Bonnie MacKay

Web Page Transformation When Switching Devices

With network and small screen device improvements, such as wireless abilities, increased memory and CPU speeds, users are no longer limited by location when accessing on-line information. We are interested in studying the effect of users switching from a large screen device, such as a desktop or laptop to use the same web page on a small device, in this case a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). We discuss three common transformation approaches for display of web pages on the small screen: Direct Migration, Linear and Overview. We introduce a new Overview method, called the Gateway, for use on the small screen that exploits a user’s familiarity of a web page. The users in an initial study prefer using the Gateway and Direct Migration approach for web pages previously used on the large screen, despite the common Linear approach used by many web sites.

An evaluation of landmarks for re-finding information on the web

Re-finding information on the Web is a common yet often time consuming and challenging task. Even with the use of traditional bookmarks, which allow users to return to a previously visited page, it can be hard to re-find facts within that page. Furthermore, it is not uncommon for users to have long and unmanageable lists of bookmarks, making it difficult to identify the purpose of individual bookmarks. In this paper, we present an extension to traditional bookmarks called landmarks, a user-directed technique that aids users in returning to specific content within a previously visited web page. We investigate the efficiency of landmarks for re-finding information on web pages and present the findings of a study in which participants were first primed on two web pages and returned at a later date to re-find the information using both traditional bookmarks and landmarks.

It's a jungle out there: practical considerations for evaluation in the city

An essential aspect of mobile and ubiquitous computing research is evaluation within the expected usage context, including environment. When that environment is an urban center, it can be dynamic, expansive, and unpredictable. Methodologies that focus on genuine use in the environment can uncover valuable insights, although they may also limit measurement and control. In this paper, we present our experiences applying traditional experimental techniques for field research in two separate projects set in urban environments. We argue that although traditional methods may be difficult to apply in cities, the challenges are surmountable, and this kind of field research can be a crucial component of evaluation.

Planners, navigators, and pragmatists: collaborative wayfinding using a single mobile phone

Shared use of mobile devices is increasingly prevalent in both research prototypes and in practice, however, little is known as to how to support best this interaction paradigm. In this paper, we present a study examining how pairs share a single mobile phone during a collaborative wayfinding activity. We provide a classification of strategies, role relationships and phone interactions employed to conduct the wayfinding activities in our study. While acknowledging that the factors determining how the phone was shared are nuanced and intertwined, our results illustrate how differences in the mobile application’s interface influenced shared use, wayfinding strategy and outcome.

The gateway: a navigation technique for migrating to small screens

Displaying and navigating information on a large screen can be a challenge and has resulted in a variety of techniques such as text summarization and fisheye. An additional challenge is how to organize information on small screens in a format that can be understood in its context and facilitates navigation within the inherent constraints of these devices. We introduce a navigation model, the Gateway, to decrease transitional volatility introduced by migration of web pages to the smaller screen.

Operation Citadel: Exploring the Role of Docents in Mixed Reality

In this paper we describe the role of docents in a mixed reality game at a historic site called Operation: Citadel. The docents act as intermediaries between the system and the participants, providing interpretation and understanding of the game and managing interaction. This permits the integration of sophisticated interactions and rich narrative while maintaining the walk-up-and-use, casual nature of the exhibit. We describe the implementation and design, and examine the effect that docents had on enjoyment of and frustration with the game. Our results indicate that docents can serve an important role in augmenting participant experience. We identify and describe a set of roles unique to docents of Mixed Reality experiences.

SecSpace: prototyping usable privacy and security for mixed reality collaborative environments

Privacy mechanisms are important in mixed-presence (collocated and remote) collaborative systems. These systems try to achieve a sense of co-presence in order to promote fluid collaboration, yet it can be unclear how actions made in one location are manifested in the other. This ambiguity makes it difficult to share sensitive information with confidence, impacting the fluidity of the shared experience. In this paper, we focus on mixed reality approaches (blending physical and virtual spaces) for mixed presence collaboration. We present SecSpace, our software toolkit for usable privacy and security research in mixed reality collaborative environments. SecSpace permits privacy-related actions in either physical or virtual space to generate effects simultaneously in both spaces. These effects will be the same in terms of their impact on privacy but they may be functionally tailored to suit the requirements of each space. We detail the architecture of SecSpace and present three prototypes that illustrate the flexibility and capabilities of our approach.

Bringing psychosocial support to headache sufferers using information and communication technology: lessons learned from asking potential users what they want.

BACKGROUND Headaches are a major concern for which psychosocial interventions are recommended. However, headache sufferers do not always have ready access to these interventions. Technology has been used to improve access, especially in young people. OBJECTIVES To examine user preferences to inform the development of an Internet-based psychosocial intervention including smartphone technology, referred to as the Wireless Headache Intervention. METHODS The methodology followed a participatory design cycle, including 25 headache sufferers (14 to 28 years of age) who informed the prototype design. All participants were familiar with smartphones and the Internet. Through two iterative cycles of focus groups stratified according to age, qualitative data were collected by asking user preferences for the different planned components of the intervention (ie, smartphone pain diary, Internet-based self-management treatment, social support) and other relevant aspects (ie, smartphone versus computer delivery, and ways of reaching target audience). NVivo 8 with content analysis was used to analyze data and reflect themes as guided by the thematic survey. RESULTS Participants reported a preference for completing the smartphone pain diary on a daily basis. Participants believed that the program should facilitate easy access to information regarding headaches and management strategies. They also wanted access to other headache sufferers and experts. Participants believed that the program should be customizable and interactive. They reinforced the need and value of an integrated smartphone and Internet-based application. CONCLUSIONS The results provide insight into a participatory design to guide design decisions for the type of intervention for which success relies largely on self-motivation. The results also provide recommendations for design of similar interventions that may benefit from the integration of mobile applications to Internet-based interventions. The present research contributes to the theoretical frameworks that have been formulated for the development of Internet-based applications.

An examination of multisession web tasks

Today, people perform many types of tasks on the web, including those that require multiple web sessions. In this article, we build on research about web tasks and present an in-depth evaluation of the types of tasks people perform on the web over multiple web sessions. Multisession web tasks are goal-based tasks that often contain subtasks requiring more than one web session to complete. We will detail the results of two longitudinal studies that we conducted to explore this topic. The first study was a weeklong web-diary study where participants self-reported information on their own multisession tasks. The second study was a monthlong field study where participants used a customized version of Firefox, which logged their interactions for both their own multisession tasks and their other web activity. The results from both studies found that people perform eight different types of multisession tasks, that these tasks often consist of several subtasks, that these lasted different lengths of time, and that users have unique strategies to help continue the tasks which involved a variety of web and browser tools such as search engines and bookmarks and external applications such as Notepad or Word. Using the results from these studies, we have suggested three guidelines for developers to consider when designing browser-tool features to help people perform these types of tasks: (a) to maintain a list of current multisession tasks, (b) to support multitasking, and (c) to manage task-related information between sessions.

Building support for multi-session tasks

In two previous studies, we explored how users perform multi-session web tasks using the currently available tools. We also proposed three guidelines to help developers design browser support for these types of tasks. In this paper, we describe three prototypes that we designed using these guidelines and present the results of a preliminary evaluation.