Jacob Buur

Video card game: an augmented environment for user centred design discussions

In User Centred Design, the integration of knowledge of users work practice, preferences etc. into the design process is crucial to success. For this reason, video recording has become a widespread tool for documenting user activities observed in field studies, usability tests and user workshops. To make sense of video recordings - though a rewarding experience - is time consuming and mostly left to experts. Even though developers may ask for expert advice on usability matters, chances are that they will not follow it, given the technical and commercial trade-offs in every project. In this paper we will argue that, to achieve user friendly products, working with user video should be an integral part of the activities of the design team, not a specialised task of experts. To support this, video must be made available as a resource in design discussions and developers must be allowed to form their own understanding and conclusions. This paper presents a technique for turning video into tangible arguments to support design teams work. Furthermore it discusses how this technique can be improved with Augmented Reality and presents an augmented prototype session.

From usability lab to “design collaboratorium”: reframing usability practice

This paper presents an exploratory process in which three industrial usability groups, in cooperation with HCI researchers, worked to reframe their own work practice. The usability groups moved beyond a classical usability setting towards a new way of working which we have coined the Design Collaboratorium. This design collaboratorium is a design approach that creates an open physical and organizational space where designðers, engineers, users and usability professionals meet and work alongside each other. At the same time the design collaboratorium makes use of event-driven ways of working known from participatory design. Some of these working methods are well-documented from literature but adapted to the needs of the particular project, others are new. This paper illustrates how it is posðsible to reframe usability work and it discusses the new usability competence required.

The Quality of Conversations in Participatory Innovation

In co-design there seems to be a widespread understanding that innovation is a planned, goal-oriented activity that can be propelled forward through well-facilitated events in which company employees collaborate with external parties (users in particular) and the conversations aim at consensus about new product and service ideas. Conflict belonged to the ‘old days’ when participatory design played a part in the struggle between workers and management. Based on the theory of complex responsive processes of relating, we suggest a new way of understanding innovation as the emergence of new meaning in – often conflictual – conversations. We argue that the meeting of participants with different stakes is crucial precisely because crossing intentions can create new insight and movement of thought and action. We use improvised theatre to investigate what happens in industrial (and other) organisations that embark on participatory activities, and the barriers that prevent them. By analysing improvised scenes and the way the audience reacts, we characterise the quality of conversations that seems to allow new meaning to emerge and thus stimulates innovation. We suggest that we need to develop new formats of collaboration for large, complex contingents of stakeholders, where conflicting intentions are encouraged.

Designing the user actions in tangible interaction

The aim of this paper is firstly to characterize the richness of human actions, based on observations of skilled practice in industrial environments, as opposed to actions in office contexts. Secondly, it is to introduce techniques that may help designers explore and support the richness of human actions in the design of future tangible user interfaces. Currently, the actions required by electronic products tend to be limited to pushing, sliding and rotating. This is a stark contrast to what we have observed in industry and daily life, namely that human actions are far more complex and subtle, and human dexterity is highly refined. Beginning with an analysis of the everyday work of brewery operators and drawing analytical insights from anthropology, we recognize three fundamental characteristics of actions in industrial practice: they are situated, skilled and unfold temporally and spatially. This forms the foundation for our move towards design. Through facilitating a series of projects with students, we have explored a range of design methods that aim to make the many characteristics and qualities of skilled practice available as a resource to designers of tangible interfaces. In this regard we introduce historical interaction styles, video wall analysis, hands-only scenarios, tangible interaction sketches and interaction mobiles as design methods that attempt to capture the richness and quality of human actions.

New challenges for design participation in the era of ubiquitous computing

Since the advent of participatory design in the work democracy projects of the 1970s and 1980s in Scandinavia, computing technology and peoples engagement with it have undergone fundamental changes. Although participatory design continues to be a precondition for designing computing that aligns with human practices, the motivations to engage in participatory design have changed, and the new era requires formats that are different from the original ones. Through the analysis of three case studies, this paper seeks to explain why participatory design must be brought to bear on the field of ubiquitous computing, and how this challenges the original participatory design thinking. In particular, we will argue that more casual, exploratory formats of engagement with people are required, and rather than planning the all-encompassing systems development project, participatory design needs to move towards iterative, experimental design explorations to provide necessary understanding of todays complex contexts and practices. We argue that there does not need to be a discrepancy between the ideals of empowering people with new technology, and the understanding of customer value in a business perspective.

Taking the best from a company history - designing with interaction styles

In architecture and industrial design, the concept of style plays a major role in education as a way of explaining the historical inheritance and comparing alternative design expressions. In this article we claim that interaction design can benefit greatly from an understanding of the concept of style. It can provide designers with strong visions and a sense of direction in designing new interfaces. In particular we focus on Solid User Interface design, i.e. products with small displays and a limited number of keys, because of the tight coupling between interaction and industrial design. The authors share the concern that interaction designers in enthusiasm with new technologies fail to preserve the qualities of use from products with outdated technologies. This paper attempts to formulate an aesthetics of interaction design and reports on experiments with introducing interaction style thinking in a user centred design practice in industry.

Participatory business modelling

How to generate business is at play in most innovation projects today. Not only Internet-based businesses, but also traditional manufacturing companies with conventional product sales are currently challenged to consider alternative business models: service design, project sales, direct sales, etc. In participatory innovation the core assumption is that a broad spectrum of people, including users, can contribute to innovation. But is it possible to open up the process of business model innovation to participation from a wider circle than those marketing managers who typically devise new business schemes? In this article we discuss two participatory approaches to business modelling that move beyond spreadsheets and Post-it® Notes: one of using tangible objects to redefine business elements, and another of people themselves role-playing how an organisation can create, deliver and capture value. These approaches were developed in companies and educational settings and have proven extraordinarily successful in initiating conversations about how to innovate business in cross-disciplinary and cross-functional groups of participants. Relying on design theory, we study the ‘moves’ that participants make towards a new network configuration; in particular as such conceptual ‘moves’ are likely to be associated with the concrete, physical movements of people and objects. We claim that these approaches prove very engaging because business model innovation needs a focus on redefining the concepts we use and the roles that actors play in relation to each other.

Interaction Styles: An Aesthetic Sense of Direction in Interface Design

In architecture and industrial design, the concept of style plays a major role in education as a way of establishing an understanding of visual design expression. In this article we claim that interaction design can benefit greatly from a similar application of style. It can provide designers with strong visions and a sense of direction in designing new interfaces. In particular, the focus is on solid user interface design (i.e., products with small displays and a limited number of keys) because of the tight coupling of interaction and industrial design. Style theory is explored and an experiment is reported that introduces interaction-style thinking in a user-centered design process in industry. Further, a discussion about parallels between our approach to interaction design and the dominant styles of the twentieth-century, Scandinavian design in particular, is provided.

Getting the point: The role of gesture in managing intersubjectivity in a design activity

Abstract This paper illustrates the complexity of pointing as it is employed in a design workshop. Using the method of interaction analysis, we argue that pointing is not merely employed to index, locate, or fix reference to an object. It also constitutes a practice for reestablishing intersubjectivity and solving interactional trouble such as misunderstandings or disagreements by virtue of enlisting something as part of the participants’ shared experience. We use this analysis to discuss implications for how such practices might be supported with computer mediation, arguing for a “bricolage” approach to systems development that emphasizes the provision of resources for users to collaboratively negotiate the accomplishment of intersubjectivity rather than systems that try to support pointing as a specific gestural action.

The synergistic integration of mathematics, software engineering, and user-centred design: exploring new trends in education

There is an increasing recognition in the society that interdisciplinary challenges must be part of new educational practices. In this paper, we describe the key curriculum activities at the University of Southern Denmark that combine mathematical modelling, software engineering, and user-centred design courses. These three disciplines represent a core of our graduate program, aiming at educating the professionals that will be capable of not only using but also further developing new technologies, and therefore, will be capable of fostering further the progress in computational science and engineering. Finally, we show how the learning environment, with emphases on broadening the student experience by industrial links, affects the student career aspiration.