Sustainable and Citizen-Centric Mobility as a Service (MaaS). Smart cities are conceptualized primarily as cities supported by information and communication technologies. However, they are also considered sustainable, inclusive, and citizen-centric cities that focus on developing innovative technologies and services that enable their inhabitants' well-being and quality of life, in consonance with environmental preservation. In this context, smart urban mobility is one of the most promising sectors of the smart city since, with the help of services like Mobility as a Service (MaaS), the commute of citizens is made easier and optimized, reducing travel time and greenhouse gas emissions emitted by combustion-powered vehicles. MaaS is a platform that integrates multiple public and private transportation modes and services to provide the best possible door-to-door travel experience for citizens by combining trip planning, booking, and payment. However, for MaaS to work seamlessly and with the coordination of all public and private actors, it is necessary to investigate all layers of this system and the process of adapting it to the various characteristics of the city where the platform will be established. It is believed that the best way to investigate and design a MaaS platform is by a human-centered design approach, using co-creation and co-production techniques with multiple actors. Several European Union studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of working with citizen participation under the CIVITAS program on intelligent and sustainable mobility. Thus, considering this approach, an exploratory and experimental investigation of the MaaS concept is proposed, in the development of a platform, from the point of view of the citizen, the actors involved in the cities that compose the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro (RMRJ), and sustainability.

This research aims at establishing design requirements and recommendations for citizen-centered products and services for urban mobility in Smart Cities. Considering the increase in urban population and technological advances in intelligent systems such as Machine Learning and the Internet of Things (IoT), new solutions are needed and will be given so that citizens can seamlessly travel through cities in a sustainable way that meets their needs. In this context, it is intended to identify with citizens their needs and desires concerning the future of urban mobility and, with them, elaborate future scenarios and propose innovative solutions that meet their requirements and those of a smart and sustainable city. The results of this research will enable identifying possible user journeys, the specification of service blueprints, the proposition of citizen-centered products and services, as well as indications for the definition of public policies for urban mobility.

This project deals with the communication issue of the transition of control in automated vehicles in conditional driving systems (SAE level 3 of automation). In this context, the driver's role can be considered an intermediate state between active and passive, as the automated system may present some operation design limitations due to its sensors or route problems, among other issues, and the driver might take over the vehicle control. The problem inherent in the transition of control of the automated vehicle to the driver is that removing the human individual from the decision making and motor control loops may compromise the driver's performance, and consequently, their ability to take over the vehicle control in time to avoid accidents. To mitigate this issue, the driver needs to receive information such as system status and take over request (TOR) warning, for instance, at the right time and through the right channel, especially when there is a system failure. Therefore, this research aims to identify which human-machine interfaces (HMIs) are best suited for tasks performed in automated vehicles in terms of driving supervision and driver intervention in transitions of control and take over requests.

Despite of the broad usage of Artificial Intelligence the algorithmic awareness has less focus. The Big Data phenomenon results in generalist profiles that are not very sensitive to the particularities, limitations and specific privileges. Being aware brings the possibility of having more critical choices, promoting digital contributions more democratic. This is a powerful digital ability that emancipates users and also demonstrates the worsening of unequal opportunities. The wide digital activity on the network generates a cultural and social variety . However, digital gaps are created mirroring exclusions with the majority male playing roles on technological development. We must not parallel the reality of our societies replaying behaviors that foster prejudice and social inequalities. We need to break through the bubble of traditional professional environments and think about technology from a new perspectives and for everyone. The research proposes insert the Human Centered Design as a tool to mitigate biases by bringing clarity, intuition, usability to these digital experiences that must be touch points of an experience that will create elasticity and diversity on interactions.

In the age of ubiquitous computing, many digital systems share the need to access personal data to function properly. The capture, processing and use of the type of this data takes place from digital interfaces in an automated way. This allows for the collection of a large volume of data for filtering and further analysis from the moment the user consents to provide them or reaffirms their agreement to the privacy policy updates. In the name of usability, data processing and storage mechanisms often remain opaque and, at the same time, user consent on this process is mandatory for companies nowadays. A lot of relevant information that should be available throughout the experience for the user to be really aware of what he is consenting to appears only in some moments of his interaction with the digital product or requires an active effort by this person to search for this information. This research proposes to analyze and explore ways to make personal data processing as transparent as possible, providing the user relevant information about what he is giving and what the company will provide him in exchange throughout the entire experience with the digital product.

Smart cities need to combine technology with citizens' well-being. The technological advance has enabled the generation of a large volume of urban data, but this information is often not widely exploited and could be used in solutions for urban mobility. This research proposes to explore the integration of big data with citizen participation, analyzing projects that use co-design processes in urban mobility. This combination between big data and co-design would bring an advance both to the field of human-computer interaction, with more technological inputs, and in the humanisation of artificial intelligence.

COVID-19 has caused changes in digital user behavior and in the area of ​​online business, the e-commerce. Recent literature has reported the rapid change and adaptation of digital user and e-commerce platforms. This change has been observed in several countries around the world, and it is expected that this new context may also have impacted in Brazil, since it is a country with a significant number of digital users who are active consumers on e-commerce platforms. The objective of the study is to characterize the profile of these new digital users and their interaction with e-commerce platforms impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Restaurants and chefs are in a prominent position in the dissemination of food culture, in creating habits and trends. Replicating and propagating a good food culture is the responsibility of those whose profession is to feed people.  When food becomes an object consumed even without being eaten, the field of immaterial design, with a focus on experience, rather than the simple sale of tangible products, is capable of proposing tools to transform relationships, value origins, build loyalty relationships and transform the consumer into an active participant in the production chain. Design as a process of social integration, engaging effective participation, where the role of the user becomes that of a participant, has the potential for social change. The design of a service that has broad support from the catering industry, attentive to usability and particular profile, intends to provide answers and technical support to restaurants that understand the responsibility and impact they have on society, the economy and environmental preservation. A set of services that symbolize values ​​identified by the consumer, that dialogue with the user experience, with a marketing appeal capable of influencing the entire sector has transformative potential at the local scale, being a first step towards the desired global impact.

During the second half of the 20th century, phonography reached a differentiated status through the record. Inaugurated with the emergence of vinyl long play, a series of economic and social factors raised the medium to a symbol of high cultural value. The dematerialization of the phonogram at the turn of the following century led to its disintegration and consequent devaluation, a symptom of a crisis in the phonographic industry. Streaming applications, led by Spotify, rescued the industry from the crisis by realigning its business model according to the standards of the access economy, suitable for the digital environment. In the evolution of their artificial intelligence and content curation methods, apps have been practicing a packaging and distribution strategy that privileges a concept that we can define as applied phonography. This notion places listening to recorded music as a means to facilitate other activities or to obtain or maintain certain moods. Such a strategy represents a complete reconfiguration of the function of phonography, undermining the relevance of the field from a cultural point of view and eroding the achievement of an aesthetic experience through streaming platforms. For a segment of users, this subordinate view of music represents an obstacle, both for their enjoyment and for their personal identity. This research intends to investigate the phenomenon described in the previous paragraphs, trying to glimpse alternatives that do not devalue the phonogram and preserve the user experience for which music has a high relevance for their subjectivity.

In-vehicle Voice Assistants (VAs) are increasingly common in passenger vehicles. However, to make these systems Human-Centered, considering transparency is essential. The aim of this research is to create recommendations for transparent In-vehicle VAs through a Human-Centered perspective. Specifically, we are interested in understanding the impact of contextual variables, such as users’ previous VAs and driving experiences, cultural settings, and different task scenarios, on the relationship between AVAs transparency strategies and users’ perceptions in terms of trust, likability, and understanding of an In-vehicle VA. This ongoing research includes both systematic and non-systematic literature review phases and a video-based online user study to answer four proposed research questions. This research’s resulting contributions intend to fill existing research gaps on transparency for In-vehicle VAs and to provide practical implications for VA development in the form of design recommendations.