User-centred design of flexible hypermedia for a mobile guide: Reflections on the hyperaudio experience

A user-centred design approach involves end-users from the very beginning. Considering users at the early stages compels designers to think in terms of utility and usability and helps develop the system on what is actually needed. This paper discusses the case of HyperAudio, a context-sensitive adaptive and mobile guide to museums developed in the late 90s. User requirements were collected via a survey to understand visitors’ profiles and visit styles in Natural Science museums. The knowledge acquired supported the specification of system requirements, helping defining user model, data structure and adaptive behaviour of the system. User requirements guided the design decisions on what could be implemented by using simple adaptable triggers and what instead needed more sophisticated adaptive techniques, a fundamental choice when all the computation must be done on a PDA. Graphical and interactive environments for developing and testing complex adaptive systems are discussed as a further step towards an iterative design that considers the user interaction a central point. The paper discusses how such an environment allows designers and developers to experiment with different system’s behaviours and to widely test it under realistic conditions by simulation of the actual context evolving over time. The understanding gained in HyperAudio is then considered in the perspective of the developments that followed that first experience: our findings seem still valid despite the passed time

Adaptive hypertext and hypermedia : workshop : proceedings, 3rd, Sonthofen, Germany, July 14, 2001 and Aarhus, Denmark, August 15, 2001

This paper presents two empirical usability studies based on techniques from Human-Computer Interaction (HeI) and software engineering, which were used to elicit requirements for the design of a hypertext generation system. Here we will discuss the findings of these studies, which were used to motivate the choice of adaptivity techniques. The results showed dependencies between different ways to adapt the explanation content and the document length and formatting. Therefore, the system's architecture had to be modified to cope with this requirement. In addition, the system had to be made adaptable, in addition to being adaptive, in order to satisfy the elicited users' preferences

Adaptive hypertext and hypermedia : workshop : proceedings, 3rd, Sonthofen, Germany, July 14, 2001 and Aarhus, Denmark, August 15, 2001

This paper presents two empirical usability studies based on techniques from Human-Computer Interaction (HeI) and software engineering, which were used to elicit requirements for the design of a hypertext generation system. Here we will discuss the findings of these studies, which were used to motivate the choice of adaptivity techniques. The results showed dependencies between different ways to adapt the explanation content and the document length and formatting. Therefore, the system's architecture had to be modified to cope with this requirement. In addition, the system had to be made adaptable, in addition to being adaptive, in order to satisfy the elicited users' preferences

Construction of an adaptive e-learning environment to address learning styles and an investigation of the effect of media choice

This study attempted to combine the benefits of multimedia learning, adaptive interfaces, and learning style theory by constructing a novel e-learning environment. The environment was designed to accommodate individual learning styles while students progressed through a computer programming course. Despite the benefits of individualised instruction and a growing worldwide e-learning market, there is a paucity of guidance on how to effectively accommodate learning styles in an online environment. Several existing learning-style adaptive environments base their behaviour on an initial assessment of the learner's profile, which is then assumed to remain stable. Consequently, these environments rarely offer the learner choices between different versions of content. However, these choices could cater for flexible learning styles, promote cognitive flexibility, and increase learner control. The first research question underlying the project asked how learning styles could be accommodated in an adaptive e-learning environment. The second question asked whether a dynamically adaptive environment that provides the learner with a choice of media experiences is more beneficial than a statically adapted environment. To answer these questions, an adaptive e-learning environment named iWeaver was created and experimentally evaluated. iWeaver was based on an introductory course in Java programming and offered learning content as style-specific media experiences, assisted by additional learning tools. These experiences and tools were based on the perceptual and information processing dimension of an adapted version of the Dunn and Dunn learning styles model. An experimental evaluation of iWeaver was conducted with 63 multimedia students. The analysis investigated the effect of having a choice of multiple media experiences (compared to having just one static media experience) on learning gain, enjoyment, perceived progress, and motivation. In addition to these quantitative measurements, learners provided qualitative feedback at the end of each lesson. Data from 27 participants were sufficiently complete to be analysed. For the data analysis, participants were divided into two groups of high and low interest in programming and Java, then into two groups of high and low experience with computers and the Internet. Both group comparisons revealed statistically significant differences for the effect of choice. Having a choice of media experiences proved beneficial for learners with low experience but detrimental for learners with high experience or interest. These findings suggest that the effect of choice appears to be strongly influenced by the learner's background. It is hypothesised that encouraging a more active learner role in educational systems would expand the positive influence of choice to a wider range of learners. The study has contributed some weight to the argument that for certain groups of learners, it is more beneficial to view learning style as a flexible, rather than a stable construct. As a practical implication, it seems advisable to collect data on prior experience, interest, and the initial learning style distribution of the target audience before developing environments comparable to iWeaver

Using mobile personalisation to enhance the user experience at large sporting events

At large sporting events (LSEs), e.g. football matches and athletics events, the user experience has been shown to be highly variable (Nilsson, 2004; Nilsson et al. 2004). Reported problems include a lack of social interaction with fellow spectators, and insufficient relevant information on the events or the sporting action taking place (Nilsson, 2004; Nilsson et al. 2004; Esbjornsson et al. 2006; Jacucci et al. 2005). A possible solution is personalisation, making the mobile application adapt to the user, ensuring that only relevant information is retrieved and presented in a way that is suitable. This thesis is devoted to studying the user experience related to mobile personalization at LSEs. It aims to investigate how personalized mobile applications at LSEs can render the user experience more active and engaging in a contextually, socially and culturally relevant way. The thesis reviews different theoretical approaches to help to understand the concepts of interest e.g. personalization and user experience (Chapter 2). Research methods are also discussed including the challenge of adapting user-centred methods into the Chinese culture (Chapter 3). This thesis investigates the user experience of mobile personalization at LSEs by following the circle of user-centred research: It starts to consider user requirements and user experience at LSEs and derives the usage patterns that personalized mobile applications could usefully support (Chapter 4). Then it explores the relevant contextual factors at LSEs which could be used to prescribe the behaviour of a personalizable mobile application (Chapter 5). Next, it describes the user-centred process used to design personalizable interfaces for mobile applications used at LSEs. Four key elements of design are considered: content, conceptual, interaction and presentation design (Chapter 6). The final outputs of the design process were two personalized mobile prototypes for Chinese users at LSEs. These included versions based on either (1) user-initiated or (2) system-initiated personalisation. Finally it investigates the impact on user experience of mobile personalization at LSEs in two empirical studies (a field experiment and a lab-based experiment) with these prototypes (Chapters 7 and 8). Mobile personalization is shown to result in an enriched user experience across a range of activities that a spectator would undertake at a large sporting event. The thesis discusses primarily the effective design of mobile personalization, the design implications at LSEs, user experience design, and research methods for Chinese users (Chapter 9). In conclusion (Chapter 10), specific contributions and avenues for future work are highlighted.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Museum, memories and digital stories : A liminal space for human computer interaction.

Objects, material or digital, mediate memories: they act as anchors in between temporal notions and relations of past and present. Through those objects of memory, the act of remembering occurs neither completely relived in the mind, nor fully captured in the medium. Essential to personal memories, objects represent also our collective memory and capture our social history.The papers submitted for this PhD by selected publications look at the design of innovative technology that can make remembering more evocative and affective. They look at both museums, where digital and material are combined in an augmented reality, and personal/family contexts, where the home and mundane objects can be technologically enhanced to encapsulate digital memories.The museum was ideal to experiment with hybrid settings that combine material (the collection and the architectural space) and digital (the information) (papers 1 to 3). Personalization of information was used to augment the reality of rooms and exhibits: whole body interaction (i.e. physical movements in the space) was used to select and personalize the content and engage visitors with both material (the object) and digital (the information). Although the mobile technology is dated, these papers show the value of combining digital and physical to provide a holistic experience that made visitors wonder. Where the fusion occurs, however, is in the digital technology. To balance this perspective, paper 4 looks at the effect of taking the digital content out into the exhibition space. My recent research (papers 5-9) looks at objects of memory in the personal realm, in particular in the family home. Starting from observing the role and function of mementos, I conclude that a more holistic and organic approach has to be taken to make personal digital objects of memory more present in people's life. Materialization can be achieved with digital devices designed for individual and family use, so that the product fits with the mundane aspects of life, is immediate, and stimulates affect, not efficiency.Finally papers 10 and 11 provide evidence of the innovative methodologies I have developed and successfully used in iterative user studies and evaluations across different research projects and many years of research. As a whole this submission shows that there is a huge design space to explore in looking at how technology could be used in public or private spaces to bring together the two aspects of memory: remembering in the mind and capturing through objects, in order to preserve our digital life as tangible interactive objects