| Toward a best practice for laboratory-based usability evaluations of mobile ICT for hospitals | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 3-12 | |
| Ole Andreas Alsos; Yngve Dahl | |||
| The dynamic nature of clinical work makes it challenging to assess the
usability of mobile information and communication technology (ICT) for
hospitals. To achieve some of the realism of field evaluations, combined with
the control of laboratory-based evaluations, we have conducted usability tests
of prototypes in a laboratory custom designed as a full-scale ward section.
Nurses and physicians acting out simulated clinical scenarios have used the
prototypes.
This paper reports on the general methodological lessons learned from three such formative usability evaluations. We have learned that the physical test environment, the test scenarios, and the prototypes form three variables that need to reflect a sufficient amount of realism and concreteness in order to help generate valid test results. At the same time, these variables are tools that can help control and focus the evaluation on specific issues that one wants to gather data on. We have also learned that encouraging reflection among participants and using detailed multi-perspective recordings of usage can help form a more precise understanding of how mobile ICT can accommodate clinical work. The current paper aims to inform work toward a best practice for laboratory-based evaluations of mobile ICT for hospitals. Keywords: mobile computing, pervasive computing, point-of-care systems, usability
evaluation | |||
| Model-based automatic usability validation: a tool concept for improving web-based UIs | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 13-22 | |
| Richard Atterer | |||
| This paper describes an approach for improving automated usability tool
support during the development of websites. Existing usability and
accessibility validators only analyse the HTML code of a page when they create
a report of possible problems. However, when a web engineering method is used
to create a website, additional information is available in the form of models
which describe the site. An automated validator can use these models to verify
usability guidelines (such as "text on the web page should be easy to
understand by the target audience") with higher accuracy. It can also perform
automatic validation in situations where existent tools only output
instructions for manual inspection by the developer. The paper systematically
analyses existent guidelines and tools, and identifies ways in which the use of
a model can improve verification quality. An extension to existing web
engineering models is necessary to support automated checkers. It specifies
properties of the users, the technical platform and the environment of use. A
flexible approach allows the models to be used by validators running inside an
integrated development environment, but also at a later time, without access to
the development environment. Finally, the prototype of a model-based automatic
usability validator is presented. It features verification of a number of
guidelines which cannot be automated by existent validation approaches. Keywords: accessibility, automated validation, usability model, web engineering, web
usability | |||
| Obstacles to usability evaluation in practice: a survey of software development organizations | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 23-32 | |
| Jakob Otkjær Bak; Kim Nguyen; Peter Risgaard; Jan Stage | |||
| This paper reports from a combined questionnaire survey and interview study
of obstacles for deploying usability evaluation in software development
organizations. It was conducted in a limited geographical area. The purpose of
the questionnaire survey was to determine whether software development
organizations in that area were evaluating the usability of their software and
to identify key obstacles. It revealed that 29 of 39 software development
organizations conducted some form of usability evaluation. The purpose of the
interview study was to gain more insight into the obstacles that were
expressed. It involved 10 of the 39 software development organizations. Our
results show, that the understanding of usability evaluation is a major
obstacle. Furthermore, the two most significant obstacles were resource demands
and the mindset of developers. These obstacles were not only an obstacle for
more organizations to deploy usability evaluation, but also a concern for the
software development organizations, that had deployed usability evaluations in
their development process. Keywords: obstacles, software development, usability evaluation | |||
| OPOS: an observation scheme for evaluating head-up play | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 33-42 | |
| Saskia Bakker; Panos Markopoulos; Yvonne de Kort | |||
| The concept of Head-Up Games [18] advocates that pervasive games of the
future should be designed to evoke play patterns akin to those of traditional
outdoor games. This tenet, while appealing, is ill defined without a clear
description of these behaviors. Below we introduce OPOS, an observation scheme
that can be used to evaluate Head-Up Games and, more generally, outdoor
pervasive games intended for children. The observation scheme has been
evaluated through its application in observing play with traditional outdoor
games and a purpose made Head-Up Game. The study involved 24 children of 10-11
years old; it was found that the proposed observation scheme is objective and
reliable, helping evaluators compare pervasive games regarding the play
behaviors they provoke. Keywords: children, game evaluation, pervasive games, structured observation | |||
| Dynamic positioning systems: usability and interaction styles | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 43-52 | |
| Frøy Birte Bjørneseth; Mark D. Dunlop; Jann Peter Strand | |||
| This paper describes the first steps of a research project directed towards
human computer interaction (HCI) within the maritime environment and on
maritime equipment. The focus is at this stage mainly on interaction with
Dynamic Positioning Systems (DP) and how new interaction styles can be
introduced to make the interaction more efficient and less faulty in both
standard operations and in safety-critical situations. The initial experiment
looks into how a DP operator can operate a DP system by using bi-manual
interaction/multi-touch combined with hand-gestures to create a new type of
user-experience. The aim for this research is to investigate which gestures
feel natural to the DP operator and how/if they can be implemented into a
real-life DP system. Keywords: bi-manual interaction, dynamic positioning, gestures, graphical user
interface, maritime environment, multi-touch, safety critical situations | |||
| Interaction design and the critics: what to make of the "weegie" | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 53-62 | |
| Mark Blythe; John Robinson; David Frohlich | |||
| This paper describes the development and evaluation of "weegie" an
audio-photography desk featuring sounds and images inspired by the Govan area
of Glasgow. It was intended to be an interactive artwork that would challenge
negative preconceptions about the area. The paper describes two techniques used
to consider the extent to which the piece achieved these aims. The first
technique is the "personal meaning map" and taken from museum studies. The
second is cultural critique drawn from the arts. Building on Gaver's [24]
strategy of using cultural commentators for 'polyphonic' assessment it
considers the extent to which perspectives drawn from the humanities and the
arts can be useful in evaluating design. It argues that a more rigorous
understanding of critical theory is necessary to the development of interaction
design criticism. Keywords: evaluation, interpretation, methods, multi-media art, personal meaning maps,
reviews, user experience | |||
| Irreversibility and forceback in public interfaces | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 63-72 | |
| Ingunn Bratteberg; Steinar Kristoffersen | |||
| We are starting to see walk-up kiosks and self-service machines everywhere
in the public space. Indeed, it seems to be increasingly prevalent that service
providers offer technological aid to customers so that they can perform more of
the work entailed for themselves. Buying train tickets, checking in luggage at
the airport or paying duty for excess merchandise upon returning home from
abroad are examples of such walk-up-and-use services. It is surprising how such
"simple" systems are not perceived as user-friendly. We believe that designing
information technology for the public space poses distinct conceptual
challenges. Yet, this has not been systematically explored within our field.
This paper is based on an ethnographic study of the purchase and validation of
ticketless travel for an airport train. It argues that public IT needs an
extended framework of usability principles, which goes beyond well-known
interaction design guidelines. Keywords: design, ethnography, guidelines, public IT, usability | |||
| Interaction as learning process: incorporating domain knowledge into system use | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 73-82 | |
| Jung-Min Choi; Keiichi Sato | |||
| While users increasingly need to obtain more knowledge for operating
systems, knowledge of the domain of concern has been hidden behind system
operation which may not reflect the reality of practice in the domain. As
users' experience in system use is limited to system operation procedures, they
may not be able to learn how to manipulate domain knowledge in order to achieve
satisfactory output using the system. This research aims to propose a
methodology for supporting system designers in developing a system that can
help users more actively expand and manipulate their domain knowledge through
interaction. In this paper, first, the models of users' learning process in
interaction are proposed. Then, the effects of users' operation and domain
knowledge on their learning process are investigated through observational case
studies. Finally, a methodological concept for manipulating users' learning
process in system design is proposed and discussed in order to enhance the
quality of interaction. Keywords: design methodology, domain and operation knowledge, interactive system
design, users' learning process | |||
| Sonic mapping: towards engaging the user in the design of sound for computerized artifacts | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 83-92 | |
| Graeme W. Coleman; Catriona Macaulay; Alan F. Newell | |||
| This paper argues for new approaches to the design of sound for contemporary
interactive technologies. We begin by presenting what we feel to be the key
challenges as yet unaddressed by conventional auditory display research.
Subsequently, we propose a user-centered, acoustic ecology-informed, design
method that we feel can be built upon to inform the design of sound for
contemporary interactive technologies, thus tackling some of the challenges
introduced. Our approach consists of three stages: firstly, encouraging
designers and users to experience the original auditory environment,
identifying the key sounds within that environment, and then summarizing this
information into an 'earwitness account' that can be used as a prelude for
informing the design of sonically enhanced technologies that may be used within
similar environments. By trialing this method with undergraduate interactive
media design students, we identify the methodological challenges involved in
attempting to engage people, who are not necessarily 'sound professionals',
with their existing auditory environments. We highlight the opportunities that
arise and pitfalls that should be avoided when attempting to introduce such
approaches within real-world design studies. Keywords: acoustic ecology, auditory environments, auditory interfaces, non-speech
sound, soundscapes, user-centered design methods | |||
| Designing for participation in public knowledge institutions | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 93-102 | |
| Peter Dalsgaard; Christian Dindler; Eva Eriksson | |||
| We address the challenges facing designers of interactive technologies for
public knowledge institutions such as museums, libraries and science centres.
We argue that visitor participation is a key concern for these institutions and
present a theoretical framework for understanding participation grounded in
pragmatist philosophy. We then present design work carried out in three
different settings, namely a museum, a combined aquarium and science centre,
and a municipal library. Based on a discussion of these design cases, we offer
six design considerations for designing for participation in public knowledge
institutions. Keywords: design cases, interaction design, knowledge, libraries, museums, pragmatism,
public institutions, theory | |||
| The memory stone: a personal ICT device in health care | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 103-112 | |
| Henrik Enquist; Konrad Tollmar | |||
| New technology enables novel ways of sharing information between health care
recipients and providers. In this study, however, we found that the medical
information for pregnant women in Denmark is located in a number of different
places, that midwives and doctors spend a considerable amount of time
administrating data, and that consultations are felt to be rather inefficient.
This paper describes these problems and some solutions. We explore the idea of
providing each woman with a digital artifact, called the Memory Stone. The goal
is to supply them with tools to collect and review clinical and personal
information concerning their pregnancies. The paper discusses: (1) the
user-centered methodology for development of a personal device for health care
information, (2) the design and evaluation of prototypes, and (3) critical
issues concerning the introduction of novel personal ICT in a health care
setting. The main focus is on the experiences and interests of the individual
pregnant woman in the study. Several insights were gained into more general
pervasive health care issues, including technical and ethical ones as well as
safety and security concerns. Keywords: ICT, interaction design, pervasive health care, pregnancy | |||
| Introducing usability roles in public authorities | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 113-122 | |
| Elina Eriksson; Jan Gulliksen; Åsa Cajander | |||
| One of the most common ways of introducing usability into development work
in a public authority is by employing a usability professional. But how
successful is this strategy when it comes to increasing focus on usability in
the organization and how successful have these usability professionals been in
introducing usability activities into the development work in their
organizations?
This paper is based on five case studies on the introduction of usability professionals in public authorities in Sweden. These different ways of introducing usability are discussed and analyzed. Based on this data we draw conclusions about what to consider in order to achieve a successful introduction of usability. Interviews with nine usability professionals were conducted all of which were recorded, analyzed and condensed into the case studies presented. One lesson learned from the case studies is the importance of a formal title as it shapes interpretations of what usability is about. Another issue discussed is the usefulness of a formal job description, and personal characteristics of the person working with usability. Based on the case studies we draw the conclusion that a senior usability professional is to be preferred since introduction of usability often implies organizational change as well as conflicts and discussions at a management level. Another conclusion that can be drawn from the studies is that usability work is more successful in the short perspective if it contributes directly to the design and program code instead of focusing on strategic levels such as policy, evaluation of existing systems and method development. Keywords: case study, public authority, usability expert, usability professional | |||
| License to chill!: how to empower users to cope with stress | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 123-132 | |
| Pedro Ferreira; Pedro Sanches; Kristina Höök; Tove Jaensson | |||
| There exists today a paucity of tools and devices that empower people to
take control over their everyday behaviors and balance their stress levels. To
overcome this deficit, we are creating a mobile service, Affective Health,
where we aim to provide a holistic approach towards health by enabling users to
make a connection between their daily activities and their own memories and
subjective experiences. This construction is based upon values detected from
certain bodily reactions that are then visualized on a mobile phone.
Accomplishing this entailed figuring out how to provide real-time feedback
without making the individual even more stressed, while also making certain
that the representation empowered rather than controlled them. Useful design
feedback was derived from testing two different visualizations on the mobile in
a Wizard of Oz study. In short, we found that a successful design needs to:
feel alive, allow for interpretative openness, include short-term history, and
be updated in real-time. We also found that the interaction did not increase
our participants stress reactions. Keywords: Wizard of Oz study, behavior change, empowerment, stress monitoring | |||
| Real-time 3D hand-computer interaction: optimization and complexity reduction | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 133-141 | |
| Jonas Fredriksson; Sven Berg Ryen; Morten Fjeld | |||
| This paper presents a low-cost method for enabling 3D hand-computer
interaction. The method, accompanied by a system, uses the frame capturing
functionality of a single consumer-grade webcam. Our recent work has been
focused on examining and realizing a less complex system. The presented method
reduces the tracking effort to only one reference marker: a color-coded
bracelet that helps locate the part of the captured frame containing the user's
hand. The located area contains all the information needed to extract hand
rotation and finger angle data. To facilitate hand feature extraction, we have
outfitted the user's hand with a specially coded glove. The glove is equipped
with two square palm markers, a marker on either side of the hand, and five
distinctly shaded finger sheaths. We believe that an approach that only tracks
only one marker will be more efficient than similar methods that track each
finger separately. The method is further simplified by using spatial
properties, drawn from physiological characteristics of the human hand, to
limit the areas considered by the algorithm. Some challenges regarding webcam
limitations may arise when attempting to carry this method into effect,
including problems related to image noise and limited image- and
color-resolution. Overlapping hands and fingers, hand positioning outside the
field of view, and interference by local light sources are other exigent
factors to consider. Keywords: 3D hand-computer interaction, 3D interaction, 3D navigation, gesture, hand
tracking, mixed reality | |||
| Personlig integritet: a comparative study of perceptions of privacy in public places in Sweden and the United States | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 142-151 | |
| Batya Friedman; Kristina Hook; Brian Gill; Lina Eidmar; Catherine Sallmander Prien; Rachel Severson | |||
| In this paper we report on a cross-cultural study of people's judgments
about privacy in public places. Replicating and extending a previously
published study conducted in the US, 350 surveys and 30 interviews were
conducted on a university campus in a major city in Sweden. Participants were
recruited on campus while walking through a major public through fare which was
being captured by a video camera and displayed in real-time in a room in a
campus building overlooking the area. We analyze the Swedish data alone and
also report comparative analyses with the previously published US data. Results
showed in general Swedes are substantially more concerned about privacy in
public places than their counterparts in the US. In both countries, women
generally expressed more concern than men, but this gender gap was greater in
the US than Sweden. Discussion focuses on cross-cultural perspectives on
privacy in public and implications for interaction design. Keywords: human values, indirect stakeholders, informed consent, privacy, public
place, user conceptions, value sensitive design | |||
| Improved word list ordering for text entry on ambiguous keypads | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 152-161 | |
| Jun Gong; Peter Tarasewich; I. Scott MacKenzie | |||
| We present a design methodology for small ambiguous keypads, where input
often produces a list of candidate words for a given desired word. The
methodology uses context through semantic relatedness and a part-of-speech
language model to improve the order of candidate words and, thus, reduce the
overall number of keystrokes per character entered. Simulations yield
improvements in text entry speed of about 10% and reductions in errors of about
20%, depending on the keypad size. We describe a user study with 32
participants entering text on a keypad with letters arranged on three keys.
Entry speed was 9.6% faster, and error rates 21.2% lower, compared with
standard disambiguation, as found on mobile phones. Keywords: disambiguation, keypad, mobile devices, prediction, text entry | |||
| Keeping up appearances: interpretation of tangible artifact design | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 162-171 | |
| Marigo Heijboer; Elise van den Hoven | |||
| The design and interaction of physical game artifacts is becoming
increasingly important for the design of digital tabletop games. In this paper
a study is described investigating the differences in interpretations of
realistic and abstract game artifacts comparing children and adults. A game was
created on a digital tabletop as a carrier for the user evaluation presented in
this paper. The appearance of the game artifacts was explored and a family of
each of the artifacts was created. The interpretations of each of the
individual artifacts and their different visual appearances were tested to
determine whether children rank and interpret the functionalities of the
artifacts differently than adults.
The results showed that overall the understanding of abstract artifacts compared to realistic ones was best for both children and adults. It also indicated there was no significant difference in the interpretations of the realistic and abstract artifacts between children and adults. Keywords: digital tabletop games, interaction design, semiotics, tangible interaction | |||
| Tactile wayfinder: a non-visual support system for wayfinding | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 172-181 | |
| Wilko Heuten; Niels Henze; Susanne Boll; Martin Pielot | |||
| Digital maps and route descriptions on a PDA have become very popular for
navigation, not the least with the advent of the iPhone and its Google Maps
application. A visual support for wayfinding, however, is not reasonable or
even possible all the time. A pedestrian must pay attention to traffic on the
street, a hiker should concentrate on the narrow trail, and a blind person
relies on other modalities to find her way. To overcome these limitations, we
developed a non-visual support for wayfinding that guides and keeps a mobile
user en route by a tactile display. We designed a belt with vibrators that
indicates directions and deviations from the path in an accurate and
unobtrusive way. Our first user evaluation showed that on an open field without
any landmarks the participants stayed well to given test routes and that
wayfinding support is possible with our Tactile Wayfinder. Keywords: pedestrian navigation, tactile display, wayfinding | |||
| Aspects of personal navigation with collaborative user feedback | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 182-191 | |
| Harald Holone; Gunnar Misund; Håkon Tolsby; Steinar Kristoffersen | |||
| Inspired by systems based on user generated content, we have developed a
prototype named OurWay, a collaborative route planning system utilizing user
feedback (rating of route segments) to provide quality routes adapted to the
users' abilities and needs. We report from an indoor experiment where users in
wheelchairs solved navigational tasks with our prototype. Log data,
observations, and interviews serve as a basis for discussing the feasibility of
the OurWay concept. We find that OurWay yields better routes for all users with
aggregated route segment ratings produced throughout the experiment. However,
ratings were largely produced by each individual to accomplish a selfish goal,
namely that of solving a navigational task. In this respect, rating can be seen
as a by-product of use, rather than as an intentional action on behalf of a
community. Keywords: accessibility, collaboration, personal navigation, routing | |||
| Participation in e-home healthcare @ North Calotte | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 192-200 | |
| Maria Jansson; Christina Mörtberg; Anita Mirijamdotter | |||
| Participation and the contribution of participatory design methods and
techniques are explored in the context of a Scandinavian Home Healthcare
project. The project was undertaken during 2004-2005. Its aim was to introduce
mobile ICT equipment to health care workers in order to improve planning,
including quality and precision of information exchange. The study was designed
according to Participatory Action Research and Participatory Design principles.
Methods employed in the project were observations, interviews, future
workshops, and story boards to actively involve different stakeholders. The
experience of the project indicates that, although the rhetoric was that of a
participatory design and research project, participants are not equally
regarded in terms of experiences and knowledge of the actual practice.
Assumptions about technology influence development and implementation at the
expense of the actual care activity. Further, participation and participatory
design techniques used in the project demonstrate the complexity of home
healthcare and the necessity to involve all the different occupational groups
involved in the care of the client. However, organisational boundaries
reinforced shortcomings in crossfunctional and cross organisational
cooperation. A final conclusion is that time for collaborative and collegial
reflections is a necessity to support the learning process. Keywords: future workshops, home healthcare, information systems, participatory action
research, participatory design, story boards | |||
| Toward a framework for ecologies of artifacts: how are digital artifacts interconnected within a personal life? | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 201-210 | |
| Heekyoung Jung; Erik Stolterman; Will Ryan; Tonya Thompson; Marty Siegel | |||
| Assuming that an interactive artifact cannot be fully understood by itself
due to their increasing number, we explored how individual artifacts are
related to each other and how those relationships can be investigated for
further design and research implications. This study suggests a concept of
ecology of artifacts to describe any implicit or explicit relationships among
interactive artifacts in one's personal life. We conducted two types of studies
-- personal inventory study and an ecology map study -- to explore multiple
dimensions for understanding a personal ecology of artifacts. We expect the
knowledge of artifact ecology would help designers and researchers in the field
of HCI to create and analyze interactive artifacts considering their dynamic
interplays in an increasingly ubiquitous technology environment. Keywords: artifact, design, interactivity, personal ecology | |||
| User-centered design and fundamental need | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 211-219 | |
| Turkka Keinonen | |||
| This paper will discuss whether User-Centered Design (UCD) is capable and/or
oriented towards satisfying users' fundamental needs. At face value, UCD is the
advocate of the user in product development, but do its actual practices and
values address what is fundamentally important for users? The question will be
addressed by starting with a moral philosophical discussion for separating the
concept of 'fundamental needs' from 'survival needs', occasional 'wishes' or
instrumental 'necessary conditions'. After being equipped with a satisfactory
conception of the fundamental need, two conditions will be formulated to
characterize UCD practices that orient towards need satisfaction. Protection
conditions will address design criteria, and examine whether UCD practice
defends users from harm. Appreciation condition is related to the conception of
the user within UCD, and tests UCD agents' tendency to avoid reducing users.
The discussion will show that the historical development of UCD from a limited
Human-Machine paradigm towards more socially focused and interventionist
approaches has influenced on its need satisfying orientation. The protection
condition, which relatively well described early UCD activities, i.e. usability
engineering, in 1980s and early 1990s, has become too limited to explain the
widening scope of interests towards the end of this decade. On the contrary,
the appreciation condition, is better met by the present holistic and active
user conception than the previous reduced users defined by their roles as
computer operators. Keywords: fundamental need, user need, user-centered design | |||
| Children's haptic experiences of tangible artifacts varying in hardness | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 221-228 | |
| Jeanine Kierkels; Elise van den Hoven | |||
| In this paper we describe our investigations on the role of material
hardness in the haptic experience of tangible artifacts.
Without seeing the artifacts children had to rank their experience on a scale of two antonyms while touching and holding these artifacts. In this experiment it was shown that children have no problem ranking hardness. Two groups could be identified: soft artifacts were found to be cute, speedy and warm, e.g., and hard artifacts boring, sad and old-fashioned. We think that paying attention to this factor in the design of tangible user interfaces for children can improve their experience. Keywords: haptic experience, interaction design, tabletop gaming, tangible user
interfaces | |||
| Communicating art through interactive technology: new approaches for interaction design in art museums | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 229-238 | |
| Karen Johanne Kortbek; Kaj Grønbæk | |||
| This paper discusses new approaches to interaction design for communication
of art in the physical museum space. In contrast to the widespread utilization
of interactive technologies in cultural heritage and natural science museums it
is generally a challenge to introduce technology in art museums without
disturbing the domain of the art works.
To explore the possibilities of communicating art through the use of technology, and to minimize disturbance of the artworks, we apply four main approaches in the communication: 1) gentle audio augmentation of art works; 2) conceptual affinity of art works and remote interactive installations; 3) using the body as an interaction device; 4) consistent audio-visual cues for interaction opportunities. The paper describes the application of these approaches for communication of inspirational material for a Mariko Mori exhibition. The installations are described and argued for. Experiences with the interactive communication are discussed based on qualitative and quantitative evaluations of visitor reactions. It is concluded that the installations are received well by the visitors, who perceived exhibition and communication as a holistic user experience with a seamless interactive communication. Keywords: art museums, audio augmentation, body as an interaction device,
communicating art, interaction design, user experience | |||
| Training towards mastery: overcoming the active user paradox | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 239-248 | |
| Brian Krisler; Richard Alterman | |||
| Few users ever attain mastery with an application. Mastery, the state of
knowing how to work efficiently with an application requires an understanding
of the underlying conceptual model of the system. The active user paradox is
one of the main inhibitors of mastery. In this study, we present HotKeyCoach, a
training method designed to insert into the flow of the activity learning
events that provide contextually relevant training and help the user to
circumvent the active user paradox in the pursuit of application mastery. Keywords: active user paradox, activity theory, design, mastery, skill acquisition,
training | |||
| Improving web search transparency by using a Venn diagram interface | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 249-256 | |
| Lars Langer; Erik Frøkjær | |||
| The user interfaces of the most popular search engines are largely the same.
Typically, users are presented with an ordered list of documents, which provide
limited help if users are having trouble finding the information they need.
This article presents an interface called the Venn Diagram Interface (VDI) that
offers users improved search transparency. The VDI allows users to see how each
term, or group of terms, in a query contributes to the entire result set of a
search. Furthermore, it allows users to browse the result sets generated by
each of these terms. In a test with 10 participants, the VDI was compared
against a standard web search interface, Google. With the VDI, users were able
to find more documents of higher relevance and were more inclined to continue
searching. Their level of interactivity was higher, the quality of the answers
they found was perceived to be better. Eight out of 10 users preferred the VDI. Keywords: Google, Venn diagram, information search and retrieval, usability measure,
user study, visualization, web search | |||
| Snapshot video: everyday photographers taking short video-clips | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 257-265 | |
| Asko Lehmuskallio; Risto Sarvas | |||
| Camera phones and consumer digital cameras number hundreds of millions
worldwide and most of them have the ability to take video in addition to
photographs. Public discussions, marketing, and academic research often
emphasize the new and innovative ways in which people use their ubiquitous
digital cameras, especially camera phones, in combination with the Internet. In
this paper we present our qualitative study of 13 people and their picture
taking habits with regular cameras and camera phones. We focus on their
videography practices in the context of their general use of photo and video
media. Our results contradict the general assumption that the availability of
ubiquitous video technology has significantly changed people's practices in
home-mode pictorial communication. The models for capturing videos are often
taken from situations in which previously taking snapshot photographs was the
only option. Therefore, we suggest that mobile media creation and sharing
technology has only gradually changed people's snapshot photography and
videography practices. Keywords: mobile media, snapshot photography, user research, video | |||
| Breadcrumbs of interaction: situating personal information management | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 266-273 | |
| Tomas Lindroth; Magnus Bergquist | |||
| The area of Personal Information Management (PIM) primarily deals with how
to store, retrieve and share files and other interactional artifacts. According
to previous research there is a lack of field studies of actual PIM practices,
especially mobile practices. In this article we present findings from an
ethnographical study of wireless practice of laptop computers. The study
reports on the role of historical interaction resources in a mobile PIM
practice as well as the contextual effects on PIM. The findings reveal a
PIM-practice highly connected to use situations not always departing from
manipulating files and folders, which has been a focus in many previous
studies. Designers are encouraged to explore the situated intimate and
immediate design space found to be of great importance for the use of these so
called Breadcrumbs of Interaction. Keywords: breadcrumbs of interaction, ethnography, laptop, laptopers, personal
information management | |||
| Undo for mobile phones: does your mobile phone need an undo key? do you? | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 274-282 | |
| Marco Loregian | |||
| The undo function is not accessory, but still it has not been introduced to
mobile devices in an appropriate way. Undo is still shaped to fit text editing,
and it has changed a little only for graphical editing so far. In this paper,
we report the results of a survey with which we investigated why and how to add
this functionality to regular mobile phones -- not only to smartphones or
high-end handheld devices. Our respondents suggested an undo model that is
linear, sequential, with variable granularity (according to the context of use)
and requiring confirmation before execution (both to improve awareness and
avoid additional mistakes). Keywords: mobile phones, survey, undo, usability | |||
| Threats or threads: from usable security to secure experience? | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 283-289 | |
| Niels Raabjerg Mathiasen; Susanne Bødker | |||
| While the domain of security dependent technologies brings new challenges to
HCI research it seems that the results and breakthroughs of HCI have not been
used in design of security dependent technologies. With exceptions, work in the
research field of usable security may be criticized for focusing mainly on
adjusting user behavior to behave securely. With our background in newer HCI
perspectives we address secure interaction from the perspective of security
technology as experience. We analyze a number of collected user stories to
understand what happens when everyday users encounter security dependent
technologies. We apply McCarthy & Wright's [12] experience framework to the
security domain and our collected stories. We point out that there are
significant differences between being secure and having a secure experience,
and conclude that classical usable security, focus on people's immediate
security experience, and the full focus on experience proposed by McCarthy &
Wright lead to three very different interaction concerns, analytically and as
regards design. We illustrate these differences by examples, and conclude with
a discussion of how to advance the field of usable security. Keywords: experience, human-computer interaction, usability, usable security, user
experience, user story collection, user testing | |||
| Design with and for disaffected teenagers | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 290-297 | |
| Emanuela Mazzone; Janet C. Read; Russell Beale | |||
| This paper describes how an e-learning product for teenagers was developed
using design sessions based on a participatory design approach. The product, in
the form of a computer game, is the outcome of a project that aims to improve
teenagers' emotional intelligence. The specific user group is from institutes
for pupils that had previously been excluded from mainstream education.
The novelty in the approach is that participants were involved in designing a tool that was intended to modify their emotional behaviour -- for this discussion, it is the participation in the process that is critical, less so the end product. The project and the design approaches are described and the participatory activity is reflected on. The benefits resulting from the design sessions were bi-directional: the engagement with the prospective users was valuable both for the actual contribution to the product design and as an experience for the participants. Keywords: e-learning, emotional intelligence, informant design, participatory design,
prototyping, teenagers | |||
| Investigating touchscreen accessibility for people with visual impairments | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 298-307 | |
| David McGookin; Stephen Brewster; WeiWei Jiang | |||
| Touchscreen computing devices such as the iPhone are becoming more common.
However this technology is largely inaccessible to people with visual
impairments. We present the results of a requirements capture study that
illustrates the problems with touchscreen accessibility, and the choices
visually impaired people make when choosing assistive technology. We
investigate ways of overcoming touchscreen accessibility problems by comparing
a raised paper overlay touchscreen based MP3 player, with a touchscreen gesture
based player. Twelve blindfolded participants, and one visually impaired
person, were able to operate both players, though there were problems with
short impact related operations in the gesture player. From our results we
provide guidelines for future designers, to help them exploit the potential of
touchscreen technology for visually impaired people. Keywords: accessibility, blind, mobile devices, non-speech sound, speech, touchscreen,
universal design, visual impairment | |||
| Exploring factors that influence the combined use of mobile devices and public displays for pedestrian navigation | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 308-317 | |
| Jörg Müller; Marc Jentsch; Christian Kray; Antonio Krüger | |||
| Large displays are rapidly proliferating in public spaces, and could
therefore be an attractive resource to support nomadic users in such contexts,
e. g. by providing additional screen real estate or by augmenting services
delivered through a mobile device. While previous work on combining public
displays and mobile devices has identified a number of benefits of this
combination, it is not yet clear if users will actually use such a system and
if they do, why and when. In this paper, we present two initial user studies
investigating factors relevant to user acceptance and usability in the context
of a deployed system that provides pedestrian navigation support through a
combination of mobile devices and public displays. Based on the results from a
repertory grid analysis, we identify dimensions that are relevant for users
deciding whether to use a public display or not, and discuss implications for
the design of such systems. Keywords: mobile phones, navigation support, public displays, user study | |||
| Evaluation methods and cultural differences: studies across three continents | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 318-325 | |
| Cecilia Oyugi; Lynne Dunckley; Andy Smith | |||
| This paper reviews issues and problems that arise in cross-cultural
usability evaluations. It reports two separate empirical studies of a number of
well-known techniques with UK, African and Indian users. The studies examine
the effectiveness of methods based on think-aloud protocols, including the DUCE
method, to elicit users' views. The results from all the studies show that
these established Western methods are less effective with users from other
cultures. It suggests that the reasons for this are the consequences of
deep-rooted differences in personal interactions in different cultures. This
paper provides evidence to guide choices for applications involving users from
India and Africa. Keywords: cross-cultural evaluation, international usability evaluation, usability
methods | |||
| Sharescape: an interface for place annotation | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 326-333 | |
| Ken Reily; Pamela J. Ludford; Loren Terveen | |||
| Many people use the Internet to search for geographically local information,
with a growing number of websites dedicated to this task. However, it is not
clear exactly how users integrate geographic search with content-based search,
nor how to obtain reliable information about places in a geographic region. We
created Sharescape, a map-based application in which information is contributed
by community members. We conducted a user study to evaluate the utility of this
means of obtaining information and to investigate how users integrate
geographic and content-based search. Our results suggest that 1) maps create an
implicit context in an interface that designers should honor, 2)
community-maintained information about local geography has important benefits
over information mined from web sites, and 3) users often are not aware of the
privacy implications of their actions, and therefore designers should
incorporate special privacy safeguards. Keywords: community, interface design, mapping, privacy, tagging | |||
| Ticket-to-talk-television: designing for the circumstantial nature of everyday social interaction | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 334-343 | |
| Marcus Sanchez Svensson; Tomas Sokoler | |||
| In this paper we discuss a particular perspective on interactivity and
sociability in the design of new TV technologies for social interaction. We
will argue that current research on Social TV builds on a too narrow conception
of interaction in everyday social life. In consequence, rather than turning the
TV media itself into an arena for peer-to-peer synchronous interaction amongst
TV viewers we will discuss the idea of Social TV as a resource that when part
of a larger socio-material fabric can help accommodate the circumstantial
nature of social interactions as they emerge and play out on a moment-to-moment
basis throughout everyday life beyond the TV screens. We take the phenomenon of
ticket-to-talk as our point of departure when analyzing observations made
during a study of the ways senior citizens go about socializing in everyday
face-to-face situations. We then discuss how this analysis in combination with
a series of design-oriented workshops with a group of senior citizens, have
guided the design of our Ticket-to-Talk-Television example concept. We will
reflect upon the overall approach as well as the design activities that were
undertaken in relation to the concept developed. Keywords: ambiguity, interaction design, senior citizens, social interaction, social
television | |||
| A field study of the relationship and communication between Chinese evaluators and users in thinking aloud usability tests | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 344-352 | |
| Qingxin Shi | |||
| Thinking aloud is the most widely applied usability evaluation method. In
order to get reliable usability problems, it is necessary for the evaluators to
establish a supportive relationship and communicate effectively with the users.
This study investigated the relation and communication between the evaluators
and test users in Chinese usability testing sessions. Field observations and
interviews were conducted in five companies in Beijing. This research was based
mainly on Nisbett's cultural theory and Boren and Ramey's thinking aloud model.
The results of the study showed that Chinese users focused mainly on tasks,
while evaluators focused on both users and tasks. Further, Chinese users did
not think aloud actively; thus, in order to encourage users to speak out,
effective communication skills were required for Chinese evaluators.
Retrospective thinking aloud and explanation were also used in the tests.
Finally, it discussed that communication was appropriate for the formative
evaluations, but not for the summative evaluations. Keywords: culture, field study, formative evaluation, thinking aloud usability testing | |||
| Understanding the context of design: towards tactical user centered design | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 353-362 | |
| Dag Svanæs; Jan Gulliksen | |||
| It is widely recognized that system usability requires active involvement of
end-users in all phases of software development, and there is currently a broad
consensus among researchers and practitioners in the field as to what
constitutes a good user-centered design process. Despite this, many systems
development projects still fail when it comes to addressing usability issues
and appropriately involving users in the design process. We find that a
project's boundary conditions are becoming increasingly important for the
potential impact of user-centered design activities, and hence the success of
the end result of the project. We propose and define "context of design" as a
concept to embrace the socio-technical system in which user-centered design
takes place. The context of design includes, but is not limited to, the
internal structure of the developer and the client organizations, contractual
and tender issues, software engineering tools, and stakeholder agendas and
relations. We illustrate the reasoning with various cases in which
user-centered design has been constrained by factors in the context of design.
We recommend that user-centered-design projects give priority to an early
identification of factors in the context of design that pose risks to
end-product usability. By analyzing the context of design for each project, we
may be able to better tailor user-centered design activities to reach the goal
of building a more usable end-result. Keywords: context of design, obstacles, usability, user-centered design | |||
| Pottering by design | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 363-372 | |
| Alex S. Taylor; Susan P. Wyche; Joseph 'Jofish' Kaye | |||
| The last decade of work in HCI has seen an increasing emphasis on the role
of technology in the home, and a corresponding need for novel approaches for
studying the needs, activities and relationships that constitute home life, so
as to inform technology design. In this vein, we report on a particular aspect
of home life in Britain: pottering. We investigate the ways in which pottering
-- unplanned and serendipitous tidying, cleaning, gardening and minor home
improvement -- can be used as a lens to understand the non-task-focused roles
that technology may play in the home. We also describe the strategies we used
to study this curious class of activities and hopefully illustrate how open,
and sometimes opportunistic, approaches to research can have value. Keywords: critical design, design, domestic IT, home life, pottering | |||
| Kuukkeli: design and evaluation of location-based service with touch UI for hikers | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 373-382 | |
| Tuomas Vaittinen; Katri Laakso; Joonas Itäranta | |||
| This paper presents the design and prototype implementation of a
location-based service aimed for hikers. Maps and navigation in urban areas are
already well-researched topics but it can be argued that greater demands are
placed on location-based services in non-urban areas -- a field which has not
been researched in detail yet. Studying these demands more closely provided us
valuable information about location-based services in general as well. The
feature set of the prototype was chosen to help users in their typical outdoor
needs, such as map handling, basic navigation, and communication. In the
design, we took advantage of the capabilities of touch screens, such as direct
interaction by finger pointing. To validate our design in actual use context
and to get feedback for improving the design, a user trial with 16 hikers was
arranged. As a result, we deepened our understanding of the features hikers
expect from location-based services and found requirements for devices used to
implement them. In addition, we identified several areas of improvement in the
user interface of the prototype, which can also be applied to other similar
systems. Keywords: location-based service, personal navigation, touch screen, user interface,
user interface design, user-centered design | |||
| PassShapes: utilizing stroke based authentication to increase password memorability | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 383-392 | |
| Roman Weiss; Alexander De Luca | |||
| Authentication today mostly relies on passwords or personal identification
numbers (PINs). Therefore the average user has to remember an increasing amount
of PINs and passwords. Unfortunately, humans have limited capabilities for
remembering abstract alphanumeric sequences. Thus, many people either forget
them or use very simple ones, which implies several security risks. In this
work, a novel authentication method called PassShapes is presented. In this
system users authenticate themselves to a computing system by drawing simple
geometric shapes constructed of an arbitrary combination of eight different
strokes. We argue that using such shapes will allow more complex and thus more
secure authentication tokens with a lower cognitive load and higher
memorability. To prove these assumptions, two user studies have been conducted.
The memorability evaluation showed that the PassShapes concept is able to
increase the memorability when users can practice the PassShapes several times.
This effect is even increasing over time. Additionally, a prototype was
implemented to conduct a usability study. The results of both studies indicate
that the PassShapes approach is able to provide a usable and memorable
authentication method. Keywords: PassShapes, authentication, graphical authentication, security, shape
passwords | |||
| Designing a vision-based mobile interface for in-store shopping | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 393-402 | |
| Yan Xu; Mirjana Spasojevic; Jiang Gao; Matthias Jacob | |||
| Due to the situated nature of mobile applications, designing them requires
more emphasis on users' cognitive load and interaction style. Considering that
users can only devote limited and fragmented attention to mobile interface when
moving between locations, what interaction-styles and services are appropriate
to a specific user scenario? To explore this issue for in-store shopping, we
designed a vision-based mobile interface for supporting shopper's
communicational and organizational requirements on-the-go. With this interface,
the physical objects can be automatically recognized by the camera phone in
real time, so that shoppers can easily access related internet services. In
this paper, we present an ethnographic study from which the design rationale is
generated, and a formative evaluation to understand how mobile visual interface
can be used in the field. The issues uncovered and lessons learned are
applicable to our design improvement. Moreover, we use this to motivate the
discussion on vision-based mobile interfaces in general, including embodied
interaction and alternate interfaces. Keywords: diary study, filed study, formative evaluation, mobile computing,
vision-based object recognition | |||
| Designing and evaluating the tabletop game experience for senior citizens | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 403-406 | |
| Abdullah Al Mahmud; Omar Mubin; Suleman Shahid; Jean-Bernard Martens | |||
| In this paper, we report on the design and evaluation of a tabletop game
especially created for senior citizens. The game is intended to provide leisure
and fun and is played with four players on an augmented tabletop. It evolved
from existing games and rules that are popular and familiar amongst senior
citizens. Several aspects that are part of the gaming experience, such as
immersion, flow, affect and, challenge, were assessed experimentally. The
gaming experience was measured relatively by subjectively comparing user
reactions across two sessions, one using a conventional board game and another
using a digital tabletop version of the same game. Our results indicate that
senior citizens found the tabletop version of the game to be more immersive and
absorbing. We also discuss some implications to tabletop game design that can
be deduced from the qualitative feedback provided by our participants. Keywords: board-games, elderly, ethnography, focus group, fun, game, tabletop,
user-centered design | |||
| A heatmap-based visualization for navigation within large web pages | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 407-410 | |
| Richard Atterer; Philip Lorenzi | |||
| When a web browser is used to read documents which consist of multiple long
pages, such as technical documentation, today's browsers only offer inadequate
support for users to orient themselves within these pages. Even if a table of
contents is present, no information about the size of individual sections is
available. Furthermore, when jumping to different parts of a document, there is
no way to find sections that have been visited earlier -- the browser's history
functionality only works on the level of URLs, not within pages. In this paper,
we introduce a tool that increases users' awareness of the organization of long
HTML pages and visualizes their own navigation movements within these pages.
Our JavaScript prototype uses a simple user interface concept which
concentrates on automatic collection of information. It visualizes section
sizes in a table of contents which is generated for all pages. Additionally, a
heatmap highlights those parts of each page which have been viewed for extended
amounts of time. In a user study, our concept is compared to the predominant
existing in-page navigation aid, a fixed table of contents at the top of the
page. Keywords: WWW, heatmap, history visualization, long web pages, navigation | |||
| Treemap-based website navigation for non-hierarchical, interlinked sites: the trackback map | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 411-414 | |
| Richard Atterer; Max Tafelmayer | |||
| Typically, the navigation area of a website is organized as a hierarchical
menu of pages and subpages. For some types of websites, such as blogs, this is
not a suitable choice: The importance of blog articles changes dynamically,
e.g. depending on their age or the amount of public interest they generate.
Navigation to other blogs via links to related articles (so-called
"trackbacks") plays an important role, both to find related content and to
estimate the relevance of an unknown blog based on the reputation of the blog
that links to it. In this paper, we propose a new, interactive type of
navigation area which addresses the special needs of websites with a flat
hierarchy that link to related sites. The Trackback Map relies on a treemap to
visualize the relative importance of individual articles on a blog at a single
glance. By zooming into the map, the user can reach articles on other blogs
that link to the current blog's article, or (to any depth) articles that link
to those articles. A prototype of the concept has been implemented as a
WordPress plugin. In a user study, it is compared to established navigation
concepts, e.g. a tag cloud. Keywords: Ajax, WWW, blog, navigation, trackback, treemap, weblog | |||
| Laermometer: a mobile noise mapping application | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 415-418 | |
| Mark Bilandzic; Michael Banholzer; Deyan Peev; Vesko Georgiev; Florence Balagtas-Fernandez; Alexander De Luca | |||
| Creating noise maps is a complex task. They can be created using modeling
approaches that take into account different data such as traffic conditions and
the like. Another approach is to use stationary recording stations which
provide better results but are costly to maintain. Nevertheless, the benefits
of noise maps are worth the effort. Laermometer has been developed to solve the
problems of creating noise maps by utilizing mobile phones and their built-in
microphones. The main functionality is to provide noise information for any
place in the world.
Users can add further information like a noise description or comments about the location and its sound level. Every user can view the noise maps and comments, anywhere using their mobile devices. In addition Laermometer brings along a small web interface. With this web interface users can view/edit their profiles, comments and noise descriptions. Keywords: geotagging, location based services, noise maps mobile devices | |||
| Mapping social practices through collaborative exercises and visualizations | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 419-422 | |
| Andrea Botero Cabrera; Anne Naukkarinen; Joanna Saad-Sulonen | |||
| In this paper, we explore the use of collaborative exercises and mental map
visualizations as tools for understanding social practices and exploring
co-design opportunities for product and service development. The research is
based on material gathered through a case study of a web-based data storage
service in its beta stage. We use these tools to study the interconnections of
the designed system to an array of other applications, tools and services,
which form what we refer to as people's digital ecosystem. Our experiences
suggest that taking practices as the unit of analysis is a relevant strategy to
bring forward users' own knowledge of their everyday life, and link it to the
professional knowledge of developers and designers; and that visualizations and
collaborative exercises are relevant design thinking strategies. Keywords: co-design, mental maps, participatory design, service design, social
practices, user innovation, user studies | |||
| Making Wikipedia editing easier for the blind | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 423-426 | |
| M. Claudia Buzzi; Marina Buzzi; Barbara Leporini; Caterina Senette | |||
| A key feature of Web 2.0 is the possibility of sharing, creating and editing
on-line content. This approach is increasingly used in learning environments to
favor interaction and cooperation among students. These functions should be
accessible as well as easy to use for all participants. Unfortunately
accessibility and usability issues still exist for Web 2.0-based applications.
For instance, Wikipedia presents many difficulties for the blind. In this paper
we discuss a possible solution for simplifying the Wikipedia editing page when
interacting via screen reader. Building an editing interface that conforms to
W3C ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) recommendations would overcome
accessibility and usability problems that prevent blind users from actively
contributing to Wikipedia. Keywords: Wikipedia, accessibility, blind, usability | |||
| Pieces of identity | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 427-430 | |
| Markus Bylund; Kristina Höök; Alina Pommeranz | |||
| We describe the motivation, design, and deployment of the Pieces of Identity
system. Two goals motivated the system: to provoke a discussion concerning the
relationship between privacy and mobile information technology during an
inauguration event of a mobile technology research center, and to stir
reactions contributing to the widening of the design space of privacy and
information and communication technology (ICT). The results contrasts the two
well-established preconceptions about privacy that nothing is private anymore
and that personal information is best locked away. Keywords: cultural probes, digital identity, privacy, social identity | |||
| Much undo about nothing?: investigating why email retraction is less popular than apologizing | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 431-434 | |
| Federico Cabitza; Marco Loregian | |||
| This paper presents the results of a user study we performed to investigate
users' appreciation of undo for email, also called retract, and their
perception of the involved interactions and functionalities. A Computer
Assisted Web Interview (CAWI) has been conducted on a large set of email users
and the results indicate that there is little knowledge of the possibility of
retracting email messages even if current implementations meet user
requirements. The results get significance from the fact that a large part of
respondents declared to read their own messages also after having sent them,
looking for possible mistakes. Keywords: cooperation, email, undo, usability, user study | |||
| ItchyFeet: motivations for urban geospatial tagging | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 435-438 | |
| Sean Casey; Shaun Lawson; Duncan Rowland | |||
| Mobile social computing services are a new breed of application that require
new design paradigms to establish themselves in our complex urban environment.
This paper introduces 'ItchyFeet', a mobile social awareness service for
GPS-enabled mobile handsets, which enables a user and their online social peers
to collaboratively author a shared collection of geospatial tags. The
application encourages users to place tags at socially important locations;
such tags are used as indicators of a user's current and past context on their
Facebook profile. We report on findings from a four week user trial of the
application, which investigated the factors that motivated users to leave tags.
Our results identify some of these factors and highlight the complexity of the
dynamic relationship between users, their environment and mobile social
services. Keywords: GPS cell phones, MoSoSo, context acquisition, mobile and locative systems,
social networking, urban computing, user-generated content | |||
| Personas: from theory to practices | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 439-442 | |
| Yen-ning Chang; Youn-kyung Lim; Erik Stolterman | |||
| Persona is a technique being used by practicing designers in interaction
design. Existing research presents the ways personas should/could be used, or
report new efforts of making good use of the persona concept. Comparing to the
primary idea of persona, this paper explores some manners with which
practitioners actually utilize persona in their work, which has not been
emphasized in-depth in current literatures. Our findings provide an initial
step showing how practitioners in a creative way develop various usages of
personas in practice. We believe this research not only expands the
understanding of personas in design, but also gives insights about how
practicing designers adapt and make design "tools" their own. Keywords: interaction design, persona development, persona usage, personas, theory and
practice | |||
| entrigue: re-picturing the home | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 443-446 | |
| Judy Chen; Alex S. Taylor | |||
| Despite the volume of work that has been done on awareness displays, little
has been articulated about the ways in which people achieve, understand and
maintain awareness in their everyday routines. We reexamine awareness through
the design of entrigue, a simple, lightweight photo display that captures the
comings and goings in a home. Initial experiences of the system in use indicate
that it offers a way of defamiliarizing a space, allowing a household to
playfully re-experience the home and the ways in which they moved through it.
By drawing attention to the idiosyncratic ways in which people make sense of
cues and routines in the home, our results suggest that awareness incorporates
a sense of how one engages with the environment, and highlights the notion of
intrapersonal awareness as an awareness one can explore of oneself in and
through this engagement. Keywords: autophotography, intrapersonal awareness, photo displaysm | |||
| Feedback-controlled locomotion in virtual environments | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 447-450 | |
| Paul Czienskowski; Michael Schellenbach; Timo von Oertzen | |||
| In this work we propose an extension of our laboratory evaluation framework
[1] equipped with a virtual environment (VE). In order to simulate ecologically
valid walking in the VE, we evaluate biomechanical processes in gait to control
the speed of the treadmill that participants in the laboratory are walking on.
Our approach allows predicting the actual speed while walking based on hip
movement and additionally on step length. In order to validate our approach we
present preliminary results from a study comparing different walking tasks in a
VE. Keywords: evaluation, locomotion, virtual environments | |||
| Using eye-tracking to evaluate label alignment in online forms | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 451-454 | |
| Subhrajit Das; Tom McEwan; Donna Douglas | |||
| We analyze the usability of different label positions in online forms, using
an eye-tracking system, with a small sample of UK university-educated users.
The results unexpectedly contradict Wroblewski, and recommend right-aligned
labels, at least in the context of forms with multiple columns.
The work was carried out by an undergraduate intern from an Indian University, who worked with HCI academics at a Scottish University and with a Scottish Usability Consultancy, and we reflect on the benefits of such internships to commercial and academic usability, both in the UK and India. Keywords: e-commerce, eye-tracking, online forms, research into practice, usability | |||
| A privacy-respectful input method for public terminals | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 455-458 | |
| Alexander De Luca; Bernhard Frauendienst | |||
| Nowadays, people often have to input information on public terminals. By
doing so, they might disclose information to strangers looking over their
shoulders. In this paper we introduce a new way of interacting with public
terminals, which offers more privacy by using a personal mobile device to enter
private data. It allows the users to choose which information is to be regarded
personal, which can then be entered on their mobile device and is hidden from
the screen accordingly. Furthermore we created a prototype and conducted a user
study measuring users' input performance and to collect opinions about the
system's usability and practical value. The paper concludes with some ideas to
make the system even more useful. Keywords: mobile devices, personal data, privacy, public terminals | |||
| Participatory design workshops to evaluate multimodal applications | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 459-462 | |
| Sebastian Denef; Leonardo Ramirez; Tobias Dyrks; Tobias Schwartz; Ahmad-Amr Al-Akkad | |||
| In this paper we present our approach to the evaluation of multimodal
applications by using participatory design workshops. Our goal is to obtain
user feedback for our design on a fundamental, conceptual level. We propose in
this paper the use of design ideas coming from the users, not only by
translating them one-to-one into design but also by analyzing them in order to
reflect on the design concepts behind the artifacts being constructed. By
providing examples of workshops conducted, we show a methodology that helps in
exploring the design space and that has the potential of producing more
interesting jumps inside the design space, towards more a satisfying user
experience. Keywords: evaluation, multimodal interaction, participatory design, prototyping, user
centered design | |||
| A multitouch software architecture | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 463-466 | |
| Florian Echtler; Gudrun Klinker | |||
| In recent years, a large amount of software for multitouch interfaces with
various degrees of similarity has been written. In order to improve
interoperability, we aim to identify the common traits of these systems and
present a layered software architecture which abstracts these similarities by
defining common interfaces between successive layers. This provides developers
with a unified view of the various types of multitouch hardware. Moreover, the
layered architecture allows easy integration of existing software, as several
alternative implementations for each layer can co-exist. Finally, we present
our implementation of this architecture, consisting of hardware abstraction,
calibration, event interpretation and widget layers. Keywords: architecture, framework, multitouch, widgets | |||
| The effect of group discussions in usability inspection: a pilot study | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 467-470 | |
| Asbjørn Følstad | |||
| How do group discussions affect the output of a usability inspection, as
compared to individual evaluators only? This question was investigated in
association with usability inspections of a music community website. Potential
users of the website participated as evaluators in two usability inspection
sessions. All evaluators made individual predictions prior to group
discussions. Twenty-five percent of the usability issues generated in the group
discussion were new, viz. not predicted by individual evaluators. Also, the
group discussion served to discard or modify the majority of usability issues
predicted by the individual evaluators. The discarded individual predictions
were typically low severity. Keywords: group discussion, usability inspection methods | |||
| Exploring the facebook experience: a new approach to usability | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 471-474 | |
| Jennefer Hart; Charlene Ridley; Faisal Taher; Corina Sas; Alan Dix | |||
| The focus of this paper is to explore social networking sites such as
Facebook in order to understand their recent success and popularity. Recent
developments within Web 2.0 have provided users with more freedom to create
their own unique user experiences. The conflict between traditional usability
methods and user experiences are addressed through carrying out a Heuristic
Evaluation to assess how well Facebook complies with usability guidelines and
by conducting a user study to unveil unique user experiences. The findings of
this study calls for a more holistic method of evaluation that redefines
usability to encompass the user experience in line with future technology. Keywords: Facebook, evaluation, social networking sites, usability, user experience,
web 2.0 | |||
| Cross-workplace perspectives: relating studies from hospitals to an oil and gas workplace | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 475-478 | |
| Clint Heyer; Ingeborg Grønning | |||
| This discussion paper highlights how two apparently contrasting professions
-- an oil and gas refinery operator and a hospital nurse -- share similar
properties in how they collaborate, communicate and use artifacts. We relate
literature on the nursing and hospital contexts with observations and data from
our own workplace study at a refinery in Norway. In doing so, we seek to
provide an introduction to a context that is not often encountered in CSCW or
CHI literature, through the lens of the more familiar hospital setting. Keywords: collaboration, cooperative work, oil and gas, pervasive computing, workplace
study | |||
| Taking stock of user interface history | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 479-482 | |
| Anker Helms Jørgensen | |||
| The user interface is coming of age and papers addressing UI history have
appeared in fair amounts in the last 25 years. Most of them address particular
aspects such as an innovative interface paradigm or the contribution of a
visionary or a research lab. Contrasting this, papers addressing UI history at
large have been sparse -- and they primarily address the predominant GUI and
Web interface paradigms and their forerunners. However, a small spate of
publications have appeared recently so we now have a reasonable number of
papers. Hence this work-in-progress takes stock of the current history of user
interfaces at large. The paper first describes a theoretical framework drawn
from history. Next the paper analyses a selected sample of papers on UI history
at large. The analysis shows that the current state-of-art is featured by three
aspects: Firstly internalism, in that the papers address the technologies in
their own right with little contextualization, secondly whiggism in that they
largely address prevailing UI technologies, and thirdly history from above in
that they focus on the great deeds of the visionaries. The paper then compares
this state-of-art in UI history to the much more mature fields history of
computing and history of technology. Based hereon, some speculations regarding
the future of UI history are offered. Keywords: HCI history, history of computing, history of technology, user interface
history | |||
| Mobile empathy: putting the mobile device in its user's shoes | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 483-486 | |
| Andreas Komninos; Robert Wallace; Peter Barrie | |||
| Discovering the user's current physiological state allows a mobile device to
self-adapt its behavior in such a manner that the services it provides to the
user are delivered using the optimal modalities for the current circumstances.
Furthermore, interpretations of the user's physiological state might allow its
translation into an emotional state and emotional context awareness, which can
opens the door to a new range of pervasive personal services. In this paper, we
investigate the possibility of making a mobile device aware of where it is
being worn on a users' body. We also propose an algorithm to allow the mobile
device to understand its user's current level of activity without the
requirement for strategically positioned sensors. This type of context
awareness may enable us to design better interruption and alerting strategies,
as well as informing the intelligent choice of interaction modalities on behalf
of the device. Keywords: context awareness, embedded sensors, gait analysis | |||
| Psychologically structured approach to user experience in games | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 487-490 | |
| Jeppe Komulainen; Jari Takatalo; Miikka Lehtonen; Göte Nyman | |||
| User experience (UX) in digital games has recently become a common topic of
research. Despite association between psychology and experiences is clear,
results have often been inadequately explicated by using psychological terms.
In this study we explore the variety of experiences (i.e. positive and
negative) that are received from playing digital games. The main aim is to
integrate gamers' descriptions of their UX to theoretical constructs in
psychology to reach a more analytic approach to the topic. The results
suggested that user experiences are versatile in nature but they consist of
four major constructs: cognition, motivation, emotion and focused attention. In
addition to the main findings, gender was related on how gaming was
experienced. As a conclusion, this study offers a solid and empirical-based
terminology for communicating about UX in games. Also, the results can be
utilized in developing models and measurement tools for UX in games in future. Keywords: digital games, flow, gaming experience, presence | |||
| InfoTouch: an explorative multi-touch visualization interface for tagged photo collections | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 491-494 | |
| Per Ola Kristensson; Olof Arnell; Annelie Björk; Nils Dahlbäck; Joackim Pennerup; Erik Prytz; Johan Wikman; Niclas Åström | |||
| We report on a design exploration into how a large multi-touch tabletop
display can be used for information visualization. We designed an interface
where users explored a tagged photo collection by bi-manual manipulation of the
collections' tag cloud. User feedback showed that despite the availability of
multi-touch most of the actual interactions were single-touch. However, some
particular natural actions, such as grabbing the tag cloud and partitioning it
into two parts, were often carried with both hands. Thus our user study
indicates that multi-touch can act as a useful complementary interaction method
in information visualization interfaces. Keywords: information visualization, interaction surfaces, multi-touch, photo
browsing, photo collections, tag clouds, tagging, tags, visualization | |||
| Consolidating usability problems with novice evaluators | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 495-498 | |
| Effie Lai-Chong Law; Ebba Thora Hvannberg | |||
| The process of consolidating usability problems (UPs) is an integral part of
usability evaluation involving multiple users/analysts. However, little is
known about the mechanism of this process and its effects on evaluation
outcomes, which presumably influence how developers redesign the system of
interest. We conducted an exploratory research study with ten novice evaluators
to examine how they performed when merging UPs in the individual and
collaborative setting and how they drew consensus. Our findings indicate that
collaborative merging causes the absolute number of UPs to deflate, and
concomitantly the frequency of certain UP types as well as their severity
ratings to inflate excessively. It can be attributed to the susceptibility of
novice evaluators to persuasion in a negotiation setting, and thus they tended
to aggregate UPs leniently. Such distorted UP attributes may mislead the
prioritization of UPs for fixing and thus result in ineffective system
redesign. Keywords: confidence, consensus building, downstream utility, evaluator effect,
filtering, merging, severity, usability problems | |||
| Documenting the ordinary: mobile digital photography as an agent of change in people's practices concerning storing and sharing of photography | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 499-502 | |
| Kirsti Lehtimäki; Taina Rajanti | |||
| Our research looks at sharing and storing of digital photographs from the
cultural-anthropological perspective of people's everyday practices. Our case
study was conducted within the Celtic-funded project EnComPas
http://encompas.org/, which studied possibilities of supporting the
communication needs of communities, especially families and home. In a study
conducted in Arabianranta, Helsinki, we first mapped families' practices of
storing and sharing traditional photographs through semi-structured interviews;
then studied the changes introduced by digital technology and especially mobile
phone's camera technology through trials and renewed interviews. Notable was
the developed practice of documenting ordinary life, and telling stories with
images, confirmed by other research.
Ordinary life is documented mostly with the immediate aim of strengthening communication within a family or a group. The sheer amount of images accumulated creates demands on photo-storing and -- sharing applications, which we still feel are not the focus of designers and developers: people want to tell stories with the pictures, and are not interested in complicated annotating, organizing or rating systems. Keywords: cameraphones, digital photography, practices of storing and sharing digital
photographs, social uses of photography | |||
| How online communities support human values | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 503-506 | |
| Michael Leitner; Peter Wolkerstorfer; Manfred Tscheligi | |||
| With our work we refer to value-sensitive and value-centered design
approaches to answer the question "why" people join online communities. We
conducted qualitative semi-structured Laddering interviews with 21 participants
to identify relevant behavior motives for the use of online communities. We
identified friendship, self-reflection and information purposes as the most
relevant motives. Further, we demonstrate that in the users' experience online
communities serve as information pools of social networks used for
self-identification and self-reflection. Keywords: human values, laddering interviews, means-end chains, online communities,
user experience, value-centered design | |||
| Using tactons to provide navigation cues in pedestrian situations | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 507-510 | |
| Ming-Wei Lin; Yun-Maw Cheng; Wai Yu | |||
| Until recently, the existing navigation services do not meet the needs in
pedestrian situation. The display of present navigation information is often
inappropriate. In this paper, we report two experiments to investigate whether
using tactile display to present navigation information is sufficient and
appropriate in pedestrian situation. The result of those experiments showed
that Tactons could be a successful means of communicating navigation
information in user interfaces in pedestrian situations. Keywords: Tactons, non-visual interaction, pedestrian navigation, tactile displays,
tactile icons | |||
| Treating and teaching aesthetics as personality | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 511-514 | |
| Sus Lundgren | |||
| The environment changes direction fast
Thinking like a pen flies Through the wall the headache is thrown My fear is created by you others I should have tasted freedom I call out This is not the anguished work of some angst-ridden young poet; instead it is the result of a conversation between a group of digital personalities, manifested as dolls trapped in an elevator, but also in graphics, in words and wording, in gestures and in relations and reactions. The system is called Physical Poets, and the creation of it was a workshop aiming at teaching interaction design students how to reason about, and make, aesthetic decisions. In this project, we taught one possible view on aesthetics, namely the view that when designing complex systems, it can sometimes help to assign a "personality" to the system in order to make all aspects of it merge together to an unified set of expressions and behaviors. By designing actual personalities -- the poets -- this concept was highlighted to the students, as were the issues with expressing these personalities and making sound aesthetical decisions fitting both their personalities and the system as a whole. Keywords: aesthetics, didactics, interaction design, pedagogy, physical poets | |||
| Urban planning and ubicomp design: do we need to extend legally enforced participation? | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 515-518 | |
| Tonja Molin-Juustila; Johanna Nuojua; Kari Kuutti | |||
| The paper attempts to open a discussion on user participation in the new
situation, where information technology penetrates everyday and becomes part of
our physical environment. Participation in the planning of built environment is
legally enforced in urban planning, and the paper asks, if the participation in
the design of ubicomp environments should be treated in a similar way. Keywords: IT design, participatory design tradition, social responsibility, ubicomp,
user advocacy, user involvement | |||
| Designing user interaction with robots swarms in emergency settings | | BIBA | Full-Text | 519-522 | |
| Amir M. Naghsh; Chris R. Roast | |||
| In this paper, we describe the development processes adopted for effective
human centred design in the context of developing a human robot interface. The
human robot interaction context is that of a working with a swarm of autonomous
robots being developed to assist the process of search and rescue as carried
out by fire fighters.
The paper illustrates an approach to early design evaluation motivated by user centred design objectives. The conclusion from the study illustrates the value of early experiential feedback. In particular we show that the complex nature of professional practice in the high risk settings has significant influences upon the fitness for purpose. | |||
| Impact of English regional accents on user acceptance of voice user interfaces | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 523-526 | |
| Andreea Niculescu; George M. White; See Swee Lan; Ratna Utari Waloejo; Yoko Kawaguchi | |||
| In this paper we present an experiment addressing a critical issue in Voice
User Interface (VUI) design, namely whether the user acceptance can be improved
by having recorded voice prompts imitate his/her regional dialect. The claim
was tested within a project aiming to develop voice animated virtual help desk
assistants for intelligent mobile phone interfaces. 64 subjects native
Singaporeans participated in the experiment, ranking speech quality,
politeness, dialogue easiness and trustworthiness for two virtual help desk
assistants: one speaking with Singaporean accent, the other one speaking with
British accent. Contrary to our expectation and despite the identical content
of the information presented the British accented assistant was in all
categories higher ranked than its Singaporean counterpart. This result is
explained by other cultural and psychological biases that dominate the expected
effect of common ethnic background. We concluded that subjective preference for
a voice accent obviously affects users perception of other system features but
design stereotypes like "similarity attracts" are rather context dependent. Keywords: VUI, design stereotypes, intelligent mobile phone interfaces, regional
accents | |||
| Unencumbered 3D interaction with see-through displays | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 527-530 | |
| Alex Olwal | |||
| Augmented Reality (AR) systems that employ user-worn display and sensor
technology can be problematic for certain applications as the technology might,
for instance, be encumbering to the user or limit the deployment options of the
system. Spatial AR systems instead use stationary displays that provide
augmentation to an on-looking user. They could avoid issues with damage,
breakage and wear, while enabling ubiquitous installations in unmanned
environments, through protected display and sensing technology.
Our contribution is an exploration of compatible interfaces for public AR environments. We investigate interactive technologies, such as touch, gesture and head tracking, which are specifically appropriate for spatial optical see-through displays. A prototype system for a digital museum display was implemented and evaluated. We present the feedback from domain experts, and the results from a qualitative user study of seven interfaces for public spatial optical see-through displays. Keywords: 3D, augmented reality, gesture, interaction, interface, mixed reality, pose,
public display, see-through, spatial display, touch | |||
| Talking about hearing: designing from users' problematisations | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 531-534 | |
| Malene Patsche Kjeldsen; Ben Matthews | |||
| In this paper, we present a set of design explorations that are intended to
reify issues that we have discovered in the course of design research project
concerning technologies for the hearing impaired. We briefly describe the field
studies we conducted, and present some of the issues that were uncovered in our
investigation of how hearing impaired persons problematise their hearing. From
our data we developed concepts, the purpose of which was to make these issues
visible and tangible. In this way we attempt to use design as a vehicle for
realising issues, rather than as a means of necessarily addressing or solving
them. The conceptualisation of the issues from the data contrasts with how
hearing difficulties are typically problematised as an issue for technological
solution. Keywords: conceptualization, design, hearing aids, hearing-impaired technology,
problematisation, provotypes | |||
| Evaluating web site accessibility: validating the WAI guidelines through usability testing with disabled users | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 535-538 | |
| Dagfinn Rømen; Dag Svanæs | |||
| The purpose of the reported study has been to validate empirically the
usefulness of using the WAI accessibility guidelines WCAG 1.0 as a heuristic
for website accessibility. Through controlled usability tests of two websites
with disabled users (N=7) and a control group (N=6) we found that only 27% of
the identified website accessibility problems could have been identified
through the use of WCAG. We conclude from this that in its current version, the
application of WCAG alone is not sufficient to guarantee website accessibility.
WCAG has a large potential for improvement, and our data point to some problem
areas that we suggest should be included. We recommend that future versions of
accessibility guidelines should be based on empirical data and validated
empirically. Keywords: WCAG, accessibility, guidelines, usability, usability testing, validation | |||
| Setting up a public participation project using the urban mediator tool: a case of collaboration between designers and city planners | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 539-542 | |
| Joanna Saad-Sulonen; Andrea Botero Cabrera | |||
| The Urban Mediator software is a web-based framework for sharing, obtaining
and gathering location-based information. This paper presents an overview of
the possibilities and limitations of this system for end-user development and
co-design. The issues are analyzed through the case study of a public citizen
participation project that used the software and was set up in collaboration
between designers from the University of Art and Design Helsinki, and planners
from the City of Helsinki Planning Department, during spring 2008. The
collaborative work between the design team and the city planners, as well as
the flexible and extensible features of the Urban Mediator, enabled the setting
up of a successful small scale urban planning participative project as well as
the further development of the Urban Mediator system. Keywords: co-design, design in-use, end user development, locative media, public
participation, research and development | |||
| GeoPoke: rotational mechanical systems metaphor for embodied geosocial interaction | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 543-546 | |
| Steven Strachan; Roderick Murray-Smith | |||
| Rotational dynamic system models can be used to enrich tightly-coupled,
bearing-aware embodied control of movement-sensitive mobile devices and support
a more bidirectional, negotiated style of interaction. A simulated rotational
spring system is used to provide natural eyes-free feedback in both the audio
and haptic channels in a geosocial mobile networking context. Keywords: accelerometer, mobile, mobile spatial interaction, multimodal, rotational
dynamics, tilt-input, vibrotactile | |||
| Tangible handimation real-time animation with a sequencer-based tangible interface | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 547-550 | |
| Anders Svensson; Staffan Björk; Karl-Petter Åkesson | |||
| In this paper, we present the development of Tangible Handimation, a
sequencer-inspired animation system for recording and playback of whole or
individual parts of animations through direct manipulation and tangible
interfaces. The development of the system from a keyboard and mouse set-up,
Handimation, is described including a workshop with professionals. Users
reported the system as enabling real-time performances and making the animation
process more democratic, and based upon their input support for imminent
feed-forward information was added to the design. Keywords: animation, interaction design, tangible handimation, tangible user
interfaces | |||
| Accessible real-world tagging through audio-tactile location markers | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 551-554 | |
| Martin Tomitsch; Richard Schlögl; Thomas Grechenig; Christoph Wimmer; Thomas Költringer | |||
| Real-world tagging technologies, such as RFID or visual codes, have enabled
new application scenarios that foster mobile interaction with the physical
world. While the application scenarios are promising for many contexts, the
technologies are currently lacking accessibility. Especially blind and visually
impaired people are not able to interact with tags if they are not aware of
their presence. We propose audio-tactile location markers as a remedy to this
problem. An audible signal leads users to the tag, which can be identified
through tactile exploration. Preliminary user studies with four blindfolded
subjects using an initial prototype showed the applicability of using an
audible signal for locating tags. Keywords: NFC, assistive technologies, blind, locating, near field communication,
tagging, visually impaired | |||
| Measuring bodily responses to virtual faces with a pressure sensitive chair | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 555-559 | |
| Toni Vanhala; Veikko Surakka; Jenni Anttonen | |||
| The present aim was to study emotion related body movement responses using
an unobtrusive measurement chair that is embedded with electromechanical film
(EMFi) sensors. 30 participants viewed images of a male and a female computer
agent while the magnitude and direction of body movements were measured. The
facial expressions (i.e., frowning, neutral, smiling) and the size of the
agents were varied. The results showed that participants leaned statistically
significantly longer towards the agent when it displayed a frowning or a
smiling expression as compared to a neutral expression. Also, their body
movements were reduced while viewing the agents. The results suggest that the
EMFi chair is a promising tool for detecting human activity related to social
and emotional behaviour. In particular, the EMFi chair may support unobtrusive
measurement of bodily responses in less strictly controlled contexts of
human-computer interaction. Keywords: affective computing, approach and withdrawal motivation, body movements,
non-invasive sensors, virtual embodied agents | |||
| Reflecting on the design process of the Affective Diary | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 559-564 | |
| Anna Ståhl; Kristina Höök | |||
| Affective Diary is a digital diary that makes use of bio-sensors to add some
reminiscence of bodily experiences. The design process behind Affective Diary
was 'sensitive' to three design qualities extracted from a previous project;
providing cues of emotional expressivity building on familiarity, making the
design open for personal expressivity and be aware of contradictions between
modalities. Through the design process of Affective Diary, with frequent user
involvements during the process, these design qualities became further tested,
developed and refined. By providing a fairly detailed and reflected description
of the design process behind Affective Diary, we aim to provide other designers
with inspiration on several levels: both in terms of methods used, but also in
why these three design qualities are important and how to realize them. Our aim
is also to provide designers with knowledge in the form that makes sense to
designers: the practical link between design qualities and final results. Keywords: affective interaction, design process, interaction design | |||
| Design process: design rationale the Affective Diary | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 565-566 | |
| Lars Hallnäs | |||
| This note is a critical review of some aspects of the design case presented
in Reflecting on the Design Process of the Affective Diary, Proceedings of
NordiCHI2008. Keywords: design critique, interaction design | |||
| On the use of diaries | | BIBA | Full-Text | 567 | |
| Ylva Gislén | |||
| As a teenager I used to have an on-going discussion with one of my closest friend on the habit of keeping diaries. She did and I didn't, and to my defence against accusations of emotional sloppiness I usually ended up referring to the Norwegian author Aksel Sandemose (whom we both admired) who once wrote an essay against keeping diaries. He insists that the mere accounting of events and the daily reflections in the diary risk to halter and disregard the creative, selective and never-ending process of memory at work. | |||
| PLANKS: a computational composite | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 569-574 | |
| Anna Vallgårda | |||
| What is a computer in interactive architecture and smart materials? How can
we articulate the computer in order to be in sync with the design space it
populates in these contexts? The design experiment presented here entails
creating a physical manifestation of a computational composite -- a concept
used to articulate the computer as a material for design. The experiment is
meant to explore part of the expressional landscape available through this
material composite perspective. In the experiment, it is especially the
computers ability to redefine established cause-and-effects between materials
and their environments just as it is the computers ability to create a discrete
dependence on contextual factors installing an explicit element of temporal
form, which are explored. Keywords: computational composites, design, experiment, expressions, materials, wood | |||
| Computational composites and/or interfaces?: a critical discussion of the design case "Planks: A Computational Composite" | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 575-576 | |
| Søren Pold | |||
| This paper is a critical discussion of the design case "Planks: A
Computational Composite" [1] Keywords: aesthetics, computational composties, expressions, interface, materials,
wood | |||
| Planks: a computational composite: a critique essay | | BIBA | Full-Text | 577-578 | |
| Ida Engholm | |||
| Historically, science and art are pursued on different terms and considered separate epistemological categories, but in the field of design, reality often creates a practical integration of the two. Design is science and art, and in the linking of scientific and artistic contributions under common views, their relations are clarified and made visible. The design case "Planks: A Computational Composite", which is included in the NordiCHI conference 2008, combines a scientific approach to design with a craft-oriented and artistically focused exploration. The case sets out to explore the computer as a unique material for design through a study of the expressive potentials of the material. The case defines the theoretical foundation for understanding computers as a design material by mapping the structure and surface of the machine. The study is based on a scientific analysis of computers and introduces an understanding of the mechanisms and potentials of digital computers, which are defined as "computational composites" (p. 2). Furthermore, the case describes a research-based experiment that combines computation with experiments in wood in an effort to challenge the normal responses of the material, and which uses computation to bring a more poetic dimension to the expression of the composite. | |||
| Bringing the web to the shop floor | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 579-580 | |
| Monika Andersson; Maria Nordmark | |||
| As consumers expect multichannel integration, retailers need to adapt to
meet these expectations. To this end, many retailers are implementing
multichannel marketing strategies. (Forrester Research, Inc., 2008) The re-use
of structure and content from an existing online shop as an in-store sales tool
therefore becomes an attractive proposal. If done successfully, total sales
will increase. The challenge is knowing what to keep, tweak, remove or add to
ensure the customer experience is retained in-store. By using a combination of
qualitative field studies backed up by quantitative data, we adapted the online
shop of a large national Swedish sports retailer to an in-store electronic
kiosk. In the process, we discovered that the website had to be adjusted to its
new environment with regards to both functionality and design. The physical
aspect of the kiosk added 'invitation to interaction' and 'reliability' to the
list of crucial considerations. Our experience shows that it is possible to use
an existing online shop as an in-store sales tool -- provided particulars of
the socially and architecturally situated retail environment are taken into
account. Keywords: contextual design, interaction, retail, user experience | |||
| Virtual prototype visualization: a size perception study | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 581-582 | |
| Emmanuelle Combe; Javier Posselt; Andras Kemeny | |||
| In this experiment, carried out at Renault, we studied size perception in
virtual environments. We compared 1:1 scale perception of a cockpit through two
different virtual reality systems: a Head Mounted Display (HMD), which can be
used as virtual or augmented reality system, and a cylindrical screen vs. the
physical 1:1 scale. We show that differences exist between size perception
using the HMD, and using the cylindrical screen. Keywords: augmented reality, automotive industry, scale perception, vehicle design,
virtual reality | |||
| The MESH mobile video annotation tool | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 583-584 | |
| Pedro Concejero; Jorge Munuera; Mirko Lorenz | |||
| In this paper we describe the MESH Mobile Video Annotation tool, which
provides a solution for a mobile user to make annotations of video files stored
in his/her mobile device, using MESH ontology, in addition to free-text or
manual annotations.
This document presents a description of the technological platform chosen (Java in the mobile, or J2ME), a usage scenario of video annotation in the mobile and a detailed description of the user evaluation carried out. Keywords: mobile annotation, semantic web, video annotation | |||
| Comba: customizing hardware as an approach towards universal design | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 585-586 | |
| Manuel Großmann | |||
| Digital products, especially mobile phones, often do not adapt to their
operators and thus make their use a burden rather than a pleasure. In this
paper I will present Comba, a tangible digital device that allows easy
customization and therefore adapts to different user needs. Its functionality
refers to a construction kit. The single elements are inspired by a honeycomb.
So far, Comba is a design prototype. Keywords: PDA, hardware customization, interaction design, mobile devices, mobile
phones, universal design, user-friendly design | |||
| Industrial experience: evaluating novel interaction styles | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 587-588 | |
| Tove Jaensson; Annika Voss | |||
| A user study, with ten participants and three prototypes built on
3D-accelerometers in mobile phones was executed with Think Aloud method,
Brainstorming sessions, and DV documentation. McCarthy & Wright's 'Four Threads
of Experience' was used as a framework for analysis of the material. The
methods were very well suited for the purpose of the project, and the results
of the study is encouraging in further design and development of mobile
services with new interaction styles. Keywords: HCI in industry, motion based interaction, user study | |||
| Development of user-driven research methods as the starting point for living lab activities | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 589-590 | |
| Satu Luojus; Olli Vilkki | |||
| The pedagogical starting point for developing instruction in digital media
was to produce new competence. The outcome of the development work was a
teaching model that follows the user-driven design process, with the aim of
providing students with the ability to act as developers of product development
and innovation processes in their fields. The study entity forms a dual
innovation model comprised of: (1) a continuous method development test bed,
and (2) the application of competence to the partnership network's R&D
projects. The innovation environment User Driven Innovation Centre (UnIC) was
created user-driven and Living Lab-based research methods. Our research and
method competence is utilised in several R&D projects implemented with business
and network partners. Keywords: design research methods, higher education, living lab, user centered design | |||
| Gate reviews and usability | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 591-592 | |
| Joakim Lööv | |||
| Most development processes are divided into phases. Often, to go from one
phase to the next, the project must pass a gate review. Usability can be a gate
review checklist item, by applying accepted procedures for subjective
assessment. The measurement would give numerical estimates of the usability
state of the different parts of the product, based on the level of evaluation
performed, combined with the importance of each functional group. Keywords: assessment, gate review, numerical, usability | |||
| Usability supporting architecture pattern for industry | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 593-594 | |
| Pia Stoll; Fredrik Alfredsson; Sara Lövemark | |||
| Traditionally software qualities as e.g. performance have been considered
important to implement early in the software system architecture. The usability
quality implementation has been done late or, if considered early in the
software architecture, then often as a separation between presentation and
execution layers. However there are usability concerns requiring early
implementation in the software architecture not solved merely by separation.
Usability supporting architecture patterns (USAPs) have been shown to provide
developers with useful guidance for producing an architectural design that
supports usability for these concerns, [1]. This experience report introduces
the USAPs in an industrial context. Keywords: HCI, human-computer interaction, software architecture, usability | |||