David Robb

Crowdsourced Feedback With Imagery Rather Than Text: Would Designers Use It?

Cognitive styles theories suggest that we divide into visual and verbal thinkers. In this paper we describe a method designed to encourage visual communication between designers and their audiences. This new visual feedback method is based on enabling fast intuitive selections by the crowd from image banks when responding to an idea. Visual summarization reduces the massed image choices to a small number of representative images. These summaries are then consumed at a glance by designers receiving the feedback leading to thoughtful reflection on their designs. We report an evaluation using two types of imagery for feedback. Twelve designers took part, receiving visual feedback in response to their designs. In semi-structured interviews they described their interpretation of the feedback, how it inspired them to change their designs and contrasted it with text feedback. Eleven of the twelve designers revealed that they would be enthusiastic users of a service providing this new mode of feedback.

MIRIAM: a multimodal chat-based interface for autonomous systems

We present MIRIAM (Multimodal Intelligent inteRactIon for Autonomous systeMs), a multimodal interface to support situation awareness of autonomous vehicles through chat-based interaction. The user is able to chat about the vehicles plan, objectives, previous activities and mission progress. The system is mixed initiative in that it pro-actively sends messages about key events, such as fault warnings. We will demonstrate MIRIAM using SeeBytes SeeTrack command and control interface and Neptune autonomy simulator.

Intuitive Large Image Database Browsing Using Perceptual Similarity Enriched by Crowds

The main objective of image browsers is to empower users to find a desired image with ease, speed and accuracy from a large database. In this paper we present a novel approach at creating an image browsing environment based on human perception with the aim of providing intuitive image navigation. In our approach, similarity judgments form the basic structural organization for the images in our browser. To enrich this we have developed a scalable crowd sourced method of augmenting a database with a large number of additional samples by capturing human judgments from members of a crowd. Experiments were conducted involving two databases that demonstrate the effectiveness of our method as an intuitive, fast browsing environment for large image databases.

A Picture Paints a Thousand Words but Can it Paint Just One

Imagery and language are often seen as serving different aspects of cognition, with cognitive styles theories proposing that people can be visual or verbal thinkers. Most feedback systems, however, only cater to verbal thinkers. To help rectify this, we have developed a novel method of crowd communication which appeals to those more visual people. Designers can ask a crowd to feedback on their designs using specially constructed image banks to discover the perceptual and emotional theme perceived by possible future customers. A major component of the method is a summarization process in which the crowds feedback, consisting of a mass of images, is presented to the designer as a digest of representative images. In this paper we describe an experiment showing that these image summaries are as effective as the full image selections at communicating terms. This means that designers can consume the new feedback confident that it represents a fair representation of the total image feedback from the crowd.

Keep Me in the Loop: Increasing Operator Situation Awareness through a Conversational Multimodal Interface

Autonomous systems are designed to carry out activities in remote, hazardous environments without the need for operators to micro-manage them. It is, however, essential that operators maintain situation awareness in order to monitor vehicle status and handle unforeseen circumstances that may affect their intended behaviour, such as a change in the environment. We present MIRIAM, a multimodal interface that combines visual indicators of status with a conversational agent component. This multimodal interface offers a fluid and natural way for operators to gain information on vehicle status and faults, mission progress and to set reminders. We describe the system and an evaluation study providing evidence that such an interactive multimodal interface can assist in maintaining situation awareness for operators of autonomous systems, irrespective of cognitive styles.

Understanding Concept Maps: A Closer Look at How People Organise Ideas

Research into creating visualisations that organise ideas into concise concept maps often focuses on implicit mathematical and statistical theories which are built around algorithmic efficacy or visual complexity. Although there are multiple techniques which attempt to mathematically optimise this multi-dimensional problem, it is still unknown how to create concept maps that are immediately understandable to people. In this paper, we present an in-depth qualitative study observing the behaviour and discussing the strategy used by non-expert participants to create, interact, update and communicate a concept map that represents a collection of research ideas. Our results show non-expert individuals create concept maps differently to visualisation algorithms. We found that our participants prioritised narrative, landmarks, abstraction, clarity, and simplicity. Finally, we derive design recommendations from our results which we hope will inspire future algorithms that automatically create more usable and compelling concept maps better suited to the natural behaviours and needs of users.

What To Study In HCI? A Reflection Based On CHI and UK Research Data

HCI is a wide, varied, and complex field that covers a broad spectrum of research. We therefore believe that there is no simple answer to the question ‘what to study in HCI?’ To shed some light on it, however, we reflect on this question with the aid of data from past HCI conferences, present meta-analyses reports, and possible future research priorities. In our discussion, we argue that the current focus of HCI research is too focused on studying the usability of gadgets. Instead, we believe that researchers in the HCI field have the unique opportunity to combine fundamental research, usability design, and awareness of social issues to achieve real-world impact. As such, we suggest that researchers should aim their studies on human aspects that can solve various needs, problems, and societal challenges. Author