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CapCHI Activities
Past Activities 2003-2004
- 2004/06/15 - Experimental Research in Human-Computer Interaction, project presentations by students from the HOTLab at Carleton University.
- 2004/05/27 - CHILights 2004, Highlights from the CHI 2004.
- 2004/04/15 - QoE-based Decision Making for Telecom Services, presented by Leigh Thorpe from Nortel.
- 2004/03/25 - The CapCHI Interactionary; moderated by Adam Bronsther from the HOTLab at Carleton University.
- 2004/02/23 - Battle of the Bulge: The usability of fisheye visualizations, presented by Dr. Carl Gutwin from the University of Saskatchewan.
- 2004/01/29 - Advocating Humour in Interactive System Design, presented by Claire Dormann, HOTLab at Carleton University.
- 2003/12/06 - December Annual Holiday Social Event 2003.
- 2003/12/04 - Case Studies of HCI Projects, from Government, Consulting, and University.
- 2003/10/30 - A Survey of Canada's HCI Community, presented by Janice Singer, NRC.
- 2003/09/25 - A Panel and Discussion on the State of HCI, moderated by Andrew Patrick, with panelists Gitte Lindgaard, Helen Maskery and Scott McEwen.
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Experimental Research in Human-Computer Interaction
Project presentations by Sheila Narasimhan, Patricia Trbovich, Greg Dunn,
and Adam Bronsther from the HOTLab at Carleton University
Tuesday June 15, 2004 at Adobe Systems Canada
Download poster (PDF file 110K)
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What?
Our final CapCHI meeting of the season featured project presentations by four students from the Human-Oriented Technology Lab in the Department of Psychology at Carleton University:
Activity Theory and Roles
Feature Bundling for Wireless Technologies
Presented by Sheila Narasimhan
Abstract:
This research situates a user needs analysis method, called Strategic
User Needs Analysis (SUNA) in an earlier study (Narasimhan, 2001), within
the framework of Activity Theory (AT). It tests the suitability of an
AT framework for classifying work roles for the purpose of studying the
relationship of these roles to the uptake of PDA features by two strategic
market segments, namely mobile and non-mobile professionals. Mobile professionals
work outside their office for at least 30% of their working hours while
non-mobile professionals spend less than 10% of their working hours outside
their office. These two groups were considered early adopters of PDAs
in an earlier study (Narasimhan, 2001).
A field test was conducted on 24 users using a 2X2 ANOVA design to compare mobile with non-mobile professionals as well as comparing Palm Pilot users with Handspring PDA users. In this study, SUNA used an automatic log of feature usage as a springboard to jog participants' memory with respect to the context of usage of the two features they use most often. Information concerning their work roles and the ways they used the PDA features was examined along with their nominations for additional features. The value of a generic role classification to investigate strategic questions pertaining to the development of new products and feature bundling is discussed. The results suggest that AT is a suitable theoretical framework for SUNA. Specifically, results concerning the way roles interface with PDA features and how role-based requirements are shaped by the rules and praxis of the communities in which these roles operate are in line with the predictions of Activity theory. The findings further suggest that SUNA is capable of predicting subtle differences in PDA feature usage, and that subjective estimates of the features used are quite accurate, but frequency-of- use estimates are not when the sample of features is small.
Online Auctions
The Impact of Context Upon Formation of Trust
Presented by Patricia Trbovich
Abstract:
Establishment of trust is critical to Electronic-Commerce (E-Commerce).
This research examines the primary antecedents for development of trust
in an online vendor, and subsequent intentions to purchase. Specifically,
this study examines the impact of contextual factors upon formation of
trust and intentions to purchase through online auctions.
Symbols of E-commerce Trust
Do Third Party Branding Icons Increase Perceived
Trustworthiness of an E-commerce
Presented by Greg Dunn
Abstract:
Third party branding icons are symbols that are:
- placed on a given e-commerce website,
- provided by a separate business entity (third party), and
- are designed to reassure consumers that the security or business practices of that e-commerce website meet set criteria.
This study investigates the efficacy of third party branding icons on consumer’s trust. Sixty-four undergraduate participants were asked to view eight different website homepages. Homepages varied along four levels of third party branding icons. Participants were asked to provide a trust rating, either questionnaire or investment of money, for each homepage. Results are discussed in terms of familiarity, recognition, and effectiveness of third party branding icons on consumer trust, as well as differences between trust measures.
A Comparison of Audio-Visual Animated Lessons to Equivalent Static Graphics
Presented by Adam Bronsther
Abstract:
This study replicated tutorial materials created by Mayer et al., (Mayer,
Heiser, & Lonn, 2001b) to compare animated graphics to static graphics
containing narrations, text, and narrations plus text. Participants were
90 primarily undergraduate students. Participants viewed a lesson on the
formation of lightning and were asked to answer questions that measured
factual learning and transfer. Animations with narrations plus text resulted
in better factual learning performance than animations with text only.
Animations with narrations enhanced transfer performance, but not factual
learning, when compared to static graphics with narrations, but this finding
must be interpreted with caution. Participants assigned to text only conditions
spent significantly longer waiting at the end of lesson segments than
participants in narrations only conditions. Possible interpretations of
the results, methodological issues and future research were discussed.
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CHILights 2004
Highlights from the CHI 2004 Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems
Thursday May 27, 2004 at Adobe Systems Canada
Download poster (PDF file 107K)
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What?
Members of the HOTLab at Carleton University presented their own personal view of the CHI2004 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, which included highlights, lowlights, trends, and observations.
The CHI 2004 Conference was held in Vienna, Austria in April, 2004. 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 2004, visit the conference web site at www.chi2004.org.
| | Top | Who?Dr. Andrew Patrick, a Senior Scientist at the National Research Council of Canada and an Adjunct Research Professor at the Human-Oriented Technology Lab at Carleton University. Dr. Dick Dillon is a professor emeritus at the Human-Oriented Technology Lab at Carleton University. Michelle Gauthier is a graduate student at the Human-Oriented Technology Lab at Carleton University. |
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CHI 2005 will be held in Portland, OR, USA from April 02-07, 2005.
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QoE-based Decision Making for Telecom Services
Thursday April 15, 2004 at Adobe Systems Canada
Download poster (PDF file 94K)
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What?
Quality of Experience underlies product acceptance and user satisfaction. How do telecom manufacturers determine QoE? What methods are used, and how do the results influence decisions about product features and specifications? Using telephony voice as the main example, this talk reviewed how behavioural methods have been used to explore factors underlying QoE, and how our success with telephone voice can be used as a model for similar work on other services. A generic model of service quality and an approach to address QoE in an arbitrary service was presented, followed by an open discussion and free exchange of ideas with the audience.
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Who?
Leigh Thorpe is Senior Advisor with Service Quality and End-to-End Performance, under Nortel's Chief Technology Officer. She joined BNR in 1986, and has worked on subjective quality and user engineering in wireline and wireless systems for over 16 years. She holds a B.Sc. in Physics and a Ph.D. in Behavioral Science.
Leigh has directed subjective evaluations of a wide variety of product designs, proposed audio features, new product concepts, and customer networks, as well as standardization tests for TIA, ITU, and ETSI for emerging terminal and transmission technologies. She acts as a consultant to design groups and Nortel account teams, helping obtain the best possible user performance for Nortel products and installations. Her work has variously addressed voice performance in TDM, TDMA, CDMA, GSM, CT-2, DECT, ISDN, ATM, and IP technologies. Leigh has led the Nortel Subjective Assessment laboratory to world-class status in subjective evaluation for telecommunications.
Leigh's work on audio quality led her to work with RF and EMC engineers searching for a solution to the problem of interference on hearing aids from digital wireless terminals. In 1996, she was appointed to represent Nortel on the Telecommunications Access Advisory Committee (TAAC), which developed recommendations for US Federal Government agencies concerning the implementation of accessibility requirements for disabled users (Section 255) called for in the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
In 1997, Leigh received the Nortel Wireless Networks President's Award for Quality for her contributions toward delivering superior end-to-end speech quality to our customers.
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The CapCHI Interactionary
The Second Annual CapCHI Interactionary
Moderated by Adam Bronsther from the HOTLab at Carleton University
Thursday March 25, 2004 at Adobe Systems Canada
Download poster (PDF file 91K)
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:
- HOTLab at 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
Adam Bronsther from the HOTLab at Carleton University.
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Battle of the Bulge
The usability of fisheye visualizations
Monday February 23, 2004 at Adobe Systems Canada
Download poster (PDF file 89K)
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What?
Although fisheye views and other distortion-oriented presentations have long been showpieces of information visualization, they have not found their way into common usage. A few minutes' experience with one of these systems suggests a reason why: although they are visually striking, they are also strikingly awkward. In this talk, Dr. Carl Gutwin reviewed a research program that set out to determine whether fisheye views can be usable tools for viewing information and interacting with data, or whether they are a hopeless case, an infoviz trinket that should be returned to the mantelpiece whenever the real work starts.
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Who?
Dr. Carl Gutwin has undergraduate degrees in English literature and Computer Science, and received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Calgary where he worked on issues of group awareness in real-time distributed groupware. Dr. Gutwin is currently Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Saskatchewan, and holds a Canada Research Chair in Next-Generation Groupware. His research covers a variety of topics in HCI and CSCW, including information visualization, the usability of distortion-oriented visualizations, groupware architectures, groupware performance, and the development of discount evaluation techniques for multi-user systems.
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Advocating Humour in Interactive
System Design
Thursday January 29, 2004 at Adobe Systems Canada
Download poster (PDF file 89K)
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What?
This talk focused on the benefits of introducing humour in the design of interactive systems. The presentation referred specifically to visual humour. The function of humour was first highlighted. Humour supports different aspects of interactive systems: persuasion, social presence, pleasure and well-being. The role of humour in interactive systems was illustrated through two cases: web designs and interactive agents. The use of humour is not a minor consideration if we wish interactive systems to be effective and enjoyable. Humour enhances interaction for example by arousing attention, provoking curiosity, or giving emotional information. Humour can also support conversation between ECAs and users. To conclude different issues pertaining to the development of humour in interactive systems were presented. It was hoped with this talk to stimulate work in this area.
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Who?
Claire Dormann recently joined the HotLab at Carleton University. She has a background in Psychology and in Computer Science with a specialisation in Computer Graphics. Her PhD is related to Human-Computer Interaction, Design and Rhetoric.
Since her PhD, she has worked in Denmark and the Netherlands as a Professor assistant. She has also participated in two main projects: Electronic Brokerage and Multimedia in the Home. Lately, she became involved in a project that was concerned with Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs) evaluation. She is also working on affective experiences. New projects concern Creativity and Collaborative Design and the investigation of Individual Differences (i.e. in relation with emotion).
Claire's research interests are Home technology, ECAs, and Affective Applications. More specific topics include Computer mediated Persuasion, Emotions and Usability, as well as Humour.
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December Annual Holiday Social Event 2003
A Curling Event at the Navy Curling Club (located
right beside Dow's Lake Pavilion)
Saturday December 06, 2003
| Download poster (PDF file 78K) View Photo Gallery | Top | What?A CapCHI curling event was organized for this year’s Annual Holiday Social Event. So, not only did we have drinking and merriment, but there was curling in it as well! This event was organized to include students from Carleton University’s HOTLab. CapCHI sponsored the cost of the ice time and food. Photos courtesy of Mark Game.
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Case Studies of HCI Projects
from Government, Consulting, and University
Thursday December 04, 2003 at Adobe Systems Canada
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What?
The November meeting featured a series of mini-presentations on HCI projects from representatives in government, consulting and university. An objective of the presentations was to provide a cross section of the HCI projects in these practices and the project processes involved. The presentations were followed by Q & A and short discussion.
Slides Presentations:
View
presentation slides, government (PDF file, 201K)
View
presentation slides, university (PDF file, 23K)
View
presentation slides, consulting (PDF file, 138K)
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Who?
Andrew Patrick (government):
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.
More information about the IIT at the NRC:
http://iit-iti.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/
Dr. Richard F. Dillon (university):
Dr. Richard F. Dillon is a professor emeritus, who is one of the founders
and former head of CURE (Computer User Research and Evaluation –
former name of the HOT Lab) at Carleton
University.
More information about the HOTLab at Carleton University:
http://www.carleton.ca/hotlab/
Kevin Grignon (consulting):
Kevin Grignon is the President of Pixsol Interaction.
Founded in 1999, Pixsol Interaction is an Ottawa-based product design
consultancy that specializes in the areas of graphic user interface and
usability design. Clients benefit from his many years of experience in
the creation of products and services designed for ease-of-use. Working
with numerous organizations as both an internal resource, and as a consultant,
Kevin brings perspective to the strategic planning and tactical implementation
of usability investments.
More information about Pixsol Interaction:
http://www.pixsol.ca
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A Survey of Canada's HCI Community
Thursday October 30, 2003 at Adobe Systems Canada
Download poster (PDF file 95K)
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What?
The HCI program of the National Research Council undertook a Canada wide survey of HCI researchers and professionals. This talk briefly reviewed the results highlighting the strengths, weaknesses, and needs of the community. Suggestions were made about how to respond to the needs. At the end of the talk, the audience was be asked to join a discussion with respect to where to go from here.
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Who?
Dr. Janice Singer currently heads the HCI research program at the National Research Council Canada, a group of nine researchers investigating collaboration, privacy, and 3D navigation from a human-centered perspective. She is additionally a member of the Software Engineering Group. Dr. Singer’s research interests include collaboration, learning, methodology, and ethics. She has served on the NRC’s research ethics board for three years. Dr. Singer received her Ph.D. in Cognition and Learning from the Learning Research and Development Center of the University of Pittsburgh. Before coming to the NRC, she worked for Tektronix, IBM, and Xerox PARC.
More information about the IIT at the NRC:
http://iit-iti.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/
Update Announcing the release of the Canadian HCI Profile following the survey conducted on HCI in Canada.
The survey can be downloaded at: http://www.andrewpatrick.ca/hciprofile/index.html
A Yahoo! group has been created to discuss the results of the survey, network amongst Canadian HCI professionals, and keep in contact with what's happening in HCI in Canada. As you'll see from the survey results, we could all benefit from learning more about each other, and possibly organizing ourselves.
To participate in the Yahoo! group, you must be a member of the group. To do so, push the <Join this Group> button at the top of the webpage listed below. If you are not already a member of Yahoo, you will have to join Yahoo! to join the group. When you push the <Join this Group> button, there will be instructions for doing so. The group includes a moderated email list (with several options for receiving mail) among other community related features. The survey itself and the report are also available for download via the Yahoo! group.
The web address is:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/canadahci/
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A Panel and Discussion on the State of HCI
Thursday, September 25, 2003 at Adobe Systems Canada
Download poster (PDF file 84K)
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What?
Our first CapCHI meeting of the season featured a panel and discussion on the state of human computer interaction.
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Who?
Gitte Lindgaard heads the HOT Lab at Carleton University as the NSERC/Nortel/Mitel/CITO/OCRI Chair in User-Centred Design, a position that was established in 2000. Visit the HOTLab at www.carleton.ca/hotlab/index.html.
Helen Maskery is President and founding partner of usability design consultancy Maskery & Associates. Visit Maskery & Associates at www.maskery.ca.
Scott McEwen is currently the Director of the User Experience team at Cognos Incorporated, which he founded in 1996. He has 18 years experience in HCI field (11 years at BNR/Nortel). Scott is a graduate from Carleton's CURE lab (BA 1981, MA 1985). Visit Cognos Incorporated at www.cognos.com.
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