| COPE: interactive image retrieval using conversational recommendation | | BIBA | Full-Text | 1-10 | |
| Bartoz Balcer; Martin Halvey; Joemon M. Jose; Stephen A. Brewster | |||
| Most multimedia retrieval services e.g. YouTube, Flickr, Google etc. rely on users searching using textual queries or examples. However, this solution is inadequate when there is no text, very little text, the text is in a foreign language or the user cannot form textual a query. In order to overcome these shortcomings we have developed an image retrieval system called COPE (COnversational Picture Exploration) that can use a number of different preference feedback mechanisms, inspired by conversational recommendation paradigms, for image retrieval. In COPE users are presented with a small number of search results and simply have to express whether these results match their information need. We examine the suitability of a number of feedback approaches for semiautomatic and interactive image retrieval. For interactive retrieval we compared our preference based approaches to text based search (where we consider text to be an upper bound), our results indicate that users prefer preference based search to text based search and in some cases our approaches can outperform text based search. | |||
| Using information visualisation to support visual web service discovery | | BIBA | Full-Text | 11-20 | |
| Simone Beets; Janet Wesson | |||
| This paper presents the design and evaluation of SerViz -- a tool to support the visualisation of web service collections. The increasing number of web services available on the Internet highlights the need for an effective method of discovering these web services. Existing web service discovery methods do not, however, effectively support the user in finding suitable web services. Two information visualisation (IV) techniques, namely a network and tree IV technique, were used to visualise a large web service collection. A user study was conducted to compare these IV techniques. Participants provided high ratings for overall satisfaction for both IV techniques and low ratings for perceived cognitive load. Participants found both IV techniques easy to use and easy to learn. The results of the user study show that SerViz supports effective visual web service discovery. While the tree IV technique was faster for browsing for web services, the network IV technique was faster for searching. | |||
| Suburban Birmingham: designing accessible cultural history using multi-touch tables | | BIBA | Full-Text | 21-28 | |
| William Byrne; Russell Beale; Richard Clay | |||
| The Suburban Birmingham project aimed to allow the exploration of a collection of resources originally presented through a website on a touch table. In this paper we will explore some of the issues illustrated by this project involving the manipulation and sharing of resources on multi-user applications in public spaces, including ownership, affordances, and managing and interpreting gestures in different contexts. | |||
| Safer "5-key" number entry user interfaces using differential formal analysis | | BIBA | Full-Text | 29-38 | |
| Abigail Cauchi; Andy Gimblett; Harold Thimbleby; Paul Curzon; Paolo Masci | |||
| Differential formal analysis is a new user interface analytic evaluation
method based on stochastic user simulation. The method is particularly valuable
for evaluating safety critical user interfaces, which often have subtle
programming issues. The approach starts with the identification of operational
design features that define the design space to be explored. Two or more
analysts are required to analyse all combinations of design features by
simulating keystroke sequences containing keying slip errors. Each simulation
produces numerical values that rank the design combinations on the basis of
their sensitivity to keying slip errors. A systematic discussion of the
simulation results is performed for assessing the causes of any discrepancy,
either in numerical values or rankings. The process is iterated until outcomes
are agreed upon. In short, the approach combines rigorous simulation of user
slip errors with diversity in modelling and analysis methods.
Although the method can be applied to other types of user interface, it is demonstrated through a case study of 5-key number entry systems, which are a common safety critical user interface style found in many medical infusion pumps and elsewhere. The results uncover critical design issues, and are an important contribution of this paper since the results provide device manufacturers guidelines to update their device firmware to make their devices safer. | |||
| Investigating the impact of interlocutor voice on syntactic alignment in human-computer dialogue | | BIBA | Full-Text | 39-48 | |
| Benjamin R. Cowan; Holly P. Branigan; Russell Beale | |||
| Language is at the core of most social activity. Psycholinguistic research has shown that our conversational partners influence our linguistic choices be it syntactic or lexical, a concept termed alignment. As our interaction with computer interlocutors become more frequent recent efforts have been made to understand how and what impacts alignment with computers, showing that our perceptions of computer systems impact on alignment with computer interlocutors. This work looks to identify the impact of how spoken dialogue system design characteristics, specifically system voice type, impact user linguistic behaviour in terms of syntactic alignment in human-computer dialogue. Additionally we wished to identify whether syntactic alignment levels can be used as a behavioural indicator of interaction satisfaction. The research used a wizard of oz experiment design paired with a confederate-scripting paradigm commonly used in psycholinguistics research. We found that there was no significant effect of voice type on syntactic alignment, although there was a significant effect of voice type on interaction satisfaction. Participants rated their experiences with a basic computer voice significantly lower in satisfaction compared to human based and advanced voice computer conditions. The results are discussed in terms of the conceptual nature of syntactic alignment and the impact of item stimuli on alignment levels. Future plans for research are also discussed. | |||
| Tangible interfaces: when physical-virtual coupling may be detrimental to learning | | BIBA | Full-Text | 49-58 | |
| Sébastien Cuendet; Patrick Jermann; Pierre Dillenbourg | |||
| Tangible user interfaces (TUIs) have been the focus of much attention recently in the HCI and learning communities. Although TUIs seem to intuitively offer potential to increase the learning experience, there have been questions about whether they actually impact learning positively. TUIs offer new ways of interactions and it is essential to understand how the design choices made for these new interactions affect learning. One element that is key in the learning process is how and when feedback is provided. In this article, we focus on the effect of co-located immediate process-level feedback on learning. We report the results of a study in which 56 participants used a TUI to complete tasks related to the training of spatial skills. Half of the students accomplished the tasks with immediate and co-located feedback from the system, while the other half of the students did not receive any feedback. Results show that participants who did not receive feedback manipulated less, reflected more, and in the end learned more than those who received feedback. | |||
| Designing badges for a civic media platform: reputation and named levels | | BIBA | Full-Text | 59-68 | |
| Stefano De Paoli; Nicolò De Uffici; Vincenzo D'Andrea | |||
| Badges are gaining momentum on the social web but known HCI design experiences are very few. In this paper we present a design experience related to badges and named levels for representing reputation within the context of a Civic Media Platform called timu. We describe our design methodology and the exercise we have devised for designing named levels together with users. We then describe our design vision which unites contextual details about timu together with the rhetoric of progression provided by the language proficiency system. In the conclusion we generalise our design results. | |||
| Audio delivery and territoriality in collaborative digital musical interaction | | BIBA | Full-Text | 69-78 | |
| Robin Fencott; Nick Bryan-Kinns | |||
| This paper explores the design of collaborative musical software through an evaluation of the effects different audio delivery mechanisms have on the way groups of co-located musicians work together in real time via a software environment. Ten groups of three musically proficient users created music using three experimental interfaces. Logs of interaction provide evidence that changing the means of audio delivery had a statistically significant effect on the way users worked together and shared musical contributions. In addition, interview transcripts indicate a number of experiential differences between the audio delivery configurations. The findings and design guidelines presented in this paper are intended to inform future systems for musical collaboration, and also have implications more broadly for the design of multi-user interfaces for which sound is a fundamental component. | |||
| Users need your models!: exploiting design models for explanations | | BIBA | Full-Text | 79-88 | |
| Alfonso García Frey; Gaëlle Calvary; Sophie Dupuy-Chessa | |||
| End users can ask themselves about the User Interface (UI). Questions arise because users are not designers so both designers and users, have different perceptions of the same UI. Help Systems have naturally emerged to tackle this problem. Most of these Help Systems are predefined, so at design time designers need to anticipate the problems users may find at runtime, which limits the scope of the support. This paper explores Model-Driven Engineering to overcome this limitation: models created at design time are exploited at runtime for providing end users with explanations. Based on Norman's Theory of Action this paper introduces the Gulf of Quality as the distance between the models the designer creates at design time and the mental models the end user elaborates. This concept sets the basis of a Model-Driven method and a supporting architecture for computing explanations for the end user. The method deals uniformly with the UI of the help system and the UI of the application. They can be weaved or not, depending on the model transformations the designer selects. A software architecture is devised and implemented in a running IDE. The feasibility of the approach is shown through two use cases. | |||
| A community-Centred Design approach for accessible rich internet applications (ARIA) | | BIBA | Full-Text | 89-98 | |
| Steve Green; Elaine Pearson; Voula Gkatzidou; Franck Oliver Perrin | |||
| There are a number of emerging standards and guidelines which help the web developer or learning technologist produce inclusive static and dynamic internet-based applications which will meet the needs of users, regardless of their special needs or individual requirements. These standards and guidelines typically assume that the needs of the individual user are well defined, that the function of the web application is clear and that appropriate adaptations can be readily applied. However this also puts a heavy burden on the skills and knowledge of the developer and fails to utilise the expertise of tutors and other members of the community for what is potentially a very wide range of users and individual needs and requirements. Consequently this research suggests an approach which combines the benefits of using formally specified standards-based components in the form of W3C Widgets and Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) with a Community-Centred Design approach based on the UK JISC funded projects WIDE (Widgets for Inclusive Distributed Environments) and WIDGaT (a Widget Authoring Toolkit). This work forms part of a wider research topic on adaptable personal e-learning and e-media. | |||
| Active progress bar: aiding the switch to temporary activities | | BIBA | Full-Text | 99-108 | |
| Christophe Hurter; Benjamin R. Cowan; Audrey Girouard; Nathalie Henry Riche | |||
| Can we design an interface to help people make use of the idle time spent looking at progress bars? We propose to augment progress bars with user-controlled functionalities facilitating the switch to temporary activities. We propose a taxonomy of waiting period contexts and possible temporary tasks, then report on participatory design sessions, and a follow-up survey. Finally we describe an early prototype of active progress bar and report a small controlled experiment used to identify the impact of the tool on primary task satisfaction. The findings suggest that Active Progress Bars lead to significantly higher satisfaction when compared to a control condition. | |||
| Supporting cross-modal collaboration in the workplace | | BIBA | Full-Text | 109-118 | |
| Oussama Metatla; Nick Bryan-Kinns; Tony Stockman; Fiore Martin | |||
| We address the challenge of supporting collaborators who access a shared interactive space through different sets of modalities. This was achieved by designing a cross-modal tool combining a visual diagram editor with auditory and haptic views to allow simultaneous visual and non-visual interaction. The tool was deployed in various workplaces where visually-impaired and sighted coworkers access and edit diagrams as part of their daily jobs. We use our observations and analyses of the recorded interactions to outline preliminary design recommendations for supporting cross-modal collaboration. | |||
| A new test of throughput invariance in Fitts' law: role of the intercept and of Jensen's inequality | | BIBA | Full-Text | 119-126 | |
| Halla B. Olafsdottir; Yves Guiard; Olivier Rioul; Simon T. Perrault | |||
| Fitts' law states that movement time varies linearly with the index of difficulty or, equivalently, that throughput (TP) is conserved across variations of the speed/accuracy strategy. Replicating a recent study by MacKenzie and Isokoski (2008), we tested the throughput invariance hypothesis with some fresh data and found the TP to be systematically affected by the strategy. This result, we suggest, pleads against the currently popular definition of the TP inherited from Fitts (1954), namely TP = ID/MT, which we recall is incompatible with the Shannon equation of Fitts' law. We also show that the statistical elaboration of the TP suffers from a problematic amount of uncontrolled variability due to the multiple inadvertent impact of Jensen's inequality. | |||
| Improving the accessibility of the traditional lecture: an automated tool for supporting transcription | | BIBA | Full-Text | 127-136 | |
| Miltiades Papadopoulos; Elaine Pearson | |||
| The lecture is in its multiple forms the most commonly used method for transferring information in the University curriculum, yet there are serious questions regarding its effectiveness and accessibility in relation to disabled students and those for whom English is not their first language. Although there has been substantial progress that has been made in the area of Automatic Speech Recognition, current systems are still below the level required for accurate transcription of lectures. The Semantic and Syntactic Transcription Analysing Tool is a step forward in the production of meaningful post-lecture materials, with minimal investment in time and effort by academic staff. This paper reports on the results of a study to assess the validity of SSTAT. | |||
| RATA: codeless generation of gesture recognizers | | BIBA | Full-Text | 137-146 | |
| Beryl Plimmer; Rachel Blagojevic; Samuel Hsiao-Heng Chang; Paul Schmieder; Jacky Shunjie Zhen | |||
| Touch and stylus sensitive computer displays are widely available. Yet, the development of gesture sets to support these interaction methods continues to be difficult. We present RATA, a tool for interaction designers and software developers to create gesture recognizers for novel and custom gesture sets. Guided by the RATA wizard, the developer: defines their gesture set; collects example gestures; labels them with the support of an auto labeller; and generates the recognizer model file -- no coding or expert knowledge of recognizers is required. Incorporating the recognizer into a program requires just two lines of code. Our evaluations show high user satisfaction and that novice software developers can design a customized gesture set and generate a recognizer in about 20 minutes. | |||
| "Personal Radar": a self-governed support system to enhance environmental perception | | BIBA | Full-Text | 147-156 | |
| Andreas Riener; Harald Hartl | |||
| In this work we propose a wearable solution for boundary detection (using ultrasonic range finders) and notification (via tactile actuators) under conditions of poor visibility. "Personal Radar" is not 'yet another' belt-like tactile feedback system used for walking navigation, the unique feature of our obstacle scanning and notification solution is, that it is self-contained and fully self-governed. User studies have confirmed that using "Personal Radar" can increase safety in close proximity to unseen obstacles by reducing the movement speed in that region. To compensate for this speed reduction, studies demonstrated a speed up in walking pace in regions distant to obstacles as compared to subjects moving sightlessly and without technology assistance. Finally, evaluation revealed that learning increases utilization performance of the system significantly. | |||
| Effortless attention and composite challenges in movement interaction | | BIBA | Full-Text | 157-164 | |
| Pablo Romero; Eduardo Calvillo-Gámez | |||
| This paper describes an empirical investigation into the nature of challenge within the context of flow or effortless attention. An important condition of the flow state is that the challenges of the task are commensurate with the person's level of skill. However when considering movement interaction those challenges could be composite in the sense that they could comprise physical as well as intellectual elements. In order to evaluate the importance of composite challenges, this investigation compares an unbalanced with a balanced activity in terms of their challenge composition. The results of the study suggest that balanced activities are more likely to promote flow but also highlight the need of undertaking more detailed studies of balancing in composite challenges within the context of flow. | |||
| Assessing a multimodal user interface in a target acquisition task | | BIBA | Full-Text | 165-174 | |
| Gustavo Rovelo; M.-Carmen Juan; Francisco Abad; Emilio Camahort | |||
| The goal of multimodal user interfaces is to assist users in completing
tasks quicker or with fewer errors, by reducing their cognitive workload.
Visual, auditory and tactile feedback modalities are commonly used as a means
to provide users with information through different sensory channels.
Understanding how visual, auditory and tactile feedback modalities complement
each other is still an open research area for understanding how computers can
help users to complete everyday tasks more efficiently.
In this paper, we evaluate user performance on a target acquisition task that simulates a real life scenario: locating a book in a bookcase. We performed a comprehensive comparison among the seven possible combinations of three feedback channels (visual, auditory and tactile). Twenty-four volunteers participated in our experiment. Our results show that using the combination of the three feedback modalities improves user performance on this evidently visual task. However, using the visual modality alone does not increase user performance as much as the other feedback channels. By means of a post-experiment questionnaire, subjects reported that they perceived tactile modality as the most helpful feedback channel. | |||
| Serious games as input versus modulation: different evaluations of utility | | BIBA | Full-Text | 175-184 | |
| Razvan Rughini&s | |||
| The paper discusses two different approaches in designing and evaluating serious games: games as inputs in non-game activities, and games as modulation of non-game activities. Playing and gaming offer powerful metaphors and interpretive repertoires for making sense of professional challenges: for example, business and politics may be seen as gameful, while computer engineering may be seen as playful. Serious games are uniquely positioned to support or modify such repertoires, turning them more or less competitive, collaborative, exploratory, rule bound or rule bending etc. Their modulation force thus becomes a distinctive topic of evaluation. We discuss a case study illustrating how a successful assessment of a serious game seen as input for educational activities has obscured its ambivalent modulating influence on creating a playful take on computer engineering. Common glosses of serious games as 'competitive' or 'useful for learning' may divert attention from the relationships between specific game features, such as a particular organization of competitions and score display, and play styles. A successful translation of game playing into a desired professional ethos depends on fine-tuning relevant game features and game related discourse. | |||
| Older people's social sharing practices in YouTube through an ethnographical lens | | BIBA | Full-Text | 185-194 | |
| Sergio Sayago; Paula Forbes; Josep Blat | |||
| This paper reports on a classical, face-to-face ethnographical study of YouTube use and social sharing practices by 32 older people (65-90). The study was conducted in a computer clubhouse in Scotland over an 18-month period. Whereas research on Social Network Sites (SNS) is on the rise, very little is known about how people aged 60+ use them in their everyday lives, despite an ageing population. The study shows that the use of YouTube by this group of older people is occasional and motivated by face-to-face or online conversations in e-mails. They watch videos that they find meaningful, do not upload videos because they do not perceive any benefit in it, and search for videos by writing sentences, instead of clicking on categories, to reduce cognitive load. Online comments in YouTube are seldom read nor made. Instead, they make comments in f2f, and/or e-mails, always with key members of their social circles. They rate videos in these online and offline conversations, and share videos by capitalizing on previously learned strategies, such as copy-and-paste. We argue that these results provide a more complete picture of SNS and older people than that given by previous studies, and enable a discussion on their User Experience. We also discuss some implications for design. | |||
| Non-occluding intelligent magnifiers for sketching on small displays | | BIBA | Full-Text | 195-204 | |
| Paul Schmieder; Beryl Plimmer; John Hosking | |||
| We present intelligent magnification techniques that combine distortion techniques with automatic content information awareness. They have been developed to support sketching on small displays. A first evaluation study that tested and compared three existing distortion lenses showed their general unsuitability for sketching. Based on these findings we developed and evaluated a new set of intelligent lenses, which use context information as the distortion regulator. The evaluation shows that using our new intelligent lenses leads to fewer errors, without time penalties, and with higher user satisfaction. | |||
| User experiences and expectations of vibrotactile, thermal and squeeze feedback in interpersonal communication | | BIBA | Full-Text | 205-214 | |
| Katja Suhonen; Kaisa Väänänen-Vainio-Mattila; Kalle Mäkelä | |||
| The haptic modality provides a new channel for interpersonal communication through technology by utilizing the sense of touch. In the development of novel haptic communication devices, it is essential to explore the potential users' perceptions of such a communication channel. To this end, we conducted two explorative user studies with two early prototypes that demonstrated three different haptic feedback types: vibrotactile, thermal and squeeze feedback. We arranged focus groups and interviews to study the participants' experiences, expectations and ideas of using these haptic technologies in interpersonal communication. The findings show, for example, that people prefer to use haptic communication mainly with people close to them. Haptics can be used for pragmatic purposes as well as in emotional communication, for example in mimicking touch between the communication partners. Squeezes were experienced as the most pleasant type of haptic feedback. Furthermore, the participants preferred receiving haptic stimuli to their hand area, through a mobile phone or a wristband-like device. We argue that using early prototypes in an early stage of research process in focus groups and interviews is especially useful for stimulating idea generation and discussions about expectations and experiences of haptic technologies. | |||
| When did my mobile turn into a 'sellphone'?: a study of consumer responses to tailored smartphone ads | | BIBA | Full-Text | 215-220 | |
| Nicolette Conti; Charlene Jennett; Jose Maestre; M. Angela Sasse | |||
| Tailored push advertising on smartphones is a key target for the advertising industry. We conducted a study with 20 professionals 'in the wild': over 5 consecutive days participants received ads tailored to their personal profiles and geographical location on their personal smartphones. Of the 400 ads sent, participants accepted 20%, rejected 30%, said 'maybe' to 17%. Interviews revealed that accept or reject decisions were driven by specific needs at the time of delivery -- e.g. a busy workload. Effective tailoring of smartphone ads requires fine-grained data on users' emotional state and context of use -- data that is sensitive and requires significant effort to obtain. Users liked context-relevant ads, but also perceived privacy costs associated with disclosing personal information. To break this conundrum, users need to be able to customize the ad service, e.g. choosing which information to disclose, when to receive ads, what types of ad. | |||
| YourWellness: designing an application to support positive emotional wellbeing in older adults | | BIBA | Full-Text | 221-226 | |
| Julie Doyle; Brian O'Mullane; Shauna McGee; R. Benjamin Knapp | |||
| Emotional wellbeing is an important indicator of overall health in adults over 65. For some older people, age-related declines to physical, cognitive or social wellbeing can negatively impact on their emotional wellbeing, as can the notion of growing older, the loss of a spouse, a loss of sense of purpose or general worries about coping, becoming ill and/or death. Yet, within the field of technology design for older adults to support independence, emotional wellbeing is often overlooked. In this paper we describe the design process of an application that supports older adults in monitoring their emotional wellbeing, as well as other parameters of wellbeing they consider important to their overall health. This application also provides informative and useful feedback to support the older person in managing their wellbeing, as well as clinically-based interventions if it is determined that some action or behaviour change is required on the part of the older person. We outline findings from a series of focus groups with older adults that have contributed to the design of the YourWellness application. | |||
| Poking fun at the surface: exploring touch-point overloading on the multi-touch tabletop with child users | | BIBA | Full-Text | 227-232 | |
| Dan Fitton; James Thompson; Janet C. Read | |||
| In this paper a collaborative game for children is used to explore touch-point overloading on a multi-touch tabletop. Understanding the occurrence of new interactional limitations, such as the situation of touch-point overloading in a multi-touch interface, is highly relevant for interaction designers working with emerging technologies. The game was designed for the Microsoft Surface 1.0 and during gameplay the number of simultaneous touch-points required gradually increases to beyond the physical capacity of the users. Studies were carried out involving a total of 42 children (from 2 different age groups) playing in groups of between 5-7 and all interactions were logged. From quantitative analysis of the interactions occurring during the game and observations made we explore the impact of overloading and identify other salient findings. This paper also highlights the need for empirical evaluation of the physical and cognitive limitations of interaction with emerging technologies. | |||
| Overview "vs" detail on mobile devices: a struggle for screen space | | BIBA | Full-Text | 233-238 | |
| Tiago Gonçalves; Ana Paula Afonso; Maria Beatriz Carmo; Paulo Pombinho | |||
| Overview & Detail is a visualization technique suitable for finding points of interest (POIs) located outside the detailed view. In this study we aim to analyze the effects of the size of the overview on the users' performance on mobile devices. For that purpose we compared three different interfaces, a traditional one, with smaller dimensions overlaying the detailed view; a larger overview, yet not overlaying the detailed view; and one with a resizable overview. Our results show the users' preference for a resizable overview and for a larger, non-overlapping overview. | |||
| Understanding the IT-related attitudes and needs of persons with age-related macular degeneration: a case study | | BIBA | Full-Text | 239-244 | |
| Lilit Hakobyan; Jo Lumsden; Dympna O'Sullivan; Hannah Bartlett | |||
| In the UK, 20 per cent of people aged 75 years and over are living with sight loss; this percentage is expected to increase as the population ages (RNIB, 2011). Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is the UK's leading cause of severe visual impairment amongst the elderly. It accounts for 16,000 blind/partial sight registrations per year and is the leading cause of blindness among people aged 55 years and older in western countries (Bressler, 2004). Our ultimate goal is to develop an assistive mobile application to support accurate and convenient diet data collection on which basis to then provide customised dietary advice and recommendations in order to help support individuals with AMD to mitigate their ongoing risk and retard the progression of the disease. In this paper, we focus on our knowledge elicitation activities conducted to help us achieve a deep and relevant understanding of our target user group. We report on qualitative findings from focus groups and observational studies with persons with AMD and interviews with domain experts which enable us to fully appreciate the impact that technology may have on our intended users as well as to inform the design and structure of our proposed mobile assistive application. | |||
| Evaluating design elements for digital educational games on programming: a pilot study | | BIBA | Full-Text | 245-250 | |
| Stephanie Heintz; Effie Lai-Chong Law | |||
| Digital educational games (DEGs) are increasingly recognized as a promising tool for learning. To deepen the understanding of how two key components -- content and player -- of DEG contribute to learning effects, we developed a model on game elements. It informed the creation of a mini-game on programming, which was evaluated with 50 computer science undergraduates as a pilot study. Data were collected with questionnaires on background, domain-specific knowledge as well as user perception and with a screen cast recorder. Results show that most of the design requirements derived from the model were met. Pre-knowledge was found to be a significant factor influencing user perception. Implications to future work on implementing design elements such as feedback are drawn. | |||
| Snookered by an interruption?: use a cue | | BIBA | Full-Text | 251-256 | |
| Stuart A. Jones; Sandy J. J. Gould; Anna L. Cox | |||
| When routine tasks are interrupted, erroneous slips become more likely. Expertise is no defence against these kinds of errors but visual hints can alleviate such negative effects in computer interfaces. We compared previous-action cueing with next-action cueing, measuring the effects on error rate, and found that both approaches were statistically equivalent in helping to mitigate the disruptive effects of interruptions. Following an interruption, a cue should be displayed highlighting the last action performed by the user -- a trivial operation for software applications. | |||
| May cause dizziness: applying the simulator sickness questionnaire to handheld projector interaction | | BIBA | Full-Text | 257-261 | |
| Bonifaz Kaufmann; Philip Kozeny; Stefan Schaller; John N. A. Brown; Martin Hitz | |||
| Previous user studies have suggested the occurrence of symptoms of motion or simulator sickness among active spectators of handheld projector interaction. Using the well-established Simulator Sickness Questionnaire proposed by Kennedy et al. in 1993, we asked twenty-six participants if they had any indication of such symptoms after they watched a demonstration of handheld projector interaction for about half an hour. We show that handheld projector sickness can occur in rare situations, but overall it is not a substantive problem. | |||
| A user study of web search session behaviour using eye tracking data | | BIBA | Full-Text | 262-267 | |
| Mari-Carmen Marcos; David F. Nettleton; Diego Sáez-Trumper | |||
| In this paper we present and empirically evaluate a user study using a web search log and eye tracking to measure user behaviour during a query session, that is, a sequence of user queries, results page views and content page views, in order to find a specific piece of information. We evaluate different tasks, in terms of those who found the correct information, and in terms of the query session sequence itself, ordered by SERP (Search Engine Result Page), number and return visits to the results page for the same query. From this we are able to identify a number of different behaviour patterns for successful and unsuccessful users, and different trends in user activity during the query session. We find that a user behaves differently after the first query formulation, when we compare with the second formulation (both queries being for the same information item). The results can be used to improve the user experience in the query session, by recognising when the user is displaying one of the patterns we have found to have a low success rate, and offering contextual help at that point. The results may also contribute to improving the design of the results page. | |||
| Understanding user requirements in take-home diabetes management technologies | | BIBA | Full-Text | 268-273 | |
| Tom Owen; George Buchanan; Harold Thimbleby | |||
| People who suffer from Diabetes are required to make frequent decisions on their personal treatment based on results from glucose monitors. Yet the results returned from the devices form only a part of the decision-making process. We seek to understand the role that glucose monitors have in patient's management practices and how technology could support patients' management further. From a series of interviews, we arrive at the hypothesis that the capture of the contextual information will both aid the understanding of results, and allow for enhanced support during non-routine occurrences. | |||
| Exploring the motivations involved in context aware services | | BIBA | Full-Text | 274-279 | |
| Chris Roast; Xiaohui Zhang | |||
| This paper reports on research focused upon understanding the factors influencing the effective use of context aware adaptive systems. Unlike many desktop applications, ubiquitous computing supports users in dynamic situations by utilizing surrounding context to help them manage and utilise technology. It is by its nature highly dynamic since it responds to changes in context of use, and this brings new challenges to interaction design. In particular, there is still little research into human factors relating to the effectiveness and appropriateness of ubiquitous computing concepts. We review theoretical factors regarding human user's motivation, emotion, perception and preference that are relevant to evaluating ubiquitous computing. Here we then report on empirical research relating these theoretical factors to the use of contextually aware adaptive systems. The results show that there is a significant difference in users' preferences between intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. The other findings identify the importance and role of user involvement in decision-making processes. Overall the work raises interesting questions about the nature of empirical research as a methodology of relevance to adaptive system design. | |||
| Effect of touch-screen size on game immersion | | BIBA | Full-Text | 280-285 | |
| Matt Thompson; A. Imran Nordin; Paul Cairns | |||
| People are now able to enjoy playing their favourite videogames on different types of devices. In this paper, we investigate the influence on players' game immersion level by changing the size of the touch screen device used. We use two different sizes of touch screen device, iPod Touch and iPad, and let people play videogames on it, measuring their immersion level. We find that the level of immersion is higher for the larger touch screen size in comparison with the smaller one. The overall picture is therefore clear and suggests that different sizes of touch screen could be an important factor to influence immersion in videogames. | |||
| Pedestrian navigation with a mobile device: strategy use and environmental learning | | BIBA | Full-Text | 286-291 | |
| Emily Webber; Gary Burnett; Jeremy Morley | |||
| This paper focuses on the strategies employed during a pedestrian navigation task with a mobile device, and the implications for environmental engagement and learning. Twenty-four participants completed a short navigation task using GPS enabled Google Maps on a smart phone. Analysis of verbal protocols and glance behaviour were combined to suggest three broad strategy groups that users fall into when navigating with a mobile device. The results have implications for both environmental learning, and the design of future systems that are sensitive to both context and individual. | |||
| Emotishare: emotion sharing on mobile devices | | BIBA | Full-Text | 292-297 | |
| Matthew John Willis; Christian Martyn Jones | |||
| Emotishare is a web and mobile platform for users to continuously track, share and respond to the emotional states of their friends. The system was trialled with both large and small groups to explore emotional communication. The groups were provided with two alternate interfaces to the system (web and mobile), and usage was compared in order to determine the effectiveness of each interface in supporting emotional communication. While overall usage behaviour was unaffected across both systems, the results highlighted that the mobile system was better suited to encouraging ad-hoc emotional tracking, sharing and response behaviour. | |||
| The acquisition of spatial navigational skills from dynamic versus static visualisations | | BIBA | Full-Text | 298-302 | |
| Olurotimi R. Akinlofa; Patrik O'Brian Holt; Eyad Elyan | |||
| Interactions between instruction visualisations and task mental representations in skill acquisition is arguably knowledge-domain dependent. This paper presents the design and preliminary results of an experiment that extends the knowledge-domain dependent model to the acquisition of spatial navigational skills. A between-group design is proposed and tested to compare post-learning navigational performances of different learner groups in a virtual environment. The preliminary results indicate a benefit of dynamic over static visualisations in the acquisition of spatial navigational skills, which is consistent with previous results. A full study with a larger sample size and multi-level comparative analysis is currently underway. | |||
| Designing a mobile academic peer support system | | BIBA | Full-Text | 303-308 | |
| Balsam AlSugair; Gail Hopkins; Elizabeth FitzGerald; Tim Brailsford | |||
| In this paper, we discuss work in progress into the design of a mobile academic peer support system that enables 11-to-14 year old children to request and provide academic help to each other. Our proposed system was designed based on background research into the areas of peer learning, child development, help-seeking and academic motivation. Several methods, such as focus groups, interviews and Wizard of Oz, were used during the requirements gathering and initial testing stages. The proposed system is currently under development and will be tested in a study with school-pupils, over an extended period of time, in the next few months. | |||
| Towards an experimental design framework for evaluation of dynamic workload and situational awareness in safety critical maritime settings | | BIBA | Full-Text | 309-314 | |
| Frøy Birte Bjørneseth; Sathiya K. Renganayagalu; Mark D. Dunlop; Eva Homecker; Sashidharan Komandur | |||
| Dynamic positioning (DP) systems are complex systems that challenges the operator's mind during complex offshore DP operations. It is both mentally demanding and the operator has to maintain constant situation awareness to be able to react in time to safety-critical situations. The research design that will be presented in this work-in-progress paper, aims at investigating the variations of high and low mental workload during dynamic positioning operations in the maritime domain using advanced eye-tracking equipment. This type of equipment is utilized to assess the operator's focal areas on the vessel's bridge during the operation and correlate the eye-tracking results with more traditional metrics measuring mental workload, such as heart rate monitoring and NASA-TLX. The experiment has been divided into four different sub-experiments, where the last iteration will compare workload assessments between a current and a new graphical user interface of a DP system. The results from these experiments will give valuable insight in DP operations and provide possibilities of tailoring placement of information from the DP system so that safety can be improved by supporting the operator during operation. | |||
| Using tangible drawing tools on a capacitive multi-touch display | | BIBA | Full-Text | 315-320 | |
| Rachel Blagojevic; Xiliang Chen; Ryan Tan; Robert Sheehan; Beryl Plimmer | |||
| We present an innovative drawing tool that can detect tangible drawing instruments on a capacitive multi-touch tablet. There are three core components to the system: the tangible hardware, the recognizer used to identify the tangibles, and the drawing application. Our tangible drawing instruments include a ruler, protractor and set square. Users can apply these familiar physical instruments to construct digital ink drawings on a tablet in an intuitive and engaging manner. The user evaluation shows that the tangible drawing tools are easy to use and have a high rate of recognition on the touch screen. | |||
| A frame signature matrix for analysing and comparing interaction design behaviour | | BIBA | Full-Text | 321-326 | |
| Richard Blyth; Nicole Schadewitz; Helen Sharp; Mark Woodroffe; Dino Rajah; Ranganai Turugare | |||
| Protocol studies are an established method to investigate design behaviour. In the context of a project to investigate novice interaction design (ID) behaviour across protocols and cultures, we found that existing design behaviour analysis frameworks did not provide reliable results. This paper describes the development of a new approach to analyse and compare ID behaviour using verbal protocols. We augment Schön's basic design and reflection cycle with construction of a frame signature matrix and analogical categorisation coding. We demonstrate this approach by comparing two protocols of novice interaction designers in Botswana. The initial findings indicate that this approach increases consistency and accuracy of coding, and that there are different degrees of reframing for the design problem and solutions. | |||
| Identifying archetypal perspectives in news articles | | BIBA | Full-Text | 327-332 | |
| Chris P. Bowers; Russell Beale; Robert J. Hendley | |||
| A novel approach to news aggregation is proposed. Rather than ranking or summarisation of cluster topics, we propose that articles are grouped by topic similarity and then clustered within topic groups in order to identify archetypal articles that represent the various perspectives upon a topic. An example application is examined and a preliminary user study is discussed. Future applications and evaluation of validity are outlined. | |||
| Developing an interface to support procedural memory training using a participatory-based approach | | BIBA | Full-Text | 333-338 | |
| Patrick Carrington; Ravi Kuber; Lisa Anthony; Amy Hurst; Sapna Prasad | |||
| For some individuals with executive function deficits, difficulties may be experienced when executing step-by-step procedures involving cognitive and motor skills. In this paper, we describe the design of a mobile application prototype, developed using a participatory-based approach, in order to enable individuals with executive function deficits to practice ordering steps within common-tasks. The long-term aim is to determine whether users are able to transfer the knowledge gained from using the application to the real world, in order to promote levels of independence. Lessons learned from conducting a participatory approach with individuals with executive function deficits are described. | |||
| Tactile guides for touch screen controls | | BIBA | Full-Text | 339-344 | |
| Robert Kincaid | |||
| While multi-touch devices such as smart phones and tablets offer simple intuitive user interfaces, such interfaces may not always be optimal for precision tasks typical of electronic measurement instruments. Such instruments utilize physical knobs, switches and sliders to provide precise tactile control of instrument parameters and states. This paper describes work-in-progress to investigate the use of simple transparent overlays that provide tactile guides for touch-based graphical control widgets. By augmenting the touch surface with a simple low-cost overlay, we aim to restore many of the tactile properties and benefits of standard physical controls. We have fabricated an initial proof-of-concept overlay and demonstration system and have performed a preliminary evaluation that suggests overlay guides may be beneficial. | |||
| Designing a mobile video game to help young deaf children learn Auslan | | BIBA | Full-Text | 345-350 | |
| Jessica Korte; Leigh Ellen Potter; Sue Nielsen | |||
| Hearing-impaired children of hearing parents face challenges in learning sign languages, due in part to a lack of language immersion. These difficulties are compounded by the lack of learning resources available to these children. Technological resources, in particular, have the potential to aid Deaf children learning sign languages. The increasing ubiquity of mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets presents an opportunity for the development of such resources which could be made available to a wide audience, while also enabling developers to utilise mobile-specific features such as context awareness. The Seek and Sign project aims to create mobile-delivered technological resources to aid Deaf children learning Australian Sign Language (Auslan), such as the Sign My World application. This paper will discuss early work in the development of this application, with a focus on the potential uses of video game principles, context awareness and system personalisation in promoting learning, and consideration of how they may be implemented in Sign My World. We will present an interface prototype, as well as a briefly outlining a series of requirements elicitation sessions undertaken to discover a direction for future developments of the application. | |||
| Towards the improvement of self-service systems via emotional virtual agents | | BIBA | Full-Text | 351-356 | |
| Christopher Martin; Leslie Ball; Jacqueline Archibald; Lloyd Carson | |||
| Affective computing and emotional agents have been found to have a positive effect on human-computer interactions. In order to develop an acceptable emotional agent for use in a self-service interaction, two stages of research were identified and carried out; the first to determine which facial expressions are present in such an interaction and the second to determine which emotional agent behaviours are perceived as appropriate during a problematic self-service shopping task. In the first stage, facial expressions associated with negative affect were found to occur during self-service shopping interactions, indicating that facial expression detection is suitable for detecting negative affective states during self-service interactions. In the second stage, user perceptions of the emotional facial expressions displayed by an emotional agent during a problematic self-service interaction were gathered. Overall, the expression of disgust was found to be perceived as inappropriate while emotionally neutral behaviour was perceived as appropriate, however gender differences suggested that females perceived surprise as inappropriate. Results suggest that agents should change their behaviour and appearance based on user characteristics such as gender. | |||
| Designing a semantic sketchbook to create opportunities for serendipity | | BIBA | Full-Text | 357-362 | |
| Deborah Maxwell; Mel Woods; Stephann Makri; Diana Bental; Genovefa Kefalidou; Sarah Sharples | |||
| Serendipity is where unexpected circumstances and an insightful 'aha' moment result in a valuable outcome. We discuss how interactive systems can support the process of serendipity: from making new connections, to projecting and exploiting their potential value. We focus in particular on how technology can support reflection -- which is an important part of the serendipity process. By considering findings from a set of empirical studies and a set of design principles aimed at encouraging reflection, we present an early stage digital 'Semantic Sketchbook' which was designed with the aim of supporting reflection (as well as other aspects of the process of serendipity). We discuss how our 'Semantic Sketchbook' has the potential to create opportunities for serendipity and the next steps we intend to take in developing it and evaluating its success. | |||
| A prototype structured but low-viscosity editor for novice programmers | | BIBA | Full-Text | 363-368 | |
| Fraser McKay | |||
| This paper presents work in progress on a prototype programming editor that combines the flexibility of keyboard-driven text entry with a structured visual representation, and drag-and-drop blocks. Many beginners learn with Java, a traditional text-based language. While text entry is ideal for experts desiring speed and efficiency, there is evidence in the literature that a significant portion of novice errors are related to syntax. Some beginners learn with Scratch, Alice and Star Logo, all of which have drag-and-drop, "block"-based interfaces. Validation makes them less prone to syntax errors, but they are very "viscous" -- there is resistance to changing or rearranging statements once they have been entered. The new system combines keyboard input with statements that can still be manipulated with the mouse as whole blocks. Standard text idioms can be used -- highlighting code by dragging the mouse, copying & pasting (as text), etc. With CogTool cognitive/keystroke models, we show that the new system effectively overcomes the viscosity found in block-based languages, but it retains much of the error-proofing. Work is ongoing, but there are implications for the design of a new novice programming system. | |||
| Design and evaluation of a VR-user-interface based on a common tablet-PC | | BIBA | Full-Text | 369-374 | |
| Martin H. Rademacher; Michael Schneider; Carsten Dabs | |||
| Virtual Reality systems are an essential element of the product development process, but common VR-user-interfaces still need intensive practice to be effectively used to solve tasks within Virtual Environments. This keeps especially non-expert-users from using the full potential of VR for evaluating virtual models during the product development process. In this article, we present a concept for an intuitive to use VR-user-interface based on a common tablet-PC. A rudimentary evaluation performed as a preliminary study showed an initial tendency for the usability of the implemented prototype. | |||
| Please keep off the grass: individual norms in virtual worlds | | BIBA | Full-Text | 375-380 | |
| Katrina Samperi; Russell Beale; Nick Hawes | |||
| This paper looks at how personal conventions are unintentionally carried from the real world into virtual environments. We look at a simple example where we investigate whether avatars will follow virtual paths, or will walk on the grass. By default, people use the paths in real world parks, but we have showed that this behaviour has carried over into virtual parks. We investigated this further, postulating that the more exposure an individual had to virtual worlds the more likely they were to break with this social convention and walk on the grass. We observed the movements of agents in a virtual park on two extended occasions, one in 2010 and the other in 2012. From this we were able to see that people, in general, were still keeping to the paths except when invited to move onto the grass. We also look at the likelihood of individuals using another mode of transport, flying. Finally, we conclude that while some patterns can be seen between the 'age' of the avatar and their movements on or off the path, more investigation must be done. | |||
| Service-please: an interactive healthy eating serious game application for tablet computer | | BIBA | Full-Text | 381-385 | |
| Kenneth C. Scott-Brown; Marjon van der Pol; Claire Moncrieffe; Julia Allan; Paul Crook; Donna McAvoy; Leif Azzopardi; Mark Bamford; Ian Reynolds | |||
| While everyone knows that we should eat healthily, translating such information into practice is a major challenge for many of us when it comes to eating well. So despite a huge increase in awareness of the implications of food-choices, obesity levels in the UK continue to increase. In this paper, we present a novel application designed to deliver psychological 'Approach Avoidance' training in a serious games format. Developed for tablet computers, gameplay requires players to repeatedly push unhealthy food icons away, and pull healthy food icons towards themselves. The hypothesis for the overall project is that repeated push away gestures will produce an implicit avoidance bias towards unhealthy foods, reducing players' tendency to consume them. Previous research using a joystick controlled PC training regime has shown success with alcohol choices, however the current project offers the potential for a pervasive game based intervention using a tablet and gestures making such training more readily accessible. | |||
| Evaluating game preference using the fun toolkit across cultures | | BIBA | Full-Text | 386-391 | |
| Gavin Sim; Matthew Horton; Nicky Danino | |||
| Over the past decade many new evaluation methods have emerged for evaluating user experience with children, but the results of these studies have tended to be reported in isolation and cultural implications have been largely ignored. This paper reports on a comparative analysis of the Fun Toolkit and the effect of culture on game preference. In total 37 children aged between 7 and 9 participated in the study, from a school in the UK and Jordan. The children played 2 different games on a tablet PC and their experiences of each were captured using the Fun Toolkit. The results showed that culture did not appear to affect children's preference and Fun Toolkit is a valid user experience tool across cultures. | |||
| Beyond demand management: the value of sharing electricity information | | BIBA | Full-Text | 392-397 | |
| Stephen Snow; Margot Brereton | |||
| Technologies such as smart meters and electricity feedback are becoming an increasingly compelling focus for HCI researchers in light of rising power prices and peak demand. We argue, however, that a pre-occupation with the goal of demand management has limited the scope of design for these technologies. In this paper we present our work-in-progress investigating the potential value of socially sharing electricity information as a means of broadening the scope of design for these devices. This paper outlines some preliminary findings gathered from a design workshop and a series of qualitative interviews with householders in Brisbane, Australia, regarding their attitudes towards electricity feedback and sharing consumption information. Preliminary findings suggest that; (1) the social sharing of electricity feedback information has the potential to be of value in better informing consumption decisions, however; (2) the potential for sharing may be constrained by attitudes towards privacy, trust and the possibility of misinformation being shared. We conclude by outlining ideas for our future research on this topic and invite comments on these ideas. | |||
| Designing blended spaces | | BIBA | Full-Text | 398-403 | |
| David Benyon; Oli Mival; Serkan Ayan | |||
| We present an approach to the design of mixed reality spaces that aims to create a more harmonized and unified user experience. We refer to these as blended spaces. Blended spaces draw upon a description of physical and digital spaces in terms of the ontology, topology, volatility and agency. By describing physical and digital spaces in these terms we are able to use the process and design principles of conceptual blending to arrive at a design that maximizes the relationships between the spaces. It also guides the development of the touch points between the physical and digital spaces. We discuss the user experience in blended spaces and briefly allude to the significant philosophical implications that blended spaces of the future will have to deal with. | |||
| You only live twice or "the years we wasted caring about shoulder-surfing" | | BIBA | Full-Text | 404-409 | |
| Joseph Maguire; Karen Renaud | |||
| Passwords are a good idea, in theory. They have the potential to act as a fairly strong gateway. In practice though, passwords are plagued with problems. They are (1) easily shared, (2) trivial to observe and (3) maddeningly elusive when forgotten. While alternatives to passwords have been proposed, none, as yet, have been adopted widely. There seems to be a reluctance to switch from tried and tested passwords to novel alternatives, even if the most glaring flaws of passwords can be mitigated. One argument is that there is not enough investigation into the feasibility of many password alternatives. Graphical authentication mechanisms are a case in point. Therefore, in this paper, we detail the design of two prototype applications that utilise graphical authentication mechanisms. However, when forced to consider the design of such prototypes, we find that pertinent password problems eg. observation of entry, are just that: password problems. We conclude that effective, alternative authentication mechanisms should target authentication scenarios rather than the well-known problems of passwords. This is the only route to wide-spread adoption of alternatives. | |||
| How good is this conference?: evaluating conference reviewing and selectivity | | BIBA | Full-Text | 410-415 | |
| Harold Thimbleby; Paul Cairns | |||
| Peer reviewing of papers is the mainstay of modern academic publishing but
it has well known problems. In this paper, we take a statistical modelling view
to show a particular problem in the use of selectivity measures to indicate the
quality of a conference. One key problem with the process of conference
reviewing is the failure to make a useful feedback loop between the referees of
the papers accepted at the conference and their importance, acceptance and
relevance to the audience. In addition, we make some new criticisms of
selectivity as a measure of quality.
This paper is literally a work in progress because the 2012 BCS HCI itself conference will be used to close the feedback loop by making the connection between the reviews provided on papers and your (audience) perceptions of the papers. At the conference, participants will generate the results of this work. | |||
| User experience study of multiple photo streams visualization | | BIBA | Full-Text | 416-421 | |
| Sam Zargham; Janko Calic; David Frohlich | |||
| With the expansion of digital photographic content stored online and concurrent proliferation of capturing devices, the management and visualization of personal photo collections have become very challenging tasks. In order to gain insight into novel ways of handling and representing large personal photo collections, this paper presents results of a user experience study into novel visualizations of multiple photo streams, sourced from different individuals or capture devices. A web-based application prototype was designed and implemented offering synchronized visualization of photo streams in a single- or multi-window display layout. An experimental study was conducted with 20 users, and the results demonstrate high user demand for concurrent presentation of multiple media streams as well as recommends methods for leveraging its potential. | |||