The Humane Technology Artisian

Facebook's New Profile Layout Promotes Educational Background, Demotes Your Microblog

2010-12-06T10:31:00.000-08:00

Facebook will roll out a new profile redesign later today, which aims to give "a quick summary of who you are," and "give friends an easy way to see where you live now, where you're working and more." A collection of recently tagged photos is also pushed to the top of your profile page. To see what I mean, you can push the redesign through to your profile early by visiting this page.

While it's clean and useful from a pure usability standpoint (kudos to the new navigation bar on the left) - several important social implications are brought to bear in this new redesign. While I'm not sure what goes on internally, I think Facebook in general does an extremely poor job of investigating and considering the social impacts of their speedy agile redesigns, instead waiting for the consequences to emerge as the design is pushed into the billion-strong community, with often dangerous results. UI design involves tradeoffs and design choices reflect a company's values.

Here are some of the corporate values that seem to be represented by the redesign:

1. Who you are is where you went to college. According to Facebook, "who you are" is (in this order) where you went to college, where you live, and where you work. Facebook has been criticized previously for the way they distill a human being into a few bullet points, so it's interesting to consider what they prioritize as the most important attributes of a human being. I wonder why they chose to first identify you by your college pedigree - could it be their roots as an online college social connector? Or could it be the kind of people who work at Facebook and make these design decisions are the kind of people who first want to know where you went to school in order to judge where you fall in the social hierarchy?

2. Your most recent microblog is less important. Facebook demotes your most recent status update from the top of the page in favor of your biographic summary and most recently tagged photos. This is an interesting design decision and I wonder why it was made, because it decreases "newness" in one of the most prominent positions of the page. You can still locate recent microblogs within the Wall content, but it makes a strong value statement about the importance of user created content vs. demographics in Facebook's mind.

3. Your most recently tagged photos are more important than the content you created yourself. While Facebook is sure to inform those preoccupied with privacy concerns that you can easily remove photos from appearing in this stream, hypervigilence is necessary. You need to constantly monitor what photos you are getting tagged in, else that picture of you will appear in one of the most prominent places on your page. Again, these photos become a strong representation of "who you are" - in favor of content you created, shared, or cross-posted.

Addicted to Facebook? 4 tips for cutting down.

2010-09-23T15:40:00.000-07:00

There are lots of reasons why I love Facebook: staying connected with people who I don't see every day, sharing pictures and updates on what's new in my world, "peeking in" on my friends and family's world in nice digestible bites.

There are lots of reasons why I hate Facebook, and why I barely tolerate it (for reasons mentioned above). I'm not going to go into all the things they are doing wrong with the UI, and what they are doing wrong with their UX research program. I'll save these rants for another day. BUT, one of the biggest reason why I hate it is because Facebook fragments my day. I feel compelled to check it all the time for such (let's face it) utter drivel. Wanting to restrict our attention, gain focus, and have moments for reflection is a big problem we face in the modern age (and will continue to face).

Here are 4 tips that have worked for me in limiting my Facebook gluttony to a more manageable level.

1. Remove Facebook from your Bookmarks (or Bookmarks Toolbar). This is probably the biggest thing I've done to limit my use. Frequently, I used to find myself in that vulnerable state between tasks, wondering, "Hm...let's see what new stuff was posted..." Now that I've culled my Bookmarks Toolbar to more work-related tasks and industry-specific blogs, etc. it forces me to actually type in the Facebook URL to visit the site. This slight barrier to access is uncomfortable enough to make it a less likely target for my attention.

2. Set up a Facebook folder in your email Inbox, and have all Facebook-related messages go in there. That pesky marketing team at Facebook is smart, and makes great use of email advertising to draw users to their site. This is one way I'd continue to get "sucked in" to Facebook - as I'm always monitoring incoming email in my primary Inbox, I was also vulnerable to the one-click mentality when I see a new notification roll into my email. I considered turning off the email notifications feature of Facebook, but I do like knowing when something relevant has gone on in my social network. I just don't need to check it right this very second. I used the settings features in Gmail to create a special Facebook folder, and I set it up to pull in all messages sent from the Facebook notifications 'bot. At the end of the day, when I'm responding to personal messages and screwing around online, I can check the folder and see what's happened over the course of the day all at once.

3. Double-check your Facebook Notifications Settings. Under Account Settings, you can find a tab that lists all the instances Facebook notifies you to your Inbox or (*gasp*) phone about something that's happened. Do you really need to get all those messages when your friends' friends' comment after you on a photo, link, or post? Maybe you do. But it's worth reflecting on how many distractions you want to get during the day, and establishing a reasonable limit with intention.

4. Cull your Friends list and turn off Applications. I realize there's a certain degree of social status that comes from having, like a bazillion Facebook friends, but after awhile that guy you met on the flight to Paris 4 years ago might not be worth your attention. We all have friends who post all the freaking time, and I really could give a rip that you need 15 shiny rubies in that Zynga game you're currently obsessed with. Facebook has responded to customer sentiment by allowing you a great deal of customization - use it. You can remove Friends from your feed without removing them from your friends list. You can turn off Updates from Applications. Again, be conscious about what you want to consume when you do spend time on Facebook, who you want to be talking to and hearing from.

5 Things that Usability is NOT

2010-07-26T15:47:00.000-07:00

My usability team, like most others, is situated in a development environment where there is pressure to perform by providing actionable recommendations and deliverables with practical substance. Providing value often involves setting reasonable expectations for what we do and provide.

I like to explain what a usability team does by describing what usability is NOT. This list is not comprehensive, but has been successful for getting my point across. A usability team is like a tool for a software company - there's a right way to use it. While you can use a knife to eat peas, a lot of your dinner is going to remain uneaten.

1. Magic.

Doing usability work does not necessitate having special *magical* abilities or talents. There are some skills and principles that are learned, but most good insight into usability comes from observation and research – from users, not UX professionals. People often look to my team as being able to "wave our magic wand" over some UI, and make optimal recommendations to achieve this ephemeral quality called Usability. There is no magic here; just hard work and in-depth observation. Similarly, unlike a magical spell, that provides an instant result, doing usability work takes time. Research is resource intensive and hard. But it has real ROI and is the smart approach to take.

2. Icing.

Usability is not the frosting on the cupcake that you brush on at the end. You can't first build a piece of software and then spread some glittery pink sweetness over the top of it and expect to have anything remotely meeting real users' needs. A usability team should be brought in from Day 1 of a new product's development. We should be helping to define the requirements in MRDs and PRDs, helping refine the alphas and betas. We should be part of the cake batter, baby!

3. About you, or me.

Look at the guy in this picture. This is a real user in a usability study I ran some years ago. See his face? He is expressing confusion and uncertainty at a design that I had no problem with (in fact, it's something I designed!).

It's a mantra we UX professionals should repeat to ourselves (and to the stakeholders we work with!)... "You are not your user!" It's constant discipline to keep reminding ourselves that just because we see something some way, or want some feature, or have no problem with an interaction flow, it isn't really relevant! We need to keep bringing in real users and testing concepts with them. Users will always, always surprise you. Staying objective means talking (a lot!) to other people besides internal constituents.

4. Completely novel.

About 90% of usability design involves drawing on design patterns and interactions that users have become familiarized in their previous interactions with technology (and the physical world - think buttons and tabs!). We use radio buttons when the information structure suggests it, we don't make up some completely new rule or behavior for interaction just because we want to inspire or delight. So, if we have to keep our designs consistent, where does innovation come from? I'd say that's the remaining 5%. In general, avoid the temptation to over-engineer – or over-elevate things to the interface that a software engineer put behind in the code. Keep it simple and consistent, and trust me the beauty of a smooth interaction will outweigh any desire a user has to want to "decypher" your clever, innovative UI.

5. The Holy Grail.

Ultimately, a usability team is situated in a business environment and needs to operate fluidly between many arms of a company. While user needs should be important for setting priorities, sometimes creating a product involves compromise, and iterating on a design until you get it as good as you can.

For instance, I've done a LOT of usability tests involving registration of a software program. Users always say that they would prefer not to share their email address when creating an account! Marketing would balk (and they have) if I tell them to remove this technical requirement if they want to improve UX. In the end, it doesn't matter. That's the way it has to be because the comprehensive marketing plan relies on email marketing campaigns. My job, then, becomes asking for email addresses in a way that is as painless as possible. It's a compromise. It's our job as UX professionals to stay nimble to competing constraints, discover what other teams are working with, and keep coming up with creative solutions given those constraints in place.

Crafting an argument in the age of 140 characters

2010-07-14T21:55:00.000-07:00

I promise this article isn’t going to turn into a lament about the demise/downturn of Tribe.net. True, we regular users were all sad to see it go, and most of us sold out and migrated to Facebook reluctantly, once the rest of the “herd” moved south. After all, we are social creatures, and we follow the pack. I’m a digital anthropologist, and I’m interested in how adopting technology changes and shapes our social practices. Design always involves tradeoffs. Tribe, Facebook, or Twitter are built with a set of design constraints, and these design choices have real implications about how we use these differing media to think and communicate with one another.

The premise of Tribe is to build a profile and join certain moderated groups (“Tribes”) where discussions take place. Anyone can create a Tribe, and they range from a subject area, to an event, to a location group. As Tribe member, you are alerted when new posts have happened within Tribes you are affiliated with. Users can create threads and respond to them. Posts within a Tribe can range from short comments to long paragraphs of text. An advantage of the Tribe.net format is that discussions and replies can be any length, and some of them actually involve in-depth debates where people actually create and build an argument. A disadvantage of Tribe.net’s design is that information is locked away from the surface (i.e. like any other discussion forum site, all you see is that new posts have rolled in, not exactly what they entail).

When I was an avid, active Tribe-er, I spent a lot of time checking on the latest discussions and contributing my thoughts and commentary. I think I was actually a better writer back then, having to string together a cohesive, coherent paragraph or two, rather than the “one-offs” I post to my friends’ Facebook feeds today.

Although Twitter’s hashtag convention allows users to argue/discuss/comment on a particular conversational topic, all we get are groupings of single sentences. How much of an argument can one construct in 140 characters? Most of what seems to occur in Twitter discussions seems to be “shouting into the void” rather than substantive discussion. Similarly, Facebook groups our conversations based on someone’s status update or post, but again, we’re severely restricted on string length. And though we have email capability on Facebook, conventions seem to have shifted towards posting short blurbs and messages directly on a friends’ walls.

The conversations we have on Facebook and Twitter remind me of a depressing dinner I once had with some girlfriends. We’d tried 3 or 4 times to find a date that matched everyone’s schedule, and I was excited to find a time to catch up with everyone. However, the restaurant was loud, we were all high strung and stressed, and I felt like the entire meal we were simply shouting at each other about our big, urgent problems and complaints. No one was actually listening. We were too busy with the chattering in our own head. I felt a little sick when I left, like I’d hastily eaten the entire meal without tasting it.

This comic is so symbolic of my years on Tribe. I think I love this image because I see myself in those clenched hands flying furiously over the keyboard. Oh we waged wars of words on those discussion threads! It was dramatic, and it was fun. We practiced a craft together, an art that I fear is dying as our communications grow shorter and more piecemeal. I guess I should be thankful for blogs– one of the few remaining outposts for these aging paragraphs and drawn-out arguments.

Software Should Be Designed Like a Good Door Handle

2010-06-05T18:54:00.000-07:00

I currently work for a company that makes security software. Day in, day out, we are talking about what users want from security software. What they want to see, what they want to do, how they want to interact with it. I often fear we tend to drink too much of our own Kool Aid. I think security software, as is the case with most software, is like a well-designed door handle. We just need to get out of the user’s way.

A good handle tells you on a very low-level how it’s supposed to be used. You hardly know it’s there as you glide through the door, effortlessly. A good handle is shaped in a way that matches how you should grasp it. Based upon its appearance, it tells you whether to turn it, push it, pull it, grab it, or twist it. Cognitive scientists call this concept having an affordance. Affordances work on the perceptual level, harnessing what we’ve learned about the everyday world to seamlessly teach us how to use unfamiliar things.

Well-designed handle or not? It's just plain creepy

Poorly designed handles, on the other hand, do make it to your central focus. You push where you’re supposed to pull. Printed signs need to be prepared to prevent errors. Think about this: a well-designed handle should never need written directions – it speaks for itself. Don Norman has written extensively about door handles, and design, and cognition, in his book, The Design of Everyday Things (Doubleday, 1990). It’s a marvelously insightful book, and it forever changed the way I look at the mundane.

Gary Larsen's take on door handles - (laugh, but don't blame the user)

I wonder if we’d do better if we considered the fact that most users don’t regard and admire our icons, our dashboard, and UI background images like Picassos and Monets. Users don’t eagerly watch their email inbox for our corporate newsletters. They want a straightforward tool that invites interaction on their own terms, but mostly gets out of the way so they can do what they really want to with their computer.

What Are User Profiles? A UX Perspective.

2010-05-24T18:52:00.000-07:00

Set up screen showing some "user profiles"

"User Profiles" have recently become a buzz word around my company, largely because of a new feature implemented in this year's (2010) product release. We actually have different UIs that we show a customer based on what kind of information they want to see from our product, if they are non-technical, average, or expert, or if they are a parent, gamer, etc. This approach has been seen as revolutionary in the industry, and we've gotten kudos from reviewers.

The problem with using the term "User Profile" to represent this product strategy is that it becomes very easy to conflate it with the UI research term, as well as others in the same family - personas, user types, scenarios, etc. Here's an example of how this conflation has consequences.

While working on designing the next-generation UI for another of our security products, I got the following email from the product manager:

"About the profiles, I heard people commenting that a classification as Basic, Intermediate, Advanced would be difficult for the users. They will never place themselves into the right category. I am concerned about the naming of the groups."

From this comment, we can interpret a misconception with potentially grave consequences. The product manager is making one of the fundamental mistakes of user interface design - that the "skin" of the product will reflect literally the "guts." In other words, we literally ask a user to choose what their profile is, and then if we show them a different UI based upon one's self-identified technical skill level (as we've done in the consumer product), the user will have some indication of this in what they see as they interact with the UI. The problem is that what I call a "user profile" is NOT the same as a custom UI based on a user's profile.

Here is my reply to the product manager, which does a good job of summarizing my feelings about what user profiles/personas should be used for during design:

"I wanted to clarify about what the user profiles should be used for, and what the process should look like. You mentioned that you were concerned about the naming of the groups. I agree with you that a customer should not be put in the place of having to identify themselves as a basic, intermediate, or advanced user, with no basis for judgment or the outcome of their choice. Actually, what we mean by the term 'user profiles' is more like a design research method, or even more accurately, a thinking tool.

For now, we should think of the categories as similar to the categories that come out of our market research segmentation. We would never have the customer identify themselves as per such categories ("Beta Mom" or "Technophile") or even see or be aware of them as marketing campaigns are created. In the UI design world, these profiles are useful because they allow us to create an idealized case, and continue to ask ourselves throughout the design process, “Would a person from this segment understand how to do x?” “What would they want to see on their dashboard?" "What would 'Joe 6 Pack' think of this screen?" etc. This way we ensure that we are meeting the needs of a variety of users.

These questions still remain to be answered:

Should we make multiple different UIs, similar to the consumer product’s approach, or is this even appropriate for our target user group?
Should we instead, suggest different modules to be included in the dashboard?
Should we address the needs of less technical users with things like Wizards, but show only one UI to everyone?

By creating user profiles that allow us to classify and personify our target users, we can continue to put ourselves in their shoes and ask whether certain approaches will meet their needs.

How to make a light-up (LED) hula hoop

2010-05-01T20:46:00.000-07:00

A couple quick disclaimers about this project. First of all, it's not easy. It took me about 6 months of having all the materials to actually muster up the courage to take on the project. I *do* have to say that the effort is well worth the reward of this amazingly entertaining toy. Also, this is not a project for the novice crafter - you have to do scary things like solder LEDs and battery assemblies, figure out how many ohms of resistance your circuit requires, dremel custom-fitted holes, and get together some hard-to-find items like translucent poly tubing and color-change LEDs.

Second disclaimer is that this is by no means an original idea or concept - tons of people have made light-up hoops, and you could even spend about $175 on one online if you don't want to make your own. Rather, I am posting this because I noticed a paucity of clear, coherent how-to's, and I think in the process of building this version of a hoop we discovered/invented some neat shortcuts for doing things.

And so...on to the directions.

Step 1. Assemble materials.

To make my hoop, I used:

translucent poly tubing (3/4 inch) from Home Depot, approx. 12 feet (depends on your personal preference)
a tubing connector,
30 white LEDs, and 6 color change LEDs
9V battery
9V battery connector
soldering iron
solder
heat-shrink tubing
heat gun
a dremel
bunches of unicorn and star stickers

Step 1 1/2. Cut corners (I mean figuratively).

By this, I mean, get all materials in a state as close to the final one you will need them in. For me, this meant the LEDs - why solder together 30 LEDs when you can buy a pre-strung set for $8.99 on eBay? I made things a little more complicated because I wanted to intersperse 6 color change LEDs into the string of white ones, so I had to solder them in at junctions throughout. But I'm getting ahead of myself. One could easily use an LED set "off the shelf."

Step 2. Make your LED string.

As I mentioned, I used a pre-assembled string (arguably the cheapest way to get LEDs anyway), and interspersed 6 color change LEDs. I also needed to detach the string from the AA battery pack that originally came with it. This is because the most streamlined way to power the hoop is by using a single 9V battery.

Step 3. Power your LEDs.

We did some circuitry to power our 36 LEDs on a 9V battery. First, we attached a 9V battery connector to the string. We also needed to add in some resistance, as 9V is a little too much for those LEDs to handle, and they could burn out. I wish I could tell you the exact number of ohms we ended up using, but like any good real-world physics problem, we quickly abandoned the V=IR formula when it didn't work. We ended up using trial-and-error with a resistor multi-pack I had from Radio Shack. THAT worked - (with apologies to Mr. Dhillon, my AP physics teacher with the *almost* incomprehensible Indian accent...he did teach me well - hey, I remembered the formula!).

Step 4. Cut a battery holder.

After a couple hours of trying out various fancy and streamlined battery holder scenarios, we arrived on a simple ghetto version that gets the job done. We dremeled a rectangular hole into the outer edge of one end of the tubing (allowing for about 1 1/2 inch where the tubing connector will push in). This is kind of confusing in words so here are some sketches/pictures:

Diagram of Battery Assembly

Photo of Battery Assembly

Step 5. Thread your string.

We used an old electrician's trick to get the LED string into the hoop. We took a long piece of yarn, tied a nut to one end, and the end of the LED string to the other. Then, we dropped the nut into one end of the hoop, and it quickly slid through the tube, allowing us to catch it and pull the LEDs through. We secured one end of the LEDs to the other (forming the circle) using a safety pin. See picture for a close up:

Step 6. Connect up the hoop and seal the battery.

Once everything was hooked up and the battery assembly in place, we connected the hoop using the plastic tubing connector. Because this is an extremely tight fit, we used the heat gun to heat up either end of the hoop right before we slid the connector in (makes life soooo much easier!).

The size for the battery holder that we cut is very precise, which is great, because it holds the battery in place very firmly, and it only sticks out about 1/4 inch from the outside edge. I've been pleasantly surprised because I don't notice either the uneven weight, or the added bulk from the battery, when using the hoop.

I also sealed up the battery assembly using a piece of clear duct tape. This isn't the world's best way of doing things, because I have to un-tape the battery assembly every time I want to turn the hoop on or off (I do this by detaching the battery from the battery holder). An ambitious crafter could perhaps add a switch to the circuit assembly, but I got too lazy and I wanted to play with my hoop as fast as possible.

Step 7. Glamor-fy!

I wanted to add a little personality and bling to my hoop, so I covered it in unicorn/flower/star stickers. I used stickers that were plastic and semi-transparent so they would be somewhat weather-proof and show light behind them. I've seen other hoops with gaffer tape looped around them, that is a neat effect too.

Sticker glamour

Note the pink unicorn

Step 8. Play somewhere dark.

(This is self-explanatory.)

Some other tips about enjoying your light-up hooping experience.

Hoop somewhere you can watch your reflection in a window.
Don't worry about having to know how to do fancy tricks and acrobatics. Seriously, doing anything with a light-up hoop looks damn cool!
Have somebody take pictures of you using your hoop. It's so neat to see yourself with a swirly light-stream "hoop skirt!"

Wearin' my "hoop skirt!"

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: A big thank you to my fantastic husband Shane, for his amazing talents with custom holders, dremmeling, electronics, connectors, and his infinite encouragement in doing silly fun projects!

Building a Faerie Garden

2010-04-21T16:39:00.000-07:00

Building a faerie garden is very easy.

First, you need a faerie. It's good to start with the faerie, because she (or he) will inspire you to create her a lovely garden spot. She will also, based on her size, determine how big things in the garden need to be, like fences, stairs, bridges, wishing-wells, and couches made of shells. It's best if you get your faerie as a gift, because then you will have fond thoughts of a person as you build your garden. You can also make a faerie yourself, which is arguably an even better way to come about a magical creature.

Next, you need a spot. I chose a location that is in a corner made by two wooden fences, that is visible from my kitchen window. This way I can see it from my kitchen, and it will make me happy.

The next thing is to begin to assemble materials. For me, this involved two kinds of things. One kind was growing things that I was able to buy at a local nursery. I got thyme, lavender, two kinds of sage, and a bunch of mossy ground-cover type stuff. I also got some small glass stones to make into stepping stones, and some shells.

The second kind of things were from nature. I collected sticks to make into a faery-sized fence, that I bound together with hemp and wire. On a hike in nearby Huddart Park, I picked up a rock with moss growing on it, and some mossy branches, that I clustered around the garden. In Half Moon Bay, I collected seaglass and shells, to make faerie steps into the garden.

The nice thing about a faerie garden is that it's never quite finished. I still plan to build a bridge and a bench for the faerie. And, I want to make my own faerie and other friends, so this girl doesn't get too lonely.

What to expect during a usability test

2010-03-15T18:50:00.000-07:00

If you've never participated in a usability test, the most important thing to know is that it's not really a test at all. You're not expected to perform in a certain way: there are no right or wrong answers, there is no grade at the end, and there is no pressure to perform. Usability researchers like me depend on the participants who come in to help make the products we work on easy to use, pleasant, and convenient. The way we do that is by watching everyday people try to use our products. So if the product is difficult to use, it's our responsibility to fix it. Blame the designer! not the user.

During a usability test, you may sit side-by-side with a moderator as you work with computer software or other prototypes.

Here are some things to expect:

Expect to be welcomed
When you come to our offices, you can expect to be greeted at the door. We will go into an office that will allow us to work in privacy. Joining us in our session, we may have one or two other observers, who are there to help with note-taking and recording equipment. You can expect to be made comfortable - we will offer you a refreshment, and a place to sit.

Expect your confidentiality to be respected
Because we may be working with designs that have not yet been released to the market, we will ask you to sign a "non-disclosure agreement." This document is your word that you won't speak with our competitors about new designs. We also respect your privacy, and we will ask you to sign a video/audio recording release form. We will often create video or audio recordings during the session. These recordings are like "high-fidelity notes" for us - we want to be sure that we can remember every possible important detail of what you say. We use these recordings when we analyze the results of a set of usability tests, and they won't be shown or disclosed to any external audiences. So don't worry - you will never find a video of yourself trying to use our software on Youtube!

Expect conversation
A lot of what happens during a usability test is conversation...about you. We will ask you about the ordinary things in your everyday life. It might seem strange for us to be interested in things you find mundane, but it's knowing about these details that allow us to design products that help you accomplish your daily tasks, make your life easier, or inspire you in some small way. Also, remember that there are no "right" answers. Don't worry about hurting our feelings if you don't like our company or have never heard of it - we *love* honest answers best of all.

Expect to be asked to "think aloud"
We haven't yet found a way to read minds, or look into people's brains, to figure out what they are thinking. We will ask you to "think aloud" as you try to do something with a piece of software or other prototype. This might seem strange, but it's just like talking to yourself as you do something. Here's an example of someone trying out a website: "Ok, I'm going to go to www.website.com now. The first thing I see is this big banner across the top. I'm not really sure what it's for. Now I'm going to click on this link. Hm. I didn't go where I thought I would. I was expecting to go to the shopping cart. This text is too small. How do I go back in the menu? etc."

Expect to have to use your imagination
Often when we put together a usability test, the designs we'll have you look at won't have the same level of fidelity as they would "off the shelf". In fact, sometimes we may even have you pretend to interact with paper print-outs! So, you'll have to use your imagination sometimes to polish out the rough edges, and not let small imperfections get in the way too much. Another way you might have to use your imagination is through putting yourself into fictional scenarios. We might ask you to pretend you're trying to do one task or another, for instance, "Let's say you were interested in finding out about product x. Please interact with the website to demonstrate how you might do that."

Other stuff to expect
Sometimes we'll ask you to fill out a short survey, help us brainstorm a layout, or do a fun creative task using markers and paper, or sticky notes. It depends on what project we're working on at the moment.

Expect to be compensated for your time
We value your time and input. The way we show you how much we appreciate your taking time out of the day to come and share your thoughts with us is by compensating you with cash, or a cash-equivalent credit card. Typically we compensate participants about $75 for an hour-and-a-half of their time.

********************

And that's it! We've heard before from participants that they've had lots of fun coming in, and we keep a list of great folks who are interested in coming back another time. Please contact me if you have any other questions about what to expect!

DIY Scatter-Proof Litter Box

2010-03-05T11:31:00.000-08:00

Doncha hate having kitty litter stuck to your bare feet every morning? Here's a quick, cheap solution that can be put together in a single afternoon. The top entry directional design (similar to an oceanliner smokestack) forces the cats to jump up onto a litter collecting pad as they exit the box. By the time they jump down, most all of the litter is shaken off their paws.

Materials:

1 square kitty litter bucket
1 litter catching pad (Petco $6.99)
1 66 qt. bin with lid (on sale at Target $5.59)
3 screws, bolts, and washers
dremel with cutting wheel
drill
fabric scraps
glue gun
scissors

Using the dremel, cut off the lip of the bucket so that it will lie flush with the surface of the bin lid. Cut an archway into one side of the bucket.

Trace the size of the bucket lid onto one end of the bin lid. Add allowances for 3 1X2 inch tabs (on back and 2 sides into the tracing) - this will allow you to screw the bucket onto the bin lid, once the tabs are folded up vertically (they go on the outside of the bucket). Using the dremel, cut into the bin lid, taking it in about 1/4 inch to help hold the bucket up.

Before attaching the bucket with screws, cover it with fabric scraps, using hot glue.

Attach bucket with screws, making sure it lies flush and feels secure.

Depending on the size of the bin and the litter catching pad, you may need to cut it a bit so that it fits on the lid. In this example, it was not necessary to attach the pad to the lid as it's mostly held in place (and it's nice to be able to lift it off and dust off excess litter pieces easily).

Fill the inner bin with kitty litter (you may want to put down a bin liner first).

Introduce the new litter box to the cats! Ghostie used it within the first 5 minutes. I was very happy to see *no* residual litter bits on the bathroom floor, and a bunch caught in the litter catching pad. :)

Lunch with the Bay Set

2009-04-09T13:14:00.001-07:00

Today I grabbed lunch with Brynn Evans and some of her friends from PARC. Yum! Today's the most beautiful day in Boston so far - it actually feels like April.

Green CHI

2009-04-09T12:18:00.000-07:00

I was happy to run into Elaine Huang of Motorola this afternoon in a session on biometrics methods. Elaine has done a substantial amount of work in sustainable HCI, and this year led a workshop on the topic (which I wish I'd been able to attend!). While working at Motorola, she has done work on figuring out what people want in terms of a green phone, and what people do about reusing and recycling their old phones. She gave me a few quick directions to pursue in our continued development of Usable Green (for instance, Bill Tomlinson at UC Irvine - who is writing a book on Green IT), and we promised to be in touch as the company begins to crystallize.

Elaine is also the founder of the Extremely Tall and Extremely Short HCI Researchers Club (http://www.elainehuang.com/tallshort.html), of which I am a member.

Light-Up Fun at the Industry Receptions

2009-04-08T21:01:00.000-07:00

Last night were all of the corporate sponsorship receptions - IBM, Microsoft, and Google had the biggest parties. I wore my latest light-up creation - a "ruffle boa" I made with fabric scraps crocheted around an LED light string! It must have been my lucky charm - I won a Zune in the Microsoft raffle. But even better - it was a great conversation starter, which helped me make lots of great industry contacts. I spoke with some folks at Yahoo! and Microsoft about the benefit of having consultants work on projects for large companies. I also spoke with folks at some smaller start-ups like Meebo about how we rent out our usability lab, which is a great solution for a company that doesn't have the capital to invest in their own in-house lab.

Harvard Trip

2009-04-08T14:28:00.001-07:00

Dr. Croakie and I decided to make use of the scattered sunshine this afternoon and took the T over to Cambridge. We spent time walking around the Harvard campus and had lunch at the Coop. We also walked to 133 Lexington Ave., which is the first house that I ever lived in! I recognized a few things about the house - the front door, the window in the stairwell, and the stone garage out back. I called my dad and surprised him - he told me on the phone that he and my mom bought the house for $68,000 in 1975. I wonder how much it is now!

Exhibit Hall Fun

2009-04-08T14:10:00.000-07:00

Croakie and I made a tour around the exhibit hall this morning. We talked with some of the eye tracking companies, and scoped out the competition UX firms.

There were 6 or so eye-tracking companies on the floor (WOW!). We were most impressed with the eye tracking system and software provider, Tobii. They are a Swedish company that has produced a stellar product. What to me is the most impressive aspect of this system is the user-friendly software package that comes iwth the system. I was shown how researchers can easily set up experiments to be done with any UI (not just websites), and develop a research plan. The analytics are also really impressive - heat maps, click maps, graphs and exportable data is all fairly easy to produce. I think that this would allow us to have some flashy, solid evidence for design intuitions that we may already have, but clients may be reluctant to "believe." If we can harness this data to show them support for our claims, I think it would be really useful. I'm going to find out more about this system, and possibilities for rentals (before we commit to the $42,000 price tag).

Croakie also talked with some publishers about future projects, and got free schwag at the Google booth.

Cool Multitouch Devices

2009-04-07T12:13:00.000-07:00

I attended a great session showcasing some of the demonstration exhibits that are on display in the interactivity chamber. (There are about 12 exhibits in all, located as demos in the exhibit hall).

A Practical Touch-Sensitive Surface
"The Unmousepad: an Interpolating force-sensitive Resistor"

These researchers created a technology that enables the creation of Inexpensive Multi-Touch Pressure Acquisition Devices (IMPAD) which are paper-thin, flexible and can easily scale down to fit on a portable device or scale up to cover an entire table. These devices can sense varying levels of pressure at a resolution high enough to sense and distinguish multiple fingertips, the tip of a pen or pencil and other objects. Potential applications include writing pads, virtual keyboards, virtual drums, etc.

Dr. Croakie says: Whoa! I can wait to get my hooves on this one!

SLAP, Pow!

"SLAP Widgets for Multitouch Tables"
Researchers from UCSD and RWTH Aachen University introduced a new concept, called SLAP widgets, that allow for haptic feedback and interactivity along with a rear-illuminated multitouch table (FTIR). One problem that comes up with certain interactions with a multitouch table is the lack of tangible feedback - for instance, it's much harder to type on a tabletop than a real keyboard, because you lack the nice click of real keys.

SLAP (Silicone Illuminated Active Peripherals) are input devices formed of transparent silicone including buttons, dials, sliders, and a keyboard. The SLAP widgets are placed on the multitouch surface and, using tag recognition, labels and indicators are projected on the table surface just below the physical peripherals. It's a very cool idea, and fairly easy to implement. It's especially neat because I was in the HCI lab at UCSD when some of the early ideas of SLAP widgets were being developed!

Dr. Croakie says: SLAP widgets seem very useful and nifty. Now, I challenge these researchers to come up with a real-world implementation that solves a real problem. How do people interact with them? What difficulties arise, and what problems are solved?

Lunch with UCSD Gals in HCI

2009-04-07T12:01:00.000-07:00

I had a wonderful lunch with Anne Marie Piper and Brynn Evans, two students whom I know from my lab at UCSD. They are both intelligent, enthusiastic researchers and it was very inspiring to brainstorm with them about their ongoing work. Anne Marie has a lot of interest in using multitouch tables for supporting medical conversations between patients and clinicians. She's especially interested in how this technology can help elderly or disabled patient populations. Brynn is studying social search - how people rely on their social networks while doing searching activity online. She's quite a social networker herself - Brynn has one of the most ambitious professional networks I know of! It was great to see Brynn and Anne Marie. To me, this is what CHI is really about - getting inspired and recharged with ideas, reconnecting with friends and colleagues, and thinking about where I want to go with my career...and the things I'd like to accomplish as a member of theUEgroup team!

In Honor of Dr. Smitty

2009-04-07T07:37:00.001-07:00

We got some sad news last night - apparently Dr. Smitty was not able to make it to CHI 2009. Hopefully we will be able to schedule the first annual non-human computer interaction event next year at CHI 2010 in Atlanta!

Tuesday's Forecast: Networking and Sustainability

2009-04-07T07:30:00.001-07:00

The weather's doing a bit better today - it's not pouring rain, and there's even a few patches of sun here and there. Luckily, the hotel is connected via a mall to the conference center, so we never even have to go outside!

Today's schedule promises lots of fun and interesting events. Croakie and I are going to join two students from my former lab for a Women in HCI lunch, then we'll head to a few sessions this afternoon. I'm especially excited about a session on sustainability and HCI. We'll also head back over to the exhibit hall to do some more networking this evening at a mixer event.

Phew! What a day.

2009-04-07T07:24:00.000-07:00

Croakie and I closed the day with a whirlwind tour of the exhibit hall. We met lots of interesting folks, talked to eye-tracking companies, publishers, and other tech companies.

Rainy Monday

2009-04-06T14:39:00.001-07:00

Dr. Croakie and I were very disappointed by today's weather. That didn't stop us from attending some neat talks today!

Housekeeping Robots
"Magic Cards: A Paper Tag Interface for Implicit Robot Control"
These designers, from Singapore, created an alternative robot control interface that operates in a way more amenable to many folks who are faced with doing everyday household tasks. Using cards with commands placed in situ, robots respond and complete said tasks when the homeowner is out. Cards say things like "Vacuum here, or take out trash," and have a bar code in the background that is read by overhead cameras. Robots are deployed to those locations and perform the tasks.

Croakie says: it is a good idea, but the actual implementation was pretty weak.

Citizen Scientists
"Pathfinder: An Online Collaboration Environment for Citizen Scientists"
Citizen scientists are everyday people who volunteer to collect field data in scientific studies. One of the biggest is the Christmas Day Bird Count - every year hundreds of thousands of people go out and count birds in their environment and report back to scientific sources with their findings. In 2007, 300 scientific publications came out of data collected by citizen scientists. This paper was about a system, called Pathfinder, that allows for public sharing and discussion of data collected by citizen scientists. The researcher claimed that the system helped everyday citizens become more deeply engaged with the scientific process.

Croakie says: interesting idea, but the research was done by recruiting 30 Microsoft employees to participate in this study. Microsoft employees are not everyday individuals, with no formal scientific training, and therefore, might have behaved differently than their target demographic. Why didn't they use citizen scientists who had participated in other citizen scientist studies?

Tee-board E-textiles for Teaching
"The TeeBoard: An education-friendly construction platform for e-textiles and wearable computing"

The Tee-board is a combination of a t-shirt and a breadboard. This group used an e-textile created from a t-shirt pre-wired with a lilypad arduino microcontroller to teach K-6 students in a summer program. They found positive results and student engagement with this project.

Dr. Croakie says: We like light-up clothes, but Amaya says that conductive thread is a big loser. We are worried that the student's projects will break quickly after construction! Amaya asked the speaker why she decided to use t-shirts, which are vulnerable to flexion and tension caused by movement, instead of a more robust light-up accessory, like a belt or purse.

Welcome to CHI 2009!

2009-04-06T09:11:00.001-07:00

CHI 2009
Digital Life, New World

I arrived in Boston late last night, and managed to get dinner at the hotel restaurant before they closed the kitchen. This morning I got up early and registered for CHI 2009. I was happy to see that they went back to giving out canvas bags for holding the conference proceedings. The last two years they've given out cheap laptop bags, which I ended up throwing out. The CHI bags are favorites of mine for grocery shopping.

Just after I got up to the exhibit hall, I ran into my old Ph.D. advisor, Jim Hollan, and a few other collegues I know from past CHI conferences. It's great to see so many familiar faces.

Now I'm spending some time writing down a list of goals for myself at the conference this year. I'd like to:

1. Attend 5 sessions and write a summary report about each
2. Identify 3 key ways for theUEgroup to partipate in CHI2010
3. Give out 20 business cards
4. Talk with 2 publishers
5. Talk with 5 people who have posters or demos
6. Take lots of pictures with Dr. Croakie
7. Blog about the progress of my goals

Onward!

Technology and Values

2008-07-22T17:05:00.000-07:00

What motivates you to do your best work? For me, I want to be working on something I believe is helpful to the modern world we live in. Just listen to NPR for twenty minutes and you'll hear a great variety of social problems that can be addressed by clever technological designs - for instance, how can we encourage people to bone up their gas mileage by changing their driving behavior? How can we motivate children to eat better and move their bodies more? How can we get people to start growing their own food, shopping for local produce, or lessening their carbon footprint? How can we encourage a feeling of community? Those are the kinds of problems (though not necessarily the exact ones) that would motivate me, and they are all questions that can be addressed by technological designs.

In a nutshell, I love using my creative and analytical skills to solve *very real* problems. And you need to talk to people and go out in the real world to find out what those problems are, and how to address them.Here's a question for you. In The Human Factor, Kim Vicente says "technology is value neutral," and it is how the technology gets used (i.e. the cultural factors) that determines whether it is used for good or for ill. How do you feel about this? If this were true, it could mean that those people who strive to understand - and even attempt to design - appropriation, adoption and interactions with technology have perhaps even more important work than those who build the technology itself. What do you think?

Revisions 2

2008-06-16T17:20:00.000-07:00

2. Suggested Changes to Notebook Icons
a. Audio playback icon

We find the record, pause, and stop buttons to be so intuitive because of their consistency with other computer and real-world players. Therefore, we’re stumped as to why there isn’t a play button for paper-based control of audio records. While there are handy icons for scrolling within a record, it’s not initially semantically clear what the purpose of this icon is for.

Putting a “play” triangle somewhere on this image would greatly assist users in figuring out how to operate the pen using paper. Above we show our suggested change.

LiveScribe User Feedback

2008-06-16T15:50:00.000-07:00

1. Trouble Using Menu System

a. Hard to Find 'Play Session’

Many of us experienced the same problem trying to play back audio or initiate ‘Paper Replay’ using NavPlus. According to the Smartpen User Manual, in order to record a session, the following set of actions must be executed.

- Double tap center of NavPlus to reach the main menu.
- Tap the down arrow until Paper Replay is displayed.
- Tap the right arrow to select the Paper Replay application menu. The first item is Record Session.
- Tap on the down arrow until you reach Play Session.
- Tap the right arrow and use the down arrow to scroll through sessions in the pen's memory.

Three of us made the mistake (several times) of getting to the Paper Replay menu and then accidentally pressing the top right arrow again, which initiates recording. This created several “dummy files” (i.e. accidental recordings) that then had to be erased once the pen output was downloaded. Why is Record Session the first item in the Paper Reply menu? Wouldn’t record session be better placed in another sub-menu? Paper Replay is conceptually about playback, not recording, and so it is counter-intuitive to place Record Session in this sub-menu, especially as the first choice. It is also not easy to know that there is another option in the Paper Replay sub-menu below Record Session to choose at all, because of the visual layout of the menus (only one option at a time can be shown on the pen screen).

Our recommendation is to move Record Session from the Paper Replay sub-menu and instead make Record Session an option in the Main Menu before or after Paper Replay.

e.g.

Current Options in Paper Replay
>Record Session
>Play Session
>Delete Session

Suggested Revisions to Paper Replay
>Play Session
>Delete Session

b. Recording Mistakes Easy to Make

In addition, it is too easy to begin recording when one doesn’t mean to. It would be useful to have another option between Record Session and the actual command, much like currently exists with Delete Session. For example, an intermediate menu item that reads:

\Record Session? >

Selecting the right arrow then confirms recording to begin. This could prevent recording “dummy sessions” by giving users another layer of insulation from an error.

Latest Ethogram

2008-05-30T17:39:00.000-07:00

An image of the latest ethogram.

What the field researchers want...

2008-05-30T15:10:00.000-07:00

From Whitney, a great summary of the work we've done so far on the LiveScribe pen project.

"I think we've come up with some really great design ideas, and pinpointed opportunistic places for users to have control of the data/the ability to code. Examples that stand out to me are: The buttons are a fantastic solution to time stamping a behavior, and I really like being able to make more "record" buttons for voice notes. Having access to data points, as well as being able to code per region allows for flexible use of the space (er, not to mention the making of the buttons)."

Whitney's take on more LiveScribe field research ideas from the Johnson research group and others:

"As far as other projects/interest: I know Chris is itching to find a way to integrate the pens on the bonobo project, and the bioacoustician I've been working with at SeaWorld thinks they might be the holy grail of field research - she took down the name and model of the pen, and I've promised to keep her posted on the pen's integration.

.:The Arduino LilyPad and Wearable Electronics:.

2008-05-23T17:32:00.001-07:00

A concise review of the microcontroller for wearable electronics and light-up clothing. Gives a balanced view of the benefits and design issues of using this system to build your own costumes with embedded microcontrollers.

read more | digg story

Wonder how we change our behavior?

2008-05-21T17:58:00.001-07:00

One really interesting question is how we adapt our behavior knowing what the LiveScribe pens are capable of. Whitney said,

"I've gotten used to the pen, and I'm not taking as many notes. Yeah, and it was funny 'cause I was like, oh recording, you know, that's like cheap, right? Recording's cheap and you can just do it and upload it to the computer, but the paper is finite ((laughs))"

Another Productive Brainstorming Session

2008-05-21T17:23:00.000-07:00

Today was another productive Wednesday meeting for the Beluga group. Although Prof. Johnson could not be in attendance, I feel like we made a lot of progress on the ethogram design. I recorded our meeting, and found the Paper Replay function to be very useful for writing up summary notes.

Whitney is very excited about the possibility of using pictures, icons, and symbols to separate the ethograms. She said, "I think it's so cool. I think what we first saw with the pens was like, 'We can do things in pictures now! This can make things more...human...rather than us having to do things in a computer way.'

She brought a prototype meant to have blocks of space cut out below a picture. The whole thing can be printed on paper and laid over Anoto paper, so the paper can be marked on and strokes timestamped. I suggested using vellum that can be purchased for ordinary laser printers.

I feel pretty enthusiastic about the surface, diving, orientation and proximity categories we sketched out. We're still a bit unsure about the event sheet and how best to build an ethogram.

Some of the remaining challenges - should states vs. events be on separate sheets, or separated by some other feature (health behaviors like breathing and nursing, versus synchrony data)? Are we staying 'true' to DCOG, like should we only care about the dyad and not individual behaviors?

"I don't think the baby can really spyhop. That is something that the adult can do but not the baby, it's not something the calf is physically able to do."

Brainstorming with Jim

2008-05-16T13:17:00.000-07:00

During our meeting yesterday, Jim and I talked about the power of the LiveScribe pen for collecting ideas, and helping re-establish context after time goes by. We're interested in looking more deeply at how the pen can support some of the creative/brainstorming processes that are an essential part of doing science. I mentioned how the class of activity I've witnessed at the Beluga group's last set of meetings is common to many, if not all, scientists who do observational research. You have to figure out what you are going to look for, what you can see, how you can record data - and feed these constraints into the design of a data sheet.

Meeting Notes, 5/14

2008-05-14T17:43:00.001-07:00

Today's meeting felt quite fruitful. We started out with an update from me - I basically outlined for the group what kind of data we should be able to access sometime in the future, once the SDK is available and more accessible. I also told the group how the pen timestamps strokes. Chris asked about how fine-grained the timestamp is.

Whitney then reported that she was still very unsatisfied with the current state of both ethograms. She is also not thinking that they are fully taking advantage of what the pens can offer and record. She said she had gone back and reflected deeply on the kinds of questions the project is trying to answer.

Chris led the group through a very careful outline of all the data that needs to get recorded. We started out with the All Occurrences sheet. What behaviors need to be captured?

Breathing - rate important for SeaWorld to know animals are healthy
Nursing - again, indicates health of infant
Floating - too much could indicate unhealth
Bubbles - indicates breathing, and can pinpoint who vocalized if unknown

Chris pointed out that both events and states are recorded here. Separating them can be useful.

Possible States:
-Floating
-Static underwater
-Swimming
-Floating
-Spyhopping

Possible Events:
-Breathing
-Nursing
-Surfacing (B only, M only, B-->M, M-->B, Synch.)
-Diving (B only, M only, B-->M, M-->B, Synch.)

Chris also noted that it is important to know what state an animal is in when it performs an event. The timestamped pen data can help delineate this. There may also be a work-around (/) to point out state changes during a time block.

_________________

Interaction/Relative Dynamics Sheet

We had a discussion about the importance of recording proximity information. Whitney had outlined a proximity scale, and we discussed/refined definitions.

0 - touching/in contact
1 - slipstream (baby or less width apart)
3 - proximal (adult to baby's width apart)
5 - other

We also talked about the importance of relative orientations. Chris sketched out several possibilities (shown on attached sheet). We brainstormed about putting pictures of postural configurations along the top of the sheet. In the current version of the sheet, we can assign values to the orientations. In the future, we can assign Anoto address space to these icons, and touching the pen in the box will trigger a recording event.

The quality of the contact between mother and baby is important too. We decided what kind of touches are important - all, or just a subset? Is fluke to fluke important to know, or is just a touch in general enough to know about. We decided that the only important touches were touches at the mammary area of mother, and rostral touches. Rostral touches are touches where the ecolocation organ is facing the target - might indicate that some kind of spatial mapping development is going on? Therefore, the touch categories are:

On mother: On baby:
Rostral Rostral
Mammary Body
Body

Play behavior is also important to record, as it may indicate imitation activities.

**The researchers also pointed out an additional feature of using the LiveScribe pens to pilot this study - they can record meta-level observations of data collection while simultaneously taking data, i.e. "We really should add another column for xyz..."

____________________________

Remaining questions:

How fine-grained is the timestamp?
What is the human error between two scorers?
Can we mock up something for next week, using transparency sheets, and??

LiveScribe Data Update

2008-05-13T16:22:00.000-07:00

A big question we've been asking is what kind of access we'll have to pen data, and what kind of data the pen is recording. Jim recently got (some) access to information about LiveScribe's SDK, so we have more of an idea of what we're dealing with.

First of all, what the data looks like. In other Anoto pens, the pen records and timestamps all address information during a stroke, kind of like tiny video frames of what the camera is seeing during a stroke. Data is recorded 72X/min. In the LiveScribe, data is only timestamped at the onset and offset of a stroke.

What this means is that we wouldn't be able to get real-time data if we were recording whale paths through the tank as a continual line. We need to pick the pen up often to get stroke information timestamped. This should feed into the design we choose. The good news is that Whitney's design using specialized symbols induces several strokes by design, so we should get good data from this kind of ethogram.

Another question we've had is about encoding special regions of the paper to become icons or buttons to register certain behavior events. Jim said that this is what the SDK should allow us to customize. The bad news is that we don't yet have access to the full SDK. But prototyping or mocking a few things up to try out in the field should give us a good idea of what we'd want eventually.

3 Laws of D-COG Analyses

2008-05-08T15:01:00.000-07:00

From Chris Johnson's 4/30/08 lab meeting:

1. Interaction as a unit of analysis
2. Consider multiple time scales
3. Attend to configural change

LiveScribe Beluga Project

2008-05-08T14:01:00.001-07:00

Yesterday's meeting was quite productive. We spoke at length about ethogram designs that were scientifically sound and also technologically feasible. Two that really stood out were being able to trace/code behaviors on a top-view version of the tank, or creating a document with pictograms of behaviors. Touching the pen over a pictogram would enter a data point into a spreadsheet at that time code.

Yesterday Jim said he had gotten some documentation from LiveScribe on the SDK. Hopefully in the next few days we will be able to have a better idea about our ability to support those designs.

In other news, apparently the beluga whale Ruby has "dropped", meaning her baby might be due sooner than expected!

TOOLS FOR ETHNOGRAPHERS

2008-05-01T13:58:00.000-07:00

As with any science, doing ethnography involves creating cascades of representations. Below are general cascade levels many folks have expressed a need for.

First-pass tool

Many of us do a general "first-pass" through the data and create an annotated Table of Contents describing events within a video. It would be nice to have a program that would a) allow for rapid creation of "chapter headings" that could be integrated with video record, and b) feed in easily to other levels of analysis.

What should the form of the Table of Contents look like?
Timeline? Spreadsheet?
Perhaps integrates the LiveScribe pen?
Multitouch table or stylus?
Directly on the video (e.g. dots on the slider)?

Coding tool
As one develops increased familiarity with the content, categories of activity emerge. A video can then be coded for categories.

What should the form of the coded data be?
Spreadsheet?
Timelines? (Multiple)?
Integrated with the LiveScribe pen?
Superimposes coded categories on the video?

Event table tool
Timeline of events in a smaller video segment (Chapter)
What should it look like? Many of us currently use Excel. What is the advantage/disadvantage?
Should we incorporate transcripts of other kinds (line drawings, cartoons, etc.)?

Reestablishing Context of Activity

2008-04-21T13:56:00.000-07:00

One thought: this might be part of LiveScribe's power - it easily preserves and presents a visual and audio record of activity.

Two Experiments to look at this question

1. Film 102C groups as they work on projects. Provide them with various kinds of representations or not - perhaps one as an audio record only, one with audio and digital images, one with video and audio. Which groups are faster to get back on task? Or which representations help a group get back on task more quickly (this a possible design only if there will be multiple weeks with similar activities taking place, e.g. writing).

2. Film vs. photos + podcast of 102C lecture.
Which students are better at recalling details of lecture, or which kinds of representations help the same students better recall details of lecture - e.g. what we went over last week.

Jim: Very natural to be describing it at a somewhat abstract level while watching my screen capture. Hal Pashler - does he know literature about that re-envoking context or aiding memory.

Edit snippets from the videos and we have to say me, not me.

Make up a web task, can you tell me not me
Don't finish up
Next week show a speeded up version of what they did
Reload context - isn't in the stuff but are in inferences
Making recommendations about printers
Quantify interruption cost
Group 1 - does entire task
Group 2 - gets interrupted
Group 3 -

Talk to me about what you were doing here - someone else's video vs. your own

Ed's Cascade of Representations

Rough table of contents - time codes, what's going on

"Event Table" - Spreadsheet with more events broken down - columns for Event/Timecode/Speaker/Speech/Gesture/Framegrab

How are decisions made about a publication?
How are final transcripts created?

Superimposing transcript over a map - works for a route

Cartoon Creator Application

2008-04-15T14:00:00.000-07:00

A cartoon creator application would be a nice way to explore tasks of summarizing video content; navigating and annotating/transcribing videos, selecting specific "interesting" portions, composing a set of frames, fine tuning a sequence and framing for a comic strip. This project will allow us to explore a variety of interaction techniques and have a level of directness that is not possible in conventional interfaces.

----- Styli

Any stylus will work. Ordinary burnishers from art stores have nice ranges of rubbing areas depending on how it is articulated; very fine and delicate rubs to wide and bold rubs. Many varieties of custom
"brushes", with or without embedded LEDs, are very simple to construct.

Another idea would be to have the line thickness controlled with the non-dominant hand by moving along a slider (as in Photoshop). This brings up the interesting question of the feeling of directness - is it better to have the line thickness controlled directly (WYSIWYG) or via a slider (which involves a level of abstraction).

A particular stylus that I have been thinking about uses three IR leds for positional when not in contact with the surface. By positional, I mean all six degrees of freedom {x,y,z,pitch,yaw,roll}.
I'd be interested to understand more. How would a stylus that does not need to be in contact with the surface be of use for making cartoons? Any possible functions?

----- Framing tool

A frame, a rectangle or other arbitrary shape, is scaled and rotated as desired by dragging it at two points. But rather than placing it over an image, an image is dragged into it. While the image is scaled,
rotated, and moved with the frame, the portions extending beyond the frame are ghosted. When not manipulated, the portions beyond the frame become invisible.

Its the same old "using two fingers to move, scale, and rotate", except now two objects (frame and image) are interacting with each other. It should be very easy to implement.

A sequence of cartoon frames remain interactive for an ethnographer to further tune them as a gestalt of the cartoon emerges.

A sequence of cartoon frames also becomes a means of navigating the source video. For example, press on two frames can play the portion of video spanning them. Alternating pressure between two cartoon frames can fast forward or rewind, back and forth, across the span of video between
the two cartoon frames.

YES. This is one of the most exciting and important aspects of the application. It would be wonderful to use for both analysis, and to be able to "export" some kind of file with embedded video links. (Yes, this can be built to some degree in Adobe software like Acrobat Pro, but it is darn tedious. It would be so nice if it was automatic, not requiring the user to do it over again.)

-----Bootstrap Applications

Could we use the Photoshop API for the line drawing maker? There are so many features in Photoshop that I would love to explore using multitouch. I am enthusiastic about the level of directness and the large canvas size that the multitouch enables. Can Photoshop handle multitouch? How would it deal with such a thing? Can we modify it to do so? I can imagine having the non-dominant hand control settings while the dominant hand is drawing would be quite useful. Also, think about how easy tasks like erasing will be with multitouch!

I'm also quite taken with iDive as a digital video storage application. It seems like it would be quite useful as a manager for the video files and easy selection of representative frames.

I think the Quicktime API can "talk to" other applications so it's possible

About Me

2001-01-01T18:29:00.000-08:00

I'm a humane technology artisan, and I spend my time crafting inspiring experiences with technology. So often, technology is NOT humane because it frustrates us, doesn't allow us to do the work that's important to us, and even more insidious, changes how we live with each other in ways that aren't in alignment with our values. My goal is to help build technology that is useful, personally relevant, and responsive to our needs.

I'm both a big idea person, and a person who finds great joy in diving into the messy details of human behavior. I have formal training in anthropology and cognitive science (Ph.D. in Cognitive Science, UC San Diego), and I did my dissertation using ethnographic methods applied to study HCI design. I've done work in the past working at a boutique usability consulting firm, and now I work for BitDefender, a security software company where I lead a team of designers and researchers charged with improving the user experience of all of the company's products.

I am happiest when working in a dynamic environment where I can be part of a team effort to design and study how technology can be made to help people do what they want to do, without getting in their way.

Things I do in my work life: Usability Research, UX Research, UX Design, Human-Computer Interaction design, Ethnography, Prototyping, Usability Testing, Focus Groups

Other things I've been up to lately: Crafting, building wearable electronics and light-up accessories, ceramic painting, hula hooping, acrylic and watercolor painting, making soft stitch toys, crocheting, building a fairy garden.