Majken Kirkegaard Rasmussen

Causing commotion with a shape-changing bench: experiencing shape-changing interfaces in use

In this paper we describe results from testing coMotion, a shape-changing bench, in three different contexts: a concert hall foyer, an airport departure hall and a shopping mall. We have gathered insights from more than 120 people, with regard to how users experience and make sense of the benchs shape changing capability. The paper applies McCarthy and Wrights six different sense making processes (anticipating, connecting, interpreting, reflecting, appropriating and recounting) as an instrument to analyse peoples experience with shape-changing furniture in the wild. The paper also introduces exploring as a seventh sense making process. Based on this analysis, the paper points to three relevant aspects when designing shape-changing artefacts for the wild, namely: 1) Affordance of shape-changing interfaces, 2) Transitions between background and foreground and 3) Interpreting physically dynamic objects.

Computational environmental ethnography: combining collective sensing and ethnographic inquiries to advance means for reducing environmental footprints

We lack an understanding of human values, motivations and behavior in regards to new means for changing peoples behavior towards more sustainable choices in their everyday life. Previous anthropological and sociological studies have identified these objects of study to be quite complex and to require new methods to be unfolded further. Especially behavior within the privacy of peoples homes has proven challenging to uncover through the use of traditional qualitative and quantitative social scientific methods (e.g. interviews, participatory observations and questionnaires). Furthermore, many research experiments are attempting to motivate environmental improvements through feedback via, e.g., room displays, web pages or smart phones, based on (smart) metering of energy usage, or for saving energy by automatic control of, e.g., heating, lighting or appliances. However, existing evaluation methods are primarily unilateral by opting for either a quantitative or a qualitative method or for a simple combination and therefore do not provide detailed insight into the potentials and impacts of such solutions. This paper therefore proposes a combined quantitative and qualitative collective sensing and anthropologic investigation methodology we term Computational Environmental Ethnography, which provides quantitative sensing data that document behavior while facilitating qualitative investigations to link the data to explanations and ideas for further sensing. We propose this methodology to include the establishment of base lines, comparative experimental feedback, traceable sensor data with respect for different privacy levels, visualization of sensor data, qualitative explanations of recurrent and exceptional patterns in sensor data, taking place as part of an innovative process and in an iterative interplay among complementing disciplines, potentially including also partners from industry. Experiences from using the methodology in a zero-emission home setting, as well as an ongoing case investigating transportation habits are discussed.

Exploring Opponent Formats

The recent growth in development and research in computer-supported physical games has sprouted a wide variety of games merging qualities from both computer games and sports. Despite the increasing interest in this type of games, exploration of their specific game mechanics and the understanding of how the opponent format and relationships impact a game are almost absent in current research. Thus, this paper aims to elucidate how the perception of a competition differs, depending on the opponent format, by presenting a game mechanic framework. The paper furthermore presents an interactive football-training platform, as well as games designed to explore the different opponent formats. The games are qualitatively evaluated to illuminate the qualities of and distinctions between different types of opponent formats, proposed by the framework terminology.

Sketching Shape-changing Interfaces: Exploring Vocabulary, Metaphors Use, and Affordances

Shape-changing interfaces allow designers to create user interfaces that physically change shape. However, presently, we lack studies of how such interfaces are designed, as well as what high-level strategies, such as metaphors and affordances, designers use. This paper presents an analysis of sketches made by 21 participants designing either a shape-changing radio or a shape-changing mobile phone. The results exhibit a range of interesting design elements, and the analysis points to a need to further develop or revise existing vocabularies for sketching and analyzing movement. The sketches show a prevalent use of metaphors, say, for communicating volume though big-is-on and small-is-off, as well as a lack of conventions. Furthermore, the affordances used were curiously asymmetrical compared to those offered by non-shape-changing interfaces. We conclude by offering implications on how our results can influence future research on shape-changing interfaces.

Designing training games for soccer

Advancements in wearable and ubiquitous computing have exposed the interaction design community to a new perspective on sports. Football Lab is a public interactive soccer-training system created in cooperation with a Danish soccer academy and Munin Sports, a company that manufactures soccer-training equipment. Four rebounding surfaces, called M-stations are positioned at the center of each of the four sides of the playing field. The M-stations consist of a large frame strung with wire, similar to a tennis racquet, capable of returning a ball with 95 percent of its mostly on sound cues.

Magical realities in interaction design

The field of interaction design is littered with examples of artefacts, which seemingly do not adhere to well-known physical causalities and our innate expectations of how artefacts should behave in the world, thereby creating the impression of a magic reality; where things can float in mid-air, the usually inanimate TV can become animate, two separate objects can become physically connected, and we can move objects with our mind. The paper presents Subbotskys [21] four types of magical causalities: mind-over-matter magic, animation magic, nonpermanence magic and sympathetic magic, as a way to reflect upon the magical realities constructed by technological artefacts.