Ohad Inbar

Lowering the line of visibility: incidental users in service encounters

Recent economic and technological developments have led to the emergence of the services industry and to the important role that information technology (IT) plays in it. The emergence of IT-based services, which has merged peoples roles as customers and users, calls for closer collaboration between the domains of human–computer interaction (HCI) and services science. This article offers three contributions within this context. First, we elaborate on the concept of the ‘incidental user’ – a person involved as a customer in a service encounter that includes exchange of information with an IT system, often mediated by a service representative who is the main user of the system. Second, we suggest that two key design aspects – sharing information with incidental users and increasing their control over the interaction – can improve the service provided by the organisation to its customers. We propose a theoretical model that describes the consequences of such design decisions on the incidental user and on the service encounter. Specifically, we propose that these decisions improve the effectiveness of the service encounter and customers’ trust in the service-providing organisation. Finally, we suggest and demonstrate design solutions that expand the range of information exchanged between the service representative and the customer – by sharing information and/or by extending the level of interaction available to the customer. By applying established HCI practices and theories, and considering new design solutions, designers of service encounter environments can improve the customers service experience and the service providers effectiveness.

Tactful calling: investigating asymmetric social dilemmas in mobile communications

Recipients of phone calls face a constant dilemma between ignoring calls at the possible expense of offending the caller, missing business opportunities or neglecting family members on one hand; and answering them at the expense of interrupting their train of thought or appearing rude and impolite towards others with whom they share a social activity on the other hand. We studied peoples attitudes regarding these dilemmas, with emphasis on their social aspects. In a cross-cultural study, conducted in Israel and in Germany, we surveyed both caller and recipient attitudes towards answering mobile phone calls in various circumstances. The study also assessed the aspects of providing contextual information about a call prior to it being answered, including types of information deemed most valuable. The results emphasise the importance of social norms in affecting respondents’ attitudes towards making or accepting phone calls regardless of role (caller or recipient), gender or culture. We also found that the norms in the physical context (e.g. being in a meeting) prevailed over norms in the virtual context (e.g. the phone call). Cultural and gender differences did not affect the degree to which people were frustrated by insufficient information regarding the other partys context. However, these factors did affect the suggested design solutions to this problem. The research provides insight into the social aspects of the problem of interruptive mobile phone calls and towards designing applications that help users maintain politeness while handling the caller–recipient dilemma.

Manners Matter: Trust in Robotic Peacekeepers

The ‘intuitive’ trust people feel when encountering robots in public spaces is a key determinant of their interactions with the systems. To study the trust we presented subjects with static images of a robot performing an access-control task, interacting with younger and older male and female civilians, applying polite or impolite behavior. Our results showed strong effects of the robot’s behavior. Age and gender of the people interacting with the robot had no significant effect on participants’ impressions of the robot’s attributes. This preliminary study shows that politeness may be a crucial determinant of people’s perception of peacekeeping robots.

All the news that's fit to e-ink

We describe a design project of a future electronic news device and service. The project employs about 20 researchers, designers and developers. It uses advances in product technologies and in social computing to deal with the challenges of transferring the print newspaper reading experience onto a mobile, hand-held device, and of transferring the editors power to decide what constitutes worthy news to the reader.

Usability challenges in creating a multi-IM mobile application

We describe the usability challenges of designing a mobile instant messaging (IM) application with voice (VoIP) capability. The key challenge was to maintain the experience of PC-based IM applications while taking into account both the constraints of mobile devices and the differences in the context in which such applications are used. We also discuss the challenges involved in implementing solutions to correspond with the capabilities and UI conventions of varied platforms and devices.