Jeroen Vanattenhoven

Co-creation and user-generated content-elderly people's user requirements

There is an increasing demand on citizens to participate in social network websites and to create and share their own user-generated content (UGC), such as photographs, videos, and blogs. So far, little is known about how elderly people respond to these new trends and master the techniques required. This paper reports on three studies that investigated elderly peoples user requirements related to consumption, sharing and co-creation of UGC in new media. The first study, conducted in Norway, identifies patterns of Internet usage, age differences, and participation in online communities and the consumption, sharing and co-creation of UGC on a macro level. The second study, conducted in Belgium, investigated the social requirements of elderly people on a group level. The third study, also conducted in Belgium, investigated user and context requirements on an individual level. The results of the first study show that the elderly rarely participate in online communities and share audio-visual UGC. However, they embrace some aspects of the new media and more often express themselves politically. The results of the second study show that the elderly are very motivated to contribute with UGC, given the right circumstances. The results of the third study show that it is important for elderly people that they be able to use the new technologies easily and identifies their worries about using them.

Ensuring Trust, Privacy, and Etiquette in Web 2.0 Applications

An analysis of three user studies of Web 2.0 applications reveals the most important requirements related to ethical issues. The development of features that support these requirements should be tailored to the type of application and specific community needs.

Interest based selection of user generated content for rich communication services

The last few years, we have witnessed an exponential growth in available content, much of which is user generated (e.g. pictures, videos, blogs, reviews, etc.). The downside of this overwhelming amount of content is that it becomes increasingly difficult for users to identify the content they really need, resulting into considerable research efforts concerning personalized search and content retrieval. On the other hand, this enormous amount of content raises new possibilities: existing services can be enriched using this content, provided that the content items used match the users personal interests. Ideally, these interests should be obtained in an automatic, transparent way for an optimal user experience. In this paper two models representing user profiles are presented, both based on keywords and with the goal to enrich real-time communication services. The first model consists of a light-weight keyword tree which is very fast, while the second approach is based on a keyword ontology containing extra temporal relationships to capture more details of the users behavior, however exhibiting lower performance. The profile models are supplemented with a set of algorithms, allowing to learn user interests and retrieving content from personal content repositories. In order to evaluate the performance, an enhanced instant messaging communication service was designed. Through simulations the two models are assessed in terms of real-time behavior and extensibility. User evaluations allow to estimate the added value of the approach taken. The experiments conducted indicate that the algorithms succeed in retrieving content matching the users interests and both models exhibit a linear scaling behavior. The algorithms perform clearly better in finding content matching several user interests when benefiting from the extra temporal information in the ontology based model.

A Qualitative Inquiry into the Contextualized Parental Mediation Practices of Young Children’s Digital Media Use at Home

Technologies are increasingly adopted and used by young children at home. Parents play an important role in shaping their media use, keeping certain possibilities open for children to play, learn, and socialize while limiting others. Nevertheless, the literature on parental mediation of young children’s media use is scant. In this article, we describe a qualitative, mixed-method study involving 24 parents and 36 children aged 3 to 9, and focus on the contextual factors that shape (transitions between) parental mediation practices. The results point to the emergence of new manifestations of parental mediation and provide evidence of their dynamic, often paradoxical nature. In particular, the insights on distant mediation, various buddy styles, and participatory learning, as well as the value of a wholeness approach for understanding children’s conditions for media engagement, suggest new prospects for parental mediation literature.

Broadcast, Video-on-Demand, and Other Ways to Watch Television Content: A Household Perspective

This paper presents an explorative investigation into households? uses of traditional broadcast television (TV) and more recently introduced video-on-demand (VoD) services. More specifically, we explain how each way of viewing TV and video content relates to different viewing situations in the home. We conducted in-home interviews with seven households in The Netherlands in order to obtain rich data that are required for understanding these phenomena. Our results elaborate on the uses of watching broadcast TV, catch-up services, and video-on-demand streaming services, the recording of content, and the downloading of content. While the traditional broadcast model is on the decline to some extent, our data still revealed essential uses of broadcast concerning certain types of content and specific viewing situations. Based on the results, a number of implications for the design of recommender systems and interfaces, service providers and broadcasters, and TV manufacturers are presented.

Contextual aspects of typical viewing situations: a new perspective for recommending television and video content

Abstract In this paper, we present a better understanding of the contextual aspects that determine TV and video viewing situations in the home. The results can be used to design recommender systems algorithms and interfaces for TV and video content that better fits with different viewing situations in the home. This is achieved by taking into account these typical viewing situations and the respective manifestations of contextual factors. In a first, ethnographic, study with 12 households to better understand everyday viewing practices, we obtained insights into the relation between the type of content and the amount of attention paid, the type of content and planned versus spontaneous behaviour, the role of the structure of the household, and the way people discover content. In a second, multi-method, study with seven households, we identified seven typical viewing situations and elaborated on how four important contextual factors—time, mood, content and viewers—constitute these viewing situations or experiences in the home. After combining the results from both studies, two additional contextual aspects were added: content delivery type and viewing mode. The insights from these studies allow us to suggest opportunities for the design of recommender system algorithms that take into account the four contextual aspects and to formulate implications for the design of recommender interfaces.

Social experiences within the home using second screen TV applications

Today, using second screen devices while watching TV is quite common, whether related to what happens on TV or not. One area of research looks at using second screen devices to support social interaction. While most research in this area focuses on supporting social interaction between remote viewers, in this article, we focus on social interaction between collocated viewers, using second screen applications that were designed for a specific TV program. We present the results of five studies that were carried out in three different phases of a user-centered design cycle (analysis, design and evaluation) and report on the social interaction that occurs when groups of viewers use such applications in the home and on the factors that have an influence on this social experience. Based on these findings we formulate a number of guidelines for the design of social second screen applications. We found that most participants valued such applications because of the increased interactivity and the social experience. Furthermore, applications that incorporate some form of competition are especially compelling. However, care needs to be taken when introducing competitive elements into an application and when choosing a suitable TV genre.

Involving End-Users in Game Based Ideation: A Case Study in Hospital Logistics

In this paper we investigate the use of a board game to facilitate ideation with end-users for the study of applications of future technology. In the described case study, we focus on the use of wearable technology for logistical work in hospitals. Based on prior ethnographic research, we designed a tailor-made board game. This game was played with personnel in two hospitals. The game-based ideation provided valuable insights concerning preferred workflow and interaction, and we observed a high level of engagement during the sessions. We present and explain three recommendations for the use of game-based ideation: use collaboration to improve discussion, abstract technology, and stage the game.

Designing TV Recommender Interfaces for Specific Viewing Experiences

In this paper we report upon our prototyping and design efforts aimed at supporting specific viewing experiences or situations. In our previous studies we gathered insights into which types of viewing situations occur in the home based on the group of viewers, the mood, the type of content, and time-related factors. Based on these situated experiences we now aim to support these experiences via specific user interface designs. The focus is mainly on presenting the right content in the right way for the specific viewers in each situation. The explored interfaces vary by look & feel, content selection, and interaction possibilities. By going through different prototype evaluation sessions we aim to increase our understanding of each situations user requirements. Ultimately, viewers should save considerable time when choosing content.

Beyond the familiar?: exploring extreme input in brainstorms

This paper explores the potential of extreme input stimuli in brainstorming. Extreme stimuli contain unfamiliar, ambiguous, critical and or provocative elements. The instrumental use of extreme input has only recently been investigated as a promising technique in ideation to get participants to think beyond the already known. It is not clear, though, which extreme mechanisms are most likely to trigger creativity. To investigate this, four brainstorm sessions were organized, of which three relied on extreme input stimuli: Extreme Ideas, Extreme Characters and Extreme Personas. The fourth session did not employ extreme input. Four experts assessed the output via a creative-idea-count. The preliminary results suggest that using Extreme Ideas as input for brainstorming in the early ideation phase leads to more original ideas than employing Non-Extreme Ideas.