Rowanne Fleck

The ubiquitous camera: an in-depth study of camera phone use

Little in-depth data exists regarding what users actually do with their camera phones. Our goal was thus to understand how people use camera phone images for social and personal purposes and affective and functional purposes. We had two main objectives. The first was to explore the range and diversity of use to help broaden our outlook on current and future camera phone use. The second was to elucidate the characteristics and context of use for different activities to learn how we might better support such activities.

Ambient wood: designing new forms of digital augmentation for learning outdoors

Ubiquitous and mobile technologies provide opportunities for designing novel learning experiences that move out of the classroom. Information can be presented and interacted with in a variety of ways while exploring a physical environment. A key issue this raises is when, where, what and how much? Our research is concerned with the design, delivery and interaction of digital information when learning about ecology outdoors. We present a framework of the different forms of digital augmentation and the different processes by which they can be accessed. Using the framework, we designed an outdoors learning experience, aimed at encouraging students to carry out contextualized scientific enquiry and to reflect on their interactions. Pairs of 11-12 year olds explored a woodland and were presented at certain times with different forms of digital augmentation. Our study showed that this kind of exploration promoted interpretation and reflection at a number of levels of abstraction.

Around the table: are multiple-touch surfaces better than single-touch for children's collaborative interactions?

This paper presents a classroom study that investigated the potential of using touch tabletop technology to support childrens collaborative learning interactions. Children aged 7-10 worked in groups of three on a collaborative planning task in which they designed a seating plan for their classroom. In the single-touch condition, the tabletop surface allowed only one child to interact with the digital content at a time. In the multiple-touch condition, the children could interact with the digital content simultaneously. Results showed that touch condition did not affect the frequency or equity of interactions, but did influence the nature of childrens discussion. In the multiple-touch condition, children talked more about the task; in the single-touch condition, they talked more about turn taking. We also report age and gender differences.

Actions speak loudly with words: unpacking collaboration around the table

The potential of tabletops to enable groups of people to simultaneously touch and manipulate a shared tabletop interface provides new possibilities for supporting collaborative learning. However, findings from the few studies carried out to date have tended to show small or insignificant effects compared with other technologies. We present the Collaborative Learning Mechanisms framework used to examine the coupling of verbal interactions and physical actions in collaboration around the tabletop and reveal subtle mechanisms at play. Analysis in this way revealed that what might be considered undesirable or harmful interactions and intrusions in general collaborative settings, might be beneficial for collaborative learning. We discuss the implications of these findings for how tabletops may be used to support childrens collaboration, and the value of considering verbal and physical aspects of interaction together in this way.

Children designing together on a multi-touch tabletop: an analysis of spatial orientation and user interactions

Applications running on multi-touch tabletops are beginning to be developed to enable children to collaborate on a variety of activities, from photo sharing to playing games. However, little is know as to how children work together on such interactive surfaces. We present a study that investigated groups of childrens use of a multitouch tabletop for a shared-space design task, requiring reasoning and compromise. The OurSpace application was designed to allow children to arrange the desks in their classroom and allocate students to seats around those desks. A number of findings are reported, including a comparison of single versus multiple touch, equity of participation, and an analysis of how a childs tabletop position affects where he or she touches. A main finding was that children used all of the tabletop surface, but took more responsibility for the parts of the design closer to their relative position.

Fighting for control: children's embodied interactions when using physical and digital representations

Tabletop and tangible interfaces are often described in terms of their support for shared access to digital resources. However, it is not always the case that collaborators want to share and help one another. In this paper we detail a video-analysis of a series of prototyping sessions with children who used both cardboard objects and an interactive tabletop surface. We show how the material qualities of the digital interface and physical objects affect the kinds of bodily strategies adopted by children to stop others from accessing them. We discuss how children fight for and maintain control of physical versus digital objects in terms of embodied interaction and what this means when designing collaborative applications for shareable interfaces.

Lo-fi prototyping to design interactive-tabletop applications for children

Interactive tabletops are an exiting new platform for supporting childrens collaboration. With design guidelines and standardized interaction principles still immature, there is a considerable need for iterative prototyping to define the task and interface. Lo-fi prototypes---using cardboard, paper, etc.---are easy to develop, flexible to adjust during design sessions, and intuitive for users to manipulate. Using them can be a valuable step in designing tabletop applications. In this paper, we detail the design process of two tabletop applications, concentrating on the role of lo-fi prototyping. TransTime is a pattern game for 5--6 year olds to engage how time progresses. OurSpace is a design tool for 7--9 year olds to arrange desks and assign seats for students in their classroom. By comparing the experiences, we arrive at a better understanding of the benefits, challenges, and limits of using lo-fi prototypes to design interactive-tabletop applications for children.

Balancing Boundaries: Using Multiple Devices to Manage Work-Life Balance

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) continue to give us increased flexibility about when and where we choose to work and the freedom to deal with home tasks whilst at work. However more use of ICT for work during non-work time has been linked with negative outcomes including lower work and life satisfaction and increased stress. Previous work has suggested that in order to reduce some of these negative effects, people should adopt technology use strategies that aid separation of their home and work lives. In this paper we report the results of a questionnaire study investigating work-life balance boundary behaviours and technology use. We find that people use multiple devices as a way of creating boundaries between home and work, and the extent to which they do this relates to their boundary behaviour style. These findings have particular relevance given the increasing trend for Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies.

Accept the Banana: Exploring Incidental Cognitive Bias Modification Techniques on Smartphones

Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM) techniques show promise in psychology as an attitude, affect and/or behaviour change technique, but have yet to be implemented or evaluated extensively on smartphones. We present a pilot study exploring appropriate gestures for accepting and rejecting healthy eating stimuli on smartphones and apply them in an incidental, unobtrusive way within a smartphone screen shown at unlock time. Our main finding is evidence that a short course of incidental smartphone CBM alters some measures of food attitudes. We suggest a programme of future research to explore the area further, informed by our results and a related user survey

People don't bump: sharing around mobile phones in close proximity

A large body of mobile phone sharing research focuses on creating new interaction techniques for sharing, and considers the usability of such applications and features whilst ignoring the context of their use, their adoption or appropriation. Therefore it is not known whether these technologies are used in practice or whether they really meet peoples sharing needs. The aim of this research was to understand current real-world user sharing practices around mobile smart phones through the use of a diary study with 63 participants. We focused on close proximity sharing and discovered that new technologies to support this kind of sharing, for example bumping handsets together to exchange files, are not being widely used. More than half of all sharing via phones in this sample involved only telling, showing or passing the phone, though this often triggered further sharing. Possible explanations for this and their implications are discussed.