Alessandro Marcengo

Interacting with social networks of intelligent things and people in the world of gastronomy

This article introduces a framework for creating rich augmented environments based on a social web of intelligent things and people. We target outdoor environments, aiming to transform a region into a smart environment that can share its cultural heritage with people, promoting itself and its special qualities. Using the applications developed in the framework, people can interact with things, listen to the stories that these things tell them, and make their own contributions. The things are intelligent in the sense that they aggregate information provided by users and behave in a socially active way. They can autonomously establish social relationships on the basis of their properties and their interaction with users. Hence when a user gets in touch with a thing, she is also introduced to its social network consisting of other things and of users; she can navigate this network to discover and explore the world around the thing itself. Thus the system supports serendipitous navigation in a network of things and people that evolves according to the behavior of users. An innovative interaction model was defined that allows users to interact with objects in a natural, playful way using smartphones without the need for a specially created infrastructure.n The framework was instantiated into a suite of applications called WantEat, in which objects from the domain of tourism and gastronomy (such as cheese wheels or bottles of wine) are taken as testimonials of the cultural roots of a region. WantEat includes an application that allows the definition and registration of things, a mobile application that allows users to interact with things, and an application that supports stakeholders in getting feedback about the things that they have registered in the system. WantEat was developed and tested in a real-world context which involved a region and gastronomy-related items from it (such as products, shops, restaurants, and recipes), through an early evaluation with stakeholders and a final evaluation with hundreds of users.

Playing in the wild: enhancing user engagement in field evaluation methods

In this paper we want to describe the possibility to introduce game mechanics within the methodologies commonly used in the evaluations of interactive systems. Through the set up of a gamified user field test we intended to show how it is possible to increase the engagement and self-motivation of people that take part in evaluation activities.

Using game mechanics for field evaluation of prototype social applications: a novel methodology

This paper describes a novel methodology to evaluate a social media application in its formative phase of design. Taking advantage of the experiences developed in the Alternate Reality Games, we propose to insert game mechanics in the test setting of a formative evaluation of a prototypical social system. As a use case, we present the evaluation of WantEat, a prototypical social mobile application in the gastronomical domain. The evaluation highlighted how the gamification of a field trial can yield good results when evaluating social applications in prototypical status. From a methodological point of view, gamifying a field trial overcomes the cold start problem, caused by the absence of active communities, which can prevent the participation of users and therefore the collection of reliable data. Our experience showed that the gamification of a field evaluation is feasible and can likely increase the quantity of both browsing actions and social actions performed by users. Based on these results, we then are able to provide a set of guidelines to gamify the evaluation session of an interactive system.

Personas Layering: A Cost Effective Model for Service Design in Medium-Long Term Telco Research Projects

Creating a set of Personas requires a considerable effort. Socio-psychological characteristic must be very punctually defined, needs and goals must also be well investigated and related to the service that will be designed. The accurate collection and processing of this large amount of qualitative and quantitative data represents often a huge cost. In our research area, which deals mainly with medium to long term telco projects, we developed a Personas layering model that allows us to adapt them over different contexts. The model consists in two main elements; the basic Persona and the external layer. In this paper we gave a practical application of our model within different projects developed in our research area. The benefits that arise from this model are the durability of Personas, their re-use in different contexts, the modularity of components and their possible recombination, thus reducing costs while maintaining excellent design insights.

The Falsified Self: Complexities in Personal Data Collection

Personal Informatics systems collect personal information in order to trigger self-reflection and improve self-knowledge. Users can now choose among different wearable devices for collecting these data according to their needs and desires. These tools exploit not only different shapes and physical forms, but also diverse technologies and algorithms, which may impact the effectiveness of data gathering. In this paper we explored whether there are significant differences in their reported measures and how these can impact the user experience, along with the perceived accuracy of the gathered data and the perceived reliability of the device. To this aim, we carried out an autoethnography which lasted 4 weeks, monitoring the number of steps and the distance covered during the day and the sleep period through different wearables. The results showed that there are wide differences among diverse tools and these differences greatly influence how data collected and devices used are perceived.

Designing a personal informatics system for users without experience in self-tracking: a case study

ABSTRACT Thanks to the advancements in ubiquitous and wearable technologies, Personal Informatics (PI) systems can now reach a larger audience of users. However, it is not still clear whether this kind of tool can fit the needs of their daily lives. Our research aims at identifying specific barriers that may prevent the widespread adoption of PI and finding solutions to overcome them. We requested users without competence in self-tracking to use different PI instruments during their daily practices, identifying five user requirements by which to design novel PI tools. On such requirements, we developed a new system that can stimulate the use of these technologies, by enhancing the perceived benefits of collecting personal data. Then, we explored how naïve and experienced users differently explore their personal data in our system through a user trial. Results showed that the system was successful at helping individuals manage and interpret their own data, validated the usefulness of the requirements found and inspired three further design opportunities that could orient the design of future PI systems.

An ontology for quantified self: capturing the concepts behind the numbers

This paper tackles an important issue of how to use semantic web technologies for Quantified Self (QS). Ontologies offer a great opportunity for data integration and reasoning over data in a QS environment.

Engaging Users in Self-Reporting Their Data: A Tangible Interface for Quantified Self

Personal Informatics systems allow users to self-track a variety of states and behaviors. However, not all these data are suitable to be automatically collected. This is especially true for emotions and mood. These data require to be self-reported by the users and this activity can be very cumbersome, requiring an high compliance to be effective: instead users often fail in reporting their data due to forgetfulness, lack of time and motivation. To overcome these problems, we propose to exploit Tangible User Interface for relieving the task of self-reporting. In particular, we present a Personal Informatics Tangible Interface able to support users in self-reporting their mood. This solution allows the collection of emotional states in an amusing, simple and appealing way by means of a physical object.

Specch.io: A Personal QS Mirror for Life Patterns Discovery and "Self" Reshaping

This paper describes the process that led to the design of the Specch.io framework. Specch.io is a platform for seamless data collection, mash-up, visualization and exploration of personal data. The project is part of an internal research track focused on the usage of technology to promote and foster individual well-being from a biopsychosocial (BPS) perspective. The objective of Specch.io, is to reveal and raise awareness on individual life patterns, generating integration and meaning about aspects of the “self” that can hardly be captured from a subjective point of view.

Envisioning the Future of Personalization Through Personal Informatics: A User Study

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