Seminars
2008-11-20
at: 11.00
Beyond usability - Exploring the User eXperience factors of cross-platform Web services
held by: Kaisa Väänänen-Vainio-Mattil
in: "Svarta Fåret" at Interactive Institute
User eXperience (UX) with products has received plenty of attention in the recent years, however, in the design phase UX is still often seen as equal to usability. In designing for delightful UX, both pragmatic and hedonic aspects of use need to be supported. Cross-platform Web services which are accessed via both mobile terminals and PCs are entering people’s everyday lives at a large scale. Thus, systematic design for service UX is a crucial target for the R&D community. In service development, UX is affected by special service characteristics such as the mash-up nature of service components in the service ecosystem. Also, cross-platform service usage need to combine the interaction design requirements for both mobile and non-mobile user interfaces. UX with services is furthermore affected by the characteristics of social interaction and navigation within the service, as well as the dynamic nature of the service content, functionality and user interface. Especially with mobile services, the utilisation of contextual metadata plays an important role in forming positive UX. This presentation describes these Service User eXperience (SUX) factors and presents a draft of evaluation heuristics and design guidelines supporting agile service development. Case studies and service examples are presented to illustrate the key issues. Bio: Kaisa Väänänen-Vainio-Mattila (http://www.cs.tut.fi/~kaisavvm/) is a professor of usability in Tampere University of Technology, unit of Human-Centered Technology (www.cs.tut.fi/ihte/english/). Kaisa has over 15 years experience in usability and human-centered design, both in university and industry, including 10 years with Nokia Inc. Kaisa's research interests cover user-centered design methods in product development of different industrial branches, focusing on design and evaluation of user experience of mobile communication products and services. Kaisa has been actively involved in the international research environment, where she has been contributing especially to the Mobile HCI community. Currently Kaisa is also a part-time visiting professor at Nokia Research Center, focusing on service user experience. Kaisa has Master of Science degrees from Helsinki University of Technology (software engineering) and University of London (HCI), and a doctoral degree in computer science from Technical University of Darmstadt.
2008-11-05
at: 11.00
Interaction Patterns in a Guided Tour
held by: Elin Anna Top
in: ‘Svarta Fåret’ at the Interactive Institute
An issue widely discussed in robotics research is the ageing society with its consequences for care-giving institutions and opportunities for developments in the area of service robots and robot companions, and the idea of the personalised general service robot is not too far fetched. Crucial for such a service robot is the ability to navigate in its working environment, which has to be assumed an arbitrary domestic or office-like environment that is shared with human users and bystanders. The term "Human Augmented Mapping" is used for a framework that allows to integrate a robotic map with human concepts. By assuming an interactive setting for the map acquisition process it is possible for the user to influence the process significantly and personal preferences can be made part of the environment representation that is acquired by the robot. A scenario of a ``guided tour'' in which a user can ask a robot to follow and present the surroundings is assumed as the starting point for a system for the integration of robotic mapping, interaction and human environment representations. Such a guided tour can be used as a means to evaluate the implemented system empirically, but it can also be used to learn more about the interaction aspects that have to be dealt with when building respective systems. This talk presents the framework for Human Augmented Mapping and its generic representation for indoor environments, and - more importantly - the observations made during several user studies around the "guided tour" with respect to their relation to the proposed model. Related publications are available at www.csc.kth.se/~topp/publications.html; of particular interest and relevance to the talk: E.A.Topp, "Human-Robot Interaction and Mapping with a Service Robot: Human Augmented Mapping", doctoral thesis, chapters/sections 1, 4.1, 4.3, 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3 Bio: Elin Anna Topp is currently employed as doctoral student at the Centre for Autonomous Systems at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm. She recently defended her thesis in Computer Science on the integration of human-robot interaction into a robotic mapping process with the help of a cognitively inspired high-level environment representation. She received her M.Sc. (Diplominformatikerin) from the University of Karlsruhe in Germany and her Licentiate (Tekn Lic) from the Royal Institute of Technology, and is about to obtain her Ph.D. (Tekn Dr) from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). Her general interest lies in both robotics (particularly regarding spatial representations), cognitive science and human-robot interaction, envisioning systems that can communicate with their users in an appropriate way while being able to perform services for them.
2008-10-22
at: 11.00
Beyond representations: Towards an action-centric perspective on tangible interaction
held by: Ylva Fernaeus
in: "Svarta Fåret" at Interactive Institute
On Wednesday October 22nd at 11:00, Mobile Life organises a seminar with Ylva Fernaeus. Ylva will present " Beyond representations: Towards an action-centric perspective on tangible interaction ". The seminar is based on a forthcoming journal article together with Jakob Tholander and Martin Jonsson. The seminar is held in ‘Svarta Fåret’ at the Interactive Institute and lasts about one hour. Abstract: Beyond representations: Towards an action-centric perspective on tangible interaction In the light of theoretical as well as concrete technical development, we discuss a general conceptual shift from an information-centric to an actioncentric perspective on tangible interactive technology. With this, we explicitly emphasise the qualities of shareable use, and the importance of designing tangibles that allow for meaningful manipulation and control of the digital material. This involves a broadened focus from studying properties of the interface, to instead aim for qualities of the activity of using a system, a general tendency towards designing for social and sharable use settings, and an increased openness towards multiple and subjective interpretations of how the technology should be taken into use. An effect of this is that tangibles are not designed to be thought of as representations of data, but as resources for action. We discuss four separate ways that tangible artefacts work as resources for action: 1) for physical manipulation, 2) for referential, social and contextually oriented action, 3) for perception and sensory experience, and 4) for digitally mediated action.
2008-10-08
at: 11.00
Mobile Collaborative Live Video Mixing
held by: Oskar Juhlin
in: "Svarta Fåret" at Interactive Institute
On Wednesday October 8th at 11:00, Mobile Life organises a seminar with Oskar Juhlin. Oskar will present "Mobile Collaborative Live Video Mixing". The seminar is based on the article with the same name that was presented at Mobile HCI this year. The seminar is held in ‘Svarta Fåret’ at the Interactive Institute and lasts about one hour. Abstract: Mobile Collaborative Live Video Mixing Engström, A., Esbjörnsson, M., Juhlin, O. We report on design research investigating a possible combination of mobile collaborative live video production and VJing. In an attempt to better understand future forms of collaborative live media production, we study how VJs produce and mix visuals live. In the practice of producing visuals through interaction with both music and visitors, VJing embodies interesting properties that could inform the design of emerging mobile services. As a first step to examine a generation of new applications, we tease out some characteristics of VJ production and live performance. We then decide on the requirements both for how visitors could capture and transmit live video using their mobile phones and how this new medium could be integrated within VJ aesthetics and interaction. Finally, we present the SwarmCam application, which has been implemented to investigate these requirements. Bio: Oskar Juhlin is one of the senior research leaders at Mobile Life.
2008-09-24
at: 11.00
Pervasive Play, Immersion and Story: Designing Interference.
held by: Annika Waern
in: "Svarta Fåret" at Interactive Institute
On Wednesday September 24th at 11:00, Mobile Life organises a seminar with Annika Waern. Annika will present "Pervasive Play, Immersion and Story: Designing Interference". The seminar is based on the article with the same name that Annika recently presented at the DIMEA conference. The seminar is held in ‘Svarta Fåret’ at the Interactive Institute and lasts about one hour. ABSTRACT: Pervasive games are games that are played in the real world – they are not played as a computerized simulation or on a limited physical game arena. The central attraction for pervasive games is that they offer the pleasure of doing things for real. The world is a vast and infinitely changing resource of content for pervasive games. Interference is a pervasive game playable by groups of 6-8 players lasting for a total of 3-4 hours and using both technology (such as GPS positioning and augmented reality) and human actors to create the full experience. In this paper, we describe the design goals for Interference and how these permeate through all aspects of the design of the game to create a coherent experience. Interference shows how an emotionally complex game experience can be achieved without resorting to ambiguity or deep role playing. The game has so far been staged on seven occasions and we briefly report on the experiences from those stagings. BIO Annika Waern is one of the research leaders at Mobile Life and the organiser of the Mobile Life seminar series ;)
2008-09-10
at: 11.00
Locating Values: A tale of two positioning systems
held by: Barry Brown
in: "Svarta Fåret" at Interactive Institute
On Wednesday September 10th at 11:00 we have a seminar with Barry Brown who currently is visiting mobile life from UCSD in San Diego. The seminar is held in ‘Svarta Fåret’ at the Interactive Institute and lasts about one hour. The title of Barry's seminar is "Locating Values: A tale of two positioning systems". ABSTRACT In this talk I'll discuss a long term study of a family situated awareness device called the "Whereabouts Clock", and a second study of a peer-group awareness device called 'Connecto'. I doing so I'll talk about how we appropriate new technology to support establishing, making and reproducing our social groups. The Whereabouts Clock displayed family members' current location as one of four privacy- preserving, deliberately coarse-grained categories (HOME, WORK, SCHOOL or ELSEWHERE). In use, the Clock supported not only family co- ordination but also more emotive aspects of family life such as reassurance, connectedness, identity and social touch. This emphasized aspects of family life frequently neglected in Ubicomp, such as the ways in which families' awareness of each others' activities contributes to a sense of a family's identity. We draw further on the results to differentiate between location as a technical aspect of awareness systems and what we characterize as "location-in- interaction". Location-in-interaction is revealed as an emotional, accountable and even moral part of family life. I'll contrast this with the use of 'connecto' a phone based location technology that supported peer-groups in their interactions. Studying Connecto revealed something of how particular how technologies can be appropriated to support both repartee amongst friendship groups and a shared sense of conversational story. Bio: Barry is currently an associate professor of communications at UCSD San Diego. His recent work has focused on the sociology and design of leisure technologies - computer systems for leisure and pleasure. His recent publications cover studies of activities as diverse as games, tourism, museum visiting, the use of maps, television watching and sport spectating, spanning both the technical and social sciences. He has also edited books on music consumption (with Kenton O'Hara), and mobile phone use (with Richard Harper and Nicola Green).
2008-09-03
at: 11.00
Affective Loops
held by: Kristina Höök
in: "Svarta Fåret" at Interactive Institute
On Wednesday September 3rd at 11:00, we have the first seminar for the Autumn. The speaker will be Kristina Höök, professor at Computer- and System Sciences at Stockholm University and the director of the Mobile Life Centre.Kristina will present "Affective Loops", a keynote talk that she presented at Persuasive Technology Conference in Oulu in June 2008. Abstract: A research agenda for bodily persuasion through a design approach we name affective loops is outlined. Affective loop experiences draw upon physical, emotional interactions between user and system.BIO: Kristina Höök is professor in System sciences at Stockholm University and director of the Mobile Life centre. Her current research focuses on affective interaction and interfaces.
2008-08-28
at: 13
Results from the 1st year of Mobile Life
held by: Researchers in Mobile Life and our partner Telia
in: Telia in Farsta
Mobile Life – the first year… The Mobile Life center started in April 2007 and will continue until March 2017. After slightly more than a year of work, we now want to present some of the results from the center. For more information, email Kristina Höök, kia@dsv.su.se
2008-05-30
at: 11:00
Messaging as a means for collaboration
held by: Peter Karpati
in: Svarta Fåret
On Friday May 30:th at 11:00, we have a seminar with Peter Karpati, postdoc fellow at the Department of Computer and Information Science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, in Trondheim. The title of Peter's talk is "Messaging as a means for collaboration". The seminar is held in ‘Svarta Fåret’ at the Interactive Institute and lasts about one hour. ABSTRACT: Communication is the primary way in which collaboration among health professionals is achieved. We are developing a mobile messaging system to offer an alternative to face-to-face meetings for doctors and nurses. Two specific scenarios in a specific ward of a local hospital are in the focus: examination scheduling and medication management. The expected outcomes are increased efficiency, timely information about the patients' status and the knowledge of what others know regarding a care process. The presentation will discuss the current state of the project and future plans. BIO Peter Karpati is a postdoc fellow at the Department of Computer and Information Science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway, in the frame of the ERCIM program. He made his PhD at the Institute of Information Technology at the University Klagenfurt, Austria in 2007. In his thesis, he developed a mathematical and a simulation model for designing and scaling proactive, self-organizing video servers. His current research focus is on improving the cooperation in hospital wards by developing a mobile messaging system for healthcare professionals.
2008-05-28
at: 11:00
Sanningen om Marika" (The truth about Marika) - a study of a
held by: Andie Nordgren
in: Svarta Fåret
On October 29th, 2007, one of the major tabloid newspapers in Sweden, Expressen , topped its first page with the heading “Sanningen om Marika – Irresponsible by SVT.” In the article, the TV reviewer Britta Svensson forcibly expressed the opinion that “it is completely irresponsible by Swedish Television to blur the border between fiction and reality”. Six months later, SVT and the production company P wins an interactive Emmy award for the same production, which is more than just a television series. It is also an alternate reality game that lasted over a month, played both on the net and in the real world. One of the participants wrote, in reviewing the experience: “A wonderful experience on the borderline between fiction and reality." Sanningen om Marika was one of very few experiments to marry traditional broadcast culture with the participation culture fostered in the Nordic countries, primarily within the larp community. The production was made in collaboration between Sveriges television (SVT) and the Company P, which also produced the Momentum larp as part of the IPerG project. Our seminar will summarise our study of the production process, experiences from game-mastering, and evaluation of the gaming experience. We are still in the middle of working through the material, so the results are somewhat preliminary.
2008-05-21
at: 11:00
SurfaceFusion: Unobtrusive Tracking of Everyday Objects in
held by: Alex Olwall
in: Svarta Fåret
Interactive surfaces and related tangible user interfaces often involve everyday objects that are identified, tracked, and augmented with digital information. Traditional approaches for recognizing these objects typically rely on complex pattern recognition techniques, or the addition of active electronics or fiducials that alter the visual qualities of those objects, making them less practical for real-world use. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology provides an unobtrusive method of sensing the presence of and identifying tagged nearby objects but has no inherent means of determining the position of tagged objects. Computer vision, on the other hand, is an established approach to track objects with a camera. While shapes and movement on an interactive surface can be determined from classic image processing techniques, object recognition tends to be complex, computationally expensive and sensitive to environmental conditions. We present a set of techniques in which movement and shape information from the com- puter vision system is fused with RFID events that identify what objects are in the image. By synchronizing these two complementary sensing modalities, we can associate changes in the image with events in the RFID data, in order to recover position, shape and identification of the objects on the surface, while avoiding complex computer vision processes and exotic RFID solutions.
2008-05-14
at: 11:00
Study on leisure usage of mobile phones with children aged 10-12 in Sweden
held by: Ylva Fernaeus
in: Svarta Fåret
We present the results of a study on how Swedish children aged 10-12 use their mobile phones in public indoor and outdoor settings, and in particular how these are taken into use in unsupervised social play.