Showing papers in "ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction in 2013"

Crowdfunding: Motivations and deterrents for participation

Abstract: Crowdfunding is changing how, why, and which ideas are brought into existence. With the increasing number of crowdfunded projects, it is important to understand what drives people to either create or fund these projects. To shed light on this new social phenomenon, we present a grounded theory of motivation informed by the first cross-platform qualitative study of the crowdfunding community. By performing 83 semistructured interviews, we uncover creator motivations, which include the desire to raise funds, expand awareness of work, connect with others, gain approval, maintain control, and learn; and supporter motivations, which include the desire to collect rewards, help others, support causes, and be part of a community. We also explore deterrents to crowdfunding participation, including, among creators, fear of failure, and, for supporters, lack of trust. Based on these findings, we provide three emergent design principles to inform the design of effective crowdfunding platforms and support tools.

Peer and self assessment in massive online classes

Abstract: Peer and self-assessment offer an opportunity to scale both assessment and learning to global classrooms. This article reports our experiences with two iterations of the first large online class to use peer and self-assessment. In this class, peer grades correlated highly with staff-assigned grades. The second iteration had 42.9p of students’ grades within 5p of the staff grade, and 65.5p within 10p. On average, students assessed their work 7p higher than staff did. Students also rated peers’ work from their own country 3.6p higher than those from elsewhere. We performed three experiments to improve grading accuracy. We found that giving students feedback about their grading bias increased subsequent accuracy. We introduce short, customizable feedback snippets that cover common issues with assignments, providing students more qualitative peer feedback. Finally, we introduce a data-driven approach that highlights high-variance items for improvement. We find that rubrics that use a parallel sentence structure, unambiguous wording, and well-specified dimensions have lower variance. After revising rubrics, median grading error decreased from 12.4p to 9.9p.

Embodied cognition and the magical future of interaction design

Abstract: The theory of embodied cognition can provide HCI practitioners and theorists with new ideas about interaction and new principles for better designs. I support this claim with four ideas about cognition: (1) interacting with tools changes the way we think and perceive -- tools, when manipulated, are soon absorbed into the body schema, and this absorption leads to fundamental changes in the way we perceive and conceive of our environments; (2) we think with our bodies not just with our brains; (3) we know more by doing than by seeing -- there are times when physically performing an activity is better than watching someone else perform the activity, even though our motor resonance system fires strongly during other person observation; (4) there are times when we literally think with things. These four ideas have major implications for interaction design, especially the design of tangible, physical, context aware, and telepresence systems.

Introduction to the special issue on the theory and practice of embodied interaction in HCI and interaction design

Abstract: Theories of embodiment focus on how practical engagement and the structure of the body shape perception, experience, and cognition. They typically reject a view of human cognition as grounded in abstract information processing. The concept of embodied interaction is increasingly used in the design, analysis, and evaluation of interactions with and around technology. However, many questions remain as to exactly what embodied interaction means and whether it can be considered a coherent program of research. The aim of this special issue is to critically explore different perspectives on embodied interaction in HCI and interaction design research and practice and to focus on what theoretical traction they can provide.

Health Mashups: Presenting Statistical Patterns between Wellbeing Data and Context in Natural Language to Promote Behavior Change

Abstract: People now have access to many sources of data about their health and wellbeing. Yet, most people cannot wade through all of this data to answer basic questions about their long-term wellbeing: Do I gain weight when I have busy days? Do I walk more when I work in the city? Do I sleep better on nights after I work out?We built the Health Mashups system to identify connections that are significant over time between weight, sleep, step count, calendar data, location, weather, pain, food intake, and mood. These significant observations are displayed in a mobile application using natural language, for example, “You are happier on days when you sleep more.” We performed a pilot study, made improvements to the system, and then conducted a 90-day trial with 60 diverse participants, learning that interactions between wellbeing and context are highly individual and that our system supported an increased self-understanding that lead to focused behavior changes.

Negotiating food waste: Using a practice lens to inform design

Abstract: Ecological sustainability is becoming of increasing concern to the HCI community, though little focus has been given yet to issues around food waste. Given the environmental impact of food waste, there is potential to make a significant difference. To understand everyday domestic practices around food and waste, we took a “practice” lens and carried out a study in 14 households that involved interviews, in-home tours and, in five of the households, a FridgeCam technology probe. The analysis highlights that food waste is the unintended result of multiple moments of consumption dispersed in space and time across other integrated practices such as shopping and cooking, which are themselves embedded in broader contextual factors and values. We highlight the importance of respecting the complex negotiations that people make within given structural conditions and competing values and practices, and suggest design strategies to support dispersed as well as integrated food practices, rather than focusing on waste itself.

Moving and making strange: An embodied approach to movement-based interaction design

Abstract: There is growing interest in designing for movement-based interactions with technology, now that various sensing technologies are available enabling a range of movement possibilities from gestural to whole-body interactions. We present a design methodology of Moving and Making Strange, an approach to movement-based interaction design that recognizes the central role of the body and movement in lived cognition. The methodology was developed through a series of empirical projects, each focusing on different conceptions of movement available within motion-sensing interactive, immersive spaces. The methodology offers designers a set of principles, perspectives, methods, and tools for exploring and testing movement-related design concepts. It is innovative for the inclusion of the perspective of the mover, together with the traditional perspectives of the observer and the machine. Making strange is put forward as an important tactic for rethinking how to approach the design of movement-based interaction.

Interaction design for and with the lived body: Some implications of merleau-ponty's phenomenology

Abstract: In 2001, Paul Dourish proposed the term embodied interaction to describe a new paradigm for interaction design that focuses on the physical, bodily, and social aspects of our interaction with digital technology. Dourish used Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of perception as the theoretical basis for his discussion of the bodily nature of embodied interaction. This article extends Dourish's work to introduce the human-computer interaction community to ideas related to Merleau-Ponty's concept of the lived body. It also provides a detailed analysis of two related topics: (1) embodied perception: the active and embodied nature of perception, including the body's ability to extent its sensory apparatus through digital technology; and (2) kinaesthetic creativity: the body's ability to relate in a direct and creative fashion with the “feel” dimension of interactive products during the design process.

On the naturalness of touchless: Putting the “interaction” back into NUI

Abstract: Norman's critique is indicative of the issue that while using the word natural might have become natural, it is coming at a cost. In other words, precisely because the notion of naturalness has become so commonplace in the scientific lexicon of HCI, so it is becoming increasingly important, it seems that there is a critical examination of the conceptual work being performed when it is used. There is a need to understand the key assumptions implicit within it and how these frame approaches to design and engineering in particular ways. A second significant element of this perspective comes from Wittgenstein, and his claim that, through action, people create shared meanings with others, and these shared meanings are the essential common ground that enable individual perception to be cohered into socially organized, understood, and coordinated experiences.

Performance-Led Research in the Wild

Abstract: We explore the approach of performance-led research in the wild in which artists drive the creation of novel performances with the support of HCI researchers that are then deployed and studied at public performance in cultural settings such as galleries, festivals and on the city streets. We motivate the approach and then describe how it consists of three distinct activities -- practice, studies and theory -- that are interleaved in complex ways through nine different relationships. We present a historical account of how the approach has evolved over a fifteen-year period, charting the evolution of a complex web of projects, papers, and relationships between them. We articulate the challenges of pursuing each activity as well as overarching challenges of balancing artistic and research interests, flexible management of relationships, and finally ethics.

A sustainable design fiction: Green practices

Abstract: In this article, we argue that an approach informed by practice theory coupled with design fiction provides useful insights into the role of interaction design with respect to environmental sustainability. We argue that a practice-oriented approach can help interaction designers step away from models of individual behavior and studies of artifacts towards seeing sustainable behaviors as part of multidimensional and interrelated practices and practice elements. We analyze two previously conducted studies. The first study of everyday repair focuses on how people repair their broken objects. The second study of green-DIY examines how green enthusiasts facilitate their practices of making sustainable DIY (do-it-yourself) projects. We describe the practices of everyday repairers and green enthusiasts in terms of materials, competences, and meanings, and the interrelations among those elements, using the framework of Shove et al. [2012]. We argue that understanding the dynamics of practice and their unique configurations is a starting point to redefine the roles of sustainable interaction design (SID). We propose that designers design towards resources and tools in ways that reflect on the challenges of intelligibility of their design interventions in practices. In addition to considering SID in the light of practice theories, we reveal how design fictions are readily incorporated into green practices in ways that transform those practices and hold implications for transformations of design as well. We bring forward opportunities for designers to co-design with DIY enthusiasts, targeted as practitioners in their own right, designing toward or within a design fiction. As a result, we conclude with the possibility for sustainable interaction designers to become practice-oriented designers who design with transparent open strategies and accessible materials and competences.

Practices as a unit of design: An exploration of theoretical guidelines in a study on bathing

Abstract: The sustainability challenges facing society today require approaches that look beyond single product-user interactions. Focusing on socially shared practices—e.g. cooking, laundering—has been identified as a promising direction. Building on a growing body of research in sustainable HCI that takes practices as unit of analysis, this article explores what it means to take practices as a unit of design. Drawing on theories of practice, it proposes that practice-oriented design approaches should: involve bodily performance, create crises of routine and generate a variety of performances. These guidelines were integrated into a Generative Improv Performances (GIP) approach, entailing a series of performances by improvisation actors with low-fidelity prototypes in a lab environment. The approach was implemented in an empirical study on bathing. Although the empirical example does not deal with common types of interactive technologies, the guidelines and GIP approach offer sustainable HCI a way to think beyond immediate interactions and to conceptualize change on a practice level.

Introduction to the special issue on practice-oriented approaches to sustainable HCI

Abstract: Since Blevis's seminal paper [Blevis 2007] in 2007, environmental sustainability has established itself as a mainstream concern for HCI. After an initial flurry of excitement about the potential for existing HCI techniques, such as persuasive computing and interaction design, to contributemeaningfully to increasing sustainability, we have begun to recognize that the complexity and apparent intractability of working towards sustainability is providing serious challenges to current HCI ways of approaching problems. For example, some are working to deepen the engagement between HCI and established approaches of environmental psychology [Froehlich et al. 2010] and behavioral theory [Hekler et al. 2013] in order to develop more rigorous methods and theoretical connections for pursuing sustainability. Others are deploying and evaluating eco-feedback technologies at a scale not yet common in HCI [Erickson et al. 2013] to get a better sense of their effects and potentialities. Thus, sustainability is becoming not simply a problem that HCI can contribute to solving, but also an opportunity to understand the limits of HCI as it is currently constituted and to develop new possibilities for the discipline.

Wild at Home: The Neighborhood as a Living Laboratory for HCI

Abstract: HCI can “turn to the wild” but still stay home. Local community life presents a rich context for understanding challenges and possibilities of information technology. We summarize and reflect upon a program of participatory design research in which we facilitated activities and experiences of our neighbors through developing a series of community-oriented programs and information systems through the past two decades. We organize these reflections around five overlapping themes: visibility of community actors, creation of community information infrastructures, the role of place-based identity and activity in community, the effectiveness of participatory relationships, and the research designs and methods appropriate. We frame these reflections around a conceptual model of community, and the suggestion that the local community can be a living laboratory for HCI in the wild.

Complex activity recognition using context-driven activity theory and activity signatures

Abstract: In pervasive and ubiquitous computing systems, human activity recognition has immense potential in a large number of application domains. Current activity recognition techniques (i) do not handle variations in sequence, concurrency and interleaving of complex activities; (ii) do not incorporate context; and (iii) require large amounts of training data. There is a lack of a unifying theoretical framework which exploits both domain knowledge and data-driven observations to infer complex activities. In this article, we propose, develop and validate a novel Context-Driven Activity Theory (CDAT) for recognizing complex activities. We develop a mechanism using probabilistic and Markov chain analysis to discover complex activity signatures and generate complex activity definitions. We also develop a Complex Activity Recognition (CAR) algorithm. It achieves an overall accuracy of 95.73p using extensive experimentation with real-life test data. CDAT utilizes context and links complex activities to situations, which reduces inference time by 32.5p and also reduces training data by 66p.

Applying the lens of sensory ethnography to sustainable HCI

Abstract: Sociological appropriations of practice theory as applied to sustainable design have successfully problematized overly simplistic and individualistic models of consumer choice and behavior change. By taking everyday practices as the principal units of analysis, they move towards acknowledging the socially and materially structured nature of human activity. However, to inform sustainable HCI we also need to understand how practices are part of wider experiential environments and flows of practical activity. In this article, we develop an approach rooted in phenomenological anthropology and sensory ethnography. This approach builds on theories of place, perception and movement and enables us to situate practices, and understand practical activity, as emplaced within complex and shifting ecologies of things. Drawing on an interdisciplinary study of domestic energy consumption and digital media use, we discuss ethnographic and design practice examples. We demonstrate how this theoretical and methodological framework can be aligned with the 3rd paradigm of HCI.

Collapse informatics and practice: Theory, method, and design

Abstract: What happens if efforts to achieve sustainability failq Research in many fields argues that contemporary global industrial civilization will not persist indefinitely in its current form, and may, like many past human societies, eventually collapse. Arguments in environmental studies, anthropology, and other fields indicate that this transformation could begin within the next half-century. While imminent collapse is far from certain, it is prudent to consider now how to develop sociotechnical systems for use in these scenarios. We introduce the notion of collapse informatics—the study, design, and development of sociotechnical systems in the abundant present for use in a future of scarcity. We sketch the design space of collapse informatics and a variety of example projects. We ask how notions of practice—theorized as collective activity in the “here and now”—can shift to the future since collapse has yet to occur.

Let's jam the reactable: Peer learning during musical improvisation with a tabletop tangible interface

Abstract: There has been little research on how interactions with tabletop and Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) by groups of users change over time. In this article, we investigate the challenges and opportunities of a tabletop tangible interface based on constructive building blocks. We describe a long-term lab study of groups of expert musicians improvising with the Reactable, a commercial tabletop TUI for music performance. We examine interaction, focusing on interface, tangible, musical, and social phenomena. Our findings reveal a practice-based learning between peers in situated contexts, and new forms of participation, all of which is facilitated by the Reactable's tangible interface, if compared to traditional musical ensembles. We summarise our findings as a set of design considerations and conclude that construction processes on interactive tabletops support learning by doing and peer learning, which can inform constructivist approaches to learning with technology.

Walking and the social life of solar charging in rural africa

Abstract: We consider practices that sustain social and physical environments beyond those dominating sustainable HCI discourse. We describe links between walking, sociality, and using resources in a case study of community-based, solar, cellphone charging in villages in South Africa's Eastern Cape. Like 360 million rural Africans, inhabitants of these villages are poor and, like 25p and 92p of the world, respectively, do not have domestic electricity or own motor vehicles. We describe nine practices in using the charging stations we deployed. We recorded 700 people using the stations, over a year, some regularly. We suggest that the way we frame practices limits insights about them, and consider various routines in using and sharing local resources to discover relations that might also feature in charging. Specifically, walking interconnects routines in using, storing, sharing and sustaining resources, and contributes to knowing, feeling, wanting and avoiding as well as to different aspects of sociality, social order and perspectives on sustainability. Along the way, bodies acquire literacies that make certain relationalities legible. Our study shows we cannot assert what sustainable practice means a priori and, further, that detaching practices from bodies and their paths limits solutions, at least in rural Africa. Thus, we advocate a more “alongly” integrated approach to data about practices.

Influence of personality on satisfaction with mobile phone services

Abstract: We propose a conceptual model that explains the relationship between the users' personality profile and their satisfaction with basic mobile phone services (calls, messages, and simple GPRS/3G services). The model captures direct and indirect effects on satisfaction by means of two variables: actual mobile phone usage and perceived usability of the related services. We empirically validate the model with data gathered from 603 customers of a telecommunication operator, and find that: (1) extroversion, conscientiousness, and intellect have a significant impact on customer satisfaction—positively for the first two traits and negatively for the latter; (2) extroversion positively influences mobile phone usage; and (3) extroversion and conscientiousness positively influence the users' perceived usability of mobile services. Interestingly, usability has the strongest positive impact on satisfaction, whereas mobile phone usage has a negative impact on satisfaction. We discuss key findings of this model and propose several implications for the design of mobile phone services.

Uncovering practices of making energy consumption accountable: A phenomenological inquiry

Abstract: Reacting to the discussion on global warming, the HCI community has started to explore the design of tools to support responsible energy consumption. An important part of this research focuses on motivating energy savings by providing feedback tools which present consumption metrics interactively. In this line of work, the configuration of feedback has been mainly discussed using cognitive or behavioral factors. This narrow focus, however, misses a highly relevant perspective for the design of technology that supports sustainable lifestyles: to investigate the multiplicity of forms in which individuals or collectives actually consume energy. In this article, we broaden this focus, by taking a phenomenological lens to study how people use off-the-shelf eco-feedback systems in private households to make energy consumption accountable and explainable. By reconstructing accounting practices, we delineate several constitutive elements of the phenomenon of energy usage in daily life. We complement these elements with a description of the sophisticated methods used by people to organize their energy practices and to give a meaning to their energy consumption. We describe these elements and methods, providing examples coming from the fieldwork and uncovering observed strategies to account for consumption. Based on our results, we provide a critical perspective on existing eco-feedback mechanisms and describe several elements for a design rationale for designing support for responsible energy consumption. We argue that interactive feedback systems should not simply be an end, but rather a resource for the construction of the artful practice of making energy consumption accountable.

P-LAYERS -- A Layered Framework Addressing the Multifaceted Issues Facing Community-Supporting Public Display Deployments

Abstract: The proliferation of digital signage systems has prompted a wealth of research that attempts to use public displays for more than just advertisement or transport schedules, such as their use for supporting communities. However, deploying and maintaining display systems “in the wild” that can support communities is challenging. Based on the authors’ experiences in designing and fielding a diverse range of community-supporting public display deployments, we identify a large set of challenges and issues that researchers working in this area are likely to encounter. Grouping them into five distinct layers -- (1) hardware, (2) system architecture, (3) content, (4) system interaction, and (5) community interaction design -- we draw up the P-LAYERS framework to enable a more systematic appreciation of the diverse range of issues associated with the development, the deployment, and the maintenance of such systems. Using three of our own deployments as illustrative examples, we will describe both our experiences within each individual layer, as well as point out interactions between the layers. We believe our framework provides a valuable aid for researchers looking to work in this space, alerting them to the issues they are likely to encounter during their deployments, and help them plan accordingly.

Sharing Stories “in the Wild”: A Mobile Storytelling Case Study Using StoryKit

Abstract: Today’s mobile devices are equipped with a variety of tools that enable users to capture and share their daily experiences. However, designing authoring tools that effectively integrate the discrete media-capture components of mobile devices to enable rich expression---especially by children---remains a challenge. Evaluating such tools authentically, as they are being used in-situ, can be even more challenging. We detail a long-term, multimethod study on the use of StoryKit, a mobile storytelling application. By taking advantage of a public distribution channel, we were able to evaluate StoryKit’s use on a scale beyond that usually found in lab settings or limited field trials. Our results show that StoryKit’s simple but well-integrated interface attracted a high number of dedicated users in education contexts at all levels, including children with special learning needs. We include a discussion of the challenges and opportunities that similar “in the wild” studies hold for HCI research.

Exploring Sustainable Practices in Workplace Settings through Visualizing Electricity Consumption

Abstract: People’s domestic habits are increasingly being targeted to reduce levels of CO2 emissions. Whereas domestic energy consumption has received a lot of attention with several reported studies on sustainable practices, there are very few studies on workplace practices. Nevertheless, these are considered as having much potential for reducing energy consumption. This article presents the findings from two field studies where two different types of prototypes for visualizing energy use were designed, implemented and evaluated in different types of workplace settings -- factories and offices. The studies used design probes to explore how visual feedback for electricity use was interpreted and acted upon by employees in work settings. A striking observation was that it is very difficult to get people to change to more pro-environmental behavior and practices in a workplace environment. The article discusses why this might be the case.

TaskGenies: Automatically Providing Action Plans Helps People Complete Tasks

Abstract: People complete tasks more quickly when they have concrete plans. However, they often fail to create such action plans. (How) can systems provide these concrete steps automatically? This article demonstrates that these benefits can also be realized when these plans are created by others or reused from similar tasks. Four experiments test these approaches, finding that people indeed complete more tasks when they receive externally-created action plans. To automatically provide plans, we introduce the Genies workflow that combines benefits of crowd wisdom, collaborative refinement, and automation. We demonstrate and evaluate this approach through the TaskGenies system, and introduce an NLP similarity algorithm for reusing plans. We demonstrate that it is possible for people to create action plans for others, and we show that it can be cost effective.

Embedded interaction: The accomplishment of actions in everyday and video-mediated environments

Abstract: A concern with “embodied action” has informed both the analysis of everyday action through technologies and also suggested ways of designing innovative systems. In this article, we consider how these two programs, the analysis of everyday embodied interaction on the one hand, and the analysis of technically-mediated embodied interaction on the other, are interlinked. We draw on studies of everyday interaction to reveal how embodied conduct is embedded in the environment. We then consider a collaborative technology that attempts to provide a coherent way of presenting life-sized embodiments of participants alongside particular features of the environment. These analyses suggest that conceptions of embodied action should take account of the interactional accomplishment of activities and how these are embedded in the material environment.

Reviewing and Extending the Five-User Assumption: A Grounded Procedure for Interaction Evaluation

Abstract: The debate concerning how many participants represents a sufficient number for interaction testing is well-established and long-running, with prominent contributions arguing that five users provide a good benchmark when seeking to discover interaction problems We argue that adoption of five users in this context is often done with little understanding of the basis for, or implications of, the decision We present an analysis of relevant research to clarify the meaning of the five-user assumption and to examine the way in which the original research that suggested it has been applied This includes its blind adoption and application in some studies, and complaints about its inadequacies in others We argue that the five-user assumption is often misunderstood, not only in the field of Human-Computer Interaction, but also in fields such as medical device design, or in business and information applications The analysis that we present allows us to define a systematic approach for monitoring the sample discovery likelihood, in formative and summative evaluations, and for gathering information in order to make critical decisions during the interaction testing, while respecting the aim of the evaluation and allotted budget This approach -- which we call the Grounded Procedure -- is introduced and its value argued

Evaluating a Tool for Improving Accessibility to Charts and Graphs

Abstract: This article reports a case study of the iterative design and evaluation of a natural language-driven assistive technology, iGraph-Lite, providing people who are blind access to line graphs. Two laboratory-based usability studies involving blind and sighted people are presented with a discussion of the ensuing implementation of changes. Blind participants were found to adopt different graph interrogation strategies than sighted participants. A small field study is then reported in which a blind user who works with graphs took part to determine the degree to which the iGraph-Lite commands would meet the needs of blind graph experts. The final study invited sighted graph experts and novices to visually inspect and explain a set of line graphs comparable to those used in the usability studies. It aimed to highlight the concepts and the range of words sighted people use, to ascertain the appropriateness of the iGraph-Lite lexicon. A set of preliminary guidelines is presented.

Of Catwalk Technologies and Boundary Creatures

Abstract: Researchers designing and deploying technologies in the wild can find it difficult to balance pure innovation with scalable solutions. Tensions often relate to expectations around current and future roles of the technology development. We propose a catwalk technology metaphor where researchers as boundary creatures focus on innovation whilst providing links to pret-a-porter (ready to wear) developments. Evidence from 140 participants, within three “in-the-wild” field-based learning case studies (for mobile, distributed, sensor and augmented reality systems), conceptualise the researchers’ “boundary creature” role in managing design process tensions. Stakeholders, including participants, expected the research projects to produce ready to wear (pret-a-porter) boundary objects for current practices even when researchers sought to take catwalk approaches by innovating technologies and changing practices. The researcher design role (RDR) model articulates researchers’ narratives with the design team, stakeholders and users around what is innovated (e.g., technology, activities) and how the intervention changes or sustains current practices.