| Designing for civil society | | BIB | Full-Text | 1-8 | |
| Steve Walker; Andy Dearden | |||
| Participating in civil society: the case of networked communities | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 9-33 | |
| Andrea Kavanaugh; John M. Carroll; Mary Beth Rosson; Debbie D. Reese; Than T. Zin | |||
| A community computer network facilitates civic participation by providing
pervasive local resources online and by connecting people to local
communication and discussion channels, public and non-profit organization
leaders and members, and many other civic resources. We present findings from
longitudinal data (two rounds between 2001 and 2002) of a stratified random
survey of 100 households in a mature community network, the Blacksburg
Electronic Village (BEV). We offer exploratory and confirmatory analyses,
including a 'civic effects' model, that show demographic characteristics
(education, age) and psychological factors (extroversion) explain staying
informed, collective efficacy, group membership, activism, and using the
Internet for civic and political purposes. The model further explains
differences in respondents' involvement in local issues once they go online.
Informed activists with multiple group memberships become more involved in
local issues once going online, whereas informed non-activists become less
involved once online. Our study suggests that in order to play a constructive
role in creating a more civil society, community networks should explicitly
pursue strategies that encourage community activism. One way to do this, given
the strong role of association membership in activism, is for ISPs to offer
bundled standard Internet applications at low cost to non-profit community
groups (e.g. email for leadership, online discussion for members, web space).
Community networks should also promote and support the use by local groups of
innovative tools for non-experts, such as easy collaborative web-based tools
for information production and collaboration. Keywords: Community network; Human-computer interaction; Civic effect | |||
| Net neighbours: adapting HCI methods to cross the digital divide | | BIBA | Full-Text | 35-56 | |
| Mark Blythe; Andrew Monk | |||
| This paper describes the development of Net Neighbours, an online shopping scheme that widens internet access to older people via volunteer telephone intermediaries. It outlines the processes of: problem identification, designing the telephone interaction, the financial model and the interface for the volunteer. It describes the application and adaptation of human computer interaction (HCI) techniques to address the needs of the local charity that co-developed the scheme. The paper begins by reporting the ethnographic work that led to the scheme; it then describes the pilot study conducted with Age Concern, York. It maps the various possible configurations for the scheme in a series of financial models expressed in tree diagrams and goes on to describe the use of pastiche scenarios in developing designs. Pastiche scenarios draw on fiction as a resource to explore, in an engaging manner, the social issues raised by technological innovations; the paper presents extracts from three such scenarios that were used to reason about dependability issues with Age Concern staff. The scheme is ongoing and plans are currently being made to extend it by recruiting university staff and other office workers as volunteer intermediaries. It is hoped that the scheme will become widely available across the city and in other locations around the UK. It is argued that volunteer telephone intermediaries can bridge digital divides and make Internet services accessible to those excluded either by age, disability or lack of resources. The development of the scheme is a case study in the ways that HCI techniques can be adopted and adapted in order to design for civil society. | |||
| Fairtrade.com versus Fairtrade.org -- how Fairtrade organisations use the Internet | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 57-83 | |
| Dorothea Kleine | |||
| This paper summarises the findings of a study, the first of its kind in
Germany, which explored the potential that the Internet can offer for German
Fairtrade organisations. Data was gathered from three organisations, comparing
their e-commerce strategies. Then interviews were conducted with the
organisations' representatives and with the e-commerce customers of
Gesellschaft zur Partnerschaft mit der Dritten Welt (Gepa), the largest
Fairtrade company in Europe. The Fairtrade organisations differed in political
outlook and in regards to their approach to the Internet, thus reducing the
potential for cooperation and networking. However, some of the Gepa customers
interviewed used e-commerce to circumnavigate the distribution difficulties
characteristic of Fairtrade, thus suggesting that there is potential for
increased turnover. On the other hand, many of the customers were not
interested in accessing the informational part of the Gepa-website, so the
potential for disseminating political information with the product is low.
Based on in-depth interviews with online buyers, it is argued that customers
will only access campaign information online if Fairtrade organisations become
more visible in offline and online debates on global justice. Like other Civil
Society actors, Fairtrade organisations need to develop strategies how they can
best use the Internet for their aims. This, the paper argues, will have to
include careful vetting of the brand and connected website as well as
appropriate and ongoing investment of personal and financial resources. The
overall marketing strategy will have to integrate the offline and online
presence and should aim to customise the organisations' services to more or
less committed supporters. The paper calls for further research on Civil
Society's use of the Internet and advocates website analysis as a particularly
useful method to decipher the non-governmental organisations' strategies as
they negotiate their message with the mainstream of public opinion. Keywords: Fairtrade organisation; Non-governmental organisation; Information and
communication technologies | |||
| Online design for bilingual civil society: a Welsh perspective | | BIBA | Full-Text | 85-104 | |
| Daniel Cunliffe; Dilwyn Roberts-Young | |||
| In a bilingual civil society, such as that in Wales, language and the use of language can be a highly political issue. Within this context, web sites may act as a beneficial influence on the maintenance and revitalisation of the minority language, or may serve to exclude and marginalise that language. Through a study of existing web sites, this paper examines the extent to which the Welsh language is being presented as a usable tool through which individuals may be informed about and participate in civil society in Wales. While this work specifically considers Wales, the issues faced are similar to those of many other bilingual communities. | |||
| Programming for cognitive justice: Towards an ethical framework for democratic code | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 105-120 | |
| Maja van der Velden | |||
| This paper contrasts two approaches to knowledge sharing for socio-economic
development to examine how assumptions about knowledge are reflected in
computer-based information systems. The paper argues that socio-technical
systems for global knowledge sharing posses a bias resulting from choices about
technology and from assumptions about knowledge, and that this bias may
adversely affect the diversity of knowledge. To overcome this bias, the concept
of cognitive justice is proposed and, on this basis, a framework suggested to
guide the design of information systems based on a principle of the equal
validity of all knowledges. Keywords: Cognitive justice; Diversity; Knowledge sharing; Ethical framework, Portal,
Peer-to-peer | |||
| Chinese character entry for mobile phones: a longitudinal investigation | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 121-146 | |
| Min Lin; Andrew Sears | |||
| The increasing popularity of Short Message Services (SMS) in China
highlights the need for effective and efficient methods for entering Chinese
text on mobile phones. While stroke-based methods have potential advantages
over pronunciation-based solutions, usability issues have limited the
effectiveness of existing stroke-based methods. One significant usability
challenge has been the ambiguous stroke-to-key mapping rules that are typically
employed. We proposed a new solution that employs a combination of abstract
symbols and example strokes to help users map strokes to keys more effectively.
A longitudinal experiment was used to evaluate character entry performance
using both objective and subjective measures for our new design as well as the
existing solution. The results confirmed that a new design allows for improved
performance as well as higher satisfaction levels as compared to the original
design. Further, after approximately 1 h of experience with the stroke-based
method, novices were able to enter Chinese text at speeds comparable to that
observed with the pronunciation-based Pinyin method. Results showed that the
new design provided users with a better understanding of the system throughout
the study, beginning with their first exposure to the keypad. By utilizing a
combination of abstract representations and concrete examples of the available
strokes, the new design reduced the ambiguity that typically exists regarding
stroke-to-key mappings. In this way, usability was improved without any changes
to the underlying technologies. Our results demonstrate that stroke-based
solutions for Chinese character entry can be effective alternatives for mobile
phones, providing an effective alternative for the many individuals who can
write Chinese but do not speak the Mandarin dialect that serves as the basis
for Pinyin. The improved solution could also be used with a traditional numeric
keypad to allow one-handed data entry for desktop or mobile computers. Keywords: Mobile computers; Mandarin dialect; Pinyin method | |||
| Participatory design with train drivers -- a process analysis | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 147-166 | |
| Eva Olsson; Anders Jansson | |||
| A participatory design process involving train drivers is analyzed and
described in this paper. A group of six drivers were involved in the design
process, and within a short period, four design iterations were completed. The
present case study was the final part of a larger research project (TRAIN)
investigating the train driving task including the drivers' information
environment, number and nature of hours worked, work situation and work
environment, and their effect on the drivers' behaviour and the train driver
system safety. Although usability activities are widely used in IT development
today, the users are not involved to the desired extent. This paper argues that
to produce usable systems, quality time has to be spent initially to acquire
knowledge of a work domain and establishing a common ground in terms of shared
knowledge and a better understanding of the work context between the parties
involved in system development. Our suggestions on participatory analysis and
design that conclude the paper are based on the present case study including
train drivers, as well as our experiences from previous case studies. Keywords: Participatory design; Collaborative design; System design; User involvement | |||
| When fingers do the talking: a study of text messaging | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 167-185 | |
| Xristine Faulkner; Fintan Culwin | |||
| SMS or text messaging is an area of growth in the communications field. The
studies described below consisted of a questionnaire and a diary study. The
questionnaire was designed to examine texting activities in 565 users of the
mobile phone. The diary study was carried out by 24 subjects over a period of 2
weeks. The findings suggest that text messaging is being used by a wide range
of people for all kinds of activities and that for some people it is the
preferred means of communication. These studies should prove interesting for
those examining the use and impact of SMS. Keywords: SMS; Text messaging; E-mail; Communication | |||
| Findex: improving search result use through automatic filtering categories | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 187-206 | |
| Mika Kaki; Anne Aula | |||
| Long result lists from web search engines can be tedious to use. We designed
a text categorization algorithm and a filtering user interface to address the
problem. The Findex system provides an overview of the results by presenting a
list of the most frequent words and phrases as result categories next to the
actual results. Selecting a category (word or phrase) filters the result list
to show only the results containing it. An experiment with 20 participants was
conducted to compare the category design to the de facto standard solution
(Google-type ranked list interface). Results show that the users were 25%
faster and 21% more accurate with our system. In particular, participants'
speed of finding relevant results was 40% higher with the proposed system.
Subjective ratings revealed significantly more positive attitudes towards the
new system. Results indicate that the proposed design is feasible and
beneficial. Keywords: Web search; Search user interface; Categorization; Clustering; Information
access | |||
| Modelling form-based interfaces with bipartite state machines | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 207-228 | |
| D. Draheim; G. Weber | |||
| This article presents the concept of form storyboarding, a new modelling
method for eliciting, specifying and communicating functional requirements of
applications with form-based interfaces. We identify two-staged interaction as
the abstract concept behind form-based interfaces. The method encompasses a
visual language for the documents to be created and a set of proposals for the
activities involved in that. The method fits to different and ubiquitous types
of submit/response style interfaces, i.e. mainframe terminals as well as
web-based interfaces. The method yields an abstract interface model based on
bipartite state machines. The model is executable and can be used for automatic
prototype generation. Form storyboarding is first and foremost a feature-driven
approach. The whole form storyboard can be obtained by collecting single system
features. Crucial for this approach is the fact that diagrams can be combined
in an easy operation, by building the union of both diagrams and identifying
nodes and edges with the same name. Keywords: Requirements elicitation; System specification; Enterprise applications | |||
| In search of effective text input interfaces for off the desktop computing | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 229-250 | |
| Shumin Zhai; Per-Ola Kristensson; Barton A. Smith | |||
| It is generally recognized that today's frontier of HCI research lies beyond
the traditional desktop computers whose GUI interfaces were built on the
foundation of display -- pointing device -- full keyboard. Many interface
challenges arise without such a physical UI foundation. Text writing -- ranging
from entering URLs and search queries, filling forms, typing commands, to
taking notes and writing emails and chat messages -- is one of the hard
problems awaiting for solutions in off-desktop computing. This paper summarizes
and synthesizes a research program on this topic at the IBM Almaden Research
Center. It analyzes various dimensions that constitute a good text input
interface; briefly reviews related literature; discusses the evaluation
methodology issues of text input; presents the major ideas and results of two
systems, ATOMIK and SHARK; and points out current and future directions in the
area from our current vantage point. Keywords: Text input; Pervasive; Mobile; Off-desktop computing; Shorthand; Gesture;
Stylus; Virtual keyboard | |||
| Using handhelds for wireless remote control of PCs and appliances | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 251-264 | |
| Brad A. Myers | |||
| This article provides an overview of the capabilities that we are developing
as part of the Pebbles research project for wireless handheld devices such as
mobile phones and palm-size computers like Palm Organizers and PocketPCs.
Instead of just being used as a phone or organizer, handheld devices can also
be used as remote controls for computers and household and office appliances. Keywords: Pebbles; Handhelds; Personal digital assistants; Remote control; Appliances | |||
| How productivity improves in hands-free continuous dictation tasks: lessons learned from a longitudinal study | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 265-289 | |
| Jinjuan Feng; Clare-Marie Karat; Andrew Sears | |||
| Speech recognition technology continues to improve, but users still
experience significant difficulty using the software to create and edit
documents. The reported composition speed using speech software is only between
8 and 15 words per minute [Proc CHI 99 (1999) 568; Universal Access Inform Soc
1 (2001) 4], much lower than people's normal speaking speed of 125-150 words
per minute. What causes the huge gap between natural speaking and composing
using speech recognition? Is it possible to narrow the gap and make speech
recognition more promising to users? In this paper we discuss users' learning
processes and the difficulties they experience as related to continuous
dictation tasks using state of the art Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR)
software. Detailed data was collected for the first time on various aspects of
the three activities involved in document composition tasks: dictation,
navigation, and correction. The results indicate that navigation and error
correction accounted for big chunk of the dictation task during the early
stages of interaction. As users gained more experience, they became more
efficient at dictation, navigation and error correction. However, the major
improvements in productivity were due to dictation quality and the usage of
navigation commands. These results provide insights regarding the factors that
cause the gap between user expectation with speech recognition software and the
reality of use, and how those factors changed with experience. Specific advice
is given to researchers as to the most critical issues that must be addressed. Keywords: Automatic speech recognition technologies; Error correction; Speech
recognition software | |||
| Model-based tools for pervasive usability | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 291-315 | |
| This paper aims to provide a discussion of how model-based approaches and
related tools have been used to address important issues for obtaining usable
interactive software and the new challenges for this research area. The paper
provides an analysis of the logical descriptions that can be used in the design
of interactive systems and how they can be manipulated in order to obtain
useful results. This type of approach has recently raised further interest in
the ubiquitous computing field for supporting the design of multi-device
interfaces. The new challenges currently considered are mainly in the area of
end-user development, ambient intelligence, and multimodal interfaces. Keywords: Model-based approaches; Tools; Usability; Task models; Multi-device
interfaces | |||
| Semiotic engineering: bringing designers and users together at interaction time | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 317-341 | |
| Clarisse Sieckenius de Souza | |||
| Semiotic engineering is a semiotic theory of human-computer interaction,
where interactive computer systems are viewed as one-shot messages sent from
designers to users. Through the system's interface, in many direct and indirect
ways, designers are telling the users how they can, should, or must interact
with the system in order to achieve a particular range of goals anticipated at
design time. Designers are thus active interlocutors at human-computer
interaction time. Their interactive discourse is delivered implicitly and/or
explicitly by the system, which constitutes the designer's deputy. The
importance of bringing designers and users together at interaction time springs
from the intellectual nature of software artifacts. They are the result of
human reasoning, choice and decision, rather than the direct effect of
universal or natural laws. An adequate understanding of interactive artifacts
depends on apprehending and comprehending the human intellect in action. Hence,
in addition to producing interactive artifacts, designers must also introduce
them appropriately, as is the case of other intellectual products. In this
paper, we show how semiotic engineering can provide substantial theoretic
support for viewing and exploring design possibilities brought about by this
shift in perspective. We also discuss ontological and epistemological aspects
of the theory, and conclude that it can bridge some of the gaps between other
fragmented HCI theories and approaches. Keywords: Semiotic engineering; Semiotic approaches to HCI; Epistemic support for
design; Users as designers | |||
| Mobile agents for mobile tourists: a user evaluation of Gulliver's Genie | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 343-366 | |
| M. J. O'Grady; G. M. P. O'Hare; C. Sas | |||
| How mobile computing applications and services may be best designed,
implemented and deployed remains the subject of much research. One alternative
approach to developing software for mobile users that is receiving increasing
attention from the research community is that of one based on intelligent
agents. Recent advances in mobile computing technology have made such an
approach feasible. We present an overview of the design and implementation of
an archetypical mobile computing application, namely that of an electronic
tourist guide. This guide is unique in that it comprises a suite of intelligent
agents that conform to the strong intentional stance. However, the focus of
this paper is primarily concerned with the results of detailed user evaluations
conducted on this system. Within the literature, comprehensive evaluations of
mobile context-sensitive systems are sparse and therefore, this paper seeks, in
part, to address this deficiency. Keywords: User evaluation; Mobile computing; Context-sensitive service delivery;
Intelligent agents | |||
| The long-term effects of integral versus composite metaphors on experts' and novices' search behaviors | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 367-394 | |
| Yu-chen Hsu | |||
| For years, metaphors have been used extensively to facilitate multiple user
tasks on Web sites. Nonetheless, research examining metaphor's effects in
facilitating user tasks, not to mention the proposal of the design methodology,
is limited. There is disagreement about using single or multiple metaphors in
designing computer systems. Regarding metaphor's long-term effects, Carroll and
Thomas [Carroll, J.M., Thomas, C.J., 1982. Metaphor and the cognitive
representation of computing systems. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and
Cybernetics, SMC 12, 107-116] claim that metaphors lose utility once users are
familiar with the system. Furthermore, little evidence exists about metaphor's
effects on users with differing computer experience. This researcher proposes a
metaphor design methodology to examine the long-term effects of integral
(single) versus composite (mixed) metaphors on subjects' information search
behaviors and their effects on Internet novices and experts. Ninety-eight
college students participated in this study. The findings suggest that
metaphor's effects decrease over time as users become more experienced.
Moreover, composite metaphors facilitate experts' searching better than
novices'. Keywords: Composite metaphor; Hypermedia system; Information search behavior; Integral
metaphor; Long-term effect; Novice versus expert | |||
| Will it be a capital letter: signalling case mode in mobile phones | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 395-418 | |
| Hokyoung Ryu; Andrew Monk | |||
| While there are well established guidelines for interaction via mouse and
keyboard, new forms of interaction being devised for small handheld devices
have yet to be standardised. There is a case for re-visiting basic principles
for user interface design such as how to signal mode. Two ways of signalling
case mode when editing text into a small handheld device such as a mobile phone
are considered in this paper. One is through the system prompt, e.g. 'Entry:',
the other is through the case of the last letter displayed in response to a
button push. Two unsupervised web-based experiments are described which show
that users are sensitive to both these signals for case mode. The first
experiment manipulated the prompt in a text entry task using a web simulation
of a novel mobile device. The results showed that users' expectations were
influenced by the case of the letters in the prompt. Users took many more
trials to learn to expect a case inconsistent with the model provided by the
prompt. The second experiment manipulated both the case of the letters in the
prompt and the case of the last letter displayed. The results replicated the
findings above and demonstrated a strong effect of the case of the last letter
displayed. Guidelines for signalling case mode and a notation (Interaction
Units) are suggested that might be used to reason about low level interaction
design with handheld devices. Keywords: Mode; Action-effect consistency; Handheld devices; Interaction unit;
Interaction modelling; Case mode; Cell phones; Analysis; Experiment | |||
| Designing interfaces that support formation of cognitive maps of transitional processes: an empirical study | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 419-452 | |
| Kamran Sedig; Sonja Rowhani; Hai-Ning Liang | |||
| Many conditions, phenomena, and concepts are of a transitional nature.
Transitional processes involve change from one form to another, such as
biological, chemical, and geological metamorphoses. Transitional processes take
place in time-space and are not always easy to encode, communicate, and
understand. The purpose of this research is to investigate how to design
human-computer interfaces that support users in their formation of cognitive
maps of transitional processes. To conduct this investigation, geometric shapes
were used as the testbed, and their metamorphic transformations were captured
and communicated using three different interface styles: temporally stacked,
spatially distributed, and spatio-temporal. The usability and effectiveness of
each interface was evaluated. The results of the study indicate that the
spatio-temporal interface is the most effective of the three interfaces. The
findings of this research imply that many kinds of transitional processes, such
as rock metamorphoses, historical changes, or economical processes, may best be
explored and understood using spatio-temporal interfaces. Keywords: Cognitive tools; Interaction design; Visual representations; Visual
metamorphosis; Temporal representations; Spatial representations | |||
| Text formats and web design for visually impaired and dyslexic readers -- Clear Text for All | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 453-472 | |
| Lindsay Evett; David Brown | |||
| The Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) has produced a Clear Print
booklet, which contains recommendations for the production of Clear Print for
the blind and partially sighted. The British Dyslexia Association (BDA) has
produced a Dyslexia Style Guide, which covers similar issues. Both focus on
producing text, which is clear and therefore more easily read, and there is
significant overlap between the two. By comparing the two, a set of
specifications for the production of text has been generated. Using the
specifications should produce clear text for both dyslexic and visually
impaired readers. It should improve readability for all. The text
specifications plus additional recommendations from the BDA are considered with
respect to an existing set of web site design guidelines for dyslexic readers
to produce an enhanced set of guidelines compatible with both. These guidelines
are recommended to be followed as standard, both for their benefits to visually
impaired and dyslexic readers, promoting accessibility for these groups, and
for their potential to improve accessibility for all. Keywords: Accessibility; Visual impairment; Dyslexia; Clear print; Clear text; Web
design guidelines | |||
| The social implications of emerging technologies | | BIB | Full-Text | 475-483 | |
| Vassilis Kostakos; Eamonn O'Neill; Linda Little; Elizabeth Sillence | |||
| Moving towards inclusive design guidelines for socially and ethically aware HCI | | BIBA | Full-Text | 484-505 | |
| Julio Abascal; Colette Nicolle | |||
| Most people acknowledge that personal computers have enormously enhanced the autonomy and communication capacity of people with special needs. The key factor for accessibility to these opportunities is the adequate design of the user interface which, consequently, has a high impact on the social lives of users with disabilities. The design of universally accessible interfaces has a positive effect over the socialisation of people with disabilities. People with sensory disabilities can profit from computers as a way of personal direct and remote communication. Personal computers can also assist people with severe motor impairments to manipulate their environment and to enhance their mobility by means of, for example, smart wheelchairs. In this way they can become more socially active and productive. Accessible interfaces have become so indispensable for personal autonomy and social inclusion that in several countries special legislation protects people from 'digital exclusion'. To apply this legislation, inexperienced HCI designers can experience difficulties. They would greatly benefit from inclusive design guidelines in order to be able to implement the 'design for all' philosophy. In addition, they need clear criteria to avoid negative social and ethical impact on users. This paper analyses the benefits of the use of inclusive design guidelines in order to facilitate a universal design focus so that social exclusion is avoided. In addition, the need for ethical and social guidelines in order to avoid undesirable side effects for users is discussed. Finally, some preliminary examples of socially and ethically aware guidelines are proposed. | |||
| Sharing experiences through awareness systems in the home | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 506-521 | |
| Panos Markopoulos; Wijnand IJsselsteijn; Claire Huijnen; Boris de Ruyter | |||
| In the current paper we hypothesize that providing peripheral awareness
information to remotely located but socially close individuals will yield
affective user benefits. An experiment in a controlled home-like environment
was conducted to investigate the effects of providing different levels of
peripheral awareness information on these affective benefits. In the experiment
peripheral awareness aimed to support groups of friends to jointly watch a
soccer match at remote locations. The experiment has shown that providing
awareness information increases the social presence and the group attraction
felt by individuals towards their remote partners. The experiment has provided
concrete quantitative and qualitative evidence for the hypothesized benefits of
supporting primary relationships through awareness systems and of the relevance
of social presence as a requirement in the design of peripheral awareness
displays. Keywords: Awareness systems; Home; Communication; Social Presence | |||
| Assessing the effects of building social intelligence in a robotic interface for the home | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 522-541 | |
| Boris de Ruyter; Privender Saini; Panos Markopoulos; Albert van Breemen | |||
| This paper reports an exploration of the concept of social intelligence in
the context of designing home dialogue systems for an Ambient Intelligence
home. It describes a Wizard of Oz experiment involving a robotic interface
capable of simulating several human social behaviours. Our results show that
endowing a home dialogue system with some social intelligence will: (a) create
a positive bias in the user's perception of technology in the home environment,
(b) enhance user acceptance for the home dialogue system, and (c) trigger
social behaviours by the user in relation to the home dialogue system. Keywords: Ambient Intelligence; Social intelligence; Human-like | |||
| Rendezvousing with location-aware devices: Enhancing social coordination | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 542-566 | |
| David Dearman; Kirstie Hawkey; Kori M. Inkpen | |||
| Emerging technologies such as location-awareness devices have the potential
to significantly impact users' social coordination, particularly while
rendezvousing. It is important that we explore how new technologies influence
social behaviours and communication in order to realize their full potential.
This paper presents a field study investigating the use of mobile
location-aware devices for rendezvous activities. Participants took part in one
of three mobile device conditions (a mobile phone, a location-aware handheld,
or both a mobile phone and a location-aware handheld) and completed three
rendezvousing scenarios. The results reveal key differences in communication
patterns between the mediums, as well as the potential strengths and
limitations of location-aware devices for social coordination. The paper
concludes with a discussion of relevant design issues drawn from observations
gathered during the field study. Keywords: Location-aware computing; Mobile devices; Rendezvous; Field study | |||
| A system of agent-based software patterns for user modeling based on usage mining | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 567-591 | |
| Rosario Girardi; Leandro Balby Marinho; Ismenia Ribeiro de Oliveira | |||
| In adaptive hypermedia systems, a user can select explicitly an adaptation
effect or he/she can leave the system execute some of these functions. An
important component of an adaptive system is the ability to model the users of
the system according to their goals and preferences. Web usage mining aims at
discover interesting patterns of use by analyzing Web usage data. This
information can be used to capture implicitly user models and used them for the
adaptation of systems. User modeling and system adaptability can be approached
through the agent paradigm. This article summarizes a system of architectural
and detailed design patterns describing known agent-based solutions to
recurrent problems of user modeling based on usage mining along with the
description of a general purpose problem-solving architectural pattern used by
some of the first ones. Patterns are derived from recurrent designs of specific
agent-based applications. The proposed patterns are being developed in the
context of a Multi-Agent Domain Engineering research project, which approaches
software complexity and productivity through the construction of techniques and
tools promoting software reuse in Multi-Agent Domain Engineering. Keywords: Software patterns; Software design; Software architectures; Multi-agent
systems; User modeling; User-adapted systems; Web usage mining | |||
| Better discount evaluation: illustrating how critical parameters support heuristic creation | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 592-612 | |
| Jacob Somervell; D. Scott McCrickard | |||
| This paper describes a heuristic creation process based on the notion of
critical parameters, and a comparison experiment that demonstrates the utility
of heuristics created for a specific system class. We focus on two examples of
using the newly created heuristics to illustrate the utility of the usability
evaluation method, as well as to provide support for the creation process, and
we report on successes and frustrations of two classes of users, novice
evaluators and domain experts, who identified usability problems with the new
heuristics. We argue that establishing critical parameters for other domains
will support efforts in creating tailored evaluation tools. Keywords: Heuristics; Evaluation; Notification systems; Critical parameters | |||
| HCI and the older population | | BIBK | Full-Text | 613-620 | |
| Joy Goodman; Jay Lundell | |||
Keywords: Older people; Aging; Interface design; Health; Daily living; Social issues | |||
| Introducing the Internet to the over-60s: Developing an email system for older novice computer users | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 621-642 | |
| Anna Dickinson; Alan F. Newell; Michael J. Smith; Robin L. Hill | |||
| Contemporary technology offers many benefits to older people, but these are
often rendered inaccessible through poor software design. As the Internet
increasingly becomes a source of information and services it is vital to ensure
that older people can access these resources. As part of project funded by the
UK government, a multi-disciplinary team set out to develop usable software
that would help to introduce older people to the Internet. The first step was
to develop an email system for older people with no experience of Internet use.
The project was intended to show that it is possible to design usable
technology for this group and to explore some of the issues involved in doing
so. Design and technical challenges necessitated various tradeoffs. The system
produced demonstrated the success of the design decisions: it was significantly
easier to use than, and preferred to, a commercial equivalent by a group of
older people with no experience of Internet use. Keywords: Design; Older people; Internet; Email; Digital inclusion; Usability | |||
| The design of next generation in-vehicle navigation systems for the older driver | | BIBA | Full-Text | 643-659 | |
| Andrew May; Tracy Ross; Zaheer Osman | |||
| It has been proposed that the current design of in-vehicle displays may not be appropriate for the older driver. This paper describes an empirical, road-based investigation of the benefits to older and younger drivers of providing landmarks within the instructions presented by an in-vehicle navigation system. Thirty two participants navigated a challenging urban route using either landmarks or distance information to identify the location of forthcoming manoeuvres. A range of driver behaviour measures were collected, including visual glance data, driving errors, driver workload, navigation errors, navigation confidence, and pre and post-trial driver attitudinal responses. Results show that, for older and younger drivers, landmarks reduced the time spent glancing to a visual display, reduced navigation and driving errors, and influenced driver confidence. There were some key differences between the older and younger drivers. The wider implications for the design of in-car interfaces for the older driver are discussed. | |||
| Successful strategies of older people for finding information | | BIBA | Full-Text | 660-671 | |
| Paul Curzon; Judy Wilson; Gill Whitney | |||
| Older people have successful search strategies for finding practical information in everyday situations but, increasingly, traditional information sources are being supplemented or replaced by web based ones. However, there are wider issues than just making information available if people are to replace existing strategies by new web based ones. In this paper we use three studies on the information usage of older people to explore the issues surrounding why they favour specific search strategy and technology combinations. The studies each investigate different aspects of information search in a natural setting and concern tasks relevant to older people as their lives change: finding e-government information and planning travel. Results suggest that a variety of measures are important in choice of strategy. Furthermore, interface mechanisms are needed that complement existing strategies, reinforce the existence and crossing of boundaries, and support interactive use of landmarks. | |||
| Socially dependable design: The challenge of ageing populations for HCI | | BIBA | Full-Text | 672-689 | |
| Mark A. Blythe; Andrew F. Monk; Kevin Doughty | |||
| This paper considers the needs of an ageing population and the implications for Human Computer Interaction (HCI) research. The discussion is structured around findings from interviews with medical and care professionals and older people. Various technologies are being successfully used to monitor for falls and other emergencies, and also to assess and manage risk. The design of this technology is currently driven by a medical model of client needs and takes little account of the social context of the home. The design challenges for HCI are to make this technology attractive, provide privacy, allow informed choice and reduce rather than increase the isolation currently felt by many older people. It is argued that the ageing population presents a fundamental challenge to HCI in the need for socially dependable systems. Socially dependable systems take account of social context, the need for sociability and are accessible to all who need them. | |||
| Age differences in trust and reliance of a medication management system | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 690-710 | |
| Geoffrey Ho; Dana Wheatley; Charles T. Scialfa | |||
| The present study examined age differences in trust and reliance of an
automated decision aid. In Experiment 1, older and younger participants
performed a simple mathematical task concurrent with a simulated medication
management task. The decision aid was designed to facilitate medication
management, but with varying reliability. Trust, self-confidence and usage of
the aid were measured. The results indicated that older adults had greater
trust in the aid and were less confident in their performance, but they did not
calibrate trust differently than younger adults. In Experiment 2, a variant of
the same task was used to investigate whether older adults are subject to
over-reliance on the automation. Differences in omission and commission errors
were examined. The results indicated that older adults were more reliant on the
decision aid and committed more automation-related errors. A signal detection
analyses indicated that older adults were less sensitive to automation
failures. Results are discussed with respect to the perceptual and cognitive
factors that influence age differences in the use of fallible automation. Keywords: Automation reliability; Aging | |||
| 'It's just like you talk to a friend' relational agents for older adults | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 711-735 | |
| Timothy W. Bickmore; Lisa Caruso; Kerri Clough-Gorr; Tim Heeren | |||
| Relational agents -- computational artifacts designed to build and maintain
long-term social-emotional relationships with users -- may provide an effective
interface modality for older adults. This is especially true when the agents
use simulated face-to-face conversation as the primary communication medium,
and for applications in which repeated interactions over long time periods are
required, such as in health behavior change. In this article, we discuss the
design of a relational agent for older adults that plays the role of an
exercise advisor, and report on the results of a longitudinal study involving
21 adults aged 62-84, half of whom interacted with the agent daily for 2 months
in their homes and half who served as a standard-of-care control. Results
indicate the agent was accepted and liked, and was significantly more
efficacious at increasing physical activity (daily steps walked) than the
control. Keywords: Relational agents; Social interfaces; Human-computer interaction | |||
| Writing with speech recognition: The adaptation process of professional writers with and without dictating experience | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 736-772 | |
| Marielle Leijten; Luuk Van Waes | |||
| This paper describes the adaptation and writing process of writers who have
started using speech recognition systems for writing business texts. The
writers differ in their previous writing experience. They either have previous
classical dictating experience or they are used to writing their texts with a
word processor. To gather the process data for this study we chose
complementary research methods. First the participants were asked to fill in a
questionnaire and given instruction about the speech recognition system. Then
they were observed five times using the speech recognition system during their
day-to-day work. Finally, they also filled in a logging questionnaire after
each task. The quantitative analysis of the use of the writing mode shows that
those participants who had no previous dictating experience, tend to use the
voice input more extensively, both for formulating and reviewing. This result
is confirmed in the more detailed case analysis. The other analyses in the case
study -- i.e. repair, revision, and pause analysis-refine the differences in
the organization of the writing process between the writers, and show that the
speech recognition mode seems to create a writing environment that is open for
different writing profiles. Keywords: Speech recognition; Writing processes; Dictating; Adaptation processes;
Research method; Writing modes; Writing experience; Writing profiles | |||
| Cross-user analysis: Benefits of skill level comparison in usability testing | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 773-786 | |
| Laura Faulkner; David Wick | |||
| This study presents a cross-user usability test approach and analysis
technique that extends beyond merely identifying the existence of a usability
problem to introducing an empirical basis for identifying the type of usability
problem that exists. For experimental purposes, 60 users were tested with three
levels of user-competency determined by experience in using: (1) computers, and
(2) the tested application. Applying the Tukey honestly significant difference
(HSD) test to each test element provided statistical comparison between
different experience levels. Analysis results between experience levels
suggested which levels encountered usability problems. The authors demonstrate
that statistical calculations of cross-user data can render empirical support
for categorizing usability problems. Keywords: Usability testing; Users; HCI methodology; Usability research; Empirical
method | |||
| Affordance as context | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 787-800 | |
| Phil Turner | |||
| The concept of affordance is relatively easy to define, but has proved to be
remarkably difficult to engineer. This paradox has sparked numerous debates as
to its true nature. The discussion presented here begins with a review of the
use of the term from which emerges evidence for a two-fold classification --
simple affordance and complex affordance. Simple affordance corresponds to
Gibson's original formulation, while complex affordances embody such things as
history and practice. In trying to account for complex affordance, two
contrasting, but complementary philosophical treatments are considered. The
first of these is Ilyenkov's account of significances which he claims are
'ideal' phenomena. Ideal phenomena occupy are objective characteristics of
things and are the product of human purposive activity. This makes them
objective, but not independent (of any particular mind or perception) hence
their similarity to affordances. The second perspective is Heidegger's
phenomenological treatment of 'familiarity' and 'equipment'. As will be seen,
Heidegger has argued that familiarity underpins our ability to cope in the
world. A world, in turn, which itself comprises the totality of equipment. We
cope by making use of equipment. Despite the different philosophical traditions
both Ilyenkov and Heidegger have independently concluded that a thing is
identified by its use and that use, in turn, is revealed by way of its
affordances/significances. Finally, both authors -- Heidegger directly and
Ilyenkov indirectly -- equate context and use, leading to the conclusion that
affordance and context are one and the same. Keywords: Affordance; Familiarity; Phenomenology; Context | |||