Jonas Löwgren

Strong concepts: Intermediate-level knowledge in interaction design research

Design-oriented research practices create opportunities for constructing knowledge that is more abstracted than particular instances, without aspiring to be at the scope of generalized theories. We propose an intermediate design knowledge form that we name strong concepts that has the following properties: is generative and carries a core design idea, cutting across particular use situations and even application domains; concerned with interactive behavior, not static appearance; is a design element and a part of an artifact and, at the same time, speaks of a use practice and behavior over time; and finally, resides on an abstraction level above particular instances. We present two strong concepts—social navigation and seamfulness—and discuss how they fulfil criteria we might have on knowledge, such as being contestable, defensible, and substantive. Our aim is to foster an academic culture of discursive knowledge construction of intermediate-level knowledge and of how it can be produced and assessed in design-oriented HCI research.

Toward an articulation of interaction esthetics

Even though the emerging field of user experience generally acknowledges the importance of esthetic qualities in interactive products and services, there is a lack of approaches recognizing the fundamentally temporal nature of interaction esthetics. By means of interaction criticism, I introduce four concepts that begin to characterize the esthetic qualities of interaction. Pliability refers to the sense of malleability and tightly coupled interaction that makes the use of an interactive visualization captivating. Rhythm is an important characteristic of certain types of interaction, from the sub-second pacing of musical interaction to the hour-scale ebb and flow of peripheral emotional communication. Dramaturgical structure is not only a feature of online role-playing games, but plays an important role in several design genres from the most mundane to the more intellectually sophisticated. Fluency is a way to articulate the gracefulness with which we are able to handle multiple demands for our attention and action in augmented spaces.

Annotated portfolios and other forms of intermediate-level knowledge

In a recent issue of this magazine, Bill Gaver and John Bowers address the role of design practice in academic research and provide a concrete suggestion: “We propose the notion of annotated portfolios as a way to communicate design research. In part, we do this to provide an alternative to accounts that suggest for design to become productive as research, it should engage in some sort of theory formation. While what exactly is meant by theory is not always clear, writers usually have in mind some conceptual machinery that can explain and predict” [1].

PLIABILITY AS AN EXPERIENTIAL QUALITY: EXPLORING THE AESTHETICS OF INTERACTION DESIGN

Digital design materials are temporal as much as they are spatial, which means that specific concepts are needed for understanding the use experiences of digital artifacts and the aesthetics of interaction design. In this paper, the quality of pliability is introduced to characterize the degree to which interaction feels involving, malleable, and tightly coupled – and hence to what degree it facilitates exploration and serendipity in use. Three sets of contrasting artifact examples from different domains (online maps, digital-image management, and online thesauri) are analyzed with regard to pliability. It is argued that the use of everyday digital products, normally perceived as instrumental and utility oriented, has an important experiential-aesthetic dimension consisting of temporal and visuo-tactile qualities (including pliability). The paper concludes with a discussion of related work and the role of experiential qualities in interaction design.

Knowledge Production in Interaction Design

Research in HCI involves a wide variety of knowledge production bringing forth theories, guidelines, methods, practices, design case studies / exemplars, frameworks, concepts, qualities and so on. This workshop is about mapping out the spaces, forms and potentials of such knowledge production in interaction design research.

Animated use sketches as design representations

Interaction design requires many forms of externalization. At certain points in the process, there is a need for design representations that (1) explore the intended use situation in some detail, and still (2) appear tentative enough to afford participation and engagement by intended users and other stakeholders. The designers task is often to create ideas on the not-yet-existing. The envisioned use situations increasingly involve complicated technology, mobile use and demanding physical environments. Under these conditions, a third requirement on the representation technique is that it (3) allows for expression of ideas and use situations that would be impractical or impossible to create in conventional prototyping techniques. (An obvious example is the observation that lo-fi paper prototypes are of limited use for virtual reality design.)Interaction design requires many forms of externalization. At certain points in the process, there is a need for design representations that (1) explore the intended use situation in some detail, and still (2) appear tentative enough to afford participation and engagement by intended users and other stakeholders. The designers task is often to create ideas on the not-yet-existing. The envisioned use situations increasingly involve complicated technology, mobile use and demanding physical environments. Under these conditions, a third requirement on the representation technique is that it (3) allows for expression of ideas and use situations that would be impractical or impossible to create in conventional prototyping techniques. (An obvious example is the observation that lo-fi paper prototypes are of limited use for virtual reality design.)

Perspectives on Aesthetic Computing

The authors present an introduction to the new interdisciplinary area of aesthetic computing and proceed to define this area with examples from each of their own disciplines, practices and research. While several decades of publication and work have resulted in significant advancements in art as implemented through technology, less emphasis has been placed on studying the converse issue of arts effect on computing, or aesthetic computing. The authors present their individual work in this area and then follow with brief criticism of one anothers work to elucidate different perspectives on the idea. By approaching the topic of aesthetic computing in this manner, the paper serves as an introduction to and survey and analysis of the field.

From Time-Shift to Shape-Shift: Towards Nonlinear Production and Consumption of News

People depend on news to make sense of happenings in the world, but current digital news products do not live up to their potential in this regard. Interactivity in relation to news is often seen as a way to give the consumer control over when to consume something and on which platform. Less attention has been placed on whatshould be consumed and how. Within the project MyNews- MyWay, a news service has been constructed that makes possible a more in-depth and varied media consumption than what traditional news services offer today. In addition to time-shifting, the service makes it possible to shift also the shape of the material consumed.

Dealing With Diversity: Issues in Design Research and Design Research Methods

Design research is a timely topic, given the current movements in art and design institutions throughout the world towards articulation, conceptualization, and (academic) research, where labels such as practice-based research abound. It is also a challenging topic with many open issues concerning conceptual foundations and methodological practices. As the articles in this special issue will show, design research is marked by significant diversity in the sense that it engages researchers from many different disciplines: Philosophy, systems theory, social science, information science, architecture, and design are among the academic disciplines represented here, with all the diversity in epistemological and methodological traditions that they entail.

Explicit interaction for surgical rehabilitation

We discuss the design ideal of explicit interaction, which is a way to approach the dimensions of explicitness versus ambience and explicitness versus obtrusiveness in ubiquitous computing. Explicit interaction refers to interaction techniques designed to make actions and intentions visible, understandable and accountable. We introduce three levels of analysis---usability, materialization, and social performance---and present the design of an explicit interaction assembly of devices for rehabilitation after hand surgery. The assembly, intended to support video recording during patient-therapist consultations, is evaluated and we find that it provides superior usability and the potential to improve rehabilitation outcomes through materialization. Moreover, we find that the design of cues to support the social practice in the rehabilitation ward needs to be improved since the assembly allowed for uses unanticipated during the design.