Exploring Navigation: Towards a Framework for Design and Evaluation of Navigation in Electronic Spaces

PERSONA is an acronym for PERsonal and SOcial NAvigation. The name of the project illustrates its two-fold approach; studying the individual cognitive, social and cultural differences in navigational ability and recognizing that computer users are social beings in interacting with other people as they make their way through information spaces. Based on this understanding we are developing new approaches to interactive system design. One of these is to identify how and where we can adapt to the individual person's needs. At the same time we are developing alternative approaches to system design, breaking away from the lonely 'walker in the woods' picture of the information system user, to a social being able to interact with other users and so get help in achieving their goals. In this first deliverable from the project, we present a comprehensive review of literature which we see as having an impact on navigation in information space. This volume contains a number of individual and co-authored papers covering various aspects of geographic and electronic spaces and on navigation in geographic and electronic spaces; Individual and cultural differences; Social aspects of navigation; Design based on alternative or complimentary approaches that we believe hold the promise of making interfaces and systems more navigable

Understanding the use of urban green spaces from user-generated geographic information

Parks and other green spaces are an important part of sustainable, healthy and socially equal urban environment. Urban planning and green space management benefit from information about green space use and values, but such data are often scarce and laborious to collect. Temporally dynamic geographic information generated by different mobile devices and social media platforms are a promising source of data for studying green spaces. User-generated data have, however, platform specific characteristics that limit their potential use. In this article, we compare the ability of different user-generated data sets to provide information on where, when and how people use and value urban green spaces. We compare four types of data: social media, sports tracking, mobile phone operator and public participation geographic information systems (PPGIS) data in a case study from Helsinki, Finland. Our results show that user-generated geographic information sources provide useful insights about being in, moving through and perceiving urban green spaces, as long as evident limitations and sample biases are acknowledged. Social media data highlight patterns of leisure time activities and allow further content analysis. Sports tracking data and mobile phone data capture green space use at different times of the day, including commuting through the parks. PPGIS studies allow asking specific questions from active participants, but might be limited in spatial and temporal extent. Combining information from multiple user-generated data sets complements traditional data sources and provides a more comprehensive understanding of green space use and preferences.Peer reviewe

Introduction : Digital diversity, ideology, and the politics of a writing revolution

This chapter outlines some key theoretical directions important for studying writing and literacies in digital cultures. Digital Futures articulates new perspectives concerning the ethical, sensorial, and critical elements of writing and literacies, and contemporary debates at the nexus of literacies and digital rhetoric that have direct relevance to the social construction of authorial identities for youth and other writers in education contexts. Digital Diversity brings together the work of scholars from around the world to address issues of inclusion in contemporary writing and literacies research, from race to gender, and to the geographical displacement of refugees. Digital Spaces shifts the focus to social spaces that discursively shape, and which are shaped by, writing and literacies practices. Digital Ethics debates current ethical concerns associated with the social and ethical risks of children and young people's access to information on the Internet

The Impact of Spatial Design on the Learning Process and Students' Socialisation: A study of secondary schools within the UK

The last century has witnessed an evolution in our understanding of learning from being a spoon-feeding process towards a process based on the ability of the human mind to receive information, construct knowledge and gain understand according to the learner’s perceptions (Brown, 2004). However, the spatial relation between the learning process and the physical environment is less well understood. This research attempts to focus on learning in schools, while aiming to understand the spatial impact of the building design on the students’ learning process. The academic life of students inside the school premises is deeply entangled with social patterns. Consequently, the research considers the spatial dimension of both learning and socialisation of the students. Nine secondary schools in the UK are presented as a comparative case study based on quantitative analysis of the school buildings. Space syntax analysis is the key criterion of evaluation, supported by studying the organisation of various spatial components (circulation, courtyards, social and learning spaces). The research highlights the important role of the spatial design and configuration. The paper explains the spatial potential within the school building design that is argued to stimulate the students’ socialisation patterns. Moreover, it unveils the potential within the spaces that contributes to students’ learning, while focusing on how the design of the learning spaces and their layouts could accommodate the learning process inside the school. The results of studying the nine school buildings show that there is a moderately strong correlation between the syntactic measure utilised in the analysis (Visual Mean Depth) and the performance of the students within each school. The study proposes that the configurational analysis should become part of the original school design process to help understand the possibilities of the students’ social activities and mixing patterns. Additionally, it is concluded that learning spaces should be designed to afford various learning formats, not to be limited to the typical classroom layout

Discrete Strategies in Keyword Auctions and Their Inefficiency for Locally Aware Bidders

We study formally discrete bidding strategies for the game induced by the Generalized Second Price keyword auction mechanism. Such strategies have seen experimental evaluation in the recent literature as parts of iterative best response procedures, which have been shown not to converge. We give a detailed definition of iterative best response under these strategies and, under appropriate discretization of the players' strategy spaces we find that the discretized configurations space {\em contains} socially optimal pure Nash equilibria. We cast the strategies under a new light, by studying their performance for bidders that act based on local information; we prove bounds for the worst-case ratio of the social welfare of locally stable configurations, relative to the socially optimum welfare

What Are They Doing Anyway?: Library as Place and Student Use of a University Library

Objective - To determine student use of library spaces, the authors recorded student location and behaviors within the Library, to inform future space design. Methods - The case study method was used with both quantitative and qualitative measures. The authors had two objectives to guide this assessment of library spaces: 1) To determine what library spaces are being used by students and whether students are working individually, communally, or collaboratively and 2) To determine whether students use these spaces for learning activities and/or social engagement. Results - After data collection and analysis, the authors determined students are using individual or communal spaces almost equally as compared with collaborative group spaces. Data also revealed peak area usage and times. Conclusion - Observed student individual and social work habits indicate further need for spaces with ample electrical outlets and moveable tables. Further study is recommended to see whether additional seating and renovated spaces continue to enhance informal learning communities at URI and whether the Library is becoming a “third place” on campus

Exploring the linguistic landscape of geotagged social media content in urban environments

This article explores the linguistic landscape of social media posts associated with specific geographic locations using computational methods. Because physical and virtual spaces have become increasingly intertwined due to location-aware mobile devices, we propose extending the concept of linguistic landscape to cover both physical and virtual environments. To cope with the high volume of social media data, we adopt computational methods for studying the richness and diversity of the virtual linguistic landscape, namely, automatic language identification and topic modelling, together with diversity indices commonly used in ecology and information sciences. We illustrate the proposed approach in a case study covering nearly 120,000 posts uploaded on Instagram over 4.5 years at the Senate Square in Helsinki, Finland. Our analysis reveals the richness and diversity of the virtual linguistic landscape, which is also shown to be susceptible to continuous change.Peer reviewe

Reducing Hardships: Student Motivations, Educational Workflows, and Technology Choices in Academic Settings

Objective – This study examines The University of Manitoba student attitudes toward technology’s role in University study spaces and in their own educational workflows. Methods - A series of semi-structured group interviews were conducted with current undergraduate and graduate students at The University of Manitoba. Three group interviews were conducted with questions about individual technology and space use while studying in the library, and three group interviews were conducted with questions about group collaboration using technologies and tools in group study spaces. Transcripts were coded iteratively and separately by the researchers, analyzed for interrater reliability, categorized, and reviewed using axial coding to identify major themes. Through continued examination of these themes, a single theory emerged. Results - The participants expressed a strong need for independence and feelings of control over their workflows, technological tools, and environments. They discussed how interpersonal concerns and anxieties motivated their workflow choices and acknowledged the (often conflicting) motivational forces of personal necessity and personal preference. When examining the motivations behind the selection of technologies and work practices, it became clear that the respondents make technology and workflow decisions in an attempt to minimize their experience of perceived hardships. These perceived hardships could be social, emotional, educational, environmental, or temporal in nature, and the weight of any one hardship on decision making varied according to the individual. Conclusions - Libraries should be aware of this foundational user motivation and make choices accordingly - identifying and minimizing hardships whenever possible, unless they are necessary to achieve learning or service-specific goals. Additional research is required to help articulate the nuances experienced by particular student demographics. Librarians and future researchers should also consider investigating the potential disconnect between librarian and user attitudes toward technology, the prioritization of user-centered decision-making, and whether or not systematically disadvantaged social groups have different attitudes toward technology and its place in library spaces and academic work.https://journal.lib.uoguelph.ca/index.php/perj/article/view/545