| Cooperative Design Perspectives on 20 years with "the Scandinavian IT Design Model" | | BIBA | ||
| Susanne Bødker; Pelle Ehn; Dan Sjogren; Yngve Sundblad | |||
| The authors were all involved in the 'seminal' Utopia project, 1981-85, where Co-operative Design methodology, involving users very early in the design process, had an early development and application in the use of computers. | |||
| CHI and Human Thinking | | BIBAK | ||
| Peter Naur | |||
| Descriptions of the human mental activity found in current CHI literature
are found to suffer from defects derived from behaviorist psychology. A case of
alternative description, building on classical, introspective psychology, is
shown to present insight highly relevant to the design of human-computer
interfaces. The view of introspective psychology is characterized by the
jumping-octopus metaphor of the state of consciousness, the site-of-buildings
metaphor of a person's insights, and the splashes-over-the-waves metaphor of a
person's verbal utterances. Introspective psychology indicates the importance
to CHI of habit, of inattentive operation of equipment, of individuality of
imagery, and of individuality of perception of description forms. Keywords: Psychology, behaviorism, stream of thought, association, concept, habit,
perception, imagery | |||
| If IT Can't be Used by All, We Won't Buy ITAccessibility as a criterion for supplier selection | | BIBAK | ||
| Knut Nordbye; Clas Thoren | |||
| In procurements of information and communication technology, accessibility
should be a criterion for awarding of contracts. The products and services to
be procured should be required to satisfy a set of accessibility criteria.
Requirements on the supplier's technical capacity should include knowledge of
and an organisation assigned for accessibility issues. This paper gives
recommendations on supplier requirements. The paper is based on the results of
the EU project ACCENT. Keywords: Accessibility, procurement, supplier selection | |||
| Cooperative Design and Personal Utopias: Opportunities and Challenges for Nordic CHI in a Networked World | | BIBA | ||
| Jonathan Grudin | |||
| For better and worse, the spread of trade and culture is diminishing
regional differences. We move slowly toward a global consensus on basic human
rights, we move more rapidly toward a consensus on fast-food restaurants and
shopping malls. The fact that these trends are probably irreversible makes it
more important to establish and create an accessible record of the diversity
that exists now, to make it part of the practice that is carried forward.
NordiCHI has a singular opportunity to contribute in this way to the field of human-computer interaction. The Nordic countries have a long history of information system design, development, and use. Some digital technologies are more widely used here than anywhere else in the world. In addition, without ignoring the differences among the five countries, there is an unusual degree of cultural homogeneity. The voices in a Nordic gathering are varied, but together they produce a distinct and unique contribution to the international discussion. | |||
| From Action Research to Dialogue design - Mutual Learning as a Guiding Principle | | BIBAK | ||
| Lone Dirckinck-Holmfeld; Janni Nielsen; Oluf Danielsen | |||
| The paper reports on a large European R&D project on Multimedia And Network
In Collaborative Research And Learning (MANICORAL). The project was based on
Dialogue Design (DD), which lies within a frame of Action Research and
Participatory Design. Action Research is seen as the historical basis for two
developments: Participatory Design and Dialogue Research. Participatory Design
has focused on research within working life: professional resource building and
development of alternative technologies, where Dialogue Research has focused on
living conditions: participatory research and proactive technology assessment.
In Dialogue Design, these two strands are brought together. However, Dialogue
Design differs in a number of essential aspects. In Dialogue Design, the
principal object is mutual learning; focus is on the working life of high
resource groups developing parts of the technologies themselves. The methods
applied and the role of the HCI-researcher as mediator who creates a forum for
dialogue are introduced and reflected upon and Dialogue Design is discussed
within the theoretical concepts of communication and learning. Keywords: Dialogue Design, action research, participatory design, communication,
learning, CSCW | |||
| On-Line Reviewing with Change Representation Tools | | BIBAK | ||
| Hee-Cheol (Ezra) Kim | |||
| Change representation concerns how to present changes of text in writing
tools. The Reviewer-Initiative (RI) model of collaborative writing means that
the reviewer revises on-line documents as suggestion of further revision, and
the writer later either accepts or rejects each suggested change. This paper
reports a laboratory study that investigates how people use tools for change
representation under the RI setting. Reviewers made most revisions at a low
level. Paper documents were not used so often. They felt that the commenting
function should be used to complement the limitation of suggestions by change
representation alone. Sense of hurting or being hurt, which can be caused by
direct on-line revision, was little. Reviewers' difficulty of formulating words
was not a great burden, and the process of accepting or rejecting each
suggested change was not a hard decision-making to the writers. There was no
significant difference between the RI on-line reviewing model and the
traditional one with respect to writers' sense of help from reviewers, and
reviewers' understanding of text. Keywords: Change representation, collaborative writing, commenting function, on-line
document, paper, reviewing | |||
| The Design of Interactive Media for Learners in an Organisational Setting - The State of the Art | | BIBAK | ||
| Cecilia Katzeff | |||
| This paper points to the problem of incorporating theoretical learning
concepts into the design of interactive learning media. It reviews some
theoretical accounts for the nature of learning, how the learning process may
be facilitated by instructional design, and some approaches to the design of
software incorporating ideas from instructional and user centred design.
Finally, it points to some future directions in research of IT-supported
learning. Keywords: Interactive media, IT-supported learning, e-learning, constructivist theory,
instructional design, learner-centred-design | |||
| Visitor Oriented Design: Three Studies of Visitor Accommodation and a Call for Action | | BIBAK | ||
| Anders Hedman | |||
| This paper proposes and describes a visitor-oriented perspective emphasizing
the unique needs of visitors of digital environments in contrast to the
user-oriented perspective that emphasizes the needs of users. To do so the term
accommodation is introduced in a technical sense and given a brief explanation.
Results are also reported from three explorative studies of desktop virtual
reality environments. In these studies the visitor-oriented perspective was
adopted and allowed for analyzing how subjects perceived the environments as
places rather than artifacts for use. In comparison to a web site, it was found
that even a rudimentary virtual reality environment can have a positive impact
on visitor regard for information content. Implementing teleports increased the
efficiency of one test environment but it was not found to have a positive
effect on user attitudes to the environment. Many subjects felt that first the
environments was sterile. Another common complaint was about the amount of
walking required in the first environment. Five suggestions are given for
building desktop virtual reality environments that are better received by
visitors. In closing, the visitor-oriented perspective presented here is
briefly discussed in relation to Terry Winograd's writings on software
inhabitants. Keywords: Digital environments, visitor-oriented design, accommodation,
user-orientation, usability, design guidelines | |||
| Usability Testing of Interactive Multimedia Services | | BIBAK | ||
| Ebba Thora Hvannberg; Marta Kristin Larusdottir | |||
| Interactive multimedia services, such as video-on-demand offered to the
public at home need to be tested carefully for usability. The environment as
well as users is heterogeneous and they use different input and output devices
than with a personal computer. User Interface designers need to learn more
about the users, their environment and the hindrances they encounter. Two
service trials were conducted where thirty families had access to
video-on-demand, news-on-demand and worldwide web services for three months.
The users had access to the services via a set-top-box connected to a
television or via a personal computer. The paper describes how three methods:
logging, thinking-aloud and questionnaires were applied as well as their
results. Finally, the experiences from using the methods are discussed. Keywords: Usability tests, interactive services, multimedia, home, high-speed network,
thinking-aloud, access logs, interviews. | |||
| Studying Users for Developing Usable and Useful Products | | BIBAK | ||
| Sari Kujala; Martti Mantyla | |||
| This article presents a framework for studying users in order to support
designers in constructing usable and useful consumer products. The framework is
aimed at designing consumer products for which users cannot be specified in
advance, long lasting observations of users are difficult or impossible to
arrange, and the time frames available are short. We discuss what kind of end
user information is needed, how to gather it, and how to transfer the results
to designers. We applied the developed framework in a case study and found that
it is capable of providing a reasonable depth of knowledge in a short time
frame with low costs. Comments from designers indicate that the methods give
concrete input to design work, such as the necessary feature composition users
need. Finally, we draw out a number of lessons learned. Keywords: User-centred design, user study methods, user requirements, consumer
products | |||
| Designing for Mobility: an Integration Approach to Support Mobile Technologies | | BIBAK | ||
| Christina Nielsen; Astrid Sondergaard | |||
| Based on an empirical study of a wastewater treatment plant we present an
integrated prototype for PCs and PDAs. It supports getting an overview of the
wastewater treatment process and making system information available in the
environment outside the control room. The prototype is build on the
understanding that support for mobile work must be realised through a
combination of different technologies enabling users to meet the changing
demands in a work situation. With the design we seek to reflect the position of
the mobile device in the existing 'web of technology' and show how the concept
of integration can be a driving force in design, allowing us to see
heterogeneous devices as parts of a whole rather than independent entities.
Furthermore, the prototype challenges the notion of working 'anytime,
anywhere', which is presented as an ideal by many (communication)-technology
companies today. Keywords: Mobile computing, mobility, distributed work, integration, user interface
design, "web of technology" | |||
| DeskPanel - A Proximity-Based Information Panel for Locally Mobile Staff | | BIBAK | ||
| Per Dahlberg; Johan Sanneblad | |||
| DeskPanel is a proximity-based information panel helping locally mobile
people to quickly get an overview of centrally stored information, such as
e-mails and tasks. According to user trials, DeskPanel has the potential of
being a useful tool for mobile staff. This paper outlines the rationale,
design, implementation and user trial of the system. Keywords: Local mobility, Mobile devices, Ubiquitous computing | |||
| mCAT - a Method for Co-ordination Across Technologies | | BIBAK | ||
| Kari Hamnes; Silja Nyhus | |||
| In this paper, we discuss the general problem of developing user interfaces
in a multiple-UI paradigm, accentuated by the latest developments in mobile and
handheld interaction and new interaction technologies. The review section
discusses the specific problem of consistency across alternative user
interfaces (using different interaction technologies) for the same application.
Having identified the need for a method for co-ordinating user interfaces
across interaction technologies, a set of interviews and a case study are used
to identify further requirements and to derive a first-pass evaluation method.
The mCAT method (method for C o-ordination A cross T echnologies) uses
consistency analysis as a tool for co-ordinating alternative user interfaces
across interaction technologies. Finally, the paper discusses preliminary
results and outlines future work to evaluate and further develop the mCAT
method. Keywords: Multiple-UI development, handheld interaction, mobile devices, PDA,
consistency | |||
| The Effect of Mental Models Guiding Users' Action in Mobile Phone Answering Situations | | BIBAK | ||
| Kati Hyyppa Sakari Tamminen; Ismo Hautala; Lauri Repokari | |||
| This study was interested in the answering keys of a mobile phone,
especially the SEND key. The goal of this study was to find out how the mental
model of a certain kind of mobile phone keypad affects behaviour in a situation
where a user has to answer calls with previously unknown mobile phones. In this
study the participant's task was to answer calls while performing an attention
consuming secondary task. Three different kind of phones were used and the
location and the amount of perceptual information provided by the answering
keys varied in each phone. It was predicted that errors would occur if the
layout of the answering keys was not consistent with the participants mental
model. The results of the two main user groups supported this hypothesis. It
can be concluded that users' pre-existing mental models concerning keypad can
be quite strong and should be taken into account when designing the function
keys of a mobile phone. Keywords: Mobile phone, SEND and END keys, keypad layout, mental model | |||
| An Action Control but no Action: Users Dismiss Single-Handed Navigation on PDAs | | BIBAK | ||
| Magnus Jacobsson; Mikael Goldstein; Mikael Anneroth; Jost Werdenhoff; Didier Chincholle | |||
| Many PDAs have controls designed to be used by the hand holding the device.
If employed to a greater extent, these controls could enable single-handed
navigation. To explore this, we implemented a prototype, PowerView, on the
Casio Cassiopeia E-11 and evaluated it for usability against the standard
(Windows CE) application bundle of the device using 16 subjects in a
repeated-measurement design with seven information retrieval tasks. Subjects
systematically dismissed single-handed navigation even when exposed to a
condition where two-handed navigation was strenuous: standing, holding a
cordless phone while simultaneously using the Cassiopeia. Neither
effectiveness, efficiency, optimum path choice, mental workload ratings nor
attitudes differed significantly between interfaces. Possible reasons for the
results, including observed Einstellung effects, are discussed. Keywords: Personal Digital Assistant, Einstellung, Mechanization, interface design,
usability evaluation, usage, single-handed navigation, information
visualization, information linking, Action Control. | |||
| Ethnographic Fieldwork under Industrial Constraints: Towards Design-in-Context | | BIBAK | ||
| Werner Sperschneider; Kirsten Bagger | |||
| In this paper, we discuss ethnographic fieldwork as a research technique for
user centred design in the industry. We take a look at the original meaning of
fieldwork in ethnography, and discuss how ethnographically inspired fieldwork
can enrich research and data gathering in a participatory design setting.
The ethnographer in his field seeks to 'go native'. But in an industrial setting there is neither time nor resources for prolonged engagement with users. Is there a 'quick and dirty' version of 'going native'? We present five cases of video based research techniques from our own practice as examples of a participant observation research strategy, and discuss how it is possible to move beyond observation. The ethnographer seeks to understand the world as it is. The designer wants to change it through introducing new products. Is there a way to study the changes to come? Of involving users in design in their own work context? We will introduce what we have termed 'Design-in-Context' through two cases of user involvement. Keywords: Participatory design, design-in-context, field study, ethnographic fieldwork | |||
| The Personal Bucket Organizer: Supporting Spatially Distributed Interaction on a Waste Water Plant | | BIBAK | ||
| Tomas Sokoler; Thomas Binder; Jorn Nilsson; Nina Wetcke | |||
| The work of process plant operators involves continuously shifting between
interaction with physical objects distributed throughout the plant and
interaction with the digital representations of these same objects. These
shifts between interaction domains are poorly supported by the centralized
control room structure usually applied in process plants. We describe a
system designed to smooth the transition between the two domains of
interaction. The "Personal Bucket Organizer" system is designed to support
flexible and spatially distributed interaction with the plant through the use
of a custom built handheld personal device hereafter named the Pucketizer. The
Pucketizer design introduces the use of a Bucket metaphor as its organizing
principle. The Pucketizer enables the user to, while walking around on the
plant, a) establish digital links to objects on the plant, b) Audio annotate
objects on the plant, c) Monitor the state of objects on the plant. The
Pucketizer was designed with the active participation of operators working on a
local waste water plant. Keywords: Spatially Distributed User Interfaces, Augmented Reality, Ubiquitous
Computing, Mobile Computing, Work Oriented Design | |||
| Localisation, Orientation and Recognition of Alarms: A Comparison between Three Alarm Systems in Use | | BIBAK | ||
| Marcus Sanchez Svensson; Hans Tap; Astrid Selling Sjoberg | |||
| This paper documents a study at three dialysis departments on the use of
different alarm systems. The design of the alarm systems is to some extent in
line with the visions of augmented reality and ubiquitous computing. Our study
has raised a range of questions which we think are relevant for the research on
how to embed technology in users' environment. We will address how the
properties of the specific alarm systems, concerted in the local physical
environment of the dialysis department, affords the localisation, orientation
and recognition of alarms. In this paper, localisation is about the ways in
which the nurses exactly locate where the alarm comes from and orientation is
how the nurses orientate themselves towards the alarm in a more imprecise way.
Recognition is about how the nurses notice that there is an alarm in the first
place and if there are multiple alarms. Keywords: Localisation, orientation, recognition, alarm system, dialysis department,
ubiquitous computing, computer augmented environments | |||
| View vs. Overview - Visualizing Hierarchical Data in Desktop Virtual Reality | | BIBA | ||
| David K. Modjeska | |||
| Despite the popularity of 3D environments and the high degree of engagement that they seem to provide, empirical validation of their benefits for task performance remain elusive. For future design, perhaps a solution would be to develop a prototype that combines the engagement of flythrough with the efficiency of map-view? As VR hardware improves and decreases in cost, new possibilities will certainly arise. The study of methods to improve task efficiency and enjoyment in this domain is an exciting new area for research and development. This paper demonstrates that different desktop VR designs show significant differences in performance and enjoyment, and that the use of 3D environments may not always be beneficial. | |||
| Every Object Tells a Story: Physical Interfaces for Digital Storytelling | | BIBAK | ||
| Lars Erik Holmquist; Magnus Helander; Steve Dixon | |||
| We have designed a novel interface for interactive storytelling, where users
manipulate physical objects to access various portions of a narrative. The
story is designed so that the physical artefacts play meaningful parts in the
narrative, thus blurring the line between story and interface. In informal
tests and demonstrations users found the interaction easy to understand, thus
indicating this could be a promising way to increase user involvement in
interactive narrative. Keywords: Interactive narrative, tangible interfaces, multimedia | |||
| Contextual Virtual Reality Prototyping: Co-operative User-Centered Design Using Distributed Simulations | | BIBA | ||
| Tony Manninen | |||
| The Contextual Virtual Reality Prototyping with the corresponding
demonstration indicates that there is true potential in a game engine such as
Unreal - even for completely different markets than the traditional network
games. All the tools of the application are integrated in the same package, so
it requires small effort to create prototypes such as the one described in this
paper. Furthermore, the increasingly important multiplayer aspect makes it is
possible to test how several simultaneous users would use the product in a
specific place, when interacting with the world and with each other.
The Contextual VRP provides the designers a way to enlarge their field-of-vision by adding the use environment and context to the prototypes. With the proposed approach, the product can be tried out and demonstrated in the corresponding environment that includes other users. Furthermore, the evaluation of the concept requires less cognitive load in terms of figuring out the real-world counterparts of the VRP interactions. | |||
| Communities of Conflict or Conversation? Online Discources in a Web-Gallery | | BIBA | ||
| Lars Svensson; Carsten Sorensen; Hanna Fagerlind; Tomas Lindroth | |||
| In the summer of 1999 a web-site containing the work of the Swedish artist photographer Elisabeth Olsson was published on the web, (www.eccehomo.nu). The 12 pictures displaying Jesus Christ in a homosexual context, had previously travelled across Europe leaving a trail of public debate and strong feelings. The website was built by researchers at Laboratorium, and a research project monitored all interaction during the first 6 months. The site received extensive mass media attention resulting in approximately 200 000 visitors during the time of the study. Each exposure of the site in national or international press resulted in significant short-term peaks in the access log files. For example the article in the culture section of "Wired news" (Kriz, Wired News 1999), within 1 hour resulted in 3000 hits on the start page. | |||
| Genres and Design Considerations of iTV Cases | | BIBA | ||
| Stefan Holmlid; Mattias Arvola; Fredrik Ampler | |||
| With the marriage between computers and television a combination of practices and theories from both human-computer interaction and mass communication is needed to consistently and efficiently produce and design interactive television, iTV. This paper relates use qualities to the mass communication concept of genres in the light of two iTV design cases. | |||
| Coordination through Focused Media Spaces | | BIBA | ||
| Maria Normark | |||
| Since distributed work settings are becoming more and more common, research
has been made on finding suitable ways for supporting awareness among
distributed participants. One part of this is the media space research, which
is aiming at supporting informal awareness through opening up a common space
through video and/or audio transmissions.
Air traffic control (ATC) work is a complex work setting, the airspace continuously changing with or without the controllers. Since different controllers handle different sectors (parts of the airspace) on the way, there is an extensive need for coordination of the current state of the aircraft soon to be in the next sector. One way to coordinate the latest information is through a video or audio link, which is used in Copenhagen ATC (DK) and Shannon ATC (IE). These two case studies show the usefulness of media spaces for focused purposes in supporting coordination, one show the use of a video link and one show an audio link. understanding of the situation. | |||
| What Makes a Virtual Community Work? | | BIBA | ||
| Daniel Pargman | |||
| Most muds - text-based social virtual environments - are either young or dead. That being so, what makes a mud long-lived? More generally; what makes a (virtual) community hold together, thrive and develop over time? | |||
| Expressing Trust | | BIBA | ||
| Kristiina Karvonen; Ursula Holmstrom | |||
| The key question is, how to deal with the complexity that security
inevitably holds within. How could we guarantee that users can, at the same
time, make a simple yet accurate decision about trust? Should we try to imitate
the real-world trust between people or between people and banks, for example,
or would some other approach be more fruitful? From the user point of view, the
problem areas include the following:
* How can users find out if a service provider is trustworthy?
* How can users get information about security and trust issues?
* How can we motivate the users to care about their security in a positive way,
and not to consider it as a burden? | |||
| Explaining Recommendation through User Groups | | BIBAK | ||
| Jarmo Laaksolahti | |||
| Recommender systems are a specific type of information filtering tools that
have emerged in recent years. Until now research in recommender systems has
been focused on developing algorithms for collaborative filtering, little
effort has gone into considering how users understand recommendations. We
describe a system that visualizes the structure of the user population thereby
making it easier to understand what recommendations are based on and thus
anticipate the effect of your own actions. Keywords: Recommender systems, collaborative filtering, user groups, visualization | |||
| A Study of Mental Workload in Mouse and Keyboard Input | | BIBAK | ||
| Anker H. Jorgensen; Bente R. Jensen; Bjarne Laursen; Anne H. Garde | |||
| The motivation for this paper is the health risks associated with intensive
computer work and the inappropriateness of GUI interfaces for skilled use,
partly due to the extensive demands to visuo-motor coordination. The work
integrates the strong Scandinavian traditions in Occupational Health and
Ergonomics with the traditions of HCI and Human Factors. The paper reports an
exploratory, experimental study of mental workload in intensive input work
using mouse and keyboard, employing subjective and performance measures. The
study shows that the keyboard was significantly superior in a large majority of
the measures. In addition, 11 of 12 subjects preferred the keyboard. Keywords: Mental workload, input devices, mouse, keyboard, Stoop task. | |||
| Individual and Pair Performance in Usability Tests | | BIBA | ||
| Eija Suikola | |||
| Usability tests with a pair of participants have often been recommended to alleviate problems in thinking aloud in single-participant tests. HCI community has been relatively immune to results in distributed cognition indicating that in some situations "two heads are better than one." This would mean that results in usability tests with a pair do not give comparable results to results by individual users. | |||
| Gaining Staff Commitment to User-Centered Design by Performing Usability Assessment - Key Lessons Learned | | BIBA | ||
| Mikko Jamsa; Pekka Abrahamsson | |||
| Uptaking usability engineering activities in software development organization may be hampered or even terminated by the lack of appreciation of their value (Hakiel 1997). Building organizational (management and staff) commitment to usability development is an issue that many authors in usability field have stressed as being one of the greatest challenges. We set out to perform two usability assessments in two different organizations (for details of the project see www.kessu.oulu.fi). One of the goals for the assessment, besides understanding the current status of usability processes, was to gain staff commitment to usability development. This short paper describes the key lessons learned on how the assessment procedure worked as a vehicle to build up staff commitment to usability development. As a basis of our analysis we use Conner and Patterson's (Conner and Patterson 1982) model of commitment development to change despite of its shortcomings (for critical review see (Abrahamsson and Jokela 2000)) because it possesses high value of truthlikeness and it is widely accepted in process improvement field. | |||
| User Study of Video Mediated Communication in the Domestic Environment with Intellectually Disabled Persons | | BIBAK | ||
| Stefan Junestrand; Ulf Keijer; Goran Molin; Konrad Tollmar | |||
| This paper presents a user study of Video Mediated Communication (VMC)
involving six persons with mild intellectual disabilities. It took place at the
"comHOME", a full-scale model of an "apartment of the future", showing
innovative architectural and technical design with regard to the integration of
VMC into the domestic environment. The design concept of the apartment is based
on the creation of private and public digital places in the home expressed both
architecturally and technologically. Two different zones for VMC, "comZONES",
in the apartment were tested, the videoTORSO (a large screen set-up for
informal everyday communication) and the workPLACE (a place for professional
work tasks). The purpose of the study was, at an early design stage, to get a
deeper understanding of how people use these two comZONES. The final discussion
points out that the comZONES seem to be interpreted correctly and to function
aptly in relationship to the participants of the study. Tentatively we might
find an explanation in the fact that spatial recognition probably is a very
fundamental human function, learned and trained for years, and thus, may be
less significant with regard to the mental capacity of the individual. This
might be even more true if the spatial design factors are still less abstract. Keywords: Architecture, ICT, intellectual disability, observation, place, private,
public, space, user studies, VMC, video mediated communication. | |||
| What Does the User do: A tool for Visualising the Novice User's Interaction Relative to Optimum Path | | BIBAK | ||
| Mikael Goldstein; Jost Werdenhoff; Thomas Backstrom | |||
| The generic KeystrokeMapper data visualisation tool proposes a new way of
visualising and annotating novice user behaviour when interacting with an
interface as expressed in the unit keystroke actions. By displaying the Optimum
path keystroke actions when accomplishing a task as a straight diagonal string
of characters, each character representing a keystroke action, and plotting the
novice user's keystroke action path in the same plot, deviating (keystroke)
actions are displayed visually. The KeystrokeMapper tool thus displays a novice
user's navigation path relative to the Optimum path for a particular task. Each
task plot generates a topological user keystroke action map suitable for
qualitative analysis. The KeystrokeMapper tool only exists as a paper-based
mock up. It has not yet been evaluated and does not exist as software. Keywords: Usability, Optimum path, KLM, GOMS, keystroke, data visualisation, novice
user, expert user | |||
| Visualizing Discussion History | | BIBAK | ||
| Jarkko Leponiemi | |||
| The current systems supporting computer-mediated discussion usually provide
only a strict hierarchical structure for the annotations of a discussion.
Applying existing visualization techniques can be used for allowing a more free
and natural structure of annotations. GraffiDis is a discussion system
supporting computermediated asynchronous and synchronous discussion. The
discussions conducted with the system consist of graphical annotations
including text and graphical elements. The history of the discussion is
visualized by fading the older annotations to the background of the discussion.
Using a simple slider a user can browse the history of the discussion forwards
and backwards. This article describes the system and the visualization
technique with the aid of two sample discussions. Based on the experience on
the use of the system it is attested that GraffiDis is especially suitable for
conducting discussions with a clear target to discuss about provided in the
form of a background picture. Keywords: Groupware, visualization, discussion tools, fading | |||
| Interaction styles: An Aesthetic Sense of Direction in Interface Design | | BIBAK | ||
| Trond Are Oritsland; Jacob Buur | |||
| In architecture and industrial design, the concept of style plays a major
role in education as a way of establishing an understanding of visual design
expression.
In this article we claim that interaction design can benefit greatly from an understanding of the concept of style. It can provide designers with strong visions and a sense of direction in designing new interfaces. In particular we focus on Solid User Interface design, i.e. products with small displays and a limited number of keys, because of the tight coupling of interaction and industrial design. We explore style theory and an aesthetic for interaction design and report on an experiment with introducing interaction style thinking in a user centred design practice in industry. Further we open the discussion about parallels between our approach to interaction design and the dominant styles of the 20th century - Scandinavian design in particular. Keywords: Interaction Style, Interaction Design, Quality in Use, Solid User Interface | |||
| Give the Boss a Break from email: Managers and their Communication | | BIBAK | ||
| Olle Balter | |||
| Many employees are depending on their manager's abilities to communicate.
Therefore it is essential that managers master their tools for communication.
This study describes the situation for managers in a company where all
employees had access to and used email for communication. Results show that
managers use email more than telephone. Half of the respondents allowed
incoming email to interrupt other tasks, despite their need for uninterrupted
time. Unwanted carbon copies was considered a problem by the respondents, but
the time spent handling them seems to be neglectable. Keywords: Email, interruptions, carbon copies, managers | |||
| Information Seeking is Social | | BIBAK | ||
| Kaisa Soininen; Eija Suikola | |||
| This study aimed to clarify how social knowledge is used in information
seeking in the Internet. The issue was studied with tasks without one correct
answer. The verbal protocols were categorised according to the subprocesses of
information seeking and indication of use of social knowledge. We found clear
evidence that social knowledge was used when selecting a source or place where
to start looking for the information, while examining the results and
extracting information, and when reflecting and making the decision to iterate
or stop seeking. The results show that people interpret the interaction with
web pages as social situations, use their social knowledge, and actively seek
for social information. Keywords: Information seeking, Internet, social knowledge, social navigation | |||
| Back to Basics: Is a Better Understanding of the Internet a Precursor for Effective Use of the Web? | | BIBAK | ||
| Louise Sheeran; M. Angela Sasse; Jon Rimmer; Ian Wakeman | |||
| Due to the rapid growth of the Internet over the past few years, the profile
of Internet users has changed considerably, growing from a small group of
professionals and experts to a large group of mostly novice and intermediate
users. Since the Internet is a best-effort service, high levels of usage can
lead to slowing down and occasional breakdown of service. However, networked
applications such as Web browsers currently fail to take this into account.
This paper reports on two studies, which found most users' models of networks
to be patchy and inaccurate. Feedback provided by the Web browsers, such as
error messages, did not help the users identify the appropriate action when
they encountered problems. We suggest that designers of Web browsers and Web
sites should provide users with appropriate models of network operations in
their help systems and explanatory pages which helps users understand the
underlying technology. This will allow users to appropriately diagnose and
recover from breakdown situations. Additionally, this knowledge will give users
the confidence to explore the possibilities of the Web further. Keywords: Conceptual Design, Mental Models, User's Model, Internet, WWW, Web browsers | |||
| Feeling Good - A Case Study of Empathic Design Methods | | BIBA | ||
| Tuuli Mattelmaki; Katja Battarbee | |||
| The study is a collaboration between eDesign research project at the University of Art and Design Helsinki, and Polar Electro Oy, a heart rate monitor manufacturer. The qualitative user study aims at understanding the life and values of people to find opportunities for product concept design by making a deep but narrow cut into the life of ten regularly exercising people of different ages and health conditions. The rich and visual data collected will be used to create empathy in the designers for the users in the aim to create new and better products for people (Black 1998, Dandavate et al. 1996). | |||
| Design for User Experience - Method Lessons from a Design Student Workshop | | BIBA | ||
| Katja Battarbee; Tuuli Mattelmaki; Anu Makela | |||
| What should the product be? Finding an excellent answer to a loosely defined question in a vast scope of possibilities is difficult. Empathic design methods can be applied to give directions and material for intuition and innovation (Black, 1998, Leonard et al. 1997). This involves conducting qualitative field studies with real users, gathering rich and vivid information, creating feelings of empathy and understanding within the design team, and following an iterative design process. | |||
| Informal Feedback in Distance Education | | BIBA | ||
| Lars Svensson; Carsten Sorense | |||
| Evaluation in an educational context is often associated with conscious and formal activities directed towards formative or summative purposes (Oliver 1997). In addition, there are also more subtle and informal sources of evaluative feedback that constantly reaches the members of a classroom. The air is literally filled with unobtrusive ephemeral queues that can be interpreted in terms of feedback (Schmidt & Simone, 1996). The students can express their degree of interest and concentration through the way they sit, the expression on their faces, where the look and through other bodylingual expressions. There is a big difference between a student looking directly at the teacher, nodding the head and smiling, and a student with the arms crossed over the chest, starring at the ceiling with a bored yawn. The formal systems and instruments for evaluation can easily be transformed and perhaps even enhanced by the use of IT, but the equally important informal feedback is to a great extent lost in the virtual classroom. Luff & Heath (1992) discuss video-based mediaspaces for collaborative work. Video-conferencing provides poor support for nonverbal communication such as body language, glances and head nods. Factors such as the distance between camera and monitor as well as the delays between action and reaction affects the interaction. In asynchronous text communication, this problem is even exacerbated although 'smileys' and other emoticons can help to reduce the effects. | |||
| Dynamic Libraries as a Means for the Management of Information Browsing Networks | | BIBA | ||
| Anne Hakansson; Lars Oestreicher | |||
| The WWW has changed the concept of interactivity in applications, and dramatically also reduced the influence of direct manipulation (Shneiderman 1983) on the interfaces. A web page typically consists of a large number of links -- clickable -- where each one accomplishes different actions. Each of these links contains a large amount of information, and often a link is regarded as a means of putting together different pieces of knowledge into knowledge networks. Unfortunately, this knowledge is hidden in the linkage itself. | |||
| Designing Interactive Simulations that Integrate Physical and Computational Media | | BIBAK | ||
| Marcelo Milrad | |||
| Frequently, the design of interactive simulations focuses exclusively on
computers and the virtual environments they provide, excluding the physical
environment. In this paper we present our efforts in exploring the integration
of physical and computational media for the design of interactive simulations
to support learning about complex domains. We demonstrate some examples of our
work and present preliminary results. Keywords: Interactive simulations, physical and computational media, situated
learning, complex systems | |||
| Scaffolds for Users of Interactive Learning Media | | BIBAK | ||
| Cecilia Katzeff; Elin Lundborg | |||
| In this paper, we report an experiment addressing the problem of designing
scaffolds, i.e. learning support, for interactive media for learning. The paper
focuses learning and memorization of facts, rather than complex problem
solving. When subjects were provided with a scaffold prompting them to actively
engage in their own learning process, they tended to perform better on a
retention test than subjects who were not presented with the scaffold. Keywords: Interactive learning media, constructivism, scaffolding | |||
| 6DOF Input Device Usability Test in a CAD Task | | BIBAK | ||
| Martin Sundin; Josef Weiss; Gunilla Sundin | |||
| A usability test was performed with two six degrees of freedom (6DOF)
desktop input devices in a CAD assembly task: one elastic position control
device and one stiff elastic velocity control device. Position control was
preferred by the subjects for precise adjustments of the viewpoint, for
rotations and zooming. Velocity control was preferred especially for long
virtual object translations. Keywords: 6DOF input device, computer aided design, input device control order | |||
| Evaluating a Usability Capability Assessment | | BIBA | ||
| Netta Iivari; Timo Jokela | |||
| ISO 13407 standard [1] defines a set of User-Centered Design (UCD) activities and principles through which usable systems can be developed. Still there exist quite a few organizations, which systematically and consciously apply UCD in their product development. Usability capability is a characteristic of a development organization that determines its ability to constantly develop products with high level usability. There have been developed usability capability models, which help to assess areas in the development organization that have impact on its usability capability. The maturest one is the model TR ISO 18529 [2]. [3] KESSU-project aims at improving usability capability of development organizations (see www.kessu.oulu.fi). At first we have conducted usability capability assessments in the organizations. We have noticed that further development of the assessment approach is really needed. The existing literature concerning usability capability assessments is mainly concerned about presenting the structure of the models (constructs and their relationships) and guidelines how to perform assessements (procedures). 'Usability capability model' is anyhow an artifact. Papers concerned with the models seldom approach the models according to the principles of constructive research. One research activity of the constructive research is evaluation [4]. In this experiment we especially concentrated on this activity. | |||
| Low Cost Test of Menu Texts | | BIBA | ||
| Georg Strom | |||
| The precise choice of categories and words in menu texts are crucial for the
usability. If the user makes an error at top level, it may be impossible for
her to find what she is looking for.
Some words display the pop out effect (Kahneman 1984): They tend to draw the user's attention almost no matter what she is looking for. Other words tend for unknown reasons to be overlooked, or they do not give the user sufficient scent (CHI2000): The words do not indicate clearly the direction to the item the user wants to reach. A word may have a highly personal meaning for the designer choosing it, and a group tends to agree on abstract wordings, which are open to many possible associations and interpretations. It is necessary to test the precise words and categories to be used. | |||
| The Effectiveness of Symbol and Color Coding in Mobile Phone Keys | | BIBAK | ||
| Kati Hyyppa; Viljami Salmela; Lauri Repokari | |||
| The effectiveness of color-coded symbology in mobile phone answering keys is
studied using dual-task paradigm and phones with different kinds of keypad
layouts. Results show that color-coded symbology is highly effective, though it
does not always automatically draw attention to the correct answering key when
the user encounters a new kind of mobile phone. Keywords: Mobile phone, SEND and END keys, symbol and color coding, attention | |||
| Collaborative Use of Mobile Telephones: A Field Study of Swedish Teenagers | | BIBA | ||
| Alexandra Weilenmann; Catrine Larsson | |||
| In this paper, we have shown how teenagers use their mobile phones
collaboratively. The mobile phone itself as well as the information on it, is
often shared and made public in various ways. The mobile phone is used as a
social device, very often with co-present teenagers. Within the same local
context, the teenagers use their mobile phones for purposes other than calling
distant persons; they do things together, and the mobile phone takes part in
this collaborative action.
By using ethnomethodology, we can gain information about the detailed practices of teenagers' mobile phone use. We argue that it is important to ground design of new mobile technology for young people, in an understanding of how teenagers' actually use their mobile phones in their everyday lives. Teenagers' ways of using their phones collaboratively and for social purposes other than just calling non-present others, need to be attended to in design. | |||
| Channel- vs. Person-orientation on Mobile Communication Devices, Using Usability Testing to Design Future User Interfaces | | BIBAK | ||
| Jens Bergqvist; Senja Edvardsson | |||
| Mobile communication is becoming an important factor in collaborative work.
At the same time mobile communication devices are increasing in capacity,
though the limitations in screen size and interaction possibilities remain. The
increased capacity makes multiple communication channels, such as email and
telephony, available on a single mobile device. In this paper we discuss how to
outline a study, which utilizes usability testing techniques to provide
information on whether a channel-oriented approach or a person-oriented
approach is easier to use. A channel-oriented approach means that each
communication channel is represented as an application and interaction starts
off with choosing the channel, whereas person-oriented means that the channels
are integrated and the interaction starts off with choosing the recipient. Keywords: Mobile Communication, Mobile Computing, HCI, Usability Testing | |||
| BRAINBALL - Using Brain Activity for Cool Competition | | BIBA | ||
| Sara Ilstedt Hjelm; Esbjorn Eriksson; Carolina Browall | |||
| This paper describes Brainball, a game and a research project on methods of human-machine interaction using brain activity. It also describes the results of an evaluation with users. In Brainball Beta and Alpha waves in the electrical activity of the brain are measured by EEG (Electro-Encephalography) sensors to allow interaction between two people playing the game. The players control a ball on the table through their state of relaxation, the object of the game being to score a goal by moving the ball into the opponent's goalmouth. | |||
| Using Fisheye for Navigation on Small Displays | | BIBAK | ||
| Patrik Backvall; Per Martensson; Pernilla Qvarfordt | |||
| In this paper we present a solution to the problem of visualising large
amount of hierarchical information structures on small computer screens. Our
solution has been implemented as a prototype for mobile use on a hand-held
computer using Microsoft Pocket PC with a screen size of 240x320 pixels. The
prototype uses the same information as service engineers use on stationary
computers. The visualisation technique we used for displaying information is
based on fisheye technique, which we have found functional on small displays.
The prototype is domain independent; the information is easily interchangeable.
A consequence of the result presented here is that the possibility of using
hand-held computers in different types of contexts increases. Keywords: Handheld computers, PDA, information visualisation, Fisheye, Focus+context | |||
| PMA - Personal Multimedia Assistant - A Simulation of a Multimedia Mobile Phone | | BIBA | ||
| Titti Kallio | |||
| Mobile networks are developing rapidly. In Finland the next steps from the GSM network will be an extension of the GSM known as GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and after that the so called third-generation (3G) UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System). These will enable more and more interesting and challenging mobile services especially from the point of view of the user interface. Multimedia services will be available, i.e. services using video, sound and animation. | |||
| Freefeed - Instead of Forms | | BIBA | ||
| Youssef Ali; Lars Hallnas; Mats Jontell; Nader Nazari; Olof Torgersson | |||
| The most common way to design an application where data needs to be entered
is to use forms. The forms are typically built from objects such as
text-fields, pulldown lists, and checkboxes (Frank 1988). This paper describes
Freefeed; a technique for entering data where the forms are replaced by a
specialized text-editor coupled with hypertext links for navigation and easily
scrollable text lists containing possible values.
Freefeed was originally developed as a solution for entering detailed patient, medical history, and status information during clinical examinations. The design goal behind Freefeed was to create an unobtrusive, easy-to-use, space efficient, and scalable method for entering data, where the forms used could be created by users without requiring any programming knowledge. We describe the interaction technique and experiences from using it regularly for about two years. | |||
| Interactive Layout Techniques for Conceptual Schema Editors | | BIBA | ||
| Roope Raisamo; Tapio Niemi | |||
| Automatic layout algorithms of graphs are a widely studied topic. A good survey for the literature of the area was presented by Di Battista et al. (1994). In principle, the automatic methods can work well and produce clear and beautiful schemas. However, they cannot take into account semantic information in the schema - at least it would be very difficult. | |||
| Enhancing Visual Comparisons in Interactive Graphs | | BIBA | ||
| Mika Kaki | |||
| This paper presented an interaction technique for controlling spatial grouping in graphs and a visualization technique for making unobtrusive visual landmarks. The former technique was based on a new widget, which enables users to make complex queries simply and at the same time gives them good control over the visualization of the results. The visual landmarks, on the other hand, were based on fading items of lesser interest. This preserves overall context of the visualization, but does not add visual clutter. In the future a formal usability test will be carried out. | |||
| Sound Effects in Search of Causes. Storytelling with Psst! - The Programmable SoundScape Toy | | BIBAK | ||
| Ylva Gislen; Asa Harvard; Simon Lovind | |||
| This abstract introduces the Psst! project. The objective of the Psst!
project is to explore the possibilities for a new type of storytelling
tool/medium, that combine physical artefacts with virtual information.
Psst! is a test platform, consisting of a story universe, a sound database and a physical interface: wooden boxes with loudspeakers and a number of dolls with electronic ID-tags. The Psst! platform is built to make it possible to quickly try out and modify play concepts based on sound and objects. In our first tests we have experimented with combinations of unpredictability and causality in order to find a balance where the interaction with the toy cues children to create rich narratives commenting and explaining the sound events in the boxes. Keywords: Interactive narrative, toys, play, sound, augmented reality | |||
| Every Object Tells a Story: Physical Interfaces for Digital Storytelling | | BIBAK | ||
| Lars Erik Holmquist; Magnus Helander; Steve Dixon | |||
| We have designed a novel interface for interactive storytelling, where users
manipulate physical objects to access various portions of a narrative. The
story is designed so that the physical artefacts play meaningful parts in the
narrative, thus blurring the line between story and interface. In informal
tests and demonstrations users found the interaction easy to understand, thus
indicating this could be a promising way to increase user involvement in
interactive narrative. Keywords: Interactive narrative, tangible interfaces, multimedia | |||
| Multi-user Network Games for the Visually Impaired: Using Tactile and Auditory Interface to Graphical Screen | | BIBA | ||
| Satoshi Ina | |||
| Multi-media functions have rapidly become widespread and accessible, and network communication has been further popularized by performance improvement of the PC (personal computer) and the progress of GUI (Graphical User Interface). But visually impaired people have few chances to utilize these new media and networks, because of the lack of online access tools to graphical screen (INA 1999). It is to be more difficult for them to work in cooperation with sighted people. So, we studied and developed a non-visual access method to a graphical screen through tactile and auditory sense instead of visual sense, and applied it into multi-user network games as a prior sample of future CSCW (Computer Supported Cooperative Work) in mind. | |||
| Navigation and Learning - A Cognitive Analysis of User Tasks in Electronic Information Spaces | | BIBA | ||
| Peter Lonnqvist; Nils Dahlback | |||
| While the navigation metaphor has received widespread support from the HCI community, the views on the usefulness of the navigation approach have a very wide range. Benyon (1998, p 35) argues that "'Navigation in Information Space' is not (just) a metaphor, (...) [it] is a new paradigm for thinking about HCI." On the other hand, Dillon and Vaughan (1997) claim that "navigation is a limited metaphor for hypermedia that potentially constrains our understanding of human-computer interaction" (p 91). | |||
| Roadguards Assisted by Mobile Technology | | BIBAK | ||
| Mattias Esbjornsson | |||
| This paper describes parts of a project in progress. The occupational group
roadguards at the Swedish National Road Administration-Production is currently
using handheld computers in their work. Currently the system only supports the
individual reporting phase of their work, even if their work, partially, is
characterised as collaborative. Keywords: Handheld computers, GPS, collaborative work, ethnography | |||
| The WebAwareness Experience - Enhancing a Website with People | | BIBA | ||
| Lars Svensson; Stefan Nilsson; Fredrik Bengtsson; Christian Johansson | |||
| Most people perceive the World Wide Web primarily as a huge information container, where nodes of information are connected through hyperlinks. To browse the web is like walking in an endless library where books, journals, brochures, video-clips and scraps of papers are spread on the shelves and tables with little or no systematic structure to guide the visitor. | |||
| Mapping out and constructing user needs - in developing online public services | | BIBAK | ||
| Annelie Ekelin | |||
| This poster gives a web-based presentation of work in progress1 in a pilot
study2 concerning the setting up of public services in the local context of the
county of Blekinge, southeastern Sweden. The way in which I will do this study
is to examine a selection of methods, or types of needs analysis, used by
different actors and producers of public services in order to get a picture of
various needs among the users. One part of my study is to look at service
producers/providers and their use of explicit techniques such as
questionnaires, larger surveys and work carried out with the help of focus
groups. A basic question to put forward is what role do these explicit surveys
play for the various participating actors - including citizens - and in the
long run for the design-choices? Keywords: Analysis of methods, on-line public services, citizenship, needs analysis,
needs assessments | |||
| Role Playing Games for Concept Design of Mobile Services - A Participatory Design Session to Envision with Users Future Mobile Services | | BIBAK | ||
| Giulio Iacucci; Eerik Vesterinen | |||
| Our research is carried out in an industry-funded project that investigates
the service architecture for the nomadic Internet user of the future. In
carrying out concept design we recognize, among others, the challenge of
allowing the use context to influence design activities of mobile services. We
consider user participation as a way to reduce the gap between design and use.
We present a role playing game in a mise-en-scene made out of toys to envision
and try out with users future mobile services. Keywords: Mobile services, participatory design, role playing game | |||
| WAP User Interfaces | | BIBA | ||
| Titti Kallio; Toni Komu | |||
| Regardless of the WAP Forum standardisation, user interfaces in different
WAP devices differ from each other. In fact, the differences between devices
are so great that you can use very few user interface features while developing
services, i.e. when developing the services to be used with all WAP phones.
In this presentation we present three ways to cope with the situation: 1. To apply the principle of the lowest common denominator, 2. To design separate applications for different devices or device groupings, A converter. | |||
| Mind Your Own Business - Searching for Support for Information and Interaction Overload | | BIBA | ||
| Bo-Goran Bernheim; Lars Svensson | |||
| Working in the knowledge sector means dealing with increasing amounts of information, technology and people. Trying to cope with this situation can be stressful, and the tools to help us are often not adjusted to the terms of life in the Internet age. Departing from a study of a group of IT consultants, this poster advocates the need for ICT systems that addresses the whole spectrum of problems concerning 'overload' with respect to both information and interaction. | |||
| "Production First, Reflection Later" -- An Emerging Methodology for Research in Cross-Disciplinary Groups | | BIBAK | ||
| Michael Barner Rasmussen | |||
| This short-paper reports on an early attempt to formally describe the
research methodology for interactive media design ad-hoc named: "Production
First - Reflection Later".
Two key components are identified: 1 The nescessity of not only building a 'common ground' of shared experiences, but of actively co-construeing these by discussing the experiences extensively. 2 The nescessity of real world objects and shared events in the above discussions and as a 'cognitive feedback-mechanism' for reflecting on the design. The emerging methodology gleaned from these experiences can be summarized as follows: 1 Separation of productive and reflexive phases 2 Ultra-fast prototyping/mock-upping and user-feedback providing both cognitive feedback and shared experiences 3 Communikation must be integral to the process The methodology was simultaneously assembled, testet and now (somewhat) formalized in the Project "Narrative Toys/Psst" (Programmable Sound Stage Toy) developed by 'Interactiv Instituttet', Malmoe-hoegskola-section, led by senior researcher and artist Asa Harvard. Keywords: Research methodology, teamwork, cross-disciplinary development, rapid
prototyping, cognition, constructivism. | |||