Contextualizing information enhances the experience of environmental art.

Environmentally themed art is increasingly addressed in research as a means to raise awareness of environmental problems and motivate proenvironmental behavior. However, as researchers begin to systematically study environmental art, influencing factors must be addressed—for example, the effect of presenting contextualizing information. In the present study, 123 participants saw an environmental artwork with or without contextualizing information in a between-subjects design and rated the artwork on various variables regarding its aesthetic value and proenvironmental impact. Additionally, eye movement was recorded using mobile eye-tracking glasses to gain insight into the visual processing of the artwork. The results showed that information presentation increased personal meaning, which was in turn associated with increased liking, interest, and emotional responses. The average duration of fixations was shorter for participants in the information group, indicating easier processing possibly due to the guidance of the provided information. However, information had no effects on participants’ proenvironmental intentions and behavior. Taken together, the results strongly suggest that both researchers and practitioners should be taking the effect of contextualizing information into account when exhibiting environmental art, because it can impact a variety of relevant factors

Supporting Collaborative Health Tracking in the Hospital: Patients' Perspectives

The hospital setting creates a high-stakes environment where patients' lives depend on accurate tracking of health data. Despite recent work emphasizing the importance of patients' engagement in their own health care, less is known about how patients track their health and care in the hospital. Through interviews and design probes, we investigated hospitalized patients' tracking activity and analyzed our results using the stage-based personal informatics model. We used this model to understand how to support the tracking needs of hospitalized patients at each stage. In this paper, we discuss hospitalized patients' needs for collaboratively tracking their health with their care team. We suggest future extensions of the stage-based model to accommodate collaborative tracking situations, such as hospitals, where data is collected, analyzed, and acted on by multiple people. Our findings uncover new directions for HCI research and highlight ways to support patients in tracking their care and improving patient safety

Using online primary sources to foster historical thinking

This paper describes an ongoing initiative to enhance learner digital literacies by fostering historical thinking using digitized primary sources. Engaging with primary sources is central to the development of authentic critical historical thinking. In the past thirty years, millions of primary sources have been digitized by libraries and archives and has created a wealth of rich content for historians and history students. However the sheer scale of sources material, websites and questions about source quality make it a challenging research environment for learners. Based on current tutor and student feedback, additional support material that could increase access to these valuable open educational resources would be well received. The initiative is creating a set of learning materials which will support the use of online primary sources and enhance the learner experience. These learning materials will support flexible/off-campus learners and their development of research skills in the six BA in Humanities (Open Education) history modules. The learning materials are comprised of: An interactive guide to online primary sources An accompanying social bookmarking web page- Diigo An online tutorial to practise finding, evaluating and using online primary source

The Hankie Probe: A Materialistic Approach to Mobile UX Research

Mobile user experience (UX) research can benefit from unexplored opportunities from theory and practice. Contemporary sociology has developed sophisticated understandings of mobilities that can expand the scope of mobile HCI research. At the same time, we need to extend the scope of mobile experience beyond its current main foci on the portable device and moments of experience. We report the interim results of exploratory pilot studies of a fabric based probe that has been developed to extend the scope of mobile experience research both theoretically and in the range of insights that can be collected in mobile user studies. We report our initial experiences with a 'hankie' (handkerchief) probe that aims to gather rich usage and experience insights for early stages of design

Sonic souvenirs: exploring the paradoxes of recorded sound for family remembering

Many studies have explored social processes and technologies associated with sharing photos. In contrast, we explore the role of sound as a medium for social reminiscing. We involved 10 families in recording 'sonic souvenirs' of their holidays. They shared and discussed their collections on their return. We compared these sounds with their photo taking activities and reminiscences. Both sounds and pictures triggered active collaborative reminiscing, and attempts to capture iconic representations of events. However sounds differed from photos in that they were more varied, familial and creative. Further, they often expressed the negative or mundane in order to be 'true to life', and were harder to interpret than photos. Finally we saw little use of pure explanatory narrative. We reflect on the relations between sound and family memory and propose new designs on the basis of our findings, to better support the sharing and manipulation of social sounds

The Viral Concept: the Winning Ticket of the Romanian Online Advertising Industry

The connection between the steady development of the Internet in Romania in the last five years, as channel of transmitting the marketing message, and the viral concept, as method of transmitting the message, may become the winning ticket for the Romanian online advertising market. Thus, in the current socio-economic context, any company who wishes to be successful in the virtual space cannot ignore the viral marketing techniques for several reasons. Firstly, we are talking about the profile of Internet users who tend to constitute a new social group. Secondly, we are talking about the thirst for information. And, last but not least, we are talking about the appetite for online chatting, statistics showing that 62% of the Roma-nian Internet users consider it a very "savory" information channel. This article tries to explain, in brief, what viral marketing is, which are its peculiarities, advantages, risks, as well as the limitations of its use, and which the strategies of a viral marketing campaign are. We will illustrate by giving successful examples from the Romanian online market.viral marketing, Internet, promotion, campaign.