Showing papers in "International Journal of Human-computer Studies \/ International Journal of Man-machine Studies in 2015"

Gamification in theory and action

Abstract: Gamification has drawn the attention of academics, practitioners and business professionals in domains as diverse as education, information studies, human-computer interaction, and health. As yet, the term remains mired in diverse meanings and contradictory uses, while the concept faces division on its academic worth, underdeveloped theoretical foundations, and a dearth of standardized guidelines for application. Despite widespread commentary on its merits and shortcomings, little empirical work has sought to validate gamification as a meaningful concept and provide evidence of its effectiveness as a tool for motivating and engaging users in non-entertainment contexts. Moreover, no work to date has surveyed gamification as a field of study from a human-computer studies perspective. In this paper, we present a systematic survey on the use of gamification in published theoretical reviews and research papers involving interactive systems and human participants. We outline current theoretical understandings of gamification and draw comparisons to related approaches, including alternate reality games (ARGs), games with a purpose (GWAPs), and gameful design. We present a multidisciplinary review of gamification in action, focusing on empirical findings related to purpose and context, design of systems, approaches and techniques, and user impact. Findings from the survey show that a standard conceptualization of gamification is emerging against a growing backdrop of empirical participants-based research. However, definitional subjectivity, diverse or unstated theoretical foundations, incongruities among empirical findings, and inadequate experimental design remain matters of concern. We discuss how gamification may to be more usefully presented as a subset of a larger effort to improve the user experience of interactive systems through gameful design. We end by suggesting points of departure for continued empirical investigations of gamified practice and its effects. We present findings from a survey of the gamification literature.Theoretical findings suggest that gamification is a distinct concept.Conceptual foundations tend to converge on psychological theories of motivation.Early applied work suggests positive-leaning but mixed results.Empirical work on specific elements with direct ties to theory and stronger experimental designs is needed.

The benefit of being physically present

Abstract: The effects of physical embodiment and physical presence were explored through a survey of 33 experimental works comparing how people interacted with physical robots and virtual agents. A qualitative assessment of the direction of quantitative effects demonstrated that robots were more persuasive and perceived more positively when physically present in a user?s environment than when digitally-displayed on a screen either as a video feed of the same robot or as a virtual character analog; robots also led to better user performance when they were collocated as opposed to shown via video on a screen. However, participants did not respond differently to physical robots and virtual agents when both were displayed digitally on a screen - suggesting that physical presence, rather than physical embodiment, characterizes people?s responses to social robots. Implications for understanding psychological response to physical and virtual agents and for methodological design are discussed. Survey identified 33 works exploring user responses to physical robots and virtual agents.Robot agents had greater influence when physically present than telepresent.No differences were found between physical robots displayed on a screen and virtual agents that looked similar.Physical presence, but not physical embodiment alone, resulted in more favorable responses from participants.

The diversity of participatory design research practice at PDC 2002-2012

Abstract: We investigate the diversity of participatory design research practice, based on a review of ten years of participatory design research published as full research papers at the Participatory Design Conferences (PDC) 2002-2012, and relate this body of research to five fundamental aspects of PD from classic participatory design literature. We identify five main categories of research contributions: Participatory Design in new domains, Participatory Design methods, Participatory Design and new technology, Theoretical contributions to Participatory Design, and Basic concepts in Participatory Design. Moreover, we identify how participation is defined, and how participation is conducted in experimental design cases, with a particular focus on interpretation, planning, and decision-making in the design process. Five fundamental aspects of PD from classic participatory design literature.Five main categories of research contributions.We identify how participation is defined.We identify how participation is conducted in experimental design cases.

Is virtual reality emotionally arousing? Investigating five emotion inducing virtual park scenarios

Abstract: Following the idea of using virtual environments (VEs) as mood induction procedures (MIPs), this study set out to examine whether five different virtual park scenarios would each elicit a specific affective state (i.e., joy, sadness, boredom, anger and anxiety). Within this main objective, a subset of two additional goals was identified: first, to analyze whether the sense of presence would differ across emotionally charged VEs, and second, to examine the link between a more objective measure of affective arousal, electrodermal activity (EDA), and presence. Following a between-subject design, 120 students were randomly assigned to one of the five VEs. Results show that almost all of the five virtual park scenarios were able to elicit the intended emotion. Additionally, presence levels were the same across all VEs suggesting that presence did not confound the emotional reaction to the VEs. Furthermore, EDA seems to be a poor indicator of presence as it is not significantly correlated with self-reported presence. The implications of these findings for both future research and practice are addressed in a comprehensive discussion. Four virtual park scenarios elicited the intended emotional states.Presence levels were the same across different virtual environments.Skin conductance level seems to be a poor indicator of presence.

Personalizing persuasive technologies

Abstract: This paper discusses how persuasive technologies can be made adaptive to users. We present persuasion profiling as a method to personalize the persuasive messages used by a system to influence its users. This type of personalization can be based on explicit measures of users? tendencies to comply to distinct persuasive strategies: measures based on standardized questionnaire scores of users. However, persuasion profiling can also be implemented using implicit, behavioral measures of user traits. We present three case studies involving the design, implementation, and field deployment of personalized persuasive technologies, and we detail four design requirements. In each case study we show how these design requirements are implemented. In the discussion we highlight avenues for future research in the field of adaptive persuasive technologies. Author-HighlightsPersuasive technologies can be more effective if they are personalized.We introduce persuasion profiles to personalize persuasive messages.Persuasion profiles can be effective using implicit or explicit measures.In three case studies we show the effects of personalized persuasion.

Why phishing still works

Abstract: We have conducted a user study to assess whether improved browser security indicators and increased awareness of phishing have led to users' improved ability to protect themselves against such attacks. Participants were shown a series of websites and asked to identify the phishing websites. We use eye tracking to obtain objective quantitative data on which visual cues draw users' attention as they determine the legitimacy of websites. Our results show that users successfully detected only 53% of phishing websites even when primed to identify them and that they generally spend very little time gazing at security indicators compared to website content when making assessments. However, we found that gaze time on browser chrome elements does correlate to increased ability to detect phishing. Interestingly, users' general technical proficiency does not correlate with improved detection scores. HighlightsUsers successfully detected only 53% of phishing websites.Gaze time on browser chrome elements correlates to increased ability to detect phishing.Users' technical proficiency is not correlated with the ability to detect phishing.Users spend little time gazing at security indicators when assessing legitimacy of websites.

In pursuit of rigour and accountability in participatory design

Abstract: The field of Participatory Design (PD) has greatly diversified and we see a broad spectrum of approaches and methodologies emerging. However, to foster its role in designing future interactive technologies, a discussion about accountability and rigour across this spectrum is needed. Rejecting the traditional, positivistic framework, we take inspiration from related fields such as Design Research and Action Research to develop interpretations of these concepts that are rooted in PD's own belief system. We argue that unlike in other fields, accountability and rigour are nuanced concepts that are delivered through debate, critique and reflection. A key prerequisite for having such debates is the availability of a language that allows designers, researchers and practitioners to construct solid arguments about the appropriateness of their stances, choices and judgements.To this end, we propose a "tool-to-think-with" that provides such a language by guiding designers, researchers and practitioners through a process of systematic reflection and critical analysis. The tool proposes four lenses to critically reflect on the nature of a PD effort: epistemology, values, stakeholders and outcomes. In a subsequent step, the coherence between the revealed features is analysed and shows whether they pull the project in the same direction or work against each other. Regardless of the flavour of PD, we argue that this coherence of features indicates the level of internal rigour of PD work and that the process of reflection and analysis provides the language to argue for it. We envision our tool to be useful at all stages of PD work: in the planning phase, as part of a reflective practice during the work, and as a means to construct knowledge and advance the field after the fact. We ground our theoretical discussions in a specific PD experience, the ECHOES project, to motivate the tool and to illustrate its workings. Participatory Design (PD) requires nuanced concepts of accountability and rigour.Accountability and rigour are constructed through debate, critique and reflection.Our "tool-to-think-with" guides designers in systematic and critical reflection.We provide four lenses for reflection: epistemology, values, stakeholders, outcomes.The "coherence" between reflective perspectives indicates internal rigour of PD work.

Touch interaction for children aged 3 to 6 years

Abstract: Our present understanding of young children's touch-screen performance is still limited, as only few studies have considered analyzing children's touch interaction patterns so far. In this work, we address children aged between 3 and 6 years old during their preoperational stage according to Piaget's cognitive developmental theory, and we report their touch-screen performance with standard tap and drag and drop interactions on smart phones and tablets. We show significant improvements in children's touch performance as they grow from 3 to 6 years, and point to performance differences between children and adults. We correlate children's touch performance expressed with task completion times and target acquisition accuracy with sensorimotor evaluations that characterize children's finger dexterity and graphomotor and visuospatial processing abilities, and report significant correlations. Our observations are drawn from the largest children touch dataset available in the literature, consisting in data collected from 89 children and an additional 30 young adults to serve as comparison. We use our findings to recommend guidelines for designing touch-screen interfaces for children by adopting the new perspective of sensorimotor abilities. We release our large dataset into the interested community for further studies on children's touch input behavior. It is our hope that our findings on the little-studied age group of 3- to 6-year-olds together with the companion dataset will contribute toward a better understanding of children's touch interaction behavior and toward improved touch interface designs for small-age children. HighlightsWe investigate small-age children's touch performance on smart phones and tablets.Children's touch performance improves significantly from 3 to 6 years.We discuss findings in terms of Piaget's preoperational developmental stage.We recommend design guidelines by considering children's sensorimotor skills.Dataset released for the largest children touch-screen study up to date (89 children).

Urban computing in the wild: A survey on large scale participation and citizen engagement with ubiquitous computing, cyber physical systems, and Internet of Things

Abstract: With today׳s ubiquitous computing technologies, our daily activities are continuously traced by smartphones in our pockets and more of our everyday things are now connected to the Internet. This phenomena is changing the way we live, work, and interact. This creates, not only technological opportunities for smarter cities, but also interactional opportunities for the citizens. However, designing, developing, and deploying urban computing projects in the wild, outside the controlled research environment, is challenging, due to the complexity of the urban context as well as the people who live in it. What are the ways to trigger and increase the public towards active participation or technological uptake in urban computing? How to design and structure participation for urban computing research and technologies in the wild for it to lead to mass participation with its citizens? These are the questions that are investigated in this paper. We present a survey on existing approaches in engaging participations and devising interactions with a range of existing urban computing technologies: smartphones, public displays, cyber physical systems (including those with embedded systems, sensors, and actuators), and Internet of Things. Based on the reviews, we propose a taxonomy for categorising and characterising urban computing technologies and approaches with regards to the level of participation they stimulate, the participation scale they support, the manipulation and effects mode they enable, and the interaction mode and scale they enable. Finally, strategies for structuring and engendering participations and interactions based on our own experience from deploying small to large scale urban computing projects in the wild are presented in this paper.

Multi-touch gestures for pre-kindergarten children

Abstract: The direct manipulation interaction style of multi-touch technology makes it the ideal mechanism for learning activities from pre-kindergarteners to adolescents. However, most commercial pre-kindergarten applications only support tap and drag operations. This paper investigates pre-kindergarteners׳ (2–3 years of age) ability to perform other gestures on multi-touch surfaces. We found that these infants could effectively perform additional gestures, such as one-finger rotation and two-finger scale up and down, just as well as basic gestures, despite gender and age differences. We also identified cognitive and precision issues that may have an impact on the performance and feasibility of several types of interaction (double tap, long press, scale down and two-finger rotation) and propose a set of design guidelines to mitigate the associated problems and help designers envision effective interaction mechanisms for this challenging age range.

User-controllable personalization

Abstract: In this research we investigated the role of user controllability on personalized systems by implementing and studying a novel interactive recommender interface, SetFusion. We examined whether allowing the user to control the process of fusing or integrating different algorithms (i.e., different sources of relevance) resulted in increased engagement and a better user experience. The essential contribution of this research stems from the results of a user study (N=40) of controllability in a scenario where users could fuse different recommendation approaches, with the possibility of inspecting and filtering the items recommended. First, we introduce an interactive Venn diagram visualization, which combined with sliders, can provide an efficient visual paradigm for information filtering. Second, we provide a three-fold evaluation of the user experience: objective metrics, subjective user perception, and behavioral measures. Through the analysis of these metrics, we confirmed results from recent studies, such as the effect of trusting propensity on accepting the recommendations and also unveiled the importance of features such as being a native speaker. Our results present several implications for the design and implementation of user-controllable personalized systems. We explored user-controllable interfaces as extension of traditional-ranked lists.We introduced SetFusion, a controllable interface with sliders and a Venn diagram.We conducted a controlled user study on online conference article recommendation.Our evaluation had three dimensions: users' perception, behavioral and IR metrics.Controllable interface had a positive effect influenced by users' characteristics.

Discrete task switching in overload

Abstract: We describe a computational multi-attribute decision model that predicts the decision aspect of sequential multitasking. We investigate how people choose to switch tasks or continue performing an ongoing task when they are in overload conditions where concurrent performance of tasks is impossible. The model is based on a meta-analytic integration of 31 experiments from the literature on applied task switching. Consistent trends from the meta-analysis, to avoid switching, and to switch to tasks lower difficulty, along with greater salience, priority and interest are used to set polarity parameters in the mathematical model. A decision model of multi-task attention switching is presented.The model posits that task switching is based on attractiveness attributes of alternative tasks, related to salience, difficulty, interest and priority.A fundamental bias against task switching is included.The weights and polarity of these attributes are based on two meta-analyses of applied task switching data, which are presented.

A bellboy robot

Abstract: This paper provides the results of various trial experiments in a hotel environment carried out using Sacarino, an interactive bellboy robot We analysed which aspects of the robot design and behaviour are relevant in terms of user engagement and comfort when interacting with our social robot The experiments carried out focused on the influence over the proxemics, duration and effectiveness of the interaction, taking into account three dichotomous factors related with the robot design and behaviour: robot embodiment (with/without robotic body), status of the robot (awake/asleep) and who starts communication (robot/user) Results show that users tend to maintain a personal distance when interacting with an embodied robot and that embodiment engages users in maintaining longer interactions On the other hand, including a greeting model in a robot is useful in terms of engaging users to maintain longer interactions, and that an active-looking robot is more attractive to the participants, producing longer interactions than in the case of a passive-looking robot A Bellboy, social robot interacting guests in a hotel is presentedSocial robot design should take care of target user age that influences use distanceA robotic body encourages remarkably HCI (with respect to common computers)A two-step salutation can attract user attention while avoiding intimidationMultimodal systems are highly recommended in real, noisy environment

Emotionally expressive dynamic physical behaviors in robots

Abstract: For social robots to respond to humans in an appropriate manner, they need to use apt affect displays, revealing underlying emotional intelligence. We present an artificial emotional intelligence system for robots, with both a generative and a perceptual aspect. On the generative side, we explore the expressive capabilities of an abstract, faceless, creature-like robot, with very few degrees of freedom, lacking both facial expressions and the complex humanoid design found often in emotionally expressive robots. We validate our system in a series of experiments: in one study, we find an advantage in classification for animated vs static affect expressions and advantages in valence and arousal estimation and personal preference ratings for both animated vs static and physical vs on-screen expressions. In a second experiment, we show that our parametrically generated expression variables correlate with the intended user affect perception. Combining the generative system with a perceptual component of natural language sentiment analysis, we show in a third experiment that our automatically generated affect responses cause participants to show signs of increased engagement and enjoyment compared with arbitrarily chosen comparable motion parameters.

iCAN: A tablet-based pedagogical system for improving communication skills of children with autism

Abstract: The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is the conventional pedagogical approach for developing the communication skills of children with autism, and research has supported the approach׳s great effectiveness in its communicative utilization of picture cards. Unfortunately, the paper-based approach׳s effectiveness is hampered by the time-consuming and complex preparation process of manually creating and managing these picture cards for use between the children and their caregivers. This paper presents iCAN, a tablet-based system that adopts the successful aspects of the traditional PECS approach while incorporating advantageous features such as support for digital, visualization, and voice capabilities, improved portability due to its smaller form factor on a tablet, and image-capturing capabilities for expanding the flexibility of content creation. We deployed our system onto eleven children participants – whom are diagnosed with moderate to severe autism – and their primary caregivers over a span of four weeks, and our results demonstrated that iCAN reduced content-preparation time by over 70% while also enhancing children with autism׳s willingness to learn and interact with others.

Public design of digital commons in urban places

Abstract: This paper can be framed within the growing interest in the public dimension of technology design: it proposes a framework for the public design of urban technologies by elaborating on the concepts of digital commons, matters of concerns and engagement. The framework is discussed through the case study of a mobility application developed within a wider project of digital commons design. We contrast a Smart City approach and a urban computing one, and we argue that the latter is more fruitful in the long run, since it entails elements for the establishment of forms of recursive engagement of users, who co-produce digital commons together with technology designers as a response to their matters of concern. Applying our framework to the design of urban technologies, we conclude that design should support collaborative practices starting from the articulation of matters of concern to designing in a participatory way. HighlightsDigital commons are digital resources self-governed by concerned people.Public design is designing for publics and in the public dimension.Recursive publics are the publics recursively concerned with digital commons.Designers position themselves in relation to public issues.Urban places are an arena for the public design of digital commons.

Emotional user experience

Abstract: Emotional experience has become an important topic in human-technology interaction research and design. Nevertheless, such research and design often lacks a proper explanatory basis and methodologically robust operationalisation. In this article, a conceptualisation of emotional user experience is formulated based on the appraisal theory of emotion, where the goal congruence of the interaction events and the task-independent individual traits are thought to underlie the user's emotional response. A laboratory study with N=50 participants conducting ordinary computer tasks is reported. The results suggest that subjective emotional experience depends on a number of factors relating to individual differences in coping and task events. Emotional user experience, as analysed according to a competence-frustration model of emotion, is dependent on the user?s technological problem-solving tendency, frustration tendency, pre-task self-confidence, and task performance. Individual differences in emotional responses in human-technology interaction were investigated.Competence is affected by individual differences in planful problem solving trait.Frustration is affected by individual differences in frustration tendency trait.Self-confidence of the user affects emotional user experience.

Voice anthropomorphism, interlocutor modelling and alignment effects on syntactic choices in human-computer dialogue

Abstract: The growth of speech interfaces and speech interaction with computer partners has made it increasingly important to understand the factors that determine users' language choices in human-computer dialogue. We report two controlled experiments that used a picture-naming-matching task to investigate whether users in human-computer speech-based interactions tend to use the same grammatical structures as their conversational partners, and whether such syntactic alignment can impact strong default grammatical preferences. We additionally investigate whether beliefs about system capabilities that are based on partner identity (i.e. human or computer) and speech interface design cues (here, voice anthropomorphism) affect the magnitude of syntactic alignment in such interactions. We demonstrate syntactic alignment for both dative structures (e.g., give the waitress the apple vs. give the apple to the waitress), where there is no strong default preference for one or other structure (Experiment 1), and noun phrase structures (e.g., a purple circle vs. a circle that is purple), where there is a strong default preference for one structure (Experiment 2). The tendency to align syntactically was unaffected by partner identity (human vs. computer) or voice anthropomorphism. These findings have both practical and theoretical implications for HCI by demonstrating the potential for spoken dialogue system behaviour to influence users' syntactic choices in interaction. As well as verifying natural corpora findings, this work also highlights that priming and cognitive mechanisms that are unmediated by beliefs about partner identity could be important in understanding why people align syntactically in human-computer dialogue. Paper investigates syntactic alignment in spoken human-computer dialogue.The role of partner modelling through partner type and voice is also explored.Humans align similarly with human and computer partners, irrespective of voice.Priming is an important mechanism to consider in explaining our HCD choices.Syntactic alignment can affect strong default preferences and could be used to improve spoken dialogue technology.

Use of auditory event-related potentials to measure immersion during a computer game ☆

Abstract: The degree of engagement in a computer game is determined by sensory immersion (i.e. effects of display technology) and challenge immersion (i.e. effects of task demand). Twenty participants played a computer game under two display conditions (a large TV vs. head-mounted display) with three levels of cognitive challenge (easy/hard/impossible). Immersion was defined as selective attention to external (non-game related) auditory stimuli and measured implicitly as event-related potentials (ERPs) to an auditory oddball task. The Immersive Experience Questionnaire (IEQ) was used to capture subjective indicators of immersion. The type of display had no significant influence on ERPs or responses to the IEQ. However, subjective immersion was significantly enhanced by the experience of hard and impossible demand. The amplitude of late component ERPs to oddball stimuli were significantly reduced when demand increased from easy to hard/impossible levels. We conclude that ERPs to irrelevant stimuli represent a valid method of operationalising immersion.

Knowledge transfer in pair programming: An in-depth analysis

Abstract: Whilst knowledge transfer is one of the most widely-claimed benefits of pair programming, little is known about how knowledge transfer is achieved in this setting. This is particularly pertinent for novice−expert constellations, but knowledge transfer takes place to some degree in all constellations. We ask “what does it take to be a good “expert” and how can a “novice” best learn from a more experienced developer?”. An in-depth investigation of video and audio excerpts of professional pair programming sessions using Interaction Analysis reveals: six teaching strategies, ranging from “giving direct instructions” to “subtle hints”; and challenges and benefits for both partners. These strategies are instantiations of some but not all teaching methods promoted in cognitive apprenticeship; novice articulation, reflection and exploration are not seen in the data. The context of pair programming influences the strategies, challenges and benefits, in particular the roles of driver and navigator and agile prioritisation which considers business value rather than educational progression. Utilising these strategies more widely and recognizing the challenges and benefits for both partners will help developers to maximise the benefits from pairing sessions.

The good old days

Abstract: Humans are reflective, adaptive, and social. They recall the past, sometimes discuss these recollections with others and become nostalgic; yet, previous research has not examined nostalgia in social media. This paper investigates the expression of nostalgia within Facebook conversations. The specific themes of nostalgic longing and the expression of personal emotions are investigated in two studies. Study 1 examines 375,857 Facebook posts, and Study 2 expands on this by comparing a sample of 10,000 Facebook and 10,000 general (non-nostalgic) posts. Content analyses of these posts reveal significant evidence of nostalgic expressions in Facebook conversations. Cluster analysis reveals newer themes of nostalgic longing related to family, life stories, historical events (presidential elections, man on the moon and Gandhi), spirituality, appreciation of life, romanticism and fun. General posts tend to focus on spontaneous, spur-of-the-moment greetings, emotions, and day of the week. Nostalgic posts, in contrast, are more reflective, more emotional, and frequently include both positive and negative emotions, which is consistent with a deeper, bittersweet character to nostalgia. The concurrent utilization of past- and present-tense words in nostalgic posts suggests that, for some Facebook users, nostalgia helps interpret and navigate present circumstances. The research concludes with theoretical and managerial implications. We identified newer topics of nostalgic longing on Facebook which are more pensive and reflective, indicating deeper levels of cognitive processing than general Facebook posts, which are more "in the moment."Nostalgic reverie on Facebook contains both cognitive reflection and affective reactions.Emotions expressed in Facebook conversations tend toward the positive and often contain mixed emotions, - documenting the bittersweet nature of nostalgia.Nostalgic Facebook posts frequently discuss the past, but also frequently discuss the present. Users frequently compare the past to the present and utilize the past to reflect on the present circumstances of their lives, the nation and society.These findings have managerial implications as well.Companies can segment Facebook users based on their posts and then target these consumers using nostalgia-based behavioral advertising campaigns.

Persuasive avatars

Abstract: Transformed social interaction (TSI) suggests that virtual environments have unique advantages over traditional forms of interpersonal communication. Recent research has demonstrated that a persuasive speaker can use these advantages to create a more persuasive message. However, little has been done to establish how a receiver of a persuasive message in a virtual, interactive environment might also use these advantages. Giving individuals the ability to customize a persuasive source may empower them and affect their perceptions of the persuasive message. In a 2(forewarned or not)×2(customize source or watch customization) experiment, participants were forewarned or not forewarned that they would be hearing a persuasive message about buying a new energy drink. Participants were then allowed to customize (or watch someone customize) the appearance of the speaker's avatar before the sales pitch. Participants who had the opportunity customize the speaker's appearance liked the product more and had higher purchase intentions than those who did not have control, regardless of forewarning. Findings suggest a new application for TSI, and that both users and sources may benefit when users have the power to customize the appearance of a virtual salesperson. Virtual environments (VEs) offer new opportunities for persuasion.Message sources and receivers can utilize affordances of interactive media.Allowed users in VE to customize avatar of a persuasive speaker before speech.Customizers liked product and had higher purchase intention than non-customizers.

A value-oriented and culturally informed approach to the design of interactive systems

Abstract: Cultural aspects such as values, beliefs, and behavioral patterns influence the way technology is understood and used, and the impact it may cause on the environment and on people. Although there is influential literature devoted to the subject of values and culture in Human-Computer Interaction, there is still a lack of principled and practical artifacts and methods to support researchers and practitioners in their activities. In this paper, we present a Value-oriented and Culturally Informed Approach (VCIA) to sensitize and support Computer Science and Engineering professionals in taking values and culture into consideration throughout the design of interactive systems. The approach is grounded on theoretical and methodological bases of Organizational Semiotics, Building Blocks of Culture, and Socially Aware Computing. VCIA offers a set of artifacts and methods articulated to support the design process in its different stages and activities: from the identification of stakeholders and their values, to the organization of requirements and the evaluation of the designed solution. In this paper, we present VCIA's principles, artifacts, and illustrate its usefulness in bringing values into consideration, supporting a socially aware system design. Values and culture are approached in design in a joint, explicit and informed way.Theoretical and methodological basis from different areas are articulated.Introduction and explanation of informed artifacts created to support designers.Instantiation of a process for involving values and culture in design activities.Case study explains the process in action and shows its contributions.

An insider perspective on community gains

Abstract: Community-based co-design takes place within a communal value system and opens up a new debate around the principles of participation and its benefits within HCI4D and ICTD projects. This study contributes to a current gap of expression of participants' gains, especially from an indigenous and marginalized rural communities' perspective. We have collected community viewpoints concurrently over the past five years of our longitudinal research project in rural Namibia. A number of themes have emerged out of the data as extracted by our native researcher, such as the special importance of learning technology, appreciation of the common project goal, the intrinsic pleasure of participation, frustrations about exclusions and other concerns, as well as immediate rewards and expectations of gaining resources. We acknowledge our own bias in the curation of viewpoints, and incompleteness of subjectivities while embedding our discussion within a local contextual interpretation. Through our learning from the communities we argue for a shift in perspective that acknowledges local epistemologies in HCI and participatory design and research. We suggest considering harmony and humanness as the primary values guiding community-based interactions. We discuss several challenges in the collaboration and co-creation of new knowledge at the frontier of multiple cultural, linguist, research and design paradigms. In the absence of generalized guidelines we suggest to pursue local workability while producing trans-contextual credibility. Subjective viewpoints of participants in participatory design project.Local rural researcher's reflection and data collection presented.Importance of learning, project aim alignment and intrinsic pleasure in participation.Frustrations about exclusions, project continuity and resource scarcity.Self-consciousness and pride as main impact of participation.

Integrating knowledge of multitasking and interruptions across different perspectives and research methods

Abstract: Multitasking and interruptions have been studied using a variety of methods in multiple fields (eg, HCI, cognitive science, computer science, and social sciences) This diversity brings many complementary insights However, it also challenges researchers to understand how seemingly disparate ideas can best be integrated to further theory and to inform the design of interactive systems There is therefore a need for a platform to discuss how different approaches to understanding multitasking and interruptions can be combined to provide insights that are more than the sum of their parts In this article we argue for the necessity of an integrative approach As part of this argument we provide an overview of articles in this special issue on multitasking and interruptions These articles showcase the variety of methods currently used to study multitasking and interruptions It is clear that there are many challenges to studying multitasking and interruptions from different perspectives and using different techniques We advance a six-point research agenda for the future of multi-method research on this important and timely topic

Benefits of visualization in the Mammography Problem

Abstract: Trying to make a decision between two outcomes, when there is some level of uncertainty, is inherently difficult because it involves probabilistic reasoning. Previous studies have shown that most people do not correctly apply Bayesian inference to solve probabilistic problems for decision making under uncertainty. In an effort to improve decision making with Bayesian problems, previous work has studied supplementing the textual description of problems with visualizations, such as graphs and charts. However, results have been varied and generally indicate that visualization is not an effective technique. As these studies were performed over many years with a variety of goals and experimental conditions, we sought to re-evaluate the use of visualization as an aid in solving Bayesian problems. Many of these studies used the classic Mammography Problem with visualizations portraying the problem structure, the quantities involved, or the nested-set relations of the populations involved. We selected three representative visualizations from this work and developed two hybrid visualizations, combining structure types and frequency with structure. We also included a text-only baseline condition and a text-legend condition where all nested-set problem values were given to eliminate the need for participants to estimate or calculate values. Seven hundred participants evaluated these seven conditions on the classic Mammography Problem in a crowdsourcing system, where micro-interaction data was collected from the participants. Our analysis of the user input and of the results indicates that participants made use of the visualizations but that the visualizations did not help participants to perform more accurately. Overall, static visualizations do not seem to aid a majority of people in solving the Mammography Problem. Graphical abstractDisplay Omitted HighlightsWe evaluate the use of visualization as an aid in solving Bayesian problems.We propose comparability criteria for consistency in visualization design.We created a design space including existing and novel visualizations.700 participants evaluated 7 different visualizations of the Mammography Problem.Participants made use of the visualizations but they did not improve performance.

Designing electronic feedback - Analyzing the effects of social presence on perceived feedback usefulness

Abstract: Feedback interventions, i.e. actions taken by (an) external agent(s) to provide information regarding one?s task performance, are an important element in motivating and raising performance. Especially the perceived feedback usefulness determines its positive effects. In today?s digitalized world, feedback is more often given electronically, i.e. computer-mediated or even automated by computer systems. Those feedback interventions? effect on perceptions resulting from the difference of communication media is essentially considered by the concept of social presence. However, information systems (IS) research lacks a structured evaluation of possible design choices of feedback media, their influence on the social presence and subsequent effect on the perceived feedback usefulness. To close this research gap, we conduct a laboratory experiment with 43 participants in which we analyze six different design choices for feedback media. We applied a 2i?3 experimental design covering the feedback source (human, non-human feedback) and media richness (text, audio, and video). We show that social presence directly and mediated by the perceived trustworthiness of feedback on simple IT-based tasks impacts perceived feedback usefulness. Our study concludes by outlining opportunities for future research and practical implications for human and non-human (i.e. automated) feedback. We model the link between social presence and perceived feedback usefulness.We analyze six different feedback design choices with respect to social presence.We find that social presence is dependent on media richness and feedback source.Social presence is an important factor determining perceived feedback usefulness.This effect is partly mediated by perceived trustworthiness of the feedback.

Utilizing linguistically enhanced keystroke dynamics to predict typist cognition and demographics

Abstract: Entering information on a computer keyboard is a ubiquitous mode of expression and communication. We investigate whether typing behavior is connected to two factors: the cognitive demands of a given task and the demographic features of the typist. We utilize features based on keystroke dynamics, stylometry, and "language production", which are novel hybrid features that capture the dynamics of a typists linguistic choices. Our study takes advantage of a large data set (~350 subjects) made up of relatively short samples (~450 characters) of free text. Experiments show that these features can recognize the cognitive demands of task that an unseen typist is engaged in, and can classify his or her demographics with better than chance accuracy. We correctly distinguish High vs. Low cognitively demanding tasks with accuracy up to 72.39%. Detection of non-native speakers of English is achieved with F1=0.462 over a baseline of 0.166, while detection of female typists reaches F1=0.524 over a baseline of 0.442. Recognition of left-handed typists achieves F1=0.223 over a baseline of 0.100. Further analyses reveal that novel relationships exist between language production as manifested through typing behavior, and both cognitive and demographic factors. HighlightsRecognition of cognitive task with linguistic and keystroke features with accuracy of 72.39%.Recognition of gender, handedness, and native-language from short unconstrained text at F1=.462, 0.223, and 0.524, respectively.Developed novel Language Production features hybridizing keystroke dynamics and stylometry.

Studying interruptions and multitasking in situ

Abstract: Much of the large and growing body of literature on interruption and multitasking is motivated, in part, by a desire to reduce their negative effects in occupational settings, particularly those that are safety critical. Much of the existing knowledge has come from experimental studies, however, these do not necessarily generalize to non-experimental contexts. By virtue of being in situ, the results of observational studies are more generalizable, but internal validity remains an issue. Since many of the quantitative observational studies of interruption or multitasking to date have been largely descriptive, their full potential to contribute knowledge that informs practical improvements has been underutilized. We discuss ways to address threats to internal validity in quantitative observational studies through appropriate analysis with particular reference to workflow time studies, a form of direct observation. We also discuss the potential for more sophisticated analysis methods to both address some of the threats to internal validity and to provide more nuanced insights into the role and impacts of interruption and multitasking. In this way observational studies can contribute unique evidence to facilitate practical improvements to work practices and systems. Understanding interruption and multitasking can enable improvement to work practice.Quantitative observational studies give unique insights into interruption and multitasking.We discuss how the validity of workflow time studies can be improved.We outline innovative ways of quantitatively analysing observational data on work processes.

The role of security notices and online consumer behaviour

Abstract: This paper uses a survey of social networking users to empirically explore their perceptions of security notices - independently verified artefacts informing internet site users that security measures are taken by the site owner. We investigate such factors as purchase experience, purchase intention, risk propensity, usage of various social network categories and user victimisation. The results suggest a strong positive link between purchase intention and paying attention to security notices/features on social networks. We find that higher use of narrow-purpose social networking services has a negative association with paying attention to security notices. We also show that users with higher risk propensity pay less attention to security notices/features. Finally, we find no association between purchase experience, user victimisation and perception of security notices/features. Our results provide new, and possibly more refined, evidence of the factors that influence the attention paid to security notices/features by social media users. The results have important implications for theory development, policy and practice. We attempt to close the gap in literature on consumer behaviour in social context.We model user behaviour, risk, usage, victimisation and impact of security notices.We empirically test the proposed model using a survey of 500+ social network users.We apply an ordered probit analysis to explore the role of security notices.Notices influence users who are risk averse and willing to transact on social media.