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There is a growing phenomenon of 'grassroots' innovation, i.e. that triggered by individual users or communities (physical or virtual) seeking a solution to a personal or societal problem. This has great potential as a new source of sustainable transport innovations, but has been received little attention to date. This study conducted 16 indepth interviews and a workshop with grassroots innovators in transport. A detailed thematic analysis of the interview data identified: catalysts for the idea and the motivation behind its pursuit; the barriers experienced (those that were overcome and those that were not); and the enablers that permitted the innovations to continue and to flourish. The paper concludes by identifying the conditions that need to exist for such 2 innovations to be created, developed and exploited in order that their potential for increasing the sustainability of the transport system can be fulfilled.

There is a growing debate in the literature regarding the tradeoffs between lab and field evaluation of mobile devices. This paper presents a comparison of field-based and lab-based experiments to evaluate user experience of personalised mobile devices at large sports events. A lab experiment is recommended when the testing focus is on the user interface and application-oriented usability related issues. However, the results suggest that a field experiment is more suitable for investigating a wider range of factors affecting the overall acceptability of the designed mobile service. Such factors include the system function and effects of actual usage contexts aspects. Where open and relaxed communication is important (e.g., where participant groups are naturally reticent to communicate), this is more readily promoted by the use of a field study.

This paper presents an empirical comparison of idea generation within the context of reducing the number of single occupancy car journeys to and from a UK university campus. Separate co-design and consultative groups were matched with respect to 1) creativity when problem solving, 2) normal commuting mode and 3) intention to adopt sustainable behaviours. The co-design group generated a significantly greater number of innovative ideas than the consultative group (using an email based methodology); however this was due to the greater number of total ideas (rather than the higher proportion of innovative ideas) generated by this group. The co-design group was able to think more systemically about potential solutions and generate proposals that were not either linked to their own commute mode, or aligned with any one specific mode of transport. The findings suggest that co-design offers benefits as a process for idea generation within the sustainable travel context as it promotes idea generation and a more holistic perspective on the problem and potential solutions

Governments across the globe have declared their commitment to building a people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society. But despite rapid proliferation and, in many cases, extensive penetration of digital technologies, a significant proportion of the global population remains 'digitally excluded'. In the UK, the majority of those who fall into this category are the elderly, and yet digital technologies offer enormous potential benefits to this sector of the population. Age itself is not a barrier to using digital technologies, and although older people tend to face other barriers to access such as cost, skills or disability, research suggests that many simply do not perceive the relevance of these technologies to themselves. This paper reviews some of the literature relating to older people's use of digital technologies, and presents the results of a survey to investigate the perceptions of older users and non-users of the internet as a step towards understanding the factors which lie behind the current situation. A critical factor appears to be a lack of awareness and understanding of the 'digital world'. The paper concludes with some suggestions for how this could be overcome.

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