Jeremy Yuille

SHOW AND TELL: ACCESSING AND COMMUNICATING IMPLICIT KNOWLEDGE THROUGH ARTEFACTS

This paper contributes to the current discourse on the role of artefacts in facilitating and triggering interaction among people. The discussion will focus on artefacts used as part of an interview method developed in order to discover knowledge that was observed but absent from both project reports and other documentation within multidisciplinary collaborative research projects, located within the field of Interaction Design. Using artefacts in an interview context enabled participants to reveal insights that were, in turn, participatory and human-centred. Thus the method was effective and appropriate in illuminating knowledge situated in interaction. This ethnomethodological tool enabled participants to reflexively externalize their understanding of the complex interactions that occur within projects, encouraging participation, interaction, visualization, reflection and communication through the use of tools aimed at capturing and illuminating the lived experiences of human engagement. These interviews were conducted with a selection of participants, chosen because they were researchers, working together within a cooperative research centre. Keywords: best practices, consultancy, critical systems, theory, user-centered design (UCD)

The social life of visualization

In this paper we reframe the creation of information visualizations as a kind of interface design, where visualizations provide people with an interface onto a dataset in such a way that they can generate, understand, and ultimately communicate interpretations of the data in the form of narratives to other members of given social settings. The paper describes a three stage create--interpret--capture process [Figure 1] for the design of information visualizations. The work references existing interaction design patterns, interfaces, and theories of organizational behaviour that serve to illustrate the approach we have used.

FEATURE The social life of visualization

on the use of visualization as an interface to explore data and support social collaboration around it. It allows people to take some data, explore its properties, and present their findings to others. This is the process of shared storytelling that the framework supports: It can be seen as a democratic way of working with the ideals of open data and government 2.0 that allows people to better understand government processes and engage with them more fully. At the basis of the datavisualization framework is the distinction between an objectcentered social network and an ego-centered one. Prominent object-centered social networks are Flickr and del.icio.us, where the network revolves around an activity—sharing photos or sharing links to websites. The best example of an ego-centered social network is Twitter, where people within the network share their thoughts with each other. The idea of object-centered social networks comes from the work of sociology professor Karin Knorr Cetina’s theory of object-centered sociality—the individual and the object as central elements in social interaction. Cetina proposes that objects, around which discussions take place, help focus and Data.gov is an open government initiative of President Barack Obama’s administration, designed to increase the public’s ability to find, download, and use high-value, machine-readable data sets generated by the executive branch of the federal government. The site sees public participation and collaboration as one of the keys to the success of Data.gov; it will enable the public to participate in government by providing downloadable data sets to build applications, conduct analyses, and perform research [1]. Data.gov is part of a wider movement called “open data,” which various (mainly government) organizations around the world are exploring. In Great Britain, the Power of Information Taskforce has outlined its vision for public sector reform. Of particular note is its concept for open information, whereby “to have an effective voice, people need to be able to understand what is going on in their public services.” Also of interest is its vision for open discussion that seeks to promote greater engagement with the public through more interactive online consultation and collaboration [2]. A similar move is under way in Australia with the Government 2.0 taskforce, which is concerned with encouraging online engagement with the aim of “drawing in the information, knowledge, perspectives and even, where possible, the active collaboration of anyone wishing to contribute to public life” [3] . A signification consideration for these governments might be how to build public participation and collaboration in the process of collecting and sharing data. In order for public data to benefit from the innovation and dynamism of Web 2.0, government needs to change its modus operandi as an information provider [4]. In doing this, it should focus on design sites that create simple, reliable, and publicly accessible infrastructure that expose the underlying data. “Private actors, either nonprofit or commercial, are better suited to deliver government information to citizens and can constantly create and reshape the tools individuals use to find and leverage public data” [4]. As we move into this new age of open public data, what sort of tools should an individual have at his or her disposal to find and leverage this public data? How can these tools be designed so that people can better understand what is going on in their public services and engage with them more fully? The framework presented here could enable individuals to explore open data, understand what is going on, and engage [1] Data.gov; http:// www.data.gov/about/

Spontaneous scenarios: an approach to user engagement

In this paper we present work on a scenario and persona based approach to exploring social software solutions for a globally distributed network of researchers, designers and artists. We discuss issues identified with scenario based approaches and a potential participatory solution adopted in this project.

Introducing the OZCHI 24-hour design challenge

For the first time OZCHI was preceded by a student design challenge this year. In line with the conference theme the challenge was organised as two 24-hour events. The first event took place online before the conference. Students from around the world were invited to create a solution for a specific design problem within 24 hours. The top two entries received a travel scholarship for attending OZCHI 2009. The second 24-hour event takes place in Melbourne. All students attending the conference are invited to participate in this challenge. Entries are exhibited during the main conference and the winners will be determined based on audience voting.

senseMix: sharing creative mobile content

This poster presentation will report on research undertaken by a multidisciplinary team into the design and development of applications for creation and sharing of audio visual content on mobile phones. It outlines the conceptual basis and design process of the project, describing a number of the demonstration applications developed. It also reports on the use of augmented reality middleware to implement a gestural user interface to these demonstrator applications.