ForgetMeNot: Active Reminder Entry Support for Adults with Acquired Brain Injury

Smartphone reminding apps can compensate for memory impairment after acquired brain injury (ABI). In the absence of a caregiver, users must enter reminders themselves if the apps are going to help them. Poor memory and apathy associated with ABI can result in failure to initiate such configuration behaviour and the benefits of reminder apps are lost. ForgetMeNot takes a novel approach to address this problem by periodically encouraging the user to enter reminders with unsolicited prompts (UPs). An in situ case study investigated the experience of using a reminding app for people with ABI and tested UPs as a potential solution to initiating reminder entry. Three people with severe ABI living in a post-acute rehabilitation hospital used the app in their everyday lives for four weeks to collect real usage data. Field observations illustrated how difficulties with motivation, insight into memory difficulties and anxiety impact reminder app use in a rehabilitation setting. Results showed that when 6 UPs were presented throughout the day, reminder-setting increased, showing UPs are an important addition to reminder applications for people with ABI. This study demonstrates that barriers to technology use can be resolved in practice when software is developed with an understanding of the issues experienced by the user group

Olfactory sense as an object of design practice: designing for an emotional experience in the smart technology sector

Despite the mainstreaming of smart devices, user abandonment of these devices remains an unresolved challenge. It is easy to come across users who have stopped using their smart devices, whether it be a smart watch or a voice assistant. This study explores the olfactory sense as an object of design practice, examining how designers can use the olfactory sense to design for an emotional experience between a user and a smart device. It takes a research through design approach and uses a design experiment as a research method. It aims to investigate how olfactory stimulus and its interaction effect with visual stimulus influence the user’s emotional response during the interaction with an AI chatbot and the user’s willingness to continue to use an AI chatbot in the future

Creative Probes, Proxy Feelers, and Speculations on Interactive Skin

This paper critically discusses the combination of creative and social research methods to generate a novel approach to explore the multimodal technoscape. This paper draws on an interdisciplinary exploratory case study on interactive skin—an emergent technology that augments and/or interacts with the skin. This paper shows how concepts from skin studies and the HCI literature can be used to draw on creative methods to think about and with the body. We describe the use of an online probe pack, a speculative research workshop and sensory research interviews using ‘proxy feelers’ to agitate the design space of interactive skin futures. We show how combining these methods provoked and expanded the scope of interactive skin from the technological to the sensory and the social. We discuss the opportunities and challenges of the research dialogues that this approach facilitated, make the case for creative methodological improvisation and exploration of emergent technologies and show how creative and social research methods can be combined to explore the interconnection between technology, society and design

An outline of some future research issues for internet pragmatics

Internet communication has evolved a lot since it first became popular in the early nineties of the last century. Pragmatics has also evolved and has tried to come to terms with the non-stop changes that internet is constantly producing in our lives and especially in how we communicate and interact. We are probably now at a stage of internet development in which we can make some sound predictions regarding certain challenges that a pragmatics of internet communication will have to face in the next few years to deal with the radical changes that are taking place in today’s internet use. This article will be devoted to listing some of these research issues and to discussing what pragmatics can do to address them accurately, ranging from those issues centred upon the interpretation of online discourses to those involving interfaces and their options for contextualisation

Are They Really Just Cosmetic? the Impact of Cosmetic Items on Fortnite\u27s Gameplay and Game Design

Cosmetic microtransactions, the act of paying for virtual items that customize certain parts of video games and virtual worlds such as skins that change the appearance of the avatar, are looked upon more favorably in the gaming community than performance-enhancing microtransactions, where one pays for virtual items that enhance the abilities of avatars or speed up the progression of the game. Video game industry spokespeople have adapted this rhetoric and emphasized that the microtransactions in their games are for cosmetic items only with no bearing on gameplay. However, the way players use cosmetic items in games and the way cosmetic items inspire certain game mechanics suggest that their function in games isn’t purely ornamental. Using Fortnite as a case study, I argue that cosmetic items can influence gameplay and that the lucrative aspects of cosmetic microtransactions influence game design. Players use cosmetic items not only to be fashionable, but as tools to fashion their own metagames - games within, around, and outside of games. Game companies know that players care about cosmetic items and avatar customization, and they design their games to make cosmetic items as desirable as possible. Cosmetic microtransactions help us understand that visual design is one of the biggest influences on gameplay and the business of games

Determinants of hostility in multiplayer online battle games called MOBAs

Cilj ovog istraživanja bio je utvrditi neke odrednice hostilnosti u timskim borbenim online video igrama zvanim MOBA (Massive online battle arena). Ispitivanje je provedeno na 215 igrača, metodom snježne grude. Upitniku se pristupalo online, putem poveznice koja je podijeljena u grupe na društvenim mrežama, specifično namijenjene igračima tih igara iz Hrvatske. U istraživanju su se koristile Skale uznemiravajućeg ponašanja u video igrama, Upitnik problematičnog online igranja, te Upitnik atribucija specifičan za igre. Svi mjerni instrumenti prevedeni su na hrvatski jezik. Rezultati su pokazali kako postoje dvije vrste hostilnosti – općenita i seksualna, te su obje povezane s ovisnošću o online igrama i hostilnošću drugih igrača. Ljudi ovisniji o online igrama su hostilniji prema drugim igračima, kao i oni koji su izjavljivali veću doživljenu hostilnost od strane drugih igrača, dok se povezanost između atribucijske dimenzije kontrole i hostilnosti nije pokazala značajnom. Provedena je i regresijska analiza u kojoj je jedini značajan prediktor za općenitu hostilnost bila doživljena općenita hostilnost, a za seksualnu doživljena seksualna hostilnost i ovisnost o igranju online igara. Ovakvi rezultati upućuju na važnost okruženja i ponašanja drugih tijekom igranja MOBA igara, jer kad jedan igrač postane hostilan, velika je šansa da će i drugi postati, te na taj način promijeniti iskustvo igranja. Također, treba pripaziti na količinu vremena koje se provodi igrajući online igre, jer nalazi pokazuju da su ovisniji ljudi i hostilniji.The goal of this research was to study hostility in MOBA games and some of its determinants. The research was conducted on 215 Massive online battle arena (MOBA) players, by snowball data gathering method. Questionnaire could be accessed online, via link shared to groups on social media, which were created by MOBA players from Croatia. In this study, we used Video Game Harassment Behavior Scale, Problematic Online Game Questionnaire and Game-Specific Attribution Questionnaire, all translated to croatian language. The results had shown that hostility can be divided into general and sexual, which are both correlated with online games addiction and hostility of other players. People addicted to online games are more hostile towards others, as well as people who experienced hostile behavior from other players, while correlation between attribution dimension of controllability and hostility was not significant. Regression analysis has shown that the only significant predictor of general hostility was experienced general hostility, while experienced sexual hostility and addiction to online games were predictors of sexual hostility. Results imply the importance of in-game environment and other players’ behavior; because if only one player becomes hostile towards someone, there is a big chance other players will become hostile and change the game experience. Also, time spent playing online games should be monitored, because, as researches show, more addicted individuals are also more hostile

ICS Materials

This present book covers a series of outstanding reputation researchers’ contributions on the topic of ICS Materials: a new class of emerging materials with properties and qualities concerning interactivity, connectivity and intelligence. In the general framework of ICS Materials’ domain, each chapter deals with a specific aspect following the characteristic perspective of each researcher. As result, methods, tools, guidelines emerged that are relevant and applicable to several contexts such as product, interaction design, materials science and many more

Electronic Textiles as Tangible Interface for Virtual Reality

This project investigates the development of a series of experimental, tangible, electronic textile (e-textile) interfaces to virtual reality (VR), using the approach of human-computer interaction (HCI). The e-textile interface is an unconventional controller that manipulates objects (3D visual asset) within virtual reality. This research has been framed within the context of HCI using a framework of Tangible User Interfaces (Ulmer and Ishii 2000). Through this research I explore how human touch relates to tangible objects and passive haptics. I also explore the overlap between visual experience and virtual reality by employing the theory of Haptic-Visual overlap (Fitzmaurice 1998), which deals with 3D volumetric perception of a physical object as well as the idea of Active Touch (Gibson 1962, Lederman and Klatzky 2009, Visell et al. 2016). Using the aforementioned theoretical frameworks and employing research through design methodology, I prototyped a series of explorative e-textile interfaces and virtual reality digital counterparts