Mailing Archived Emails as Postcards: Probing the Value of Virtual
Collections
Physical and Digital Collections
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Gerritsen, David B.
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Tasse, Dan
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Olsen, Jennifer K.
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Vlahovic, Tatiana A.
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Gulotta, Rebecca
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Odom, William
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Wiese, Jason
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Zimmerman, John
Proceedings of the ACM CHI'16 Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems
2016-05-07
v.1
p.1187-1199
© Copyright 2016 ACM
Summary: People accumulate huge assortments of virtual possessions, but it is not yet
clear how systems and system designers can help people make meaning from these
large archives. Early research in HCI has suggested that people generally
appear to value their virtual things less than their material things, but
theory on material possessions does not entirely explain this difference. To
investigate if changes to the form and behavior of virtual things may surface
valued elements of a virtual archive, we designed a technology probe that
selected snippets from old emails and mailed them as physical postcards to
participating households. The probe uncovered features of emails that trigger
meaningful reflection, and how contextual information can help people engage in
reminiscence. Our study revealed insights about how materializing virtual
possessions influences factors shaping how people draw on, understand, and
value those possessions. We conclude with implication and strategies for aimed
at supporting people in having more meaningful interactions and experiences
with their virtual possessions.
Getting Users' Attention in Web Apps in Likable, Minimally Annoying Ways
Designing for Attention and Multitasking
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Tasse, Dan
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Ankolekar, Anupriya
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Hailpern, Joshua
Proceedings of the ACM CHI'16 Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems
2016-05-07
v.1
p.3324-3334
© Copyright 2016 ACM
Summary: Web applications often need to present the user new information in the
context of their current activity. Designers rely on a range of UI elements and
visual techniques to present the new content to users, such as pop-ups, message
icons, and marquees. Web designers need to select which technique to use
depending on the centrality of the information and how quickly they need a
reaction. However, designers often rely on intuition and anecdotes rather than
empirical evidence to drive their decision-making as to which presentation
technique to use. This work represents an attempt to quantify these
presentation style decisions. We present a large (n=1505) user study that
compares 15 visual attention-grabbing techniques with respect to reaction time,
noticeability, annoyance, likability, and recall. We suggest glowing shadows
and message icons with badges, as well as more possibilities for future work.
