teaching
- MPA106 - Design Ergonomics (Module organiser)
- DSA105 - Introduction to Ergonomics (Contributing lecturer)
- DSC502 - Human Factors in Systems Design (Contributing lecturer)
- DSC112 - Designing Products for People (Contributing lecturer)
- DSP107 - Practitioner Skills (Contributing lecturer)
- DSP118 - Ergonomics of HCI (Contributing lecturer)
- DSC100 - Ergonomics projects (Supervisor)
- MPC113 - Design and Engineering Materials projects (Supervisor)
- DSC021 - Dissertation Supervisor
Research
Victoria specialises in consumer ergonomics and product design, although her applied research experience covers a broad area and reflects her desire to see positive ergonomics impact across all areas of user interaction.
She has provided research and consultancy across a wide range of application areas, including: product safety, consumer behaviour and expectations, interface design and workplace and equipment design.
Research Groups
Current research students
- Natalie Moore - Ground Source Heat Pumps in Social Housing: The Implications for Older People
- Becky Mallaband - Barriers and motivations to energy efficiency domestic building retrofit
- Andrea Burris - Comfort in the home
- Keyur Vadodaria - Thermal comfort in domestic buildings
- Grace Smalley - User centred approaches to prosthetic design
Completed research students
- Nadine Geddes - Approaches to Providing Disability and Employment Information
Featured publications
- Haines, V., Mitchell, V., Cooper, C., Maguire, M. (2006). Probing user values in the home environment within a technology driven Smart Home project. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing. 11 (5), pp.349-359.
- Loveday, D.L., Bhamra, T., Tang, T., Haines, V.J.A., Holmes, M.J. and Green, R.J. (2008). The energy and monetary implications of the '24/7' 'always on' society. Energy Policy , 36(12), 2008, pp 4639-4645, ISSN 0301-4215.
- Lilley, D., Bhamra, T., Haines, V., Mitchell, V. (2009) Reducing Energy Use in Social Housing - Examining contextual design constraints and enablers. EcoDesign2009, December 2009 Sapporo, Japan.
- Vadodaria, K., Loveday, D., Haines, V., Mitchell, V., Mallaband, B and Bayer, S. (2010) UK Solid-Wall Dwellings - Thermal Comfort, Energy Efficiency Refurbishment and the User Perspective - Some preliminary analysis from the CALEBRE Project. Adapting to Change: New Thinking on Comfort. Cumberland Lodge, Windsor, UK, 9-11 April 2010. London: Network for Comfort and Energy Use in Buildings.