Methodological development

Book description: Human-Computer Interaction draws on the fields of computer science, psychology, cognitive science, and organisational and social sciences in order to understand how people use and experience interactive technology. Until now, researchers have been forced to return to the individual subjects to learn about research methods and how to adapt them to the particular challenges of HCI. This is the first book to provide a single resource through which a range of commonly used research methods in HCI are introduced. Chapters are authored by internationally leading HCI researchers who use examples from their own work to illustrate how the methods apply in an HCI context. Each chapter also contains key references to help researchers find out more about each method as it has been used in HCI. Topics covered include experimental design, use of eyetracking, qualitative research methods, cognitive modelling, how to develop new methodologies and writing up your research

Replicating and Applying a Neuro-Cognitive Experimental Technique in HCI Research

In cognitive neuroscience the sense of agency is defined as the as the experience of controlling ones own actions and, through this control, affecting the external world. At CHI 2012 I presented a paper entitled I did that! Measuring Users Experience of Agency in their own Actions [1]. This extended abstract draws heavily on that paper, which described an implicit measure called intentional binding. This measure, developed by researchers in cognitive neuroscience, has been shown to provide a robust implicit measure for the sense of agency. My interest in intentional binding stemmed from prior HCI literature, (e.g. the work of Shneiderman) which emphasises the importance of the sense of control in human-computer interactions. The key question behind the CHI 2012 paper was: can we apply intention binding to provide an implicit measure for the experience of control in human-computer interactions? In investigating this question, replication was a key element of the experimental process.Comment: 4 pages, presented at RepliCHI2013 at ACM CHI 201

Spacecraft crew procedures from paper to computers

Described here is a research project that uses human factors and computer systems knowledge to explore and help guide the design and creation of an effective Human-Computer Interface (HCI) for spacecraft crew procedures. By having a computer system behind the user interface, it is possible to have increased procedure automation, related system monitoring, and personalized annotation and help facilities. The research project includes the development of computer-based procedure system HCI prototypes and a testbed for experiments that measure the effectiveness of HCI alternatives in order to make design recommendations. The testbed will include a system for procedure authoring, editing, training, and execution. Progress on developing HCI prototypes for a middeck experiment performed on Space Shuttle Mission STS-34 and for upcoming medical experiments are discussed. The status of the experimental testbed is also discussed

A qualititative approach to HCI research

Whilst science has a strong reliance on quantitative and experimental methods, there are many complex, socially based phenomena in HCI that cannot be easily quantified or experimentally manipulated or, for that matter, ethically researched with experiments. For example, the role of privacy in HCI is not obviously reduced to numbers and it would not be appropriate to limit a person's privacy in the name of research. In addition, technology is rapidly changing – just think of developments in mobile devices, tangible interfaces and so on – making it harder to abstract technology from the context of use if we are to study it effectively. Developments such as mediated social networking and the dispersal of technologies in ubiquitous computing also loosen the connection between technologies and work tasks that were the traditional cornerstone of HCI. Instead, complex interactions between technologies and ways of life are coming to the fore. Consequently, we frequently find that we do not know what the real HCI issues are before we start our research. This makes it hard, if not actually impossible, to define the variables necessary to do quantitative research, (see Chapter 2). Within HCI, there is also the recognition that the focus on tasks is not enough to design and implement an effective system. There is also a growing need to understand how usability issues are subjectively and collectively experienced and perceived by different user groups (Pace, 2004; Razavim and Iverson, 2006). This means identifying the users' emotional and social drives and perspectives; their motivations, expectations, trust, identity, social norms and so on. It also means relating these concepts to work practices, communities and organisational social structures as well as organisational, economic and political drivers. These issues are increasingly needed in the design, development and implementation of systems to be understood both in isolation and as a part of the whole. HCI researchers are therefore turning to more qualitative methods in order to deliver the research results that HCI needs.With qualitative research, the emphasis is not on measuring and producing numbers but instead on understanding the qualities of a particular technology and how people use it in their lives, how they think about it and how they feel about it. There are many varied approaches to qualitative research within the social sciences depending on what is being studied, how it can be studied and what the goals of the research are.Within HCI, though, grounded theory has been found to provide good insights that address well the issues raised above (Pace, 2004; Adams, Blandford and Lunt, 2005; Razavim and Iverson, 2006). The purpose of this chapter is to give an overview of how grounded theory works as a method. Quantitative research methods adopt measuring instruments and experimental manipulations that can be repeated by any researcher (at least in principle) and every effort is made to reduce the influence of the researcher on the researched, which is regarded as a source of bias or error. In contrast, in qualitative research, where the goal is understanding rather than measuring and manipulating, the subjectivity of the researcher is an essential part of the production of an interpretation. The chapter therefore discusses how the influence of the researcher can be ameliorated through the grounded theory methodology whilst also acknowledging the subjective input of the researcher through reflexivity. The chapter also presents a case study of how grounded theory was used in practice to study people's use and understanding of computer passwords and related security

Understanding Unauthorized Access using Fine-Grained Human-Computer Interaction Data

Unauthorized Data Access (UDA) by an internal employee is a major threat to an organization. Regardless of whether the individuals engaged in UDA with malicious intent or not, real-time identification of UDA events and anomalous behaviors is extremely difficult. For example, various artificial intelligence methods for detecting insider threat UDA have become readily available; while useful, such methods rely on post hoc analysis of the past (e.g., unsupervised learning algorithms on access logs). This research-in-progress note reports on if the analysis of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) behaviors, which have been empirically validated in various studies to reveal hidden cognitive state, can be utilized as a method to detect UDAs. To examine this, an experimental design was required that would grant the subjects an opportunity to engage in UDA events while tracking the HCI behaviors in an unobtrusive manner. Background, experimental design, study execution, preliminary results, and future research plans are presented

Proposing a hybrid approach for emotion classification using audio and video data

Emotion recognition has been a research topic in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) during recent years. Computers have become an inseparable part of human life. Users need human-like interaction to better communicate with computers. Many researchers have become interested in emotion recognition and classification using different sources. A hybrid approach of audio and text has been recently introduced. All such approaches have been done to raise the accuracy and appropriateness of emotion classification. In this study, a hybrid approach of audio and video has been applied for emotion recognition. The innovation of this approach is selecting the characteristics of audio and video and their features as a unique specification for classification. In this research, the SVM method has been used for classifying the data in the SAVEE database. The experimental results show the maximum classification accuracy for audio data is 91.63% while by applying the hybrid approach the accuracy achieved is 99.26%

Design for Curiosity: A Study of Visual Design Elements, Interaction, and Motivation

The field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) has traditionally focused on the usability of a system, but as increasing numbers of interactive products become entwined in our daily lives, so does the opportunity to understand user impacts that reach beyond usability. In particular, interaction design, a subdomain of HCI, expands the focus of HCI by looking at the aesthetic impacts a system may have on user emotions. Curiosity is one such emotion that tends to induce information-seeking and motivational behaviors. An experimental study was undertaken to determine whether an interactive, front-end graphic that incorporated curiosity principles in its design would sufficiently pique a participating university faculty’s curiosity to interact with the graphic, and thereafter, with an existing platform named George that was developed to motivate faculty to engage in collaborative behavior. George includes capabilities for creating and storing individual faculty trading cards that include the faculty’s photograph, personal interests, research interests, and publication domains. The experimental graphic provided interactive capabilities to incrementally reveal segments of the photograph and to acquire information about the faculty’s research profile. The number of a study participant’s interactions with the graphic was limited by software. The data collected included the location and frequency of interactions with the graphic, and whether participants ultimately accessed the George platform. Statistically significant evidence demonstrated that the curiosity-provoking principles motivated interaction with the graphic, and that participants were also motivated to access George