It Takes Two to Tandem: Tandem Analysis as a Novel Method for the Critical Analysis of Games

Many players engage in ‘tandem play’ with others, usually close friends, who talk about what they play as they play it - particularly in cases of single player videogames where one player plays and the other observes. Begy et al. (2017, p.149) have studied ‘tandem play’ extensively, however, this practice of tandem play has not up until now been suggested as a formal method for analysis, directly carried out by the analysts themselves. Proposed here is a novel form of critical analysis, tandem analysis, that makes use of a pair of analysts who engage in tandem play of a videogame together, recording live discussion of the play session and then conducting a thematic analysis of the recording for qualitatively different insights to those provided by other analytical methods. Observations may be more accurately expressed in-situ so that the analysis is more direct in its expression. While three or more researchers could theoretically conduct a tandem analysis, the focus for now is establishing a functioning method with a dyad

Co-Operation with Users: Challenges from (I)Literacy and Cultures

With the developments in the global market, designs focusing on the users of Information Technologies becomes a competitive factor since successful diffusion and up-take of IT lie with the users. But users have different IT competences and are culturally different. These are challenges that HCI-design methodologies need to address. User-Centred Design offers a possible approach but there are limitations that must be dealt with to strengthen user oriented and interdisciplinary approaches, and the development of techniques and tools that are suitable for handling the complexity of designing for a global world. This research-in-progress paper outlines preliminary reflections on – and contributions to – the development and qualification of techniques and tools that address user-centred design in a global context. We discuss User-Centred Design and qualify this approach by aligning with the Scandinavian IS tradition of co-operating directly with users. We suggest an approach inspired by the Scandinavian approach to IS design as a possible point of departure for targeting global users. We introduce the conceptual and experimental work in our Vision Lab, an approach based on co-operation with users and on the fundamental understanding of design methods as a relational practice that takes place between objects, contexts, users, and designers. We describe different techniques we have explored, characterized by giving the users voice throughout the design effort. In a final chapter we re-address the global perspective, and point out that virtual co-operation with the users is the next challenge. We suggest two digital techniques which may be explored for virtual cooperative design, discuss potential challenges to these methods, and conclude with propositions for further research to be carried out in the Vision Lab

User-developer cooperation in software development: building common ground and usable systems

PhDThe topic of this research is direct user participation in the task based development of interactive software systems. Building usable software demands understanding and supporting users and their tasks. Users are a primary source of usability requirements and knowledge, since users can be expected to have intimate and extensive knowledge of themselves, their tasks and their working environment. Task analysis approaches to software development encourage a focus on supporting users and their tasks while participatory design approaches encourage users' direct, active contributions to software development work. However, participatory design approaches often concentrate their efforts on design activities rather than on wider system development activities, while task analysis approaches generally lack active user participation beyond initial data gathering. This research attempts an integration of the strengths of task analysis and user participation within an overall software development process. This thesis also presents detailed empirical and theoretical analyses of what it is for users and developers to cooperate, of the nature of user-developer interaction in participatory settings. Furthennore, it operationalises and assesses the effectiveness of user participation in development and the impact of user-developer cooperation on the resulting software product. The research addressed these issues through the development and application of an approach to task based participatory development in two real world development projects. In this integrated approach, the respective strengths of task analysis and participatory design methods complemented each other's weaker aspects. The participatory design features encouraged active user participation in the development work while the task analysis features extended this participation upstream from software design activities to include analysis of the users' current work situation and design of an envisioned work situation. An inductive analysis of user-developer interaction in the software development projects was combined with a theoretical analysis drawing upon work on common ground in communication. This research generated an account of user-developer interaction in terms of the joint construction of two distinct fonns of common ground between user and developer: common ground about their present joint development activities and common ground about the objects of those joint activities, work situations and software systems. The thesis further extended the concept of common ground, assessing user participation in terms of contributions to common ground developed through the user-developer discourse. The thesis then went on to operationalise and to assess the effectiveness of user participation in tenns of the assimilation of users' contributions into the artefacts of the development work. Finally, the thesis assessed the value of user participation in tenns of the impact of user contributions to the development activities on the usability of the software produced.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Harlequin Software Grou

Experimental methodology report

In architectural design and the construction industry, there is insufficient evidence about the way designers collaborate in their normal working environments using both traditional and digital media. It is this gap in empirical evidence that the CRC project, “Team Collaboration in High Bandwidth Virtual Environments” addresses. The project is primarily, but not exclusively, concerned with the conceptual stages of design carried out by professional designers working in different offices. The aim is to increase opportunities for communication and interaction between people in geographically distant locations in order to improve the quality of collaboration. In order to understand the practical implications of introducing new digital tools on working practices, research into how designers work collaboratively using both traditional and digital media is being undertaken. This will involve a series of empirical studies in the work places of the industry partners in the project. The studies of collaboration processes will provide empirical results that will lead to more effective use of virtual environments in design and construction processes. The report describes the research approach, the industry study, the methods for data collection and analysis and the foundation research methodologies. A distinctive aspect is that the research has been devised to enable field studies to be undertaken in a live industrial environment where the participant designers carry out real projects alongside their colleagues and in familiar locations. There are two basic research objectives: one is to obtain evidence about design practice that will inform the architecture and construction industries about the impact and potential benefit of using digital collaboration technologies; the second is to add to long term research knowledge of human cognitive and behavioural processes based on real world data. In order to achieve this, the research methods must be able to acquire a rich and heterogeneous set of data from design activities as they are carried out in the normal working environment. This places different demands upon the data collection and analysis methods to those of laboratory studies where controlled conditions are required. In order to address this, the research approach that has been adopted is ethnographic in nature and case study-based. The plan is to carry out a series of indepth studies in order to provide baseline results for future research across a wider community of user groups. An important objective has been to develop a methodology that will produce valid, significant and transferable results. The research will contribute to knowledge about how architectural design and the construction industry may benefit from the introduction of leading edge collaboration technologies. The outcomes will provide a sound foundation for the production of guidelines for the assessment of high bandwidth tools and their future deployment. The knowledge will form the basis for the specification of future collaboration products and collaboration processes. This project directly addresses the industry-identified focus on cultural change, image, e-project management, and innovative methods

Are two pairs of eyes better than one? A comparison of concurrent think-aloud and co-participation methods in usability testing

This paper presents the results of a study that aimed to compare the traditional concurrent think-aloud protocol with the co-participation method to determine the benefit of adding an additional participant to the testing session. The two methods were compared through an evaluation of a library website, and their relative validity and utility were measured using four points of comparison: overall task performance, test participants’ experiences, quantity and quality of problems discovered, and the cost of employing each method. The results of the study show significant differences between the performances of the two types of testing methods. The co-participation method was evaluated more positively by users and led to the detection of a greater number of minor usability problems. This method, however, was found to require a greater investment of time and effort on the part of the evaluator in comparison to the classical method. This study found no difference between the methods in terms of task performance

Proceedings from NordiCHI 2008 Workshop Sunday October 19, 2008

This paper raises themes that are seen as some of the challenges facing the emerging practice and research field of Human Work Interaction Design. The paper has its offset in the discussions and writings that have been dominant within the IFIP Working Group on Human Work Interaction Design (name HWID) through the last two and half years since the commencement of this Working Group. The paper thus provides an introduction to the theory and empirical evidence that lie behind the combination of empirical work studies and interaction design. It also recommends key topics for future research in Human Work Interaction Design

Embodied gestures

This is a book about musical gestures: multiple ways to design instruments, compose musical performances, analyze sound objects and represent sonic ideas through the central notion of ‘gesture’. The writers share knowledge on major research projects, musical compositions and methodological tools developed among different disciplines, such as sound art, embodied music cognition, human-computer interaction, performative studies and artificial intelligence. They visualize how similar and compatible are the notions of embodied music cognition and the artistic discourses proposed by musicians working with ‘gesture’ as their compositional material. The authors and editors hope to contribute to the ongoing discussion around creative technologies and music, expressive musical interface design, the debate around the use of AI technology in music practice, as well as presenting a new way of thinking about musical instruments, composing and performing with them

Usability problem reports for comparative studies: consistency and inspectability

The present study explores issues of consistency and inspectability in usability test data analysis processes and reports. Problem reports resulting from usability tests performed by three professional usability labs in three different countries are compared. Each of the labs conducted a usability test on the same product, applying an agreed test protocol that was collaboratively developed by the labs. Each lab first analyzed their own findings as they always do in their regular professional practice. A few weeks later, they again analyzed their findings but then everyone applied the same method (SlimDEVAN: a simplified version of DEVAN, a method developed for facilitating comparison of findings from usability tests in an academic setting). It was found that levels of agreement between labs did not improve when they all used SlimDEVAN there was inherent subjectivity in their analyses. It was found that consistency of single analysts in analyzing their data can be improved by using a method like SlimDEVAN. Such methods can also help in making the analysis process and findings more inspectable. Inspectability is helpful in comparative studies based on identified usability problems because it allows for the traceability of findings to original observations, as well as for laying bare the subjective parts of the data analysis