Research for Design of Playful Mobile Services for Social Experiences between Nearby Strangers

Having positive interpersonal interactions is a fundamental human need and source of well-being. While fulfilling this need is usually associated with strong ties, research has shown that meaningful social experiences are not limited to those. This research explores the largely untapped social potential of nearby strangers and ways that mobile services can be designed to take advantage of these social opportunities. Play and playfulness appear to be particularly worthwhile ways to achieve this end: play is meaningful in itself (i.e., does not require an external goal) and takes place outside the context of real life. In addition, playful design tends to make digital services more engaging. This research focuses on playfulness as a design quality and explores the social implications of playful mobile services for nearby strangers. This doctoral thesis asks two research questions: What kind of social experiences emerge between nearby strangers from the use of playful mobile services? How can playful mobile services be designed to encourage social experiences between nearby strangers? The research contributes to the field of human-computer interaction and provides insights into mobile service design through six research articles. Two of the studies charted expected experiences with early-stage mobile application concepts for playful interaction between nearby strangers. One of these concepts was further developed into a fully functional mobile application, and a large-scale, in-the-wild study was arranged to explore the actual social experiences it generated. Two of the studies investigated social experiences between nearby strangers in the context of commercial mobile games. The sixth study explored the design space of playful interactions between nearby strangers through co-design workshops. The playful mobile services investigated in this research were found to induce various behaviors that resulted in social experiences between nearby strangers. Examples of such behaviors are the active exploration of the outside world, community building, communicating and collaborating with strangers, and interacting in crowds. I found that playful and social experiences such as competition, surprise, curiosity, inspiration, and benevolence motivated individuals to use these services

Playfulness and progression in technology-enhanced social experiences between nearby strangers

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Mapping Communicative Activity: A CHAT Approach to Design of Pseudo- Intelligent Mediators for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)

The development of AAC technologies is of critical importance to the many people who are unable to speak intelligibly (or at all) due to a communication disorder, and to their many everyday interlocutors. Advances in digital technologies have revolutionized AAC, leading to devices that can “speak for” such individuals as aptly as it is illustrated in the case of the world famous physicist, Stephen Hawking. However, given their dependence on prefabricated language (and constant management by teams of people), current AAC devices are very limited in their ability to mediate everyday interactions. We argue here that the limits of AAC are firstly theoretical — grounded in prosthetic models that imagine AAC devices as replacements for damaged body parts and in transmission models of language production as communication. In contrast, our multidisciplinary team aims to design pseudo-intelligent mediators (PIMs) of communication by blending strengths of human mediators with features of current AAC technologies. To inform the design process, we report here our initial situated studies focusing on the distributed nature of everyday communicative activities conducted with potential AAC/PIM users. Our analysis focuses on the discursive alignments of these participants and their interlocutors, attending especially to the various ways their personal aides function as human mediators. Specifically, we focus on mapping the communicative activity around each of these differently-abled individuals (the majority of whom have cerebral palsy) as they navigated a university campus. We profile the everyday interactional patterns within functional systems and across settings, and present close discourse analysis of one interaction to highlight the diverse roles personal aides adopted in mediating communication. Finally, we argue that attending to differently “abled” bodies as they move through everyday communicative environments pushes CHAT to more fully theorize physicality, individual mobilities, and the roles of bodies in the laminated assemblage of functional systems.

Installations, disruption of technology, and performing play:a social play design portfolio

Installations, Disruption of Technology, & Performing Play (IDTPP) is a portfolio of original play interventions created between 2014 and 2020 that sought to instigate connections between people through the shared experience of play. The portfolio comprises practice-based research projects, with outputs in digital and analogue forms that have been showcased internationally. Each contribution interrogates the application of social play design strategies within set design constraints. As a result, IDTPP presents a rigorous examination of design practices for play that aims to bring people together in the same space. IDTPP is informed by engagement with digital game design practices, pervasive games, street games, installation, video game curation, play theories, and user experience design. The portfolio is structured around specific design constraints such as: access (limited timeframes vs extended timeframes); permission (low level vs high levels of participation); setting (how play can be helped or hindered by its site); and social technology (easing or highlighting social interaction). The constraints for each project are sequential and interdependent, with the learning from one project feeding into the research questions of the next. Findings have been drawn from analysis of the work, drawing upon artist-as-researcher reflections, critical evaluation, and user feedback. IDTPP makes a significant contribution to knowledge by demonstrating that play, in its many forms, has social benefits, whilst also mapping out audience and site-specific design strategies that can be applied by other practitioners in the field. The significance of the design concepts within IDTPP has been recognised, through an invitation to showcase social play on BBC Click Live in 2019, the formation of a partnership with Cadbury Heroes in 2020 to promote the benefits of social play for creating connections and addressing isolation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the commission of a large-scale installation for socially distant play at V&A Dundee

An Investigation into Playful Interactive Experiences within Public Space

This investigation aimed to produce methods of regeneration for underutilised public areas, encouraging social and spatial interactions through play permission. Approached from an interdisciplinary perspective, design and artistic installation merge with social science. Central skills of communication develop at a young age where play is a major contributor, but in a globalised world interactions are increasingly ‘virtual’ rather than physical. Research hypothesis suggests playful designs as catalysts for change will alter spatial usage and user perceptions, thus creating exciting places for public life. Ideally a ‘playful interactive experience’ is seemingly humorous participatory design unexpectedly intervening with public space, allowing participation with an ephemeral experience. Investigation contributions are frameworks for the creation and evaluation of playful interactive experiences, to be utilised at academic or professional levels, aiming for: playful environment creation, and analysis of user interactions. Design for research methodology tested framework parameters through the utilisation of design artefacts. Multiple methods were employed to triangulate results: onsite questionnaires, focus groups, and professional interviews provided the study with public and professional opinions. Secondly, observational behavioural mapping displays visual and statistical outcomes for data comparison. Modified user perception, increased usage and positive social engagements reveal that: play permission implemented correctly is a successful method for place creation. Conclusions indicate that humorous outcomes can be enjoyed by all as economic, fun and non traditional solutions to ‘placemaking.’ Findings allowed for framework development in their concluding form. Future recommendations suggest a handbook detailing the playful interactive experience. New questions prompt discussions into: impacts on anti-social behaviour, continued employment over greater time periods and additional spatial settings. This research was carried out by De Montfort University, aided by Frederick University and Urban Gorillas, NGO. It was an investigation into playful interactive experiences with intentions of improving sociability and perceptions, promoting creativity and usage within underutilised public spaces

Designing to support impression management

This work investigates impression management and in particular impression management using ubiquitous technology. Generally impression management is the process through which people try to influence the impressions that others have about them. In particular, impression management focuses on the flow of information between a performer and his/her audience, with control over what is presented to whom being of the utmost importance when trying to create the appropriate impression. Ubiquitous technology has provided opportunities for individuals to present themselves to others. However, the disconnection between presenter and audience over both time and space can result in individuals being misrepresented. This thesis outlines two important areas when trying to control the impression one gives namely, hiding and revealing, and accountability. By exploring these two themes the continuous evolution and dynamic nature of controlling the impression one gives is explored. While this ongoing adaptation is recognised by designers they do not always create technology that is sufficiently dynamic to support this process. As a result, this work attempts to answer three research questions: RQ1: How do users of ubicomp systems appropriate recorded data from their everyday activity and make it into a resource for expressing themselves to others in ways that are dynamically tailored to their ongoing social context and audience? RQ2: What technology can be built to support ubicomp system developers to design and develop systems to support appropriation as a central part of a useful or enjoyable user experience? RQ3: What software architectures best suit this type of appropriated interaction and developers’ designing to support such interaction? Through a thorough review of existing literature, and the extensive study of several large ubicomp systems, the issues when presenting oneself through technology are identified. The main issues identified are hiding and revealing, and accountability. These are built into a framework that acts as a reference for designers wishing to support impression management. An architecture for supporting impression management has also been developed that conforms to this framework and its evolution is documented later in the thesis. A demonstration of this architecture in a multi-player mobile experience is subsequently presented