Leena Arhippainen

Social acceptance of proactive mobile services: observing and anticipating cultural aspects by a sociology of user experience method

This paper describes the method of a sociological inquiry achieved in France and Finland within the ADAMOS project. The goals of this inquiry are to understand the social factors of the acceptability for proactive mobile services and identify the cultural differences between French and Finnish users. A prospective vision of the proactive mobile services has been conceptualized and depicted in a demonstrative film. It was shown to French and Finnish people selected according to their user profiles in relation to their ICT usage: the way they conceive of ICTs in their daily lives. Individual reactions and group dynamics have been filmed and sociologically analyzed. They reveal slight differences between French and Finnish reception of the exposed concept. It suggests how the social acceptability of high-tech services could depend on archaic aspects of the users culture.

Gaze tracking and non-touch gesture based interaction method for mobile 3D virtual spaces

This paper introduces a continuous gaze tracking and non-touch gesture recognition based interaction method for 3D virtual spaces on tablet devices. The user can turn his/her viewpoint, select objects with gaze and grab and manipulate objects with non-touch hand gestures. The interaction method does not require the use of a mouse or a keyboard. We created a test scenario with an object manipulation task and measured the completion times of a combined gaze tracking and non-touch gesture interaction method, with a touch screen only input method. Short interviews were conducted with 13 test subjects and data was gathered through questionnaires. The touch screen method was generally faster than or as fast as the combined gaze and non-touch gesture method. The users thought, however, that gaze tracking was more interesting and showed potential. The gaze tracking would however require more stability to be suitable for use with mobile devices.

Classifying music user groups and identifying needs for mobile virtual music services

This paper presents the results of qualitative interviews conducted with musicians and listeners about their music activities and use of social media services. The paper describes different music user groups, their wishes and what services are needed from a mobile network virtual environment. This information can help developers design new mobile network services from the user experience points of views.

Navigation with an adaptive mobile map-application: user experiences of gesture- and context-sensitiveness

In this paper, we identify navigation sub-tasks in a mobile map-application, and apply adaptive and gesture-based control methods having improved user experience as our goal. We investigate how automated positioning and rotating of maps and intuitive gesture control for zooming and scrolling facilitates navigation. Several smart features were implemented into a handheld prototype: Map is positioned and rotated according to current location and orientation. Zooming is performed with hand gestures in front of a proximity sensor. Scrolling is operated with tilting movements that are recognized with accelerometers. Graphical icons and effects visualize interesting objects, their directions and distances. We evaluate the prototype by analyzing the effort needed for performing navigation sub-tasks with and without smart control features. Moreover, a user experience study was conducted. The results show that navigation tasks can be facilitated with context-sensitiveness and gesture control, though users may need some practice.

Service fusion: an interactive 3D user interface

This paper describes an interactive 3D user interface which allows different real-time services to cooperate in order to complete a user task on a mobile tablet sized device. The UI is based on objectifying data and describing it in an ontological language and combing this with behavioral scripts. The 3D UI is used to visualize the different data and services, while providing a means for object selection and manipulation. Two use cases, a cinema and music service, have been implemented in a prototype, which demonstrates how a general 3D user interface can be used to provide added value to users. The prototype is also meant to advance the thinking of what 3D UIs can accomplish, for virtual environments and mobile augmented reality, by showing practical use cases in action.

A Tutorial of Ten User Experience Heuristics

This tutorial presents ten user experience heuristics for service and product designers and developers. The aim of the heuristics is to help designers to take user experience aspects into account when making design solutions. The heuristics are created based on the empirical user experience studies of mobile services. However, heuristics are general and can be used in any kind of service or product design and evaluation context (e.g. mobile services, web sites, applications). Using these heuristics, developers can find out negative and positive user experience issues that can be taken into account in further design iterations.

User experiences with web-based 3D virtual travel destination marketing portals: the need for visual indication of interactive 3D elements

The tourism sector has found virtual reality technology to be a good way to market travel destinations for consumers. In this paper, we describe two user studies with three web-based 3D virtual travel destination marketing portals. These three portals were developed to support and attract wintertime tourism into the region by offering a possibility to experience in advance, a virtual snowy scenery with different activities, for example downhill skiing. In both user studies with 21 subjects the focus was on user experience with the 3D virtual travel destination marketing portals. In the second study also the visual design aspects within these portals were studied. Our studies indicate that 3D virtual travel destination marketing portals can enhance 2D web pages, if they offer the possibility to explore the location freely and through different kinds of virtual activities. Also our studies support prior findings of the efficiency of glow effect for indicating interactive 3D elements within a 3D virtual environment.

Paradoxical User Acceptance of Ambient Intelligent Systems: Sociology of User Experience Approach

The common way to make studies about user adoption of new technology is to test the future services with users. When conceiving new technological services, designers try to predict the way of life, when their innovation would be available. However, the society is innovating endlessly so that todays user is changing and is not the same than future user. It is easy to predict what will be technically feasible, however, what will be socially acceptable and meaningful is uncertain. Although usage studies try to understand the users of new technologies, the way people will really utilize new technologies in their everyday life appears often ingenious, surprising or even paradoxical. The purpose of this paper is to give a way to anticipate and - why not -- to encourage unpredictable uses by designing paradoxical usage systems.

Utilizing Self-Expression Template Method in User Interface Design - Three Design Cases

In this paper, we introduce our Self-Expression Template Method for design. We also briefly present three different UI design cases utilizing the template with authentic users and UI professionals from both research and industry. This method provided lots of valuable information to our design process of 3D UIs on touch screen tablet devices. We can recommend this type of low-fidelity method to other visual GUI designers also when involving users into the design process. This method is flexible, cost-effective and time-saving to be used in various different participatory or co-design cases among UI development process.

Citizen and employee involvement in public service development through user-driven methods

This paper investigates the use of various user-driven methods in the development of public services. As an example, the paper presents a case where citizens and employees were brought together to identify development needs for remote-enabled public services. User-driven methods provided by a local Living Lab were used to solve the encountered challenges. The outcome of this study indicates that use of multiple methods ensures comprehensive and reliable results as well as deep insight of service usage, thereby resulting in usable, useful and desirable public service.