Portrait of Eugénie Avril

What are your research themes?

Human/Computer interaction is at the heart of my research. I have for the moment 2 main axes:

My 1st research axis questions how a human interacts with automated systems that can make mistakes, that are not quite reliable. Will the human operator detect this error? Does he correct it? What are the consequences that can arise from this interaction?

I often give the example of the GPS, it will give a direction that is not always the right one and we may tend to trust it too much.

In this axis, there are issues related to the level of automation. Depending on the levels of automation, a human does not have the same cognitive behaviors, nor the same interaction with the system.

For example, with a highly automated car, one can imagine that the user will be less attentive to what is happening on the road, because he will be satisfied with what the system is doing. As a result, he will have more difficulty correcting the error, because cognitively, the person has moved away from the driving task.

My second line of research concerns gamification, that is, integrating game elements into systems that are basically not game-related.

You know, for example, the Waze or Blablacar applications that in order to motivate or build loyalty among its users have set up a system of rewards or tiers depending on usage.

I analyze the human behavior related to this gamification: at the user experience level: does it satisfy to put gamification? What about the acceptability of gamified systems?

At the cognitive level: what does it imply to put gamification?

At the motivational level: does it influence the user to do actions and/or adopt behaviors? How and why?

What does conducting your research at lamih bring to you?

I am particularly interested in the field of mobility, yet the LAMIH is the laboratory of mobility in the broadest sense. What is exciting in my job is that we can apply ergonomics everywhere there are humans, to all professions, to all domains and at LAMIH, the field of intervention is very wide with its 4 departments, Automatic, Mechanical, Computer, Human and Life Science.

I can therefore work in interdisciplinarity with the 4 departments in very different projects. I am not likely to be bored!

What is your background?

I defended a thesis entitled "Information automation and reliability: effects on human behavior". I was interested in the behaviors of Humans interacting with automated systems that could be perceived as failing. The field of application concerned planning aids in the road freight transport sector. This is a sector in which operators can use planning aids, but they do not use them systematically. It was therefore necessary to understand why they did not use them, taking into account their point of view as operators experts of their work activity.

I then did a post-doc on gamification in MaaS (Mobility as a service) applications. This project aims in particular to promote the emergence of new forms of mobility, to decarbonize and decongest the Toulouse territory.