Emerging technologies offer exciting new ways of using entertainment technology to create fantastic play experiences and foster interactions between players. Evaluating entertainment technology is ...challenging because success isn't defined in terms of productivity and performance, but in terms of enjoyment and interaction. Current subjective methods of evaluating entertainment technology aren't sufficiently robust. This paper describes two experiments designed to test the efficacy of physiological measures as evaluators of user experience with entertainment technologies. We found evidence that there is a different physiological response in the body when playing against a computer versus playing against a friend. These physiological results are mirrored in the subjective reports provided by the participants. In addition, we provide guidelines for collecting physiological data for user experience analysis, which were informed by our empirical investigations. This research provides an initial step towards using physiological responses to objectively evaluate a user's experience with entertainment technology.
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Compared to collocated interaction, videoconferencing disrupts the ability to use gaze and gestures to mediate interaction, direct reactions to specific people, and provide a sense of presence for ...the satellite (i.e., remote) participant. We developed a kinetic videoconferencing proxy with a swiveling display screen to indicate which direction that the satellite participant was looking. Our goal was to compare two alternative motion control conditions, in which the satellite participant directed the display screen’s motion either explicitly (aiming the direction of the display with a mouse) or implicitly (with the screen following the satellite participant’s head turns). We then explored the effectiveness of this prototype compared to a typical stationary video display in a lab study. We found that both motion conditions resulted in communication patterns that indicate higher engagement in conversation, more accurate responses to the satellite participant’s deictic questions (i.e., “What do you think?”), and higher user rankings. We also discovered tradeoffs in attention and clarity between explicit versus implicit control, a tension in how motion toward one person can exclude other people, and ways that swiveling motion provides attention awareness, even without direct eye contact.
Mobile devices have been used as tools for navigation and geographic information retrieval with some success. However, screen size, glare, and the cognitive demands of the interface are often cited ...as weaknesses when compared with traditional tools such as paper maps and guidebooks. In this paper, a simple mixed media approach is presented which tries to address some of these concerns by combining paper maps with electronic guide resources. Information about a landmark or region is accessed by waving a handheld computer equipped with an radio frequency identification (RFID) reader above the region of interest on a paper map. We discuss our prototyping efforts, including lessons learned about using RFID for mixed media interfaces. We then present and discuss evaluations conducted in the field and in a comparative, exploratory study. Results indicate that the method is promising for tourism and other activities requiring mobile, geographically-related information access.PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
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This research investigates children's use of two common mouse interaction styles, drag-and-drop and point-and-click, to determine whether the choice of interaction style impacts children's ...performance in interactive learning environments. The interaction styles were experimentally compared to determine if either method was superior to the other in terms of speed, error rate, or user preference, for children. The two interaction styles were also compared based on children's achievement and motivation, within a commercial software environment. Experiment I used an interactive learning environment as children played two versions of an educational puzzle-solving game, each version utilizing a different mouse interaction style; experiment II used a mouse-controlled software environment modeled after the educational game. The results were similar to previous results reported for adults: the point-and-click interaction style was faster; fewer errors were committed using it; and it was preferred over the drag-and-drop interaction style. Within the context of the puzzle-solving game, the children solved significantly fewer puzzles, and they were less motivated using the version that utilized a drag-and-drop interaction style as compared to the version that utilized a point-and-click interaction style. These results were also explored through the use of state-transition diagrams and GOMS models, both of which supported the experimental data gathered.
It can be difficult to properly understand aspects of user behavior on the Web without examining the behaviors in a realistic setting, such as through field studies. In this article, an overview of ...the experiences in augmenting logged data with contextual information over the course of two separate research projects conducted in the field is presented. One project investigated the privacy sensitivity of normal Web browsing, and the other examined user behavior during Web-based information-seeking tasks. Throughout both projects, the contextual information was collected through participant annotations of their Web usage. Based on experiences in conducting this research, implications of methodological decisions are considered, unanswered questions are highlighted, and considerations for other researchers are provided. These shared experiences and perspectives will assist future researchers planning similar field studies, allowing them to build upon the lessons learned.
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Location awareness can help facilitate a rendezvous of two or more persons. To further enhance the rendezvous experience, we conducted two complementary field studies to identify
what
information in ...a location-aware map application is important to rendezvous individuals (study 1) and to explore the use of
autofocus
, our automation technique to reduce user interactions with the rendezvous application while still providing relevant information to assist users with their navigation task (study 2). Overall, our results highlight the importance of maintaining the visibility of the user’s location in relation to that of their partner(s) and rendezvous location. Additionally, we show that automation is useful in the context of a rendezvous application, but that the considerations are significantly more nuanced than originally conceived. We discuss unique instances
when
and
why
the automation process broke-down or did not perform as required by users. The results of this work demonstrate the potential for automation in a location-aware rendezvous application and identify important design considerations for future work in this area.
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Multi-monitor systems are becoming increasingly popular as a way for users to expand their display surface to facilitate multitasking. However, users may have difficulty accessing user interface ...elements on the borders of the displays, accidentally crossing over to neighbouring displays. We present a smart pseudo-haptic technique to enhance boundary widgets in multi-monitor systems. Our technique was compared to current desktop behaviour as well as to two other pseudo-haptic approaches. All three techniques significantly reduced crossover errors; however, our smart sticky technique also significantly reduced the time to acquire targets on the secondary monitor over the other sticky techniques and was strongly preferred by users.
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8.
"I'm Not Like My Friends" Liu, Leslie S.; Inkpen, Kori M.; Pratt, Wanda
Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing,
02/2015
Conference Proceeding
Children diagnosed with a chronic illness, such as cancer, experience a vastly different childhood than their healthy counterparts. They may struggle with accepting that they are no longer seen as ..."normal". We surveyed 10 children who have a chronic illness and interviewed 15 healthcare professionals and 7 parents of chronically ill children to understand their communication practices and challenges of how these patients stay connected with their peers. We found that due to the nature of their illness and constant hospitalization, pediatric patients often use various communication technologies to stay in touch with friends and try to maintain normalcy in their lives. Some patients also had to create a "new normal" that balanced life before and after being diagnosed. Based on these results, we suggest opportunities for technology to help patients connect to others and retain a sense of normalcy or to encourage them to embrace their "new normal".
Studies have shown positive impact of video blogs (vlogs) on patient education. However, we know little on how patient-initiated vlogs shape the relationships among vloggers and viewers. We ...qualitatively analyzed 72 vlogs on YouTube by users diagnosed with HIV, diabetes, or cancer and 1,274 comments posted to the vlogs to understand viewers' perspectives on the vlogs. We found that the unique video medium allowed intense and enriched personal and contextual disclosure to the viewers, leading to strong community-building activities and social support among vloggers and commenters, both informationally and emotionally. Furthermore, the unique communication structure of the vlogs allowed ad hoc small groups to form, which showed different group behavior than typical text-based social media, such as online communities. We provide implications to the Health Care Industry (HCI) community on how future technologies for health vlogs could be designed to further support chronic illness management.
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