Pekka Isomursu

Understanding human values in adopting new technology-A case study and methodological discussion

This paper proposes a method for understanding and modelling human values in the evaluation of new technology in social settings, and analyses the validity of the proposed method in a specific use case. The method, which is based on the Schwartz universal model of human values adopted from social psychology research, is used in the context of value analysis of the adoption of a technology-supported attendance control system in a primary school. The results are based on an evaluation of a 14-week trial where two classes of elementary school children used an attendance control system that was implemented using networked technology components, including smart cards, NFC-enabled mobile phones and card readers, a web portal, and SMS messaging. The findings from the trial are analysed from the viewpoint of three end-user groups, namely children, parents, and teachers.

Involving young girls in product concept design

Young girls are a user group often neglected in the design of technical devices. In this paper, we describe a method for involving pre-teen and teen girls in a concept design process. With this target group we have experienced serious challenges in applying traditional participatory design methods, such as observations or interviews. As a solution, we have adopted a web-based storytelling environment where our target group is encouraged to create usage scenarios of a mobile terminal that would support their activities in a virtual community. Our results show that this approach is a very natural and fruitful method for involving this target group.

Evaluating Human Values in the Adoption of New Technology in School Environment

This paper describes the results of a value analysis of adopting a technology-supported attendance control service in a primary school. The results are based on a case study that explored a 14-week trial where two classes of elementary school children used an attendance control system that was implemented using networked technology components, including smart cards, NFC enabled mobile phones and card readers, a web-portal, and SMS messaging. Even though the design goals of the system were directed towards creating value primarily for the parents and teachers, the analysis of subjective perceived value showed that the children were the most satisfied user group of the system. A model of human values adopted from social psychology was used for modeling and interpreting the value experienced by the children.

Integrating collaborative context information with social media: a study of user perceptions

This paper explores the collaborative context, i.e. consolidated data summarizing context information for groups of people, in social media. The results are based on a user study combining an analysis of actual personal social media content, in-depth interviews and a triggered ESM (experience sampling method) inspired diary study. The results indicate that collaborative context data has the potential to increase the interest level of status updates. It offers possibility for summary representations of groups, and can be used as a possible source of motivation and inspiration arising from activities or behavior of a predefined group of peers.

Examining human values in adopting ubiquitous technology in school

This paper summarizes value analysis of adopting technology-supported attendance control service in a primary school. The results are based on a case study that explored a 14-week trial where two classes of elementary school children used an attendance control system that was implemented using networked technology components, including smart cards, NFC enabled mobile phones and card readers, a web-portal, and SMS messaging. The findings from the trial are analyzed from the viewpoint of three end user groups, namely children, parents and teachers. Value modeling adopted from social psychology is used for interpreting the perceived value for each user group.

Classification of mobile micromovies

Mobile micromovies are a new, emerging art form. We study their possibilities and restrictions by identifying different classes of micromovies. Our analysis is based on the material from a script competition. We have used scripts instead of completed micromovies to minimize the effects of the current technical limitations in implementation and thus to get a better view of the near future of this new medium.

Exploiting multimedia components in small user interfaces

Small user interfaces (UI), such as mobile telephone interfaces, have so far mainly been text-based. Combining different modalities, such as text, pictures and voice, provides a powerful mechanism for making telephone UI easier and faster to use, less obtrusive and more widely accepted. This study explores how pictures and other multimedia components can be used in small UI of mobile telephones. We identify different semantic classes of pictures that can be used in UI and discuss their usage. We debate how the limited-size screen can be better utilised by using pictures and different paradigms of the visual UI universe. We identify different levels for a way in which the UI universe can be depicted on the display. We also discuss how disturbances in the attention of mobile users, caused by the constantly changing environment and limited-size screen, can be compensated by using different multimedia components in different contexts.

Digital Signage Effectiveness in Retail Stores

This paper presents results from a study on the effectiveness of digital signage in the retail environment. The goal of the study was to examine design parameters relevant to digital signage content design which could be used to create guidelines and templates for designing effective digital signage content. In this study, we focused on how video and animation affect the effectiveness of digital signage. When comparing still content with content enhanced with video or animation, no significant difference in effectiveness could be observed. This observation contradicts with earlier studies. Our study supports the views that the digital displays are currently most useful and effective to the younger generation, and that male customers consider digital displays in a store more useful than females do.