| Assessing the Impact of Automatic vs. Controlled Rotations on Spatial Transfer with a Joystick and a Walking Interface in VR | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1-18 | |
| Florian Larrue; Hélène Sauzéon; Déborah Foloppe; Grégory Wallet; Jean-René Cazalets; Christian Gross; Martin Hachet; Bernard N'Kaoua | |||
| We present a user study assessing spatial transfer in a 3D navigation task,
with two different motor activities: a minimal (joystick) and an extensive
motor activity (walking Interface), with rotations of the viewpoint either
controlled by the user, or automatically managed by the system. The task
consisted in learning a virtual path of a 3D model of a real city, with either
one of these four conditions: Joystick / Treadmill Vs Manual Rotation /
Automatic Rotation. We assessed spatial knowledge with six spatial restitution
tasks. To assess the interfaces used, we analyzed also the interaction data
acquired during the learning path. Our results show that the direct control of
rotations has different effects, depending on the motor activity required by
the input modality. The quality of spatial representation increases with the
Treadmill when rotations are enabled. With the Joystick, controlling the
rotations affect spatial representations. We discuss our findings in terms of
cognitive, sensorimotor processes and human computer interaction issues. Keywords: Interfaces; Navigation; Virtual Reality; Spatial Cognition; Joystick;
Treadmill; Rotation; Body-based Information; Vestibular Information; Human
Machine Interaction; Human Factors; User Study; Motor Activity | |||
| Designing Intuitive Multi-touch 3D Navigation Techniques | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 19-36 | |
| Damien Marchal; Clément Moerman; Géry Casiez; Nicolas Roussel | |||
| Multi-touch displays have become commonplace over recent years. Numerous
applications take advantage of this to support interactions that build on
users' knowledge and correspond to daily practices within the real world. 3D
applications are also becoming more common on these platforms, but the
multi-touch techniques for 3D operations often lag behind 2D ones in terms of
intuitiveness and ease of use. Intuitive navigation techniques are particularly
needed to make multi-touch 3D applications more useful, and systematic
approaches are direly needed to inform their design: existing techniques are
still too often designed in ad-hoc ways. In this paper, we propose a
methodology based on cognitive principles to address this problem. The
methodology combines standard user-centered design practices with optical flow
analysis to determine the mappings between navigation controls and multi-touch
input. It was used to design the navigation technique of a specific
application. This technique proved to be more efficient and preferred by users
when compared to existing ones, which provides a first validation of the
approach. Keywords: 3D navigation; multi-touch; interaction technique; design rationale | |||
| Truly Useful 3D Drawing System for Professional Designer by "Life-Sized and Operable" Feature and New Interaction | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 37-55 | |
| Shun'ichi Tano; Shinya Yamamoto; Junko Ichino; Tomonori Hashiyama; Mitsuru Iwata | |||
| "Media" is an artifact that expands our creativity and intelligence. We have
been studying the use of "Rich Media" to support creative and intelligent human
activities. Specifically, for over ten years we have focused on the 3D space as
one of "Rich Media" and developed many 3D sketch systems that support the
design of 3D objects. However, their long-term evaluation has revealed that
they are not used by designers in real fields. Even worse, they are treated as
if they were just mere attractions in an amusement park. The fundamental
problem is the lack of the indispensable function for 3D space. In this paper,
we propose new design principles, "life-size and operability", which make the
3D sketch system truly valuable for the designer. The new 3D sketch system is
designed on the basis of "life-size and operability", developed, and evaluated
successfully. Keywords: 3D Sketch; Life-size; Operability; Professional Designer; Mixed reality | |||
| A One-Handed Multi-touch Method for 3D Rotations | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 56-69 | |
| Douglas Scheurich; Wolfgang Stuerzlinger | |||
| Rotating 3D objects is a difficult task. We present a new rotation technique
based on collision-free "mating" to expedite 3D rotations. It is specifically
designed for one-handed interaction on tablets or touchscreens. A user study
found that our new technique decreased the time to rotate objects in 3D by more
than 60% in situations where objects align. We found similar results when users
translated and rotated objects in a 3D scene. Also, angle errors were 35% less
with mating. In essence, our new rotation technique improves both the speed and
accuracy of common 3D rotation tasks. Keywords: 3D rotations; 3D user interfaces; multi-touch; tablets | |||
| HandsIn3D: Supporting Remote Guidance with Immersive Virtual Environments | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 70-77 | |
| Weidong Huang; Leila Alem; Franco Tecchia | |||
| A collaboration scenario involving a remote helper guiding in real time a
local worker in performing a task on physical objects is common in a wide range
of industries including health, mining and manufacturing. An established ICT
approach to supporting this type of collaboration is to provide a shared visual
space and some form of remote gesture. The shared space and remote gesture are
generally presented in a 2D video form. Recent research in tele-presence has
indicated that technologies that support co-presence and immersion not only
improve the process of collaboration but also improve spatial awareness of the
remote participant. We therefore propose a novel approach to developing a 3D
system based on a 3D shared space and 3D hand gestures. A proof of concept
system for remote guidance called HandsIn3D has been developed. This system
uses a head tracked stereoscopic HMD that allows the helper to be immersed in
the virtual 3D space of the worker's workspace. The system captures in 3D the
hands of the helper and fuses the hands into the shared workspace. This paper
introduces HandsIn3D and presents a user study to demonstrate the feasibility
of our approach. Keywords: remote collaboration; co-presence; mixed reality; hand gesture; shared
visual space | |||
| MotionBender: A Gesture-Based Interaction Technique for Editing Motion Paths | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 78-85 | |
| Frederic Raber; Quan Nguyen; Michael Kipp | |||
| Precision tasks in 3D like object manipulation or character animation call
for new gestural interfaces that utilize many input degrees of freedom. We
present MotionBender, a sensor-based interaction technique for post-editing the
motion of e.g. the hands in character animation data. For the visualization of
motion we use motion paths, often used for showing e.g. the movement of the
hand through space over time, and allow the user to directly "bend" the 3D
motion path with his/her hands and twist it into the right shape. In a
comparative evaluation with a mouse-based interface we found that subjects
using our technique were significantly faster. Moreover, with our technique,
subject movement was more coordinated, i.e. movement was done in all three
dimensions in parallel, and the participants preferred our technique in a
post-experiment questionnaire. We also found a gender effect: male users both
like the gesture interaction better and achieve better performance. Keywords: coordination; character animation; motion trajectory; Kinect; 3D user
interfaces | |||
| RelicPad: A Hands-On, Mobile Approach to Collaborative Exploration of Virtual Museum Artifacts | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 86-103 | |
| Steven Neale; Winyu Chinthammit; Christopher Lueg; Paddy Nixon | |||
| In an ideal world, physical museum artefacts could be touched, handled,
examined and passed between interested viewers by hand. Unfortunately, this is
not always possible -- artefacts may be too fragile to handle or pass around,
or groups of people with mutual interests in objects may not be in the same
location. This can be problematic when attempting to explain or make sense of
the physical properties of artefacts.
To address these problems, we propose that direct manipulation of 3D content based on real-world interaction metaphors can help collaborators (both co and remotely located) to construct personal and mutual physical and spatial awareness of artefacts, while networked communication and collaboration allow for ideas and knowledge to be exchanged and shared. We present our interpretations from two studies of RelicPad, a tablet-based application that allows users to manually manipulate museum artefacts and to 'point out' areas of interest to each other using 3D annotations, facilitating a mutual awareness of spatial properties and referencing during discussion. Keywords: Museum artefacts; remote collaboration; tablet interfaces; 3D interaction
techniques; virtual reality | |||
| Funneling and Saltation Effects for Tactile Interaction with "Detached" Out of the Body Virtual Objects | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 104-121 | |
| Jaedong Lee; Sangyong Lee; Gerard J. Kim | |||
| In a previous work, we confirmed the existing effects of "Out of the Body"
tactile illusion for virtual and augmented objects through funneling and
saltation. However, it required a virtual imagery to be attached to the user
for directly extending one's body. This paper aims at investigating similar
phantom tactile sensations exist when the virtual object is visually detached
from the user's body. Two usability experiments were conducted to verify the
hypothesized phantom tactile effects: one for funneling and the other,
saltation. Our results have shown that in addition to the perception of the
phantom sensations with the "detached" visual feedback, the interaction
experience was significantly enriched (vs. when without explicit visual
feedback). We also discovered for the first time that for funneling, phantom
sensations can be elicited without any visual feedback at all. The findings can
be applied to the tactile interaction design using minimal number of actuators
on a variety of media platforms including the mobile, holography and augmented
reality. Keywords: Phantom sensation; Illusory feedback; Funneling; Saltation; Vibro-tactile
feedback; Multimodal feedback | |||
| Precise Pointing Techniques for Handheld Augmented Reality | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 122-139 | |
| Thomas Vincent; Laurence Nigay; Takeshi Kurata | |||
| We propose two techniques that improve accuracy of pointing at physical
objects for handheld Augmented Reality (AR). In handheld AR, pointing accuracy
is limited by both touch input and camera viewpoint instability due to hand
jitter. The design of our techniques is based on the relationship between the
touch input space and two visual reference frames for on-screen content, namely
the screen and the physical object that one is pointing at. The first technique
is based on Shift, a touch-based pointing technique, and video freeze, in order
to combine the two reference frames for precise pointing. Contrastingly --
without freezing the video, -- the second technique offers a precise mode with
a cursor that is stabilized on the physical object and controlled with relative
touch inputs on the screen. Our experimental results show that our techniques
are more accurate than the baseline techniques, namely direct touch on the
video and screen-centered crosshair pointing. Keywords: Handheld Augmented Reality; Interaction Techniques; Pointing | |||
| The Unadorned Desk: Exploiting the Physical Space around a Display as an Input Canvas | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 140-158 | |
| Doris Hausen; Sebastian Boring; Saul Greenberg | |||
| In everyday office work, people smoothly use the space on their physical
desks to work with documents of interest, and to keep tools and materials
nearby for easy use. In contrast, the limited screen space of computer displays
imposes interface constraints. Associated material is placed off-screen (i.e.,
temporarily hidden) and requires extra work to access (window switching, menu
selection) or crowds and competes with the work area (e.g., palettes and
icons). This problem is worsened by the increasing popularity of small displays
such as tablets and laptops. To mitigate this problem, we investigate how we
can exploit an unadorned physical desk space as an additional input canvas.
With minimal augmentation, our Unadorned Desk detects coarse hovering over and
touching of discrete areas ('items') within a given area on an otherwise
regular desk, which is used as input to the desktop computer. We hypothesize
that people's spatial memory will let them touch particular desk locations
without looking. In contrast to other augmented desks, our system provides
optional feedback of touches directly on the computer's screen. We conducted a
user study to understand how people make use of this input space. Participants
freely placed and retrieved items onto/from the desk. We found that
participants organize items in a grid-like fashion for easier access later on.
In a second experiment, participants had to retrieve items from a predefined
grid. When only few (large) items are located in the area, participants were
faster without feedback and there was (surprisingly) no difference in error
rates with or without feedback. As the item number grew (i.e., items shrank to
fit the area), participants increasingly relied on feedback to minimize errors
-- at the cost of speed. Keywords: Augmented desks; digital desks; peripheral interaction | |||
| GSR and Blink Features for Cognitive Load Classification | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 159-166 | |
| Nargess Nourbakhsh; Yang Wang; Fang Chen | |||
| A system capable of monitoring its user's mental workload can evaluate the
suitability of its interface and interactions for user's current cognitive
status and properly change them when necessary. Galvanic skin response (GSR)
and eye blinks are cognitive load measures which can be captured conveniently
and at low cost. The present study has assessed multiple features of these two
signals in classification of cognitive workload level. The experiment included
arithmetic tasks with four difficulty levels and two types of machine learning
algorithms have been applied for classification. Obtained results show that the
studied features of blink and GSR can reasonably discriminate workload levels
and combining features of the two modalities improves the accuracy of cognitive
load classification. We have achieved around 75% for binary classification and
more than 50% for four-class classification. Keywords: Cognitive load; galvanic skin response; eye blink; machine learning | |||
| Information Holodeck: Thinking in Technology Ecologies | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 167-184 | |
| Sharon Lynn Chu; Francis Quek | |||
| Information can be persistently represented on a multitude of devices beyond
a single screen and session. This paper explores how technological display and
device ecosystems (DDEs) may support human thinking, learning and sensemaking.
We propose a theoretical foundation that extends Vygotsky's sign mediation
triangle to include digital information. Through a process we call
objectification, perceivable objects, e.g. interface objects, tangible
technologies, can be associated with signs to support thinking. We present a
qualitative study of learning in a testbed DDE with 12 graduate students. We
developed a method that traces digital objects within 'thinking episodes' to
help us evaluate how technology configurations support objectification. Our
findings relate two storylines of how DDE technologies may afford
objectification. Our work advances a method informed by psychological theory to
examine device ecologies for their potential for learning, and articulates
affordances for the design of technology that can help to support higher
thought. Keywords: Ecology; technology; devices; displays; thinking; sensemaking;
objectification; embodied interaction; design | |||
| Managing Personal Information across Multiple Devices: Challenges and Opportunities | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 185-192 | |
| Simone Beets; Janet Wesson | |||
| Due to the constantly increasing volume of personal information (PI) and the
current trend towards mobile devices, there is a growing need to provide access
to PI across multiple devices. It has become difficult for a user to manage
his/her PI across these devices. The current hierarchical systems used to
organize PI do not support accessing PI across multiple devices. The aim of
this paper is to discuss the outcomes of an interview study that was conducted
to determine how users currently manage PI across multiple devices and to
identify what problems are experienced using these devices. Results showed that
participants found it difficult to access PI across their devices and do not
know beforehand what information they need to access. These problems could be
solved by providing an information visualization tool installed on their
devices which provides a single user interface to facilitate an overall view of
their PI. Keywords: Personal Information Management; Multiple Devices; Interview Study | |||
| Mobility Matters: Identifying Cognitive Demands That Are Sensitive to Orientation | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 193-210 | |
| G. Michael Poor; Guy Zimmerman; Dale S. Klopfer; Samuel D. Jaffee; Laura Marie Leventhal; Julie Barnes | |||
| Prior studies have shown benefits of interactions on mobile devices. Device
mobility itself changes the nature of the user experience; interactions on
mobile devices may present better support for cognition. To better understand
cognitive demands related to mobility, the current study investigated
presentations on a mobile device for a three-dimensional construction task. The
task imposed considerable cognitive load, particularly in demands for mental
rotation; individual differences in spatial ability are known to interact with
these demands. This study specifically investigated mobile device orientations
and participants' spatial ability. Subjects with low spatial ability were able
to complete the task more effectively when shown the presentation in a
favorable orientation. Individuals who saw the presentation in an unfavorable
orientation and those of low spatial ability, were differentially
disadvantaged. We conclude that mobility can reduce cognitive load by limiting
demands for spatial processing relating to reorientation. Keywords: Mobility; Mental Rotation; Presentation Orientation; Spatial Ability | |||
| Ambient Timer -- Unobtrusively Reminding Users of Upcoming Tasks with Ambient Light | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 211-228 | |
| Heiko Müller; Anastasia Kazakova; Martin Pielot; Wilko Heuten; Susanne Boll | |||
| Daily office work is often a mix of concentrated desktop work and scheduled
meetings and appointments. However, constantly checking the clock and alarming
popups interrupt the flow of creative work as they require the user's focused
attention. We present Ambient Timer, an ambient light display designed to
unobtrusively remind users of upcoming events. The light display -- mounted
around the monitor -- is designed to slowly catch the user's attention and
raise awareness for an upcoming event while not distracting her from the
primary creative task such as writing a paper. Our experiment compared
established reminder techniques such as checking the clock or using popups
against Ambient Timer in two different designs. One of these designs produced a
reminder in which the participants felt well informed on the progress of time
and experienced a better "flow" of work than with traditional reminders. Keywords: Ambient Light Display; Reminder; Interruptions; User Studies | |||
| Novel Modalities for Bimanual Scrolling on Tablet Devices | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 229-246 | |
| Ross McLachlan; Stephen A. Brewster | |||
| This paper presents two studies investigating the use of novel modalities
for bimanual vertical scrolling on tablet devices. Several bimanual interaction
techniques are presented, using a combination of physical dial, touch and
pressure input, which split the control of scrolling speed and scrolling
direction across two hands. The new interaction techniques are compared to
equivalent unimanual techniques in a controlled linear targeting task. The
results suggest that participants can select targets significantly faster and
with a lower subjective workload using the bimanual techniques. Keywords: Bimanual interaction; scrolling; tablets | |||
| Public Information System Interface Design Research | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 247-259 | |
| Ning Zhang; Junliang Chen; Zhengjie Liu; Jun Zhang | |||
| The diversity of users' cognitive skills remains the challenge of public
information system interface design. In this paper, we focus on the universal
interaction design method for public information systems like kiosks. We have
developed a method with six steps based on the resources model. The method we
proposed aims at reducing users' cognitive load and enabling designers to
optimize interface information. To validate this method, two prototypes were
designed based on the method and a usability test was conducted to compare
users' cognitive load, performance and satisfaction between the designed
prototypes and the current referencing system. Results show that, in contrast
with the current reference system, prototypes we designed based on the proposed
method can reduce user's cognitive load, and enhance user's performance and
satisfaction. Keywords: Universal usability; Cognitive load; Public information system | |||
| Comparison of User Performance in Mixed 2D-3D Multi-Display Environments | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 260-277 | |
| Abhijit Karnik; Tovi Grossman; Sriram Subramanian | |||
| Stereoscopic displays and volumetric 3D displays capable of delivering 3D
views have in use for many years. These standalone displays have been
investigated in detail for their impact on users' viewing experiences. Effects
like aesthenopia and nausea are well-known for flat-screen based stereoscopic
displays. However, these devices have not been tested in the context of
multi-display environments (MDEs). The performance cost of repetitive switching
between a 3D (stereo or volumetric) display and a standard 2D display are not
known. In this paper, we perform a thorough user study where we investigate the
effects of using such 3D displays within the context of a MDE. We report on our
findings and discuss the implications of the same on designs involving such
hybrid setups. Our experiments show that in the condition involving two 2D
displays which allow for motion parallax and perspective correction, the
participants performed the task the fastest. Keywords: stereoscopic display; autostereoscopic display; volumetric display; zone of
comfort; multi-display environment; performance; mental load | |||
| Touching the Void Revisited: Analyses of Touch Behavior on and above Tabletop Surfaces | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 278-296 | |
| Gerd Bruder; Frank Steinicke; Wolfgang Stuerzlinger | |||
| Recent developments in touch and display technologies made it possible to
integrate touch-sensitive surfaces into stereoscopic three-dimensional (3D)
displays. Although this combination provides a compelling user experience,
interaction with stereoscopically displayed objects poses some fundamental
challenges. If a user aims to select a 3D object, each eye sees a different
perspective of the same scene. This results in two distinct projections on the
display surface, which raises the question where users would touch in 3D or on
the two-dimensional (2D) surface to indicate the selection. In this paper we
analyze the relation between the 3D positions of stereoscopically displayed
objects and the on- as well as off-surface touch areas. The results show that
2D touch interaction works better close to the screen but also that 3D
interaction is more suitable beyond 10cm from the screen. Finally, we discuss
implications for the development of future touch-sensitive interfaces with
stereoscopic display. Keywords: Touch-sensitive systems; stereoscopic displays; 3D interaction | |||
| Understanding Hand Degrees of Freedom and Natural Gestures for 3D Interaction on Tabletop | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 297-314 | |
| Rémi Brouet; Renaud Blanch; Marie-Paule Cani | |||
| Interactively creating and editing 3D content requires the manipulation of
many degrees of freedom (DoF). For instance, docking a virtual object involves
6 DoF (position and orientation). Multi-touch surfaces are good candidates as
input devices for those interactions: they provide a direct manipulation where
each finger contact on the table controls 2 DoF. This leads to a theoretical
upper bound of 10 DoF for a single-handed interaction. With a new hand
parameterization, we investigate the number of DoF that one hand can
effectively control on a multi-touch surface. A first experiment shows that the
dominant hand is able to perform movements that can be parameterized by 4 to 6
DoF, and no more (i.e., at most 3 fingers can be controlled independently).
Through another experiment, we analyze how gestures and tasks are associated,
which enable us to discover some principles for designing 3D interactions on
tabletop. Keywords: 3D manipulation; multi-touch interaction; tabletop interaction;
gesture-based interaction | |||
| Considering Communities, Diversity and the Production of Locality in the Design of Networked Urban Screens | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 315-322 | |
| Wallis Motta; Ava Fatah gen Schieck; Holger Schnädelbach; Efstathia Kostopoulou; Moritz Behrens; Steve North; Lei Ye | |||
| Highly diverse settings such as London (with people from 179 countries
speaking 300 languages) are unique in that ethnic or socio-cultural backgrounds
are no longer sufficient to generate a sense of place, belonging and community.
Instead, residents actively perform place building activities on an ongoing
basis, which we believe is of great importance when deploying interactive
situated technologies in public spaces.
This paper investigates community and place building within a complex multicultural context. We approached this using ethnography, complemented with workshops in the wild. By studying the relationships arising between different segments of the community and two networked screen nodes, we examine the place building activities of residents, and how screen nodes are incorporated into them. Our research suggests that urban screens will be framed (and eventually used) as part of this continuing process of social, spatial and cultural construction. This highlights the importance of enabling socially meaningful relations between the people mediated by these technologies. Keywords: Diversity; communities; ethnography; workshops; in the wild; urban screens | |||
| Growing Existing Aboriginal Designs to Guide a Cross-Cultural Design Project | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 323-330 | |
| Margot Brereton; Paul Roe; Thomas Amagula; Serena Bara; Judy Lalara; Anita Lee Hong | |||
| Designing across cultures requires considerable attention to
inter-relational design methods that facilitate mutual exploration, learning
and trust. Many Western design practices have been borne of a different model,
utilizing approaches for the design team to rapidly gain insight into "users"
in order to deliver concepts and prototypes, with little attention paid to
different cultural understandings about being, knowledge, participation and
life beyond the design project. This paper describes a project that intends to
create and grow a sustainable set of technology assisted communication
practices for the Warnindilyakwa people of Groote Eylandt in the form of
digital noticeboards. Rather than academic practices of workshops, interviews,
probes or theoretical discourses that emphasize an outside-in perspective, we
emphasize building upon the local designs and practices. Our team combines
bilingual members from the local Land Council in collaboration with academics
from a remote urban university two thousand kilometers away. We contribute an
approach of growing existing local practices and materials digitally in order
to explore viable, innovative and sustainable technical solutions from this
perspective. Keywords: Cross-cultural; Aboriginal; slow design; sustainable design; digital
noticeboards; urban screens; interface design; Human-computer interaction | |||
| Web Accessibility in Africa: A Study of Three African Domains | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 331-338 | |
| Daniel Costa; Nádia Fernandes; Sofia Neves; Carlos Duarte; Raquel Hijón-Neira; Luís Carriço | |||
| Being the most used method for dissemination of information, especially for
public services, it is of paramount importance that the Web is made accessible
as to allow all its users to access the content of its pages.
In this paper, we evaluated 2250 Governmental Web pages from each one of three different African countries (i.e., Angola, Mozambique and South Africa). This report compares the accessibility quality and the level of structural complexity of these African countries government's Web pages. We found that hand coded pages tend to have larger number of HTML elements and also to present higher number of accessibility problems. Finally, it suggests some recommendations to repair the most common problems in these pages. Keywords: Web Science; Web accessibility; automated evaluation | |||
| Webpage Designs for Diverse Cultures: An Exploratory Study of User Preferences in China | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 339-346 | |
| Yin Su; David Liu; Xiaomeng Yuan; Justin Ting; Jingguo Jiang; Li Wang; Lin Gao | |||
| A wealth of studies has revealed a cross-cultural difference in the user
preference on webpage designs. Users from other cultures often criticize a
widely accepted webpage design in one culture. Designs for diverse cultures are
thus expected to be specific to address diverse user preferences. This study
investigated the preferences of Chinese users on four essential design elements
related to the readability of texts of the result pages of search engines. The
results suggested that the search result pages of the Bing search engine
designed for typical 'US users' did not satisfy Chinese users. Chinese users,
in general, preferred huge-sized texts for titles, a more compact layout of the
search result pages, and keywords to be highlighted in red. The findings of the
study contributed to webpage design guidelines for Chinese users, and may serve
as a catalyst in exploring user preferences in designing for diverse cultures. Keywords: webpage design; cross-culture; diversity; Chinese users | |||
| Your Phone Has Internet -- Why Are You at a Library PC? Re-imagining Public Access in the Mobile Internet Era | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 347-364 | |
| Jonathan Donner; Marion Walton | |||
| This study focuses on teenage users of public internet access venues (PAVs)
in low-income neighborhoods of Cape Town. It documents their cultivation of
detailed ICT repertoires to make the most of available ICTs. It highlights the
continuing importance of PAVs as supplements for poorly equipped schools and
reveals the incompleteness of any supposed transition to mobile-only internet
use. While the mobile internet is opening up opportunities for young people,
its current form still conflicts with the easy (global) rhetoric of a closing
digital divide and the end of the PAV. We recommend policy and design actions
(effecting rules, training, messaging, functionality, and Wi-Fi) to reconfigure
PAVs to be more useful "in the age of the mobile internet". Though some actions
require support from policymakers, this is fruitful ground for designers and
technologists. We identify steps that can be undertaken immediately, rather
than waiting for future device convergence or lower tariffs. Keywords: Libraries; ICT4D; Shared Access; South Africa; Developing Regions; Human
Factors; Mobile Phones | |||
| A Performance Review of Number Entry Interfaces | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 365-382 | |
| Patrick Oladimeji; Harold Thimbleby; Anna L. Cox | |||
| Number entry is ubiquitous and there are several ways a number entry
interface can be designed. Until recently, research has been focused mainly on
one type of number entry interface: the numeric keypad. Various factors such as
the range of values, and the space available for the design allows for several
alternative interfaces to be used for number entry. In the design of medical
devices such as those used for controlled drug delivery, accurate and timely
entry of numbers are required in order to reduce any risk of harm to patients.
This paper reviews five number entry interface styles and reports the result of
an experiment conducted to evaluate the performance differences of the
interfaces based on numbers used in infusion therapy in a hospital. The result
shows a significant effect of interface style on speed and accuracy. Keywords: Number entry interfaces; number entry error; user interface performance;
safety critical devices | |||
| Predictive Input Interface of Mathematical Formulas | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 383-400 | |
| Yoshinori Hijikata; Keisuke Horie; Shogo Nishida | |||
| Currently, inputting mathematical formulas into a document using a PC
requires more effort by users than inputting normal text. This fact inhibits
the spreading of mathematical formulas as internet contents. We propose a
method for predicting user's inputs of mathematical formulas using an N-gram
model: a popular probabilistic language model in natural language processing.
Mathematical formulas are usually presented in hierarchical structure.
Therefore, our method incorporates hierarchical information of mathematical
formulas to create a prediction model. We try to achieve high prediction
accuracy of inputting characters for mathematical formulas. Keywords: mathematical input; probabilistic language model; predictive input; N-gram
model | |||
| Selection-Based Mid-Air Text Entry on Large Displays | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 401-418 | |
| Anders Markussen; Mikkel R. Jakobsen; Kasper Hornbæk | |||
| Most text entry methods require users to have physical devices within reach.
In many contexts of use, such as around large displays where users need to move
freely, device-dependent methods are ill suited. We explore how selection-based
text entry methods may be adapted for use in mid-air. Initially, we analyze the
design space for text entry in mid-air, focusing on single-character input with
one hand. We propose three text entry methods: H4 Mid-Air (an adaptation of a
game controller-based method by MacKenzie et al. [21]), MultiTap (a mid-air
variant of a mobile phone text entry method), and Projected QWERTY (a mid-air
variant of the QWERTY keyboard). After six sessions, participants reached an
average of 13.2 words per minute (WPM) with the most successful method,
Projected QWERTY. Users rated this method highest on satisfaction and it
resulted in the least physical movement. Keywords: Text entry; mid-air interaction techniques; large high-resolution displays;
Huffman coding; multitap | |||
| Evaluating Multivariate Visualizations as Multi-objective Decision Aids | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 419-436 | |
| Meirav Taieb-Maimon; Lior Limonad; David Amid; David Boaz; Ateret Anaby-Tavor | |||
| When choosing a solution, decision makers are often required to account for
multiple conflicting objectives. This is a situation that can result in a
potentially huge number of candidate solutions. Despite the wide selection of
multivariate visualizations that can potentially help decide between various
candidates, no designated means exist to assess the effectiveness of these
visualizations under different circumstances. As a first contribution in this
work, we developed a method to evaluate different types of multivariate
visualization. The method focuses on the visualization's ability to facilitate
a better understanding of inter-objective trade-offs as a proxy to more
sensible decision making. We used the method to evaluate two existing
visualization aids: Parallel-Coordinates and an adaptation of Self Organizing
Maps (SOM). Both visualizations were compared with tabular data presentation.
Our results show that the first visualization is more effective than a plain
tabular visualization for the purpose of multi-objective decision making. Keywords: Multi-criterion decision making; Multivariate visualizations; Information
Visualization; Usage experience evaluation | |||
| Homestead Creator: Using Card Sorting in Search for Culture-Aware Categorizations of Interface Objects | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 437-444 | |
| Kasper Rodil; Matthias Rehm; Heike Winschiers-Theophilus | |||
| Designing intuitive interfaces for rural African users requires us to
understand the users' conceptual model. We acknowledge differences in
categorization approaches based on cultural factors, among others. In the
absence of comprehensive literature and theories, we explore card sorting as a
means to derive a local categorization of interface objects for one of our
prototypes. Results indicate a locational-relational categorization scheme
among Herero elders in Namibia. Keywords: categorization; indigenous knowledge; 3D visualization; card sorting; HCI;
interface design | |||
| The Influence of Website Category on Aesthetic Preferences | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 445-452 | |
| Eleftherios Papachristos; Nikolaos Avouris | |||
| This paper investigates whether users' aesthetic impressions about websites
vary considerably across different domains. The assumption that aesthetic
judgments about websites that belong to diverse domains are based on different
visual design aspects has been investigated in three distinct studies in
healthcare, tourism, and web design business. In these studies participants
expressed their overall preference as well as their judgments on the constructs
of visual appeal, perceived usability and novelty. In addition, descriptions
about the test websites were obtained by expert panel and objective measures.
Preference Mapping (PM), which is a data summarization and visualization
technique, has been performed in each study. Attribute projection into the
preference maps allowed for the identification of important driver of
preference for each individual domain. Even though, visual appeal was the most
important predictor of overall preference in all studies, appealing websites
had different visual characteristics in each domain. Furthermore the importance
of the evaluation constructs varied considerably among studies, indicating that
aesthetic perceptions differed considerably across domains. These findings
emphasize the need for flexible evaluation methods that can be used to identify
important visual design factors within a specific website domain. Keywords: Website design; aesthetic evaluation; website categories; visual appeal;
preference mapping | |||
| WATTSBurning: Design and Evaluation of an Innovative Eco-Feedback System | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 453-470 | |
| Filipe Quintal; Lucas Pereira; Nuno Nunes; Valentina Nisi; Mary Barreto | |||
| This paper reports a 15 weeks study of artistic eco-feedback deployed in six
houses with an innovative sensing infrastructure and visualization strategy.
The paper builds on previous work that showed a significant decrease in user
awareness after a short period with a relapse in consumption. In this study we
aimed to investigate if new forms of feedback could overcome this issue,
maintaining the users awareness for longer periods of time. The study presented
here aims at understanding if people are more aware of their energy consumption
after the installation of a new, art inspired eco-feedback. The research
question was then: does artistic eco-feedback provide an increased awareness
over normal informative feedback? And does that awareness last longer? To
answer this questions participants were interviewed and their consumption
patterns analyzed. The main contribution of the paper is to advance our
knowledge about the effectiveness of eco-feedback and provide guidelines for
implementation of novel eco-feedback visualizations that overcome the relapse
behavior pattern. Keywords: Sustainability; Aesthetics; Eco-feedback; User Interfaces; Prototyping | |||
| Finding-NEVO: Toward Radical Design in HCI | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 471-478 | |
| Sharon Lynn Chu; Francis Quek; Yao Wang; Rex Hartson | |||
| We address the methodology of design-oriented research in HCI, whereby
researchers design and implement technology to test concepts. The task is to
produce a testable prototype (that we call NEVO, Non-Embarrassing Version One)
that faithfully embodies the concept. We probed leading HCI researchers and CHI
authors about the challenge of Finding NEVO. We found uncertainty on how to
design prototypes that allow for both design and scientific contributions. We
propose the Finding-NEVO model that articulates a process yielding prototypes
that are faithful to the rationale and idea being studied. We conclude by
discussing our theoretical and methodological contributions. Keywords: Radical design; design method; innovation; HCI | |||
| Method Card Design Dimensions: A Survey of Card-Based Design Tools | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 479-486 | |
| Christiane Wölfel; Timothy Merritt | |||
| There are many examples of cards used to assist or provide structure to the
design process, yet there has not been a thorough articulation of the strengths
and weaknesses of the various examples. We review eighteen card-based design
tools in order to understand how they might benefit designers. The card-based
tools are explained in terms of five design dimensions including the intended
purpose and scope of use, duration of use, methodology, customization, and
formal/material qualities. Our analysis suggests three design patterns or
archetypes for existing card-based design method tools and highlights
unexplored areas in the design space. The paper concludes with recommendations
for the future development of card-based methods for the field of interaction
design. Keywords: method cards; creativity cards; design methods; design tools | |||
| The Design and Usability Testing of DACADE -- A Tool Supporting Systematic Data Collection and Analysis for Design Students | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 487-494 | |
| Madihah Sheikh Abdul Aziz; Gitte Lindgaard; T. W. Allan Whitfield | |||
| Norman claims that designers are bereft of statistical knowledge to perform
effectively [10], stating that designers must understand technology, business
and psychology to support design decisions. For designers to acquire the
necessary statistical skills, design curricula should incorporate statistical
courses teaching systematic data collection and data analysis. This paper
presents the development and formative usability tests of the prototypes of a
software tool called DACADE intended to support design students collecting and
analyzing data systematically early in the design phase. It uses a 2D map and a
Napping® technique to support effective and efficient communication between
designers and target audiences in the design decision process by providing
visual data and descriptive statistics without needing statistical knowledge. Keywords: Software Engineering (Usability Testing); Human Factors in Software Design
(User Interfaces); user-centered design; human-centered design | |||
| The Effect of Physicality on Low Fidelity Interactive Prototyping for Design Practice | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 495-510 | |
| Joanna Hare; Steve Gill; Gareth Loudon; Alan Lewis | |||
| In this paper we propose the concept of 'active' and 'passive' physicality
as mental models to help in understanding the role of low fidelity prototypes
in the design process for computer embedded products. We define 'active
physicality' as how the prototype and its software react to users and 'passive
physicality' as how the prototype looks and feels offline. User trials of four
different types of 'low fidelity' prototypes were undertaken using an existing
product as the datum. Each prototype was analysed in terms of active and
passive physicality and user responses were collated and compared qualitatively
and quantitatively. The results suggest that prototypes that balance both
active and passive physicality produce data closer to the final device than
those that are strong in one at the expense of the other. Keywords: Physicality; interactive prototypes; computer embedded products; design;
product design; iterative product development; information appliances | |||
| CapTUI: Geometric Drawing with Tangibles on a Capacitive Multi-touch Display | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 511-528 | |
| Rachel Blagojevic; Beryl Plimmer | |||
| We present CapTUI, an innovative drawing tool that detects 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 software that works in tandem with the tangibles to
provide intelligent visual drawing guides. Our recognizable tangible drawing
instruments are a ruler, protractor and set square. Users employ these familiar
physical instruments to construct digital ink drawings on a tablet in an
intuitive and engaging manner. The visual drawing guides enhance the experience
by offering the user helpful cues and functionalities to assist them to draw
more accurately. A user evaluation comparing CapTUI to an application with
passive tools showed that users significantly preferred CapTUI and found that
the visual guides provide greater accuracy when drawing. Keywords: TUI; tangible; multi-touch; physical interaction; capacitive; drawing tools | |||
| Evocative Computing -- Creating Meaningful Lasting Experiences in Connecting with the Past | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 529-546 | |
| Janet van der Linden; Yvonne Rogers; Tim Coughlan; Anne Adams; Caroline Wilson; Pablo Haya; Estefanía Martín; Trevor Collins | |||
| We present an approach -- evocative computing -- that demonstrates how 'at
hand' technologies can be 'picked up' and used by people to create meaningful
and lasting experiences, through connecting and interacting with the past. The
approach is instantiated here through a suite of interactive technologies
configured for an indoor-outdoor setting that enables groups to explore,
discover and research the history and background of a public cemetery. We
report on a two-part study where different groups visited the cemetery and
interacted with the digital tools and resources. During their activities
serendipitous uses of the technology led to connections being made between
personal memories and ongoing activities. Furthermore, these experiences were
found to be long-lasting; a follow-up study, one year later, showed them to be
highly memorable, and in some cases leading participants to take up new
directions in their work. We discuss the value of evocative computing for
enriching user experiences and engagement with heritage practices. Keywords: pervasive computing; user experience; heritage practice; memories; evocative
computing | |||
| Systematic Integration of Solution Elements: How Does Digital Creativity Support Change Group Dynamics? | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 547-565 | |
| Florian Perteneder; Susann Hahnwald; Michael Haller; Kurt Gaubinger | |||
| In practice, most creativity techniques are still performed with traditional
tools, such as pen and paper, whiteboards, and flipcharts. When transforming
these techniques into a digital environment, the reduction of organizational
overhead is the main goal to foster accessibility. Still, we do not know if
overhead reduction fosters creativity or if it eliminates an important part of
the creative process. To get a deeper understanding of these effects, we
compare the performance of the creativity technique SIS (Systematic Integration
of Solution Elements) in a traditional setting with a setup based on multiple
interactive surfaces. By using a mix of diverse evaluation methods, we show how
the use of a digital interactive creativity room can really foster creativity
and produce better results. Keywords: Creativity; Design; Creativity Techniques; Interactive Environment;
Systematic Integration of Solution Elements; Collaboration | |||
| Accessibility of Public Web Services: A Distant Dream? | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 566-578 | |
| Kristiina Nurmela; Antti Pirhonen; Airi Salminen | |||
| Today, many public services are available online through Web sites. The
accessibility of the sites, also to people with disabilities, is important
because the accessibility concerns equality of citizens, a cornerstone of
democracy. In the current study we carried out a meta-analysis of 17 studies
concerning the accessibility of the Web sites of public administration.
Furthermore, we assessed the accessibility of Web pages of 12 ministries of the
Finnish government. The assessments were based on the Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines (WCAG). The results showed that in terms of the WCAG guidelines, the
average accessibility of public Web sites is poor. Moreover, there was no
improvement in the accessibility in the 2000's and many of the accessibility
failures were so simple that they could have been easily avoided. This may
indicate that the building of information society is driven by technology,
rather than principles of democracy and well-being. Keywords: Accessibility; public administration; WCAG | |||
| Augmenting Accessibility Guidelines with User Ability Rationales | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 579-586 | |
| Christophe Ponsard; Pascal Beaujeant; Jean Vanderdonckt | |||
| Designing accessible web sites and more generally Internet-connected devices
remains a challenging task nowadays. A number of guidelines (such as the WCAG2)
are now widely available and recognised. To better cope with the quickly
evolving technological landscape, these guidelines are also being formulated in
technology-neutral terms. However this is still leaving the user dimension
largely implicit, which makes it difficult to understand exactly which kind of
user a given website is hindering.
This paper describes how to capture and use rational links between guidelines and user capabilities/impairments by combining a set of complementary models (user, task, user interface, guidelines). The process of building those accessibility rationales relies upon available user and guidelines ontologies and also on obstacle identification and resolution techniques borrowed from the requirements engineering domain. This resulting enriched guidance enables a number of interesting new scenarios to better help web developers, analyse guidelines or make comparisons between guidelines. Keywords: Accessibility; Assessment; Web; User-Model; Task Model; Ontology;
Guidelines; WCAG | |||
| Lessons Learned from Crowd Accessibility Services | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 587-604 | |
| Hironobu Takagi; Susumu Harada; Daisuke Sato; Chieko Asakawa | |||
| Crowd accessibility services for people with disabilities, driven by
crowd-sourcing methods, are gaining traction as a viable means of realizing
innovative services by leveraging both human and machine intelligence. As the
approach matures, researchers and practitioners are seeking to build various
types of services. However, many of them encounter similar challenges, such as
variations in quality and sustaining contributor participation for durable
services. There are growing needs to share tangible knowledge about the best
practices to help build and maintain successful services. Towards this end, we
are sharing our experiences with crowd accessibility services that we have
deployed and studied. Initially, we developed a method to analyze the dynamics
of contributor participation. We then analyzed the actual data from three
service deployments spanning several years. The service types included Web
accessibility improvement, text digitization, and video captioning. We then
summarize the lessons learned and future research directions for sustainable
services. Keywords: Crowd-sourcing; accessibility; digital book; captioning; Web accessibility | |||
| Designing for Different Users and Multiple Devices: A Roadmap towards Inclusive Environments | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 605-622 | |
| Ig Ibert Bittencourt; Maria Cecília Baranauskas; Diego Dermeval; Juliana Braga; Roberto Pereira | |||
| The Web can be understood as an ecosystem of interconnected technological
resources organized by rules, strategies, organizational structures, and mainly
people. Such ecosystem is improving the potential to access knowledge
everywhere and at any time. However, for different reasons, this technological
extension is not reaching everybody yet. Those without access to knowledge are
mainly people with disabilities or living in underserved communities.
Nevertheless, the extension of Web technologies to different types of devices
(such as mobile phones, tablets, TV) and their connections have the potential
to increase the solutions to reach people with different needs through
different devices. For this reason, several research and industrial studies
have been proposed to design interfaces for multiple devices considering
differences among users. In this paper, we present results of a systematic
review on literature to build a roadmap towards inclusive environments.
Additionally, the study also suggests existing tools to support the design of
accessible applications for multiple devices. A significant result of this
review is the lack of studies addressing underserved communities. Keywords: Inclusive Environments; Portability; User Interface Design; Inclusiveness;
Diversity; Multiple Devices | |||
| User Control in Adaptive User Interfaces for Accessibility | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 623-640 | |
| Matthias Peissner; Rob Edlin-White | |||
| Adaptive user interfaces offer great potential for improving the
accessibility of interactive systems. At the same time, adaptations can cause
usability problems, including disorientation and the feeling of losing control.
Adaptations are therefore often discussed in terms of costs and benefits for
the users. However, design strategies to overcome the drawbacks of adaptations
have received little attention in the literature. We have designed different
adaptation patterns to increase the transparency and controllability of run
time adaptations in our MyUI system. This paper presents an experimental user
study to investigate the effectiveness and acceptability of the proposed
patterns in different cost-benefit situations and for different users. The
patterns turn out to increase the transparency and controllability of
adaptations during the interaction. They help users to optimize the subjective
utility of the system's adaptation behavior. Moreover, the results suggest that
preference and acceptance of the different patterns depend on the cost-benefit
condition. Keywords: Adaptive user interfaces; design patterns; accessibility; user study;
controllability | |||
| Vibro-Tactile Enrichment Improves Blind User Interaction with Mobile Touchscreens | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 641-648 | |
| Maria Claudia Buzzi; Marina Buzzi; Barbara Leporini; Maria Teresa Paratore | |||
| Interaction via mobile devices is a challenge for blind users, who often
encounter severe accessibility and usability problems. The main issues are due
to the lack of hardware keys, making it difficult to quickly reach an area or
activate functions, and to the new way of interacting via touchscreen. A
touchscreen has no specific reference points detectable by feel, so a blind
user cannot easily understand exactly where (s)he is positioned on the
interface nor readily find a specific item/function. Alternative ways to
provide content are mainly vocal and may be inadequate in some situations,
e.g., noisy environments. In this study we investigate enriching the user
interfaces of touchscreen mobile devices to facilitate blind users'
orientation. We propose a possible solution for improving interaction based on
the vibro-tactile channel. After introducing the idea behind our approach, two
implemented Android Apps including the enriched user interfaces are shown and
discussed. Keywords: Accessibility; usability; mobile accessibility; haptic UIs; blind | |||
| Designing with Dementia: Guidelines for Participatory Design together with Persons with Dementia | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 649-666 | |
| Niels Hendriks; Frederik Truyen; Erik Duval | |||
| Involving all stakeholders in the design process is often seen as a
necessity from both a pragmatic and a moral point of view [1]. This is always a
challenging task for designers and stakeholders and therefore many
participatory design methods have been developed to facilitate such a design
process. The traditional participatory design methods, however, are not fully
appropriate to incorporate persons with dementia [2], [3]. They create issues
as they assume that the participants are cognitively able; can make use of
visual and hands-on techniques; or require a high level of abstraction ability
of the person with dementia.
The aim of this paper is to present a number of guidelines which can be used as a starting point to set up participatory design projects with persons with dementia. This overarching set of guidelines provides for practical advice focusing on the role of the moderator, the preparation of a participatory session, the choice and adaptation of the method, the tools used, the role of each participant and the subsequent analysis. The basis for these guidelines stems from similar participatory projects with senior participants, persons with dementia and participants with aphasia or amnesia, two symptoms frequently co-occurring with dementia. All guidelines were evaluated and refined during four sessions with persons with dementia and a trusted family member. These participatory design sessions occurred in the course of the AToM project, a research and design project that tries to design an intelligent network of objects and people to ameliorate the life of persons with dementia. Keywords: participatory design; persons with dementia; method; guidelines | |||
| Navigating, Discovering and Exploring the Web: Strategies Used by People with Print Disabilities on Interactive Websites | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 667-684 | |
| Christopher Power; Helen Petrie; David Swallow; Emma Murphy; Bláithín Gallagher; Carlos A. Velasco | |||
| The majority of research into web accessibility has focused on identifying
and eliminating the problems that people with disabilities encounter when
interacting with the Web. In this paper we argue that we need to move away from
studying user problems to studying how people with disabilities apply
interaction strategies while browsing the Web. In this paper we present a study
of 19 print disabled users, including blind, partially sighted and dyslexic
people, interacting with a variety of interactive Web 2.0 web applications. The
participants undertook tasks using concurrent and retrospective protocols to
elicit information about how they interact with web content. The result of this
study was a collection of 586 strategic action sequences that were classified
into seven different types of strategy. Differences in the application of
strategies between the user groups are presented, as well as the most frequent
strategies used by each user group. We close the paper by discussing some
implications for the design of websites and assistive technologies as well as
the future directions for empirical research in accessibility. Keywords: Web accessibility; user study; user strategy; print disabled Web users;
blind Web users; partially sighted Web users; dyslexic Web users | |||
| Participatory Design with Blind Users: A Scenario-Based Approach | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 685-701 | |
| Nuzhah Gooda Sahib; Tony Stockman; Anastasios Tombros; Oussama Metatla | |||
| Through out the design process, designers have to consider the needs of
potential users. This is particularly important, but rather harder, when the
designers interact with the artefact to-be-designed using different senses or
devices than the users, for example, when sighted designers are designing an
artefact for use by blind users. In such cases, designers have to ensure that
the methods used to engage users in the design process and to communicate
design ideas are accessible. In this paper, we describe a participatory
approach with blind users based on the use of a scenario and the use of
dialogue-simulated interaction during the development of a search interface. We
achieved user engagement in two ways: firstly, we involved a blind user with
knowledge of assistive technologies in the design team and secondly, we used a
scenario as the basis of a dialogue between the designers and blind users to
simulate interaction with the proposed search interface. Through this approach,
we were able to verify requirements for the proposed search interface and blind
searchers were able to provide formative feedback, to critique design plans and
to propose new design ideas based on their experience and expertise with
assistive technologies. In this paper, we describe the proposed scenario-based
approach and examine the types of feedback gathered from its evaluation with
blind users. We also critically reflect on the benefits and limitations of the
approach, and discuss practical considerations in its application. Keywords: scenario; participatory design; visually impaired users | |||
| An Evaluation of Stacking and Tiling Features within the Traditional Desktop Metaphor | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 702-719 | |
| Clemens Zeidler; Christof Lutteroth; Gerald Weber | |||
| Having many open windows on the desktop can lead to various usability
problems. Window content may get occluded by other windows and working with
multiple windows may get cumbersome. In this paper, we evaluate the idea to
integrate stacking and tiling features into the traditional desktop metaphor.
For this purpose we introduce the Stack & Tile window manager, which allows
users to stack and tile arbitrary windows into groups that can be moved and
resized similar to single windows. To evaluate if stacking and tiling can
improve productivity, we conducted an experimental evaluation. We found that
participants were able to perform various multi-window tasks and switch between
tasks significantly faster using Stack & Tile. Furthermore, we found that
the time to set up a Stack & Tile window group is reasonably low. Stack
& Tile is open-source and has been used for over two years now. To evaluate
its usefulness in practice, we conducted a web-based survey that reveals how
people are actually using the new stacking and tiling features. Keywords: window manager; tabbing; usability; evaluation | |||
| Investigating Pointing Tasks across Angularly Coupled Display Areas | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 720-727 | |
| Fabian Hennecke; Alexander De Luca; Ngo Dieu Huong Nguyen; Sebastian Boring; Andreas Butz | |||
| Pointing tasks are a crucial part of today's graphical user interfaces. They
are well understood for flat displays and most prominently are modeled through
Fitts' Law. For novel displays (e.g., curved displays with multi-purpose
areas), however, it remains unclear whether such models for predicting user
performance still hold -- in particular when pointing is performed across
differently oriented areas. To answer this question, we conducted an experiment
on an angularly coupled display -- the Curve -- with two input conditions:
direct touch and indirect mouse pointer. Our findings show that the target
position affects overall pointing speed and offset in both conditions. However,
we also found that Fitts' Law can in fact still be used to predict performance
as on flat displays. Our results help designers to optimize user interfaces on
angularly coupled displays when pointing tasks are involved. Keywords: Pointing; Fitts' law; display orientation; curved surface | |||
| Semi-supervised Learning Based Aesthetic Classifier for Short Animations Embedded in Web Pages | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 728-745 | |
| Dipak Bansal; Samit Bhattacharya | |||
| We propose a semi-supervised learning based computational model for
aesthetic classification of short animation videos, which are nowadays part of
many web pages. The proposed model is expected to be useful in developing an
overall aesthetic model of web pages, leading to better evaluation of web page
usability. We identified two feature sets describing aesthetics of an animated
video. Based on the feature sets, we developed a Naïve-Bayes classifier by
applying Co-training, a semi-supervised machine learning technique. The model
classifies the videos as good, average or bad in terms of their aesthetic
quality. We designed 18 videos and got those rated by 17 participants for use
as the initial training set. Another set of 24 videos were designed and labeled
using Co-training. We conducted an empirical study with 16 videos and 23
participants to ascertain the efficacy of the proposed model. The study results
show 75% model accuracy. Keywords: Aesthetics; web page; short video; classification; semi-supervised learning;
Co-training | |||
| Switchback Cursor: Mouse Cursor Operation for Overlapped Windowing | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 746-753 | |
| Shota Yamanaka; Homei Miyashita | |||
| When we perform a task that involves opening a number of windows, we cannot
access the objects behind them. Thus, we are forced to switch the foreground
window frequently or to move it temporarily. In this paper, we propose a
Switchback Cursor technique where the cursor can move underneath windows when
the user presses both the left and right mouse buttons. We also discuss some of
the advantages of our method and effective situations that may be suited to the
Switchback Cursor. Keywords: Cursor; Graphical user interfaces (GUIs); Mouse; Pointer; WIMP | |||
| A Scandinavian Approach to Designing with Children in a Developing Country -- Exploring the Applicability of Participatory Methods | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 754-761 | |
| Nahid Wakil; Peter Dalsgaard | |||
| Participatory Design (PD) offers a democratic approach to design by creating
a platform for active end-user participation in the design process. Since its
emergence, the field of PD has been shaped by the Scandinavian context, in
which many early PD projects took place. In this paper we discuss the
challenges that arise from employing participatory methods in a different
socio-cultural setting with participants who have had comparatively limited
exposure to digital technologies. We offer a comparative study of two PD
projects carried out with school classes in Scandinavia and India. While the
setup for the two projects was identical, they unfolded in very different ways.
We present and discuss this study, which leads us to conclude that PD can be a
useful approach in both settings, but that there is a distinct difference as to
which methods bring about fruitful results. The most prominent difference is
the ways in which abstract and manifest participatory methods led to different
outcomes in the two settings. Keywords: Participatory Design; Developing Countries; Interaction Design; Future
Workshop; Inspiration Card Workshop; Mock-ups | |||
| Availability4D: Refining the Link between Availability and Adoption in Marginalised Communities | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 762-779 | |
| Fritz Meissner; Edwin Blake | |||
| We present a comparative study of mobile and conventional computing
technologies applied to providing access to career guidance information to high
school students from marginalised communities. Reported high availability of
mobile technology amongst these users would be beneficial, but our NGO partner
questioned feature phones' applicability for consuming large quantities of
information. We created two systems: a text interface exposed through a mobile
instant messaging service, and a website targeting conventional computers.
Despite positive usability tests for the website and fears of social stigma
related to mobile instant messaging, system logging over eight months of
parallel deployment showed convincing advantage in engagement for the mobile
system. Interviews revealed that computer infrastructure was tied to
institutions where access was limited; but greater access to mobile phones
(owned or borrowed) made use and advertisement to peers of the mobile system
easier. Social stigma was a problem only for a minority. Keywords: availability; adoption; marginalised communities; feature phones; mobile
Internet; M4D; NGOs | |||
| Communication Choices to Engage Participation of Rural Indonesian Craftspeople in Development Projects | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 780-787 | |
| Ellya Zulaikha; Margot Brereton | |||
| In participatory design projects, maintaining effective communication
between facilitator and participant is essential. This paper describes the
consideration given to the choice of communication modes to engage
participation of rural Indonesian craftspeople over the course of a significant
3 year project that aims to grow their self-determination, design and business
skill. We demonstrate the variety and subtlety of oral and written forms of
communication used by the facilitator during the project. The culture, the
communication skill and the influence of tacit knowledge affect the
effectiveness of some modes of communication over the others, as well as the
available infrastructure. Considerations are specific to the case of rural
Indonesian craftspeople, but general lessons can be drawn. Keywords: Communication Mode; Rural Craftspeople; Participatory Design; Participatory
Development | |||
| Content Prototyping -- An Approach for Engaging Non-technical Users in Participatory Design | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 788-795 | |
| Maletsabisa Molapo; Gary Marsden | |||
| Many in the developing world have little to no experience with computers --
they have never used software as part of their daily lives and jobs, so there
is always a challenge for how this class of users can be engaged in
Participatory Design in a manner that the value of their participation is not
limited by their computing experience. This paper looks at previous work that
addressed this challenge, and introduces an approach called content
prototyping, which is an adaptation of existing practices to fit the needs of
non-technical users. We also discuss the lessons learned from using this
approach, and give recommendations for related projects in the developing
world. Keywords: HCI4D; Prototyping; Low-Literacy | |||
| Designing a Platform for Participatory Urbanism: Transforming Dialogue into Action in Underserved Communities | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 796-803 | |
| Leonardo Giusti; Amelia Schladow; Amar Boghani; Steve Pomeroy; Nicholas Wallen; Federico Casalegno | |||
| Participatory urbanism platforms must balance stakeholder needs to both
empower citizens and exact change from the local authority. While many
platforms can trigger discussion, changes will only be achieved through
successful collaborative efforts. This paper outlines the challenges and
opportunities of designing for participatory urbanism, drawing on a case study
completed with UNICEF and underserved communities in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Our design approach helped to generate physical changes in the community
infrastructure, and the beginnings of behavioral changes for community
residents. Keywords: Participatory urbanism; civic media; location-based platforms | |||