Jonathan Huyghe

StreetTalk : participative design of situated public displays for urban neighborhood interaction

As modern information communication technologies are increasingly integrated in our public environment, challenges arise to render them locally relevant and meaningful. In this paper, we describe the design and evaluation of StreetTalk, a set of situated public displays attached to house facades that were specifically designed to facilitate communication and interaction between households and their local neighborhood. We report on a participatory design process that resulted in a range of neighborhood communication concepts that reached beyond the traditional screen-based notion of public displays. Accordingly, three unique displays were deployed and critically evaluated during an eight-week in-the-wild field study, which aimed to describe the potential usefulness of making public displays more situated, such as by taking into account the individual preferences of households in terms of design and functionality, by exploring alternative means of public communication, and by facilitating content creation by lay households.

Designing voice interaction for people with physical and speech impairments

This paper describes the user-centered design of ALADIN, a speech recognition system targeted at people with physical disabilities, many of who also have speech impairments. ALADIN is a self-learning system, designed to allow users to use their own specific words and sentences, adapting itself to the speech characteristics of the user. The test iterations described in this paper focus on the interaction issues associated with adaptive speech technology. We investigated how users address a speech interface, observing the amount of variation in wording and sentence structure, and determining the specific requirements of speech-impaired users. We discuss how the results have informed the design of ALADIN, and how these design choices aligned with the technical implementation of the speech system.

LocaLudo: card-based workshop for interactive architecture

In this paper, we describe the design and outcomes of LocaLudo, a playful and card-based workshop that aims to involve families in the design of interactive architecture. Family members, both children and adults, were invited to build upon local experiences for informing the design of concepts that allow interaction between the house, its residents, and the neighborhood. While the creation of such concepts proved challenging, we found that an open and playful approach, and suggesting the possible use of technologies aided participants in this process. Several recurring themes were identified in the generated concepts: stimulating social contact, spreading information, reacting to negative events, and solving practical problems.

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.

ALADIN: demo of a multimodal adaptive voice interface

This demo will demonstrate the ALADIN adaptive voice interface, which was designed to aid people with motor disabilities. As these people often experience problems with conventional button or switch-based interfaces, but often also suffer from speech impairments, a self-learning speech recognition system was developed. To support the system, a tablet-based companion interface was designed. The demo will present a working prototype of the speech system that can optionally be trained by conference attendees to recognize their own language or dialect, as well as the tablet interface and an interactive 3D recreation of a home environment used during user testing.

Revealing the architectural quality of media architecture

Media architecture is becoming an increasingly affordable and ubiquitous element in our built environment. As a result, architecture gains dynamic and interactive opportunities to engage with its surroundings. However, the influence of media architecture on the experience of the built environment raises the need to avoid an architectural disconnect. In this paper, we describe which design qualities support the architectural relevance of media architecture. We report on a Q Methodology survey among 22 architects that aimed to reveal the perceived architectural quality of 24 existing media architecture projects. Our analysis of the specific terminology illustrates how perceived architectural quality of media architecture relates to its ability to 1) coexist with physical characteristics of architecture; 2) augment space; 3) respond to contextual changes; and 4) communicate content that is relevant for the architectural situation.