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CapCHI Activities
Past Activities 2002-2003
- 2003/06/26 - Experimental Research in Human-Computer Interaction, thesis presentations by James Zdralek, Cassandra Holmes and Rachel White.
- 2003/06/12 - Marking Interfaces in the Emerging Climate of Ubiquitous Computing, A half-day tutorial on user interface and interactive product design by Bill Buxton.
- 2003/05/15 - Attentive User Interfaces, Interacting with Groups of Computers, presented by Roel Vertegaal.
- 2003/04/24 - CHILights 2003, Highlights from the CHI 2003 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
- 2003/03/27 - Perspectives on Accessibility, a panel discussion.
- 2003/02/30 - Judging the Visual Appeal of Web Pages, presented by Gary Fernandes and Ron Boring.
- 2003/01/30 - The Human Factors of Privacy Protection, presented by Andrew Patrick.
- 2002/12/05 - Annual Social & Interactive Holiday Event, A social & interactive gathering.
- 2002/11/21 - The Virtual Museum of Canada: Community Memories, presented by Kati Geber and Corey Timpson.
- 2002/10/22 - The CapCHI Interactionary; moderated by Mike Atyeo.
- 2002/09/26 - Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG); presented by Tom Hoferek.
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Experimental Research in Human-Computer Interaction
Thesis presentations by James Zdralek, Cassandra
Holmes, and Rachel White from the HOTLab at Carleton University
Thursday, June 26, 2003 at Adobe Systems Canada
Download poster (PDF file 114K)
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What?
Our final CapCHI meeting of the season featured thesis presentations by three MA students who are graduating from the Human-Oriented Technology Lab in the Department of Psychology at Carleton University:
White Space: How much nothing should there be?
Presented by James Zdralek
White space is the empty area between elements in a graphic composition. It is an important design tool used to separate and group parts of a web site. Recommendations about white space on the web have not distinguished the varied uses to which white space can be applied. To assist web designers, greater knowledge of the proper use of space is needed. The purpose of this study is to discern the extent that varying the amount of "gutter white space" used in the design of a web site affects the speed of in-page navigation. Success rate and time lapse were used as performance measures while varying the amount of white space between the groups of content items on several different web site designs. "Page navigation" was used as a basic task from which the effects of white space were separated into visual and motor responses by using a "link pointing" task and "visual search" task as well. Designers and non-designers were studied to determine whether expertise in a visual design skill affects the response to white space.
No differences were found, indicating that a change to the gutter white space on a web site affects neither designers nor non-designers. The separation of the tasks was reexamined concerning the size of the links chosen at random for the experiment. It was found that the separation of the task into components was a valid method of researching web navigation behavior but this exploration also uncovered a possible confound. The effect of target size on the visual search component of the task was opposed to the link-pointing component.
The lack of an effect on task time does not mean that crowding a website with as much information as possible is warranted. Judgments about the use of white space and aesthetics should be balanced with the density of information needed to attract the user without impeding usability.
Collecting Subjective Data in Remote Usability Testing
Presented by Cassandra Holmes
The effects of the presence or absence of an experimenter in remote usability testing, as well as the effects of participants’ input method (voice or typing) on the quality of data collected, was examined. Emphasis was placed on information that is normally spoken, such as thoughts, comments, and answers to questions, but consideration was also given to differences in the evaluation of the web site usability as a function of the remote testing conditions. Fifty participants were randomly assigned to one of five conditions: four experimental conditions, all of which were remote, or the local control condition. Differences among groups on test time, ease of use ratings, experimenter communications, and various aspects of the comments were examined. Based on the results of this study, if remote usability testing is to be used, the recommended method is attended/voice as opposed to attended/typing, unattended/voice, and unattended/typing.
Telepresence Goes to School: An Evaluation of the P.E.B.B.L.E.S.™
Videoconferencing System for Children
Presented by Rachel White
P.E.B.B.L.E.S.™ (Providing Education By Bringing the Learning Environment to Students) is a videoconferencing robot designed to reconnect ill children with their classmate and teachers. P.E.B.B.L.E.S. was developed by a research team at Ryerson University, led by Dr. Deborah Fels. You can learn more about P.E.B.B.L.E.S. at www.ryerson.ca/pebbles. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of PEBBLES on children's telepresence-related behaviours and perceptions in the classroom.
Ten laboratory sessions with four children each were conducted to compare PEBBLES against a standard desktop computer with videoconferencing capability. In each school-like session, one child participated remotely while the other children and a teacher participated from a classroom.
There were no differences between PEBBLES and the desktop system in number of glances made towards the remote child, amount of participation of the children, feelings of group-integration, or descriptions of the experience. There was a tendency for the remote children to speak less often, but for longer amounts of time, on average, than the children in the classroom.
Remote children in the PEBBLES and Desktop conditions raised their own hands equally often. However, remote children in the PEBBLES condition also used the PEBBLES hand the same number of times as they raised their own hand. Nearly all of hand-waving behaviours were successful at getting attention.
Implications for the design of PEBBLES and the measurement of telepresence were discussed.
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Who?
James Zdralek received a Bachelor degree in Industrial Design from Carleton University in 1995 and later worked for Nortel on contract, developing prototypes for usability testing. After moving to Hawaii as a side effect of some allergy medication, James then returned to Calgary where he taught Multimedia Programming in a technical college. Returning to Ottawa in 1999 he worked for NetPCS in a graphics and web capacity and then on to Nortel as a Rapid prototyper and Interaction Designer. James returned to University in 2001 after cut backs at Nortel. He currently runs a consulting company out of his home. http://www.deziner.com
Cassandra Holmes is a recent graduate of the Carleton Human-Oriented Technology Lab. She has just recently completed her M.A. Cassandra completed her Honours B.A. in psychology at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, in 1998 under the supervision of Dr. Stanley Sadava. Her topic dealt with alcohol expectancy theory. She has had a number of contracts in HCI related work, the two most recent being for the government of Canada.
Rachel White received her B.A. Hons. in Psychology from Carleton in 2000. Her area of research was child social development. She joined the Human-Oriented Technology Laboratory in 2000 as a Master's student. Since then, she has worked on HCI-related projects with AmikaNow! Corporation, Mitel Networks, NRC and Carleton University. Her love of children inspired her Master's thesis, which examines how children respond to technology.
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Marking Interfaces in the Emerging Climate of
Ubiquitous Computing
A half-day tutorial on user interface and interactive
product design by Bill Buxton
Thursday, June 12, 2003 from 11:30 AM to 4:30 PM at Restaurant International
at Algonquin College Hospitality Centre.
Download poster (PDF file 128K) (includes a map)
Map to Algonquin College Hospitality Centre, Woodroffe Campus (GIF file, 27K)
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Abstract
Despite the continuous technological progression along the path of smaller, faster and cheaper, the important changes around computation are human: who is doing what, where, when, why, how, and at what cost (measured in effort and risk, as well as dollars). The human perspective, far more than the (albeit enabling) technological one, dictates that computation is never going to be the same, and demands that we change our old ways of building technology-based products.
In the emerging technology of wireless, embedded computers, reactive environments, portable and wearable computation, etc., the graphical user interface, with its icons, mouse, keyboard and display, is going to become ever less important, and an ever smaller part of our computational experience.
The future depends on developing different models of usage that are appropriate for the people, contexts, and tasks that they are intended to serve.
Have no illusions. In half a day, this tutorial is not going to provide some magic bullet that answers all of the problems facing us. But what it will do is explore one aspect of interaction which we can be relatively sure will be an important component of our interaction with computer-based devices in the future: what I choose to call marking interfaces, but what other have called pen-based, pen centric, paper-like, etc.
I have my own term not just to be different, but because I believe that there is a different spin that can be put on this class of interaction - a spin, which builds on the past, and yet anticipates some of the key issues going forward.
So, the tutorial will be partially historical, and partially (hopefully) well argued speculation.
Through ample illustration and case studies, what it will do is provide the participant with a good understanding of the dimensions of the design space that may be meaningful in their future work. Along the way, there will be a side conversation about the process of user interface design, itself.
This tutorial is intended for anyone involved in user interface and product design. It requires only interest and common sense as a prerequisite. It will be of value to those with a technical background, such as computer scientists and electrical engineers, as well as those from the design arts, such as industrial design, web design. It will also be of interest to those who simply want some different perspectives on future directions of technology, such as those in marketing, or with product management responsibilities.
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Who
Bill Buxton is a Canadian designer, researcher, teacher and writer. However, he began his career as a musician. In the late 60's and early 70's he became deeply involved in making music with synthesizers and computers, which introduced him to the world of technology, with all of its potential and all of its pitfalls.
Frustration being the mother of invention, he increasingly turned his attention to understanding better ways to design, and interact with computers. His work caught the eye of researcher's at Xerox PARC, which led him increasingly into the world of research, as well as extending the scope of his interests beyond music.
From 1994 until December 2002, he was Chief Scientist of Alias|Wavefront, and from 1995, its parent company SGI Inc. He is currently Principal of his own boutique design and consulting firm, Buxton Design, where his time is split between working for clients, and finishing a long-delayed book. He is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto.
In 1995, Buxton became the third recipient of the Canadian Human-Computer Communications Society Award for contributions to research in computer graphics and human-computer interaction, and was given the New Media Visionary of the Year Award at the 2000 Canadian New Media Awards. In 2002, he was elected to the CHI Academy, and Time Magazine named him one of the top 5 designers in Canada. In 2001, The Hollywood Reporter named him one of the 10 most influential innovators in Hollywood.
More information on Buxton and his work can be found at: www.billbuxton.com.
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Attentive User Interface
Interacting with Groups
of Computers
Presented by Roel Vertegaal from the Human Media Lab at Queen’s
University
Thursday, May 15, 2003 at NRC-CNRC IIT Montreal Road South Campus, Building
M-50
Download poster (PDF file 104K)
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What?
Moore’s Law for user interfaces would state that the number of computers per user will double every two years. In the past four decades, we have moved from many users sharing a single mainframe computer through command line interfaces, to a single user with a personal computer using a Graphical User Interface (GUI). Today, increasing numbers of users are surrounded by multiple ubiquitous computing devices, such as BlackBerries, Palm Pilots and cell phones. As our devices connect to a global wireless network, we become members of a 24-hour global society Ð one where we are always connected, and always on. Such benefit comes at a cost of being available Ð at any time or place. Rather than mitigate this cost, our computing devices currently exacerbate it, as their user interfaces were designed to act in isolation, monopolizing user attention.
In this presentation, Roel discussed how Attentive User Interfaces may make devices more sociable and efficient in use by taking cues from the turn taking process employed in human group conversations. By observing eye contact with users, devices may determine the focus of their users and his preferred channels of interruption. By continuously modeling the user's attention, devices may understand when to await their turn and leave the floor to others. By taking the foreground only after progressive signaling, devices may become less disruptive. Several prototypes recently developed in the ::human media lab:: at Queen's University in Canada were presented. These included eye contact sensors and ecsglasses; eyepliances that contextualize speech recognition on eyecontact ; eyeproxies: robot eyes that communicate device attention; auramirror, a mirror that visualizes user attention; and gaze-2, an attentive video conferencing system.
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Who?
Roel Vertegaal is a professor in Human-Computer Interaction and director of the Human Media Lab at Queen’s University, Canada. He holds degrees in Computer Science from Bradford University, UK, and Twente University, The Netherlands. Roel also holds a degree in Music from Utrecht University, and spent time as a visual artist and photographer at the Vrije Academie, The Hague. His current interest lies in the psychology and design of nonverbal computers. For more info, see http://www.hml.queensu.ca.
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CHILights 2003
Highlights from the CHI 2003 Conference on Human
Factors in Computing Systems
Thursday, April 24, 2003 at NRC-CNRC IIT Montreal Road South Campus, Building
M-50
A diverse range of presenters from the local HCI community will present their own personal view of the CHI2003 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, highlights and lowlights in research and practice.
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The CHI 2003 Conference was held in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, April 05-10, 2003. The annual CHI conference is the leading international forum for the exchange of ideas and information about human-computer interaction (HCI).
For more information about CHI 2003, please visit the conference web site: http://www.acm.org/sigchi/chi2003
CHI2004 will be held in Vienna, Austria, April 24-29, 2004.
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About the Presenters
Dr. Andrew Patrick, a Senior Scientist at the National Research Council of Canada.
Mike Atyeo is Director of Neo Insight, a Design Services company.
Patricia Trbovich is a recent graduate of the Human-Oriented Technology Lab at Carleton University.
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Perspectives on Accessibility
A Panel Discussion
Thursday, March 27, 2003 at Nortel Skyline
Download poster (PDF file 137K)
About the Talk
Accessibility of information systems – especially for persons with disabilities – seems to have recently appeared on everyone’s radar screen. This is particularly true for those involved in the field of usability. The purpose of this presentation / panel discussion was to help to bring awareness to this community of some of the issues that surround this field. What is accessibility? Why is accessibility important… and to whom? When should accessibility be considered? How should it be ‘done’? All four panel participants have expertise in some or all areas of IM/IT accessibility – in fact, two of them also have disabilities. Through demonstration, presentation and discussion (including the audience) it is hoped that, regardless of each person’s knowledge or experience level in this topic, that everyone will come away with a more informed and broader perspective on accessibility.
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About the Panel
John Foliot is an Internet consultant, web site developer, and corporate trainer, who has been creating and managing web sites for over 7 years. Currently he consults as a member of the WATS testing team, advising and recommending government departments on issues of web accessibility. In the past year John has completed an in-depth web audit for the International Business Branch at Industry Canada focusing on Accessibility issues and Common Look and Feel compliance, as well as a similar Accessibility Audit for the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship. He has also developed and delivered seminars on Accessibility and Common Look and Feel for the Canadian Space Agency and the Supreme Court of Canada. In November 2002, John was invited to become an accessibility advisor to the Board of Directors of the Hiwatha Software Company, developers of the Award Winning AccVerify suite of compliancy testing tools.
Paul Girvin is an Accessibility Specialist with 15+ years extensive consulting & advising experience in adaptive technology, accessibility and disability related issues for government, education and private industry. Engaged as a demonstrator/facilitator for (WATS), Website Accessibility Testing Services, since its inception in February 2000.,evaluating 300 government websites for accessibility. Has been using voice recognition technology and involved in Internet and pre Internet activity since 1987. Graduated Carleton University, has assisted organizations like Bell Canada, Neil Squire Foundation and the Federal Government with technology/public relations projects.
Rodney Carpenter
Bill Shackleton
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Judging the Visual Appeal of Web Pages
Thursday, February 27, 2003 at Nortel Skyline
Download poster (PDF file 110K)
About the Talk
There is currently no easy, reliable way to determine the visual appeal of Web pages. Yet, the visual appeal of e-commerce Web pages may influence perceived usability, customer satisfaction, and trust of the vendor, among other factors. This presentation highlighted findings from recent research at Carleton University's HOT Lab on judging the visual appeal of Web pages. Gary Fernandes gave an overview of his research on the visual factors that make home pages appealing and presented a technique to identify appealing Web pages. Ron Boring summarized his research on increasing the reliability of visual appeal judgments. Both speakers outlined ongoing work to develop a general-purpose tool for the evaluation of the visual appeal of e-commerce sites.
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About the Speaker
Gary Fernandes recently completed his MA degree in Psychology at Carleton University's HOT Lab under the supervision of Professor Dick Dillon. Gary's thesis work on visual appeal represents the culmination of research started while he was a usability intern at Microsoft Mobile Devices. He has published research on judging the visual appeal of Web pages and on designing usable music hardware. He is currently employed as a research assistant through the HOT Lab.
Ron Boring is currently completing his PhD in Cognitive Science at Carleton University under the supervision of Professor Robert West. Ron's dissertation concerns the theory and application of constrained scaling, a novel way to increase the reliability of human scaling judgments. Ron is a regular contributor to the CHI and Human Factors and Ergonomics Society conferences. He was Co-Chair for Student Posters at CHI 2002 and is the Co-Chair for Demonstrations at CHI 2004. Ron is a member of Carleton's HOT Lab and Centre for Applied Cognitive Research.
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The Human Factors of Privacy Protection
Thursday, January 30, 2003 at Nortel Skyline
Download poster (PDF file 106K)
Download presentation slides (PDF file 850K)
About the Talk
The presentation described current research directed at building an agent-based service that people will trust with sensitive, personal information and one that operates according to privacy-protection requirements coming from legislation and best practices. The research has involved two approaches: developing system design guidelines for building trustworthy agents through a review of e-commerce trust research, and engineering “usable compliance” with privacy legislation and principles. The results of these research activities were presented, and a prototype agent-control interface was demonstrated.
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About the Speaker
Dr. Andrew Patrick is a Senior Scientist at the National Research Council of Canada. He is currently conducting research on human-computer interface issues for trustworthy software agents and the human factors of security systems. Prior to joining NRC in 2001, Dr. Patrick worked at Nortel Networks where he managed research and development groups focused on Voice Over IP (VoIP) quality, and conducted field research to evaluated new product and service concepts. Dr. Patrick holds a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Western Ontario.
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Annual Social & Interactive Holiday Event
A social & interactive gathering
Thursday, December 05, 2002 at MacLaren's
What?
Friends of CapCHI and their guests joined us for billiards, finger foods and drinks.
Where and When?
The meeting took place on Thursday, December 05, 2002 from 7:00 - 10:00 PM at
MacLaren's on Elgin
301 Elgin Street
Ottawa, Ontario
(613) 236-2766
www.maclarens.com
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The Virtual Museum of Canada: Community Memories
A Case Study
Thursday, November 21, 2002 at Nortel Skyline
Download poster (PDF file 106K)
Download presentation slides (PDF file 4448K)
Visit The Virtual Museum of Canada.
About the Talk
Community Memories exhibits form a unique on-line portrait of Canada's history, explore subjects as varied as a town's main industry, an historical event or a way of life, and draw from both an institution's permanent collection and the personal photographs, documents and oral reminiscences of local citizens.
This presentation aimed to develop a detailed understanding of the issues concerning putting design theories into practice, the realities of content, architecture, visual decisions, and ways the design may determine engagement and persuasion factors for the creation of new horizons for information, communication and learning activities.
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About the Speaker
Kati Geber and Corey Timpson work with Heritage Canada's Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN).
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The CapCHI Interactionary
October 22, 2002 at Nortel Skyline
Download poster (PDF file 118K)
The Game
(the interactionary explained)
The "Interactionary" is a special event in which 3 or 4 design teams work for a short time on an interaction design challenge in real time, in a competitive and fun format. It provides the participating teams with the opportunity to contribute to the CapCHI community, as well as an opportunity to show off their design process and skills in an event that is sure to draw a big audience and generate a buzz! The session will be entertaining and educational, demonstrating 'live' some of the less tangible aspects of team design processes, as well as the more formal elements.
Participating Teams
The participating teams were from the following organizations:
- Carleton University
- Cognos Incorporated
- Corel Corporation
The Rules
At the Interactionary, each team was given 15 minutes to work on-stage on a design challenge. A panel of judges highlighted and discussed what they observed as the most interesting and important aspects of each team's approach. Each team was scored on a number of categories, including outcome, team communication, and design process. There were rewards for all teams! The audience was also polled for discussion and comment, and saw how their views compare with those of the panel. After the Interactionary, the teams were expected to assist in providing a permanent record of the event.
A good set of information and resources, including images and records of previous Interactionaries around the world, may be found at: http://www.uiweb.com/dsports/default.htm.
About the Moderator
Mike Atyeo is Director of Neo Insight, a Design Services company. Prior to this, he spent 15 years as an Interaction Designer and manager, providing product and service design for telecommunications companies in the U.K. and Canada. He led the corporate usability program and implemented user-centered design process improvement at British Telecom, and prototyped innovative service concepts at Nortel Networks. Mike has degrees in Psychology and Computer Science, and has published and presented extensively. He will co-chair the Interactionary session at the CHI 2003 conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
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Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
September 26, 2002 at Nortel Skyline
Download poster (PDF file 82K)
View the presentation slides (PPT file, 708K)
About the Speaker
Tom Hoferek has been dedicated to improving the user experience since graduating from the school of Industrial Design at Carleton University in 1990. Early projects dealing with environmental graphics and institutional signage required focus on issues of wayfinding. He found that wayfinding concepts and experience transferred naturally to software user interface design when he began working on signage projects for clients requiring custom solutions that included software components. The scarcity of usable software interfaces at the time was shameful. The challenges and opportunities presented in the area of software user interface design were plenty and Tom began to focus exclusively on GUI design in 1995. As a user experience designer at Corel, his role today requires him to address not just the GUI of a product, but to be involved in all aspects of the user experience design.
About the Talk
This presentation was an introduction to Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) for those involved with, or interested in, interface design and the software user experience. SVG is a vector graphics format that is a web ready, open standard with great potential to become a key graphics format for designers and end users alike.
Starting with a definition of SVG and a summary of the current state of the technology, the talk highlighted some of the exciting opportunities that SVG presents for displaying graphics and graphical information. Included were some basics concerning the fundamentals of working with SVG; things like its structure, its capabilities and limitations, the principles behind how it works. The presentation concluded with a discussion of some samples, prototypes and some forward looking ideas suggesting the possibilities that SVG may have to offer.
Some interesting links on SVG...
- http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/Overview.htm8 (the SVG specification and SVG news)
- http://www.zvon.org/xxl/svgReference/Output/index.html (technical reference)
- http://zvon.org/HowTo/Output/category_SVG.html (technical reference with samples)
- http://www.nokiko.com/svg/default.asp (various SVG content)
- http://www.pinkjuice.com/svg/ (samples)
- http://www.kevlindev.com/ (samples, code, reference)
- http://www.svgspider.com/default.svg (sample SVG site)
- http://expositions.bnf.fr/bd/svg/index.html (SVG-built site)
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