Sarah Webber

Uncovering the Honeypot Effect: How Audiences Engage with Public Interactive Systems

In HCI, the honeypot effect describes how people interacting with a system passively stimulate passers-by to observe, approach and engage in an interaction. Previous research has revealed the successive engagement phases and zones of the honeypot effect. However, there is little insight into: 1) how people are stimulated to transition between phases; 2) what aspects drive the honeypot effect apart from watching others; and 3) what constraints affect its self-reinforcing performance. In this paper, we discuss the honeypot effect as a spatiotemporal model of trajectories and influences. We introduce the Honeypot Model based on the analysis of observations and interaction logs from Encounters, a public installation that interactively translated bodily movements into a dynamic visual and sonic output. In providing a model that describes trajectories and influences of audience engagement in public interactive systems, our paper seeks to inform researchers and designers to consider contextual, spatial and social factors that influence audience engagement.

Cross-disciplinary perspectives on animal welfare science and animal-computer interaction

An ongoing aim of human-computer interaction (HCI) is to understand what is meant by user experience, and how to measure it. This is more complex in the case of animal-computer interaction (ACI), in which the user is a non-human. In this paper we discuss the concepts and tools that animal welfare science offers ACI research for evaluating and assessing the effects of interactive devices on animals. We provide an overview of the current knowledge derived from animal welfare science, with a focus on the evaluation and assessment of technology on animal welfare. We also elaborate on perspectives for future collaboration between ACI and animal welfare science: social environment, human-animal interactions, and environmental enrichment. A greater understanding of the evolution of animal welfare science will inform the development of ACI as a fruitful, rigorous and sustainable scientific endeavour.

What people talk about when they talk about quitting

As part of an ongoing project to explore the design of behaviour-change technology for smoking cessation, we analysed a successful community who come together on the popular Reddit website to discuss quitting and to encourage each others quit attempts. We found that users remain anonymous but identify according to their quit stage. We examined the form and content of posts, finding that narratives about people and events are more common than other rhetorical forms. Many speak of ongoing struggles with quit attempts. Our analysis reveals forms of sociality spontaneously enacted in a self-managed community of quitters. We compare our results with earlier work on social media and behaviour change.

Trajectories of Engagement and Disengagement with a Story-Based Smoking Cessation App

Strong user engagement with digital technologies for behaviour change is often taken as a precursor to their longer-term efficacy. We critically examine this assumption through a qualitative study of a smoking cessation app, called NewLeaf, which allows quitters to swap personal stories. The study examined what influenced people to engage or disengage with NewLeaf, and how the app was deployed in quit attempts during a four week trial. Several properties of swapped stories were reported to promote engagement, including: authenticity, currency, contextualization of advice, and evoking a sense of community. But while the resulting engagement was sometimes productive in supporting quitting, other trajectories of use were observed involving counterproductive engagement, and a surprising pattern of productive disengagement especially among stronger quitters. We discuss how this analysis of different trajectories problematizes any simple interpretation of user engagement as an early indicator of success for behaviour change technologies.

Unbounding the interaction design problem: the contribution of HCI in three interventions for well-being

In this paper we consider HCIs role in technology interventions for health and well-being. Three projects carried out by the authors are analysed by appropriating the idea of a value chain to chart a causal history from proximal effects generated in early episodes of design through to distal health and well-being outcomes. Responding to recent arguments that favour bounding HCIs contribution to local patterns of use, we propose an unbounded view of HCI that addresses an extended value chain of influence. We discuss a view of HCI methods as mobilising this value chain perspective in multi-disciplinary collaborations through its emphasis on early prototyping and naturalistic studies of use.

Don't cut to the chase: hunting experiences for zoo animals and visitors

This workshop explores different ways to use technology to facilitate hunting behaviour enrichment for zoo-housed animals and parallel gaming experiences for zoo visitors.

HCI Goes to the Zoo: [Workshop Proposal]

This workshop will explore research into interactive and digital technologies in zoos, aquariums and wildlife parks. Such sites are making increasing use of technology in their work to foster educational, emotional and entertaining connections between visitors and animals, with the goal of transforming attitudes to wildlife and conservation. Bringing together HCI researchers with interests in zoos (as a design context) and animals (as a design user), as well as animal welfare and behavior experts, this workshop will further our understanding of what it means to design and use technology in this space at the intersection of the human and animal worlds.

Everybody Dance Now: Tensions between Participation and Performance in Interactive Public Installations

In this paper, we report on Encounters, an interactive public installation that provides a basis for studying the effect of dance performances on the emergence of creative, social experiences. Based on observations and interviews with dancers and participants, we identified a range of tensions that arise from integrating a staged performance with participatory interaction. These tensions occurred among both participants and performers, and influenced the social and performative experience. Based on our analysis, we propose several strategies to smoothen the integration of performative and participatory interaction. These strategies reconsider the role of the interactive installation, the effect of digital cues that draw on existing conventions, and mechanisms to direct gaze. We believe our findings and strategies are valuable to HCI researchers and performative artists seeking to design for public participation in interactive experiences.

Animal computer interaction (ACI) & designing for animal interaction (AXD)

This workshop invites researchers and practitioners from HCI and related fields who work in some capacity with animals and who recognise the sentient nature of their being. We call for those who want to better understand how to work with animals and learn from them. We are a small team looking to build an Australian chapter of the Animal Computer Interaction Community. The workshop will elicit discussion, forge new partnerships and head up a new group on the state of the art within this field in Australia, including comparative international studies. For more information see http://www.ozaci.org/

Design and evaluation of interactive technology for human-animal encounters at the zoo

Zoos are making increasing use of digital technology for visitor interpretations and for animal enrichment and research. Modern zoos place considerable emphasis on animal welfare, on constructing positive human-animal interactions as a foundation for education, and shaping public attitudes towards wildlife and conservation. These objectives have much in common with the stated goals of ACI. To date, only limited ACI research has been conducted in the context of the zoo. Through my research, I aim to provide a foundation for ACI to contribute to the evolution of the zoo as a site of education, conservation and animal welfare best practice.