HCITools:strategies and best practices for designing, evaluating and sharing technical HCI toolkits

Over the years, toolkits have been designed to facilitate the rapid prototyping of novel designs for graphical user interfaces, physical computing, fabrication, tangible interfaces and ubiquitous computing. However, although evaluation methods for HCI are widely available, particular techniques and approaches to evaluate technical toolkit research are less well developed. Moreover, it is unclear what kind of contribution and impact technical toolkits can bring to the larger HCI community. In this workshop we aim to bring together leading researchers in the field to discuss challenges and opportunities to develop new methods and approaches to design, evaluate, disseminate and share toolkits. Furthermore, we will discuss the technical, methodological and enabling role of toolkits for HCI research

Gestaltung von In-Car Multi-Device Cross-Platform Umgebungen

Die Gestaltung von graphischen Bedienoberflächen für Applikationen in Umgebungen mit mehreren Geräten unterschiedlicher Hersteller wird immer bedeutender – auch in der Automobilbranche. Um dieser Herausforderung zu begegnen, muss verstanden werden, wie Design-Entscheidungen für solche Applikationen getroffen werden. Als Vorstudie einer Untersuchung dieser Thematik wurden neun User Experience Designer befragt. Der Fokus liegt auf Anwendungen für in-car Entertainment- und Komfortfunktionen auf integrierten und mitgebrachten Geräten. Konkret erkannt als die größten Probleme für übergreifende Konzepte sind: Das Aufeinandertreffen unterschiedlicher Konsistenzen durch plattformspezifische Gestaltungsparadigmen und Prämissen, das Fehlen von spezifischen Prozessen, Methoden und Werkzeugen um Zielkonflikte aufzulösen. Das Kernproblem ist das Fehlen einer wissenschaftlich ermittelten Grundlage, wie sich User Experience in Mehrgeräteumgebungen unterschiedlicher Hersteller verhält

Challenges in mobile multi-device ecosystems

BACKGROUND Coordinated multi-display environments from the desktop, second-screen to gigapixel display walls are increasingly common. Personal and intimate mobile and wearable devices such as head-mounted displays, smartwatches, smartphones and tablets are rarely part of such multi-device ecosystems. METHODS We conducted a literature research and an expert survey to identify challenges in mobile multi-device ecosystems. RESULTS We present grounded challenges relevant for the design, development and use of mobile multi-device environments as well as opportunities for future research. While our surveys indicated that a large number of challenges have been identified, there seems to be little agreement among experts on the importance of individual challenges. CONCLUSION By presenting the identified challenges, we contribute to a better understanding about factors that impede the creation and use of mobile multi-device ecosystems and hope to contribute to shaping the research agenda on interacting with those systems.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Evaluation Strategies for HCI Toolkit Research

Toolkit research plays an important role in the field of HCI, as it can heavily influence both the design and implementation of interactive systems. For publication, the HCI community typically expects toolkit research to include an evaluation component. The problem is that toolkit evaluation is challenging, as it is often unclear what ‘evaluating’ a toolkit means and what methods are appropriate. To address this problem, we analyzed 68 published toolkit papers. From our analysis, we provide an overview of, reflection on, and discussion of evaluation methods for toolkit contributions. We identify and discuss the value of four toolkit evaluation strategies, including the associated techniques that each employs. We offer a categorization of evaluation strategies for toolkit researchers, along with a discussion of the value, potential limitations, and trade-offs associated with each strategy

Cross-Device Taxonomy:Survey, Opportunities and Challenges of Interactions Spanning Across Multiple Devices

Designing interfaces or applications that move beyond the bounds of a single device screen enables new ways to engage with digital content. Research addressing the opportunities and challenges of interactions with multiple devices in concert is of continued focus in HCI research. To inform the future research agenda of this field, we contribute an analysis and taxonomy of a corpus of 510 papers in the cross- device computing domain. For both new and experienced researchers in the field we provide: an overview, historic trends and unified terminology of cross-device research; discussion of major and under-explored application areas; mapping of enabling technologies; synthesis of key interaction techniques spanning across multiple devices; and review of common evaluation strategies. We close with a discussion of open issues. Our taxonomy aims to create a unified terminology and common understanding for researchers in order to facilitate and stimulate future cross-device research

Proceedings of Cross-Surface 2016: Workshop on Challenges and Opportunities for 'Bring-Your-Own-Device' (BYOD) in the Wild

In this workshop, we reviewed and discussed challenges and opportunities for Human-Computer Interaction in relation to cross-surface interaction in the wild based on the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) practice. We brought together researchers and practitioners working on technical infrastructures for cross-surface computing, studies of cross-surface computing in particular domains as well as interaction challenges for introducing cross-surface computing in the wild, all with a particular focus on BYOD. Examples of application domains are: cultural institutions, work places, public libraries, schools and education. Please find more details about the workshop, in the submitted proposal [1]. The workshop was held in conjunction with the 2016 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), that took place from May 7 to 12 in San Jose, USA. [1] Steven Houben, Nicolai Marquardt, Jo Vermeulen, Johannes Schöning, Clemens Klokmose, Harald Reiterer, Henrik Korsgaard, and Mario Schreiner. 2016. Cross-Surface: Challenges and Opportunities for 'bring your own device' in the wild

Applications across Co-located Devices

We live surrounded by many computing devices. However, their presence has yet to be fully explored to create a richer ubiquitous computing environment. There is an opportunity to take better advantage of those devices by combining them into a unified user experience. To realize this vision, we studied and explored the use of a framework, which provides the tools and abstractions needed to develop applications that distribute UI components across co-located devices. The framework comprises the following components: authentication and authorization services; a broker to sync information across multiple application instances; background services that gather the capabilities of the devices; and a library to integrate web applications with the broker, determine which components to show based on UI requirements and device capabilities, and that provides custom elements to manage the distribution of the UI components and the multiple application states. Collaboration between users is supported by sharing application states. An indoor positioning solution had to be developed in order to determine when devices are close to each other to trigger the automatic redistribution of UI components. The research questions that we set out to respond are presented along with the contributions that have been produced. Those contributions include a framework for crossdevice applications, an indoor positioning solution for pervasive indoor environments, prototypes, end-user studies and developer focused evaluation. To contextualize our research, we studied previous research work about cross-device applications, proxemic interactions and indoor positioning systems. We presented four application prototypes. The first three were used to perform studies to evaluate the user experience. The last one was used to study the developer experience provided by the framework. The results were largely positive with users showing preference towards using multiple devices under some circumstances. Developers were also able to grasp the concepts provided by the framework relatively well.Vivemos rodeados de dispositivos computacionais. No entanto, ainda não tiramos partido da sua presença para criar ambientes de computação ubíqua mais ricos. Existe uma oportunidade de combiná-los para criar uma experiência de utilizador unificada. Para realizar esta visão, estudámos e explorámos a utilização de uma framework que forneça ferramentas e abstrações que permitam o desenvolvimento de aplicações que distribuem os componentes da interface do utilizador por dispositivos co-localizados. A framework é composta por: serviços de autenticação e autorização; broker que sincroniza informação entre várias instâncias da aplicação; serviços que reúnem as capacidades dos dispositivos; e uma biblioteca para integrar aplicações web com o broker, determinar as componentes a mostrar com base nos requisitos da interface e nas capacidades dos dispositivos, e que disponibiliza elementos para gerir a distribuição dos componentes da interface e dos estados de aplicação. A colaboração entre utilizadores é suportada através da partilha dos estados de aplicação. Foi necessário desenvolver um sistema de posicionamento em interiores para determinar quando é que os dispositivos estão perto uns dos outros para despoletar a redistribuição automática dos componentes da interface. As questões de investigação inicialmente colocadas são apresentadas juntamente com as contribuições que foram produzidas. Essas contribuições incluem uma framework para aplicações multi-dispositivo, uma solução de posicionamento em interiores para computação ubíqua, protótipos, estudos com utilizadores finais e avaliação com programadores. Para contextualizar a nossa investigação, estudámos trabalhos anteriores sobre aplicações multi-dispositivo, interação proxémica e sistemas de posicionamento em interiores. Apresentámos quatro aplicações protótipo. As primeiras três foram utilizadas para avaliar a experiência de utilização. A última foi utilizada para estudar a experiência de desenvolvimento com a framework. Os resultados foram geralmente positivos, com os utilizadores a preferirem utilizar múltiplos dispositivos em certas circunstâncias. Os programadores também foram capazes de compreender a framework relativamente bem

CrowdResponsiveDesign - Un ambiente di crowdsourcing per il responsive design di applicazioni web

La tesi presenta il prototipo “CrowdResponsiveDesign” (CRD), un progetto di laurea magistrale realizzato dall'autrice in collaborazione col professor Fabio Paternò ed il suo gruppo di ricerca presso ISTI-CNR (Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologie dell’Informazione A. Faedo presso il Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche). “CrowdResponsiveDesign” è un ambiente di crowdsourcing per il responsive design di applicazioni web. Nello specifico CRD è un prototipo di crowdmarket, dunque un ambiente di crowdsourcing in cui gli utenti possono pubblicare pagine web realizzate da loro e chiedere ad altri utenti di creare di queste pagine delle versioni adattate a certi dispositivi mobili. Per esempio, un utente che pubblica una sua pagina web realizzata in versione desktop può ottenere dagli altri utenti delle versioni mobile (per es. per iPhone e/o per Galaxy Tab) della sua pagina. Ciò è possibile grazie ad un editor visuale interno al sito realizzato dall’autrice e che mette a disposizione dell’utente un certo numero di operazioni possibili sui singoli elementi della pagina da modificare. Oltre al prototipo è stato realizzato anche un elaborato scritto, in cui, per prima cosa, vengono presentati alcuni concetti teorici su cui si basa il prototipo. Poi viene fatto un resoconto sullo stato dell’arte di quelli che sono i prodotti a cui mi sono ispirata per realizzare CRD. A seguire viene presentato il prototipo, prima da un punto di vista progettuale, poi implementativo, spiegando nel dettaglio come è stato realizzato. Infine viene anche fatta una valutazione del prototipo basata sui risultati del test utente e del suo questionario online compilato da un gruppo di persone dopo aver eseguito il test utente sul prototipo

Schnittstellengestaltung für ein digitales Ökosystem im Kontext einer geräte- und plattformübergreifenden Anwendung im Fahrzeug - User-Experience-Gestaltungsempfehlungen für touchbasierte Nutzerschnittstellen von im Fahrzeug verwendeten mobilen Anwendungen für ein Fond-Entertainment-System auf persönlichen Geräten

Ein Multi-Device-Cross-Platform-Ökosystem entsteht dadurch, dass Anwendungen geräte- und plattformübergreifende Interaktionen sowie wechselseitige Beeinflussungen der involvierten Geräte ermöglichen. Im Gegensatz zur Schnittstellengestaltung für nur ein Gerät (engl. single-device) müssen Schnittstellen bei Multi-Device-Cross-Platform-Ökosystemen für unterschiedliche Geräte unterschiedlicher Hersteller gestaltet werden. Dabei müssen grundlegende Abwägungen getroffen werden. Gewohnheiten und plattformspezifische Patterns sprechen für eine individuelle Optimierung der Schnittstellen unter Berücksichtigung von plattformspezifischen Guidelines. Die Folge ist eine bessere Bedienung je Gerät. So entstehen jedoch unterschiedliche Schnittstellengestaltungen innerhalb eines Multi-Device-Cross-Platform-Ökosystems. Durch diese Inkonsistenz wird der Wechsel zwischen den einzelnen Schnittstellen erschwert. Im Gegensatz dazu führt eine hohe produktspezifische Konsistenz zwischen allen Schnittstellen zu einer schnellen Orientierung und einem vereinfachten Gerätewechsel. Dafür werden plattformspezifische Guidelines vernachlässigt und eine hohe innere Konsistenz aus Produktsicht erreicht. Da innere Konsistenz als ein Schlüsselparadigma der Schnittstellengestaltung für Single-Device-Anwendungen gilt, wird diese vielfach auch bei Multi-Device-Cross-Platform-Anwendungen als Default-Prinzip eingesetzt. Bisher ist jedoch unzureichend untersucht, wie ein Schnittstellengestaltungsansatz aussehen muss, um die beste user experience (UX) für ein Multi-Device-Cross-Platform-Ökosystem hervorzubringen. Im Zuge mehrerer Studien in der Anwendungsdomäne Fond-Entertainment-Systeme wird dies untersucht. In der vorliegenden Arbeit liegt der Fokus auf den nutzereigenen Geräten. Diese werden auch als Bring-Your-Own-Device-Geräte bezeichnet. Durch zahlreiche In-situ-Studien können folgende Ergebnisse festgehalten werden: Das Paradigma der inneren Konsistenz kann bei der Schnittstellengestaltung dann angewendet werden, wenn die Gerätegrößen innerhalb des Multi-Device-Cross-Platform-Ökosystems vergleichbar sind. Innere Konsistenz führt jedoch nicht automatisch zur besten UX. Ein Ansatz, der produkt- und plattformspezifische Patterns für die Bring-Your-Own-Device-Schnittstellengestaltung berücksichtigt (leicht erhöhte äußere Konsistenz), ist messbar, jedoch nicht signifikant besser. Bei vergleichbaren Größen der involvierten Geräte ist ein zu starker Bruch zwischen den einzelnen Schnittstellen abzulehnen, wie er durch eine starke Erhöhung der äußeren Konsistenz der BYOD-Schnittstelle entstehen kann. Dieser führt im Vergleich zu einer produktspezifisch konsistenten Schnittstellengestaltung zu signifikant schlechteren User-Experience-Ergebnissen. Bei unterschiedlichen Gerätegrößen innerhalb des Multi-Device-Cross-Platform-Ökosystems werden plattformspezifische Anpassungen von Probanden klar bevorzugt. Der Forschungsbeitrag der vorliegenden Arbeit umfasst empirische Schnittstellen-Gestaltungsempfehlungen für ein Multi-Device-Cross-Platform-Ökosystem in der Anwendungsdomäne Fond-Entertainment-Systeme. Dabei liegt der Fokus auf Bring-Your-Own-Device-Geräten. Durch die starke Berücksichtigung unterschiedlicher Multi-Device-Cross-Platform-Ökosystem-Zusammensetzungen erscheint die Anwendung der Gestaltungsempfehlungen auf andere Domänen vielversprechend