"es is komisch es is keen mensch" - Zuschreibungen gegenüber individualisierten technischen Assistenzsystemen: eine Interviewstudie zum Nutzer/innenerleben in der Mensch-Computer-Interaktion

Individuumszentrierte Mensch-Computer-Interaktion (HCI) gipfelt in Visionen wie der sog. Companion-Systeme. Diese sollen, über Werkzeuge hinausgehend, partnerschaftliche Begleiter ihres/ihrer Nutzers/in darstellen. Ob sie jedoch als solche Partner erlebt werden, hängt davon ab, ob der/die Nutzer/in ihnen Qualitäten wie Empathie oder Vertrauenswürdigkeit zuschreibt. In einer Interviewstudie verfolgen wir dieses konstruktivistische Verständnis des Nutzer/innenerlebens unter Bezug auf einen experimentell erzeugten Individualisierungsdialog. Auf Basis von 31 Initialnarrativen wurden vier Idealtypen - der Unreflektierte, der Bemühte, der Skeptiker und der Selbstzweifler - konstruiert. Sie ermöglichen, Strukturen der Varianz individueller Zuschreibungen und der Emotionen und Handlungen in Reaktion auf diese Zuschreibungen zu verdeutlichen und sinnhaft zu deuten. Die Ergebnisse decken das implizite nutzer/innenseitige Streben danach auf, das System zu einem berechenbaren, vertrauten Gegenüber und potenziellen Beziehungspartner zu machen. Dies wird auf die menschlichen Bedürfnisse nach Sicherheit und Zugehörigkeit zurückgeführt und fließt in eine Spezifizierung des Zuschreibungsverständnisses zum Konzept "beziehungsrelevanter Zuschreibungen" ein. Abschließend werden die Potenziale und Grenzen derartiger, dem technologischen Fortschritt kritisch gegenüberstehender qualitativer Untersuchungen des Nutzer/innenerleben in der HCI diskutiert.Individualization focused human-computer interaction (HCI) culminates in visions like that of so-called Companion-systems. They shall transcend the stage of tools and represent cooperative attendants of their users. However, whether or not they are experienced as such attendants depends on the user ascribing qualities like empathy or trustworthiness to them. In an interview study, we pursue this constructivist understanding of the user experience referring to an experimentally generated individualization focused dialog. Based on 31 initial narratives four ideal types - the Non-reflecting, the Complaisant, the Skeptic and the Selfdoubting - were constructed. These allow to pointing up and reasonably interpreting structures in the variance of individual ascriptions and in users’ emotions and actions in reaction to these ascriptions. Results reveal users’ implicit efforts of making the system a predictable, familiar counterpart and a potential relational partner. This is traced back to the need for safety and the need to belong inherent in humans and is integrated in the specification of the notion of ascriptions to the concept of "relational ascriptions". Finally, potentials and limitations of qualitative user experience studies, which illuminate a critical perspective on the technological progress, are discussed

Music, computing and health: A roadmap for the current and future roles of music technology for health care and well-being.

Health and self-regulatio

Public mirror: legitimizing 'social' photography as a contemporary discipline

With all the public information about any famous person, topic or event 'googleable’ on the Internet, there seems to be nothing new for 'digital natives’ to discover other than the elusive Self. The Self is the 'new frontier’ and the smartphone camera is at the forefront of this quest, unearthing and exhibiting different kinds of content everyday. With over 95 million photographs and videos shared on Instagram daily; Photography has merged with social networking sites and applications (SNS/A) to become a recognisable phenomenon called – 'Social’ Photography. Despite its rich association with legitimate visual art-forms and numerous scholarly articles examining it’s various forms – the term 'Social’ Photography is unfamiliar to most. This inquiry discusses 'Social’ Photography in relation to existing literature to argue for its establishment as a legitimate discipline within the Creative Arts. By acknowledging its subjectivity and utilization of digital technologies, this study employed an interpretive group of methods and identified six characteristics of 'Social’ Photography – namely, (i) Activity, (ii) Participation, (iii) Identity, (iv) Glamour, (v) Protest, and (vi) Spectacle – that exemplify its capacity to curate a meaningful democratic public image. These six aspects can be used to categorize and formalize individual behaviour that can be analysed and interpreted to foster a better understanding of 'Social’ Photography as a discipline

SIMPLY MOTHERS: SHARED ELABORATION OF TECHNOLOGIES ON PRENATAL CARE OF VISUALLY IMPAIRED WOMEN

Objective: To develop educational technologies on prenatal care with and for visually impaired women.Method: A methodological study with a participatory interface and qualitative approach. It was carried out at a Specialized Technical Unit in the municipality of Belém, Pará, Brazil. Data production took place between August and September 2021 with six women. DOSVOX was used as a communication resource for the participants to answer four instruments with a view to developing the technologies. The analysis was of the thematic content type.Results: Women with visual impairment want respect for their autonomy, inclusion, and information from the professionals. The technologies produced point to the specific demands of visually impaired women and to the importance of preserving autonomy during prenatal care.Conclusion: Technologies produced in a participatory way point out women's specific perspectives and needs regarding prenatal care and may support both the nurses' actions in consultations and favor women with visual impairment during prenatal care

Bonding with Robotic Pets. Children’s Cognitions, Emotions and Behaviors towards Pet-Robots. Applications in a Robot Assisted Quality of Life Intervention in a Pediatric Hospital

[eng] This dissertation addresses the emergence of emotional involvement in the interaction with social robots. More specifically, we investigate the dynamics of children bonding with robotic pets to design robot based programs to improve patients’ experience in pediatric hospitals. Pet-robots are robots that mimic real pets as dogs or cats, both in appearance and in behavior. We assume that gaining understanding of the emotional dimension of children/pet-robots interaction would contribute to evaluate the impact of pet-robots in children’s lives, and to inform both robots’ design and robot-based applications for health and wellbeing. First, this research presents a novel model of bonding with robotic pets inspired in the human-animal affiliation and particularly in child-dog relatedness, where bonding is envisaged as a process towards companionship that evolves through three stages –first impression, short-term interaction and lasting relationship- characterized by distinguishable patterns of behaviors, cognitions and feelings that can be identified and measured. Secondly, a behavioral analysis of children interacting with the Pleo robot -a robotic pet shaped as a baby dinosaur-, with an emphasis on the interactional surface and particularly on the sequences of dyad’s reciprocal exchange is presented. The outcomes are twofold: the ethograms and coding schemes of Pleo’s and children’s behaviors and a higher level categorization of behaviors involved in bond forming that can be applied to other platforms and users. Thirdly, a naturalistic study carried out in a pediatric hospital to observe the interactive practices with the Pleo robot in the wild and to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of a Pleo-based intervention to accompany children is analyzed and discussed. Inspired on the beneficial effects of real pets’ company, the study consisted in an intensive ethnography, a systematic observation of a group play session and a follow-up case study of an experience of adopting a Pleo. Our results show that the key mechanism driving bond forming is the robot’s capability to deploy credible attachment behaviors –proximity seeking and resource soliciting- that elicit complementary nurturing and play behaviors in children. Beyond the novelty effect, self-reinforcing processes as learning and evolution can keep children engaged in rewarding interaction with the robot over time. Moreover, Pleo’s versatility allows diverse modalities of interaction and individual and group play, satisfying different needs as company, technological curiosity, entertainment and social facilitation both for normatively developed children and for children with special needs and their families. In general, the introduction of robot-based play was regarded by the hospital professionals not only as compatible with their daily day practice but valuable as a regular resource to smooth children’s stay at the hospital.[cat] Aquesta tesi aborda el sorgiment de la implicació emocional en la interacció amb els robots socials. Més específicament, s'investiga la dinàmica de la afiliació dels nens amb les mascotes robòtiques – robots que evoquen els animals de companyia- per tal de dissenyar programes basats en robots per millorar l'experiència dels pacients en els hospitals pediàtrics. Considerem que investigar la dimensió emocional de la interacció nen/robots-mascota contribuirà a avaluar-ne el seu impacte en la vida del nens i nenes, i a informar el disseny d’aquests robots i de les aplicacions que se’n deriven per a la seva salut i benestar. A partir d’un model evolutiu original de vinculació nen-robot inspirat en la afiliació d'humans i animals - i més concretament, en la relació nen-gos- s’analitza el comportament de nens interactuant amb el robot Pleo –robot mascota en forma de nadó dinosaure-, amb un èmfasi en les seqüències d'intercanvi recíproc de la diada. Els resultats són de dos tipus: els etogrames del Pleo i dels nens, i una categorització conductual a més alt nivell, aplicables a altres plataformes i usuaris. A partir d’aquest estudi, s’analitza una experiència d’intervenció en un hospital pediàtric per observar les pràctiques interactives amb el robot Pleo, i per avaluar la viabilitat i l'eficàcia d'una intervenció basada en el Pleo per acompanyar els nens. Inspirat en els efectes beneficiosos de la companyia de mascotes reals, l'estudi va consistir en una etnografia, una anàlisi observacional d'una sessió de joc en grup amb el robot, i un estudi de cas longitudinal d'una experiència d’adopció d’un Pleo. Els resultats mostren que l’aspecte clau que impulsa la formació del vincle és la capacitat del robot per desplegar conductes d’aferrament creïbles –cerca de proximitat i sol·licitud de recursos- que provoquen comportaments complementaris de criança i joc en els nens, més enllà de l'efecte novetat. D'altra banda, la versatilitat de Pleo permet diverses modalitats d'interacció i joc, i satisfer diferents necessitats dels usuaris, com ara companyia, curiositat, entreteniment i facilitació social, també per nens i nenes amb necessitats especials i les seves famílies. En general, la introducció del joc basat en el robot va ser considerada pels professionals de l'hospital no només compatible amb la seva pràctica professional, sinó també com un recurs valuós per alleugerir l'estada dels nens a l'hospital

Gaming mirrors at play through ludic data-selves

The focus of the article is on data-self technology in digital entertainment - virtual entities that replicate and/or are influenced by players’ behaviors and actions, working as agential mirrors on the screen. Little efforts have been done in investigating their potential in social research and educational technology; however, data-selves can serve as promising self-revealing tools toward personal identities and narrations. In order to enlighten their effectiveness, a multidisciplinary framework led by the core concepts of “narrative identity” and “discursive-practical consciousness” is advanced. The proposal has been tested (pre-post interviews and play sessions) with an empirical exploration involving n:32 participants and the video games Black and White 2 and Forza: Motorsprint 5, which include data-self features. Results show that this technology can make a difference in engaging and stimulating subjects’ interest and feedback, but further researches are needed to deepen its scope and range of application

Ill communication : designing media, preventing risks, and defining responsibility

This dissertation investigates how health risks have historically affected the design of communications media in the United States. Concentrating upon the telephone from 1888 through 1913, and the cell phone from 1970 through 2003, I explore how these media intersected with three epidemic risks: tuberculosis in the early 1900s, coronary heart disease in the 1970s, and electrosensitivity from the 1990s through 2003. At these junctures, I examine three social groups – physicians, industrial designers, and everyday users – who attempted to influence the design of phones and determine if institutions or individual citizens would primarily prevent these health risks. This dissertation suggests that due to their socioeconomic status and professional expertise, physicians and designers were most effective in altering telephones and cell phones. They subsequently framed the prevention of health risks as the responsibility of individual users. This dissertation argues that such design decisions were shaped by strong social prejudices, specifically a desire to limit communications media use among poor and ethnic minorities in the U.S., a desire to reinforce the health of wealthy white users, and a desire to centralize authority over the identification and treatment of disease, as well as the process of design. However, the individualization of responsibility pursued by physicians and industrial designers may have produced an unintended effect, helping to generate considerable fragmentation at the intersections where communications media, design, and health risks meet. This dissertation plumbs the ramifications of physicians’ and designers’ work by surveying a community of everyday media users who challenge medico-technological authority, articulating undiagnosed health risks and designing unsanctioned forms of prevention.Radio-Television-Fil

GAUMLESS: Modelling the Capitalization of Human Action on the Internet

The focus of this thesis is on a field of study related to information design, namely visual modelling, and the application of its concepts and frameworks to a case study on the use of Internet cookies. It represents an opportunity to enhance information design’s relevancy as an adaptive discipline; i.e., borrowing and learning from various knowledge domains in representing phenomena for the purposes of decision-making and action-generation. As a critical design project, the thesis endeavors to inform Internet users and other audiences of the exploitation inherent in the data-mining processes employed by websites for generating cookies and to expose the risks to users. This focus was motivated by a concern with the ignorance, or at least the casual awareness, of many Internet users of the implications of giving their consent to the use of cookies. The thesis employs a qualitative research methodology that consolidates information design principles, conventions and processes; a distillation of relevant modelling frameworks; and pan-disciplinary philosophical perspectives (i.e., cybernetics, systems theory, and social system theory) into a visual model that represents the cookie system. The significance of this study’s contribution to design theory lies in the manner in which boundaries to its research methodology (based on the study’s purpose, goals and targeted audience) were determined and the singular visual modelling process developed in consideration of the myriad relevant knowledge-domains, extensive data sources and esoteric technical aspects of the system under study. Whereas simplification in a visual model is a key factor for knowledge-creation and establishing usability, its effectiveness to inform and inspire is also measured by its level of accuracy and comprehensiveness. In concentrating on human behaviour and decision-making contexts and applications, information design has the capacity to help meet personal and social needs and consequently can be a societal force for innovation and progress. The thesis’ visual model is an example of this potential in its intention to represent the cookie process and to raise awareness of its personal and social implications. The study validates the responsibility of the information designer to not prescribe actions or solutions but rather to impart knowledge, support decision-making, and inspire critical reflection

Mobile appointment reminders in patient-centered care: Design and evaluation

Reminder systems have great potential to enhance healthcare outcome if it can facilitate collaborative appointment management with accessible mobile communication technology in patient-centered care. Yet, Current appointment reminder systems are effective but not optimal (McLean, et al. 2016). Following the design science process delineated by Peffers et al. (2007) and other requirements, this study proposes a design of reciprocal reminder system that automates the process of appointment rescheduling for healthcare providers and patients in addition to confirmation and cancellation. Based on the premises of media synchronicity theory, media naturalness theory and stakeholder theory as kernel theories, this study develops a design theory that covers platform design, communication design and service design. Design principles of new mobile appointment reminders are proposed to cater to the different requirements of provider and patient users. Situation adaptivity and privacy sensitivity are identified as the major design features that need to strike a balance between different user requirements. An experiment investigates how the variation in design may influence user behavior, and the findings suggest that situation adaptivity and privacy sensitivity have positive effects on users’ system experiences in terms of performance expectancy, effort expectancy and subjective consonance. Further survey results on the final design confirm that the reciprocal reminder system adaptive to patient situations and sensitive to privacy concerns has the expected effects on user behavior