Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques

Computing devices and applications are now used beyond the desktop, in diverse environments, and this trend toward ubiquitous computing is accelerating. One challenge that remains in this emerging research field is the ability to enhance the behavior of any application by informing it of the context of its use. By context, we refer to any information that characterizes a situation related to the interaction between humans, applications, and the surrounding environment. Context-aware applications promise richer and easier interaction, but the current state of research in this field is still far removed from that vision. This is due to 3 main problems: (a) the notion of context is still ill defined, (b) there is a lack of conceptual models and methods to help drive the design of context-aware applications, and (c) no tools are available to jump-start the development of context-aware applications. In this anchor article, we address these 3 problems in turn. We first define context, identify categories of contextual information, and characterize context-aware application behavior. Though the full impact of context-aware computing requires understanding very subtle and high-level notions of context, we are focusing our efforts on the pieces of context that can be inferred automatically from sensors in a physical environment. We then present a conceptual framework that separates the acquisition and representation of context from the delivery and reaction to context by a context-aware application. We have built a toolkit, the Context Toolkit, that instantiates this conceptual framework and supports the rapid development of a rich space of context-aware applications. We illustrate the usefulness of the conceptual framework by describing a number of context-aware applications that have been prototyped using the Context Toolkit. We also demonstrate how such a framework can support the investigation of important research challenges in the area of context-aware computing.

/pdf/a-conceptual-framework-and-a-toolkit-for-supporting-the-3ct19ji2mn.pdf

A conceptual framework and a toolkit for supporting the rapid prototyping of context-aware applications

Newness and distinctiveness is claimed in the features of ornamentation as shown inside the broken line circle in the accompanying representation.

Display screen or portion thereof with graphical user interface

Traditional interactive applications are limited to using only the input that users explicitly provide. As users move away from traditional desktop computing environments and move towards mobile and ubiquitous computing environments, there is a greater need for applications to leverage from implicit information, or context. These types of environments are rich in context, with users and devices moving around and computational services becoming available or disappearing over time. This information is usually not available to applications but can be useful in adapting the way in which it performs its services and in changing the available services. Applications that use context are known as context-aware applications. 
This research in context-aware computing has focused on the development of a software architecture to support the building of context-aware applications. While developers have been able to build context-aware applications, they have been limited to using a small variety of sensors that provide only simple context such as identity and location. This dissertation presents a set of requirements and component abstractions for a conceptual supporting framework. The framework along with an identified design process makes it easier to acquire and deliver context to applications, and in turn, build more complex context-aware applications. 
In addition, an implementation of the framework called the Context Toolkit is discussed, along with a number of context-aware applications that have been built with it. The applications illustrate how the toolkit is used in practice and allows an exploration of the design space of context-aware computing. This dissertation also shows how the Context Toolkit has been used as a research testbed, supporting the investigation of difficult problems in context-aware computing such as the building of high-level programming abstractions, dealing with ambiguous or inaccurate context data and controlling access to personal context.

/pdf/providing-architectural-support-for-building-context-aware-1y6c5sg04e.pdf

Providing architectural support for building context-aware applications

Information privacy refers to the desire of individuals to control or have some influence over data about themselves. Advances in information technology have raised concerns about information privacy and its impacts, and have motivated Information Systems researchers to explore information privacy issues, including technical solutions to address these concerns. In this paper, we inform researchers about the current state of information privacy research in IS through a critical analysis of the IS literature that considers information privacy as a key construct. The review of the literature reveals that information privacy is a multilevel concept, but rarely studied as such. We also find that information privacy research has been heavily reliant on studentbased and USA-centric samples, which results in findings of limited generalizability. Information privacy research focuses on explaining and predicting theoretical contributions, with few studies in journal articles focusing on design and action contributions. We recommend that future research should consider different levels of analysis as well as multilevel effects of information privacy. We illustrate this with a multilevel framework for information privacy concerns. We call for research on information privacy to use a broader diversity of sampling populations, and for more design and action information privacy research to be published in journal articles that can result in IT artifacts for protection or control of information privacy.

http://ftp.misq.org/skin/frontend/default/misq/pdf/appendices/2011/BelangerCrosslerAppendices.pdf

Privacy in the digital age: a review of information privacy research in information systems

Smart devices are becoming increasingly commercially available. However, uptake of these devices has been slow and abandonment swift, which indicates that smart devices may not currently meet the needs of users. To advance an understanding of the ways users benefit from, are challenged by, and abandon smart devices, we asked a group of users to purchase smart sensing devices to advance themselves towards a personal, self-defined goal. We found that participants abandoned devices because they did not fit with the their conceptions of themselves, the data collected by devices were perceived to not be useful, and device maintenance became unmanageable. Participants used devices because they had developed routines and because devices were useful, satisfied curiosity, and held hope for potential benefit to them. We propose ways to reduce barriers, motivate use, and argue for envisioning an additional function of these devices for short-term interventions, in addition to standard long-term use.

/pdf/why-we-use-and-abandon-smart-devices-2b2cpx5mlx.pdf

Why we use and abandon smart devices

Interventions to support children with autism often include the use of visual supports, which are cognitive tools to enable learning and the production of language. Although visual supports are effective in helping to diminish many of the challenges of autism, they are difficult and time-consuming to create, distribute, and use. In this paper, we present the results of a qualitative study focused on uncovering design guidelines for interactive visual supports that would address the many challenges inherent to current tools and practices. We present three prototype systems that address these design challenges with the use of large group displays, mobile personal devices, and personal recording technologies. We also describe the interventions associated with these prototypes along with the results from two focus group discussions around the interventions. We present further design guidance for visual supports and discuss tensions inherent to their design.

/pdf/interactive-visual-supports-for-children-with-autism-31gt331227.pdf

Interactive visual supports for children with autism

MOSOCO is a mobile assistive application that uses augmented reality and the visual supports of a validated curriculum, the Social Compass, to help children with autism practice social skills in real-life situations. In this paper, we present the results of a seven-week deployment study of MOSOCO in a public school in Southern California with both students with autism and neurotypical students. The results of our study demonstrate that MOSOCO facilitates practicing and learning social skills, increases both quantity and quality of social interactions, reduces social and behavioral missteps, and enables the integration of children with autism in social groups of neurotypical children. The findings from this study reveal emergent practices of the uses of mobile assistive technologies in real-life situations.

/pdf/mosoco-a-mobile-assistive-tool-to-support-children-with-tkh5ysd62o.pdf

MOSOCO: a mobile assistive tool to support children with autism practicing social skills in real-life situations

As part of a long-term investigation into visualizing email, we have created two visualizations of email archives. One highlights social networks while the other depicts the temporal rhythms of interactions with individuals. While interviewing users of these systems, it became clear that the applications triggered recall of many personal events. One of the most striking and not entirely expected outcomes was that the visualizations motivated retelling stories from the users' pasts to others. In this paper, we discuss the motivation and design of these projects and analyze their use as catalysts for personal narrative and recall.

/pdf/digital-artifacts-for-remembering-and-storytelling-38wt9cu2x4.pdf

Digital artifacts for remembering and storytelling: posthistory and social network fragments

Visual schedules--the use of symbols to represent a series of activities or steps--have been successfully used by caregivers to help children with autism to understand, structure, and predict activities in their daily lives. Building from in-depth fieldwork and participatory design sessions, we developed vSked, an interactive and collaborative visual scheduling system designed for elementary school classrooms. We evaluated vSked in situ in one autism-specific classroom over three weeks. In this paper, we present the design principles, technical solution, and results from this successful deployment. Use of vSked resulted in reductions in staff effort required to use visual supports. vSked also resulted in improvements in the perceived quality and quantity of communication and social interactions in the classroom.

http://www.star-uci.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/vSked_CHI2010_CAMERA_READY_final.pdf

David H. Nguyen

Papers

Why we use and abandon smart devices

Interactive visual supports for children with autism

MOSOCO: a mobile assistive tool to support children with autism practicing social skills in real-life situations

Digital artifacts for remembering and storytelling: posthistory and social network fragments

vSked: evaluation of a system to support classroom activities for children with autism