Thirdspace: the Trialectics of the Real, Virtual and Blended Spaces

This article aims to redefine the concept of Thirdspace and make a trilateral relationship between the three concepts of real space, virtual space and the user. To do so, not only the concept of Thirdspace has to be redefined, but also a new understanding of virtual space as a relatively independent space is required. This three-sided relation requires a new understanding of the relationship between the body and virtual space. Special attention is paid to the role of the body in the relationship between the user and virtual space through a phenomenological approach. Borderline spaces - VR technology and video games such as Pokémon Go - which are resulted from the interpenetration of real and virtual spaces have been considered as the new edges of interaction between real and virtual spaces and they are on a constant rise. This article's key question is if using the concept of Thirdspace, one could build a bridge on the theoretical gap between real and virtual spaces and better understand the confrontation of the user with real, virtual and borderline spaces as well as their lived experiences. The authors believe that the answers are positive. This understanding paves the way not only to help the users improve their life skills for today's real-virtual world but also to manage the stresses caused by living in such surroundings

Knowledge and Reasoning in Spatial Analysis

Reasoning is an essential part of any analysis process. Especially in visual analytics, the quality of the results depends heavily on the knowledge and reasoning skills of the analyst. In this study, we consider how to make the results transparent by visualizing the reasoning and the knowledge, so that persons from outside can trace and verify them. The focus of this study is in spatial analysis and a case study was carried out on a process of off-road mobility analysis. In the case study, linked views of a map and a PCP were identified as reasoning artifacts. The knowledge used by the analyst was formed by these artifacts and the tangible pieces of information identified in them, along with the mental models of the analyst′s mind. To make the results transparent, the tangible pieces of information were marked with sketches and the mental models were presented in causal graphs because it was found that causality was central to the reasoning process in the case study. The causal graph allows the reasoning of the analyst to be studied, as well as traced back to its origin.Peer reviewe

Digital touch: towards a novel user-experience design pedagogy

HCI and Industrial Design are both disciplines that are currently experiencing radical transformation in terms of their identity and scope. HCI has moved beyond its origins in human factors and cognitive psychology towards the proactive and generative design of experience. Industrial Design has similarly evolved from a concern with physical form and function-giving solutions to the holistic design considerations of the user’s experience. Given the complexity and scale of this shifting design landscape, the response of design education must shift in methods and learning and teaching objectives. This paper provides the Design and Technology Education community with a research case study of innovation within HCI education, here situated within the broader context of Industrial Design education. We present a novel pedagogy for designing digital touch communications, developed through an interdisciplinary collaboration of HCI, Industrial Design, and Social Science academics, and advanced through a coursework assignment for 64 undergraduate Industrial Design and Technology students undertaking a User-Experience Design module at the [AUTHOR] (UK). We discuss the role of low-fidelity experience prototyping of digital touch interactions beyond screens, and the limitations of such an approach when engaged with by novice designers with entrenched material science understanding. We conclude the paper with a call for new educational ‘tools’ to support and scaffold both the learning and teaching of design for digital touch experiences within a User-Experience Design context, and we offer our development of a Designing Digital Touch Toolkit as one such tool