To signal to continue and following (Uh-uh, umm, ahh)
Farewell rituals
Bye then, seeyou, see you later...
Implicit and Explicit cues
e.g., looking at watch, fidgeting with coat and bags, explicitly saying "Oh dear, must go, look at the time, I'm late..."
Breakdowns in conversation
When someone says something that is misunderstood. Speaker will repeat with emphasis: A: "this one?" B: "no, I meant that one!" Also use tokens: Eh? Huh? What?
Design Implications
How to support conversations when people are 'at a distance' from each other
Many applications have been developed: Email, videoconferencing, videophones, computer conferencing, messaging, chatrooms, collaborative virtual environments, media spaces
Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication
Conversations are supported in real-time through voice and/or typing. Examples include video conferencing and chatrooms.
What is Interaction Design?
Designing interactive products to support people in their everyday and working lives
The design of spaces for human communication and interaction
Benefits of synchronous communication
Can keep more informed of what is going on
Video conferencing allows everyone to see each other providing some support for non-verbal communication
Chatrooms can provide a forum for shy people to talk more
What are the goals?
Develop usable products
Usability means easy to learn, effective to use and provide an enjoyable experience
Involve users in the design process
What to design?
Need to take into account: Who the users are, What activities are being carried out, Where the interaction is taking place
Need to optimise the interactions users have with a product such that they match the users' activities and needs
Problems with synchronous communication
Video lacks bandwidth so judders and lots of shadows
Difficult to establish eye contact with images of others
People can behave badly when behind the mask of an avatar
Asynchronous Communication
Communication takes place remotely at different times. Examples include email, newsgroups, computer conferencing.
Evolution of HCI 'Interfaces'
50s - Interface at the hardware level for engineers - switch panels
60-70s - interface at the programming level - COBOL, FORTRAN
70-90s - Interface at the terminal level - command languages
80s - Interface at the interaction dialogue level - GUIs, multimedia
90s - Interface at the work setting - networked systems, groupware
00s - Interface becomes pervasive - RF tags, Bluetooth technology, mobile devices, consumer electronics, interactive screens, embedded technology
From HCI to Interaction Design (ID)
Interaction Design focuses on designing interactive products to support people in their everyday and working lives
Benefits of asynchronous communication
Read any place any time
Flexible as to how to deal with it
Powerful, can send to many people
Can make saying things easier
Problems with asynchronous communication
FLAMING!!!
Spamming
Message overload
False expectations as to when people will reply
Communication Technologies Move beyond trying to support face-to-face communication. Provide novel ways of interacting and talking.
Examples of novel communication technologies
Online chatting
Collaborative virtual environments
Media spaces
What to design?
Need to take into account: Who the users are, What activities are being carried out, Where the interaction is taking place
Awareness of others
Involves knowing who is around, what is happening, and who is talking with whom
Interaction Design
A process: a goal-directed problem-solving activity informed by intended use, target domain, materials, cost, and feasibility
A creative activity
A decision-making activity to balance trade-offs
Peripheral awareness
Keeping an eye on things happening in the periphery of vision
Need to optimise the interactions users have with a product
Such that they match the users' activities and needs
Interaction Design
A representation: a plan for development
A set of alternatives and successive elaborations
Overhearing and overseeing
Allows tracking of what others are doing without explicit cues
Four Basic Activities in Interaction Design
Identifying needs and establishing requirements
Developing alternative designs
Building interactive versions of the designs
Evaluating designs
Designing technologies to support greater awareness. Provide awareness of others who are in different locations.
Examples of awareness supporting technologies
Media spaces - "extend the world of desks, chairs, walls and ceilings" (Harrison et al, 1997)
Clearboard, Portholes and Cruiser
Three Key Characteristics in Interaction Design
Focus on users early in the design and evaluation of the artefact
Identify, document and agree specific usability and user experience goals
Iteration is inevitable. Designers never get it right first time
Notification systems
Users notify others as opposed to being constantly monitored. Provide information about shared objects and progress of collaborative tasks.
Evolution of HCI 'Interfaces'
50s - Interface at the hardware level for engineers - switch panels
60-70s - interface at the programming level - COBOL, FORTRAN
70-90s - Interface at the terminal level - command languages
80s - Interface at the interaction dialogue level - GUIs, multimedia
90s - Interface at the work setting - networked systems, groupware
00s - Interface becomes pervasive - RF tags, Bluetooth technology, mobile devices, consumer electronics, interactive screens, embedded technology
Human-computer interaction (HCI)
Concerned with thedesign, evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them
Practical Issues in Interaction Design
Who are the users?
What are the users' "needs"?
Where do alternatives come from?
How do you choose among alternatives?
Interaction design (ID)
The design of spaces for human communication and interaction
HCI has generally been about designing efficient and effective systems. Recently, move towards considering how to design interactive systems to make people respond in certain ways e.g., to be happy, to be trusting, to learn, to be motivated.
Increasingly, more application areas, more technologies and more issues to consider when designing 'interfaces'
Three Categories of Users
Primary: frequent hands-on
Secondary: occasional or via someone else
Tertiary: affected by its introduction, or will influence its purchase