David M. Frohlich

Informal workplace communication: what is it like and how might we support it?

We present new findings about the nature of informat communications, derived from a naturalistic study of people’s everyday working activities. We identify why such interactions are so common, and valuable and how they are achieved in the workplace. We also address weaknesses in current systems that support such interactions remotely and identify further requirements for better support. We also discuss the implications of this work for conversational theories.

Timespace in the workplace: dealing with interruptions

We report tindings from an observational study on the nature of interruptions in the workplace. The results show that in most cases, (64”A), the recipient received some benefit from the interruption. However in just over 40’%. of interruptions the recipient did not resume the work they were doing prior to the interruption. Some implications for time management and communication technology are presented.

Using E-mail for Personal Relationships The Difference Gender Makes

Do the gender differences found when men and women maintain personal relationships in person and on the phone also emerge when they use electronic mail? Alternately, does e-mail change these ways of interacting? The authors explore the types of relationships women and men maintain by e-mail, differences in their e-mail use locally and at a distance, and differences in the contents of messages they send. The findings are based on qualitative and quantitative data collected during a 4-year period. These data suggest that using e-mail to communicate with relatives and friends replicates preexisting gender differences. Compared to men, women find e-mail contact with friends and family more gratifying. Women are more likely than men to maintain kin relationships by e-mail. They are more likely than men to use e-mail to keep in touch with people who live far away. Womens messages sent to people far away are more filled with personal content and are more likely to be exchanged in intense burst. The fit between womens expressive styles and the features of e-mail seems to be making it especially easy for women to expand their distant social networks.

From Snapshots to Social Media - The Changing Picture of Domestic Photography

From Snapshots to Social Media describes the history and future of domestic photography as mediated by technological change. Domestic photography refers to the culture of ordinary people capturing, sharing and using photographs, and is in a particular state of flux today as photos go digital. The book argues that this digital era is the third major chapter in the 170 year history of the area; following the portrait and Kodak eras of the past. History shows that despite huge changes in photographic technology and the way it has been sold, people continue to use photographs to improve memory, support communication and reinforce identity. The future will involve a shift in the balance of these core activities and a replacement of the family album with various multimedia archives for individuals, families and communities. This raises a number of issues that should be taken into account when designing new technologies and business services in this area, including: the ownership and privacy of content, multimedia standards, home ICT infrastructure, and younger and older users of images. The book is a must for designers and engineers of imaging technology and social media who want a better understanding of the history of domestic photography in order to shape its future. It will also be of value to students and researchers in science and technology studies and visual culture, as a fascinating case study of the evolving use of photographs and photographic technology in Western society.

StoryBank: mobile digital storytelling in a development context

Mobile imaging and digital storytelling currently support a growing practice of multimedia communication in the West. In this paper we describe a project which explores their benefit in the East, to support non-textual information sharing in an Indian village. Local audiovisual story creation and sharing activities were carried out in a one month trial, using 10 customized cameraphones and a digital library of stories represented on a village display. The findings show that the system was usable by a cross-section of the community and valued for its ability to express a mixture of development and community information in an accessible form. Lessons for the role of HCI in this context are also discussed.

The Memory Box

A Memory Box was built to illustrate the possibility of recording and attaching stories to memorabilia kept in a box. Potential users then provided a range of ideas about what kinds of stories and objects they would keep in the box, and how they would use it. The findings confirm the value of attaching stories to souvenirs, especially in the context of gift-giving, and have implications for how this might be implemented through augmented reality interfaces.

Breaking up is hard to do

Industry analysts currently disagree about the future of domestic computing. Some predict increasing sales of home PCs while others predict the break-up of the PC into a variety of information appliances. In this paper, we report a study of home PC use which illuminates this issue from the perspective of existing PC-owning families. Eleven PC-owning families from the Boston area were interviewed at home about their current PC use, their attitudes to computers and the location of technology in their homes. We found that the general-purpose nature of the home PC offers something for everybody in the household, and quickly becomes an established part of family life. Indeed, it was so popular in the households we visited that it had resulted in widespread competition for PC time, and had caused parents to worry about how best to control PC and internet access and influence. These behaviours and concerns led adults and children to express quite different preferences for relocating their computing experience around the house. However in both cases the needs were for better access to multifunctional extensions of the main PC. The implications of these findings for home PC and appliance evolution are discussed.

The history and future of direct manipulation

Abstract The earliest interactive computer systems were based on a conversational mode of interaction in which user and computer communicated through the exchange of linguistic utterances. Since the advent of ‘direct manipulation’ technology there has been a tendency to develop and promote an alternative mode of interaction, based on the users manipulation of computer-displayed objects. This paper reviews recent developments in the implementation and understanding of direct manipulation interfaces. These point to various limitations in manipulative interaction which might be overcome through the selective reintroduction of conversational interaction. A new philosophy of graceful interaction is suggested to accommodate these developments in which directness is said to be a property of both action and language based systems. A number of practical guidelines are offered to reduce the incidence of clumsy manipulation.

Towards a more cherishable digital object

As we go about our everyday routines we encounter and interact with numerous physical (e.g. furniture or clothes) and digital objects (e.g. photos or e-mails). Some of these objects may be particular cherished, for example because of memories attached to them. As several studies into cherished objects have shown, we have more difficulties identifying cherished digital objects than physical ones. However, cherishing a small collection of digital objects can be beneficial; e.g. it can encourage active selection of digital objects to keep and discard. This paper presents a study that aimed to increase understanding of cherished physical and digital objects, and beyond that, of how we perceive physical and digital objects, and their advantages and disadvantages. We identified design opportunities for novel products and systems that support the creation of more cherishable digital objects by extrapolating the advantages of the physical to the digital, exploiting the reasons for cherishing digital objects, and aiming for meaningful integrations of physical and digital.

Narrowcast yourself : designing for community storytelling in a rural Indian context

The StoryBank project is examining technologies and practices to allow digitally impoverished communities to take part in the user-generated content revolution. The approach involves combining mobile phones to create audio-visual stories and a touch screen display situated in a community meeting place. This paper discusses the design, evaluation and refinement of the situated display. We consider how our experiences of working with a rural Indian village community influenced design processes, principles and prototypes. The work highlights the value of community-centred design practices and prototypes in such developing-world contexts.