Paper Reading #18 - Automatic Generation of Research Trails in Web History

Comments

Patrick

Adam

Reference

Automatic Generation of Research Trails in Web History

Elin Tonby Pedersen, Karl Gyllstrom, Shengyin Gu, Peter Jin Hong

IUI 2010 - Hong Kong

Summary

Research is performed by millions of people at many different levels. This paper introduces the idea of a research trail, which helps researchers reestablish their research process after leaving the context for an extended time period. A system was developed which worked with a user’s web history to form research trails. An ethnographic study was performed on users performing research as the system was designed and implemented. The implementation relies heavily on a user’s web browsing history information in order to provide a research trail. The implementation detects related areas and groups them accordingly. Additionally, the system is aware of time gaps between research sessions and can sort segments appropriately. A small study of three users was performed, which indicated the system was favorably received.

Analysis

This paper really had me excited, especially as they were describing all of the problems faced by people attempting to conduct research. I was ready to see a wonderful implementation of something that would change my life and make me a unstoppable researching force of nature. However, the implementation was only briefly described, and there wasn’t any tool I could download and try out. I felt like the paper motivated the need for a tool well, but didn’t actually deliver anything I could evaluate or grasp. I have a feeling that we will see future improvements on the system described.

Emotional Design - Full Blog

Reference

Emotional Design

Donald Norman

Basic Books 2002

Summary

This summary is derived from reading the first three chapters of Emotional Design, though it likely reflects the theme of the entire book. Emotional Design focuses on issues surrounding interaction between devices and humans that can be most easily classified as emotional. This is established by first examining the idea of attractive objects seeming to work better than their not-so-beautiful counterparts. The reasoning is simple: people ignore the functional faults of objects which are more ascetically pleasing. The mind is more flexible about the possible responses of the device, and therefore faults are not easily found. Users are more willing to work with the device than against it. Norman continues by exploring the three levels of design: visceral, behavioral, and reflective. These aspects of design are each concerned with different aspects of the interaction. Visceral is connected to the appearance of the device, while behavioral is more focused on the performance and reflective on the amount of personal connection or contentment a user feels from the device. This area of the book implies many strategies that could be effective for marketing a device. Norman continues to further examine the three levels of design. He explains that visceral is an emotional signal creator, which is interpreted by the brain across cultures and people. Behavioral is directly related to the user's use of the object and its perceived function.Finally, reflective design conveys a meaning of a device which is unique to each person.

Discussion

While this book was somewhat repetitive in nature, I feel that I personally gained new insights into the interaction that surounds devices and their user's. I can definitely see the direct effects of attractive design present in products like Apple iPhones, MacBook Pros and iPods. Survey's always indicate high levels of customer satisfaction, and though the products are well made, I believe their attractive design creates an extra factor which leads their users to be more satisfied with them. I believe the implications of this text for Computer Scientist are obvious. Software and hardware projects can benefit from considering the three levels of design.

Paper Reading #17 - The Why UI: Using Goal Networks to Improve User Interfaces

Comments

Chris

Shena

Reference

The Why UI: Using Goal Networks to Improve User Interfaces

Dustin A. Smith, Henry Lieberman

IUI 2010 - Hong Kong

Summary

This paper claimed that modeling user goals could improve user interfaces. The argument centers around the idea that once an application has knowledge of a user’s intentions it can perform some automated planning or tasks through the construction of a goal network. The goal network supports concepts like the location of the goal, duration to achieve, and subgoals. Goal libraries are also used to examine human-level goals. The paper accomplished this by parsing data from a website where people share their goals, achievements, and thoughts about others’ goals. An implementation in the form of a to-do list application was created.

Analysis

This paper was not very well focused. I felt a lot of conceptual talk about goals and how they could be used to augment interfaces was present at the beginning, but the implementation seemed random and unrelated. I agree strongly that recognizing a human’s goal could greatly serve to improve experiences, but I am uncertain how parsing a database of people’s goals illustrates this. The implementation seemed to just basically provide popular subgoals associated with an entered goal. I may be missing something here, but I am generally unclear as to the direction of this research.

Ethnography Week #7

Life at the helpdesk has been very calm this week. We are nearing the end of our study and feel very confident in the amount of data we have collected and the conclusions we have come to.

We have been considering the application we will design for our group and believe we have something which could really be of great assistance to them. We hope that it will actually be used, as we plan to implement it for our final project.

For the most part we have observed the same things as previous weeks, occasionally a friend of an employee or someone from another department will stop by and socialize. But mostly, we see the culture as a place to pass time, socialize and occasionally perform tech duties. It is noteable that almost everyone working in the center has a personal interest in technology and the job is not difficult or challenging to them.

Microblogs: Why We Make Mistakes

Chapter 0 & 1

The first chapter provided a bit of background for the book as well as some motivation for studying the topic. It was asserted that humans are not necessarily to blame for their errors, rather design choices may be to blame. A number of interesting experiments and studies concerning our ability to recognize our motivation or to miss seeing something were cited.

This book seems like it will be a wealth of interesting information concerning mistakes or more generally human tendencies to miss portions of the world around them. I’ve found the studies cited to be very interesting, and would like more details on some of them, rather than just the shocking facts.

Chapter 2 & 3

Meaningful things are easier to remember. We are great at storing away connections between objects and ideas or events. Examples like remembering faces better than names and using stories to remember something are given. We are also prone to mistakes when things seem to represent something we know, but don't fully. A discussion of how judgements are made on visual attributes is given. These are denoted as "invisible" attributes that affect our choices.

These chapters were enjoyable and pointed out many of the things I have put into practice in my own life without realizing why. For example, I always create stories or relationships even if they are fake when I need to memorize a large amount of terminology for an exam. Overall these chapters remind me that I hate taking exams which aren't essay style.

Chapter 4 & 5

Wearing rose colored glasses refers to the idea that we tend to see ourselves in a very positive light when we recall an event. We always describe our actions as making us look the best. This effect is not intentional. Having knowledge of events, i.e. looking back on the past, has an effect on our memory. We know the outcomes and we will fill in the gaps with our imagination to make things look good. Next, multitasking is examined. The claims is that much like a single processor computer, we can only do time slicing, never truly proces two events at once. The idea of inattentional blindness is explored through examples.

I really enjoy the amount of examples that Hallinan provides. Often times I find myself wanting to look into the particular studies or incidents more. So far this book has really captured many aspects of human nature. The ideas of rose colored glasses and multitasking are not surprising. Though I would debate the idea that we cannot multitask. Many of our body systems run in parallel and though they may not be upper cognitive processes, they are present. For example, you don't need to do any context switching to think about breathing or to dodge a flying object -- it is a natural background process.

Chapter 6 & 7

The first chapter deals with the idea of framing and anchoring. The idea is that if we frame a situation wrong we will make the wrong choices and interpretations. Interestingly if a person expects a loss in a situation they are more likely to take risk. The second chapter discusses the fact that we don't often read and parse the entirety of anything. We hit key points and interpret the rest. The better you are at something, the more likely you will miss details.

The framing and anchoring issues are tremendously interesting. Especially from a computer science standpoint. In developing true AI we need to be able to frame a situation correctly otherwise we will get strange and incorrect results. If humans suffer from framing problems, will machines ever overcome them? The chapter on skimming is another general truth about the way we operate. It is interesting that experts miss more details, though it seems plausible.

Chapter 8 & 9

The first chapter explores the idea that we often smooth out or simplify memories or details in order to make them easier to understand. A number of examples of this are given. The human mind organizes in a hierarchical fashion.The second chapter explores how men and women differ in the ways they arrive at errors. The book asserts that men are more confident and women are less likely to take a risk.

I thought the idea of childhood having an impact on confidence in mapping was very intriguing and true. There is definitely a lot to be said for childhood experiences shaping the decision making processes of individuals. This would be an interesting area to explore by itself. The smoothing of memories and storytelling are not surprising.

Chapter 10 & 11

Only those who are depressed have a view of themselves that is less than average. Many people have taken advantage of humans' overconfidence in order to achieve financial gain. We also have tendency to believe more information will help us, when in fact it can do the opposite. In order to become an expert at something it is estimated that about ten years of refinement and practice is required. The idea of mappings in the mind by experts is explained. Additionally, people become set in their ways.

It was sad to consider that only the depressed have an accurate world view. I feel like a tiny bit of overconfidence is an important motivating factor (proof: how many depressed people are highly motivated?) in our lives. Again I appreciate the examples given in these chapters which seem to back up the claims. I am not sure about the information overflow claims. It seems like a large amount of information acquired over a decent period of time would be beneficial.

Chapter 12 & 13 & Conclusion

People die because of simple errors which could be easily preventable. The argument is that giving meaningful attributes to things can result in increased performance and less human error. Studies of the FAA improvements in comparison to the lack of improvements in the medical community are given. Finally, the idea that the grass is always greener on the other side is explored. This fact is proven to be true, illustrating that people often perceive a increase in happiness will occur in a differing situation. The book concludes with summarizing the major findings of the book and the main ideas. The point that aspiring for different situations constantly will lead to unhappiness is made.

These chapters reminded me of Norman's concepts and ideas. Overall it is interesting to see the simple steps we can take to avoid human error. The FAA studies were particularly encouraging to see. Overall the conclusion provided a good summarization and take away message from the book.

Paper Reading #16: Performance optimizations of virtual keyboards for stroke-based text entry on a touch-based tabletop

Comments

Stuart

Jeremy

Reference

Performance optimizations of virtual keyboards for stroke-based text entry on a touch-based tabletop

Jochen Rick, The Open University

UIST 2010 - New York

Summary

Entering text into devices without physical keyboards can be difficult. A common method for text entry is the use of shape writing, where the user strokes through the letters of the word without lifting their finger, in order to input text into a device. This paper investigated the keyboard layouts which would be optimal for text entry using the shape writing method. A large review of keyboard history and various types of keyboard was given. Additionally, the author performed two user studies to determine the optimal keyboard design. Based on Fitt’s law the author constructed a model of stroking through multiple points. This model was later used to evaluate the effectiveness of various keyboard designs. The results indicate that the typical QWERTY keyboard gives a 17.3% increase in speed, while the OPTI II gives 29.5%. The author concludes by saying it is unlikely this keyboard will gain widespread acceptance.

Analysis

This paper was a great survey of keyboard technology and an interesting study of new shape writing methods. The author performed his analysis thoroughly and fully. While, I don’t see this new keyboard design becoming used by mainstream users, I think having it as an option would be nice. I also appreciate the author’s concession that most people will continue to use the QWERTY keyboard despite it not being the most efficient. I do share the optimism that since we are using more and more software keyboards it may become easier for users to try out a new keyboard and eventually switch to it.

Obedience To Authority - Full Blog

Reference

Obedience to Authority

Stanley Milgram

Harper Perennial Modern Classics - 2009

Summary

This book provides a detailed account of the planning and execution of several experiments designed by Stanley Milgram to test the effects of authority. The main premise of the experiment is to see how long someone will obey authority despite their belief that they are causing harm to another human being. The setup includes an actor pretending to be injured by a shock administered by a participant during a learning game. The authority figure instructions the participant to continue. Results show that most people continue even when the actor expresses severe pain and a desire to quit.Special attention is given to providing a complete set of information detailing the experimental setups and all possible variations of the experiment. Raw data is presented as well. Additionally, Milgram works to define the theory of the mechanisms which are in action during these experiments. Milgram explains the hierarchical structure of obedience from a cybernetic viewpoint of people moving from functioning autonomously to being an active part of an organization. Finally, Milgram works to address critics of his experiments by citing reasons their claims cannot be true.

Discussion

I enjoyed reading the details of Milgrams experiments. Up until this point I did not realize the magnitude of the many variations and validations he performed. I particularly enjoyed the presentation of the dialogue between the participant and the researcher. I also appreciated the methodical way that Milgram planned his experiments and validated them. In terms of Computer Science I think this first shows us how important user studies can be, and reminds us that we should spend the extra time to validate our results. It is also interesting to me, as my research is in rescue robotics, where we may want to attribute an authority role to a robot for a number of reasons. It is both challenging and interesting to try and apply Milgram's findings to this area.

Ethnography Week #6

As we continue our ethnography we have become a regular part of the environment in our area of study. The employees expect us to be present at our scheduled times and expect us to follow them to their tech calls. For the past week or so calls have been limited to repairs which must be made after classes. Because of this we have spent a lot of time observing leisure life in the tech office. An interesting aspect of the job is that their are constraints on when work can actually be done, so often times there is very little to do other than work on class assignments or socialize with others in the room.

We have not been back on site since Spring Break (we make our visits on Friday's). Spring break was the time that a number of installation projects were to take place, so we are curious to hear the results and see if there are any remaining issues. We have also started to consider the application we would like to develop for our ethnography group for Project 3. Since our study group is already very technologically oriented, they do have a number of custom made software systems in place for their employees to use. We will need to focus on areas that are not already covered by the existing systems, or perhaps focus on improving a particularly frustrating system.

For the most part we have observed the same things as previous weeks, occasionally a friend of an employee or someone from another department will stop by and socialize. But mostly, we see the culture as a place to pass time, socialize and occasionally perform tech duties. It is noteable that almost everyone working in the center has a personal interest in technology and the job is not difficult or challenging to them.

Obedience To Authority - Microblogs

Chapter One

Summary

Obedience is described as a method which connects the actions of people and a purpose. Milgram also explains the basics of the experiments that will be chronicled in the book. The motivation for his experiments is found in Nazi Germany.

Discussion

This seems to be a basic introduction to the motivation behind the research area and the experimental setup that will be used. I appreciate the clarity with which this is written so far, it doesn't leave much to interpretation.

Chapter Two

Summary

A very detailed explanation of the experimental design is given. Consideration is given to who should participate and how to keep the true meaning a secret. Other artifacts like advertisements for the study are disclosed.

Discussion

It's nice to see such a thorough experimental design set out in advance. When I first read about these experiments they seemed ad-hoc and mad-scientist like, but now they seem very scientific and methodically planned.

Chapter Three

Summary

Milgram begins to form a hypothesis about the outcomes of the experiment. He polls people (without telling them about the actor) and they all believe the teacher will stop administering shocks.

Discussion

I really like the idea of polling for a hypothesis. So often we just use our own intuition and hope to validate it, but this is a good idea. I don't see this style used very often in the area I study.

Chapter Four

Summary

The variations of the experiment are detailed. Proximity plays a role in altering the setup. In some designs the actor is very close, in others he is completely obscured. The basic outcome is that the closer victim lowers obedience to authority.

Discussion

It's interesting to see proximity playing a role in obedience. The idea that simply being physically closer to the actor made participants less likely to shock them is intriguing. Why is this? Is the theatrical aspect just more powerful or do they feel more connected?

Chapter Five

Summary

The various factors which Milgram views as effecting a participant's response are discussed. Several detailed accounts of interactions are given. A strong focus to accounts of the interaction is given.

Discussion

I really enjoyed reading the accounts of the interactions. In this case having that kind of raw data is much more interesting to me than the numbers. This also answered questions I had about people having special knowledge about electric shock and their actions. I was glad to see they did not obey.

Chapter Six

Summary

The experiment was repeated several times with varying factors. The location was changed for example. Various expansions of the experiment were made (women as participants, choice of schock level, etc.). The results were not very different.

Discussion

The validation of the study was crucial and Milgram definitely proves his point with all of these checks. Once again it was interesting to observe the effects of proxemics in action.

Chapter Seven

Summary

More accounts of the interactions during the experiment are given.

Discussion

These chapters are very enjoyable to read. I appreciate the inclusion of this data very much, as it really helps me understand the justifications participants had for their actions. Knowing the outcome is one thing, but understanding the reasoning is another-- this gives that extra viewpoint.

Chapter Eight

Summary

More variations are applied. Many manipulations concerning roles of authority and interactions between the actor and participant are described.

Discussion

This experiment must have never ended-- I can't figure out if Milgram was just hoping to invalidate his results eventually or was obsessed with detail. In any case it is great to have this much data to analyze.... this is useful for those wishing to look back at the study in detail.

Chapter Nine

Summary

Milgram begins to look at the effects of forming peer pressure type groups and monitoring participant reactions. For the most part the responses of the pressure group seems to be mimicked by the participant.

Discussion

This seems expected: if someone takes the initiative most everyone in an unfamiliar situation will follow their lead. This feels more like social pressure to conform rather than obey authority.

Chapter Ten

Summary

A substantial discussion concerning the place of obedience in society and the necessity of it evolves throughout this chapter. The basic argument is that a hierarchical structure of authority is required to keep social order. Discussion of agnetic state and binding factors takes place.

Discussion

This was more of the actual model or theory that Milgram was using to give reason and purpose to the results of the experiment. It was interesting, but a bit involved and heavy on terminology. Overall it is necessary to understand the broader implications.

Chapter Eleven

Summary

More detail is given about the theory behind authority. Explanations of binding factors and antecedent conditions, like family and rewards are discussed. The preservation of the agnetic state is explored through binding factors.

Discussion

More the theory is exposed here, but with a bit more of application and example. This was a bit easier to read than the previous chapter and seemed to reinforce the same ideas

Chapter Twelve

Summary

Milgram explores strains and the mechanisms that connect it to obedience. Milgram explains that increased strain will cause disobedience.

Discussion

I am not sure I agree with Milgrams viewpoint concerning the strain being some sort of force which completely decides the outcome. I would argue that knowledge could also cause disobedience.

Chapter Thirteen

Summary

Is it possible that people just wanted to hurt someone with no penalty? Milgram doesn't think so. People consistently chose lower voltage levels when given the option, indicating they weren't in it to torture another human.

Discussion

Agression is considered here and rightfully so. In my mind it would be rare that so many people could possible fall into an agression category should it exist, but this is a good check to have.

Chapter Fourteen

Summary

The skeptics viewpoint is considered and argued against in this chapter. Milgram discredits many alternative theories as to why the participants obeyed. Ultimately he compares this to Nazi Germany.

Discussion

It was good to see these criticisms addressed formally by Milgram. I still believe it was a factor of knowledge and trust which caused participants to obey.

Opening Skinner's Box - Full Blog

Reference

Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century

Lauren Slater

W.W. Norton & Company, 2008

Summary

Opening Skinner's Box is a survey of the greatest, most influential and controversial psychological experiments of the twentieth century. The book focuses not only on the content of the research, but also the surrounding setting and the lasting effects of the findings. Beginning with B.F. Skinner himself, the author examines the concept of conditioning animals to perform based on a reward system and positive reinforcement. Continuing forward, Stanley Milgram's famous obedience to authority experiments are examined, with attempts to contact participants and examine the outcomes of their lives as a result of the experiment. As the book continues, Slater examines Rosenhan's experiments of gaining entry into a mental health facility with a limited set of symptoms. Slater is also sure to entertain readers by participating in the topics she is studying as much as possible, so much so as to try to be admitted into a mental health facility herself. Travelling into frightening territory, the bystander effect is explored, illustrating that the larger the group of people observing, the less likely individuals are to give assistance. Slater then invades the world of cult living as she brings the idea of cognitive dissonance to the foreground. Following this, the true nature of love is envisioned through the eyes of Harlow's monkey attachment experiments. Progressing onward the concept of addiction to drugs is presented from two viewpoints. Finally, the finer points of the human memory and brain are brought into the light with the idea of imagination filling in false memories and the physical aspects of the brain being examined.

Analysis

Skinner's Box is one of the most interesting reads I have ever encountered. The collection of fascinating researchers and their visions and projects into one volume proves to be quite enjoyable. Additionally, Slater adds interest to the facts by exploring the surrounding settings and even interviewing people connected to the research which was being conducted. Some of the most interesting topics were focused around the ideas of addiction and satisfaction. Computer Scientist can take away many things from Slater's examination of great psychological experiments. Of most importance may be to consider a human's complex nature when designing interfaces. Following design concepts wich account for the psychology of a human will greatly aide us in creating usable systems.

Paper Reading #15 - Gesture Search: A Tool for Fast Mobile Data Access

Comments

Ryan

Wesley

Reference

Gesture Search: A Tool for Fast Mobile Data Access

Yang Li

UIST 2010 - New York

Summary

Mobile phones are beginning to store more and more data essential to the lives of their users. Quickly accessing specific data items on a platform which contains hundreds or thousands of pieces of information is a difficult task with current user interface designs.Gesture Search allows for user to employ their entire multitouch screen as a gesture area and quickly access specific data items. The software runs in the background and distinguishes regular user interface events from a gesture. When a gesture is detected the search feature becomes active. The gestures are in the form of handwritten letters in sequence. For example, a user searching for a contact named Anne, would first write the letter A using their finger as an input device, they would then continue to enter letters until the contact appeared. The Gesture Search software also provides a mechanism for distinguishing more frequently accessed data and ranking it higher in the candidate list of possibilities. A user study of overall like-ability showed an average rating of 4.5 out of 5 for over 5000 ratings.

Analysis

This paper points out an interesting fact about mobile devices: our data is a bit harder to find. The paper discounts current systems, like Spotlight search on iPhone, as requiring too much attention and time to use. While I agree that a general gesture across the entire screen is easier than using an onscreen keyboard, I am not certain this is the best method to employ for finding data. I have not had an opportunity to use a system like this and would be very interested in trying one. I believe users would quickly adapt to any recognition quirks and be able to use it as a tool quickly. Overall though, I’d still like my data to find me instead of the other way around.

Ethnography Week #5

As we continue our ethnography we are more and more accepted into the environment of the help desk. We have started to look at issues of blame and trust between users of the system, the system and the technician role. We are curious to know if there is a way to reduce the amount of blame placed on technicians when a system fails.

For the most part the help desk has been relatively calm this week with few calls and not much social activity occurring. We have generally observed employees browsing the internet and relaxing. There have been a few pending issues regarding installations which are upcoming, but we will not be present for those.

Overall we are beginning to feel the natural pulse of life in the helpdesk, adapting to its nature of altering between super busy and very relaxed.

Paper Reading #14 - Eden: Supporting Home Network Management Through Interactive Visual Tools

Comments

Jacob

Kevin

Reference

Eden: Supporting Home Network Management Through Interactive Visual Tools

Jeonghwa Yang, W. Keith Edwards, David Haslem

UIST 2010 - New York

Summary

Networking the home is a complicated task for most users. Unfortunately, as more and more network connected devices enter the world, the requirement of a networked home becomes more and more evident. Users often express a wide range of frustrations with attempting to network a home. Eden attempts to provide a visual interface for managing home networks. A user study was conducted to first determine the needs of home network users, a panel of mostly novices and a few experts were surveyed. From this, an interface for managing a home network was implemented. The interface shows network connected devices in the frame of a house and allows visual groupings, shown as rooms, of the equipment. It also allows user to place restrictions or privileges on connected devices using visual badges. The system was implemented as a custom router with a web interface designed in Adobe Flash. In a comparison against other network management software the Eden software performed favorably.

Analysis

While I appreciate the efforts of this paper, I felt that it was lacking many details concerning the technical implementation and the complexities that arise in real world networking scenarios. Additionally, the paper cited that many users have trouble understanding DHCP versus static IP address assignment, yet this system does not account for that error (as it does nothing at the client, where that mistake is usually made). The implementation details also gloss over how new devices are detected and communicated to by Eden to before they are allowed onto the network. Overall I think there are some security concerns. Additionally, the testing was done in the lab with known devices--- this weakens the claim of a real world implementation. Finally, I didn’t think the interface grouping devices by room was very wise -- it’s too definite for wireless devices which roam around and gives users the wrong idea.

Paper Reading #13 - TwinSpace: an Infrastructure for Cross-Reality Team Spaces

Comments

Derek

Jessica

Reference

TwinSpace: an Infrastructure for Cross-Reality Team Spaces

Derek F. Reilly, Hafez Rouzati, Andy Wu, Jee Yeon Hwang, Jeremy Brudvik, W. Keith Edwards

UIST 2010 - New York

Summary

TwinSpace is software aimed at combining real world workspaces with virtual world workspaces. TwinSpace focuses on creating a physical smart space which can be connected to by real physical interaction and through virtual world interaction. The system focuses on developing an architecture for supporting synchronization of both spaces. This architecture is mainly an event notification system. Two studies were performed with the system, one to enable brainstorming between team members and presentations, while the other study was focused around a game encouraging collaboration.

Analysis

This is a logical next step in combining the worlds of virtual collaboration areas with shared spaces in the real world. However, perception will still be a limiting factor. While our infrastructure to communicate data increases quickly, our ability to interpret physical cues grows at a much slower pace. The major goal I see for systems like this is to make them an integrated part of the environment, which is simple and natural to use. In its current state (from what I can see in the pictures and have read) the system is bulky, a bit buggy and has many conditions that must be just right in order to get that perfect interaction. The interaction itself shouldn’t be a chore for the user. So while I believe this is something that will become moderately used in the future, I think our current perception technologies are not yet ready to support it.

Ethnography Week #4

As we’ve continued to spend time working twice a week with the technicians at the help desk, we have increasingly gained acceptance into their world, as well as met many new people. We have not had the chance to participate in many calls to the help desk, as in our visiting time there have been very few calls. This has left us with ample time to observe the culture of those working at the help desk and become part of their world.

One of the more interesting dynamics that we have become aware of is that of the interaction between the varying age groups of employees. Those who are in positions of management or supervisor are often middle aged or even later aged individuals compared to the college aged technicians. All technicians are male and all supervisors except one are male. The interaction is interesting in that there are no visible conflicts despite clear differences in work ethic and style. Both parties are extremely clear about their beliefs and thoughts, even when they conflict directly with another. There is often a large amount of joking associated with the differences in goals and motivation in life at the differing ages.

We also had the chance to meet one of the main supervisors of the program which supports this particular help desk. This supervisor was female and african american. She seemed to play the role of a motherly, yet strict, figure within the organization. She had knowledge of every worker’s personal life and situations. She demonstrated concern for them and confidence in their abilities to grow as employees. At the same time, she had an air of strictness and authority about her. We have observed technicians often joking with her while still treating her with a great deal of respect. The dynamic between her and the technicians seems to walk a fine line of both friendship and respect.

The tech call we attended this week was related to a professor attempting to use a remote for advancing his slide show. The remote needed to be reset with a complicated procedure, that the professor could not have knowledge of. The technicians reported that the system was becoming older in age and needed to be replaced. He also told us that he is careful not to express any promise in upgrades coming to professors, even if they are already in motion. He stated that professors become very anxious and interested in obtaining the updates as soon as possible once they are mentioned.

We were hoping to observe some installations of new equipment and the dynamics associated with the group installing them. However, it appears that all new equipment will be installed over spring break or the summer. We may be able to achieve an observation during spring break, but this is unlikely.

We continue to focus on the life of the help desk technician and those that surround them.

Reading #12: D-Macs: Building Multi-Device User Interfaces by Demonstrating, Sharing and Replaying Design Actions

Comments

Shena Hoffman

Steven Hennessy

Reference

D-Macs: Building Multi-Device User Interfaces by Demonstrating, Sharing and Replaying Design Actions

Jan Meskens, Kris Luyten, Karin Coninx

UIST 2010 - New York

Summary

This paper introduces D-Macs, a tool for designing interfaces across multiple devices. There is an increasing need in today’s growing technological device space for an easy solution to designing applications for multiple devices. This is easily seen with examples like YouTube, which has applications on major mobile platforms in addition to their web interface. D-Macs aims to allow designers to create designs for multiple devices in an easy way. They are able to see their designs for multiple devices in one easy to use GUI interface. Additionally, their design decisions are recorded and can be played back or shared with other designers. It does not require a high amount of learning and does not rely on artificial intelligence algorithms for automatically creating new designs for other systems.

Discussion

This paper addresses a definite problem in our community: designing the same application for multiple devices. I found that the paper’s solution, while nice and probably helpful to a large number of designers, was somewhat less capable of solving the problem it presented than other systems. Initially, I believed the system to be able to take one design and create for other systems. Instead, it appears that the designer must still specify for other systems as well as the primary, just with the assistance of recorded actions. It might be nice to have a mix of this kind of system and a system which relies on artificial intelligence techniques to create a new environment.