Systems, interactions and macrotheory

A significant proportion of early HCI research was guided by one very clear vision: that the existing theory base in psychology and cognitive science could be developed to yield engineering tools for use in the interdisciplinary context of HCI design. While interface technologies and heuristic methods for behavioral evaluation have rapidly advanced in both capability and breadth of application, progress toward deeper theory has been modest, and some now believe it to be unnecessary. A case is presented for developing new forms of theory, based around generic “systems of interactors.” An overlapping, layered structure of macro- and microtheories could then serve an explanatory role, and could also bind together contributions from the different disciplines. Novel routes to formalizing and applying such theories provide a host of interesting and tractable problems for future basic research in HCI

Research Methods for HCI: Understanding People Using Interactive Technologies

This course will provide an introduction to methods used in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research. An equal focus will be given to both the quantitative and qualitative research traditions used to understand people and interactional contexts. We shall discuss these major philosophical traditions along with their contemporary framings (e.g., in-the-wild research and Interaction Science). By the end of the course attendees will have a detailed understanding of how to select and apply methods to address a range of problems that are of concern to contemporary HCI researchers

Perspectives on Bayesian Optimization for HCI

In this position paper we discuss optimization in the HCI domain based on our experiences with Bayesian methods for modeling and optimization of audio systems, including challenges related to evaluating, designing, and optimizing such interfaces. We outline and demonstrate how a combined Bayesian modeling and optimization approach provides a flexible framework for integrating various user and content attributes, while also supporting model-based optimization of HCI systems. Finally, we discuss current and future research direction and applications, such as inferring user needs and optimizing interfaces for computer assisted teaching

Exploring Participatory Design Methods to Engage with Arab Communities

ArabHCI is an initiative inaugurated in CHI17 SIG Meeting that brought together 45+ HCI Arab and non-Arab researchers/practitioners who are conducting/interested in HCI within Arab communities. The goal of this workshop is to start dialogs that leverage our "insider" understanding of HCI research in the Arab context and assert our culture identity in design in order to explore challenges and opportunities for future research. In this workshop, we focus on one of the themes that derived our community discussions in most of the held events. We explore the extent to which participatory approaches in the Arab context are culturally and methodologically challenged. Our goal is to bring researchers/practitioners with success and failure stories while designing with Arab communities to discuss methods, share experiences and learned lessons. We plan to share the results of our discussions and research agenda with the wider CHI community through different social and scholarly channels

A qualititative approach to HCI research

Whilst science has a strong reliance on quantitative and experimental methods, there are many complex, socially based phenomena in HCI that cannot be easily quantified or experimentally manipulated or, for that matter, ethically researched with experiments. For example, the role of privacy in HCI is not obviously reduced to numbers and it would not be appropriate to limit a person's privacy in the name of research. In addition, technology is rapidly changing – just think of developments in mobile devices, tangible interfaces and so on – making it harder to abstract technology from the context of use if we are to study it effectively. Developments such as mediated social networking and the dispersal of technologies in ubiquitous computing also loosen the connection between technologies and work tasks that were the traditional cornerstone of HCI. Instead, complex interactions between technologies and ways of life are coming to the fore. Consequently, we frequently find that we do not know what the real HCI issues are before we start our research. This makes it hard, if not actually impossible, to define the variables necessary to do quantitative research, (see Chapter 2). Within HCI, there is also the recognition that the focus on tasks is not enough to design and implement an effective system. There is also a growing need to understand how usability issues are subjectively and collectively experienced and perceived by different user groups (Pace, 2004; Razavim and Iverson, 2006). This means identifying the users' emotional and social drives and perspectives; their motivations, expectations, trust, identity, social norms and so on. It also means relating these concepts to work practices, communities and organisational social structures as well as organisational, economic and political drivers. These issues are increasingly needed in the design, development and implementation of systems to be understood both in isolation and as a part of the whole. HCI researchers are therefore turning to more qualitative methods in order to deliver the research results that HCI needs.With qualitative research, the emphasis is not on measuring and producing numbers but instead on understanding the qualities of a particular technology and how people use it in their lives, how they think about it and how they feel about it. There are many varied approaches to qualitative research within the social sciences depending on what is being studied, how it can be studied and what the goals of the research are.Within HCI, though, grounded theory has been found to provide good insights that address well the issues raised above (Pace, 2004; Adams, Blandford and Lunt, 2005; Razavim and Iverson, 2006). The purpose of this chapter is to give an overview of how grounded theory works as a method. Quantitative research methods adopt measuring instruments and experimental manipulations that can be repeated by any researcher (at least in principle) and every effort is made to reduce the influence of the researcher on the researched, which is regarded as a source of bias or error. In contrast, in qualitative research, where the goal is understanding rather than measuring and manipulating, the subjectivity of the researcher is an essential part of the production of an interpretation. The chapter therefore discusses how the influence of the researcher can be ameliorated through the grounded theory methodology whilst also acknowledging the subjective input of the researcher through reflexivity. The chapter also presents a case study of how grounded theory was used in practice to study people's use and understanding of computer passwords and related security

The Systematic Review-lution: A Manifesto to Promote Rigour and Inclusivity in Research Synthesis

The field of human-computer interaction (HCI) is maturing. Systematic reviews, a staple of many disciplines, play an important and often essential role in how each field contributes to human knowledge. On this prospect, we argue that our meta-level approach to research within HCI needs a revolution. First, we echo previous calls for greater rigour in primary research reporting with a view towards supporting knowledge synthesis in secondary research. Second, we must decide as a community how to carry out systematic review work in light of the many ways that knowledge is produced within HCI (rigour in secondary research methods and epistemological inclusivity). In short, our manifesto is this: we need to develop and make space for an inclusive but rigorous set of standards that supports systematic review work in HCI, through careful consideration of both primary and secondary research methods, expectations, and infrastructure. We call for any and all fellow systematic review-lutionaries to join us.Comment: 11 page

Examining the use of visualisation methods for the design of interactive systems

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) design has historically involved people from different fields. Designing HCI systems with people of varying background and expertise can bring different perspectives and ideas, but discipline-specific language and design methods can hinder such collaborations. The application of visualisation methods is a way to overcome these challenges, but to date selection tools tend to focus on a facet of HCI design methods and no research has been attempted to assemble a collection of HCI visualisation methods. To fill this gap, this research seeks to establish an inventory of HCI visualisation methods and identify ways of selecting amongst them. Creating the inventory of HCI methods would enable designers to discover and learn about methods that they may not have used before or be familiar with. Categorising the methods provides a structure for new and experienced designers to determine appropriate methods for their design project. The aim of this research is to support designers in the development of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) systems through better selection and application of visualisation methods. This is achieved through four phases. In the first phase, three case studies are conducted to investigate the challenges and obstacles that influence the choice of a design approach in the development of HCI systems. The findings from the three case studies helped to form the design requirements for a visualisation methods selection and application guide. In the second phase, the Guide is developed. The third phase aims to evaluate the Guide. The Guide is employed in the development of a serious training game to demonstrate its applicability. In the fourth phase, a user study was designed to evaluate the serious training game. Through the evaluation of the serious training game, the Guide is validated. This research has contributed to the knowledge surrounding visualisation tools used in the design of interactive systems. The compilation of HCI visualisation methods establishes an inventory of methods for interaction design. The identification of Selection Approaches brings together the ways in which visualisation methods are organised and grouped. By mapping visualisation methods to Selection Approaches, this study has provided a way for practitioners to select a visualisation method to support their design practice. The development of the Selection Guide provided five filters, which helps designers to identify suitable visualisation methods based on the nature of the design challenge. The development of the Application Guide presented the methodology of each visualisation method in a consistent format. This enables the ease of method comparison and to ensure there is comprehensive information for each method. A user study showing the evaluation of a serious training game is presented. Two learning objectives were identified and mapped to Bloom’s Taxonomy to advocate an approach for like-to-like comparison with future studies

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

A longitudinal review of Mobile HCI research Methods

This paper revisits a research methods survey from 2003 and contrasts it with a survey from 2010. The motivation is to gain insight about how mobile HCI research has evolved over the last decade in terms of approaches and focus. The paper classifies 144 publications from 2009 published in 10 prominent outlets by their research methods and purpose. Comparing this to the survey for 2000-02 show that mobile HCI research has changed methodologically. From being almost exclusively driven by engineering and applied research, current mobile HCI is primarily empirically driven, involves a high number of field studies, and focus on evaluating and understanding, as well as engineering. It has also become increasingly multi-methodological, combining and diversifying methods from different disciplines. At the same time, new opportunities and challenges have emerged

The Potential of Neuroscience for Human-Computer Interaction Research

Due to the increased availability of both neuroscience methods and theories, Information Systems (IS) scholars have begun to investigate the potential of neuroscience for IS research. This new field of research is referred to as NeuroIS. Moreover, large technology companies (e.g., Microsoft and Philips) started research programs to evaluate the potential of neuroscience for their business. The application of neuroscientific approaches is also expected to significantly contribute to advancements in human-computer interaction (HCI) research. Against this background, a panel debate is organized to discuss the potential of neuroscience for HCI studies. The panel hosts an intellectual debate from different perspectives, both conceptually (from behaviorally-oriented research to design science research) and methodologically (from brain imaging to neurophysiological techniques), thereby outlining many facets that neuroscience offers for HCI research. The panel concludes that neuroscience has the potential to become an important reference discipline for the field of HCI in the future