Exploratory Research Methods for the Extremely Mobile: Supporting Community Interaction Amongst Backpackers

Mobile communities of backpackers represent a challenging population to study because of frequent and long-duration of movement, distributed group structure, and adventuresome activities. Five types of mobile group studies are presented here, which address challenges posed by this context to existing methods. Methods used include: contextual interviews, site surveys, participatory activities, field trips, team ethnography, contextual questionnaires, and electronic diary methods. The structure of each method is described, reflected upon and recommendations are made for its effective use. Many existing mobile and CSCW methods have difficulties when applied to mobile groups, and many are not designed for exploratory research dealing with product conceptualization or requirements analysis. We propose that improvising with a diverse set of available methods is appropriate for many mobile research situations. It may also be advantageous to use multiple methods which explore different aspects of target user groups' behaviour from a variety of perspectives. Furthermore, piloting studies to test methods with new user groups or situations, and using in-situ methods is advisable

Meet Eater: Affectionate computing, social networks and human-plant interaction

The Meet Eater is a physical computing project which explores how social networks can be used to convey anthropomorphic qualities of an inanimate object. The installation consists of a real garden of plants with a synthetic ecosystem that automatically triggers a water pump when its 'social needs' are being sustained on its own Facebook page

Co-Creating New Mobile Devices for Groups During Field Trips: MIS-2 Study

The second iteration of the Mobile Information Sharing studies (MIS-2) aimed to validate results from the previous study and to introduce mobile low-fidelity prototypes in a natural tourist activity. Seven foam prototypes with fictional functionality descriptions were carried and used by backpackers during the course of a tourist field trip. The trip consisted of walking through a city centre to a boat, taking a boat cruise, walking around an animal park and then taking the same journey back to their hostel. Backpackers added features and discussed these devices in a workshop. Variations to previous research methods included increased use of digital cameras and the use of three simultaneous observers for ethnographic observation. A repetition of the previous social pairing activity was conducted which explored different types of social ties with more participants. Study results include a rich understanding of travel conversation, in-situ effects of mobile device usage, and verification of research methods. Subgroups of participants within the study didn’t communicate much between each other and provided an interesting case of backpackers failing to connect even though they desired to. A field trip representing a typical tourist activity produced a number of situations where mobile device features were requested by participants. The social pairing activity produced some useful information for participants and provided design recommendations for social pairing systems. 11 design requirements for mobile travel devices were generated from observations and discussions with backpackers. Additional analysis produced 23 proposed product features. Recommendations have been made for improvements to the study design and methods for future mobile group research

Social software and interactions in Web design: a contextual interview study of communication tool use in web design businesses

This paper outlines an interview study that was conducted to assist in understanding the role that computer mediated communication tools play in supporting designer-client interaction within web design businesses, in particular the limitations with existing tools used to support these processes. Web designers require continual and rich communications with their clients to inform and develop products which best represent their clients and clients’ target market. The interviews also examine the potential of social software for supporting designer-client communication. There are a number of findings identified by this interview study, in particular the importance of email for designer-client communication, and the reliance on tools that are common between both parties. This results in a reliance on general-purpose tools such as email,which do not effectively support the sharing and discussion around design artifacts. While social software has potential to be a solution to these issues, the dependence on direct client participation limits its potential. In our findings we identify the importance of email within this context, and suggest that social software to support designer-client communication should augment existing methods of communication rather than attempt to replace them

TVTM: A case study and analysis of 3 virtual representations to support remote collaboration within the fashion industry

This paper investigates whether or not virtual representations can support remote collaboration within the fashion industry using a Textual Virtual Tangible Multi-touch (TVTM) system. The software interface for the TVTM system was developed from the results and feedback from a previous study. Two different types of multi-touch technology were deployed for the case study. The paper then covers the nature of the user testing and how it addresses the hypothesis developed from our pilot study, and team expectations of the participants’ selections of a variety of methods to complete their task. The paper presents the data we collected from the user testing including correlation between various different representations, time taken to finish the task and the difficulty ratings for the three levels of representation. The paper concludes by validating our hypothesis against our findings, and looks at some improvements to the current system and some potential features that might be considered for our next prototype

Exploring virtual representations of physical artefacts on collaboration in the clothing industry

This paper explores the issues and potential future directions of remote collaboration within the field of clothing design and manufacturing. We examine the potential of developing a computer system that supports multiple levels of virtual representation (textual, visual and tangible). We first identified the methods and processes of collaboration within the manufacturing and design industries, and evaluate current methods of remote collaboration designed for these environments. From this we conducted an ethnographic study with fashion design students, to examine what forms of collaboration are important when discussing design and manufacturing techniques. From these findings, we have designed, developed and performed a pilot study with a multi-touch interface, utilizing a gestural interface (rather than a traditional GUI), to explore whether collocated natural interactions can be extended remotely via technology

Dialogic shifts: The rhythm and sequence of artefacts in aesthetically informed interaction design practice

Aesthetic accounts of interaction design (Löwgren 2008, Wright et al 2008) acknowledge the importance of the descriptive and dialogic roles that design artefacts play. Yet, much of the focus in this aesthetic turn (Udsen 2005) concerns final designs, or products of the design project. Ephemeral artefacts that are produced in the course of these projects or the design actions by those who created the artefacts inside projects are often omitted and rarely discussed. This paper critically reflects on a project to shed some light on the 'secret life of artifacts' and the role they play through making and using by the project team

Reflections on reflection: blogging in undergraduate design studios

In this paper we describe our experiences introducing weblogs as an online design journal into two design-based IT degrees. We introduced weblogs to support reflection by the students within a studio process. We view this introduction as successful and we have continued using blogs in the subsequent academic year, although we have made some changes to take account of problems with scale, sophistication and effort