Interpretation at the controller's edge: designing graphical user interfaces for the digital publication of the excavations at Gabii (Italy)

This paper discusses the authors’ approach to designing an interface for the Gabii Project’s digital volumes that attempts to fuse elements of traditional synthetic publications and site reports with rich digital datasets. Archaeology, and classical archaeology in particular, has long engaged with questions of the formation and lived experience of towns and cities. Such studies might draw on evidence of local topography, the arrangement of the built environment, and the placement of architectural details, monuments and inscriptions (e.g. Johnson and Millett 2012). Fundamental to the continued development of these studies is the growing body of evidence emerging from new excavations. Digital techniques for recording evidence “on the ground,” notably SFM (structure from motion aka close range photogrammetry) for the creation of detailed 3D models and for scene-level modeling in 3D have advanced rapidly in recent years. These parallel developments have opened the door for approaches to the study of the creation and experience of urban space driven by a combination of scene-level reconstruction models (van Roode et al. 2012, Paliou et al. 2011, Paliou 2013) explicitly combined with detailed SFM or scanning based 3D models representing stratigraphic evidence. It is essential to understand the subtle but crucial impact of the design of the user interface on the interpretation of these models. In this paper we focus on the impact of design choices for the user interface, and make connections between design choices and the broader discourse in archaeological theory surrounding the practice of the creation and consumption of archaeological knowledge. As a case in point we take the prototype interface being developed within the Gabii Project for the publication of the Tincu House. In discussing our own evolving practices in engagement with the archaeological record created at Gabii, we highlight some of the challenges of undertaking theoretically-situated user interface design, and their implications for the publication and study of archaeological materials

Non-user-friendly

User-friendly design makes our use of emerging technologies intuitive and seamless, but it also conceals the new solutions’ influence over how we act, think and plan. In this paper, I analyze the logic of our newly developed ‘touchscreen sensibilities’ to speculate on alternative, ‘non-user-friendly’ design practices that, by invading intuitive interfaces, could make the users aware of their reliance on invisible algorithmic operations to learn and to feel. I revisit Žižek and Pfaller’s conception of ‘interpassivity’ to explore its potential as a means of resisting interactivity and inciting consciousness in contemporary speculative design. The critical interface I envision must defamiliarize consumption, prevent participation, and de-frame perception — make the user experience what lack of control feels like, and do so to encourage resistance.</jats:p

Validating one-class active learning with user studies – A prototype and open challenges

Active learning with one-class classifiers involves users in the detection of outliers. The evaluation of one-class active learning typically relies on user feedback that is simulated, based on benchmark data. This is because validations with real users are elaborate. They require the de-sign and implementation of an interactive learning system. But without such a validation, it is unclear whether the value proposition of active learning does materialize when it comes to an actual detection of out-liers. User studies are necessary to find out when users can indeed provide feedback. In this article, we describe important characteristics and pre-requisites of one-class active learning for outlier detection, and how they influence the design of interactive systems. We propose a reference architecture of a one-class active learning system. We then describe design alternatives regarding such a system and discuss conceptual and technical challenges. We conclude with a roadmap towards validating one-class active learning with user studies

An Open Learner Model Dashboard for Adaptive Learning

The thesis describes the design process of the independent OLM dashboard, MittFagkart, that visualizes student activity data across digital math tools used in Norwegian classrooms for teachers.Masteroppgave i informasjonsvitenskapINFO390MASV-INF

Scaffolding the Open: Transforming an International Studies Course using Open Pedagogy

This case study describes how two librarians transformed an international information literacy course by creating a scaffolded open pedagogy experience for students to build transferable skills while exploring how information is produced, disseminated, and interpreted across the world. The authors discuss how we collaborated on the project to incorporate open pedagogy, tools, and strategies to enhance learning. The result was a scaffolded course using open pedagogy to help students engage with global information issues. Using Pressbooks, students published multimedia content exploring topics including global news media, censorship, misinformation, and digital divides. Then students chose to either openly license their work, share it publicly while retaining their copyright, or hide it from public view. Additionally, students used Hypothesis to socially annotate reading assignments outside of class. We reflect on our experience revising this course, what worked and what did not, and how we will adapt the course in the future