Jaana Leikas

Research and Innovation

Thinking is the property of the human mind. Scientists engage in constructive thinking: they set up hypotheses and test them, and develop logical chains of arguments to decide which assumptions are facts and which are not. They also create new perspectives for searching out truths by designing more accurate concepts, which allow them to ask new types of questions concerning the states of affairs.

Multi-user mobile applications and a public display: novel ways for social interaction

In this paper we introduce prerequisites for the empowerment of social interaction when using a multi-user mobile service. The paper is based on a case study of user experiences of a multiplayer mobile game where the players attend the game via their mobile phones whilst their activity is materialized on a common public display. Based on the results of user evaluation we introduce three enabling factors for social interaction in a multiplayer game: context, communication and identification. User aspects to these factors as well as perspectives to other types of services are presented

Idea movement of aging citizens: lessons-learnt from innovation workshops

The demographic revolution, rapid aging in Europe has raised the creation of innovation market as one of the most important elements in the European strategy. During 2006 VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland carried out a campaign called the Idea Movement of Aging Citizens, where mobile service ideas were collected from aging citizens for open use. The ground for the campaign was the fact that the aging persons are the best experts of their own needs and should thus have more say in the development of new mobile services. Around 4300 ideas were collected in 13 innovation workshops in Finland. About 750 aging citizens participated in these workshops. This paper presents experiences and lessons-learnt of using innovation workshops as a method for activating aging people to work as idea generators for mobile services.

Human-Driven Design: A Human-Driven Approach to the Design of Technology

In the midst of the many large-scale societal and technological transformations, there is a need for design approaches that respect human values and needs and are able to integrate multiple perspectives into technology design in order to work for outcomes that are interesting, feasible and sustainable in all senses of the term. For this purpose, we discuss a possible approach to the design of technology that is driven by human and social values, is collaborative in nature and reflective in terms of responsibility and ethics in the design. We call this approach ‘Human-Driven Design’ and argue that it is needed especially when designing for enabling and emerging information and communication technologies. A human-driven design approach should focus on the early phases of design, be strongly future-oriented and aim to contribute to innovation for a sustainable society and better quality of life in the future.

Designing for Life

This book reviews the history of technology and suggests how it will continue to develop in relation to human use. Technology and humans are bound together inextricably as more of our daily life, and even emotions, are influenced by objects which in turn are designed to reflect nature. Throughout the chapters, the authors take readers through the various uses of technology. They discuss archifact analysis, usability and cognitive engineering, as well as motivation and emotion in user interface design. The book also crucially introduces a new, holistic approach to designing human-technology interaction. The book is suitable for researchers, postgraduate and undergraduate students of cognitive and social psychology as well as all those who are interested in technological design and its societal impact.

Epilogue: Designing for Life

The main criterion for HTI design is that it should not only concern the development of a technical artefact and the design of the immediate usage situation, but also help illustrate how technologies can advance the quality of human life. People should be motivated to adopt and use technology by the added value it can bring to everyday life to help them accomplish their goals. The question of how much a technology can improve the quality of human life defines the worth of the particular technology.

Technology in Life

Technological advancements have changed human life throughout history as technical inventions have emancipated people from many mundane, necessary tasks. The development of technical artefacts has long relied on the natural sciences and engineering. However, recent technical advancements—such as ubiquitous and multifunctional technologies as well as the emergence of social media—have made it necessary to approach design from a multidisciplinary perspective and to ground design thinking more on the understanding of human mind and human life. As the natural sciences and human research are in many respects different practices, it is time to discuss their mutually inclusive roles in design and to rethink the foundations of (and relationship between) scientific and design thinking.

Life-Based Design

Technical artefacts should exist to bring added value and quality to people’s lives. HTI design should, therefore, be considered in a much broader context than merely the usage of technology. It should be based on an understanding of people’s lives and well-grounded design methods and tools, which can investigate life and apply this knowledge to the design work. The conceptual model of life-based design (LBD) is based on segregating unified systems of actions called forms of life. Investigating the structure of actions and related facts relevant to particular forms of life, in addition to the values that people follow, is the core tool of LBD. The knowledge produced constitutes a template for human requirements, which serves as a basis for design ideas and technological solutions.

The Logic of User Interface Design

Technical artefacts exist so that people can use them to make something happen. Their capacity to do so depends on the functions and functionalities of the technology, which requires users. Technologies thus have to give users the ability to control them, and the designer’s role is to create the actions and work processes for which the artefacts are intended. This basic HTI pursuit is called user interface design. It applies technical interaction concepts to solve design problems. This chapter presents the overall principles and goals for the user interface design of any technical artefact.

The Psychology of Fluent Use

In a perfect world, it would always be possible to operate technology effortlessly and to reach the desired goal. However, in the real world many factors may make technologies difficult to use or even hinder people from using technical artefacts. Most of these factors pertain to usability (i.e., technology’s ability to fit users’ capabilities) and thus concern technological solutions from the point of view of human beings as users of technology. Therefore, designing technical artefacts that are easy to use requires understanding the psychological and mental preconditions for using technology.