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This thesis describes research into the facilitation of mediated communication of health updates and support needs across the social network, on behalf of individuals experiencing acute or chronic health problems. This led to the user-centred design, development and evaluation of a prototype software tool. Investigatory applied research was conducted with the parents of sick newborn infants who were (or had previously been) cared for in a Neonatal Unit, and their social networks of family, friends, colleagues and neighbours. The thesis makes contributions to knowledge within Social Networks, Health Informatics, Adaptive Systems and User Modelling. The user-centred research was conducted using a Grounded Theory approach, progressively focussing on developing themes. An iterative approach was taken to evaluation of the resulting theory. In the Social Networks domain, a novel, intuitive mechanism for capturing the membership and structure of an individual’s personal social network has been defined and developed, grounded in the work of evolutionary anthropologist Robin Dunbar. Use of the highly visual mechanism requires low levels of literacy and computer skills. It is cross-culturally applicable, and makes no prior assumptions about an individual’s relationships. In the domains of Health Informatics, Adaptive Systems and User Modelling, a model has been defined for adaptive information sharing across the personal social network. This model provides a number of new insights about information sharing choices made by an individual experiencing a health crisis (the ego) and their supporters (alters).

Dementia is a progressive life-limiting condition. Global prevalence is increasing in line with current rates of population ageing. A number of disciplines have found it useful to measure dementia knowledge levels. Challenges exist in achieving effective measurement across a range of healthcare professionals, but this is important to inform health-related education and professional development interventions. Similarly, effective measurement is required in informal care givers as well as lay populations, to improve evaluation of national public health and awareness campaigns. The field of dementia knowledge measurement has seen rapid growth over the past decade, with a proliferation in the number of available instruments. To identify and appraise existing measurement instruments, a systematic review was undertaken. 14 instruments were identified; critical appraisal showed that the overall psychometric quality was poor, with no instrument emerging as 'gold standard'. A key finding from this review was that measurement of dementia knowledge is currently anchored by classical test theory (CTT) methods, with a notable absence of any item response theory (IRT) methods used in instrument development or evaluation. To address this gap, and to highlight the potential usefulness of IRT methods in evaluating the measurement properties of instruments, this study sought to apply IRT methods in dementia knowledge instruments, to determine what information could be generatedabout the measurement properties of items and item-sets using IRT methods, as opposed to CTT methods alone. Two datasets were used in this thesis: the first comprised 521 sets of responses from healthcare professionals to the 16-item Knowledge in Dementia Scale (KIDE). The second comprised 404 sets of responses to the KIDE and the 25-item Dementia Knowledge Assessment Scale (DKAS). This PhD thesis advances the field and contributes to knowledge by synthesising the current measurement literature and demonstrating the value and potential of strong measurement modelling under the Rasch paradigm, highlighting areas of further development but also areas of weakness within current items and instrumentation.

With over 850,000 living with dementia in the UK, it has never been more important to provide meaningful experiences and objects to support the wellbeing of those living with dementia and their communities. Previous studies have investigated the use of interactive textiles and their positive effect on wellbeing. However, there is still an opportunity for this to be explored further through the use and making of interactive textiles within Dementia Friendly Communities (DFCs). There is an urgent need for playful, personalised, interactive, comforting and tactile solutions to help those living with dementia live positively. Using Research through Design (RtD) and a person-centred approach, this thesis explores the making and use of interactive textiles for wellbeing. In Study 1, this is explored with the general public through interactive textile workshops. Studies 2 and 3 build on the learnings from Study 1 with DFCs in Scotland. Working closely with these communities, personalised interactive textile workshops and experiences were designed and facilitated. Quantitative data was gathered using the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS). Qualitative data was collected using unstructured interviews and analysed using a hybrid thematic analysis method within Seligman's (2011) 'Wellbeing Theory'PERMA framework: positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment. This thesis presents ways of improving wellbeing within DFC using playful, personalised, interactive, comforting and tactile solutions. Building on previous studies, this research emphasised the importance of a person-centred approach which builds trust, relationships and respect between researcher and participant within DFCs. The quantitative and qualitative data collected during the workshops and experiences show a positive effect on wellbeing. Positive emotion, engagement, (positive) relationships, meaning and accomplishment, were present during and because of interactive textile workshops activities. The data shows that the use and making of interactive textiles can increase wellbeing, enabling social connections, celebrating creativity, and fostering new relationships and experiences for those living with dementia and their communities. This thesis presents one way of helping those living with dementia, their families and their carers to live full and positive lives.

Individuals in a romantic relationship will typically have a substantial number of digital possessions associated with that relationship. With online dating services becoming a more mainstream way of meeting a potential partner, sometimes individuals begin creating digital possessions connected to their relationship before even meeting in real life. These digital possessions connect partners by contributing to their digital identities as 'individuals in a relationship'; they are an important part of a digital connection between partners, and actively contribute to the maintenance of that connection. If a romantic relationship ends in a break up, separation, or divorce, the digital possessions that once connected partners in a positive way become responsible for maintaining a connection that no longer accurately reflects the ex-partners' relationship status. The persistence of digital possessions means that until they are managed or curated in some way, those digital possessions will continue to connect ex-partners in a digital context. The tools and options available to ex-partners when it comes to managing and curating their digital possessions in the context of a relationship break up are limited, and often do not support the specific intent of the individual. In this doctoral thesis, I investigated the ways in which technology could support individuals in managing and curating their digital possessions associated with a past relationship, after that relationship has ended. Through four qualitative studies, this research made the following contributions to knowledge: 1. The introduction and evaluation of eight prototype grammars of action, which can be used to better support individuals in managing and curating their digital possessions in the context of a relationship break up; 2. Documentation of a reproducible method for identifying contextually relevant design dimensions to guide the development of grammars of action for the curation and management of digital possessions across different life transitions (including romantic relationship break up); 3. Findings from 8 semi-structured interviews with individuals who had experienced a romantic relationship break up. These findings demonstrate an understanding of the ways in which an individuals' attitude towards digital possessions change after a relationship break up, including the identification of 'tainted' digital possessions; 4. Findings from 10 semi-structured interviews with individuals who had experienced a romantic relationship break up. These findings demonstrate an understanding of the current technological limitations that individuals are confronted with when attempting to curate and manage their digital possessions after a relationship break up.

This doctoral thesis investigates the ways developers can create technology to support bereaved people express themselves and engage with their bereavement experience. This research project, through four empirical studies, has generated insights into what bereaved users would want or expect from such a system, and what experts would expect of it. These insights have been used to develop a series of design goals and objectives for developers of bereavement support technology. Foremost amongst these goals are that technology to support the bereaved should support self-expression and promote wellbeing. Design objectives intended to meet these goals have been tested with end users interacting with pre-existing technology that meets many of the objectives. These user tests show computational creativity (CC) systems can help people express themselves and how they are feeling, process their feelings, and continue bonds with the deceased, amongst other things. The results of the final study suggest that the use of computationally creative bereavement support tools can improve the wellbeing of its users, and that CC systems are more helpful for younger users.

During the 1990s, artists started to explore the possibilities of the World Wide Web. This thesis investigates online artworks by studying their agency. Why do people interact with them, as if they are alive? How do they mobilise people, or make them share visions and ideas? Based on research in largely untapped archives, it presents an in-depth examination of several case studies, exploring the artwork's ability to have the power to act in a variety of social settings. Through studying the life trajectory of the artwork, it also offers insights in how these dynamic entities undergo changes over time and across cultures. Grounded in theoretical literature on the agency of art, this research offers an innovative way of understanding Internet art and it contributes to wider conversations about the agency of art and artefacts. Case studies include: Mouchette (Martine Neddam), 'Mouchette' (1996-present). Web project (www.mouchette.org). Collection of Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam). Shu Lea Cheang, 'Brandon' (1998-1999). Web project (brandon.guggenheim.org). Collection of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York). Lynn Hershman Leeson, 'Agent Ruby' (1998-2002). Web project (agentruby.sfmoma.org). Collection of SFMOMA (San Francisco).

This thesis explores how a computer could facilitate emotional support, focusing on the user group of informal carers. Informal carers are people who provide regular mental or physical assistance to another person, who could not manage without them, without formal payment. They save the UK £132 billion per year. However, many carers find themselves isolated by their caring commitments and may suffer from mental and physical health problems. Good emotional support can help reduce the negative effects of stress. We explore how an Intelligent Virtual Agent (IVA) could provide suitable emotional support to carers; how this emotional support should be adapted to the situation and personality of the carer; and how to add emotional context to support messages. To do this, we create a corpus of emotional support messages of different types and devise an algorithm that selects which type of emotional support to use for different types of stress. We investigate whether to adapt emotional support to personality, developing a novel method of measuring personality using sliders. We explore the identity of the support-giver and find that this affects the perceived supportiveness of an emotional support message. We investigate how emoticons add emotional context to messages, developing a proposed set of emoticons that depict core emotions that people use online. We find that gift emoticons can be used to enhance emotional support messages by representing an effort to 'cheer up' the carer. Finally, we explore how emotional support messages could be used by an IVA in six interviews with carers. Overall, we find that an IVA that helps a carer keep in contact with their personal social network and offers emotional support messages would be well-received by carers, but further work needs to be done to implement it within the framework of existing social media.