Martin Colbert

A Diary Study of Rendezvousing: Group Size, Time Pressure and Connectivity

This paper reports an initial analysis of a diary study of rendezvousing as performed by university students. The studys tentative findings are: (i) usability ratings for communication services are a little worse during a rendezvous (when at least one person is en route) than before (when none have yet departed); (ii) problems rendezvousing caused more stress when the rendezvousing group was large (6 or more participants) than when the group was small, but led to no more lost opportunity. Finding (i) is attributed to the desire for instant communication (which is stronger when users are under time pressure), and the constraints placed upon interaction (which are tighter in public spaces than in personal spaces). Finding (ii) is attributed to the suggestion that large rendezvous include more acquaintances (whose contact details may not be known) and different kinds of subsequent activity. If rendezvousers need anything, this study suggests that they need greater connectivity and service availability, rather than greater bandwidth. Implications for the design of position-aware communications services are discussed.

User experience of communication before and during rendezvous: interim results

This paper reports on a diary study of rendezvousing as performed by university students. The study compares students’ experience of communication before and during rendezvous. During rendezvous, students rated several aspects of the experience of communication lower than before rendezvous. This impairment of experience is attributed to the cumulative effects of the following aspects of the context of use: noise, multiple task performance, conflict with social norms, incomplete network coverage, time pressure and conflict with preferred life paths. User performance goals for context-aware communication systems are discussed.

Live, audio-visual communication systems for distance learning: experience, heuristics, and ISDN

This paper collates some of the experience of managers, tutors and learners who have used live, audio-visual communication systems for distance learning. Eight design heuristics are abstracted from this experience and used to reason about how digital communications could make LIVENET more effective. The heuristics are: (i) encourage other (non-training) uses for the communications network; (ii) encourage the participation of otherwise unavailable experts; (iii) exploit visual images, both to communicate information and to support information communicated presented verbally; (iv) avoid technology-induced, inequable opportunity for learning; (v) encourage analogies with face-toface learning modes, rather than conventional television and home video; (vi) help users to find out about other participants and what they are able to see and hear; (vii) actively encourage interaction; and (viii) reassure tutors that the apparent intrusiveness of the technology is just an initial impression.

Important context changes for talking and text messaging during homeward commutes

This paper models the suitability of homeward commutes as a context for talking on a mobile telephone and text messaging. Analysis of these models identifies when and where large changes in suitability frequently arise. To bring commuters the greatest benefits, these are the changes upon which future applications of context-sensitivity and awareness need to focus.

TalkMaths Better ! Evaluating and Improving an Intelligent Interface for Creating and Editing Mathematical Text

We outline a system, called TalkMaths, which has been under development for some time, to allow users to create, access and edit Mathematical text documents using speech. This interface system could prove to be of particular advantage to people with a range of disabilities, amongst others. We describe initial results of a study to evaluate how easy this system is to use, and recent developments aimed at improving it and making it more “user friendly” and intelligent.

Age differences rendezvousing: reminders for side-stepping

This paper reports a diary study of the use of mobile telephones for rendezvousing by young adults (aged 18–30) and mature adults (aged 31–45) in the UK. A number of age differences were found. Specifically, 31–45s more frequently: (1) attributed problems rendezvousing to the overrunning of previous activities, and to the spontaneous performance of additional tasks (‘side-stepping’); (2) reported that ‘problem’ rendezvous resulted in unnecessary sacrifices; and (3) changed plans for the rendezvous. These differences arose, because additional family commitments encouraged 31–45s to pack their daily programme of activities more tightly than 18–30s. Mobile phones might better target 31–45s, if they, for example, enhanced To Do Lists with context-sensitive reminders, in the first instance, reminders triggered by location (GSM network cellID) and logging off from PCs.

The application of process models of information seeking during conceptual design: the case of an intranet resource for the re-use of multimedia training material in the motor industry

Process models of information seeking are widely held in the Human-Computer Interaction research community. This paper reports a project which applied such models to the design of an intranet resource for the re-use of multimedia training material in the motor industry. The models were found to help identify inherent limitations of an initial prototype, and to support the import of design ideas from other Web sites. However, the process models did not help to identify the information objects that information seekers may need to access and manipulate (documents, tables of contents, item summaries, indexes, lists of linked items etc). To better support design, it is suggested that process models of information seeking be expanded to include such objects. Also, designers may wish to regard process models as usable and useful, but incomplete.

Age Differences in Rendezvousing: 18-30s Vs. 31-45s

One strategy for increasing the usefulness, ease of use and satisfaction of wireless navigation and related services is to tailor a package of services to meet the requirements of particular user groups. This paper reports a diary study, which compared the rendezvousing performance and behaviour of two age groups – 18-30s and 31-45s. The age groups differed in the following respects: (i) 31-45s more frequently attributed problems rendezvousing to the overrunning of previous activities, and to the spontaneous performance of additional tasks (’side-stepping’); (ii) 31-45s more frequently experienced lost opportunities associated with the failure to meet as initially agreed in the form of personal sacrifices; and (iii) 31-45s more frequently changed plans for the rendezvous. The explanation for these differences suggested by the diaries is that commitments to spouse and children lead 31-45s to pack their lives more tightly with activities than 18-30s. Some implications for tailoring wireless navigation and related services to the 31-45 age group are discussed.

Web Analytics: The New Purpose towards Predictive Mobile Games

Web Analytics have been confined to an iterative process of collecting online traffic data for the purpose of drawing conclusions. This research presents a concept where internet usage traffic can be predicted against through the means of a mobile game. Through investigating certain industries use and perceptions of playfulness certain aspects are identified for the design and development of the game. Using a usability based methodology for evaluative testing these features are questioned amongst two distinctive versions. From these, the feasibility of a mobile game and its playfulness for users is gauged. The research leaves the concept considering what other contexts web analytics can be used within.

Studying information interaction in context: some lessons for traffic experiments

One way of studying information interaction in context is to conduct traffic experiments. We recently compared different versions of a small website with low traffic volumes to demonstrate some hypothesised effects on information interaction. In this paper, we describe the methodological lessons we learnt when conducting these experiments. The lessons concern: i) implementing versions of the site in a way that supports parallel testing; and ii) designing the web site to operationalise information quality variables (persuasiveness, credibility etc).