John V.H. Bonner

Using wizard-of-oz method to build multipurpose platform for domestic ambient media research and applications

This paper presents the design and evaluation of the multipurpose platform for domestic ambient media research and applications through an improved method called wizard-of-oz. Inspired by the increasing requirements for the reuse of valuable development work in intelligent ambient media system and service design, we propose a different approach to construct a high-level pseudo platform to support flexible and cost-economic prototype mock-up and test. Based on the platform three incremental ambient media applications were developed for empirical studies, and a number of studies were carried out to assess the applicability, effectiveness and reusability of this platform within domestic settings. The results showed that this platform has great advantages over conventional systems specifically developed for ambient media research in above aspects. Also, the results have provided secondary understanding in the design of future ambient media applications for domestic use, including the guidelines for the design of domestic smart conversational system interfaces and user interactions with ambient media.

Rhetorical considerations for innovative approaches to performance and audience engagement

This research explores how digital media could be used to enhance engagement between an audience and a presenter, orator, or lecturer. Our aim is to think creatively about what a presentation could become and how the use of digital media technologies could form an intrinsic part of the presenter/audience experience. To help anchor this concept, we devised a development framework, which is briefly described. The framework was used to develop a potential component element of a performance presentation: the use of multiple video projections that would supplement a presentation and form a connected but non-linear narrative to produce an element of a performance presentation. To contextualize the framework and assess its effectiveness, an evaluation study of a multiple video projection project was evaluated. The study revealed the importance of audience priming within the rhetorical considerations of the development framework.

Lessons Learnt in Providing Product Designers with User-Participatory Interaction Design Tools

This study investigates how participatory design (PD) tools (adapted from human– computer interaction methods) could be provided specifically for industrial designers to conceive, develop and evaluate novel interfaces for new and innovative appliance technologies. The research was carried out over 3 years and involved a number of studies at a major European consumer product manufacturer’s design group based in the UK. The challenge was to investigate if these adapted tools could be used effectively by designers (not trained in HCI or human factors-based methods) and potential users to develop novel interactive consumer product interfaces, particularly for microwave and cooker user interfaces. The chapter begins by discussing the evaluation criteria that were adopted to measure the effectiveness of the design tools to form useful user and design requirements for a live commercial design project. The first study explored the use of a simple card-sorting tool and its impact on introducing product designers to PD methods. Lessons learnt from this study helped provide a direction for the second study that included a scenario design tool. The second study describes how the designer’s confidence of using the design tools and engaging with user participants within the design process improves positively. More significantly, perhaps, is how the designers’ perceptions of participants-as-designers also changes. This is followed by a discussion about the key findings from the two studies and the importance of organisational survival as a critical factor to the successful implementation of PD tools. The fundamental philosophy of PD is to involve the users of future systems or artefacts in design activity (Greenbaum and Kyng 1991). PD empowers users by regarding the users as the domain experts and assuming that any changes to a system should improve their role within it (Schuler and Namioka 1993). Emphasis was placed on the design tools being able to consider the ‘context’ of user–product interaction as context influences purposeful activity (Brown and Duguid 1994; Bodker 1991; Nardi 1996).