Stephanie Deutsch

Evaluating performance and acceptance of older adults using freehand gestures for TV menu control

In this paper, we explore alternative TV menu control methods, focusing specifically on older users. We investigated performance and acceptance of freehand gestures by implementing several techniques and conducting a user study with 24 older adults. We expected that older adults would like gesture techniques as they are generally fun to use and easy to conduct. As a possible alternative to physical remote control, gesture techniques may also introduce some physical activity for older adults (positive health effects). In the user study, we compared four different kinds of freehand gesture interaction to control a corresponding TV menu, investigating specifically on abilities of older adults. Each of the interaction types was analyzed regarding task completion time, error rate, usability and acceptance. Results showed that directly transferring tracked hand movements to control a cursor on a TV achieved the best performance and was preferred by the users. In general, the participating older adults showed a very positive attitude towards gesture-based interactions.

Tablet, gestures, remote control?: influence of age on performance and user experience with iTV applications

Due to recent development of TVs in the direction of highly interactive multimedia platforms, interactive TV (iTV) applications gain popularity. In terms of control possibilities a variety of input modalities have become available, though effects on performance and user experience of different age groups when controlling different iTV applications remain unclear. We present an empirical investigation comparing three input modalities (tablet, freehand gestures, remote) for controlling two iTV applications (Photo Browser, Nutrition Tracker) used by older and younger adults. Results show that all three independent variables had significant influence on performance, while we did not find influence of age or application on user experience. Overall tablet input based on a mirrored TV screen showed the best performance and was preferred by both age groups. Older adults were overall slower and showed a particularly large performance gap with the remote in comparison to younger adults.

Visual Search Strategies of Tag Clouds - Results from an Eyetracking Study

Tag clouds have become a frequently used interaction technique in the web in the past couple of years. Research has shown the influence of variables such as tag size and location on the perception of tag clouds. However, several questions remain unclear. First, little is know on how tag clouds are perceived visually and which search strategies users apply when looking for tags in a tag cloud. Second, there are variables, especially tag location, were prior work comes to conflicting results. Third, several approaches to present tag clouds with the tags semantically clustered have been proposed recently. However, it remains unclear which effects these new approaches have on the perception of tag clouds. In this paper we report the results of an extensive study on the perception of tag clouds using eye tracking technology that allows answering these questions.

Comparing different layouts of tag clouds: Findings on visual perception

With the emergence of social tagging systems and the possibility for users to extensively annotate web resources and any content enormous amounts of unordered information and user generated metadata circulate the Web. Accordingly a viable visualisation form needs to integrate this unclassified content into meaningful visual representations. We argue that tag clouds can make the grade. We assume that the application of clustering techniques for arranging tags can be a useful method to generate meaningful units within a tag cloud. We think that clustered tag clouds can potentially help to enhance user performance. In this paper we present a description of tag clouds including a theoretical discourse on the strengths and weaknesses of using them in common Web-based contexts. Further recent methods of semantic clustering for visualizing tag clouds are reviewed. Findings from user studies that investigated the visual perception of differently arranged depictions of tags follow. The main objective consists in the exploration of characteristical aspects in perceptual phenomenons and cognitive processes during the interaction with a tag cloud. This clears the way for useful implications on the constitution and design factors of that visualisation form. Finally a new approach is proposed in order to further develop on this concept.

User-Centered Design between Cultures: Designing for and with Immigrants

Immigrants represent a substantial part of European society. After emigration, they can suffer from fundamental changes in their socio-economic environment. Therefore, supportive ICT services (e.g. for language learning or job search) have high potential to ease inclusion, especially for newly arrived immigrants with low education. Within an international research project we involve Turkish and Arabic immigrants in a user-centered design (UCD) process with the goal to develop supportive ICT services for smartphones. In this paper, we present our methodological experiences and discuss benefits and drawbacks of methods. Based thereupon, we formulate concrete implications for successful UCD with immigrants, e.g. collaborating with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) or benefiting from reflections of long term-immigrants.

Directed cultural probes: detecting barriers in the usage of public transportation

In this paper we describe the application of a variation of cultural probing for identifying barriers in the use of public transportation for target groups with visual, cognitive or language-related handicaps. To be able to better focus on the targeted aspect - the barriers - we applied modifications to the traditional cultural probing approach: Users were encouraged to generate data related to the targeted aspect. We found that this approach can produce focused results that can be analysed fast and can help to overcome obstacles related to limitations in verbal skills or expressiveness of the user.

Advances in MASELTOV Serious Games in a Mobile Ecology of Services for Social Inclusion and Empowerment of Recent Immigrants

Immigration imposes a range of challenges with the risk of social exclusion. As part of a comprehensive suite of services for immigrants, the MASELTOV game seeks to provide both practical tools and innovative learning services via mobile devices, providing a readily usable resource for recent immigrants. We introduce advanced results, such as the game-based learning aspect in the frame of recommender services, and present the rationale behind its interaction design. Benefits and implications of mobile platforms and emergent data capture techniques for game-based learning are discussed, as are methods for putting engaging gameplay at the forefront of the experience whilst relying on rich data capture and analysis to provide effective learning solutions.

Money on the move workload, usability and technology acceptance of second-screen atm-interactions

In this paper we compare one single-screen touch interaction with an automated teller machine (ATM) against two alternative second-screen ATM interactions using a smartphone. In an experimental laboratory study, those three ATM interactions were compared by means of workload (NASA-TLX), usability (SEQ, UMUX) and technology acceptance (selected TAM3-scales and additional scales for trust and security) in a randomized, controlled within-subjects design (n=24). In one smartphone ATM interaction the Personal Identification Number (PIN) was entered on the mobile phone, in the other smartphone ATM interaction the PIN was entered on the PIN-pad of the ATM. The results indicate that overall second-screen ATM interaction all interaction done on the mobile phone -- performed best.

Attention in mobile interactions: gaze recovery for large scale studies

Understanding human attention in mobile interaction is a relevant part of human computer interaction, indica-ting focus of task, emotion and communication. Lack of large scale studies enabling statistically significant re-sults is due to high costs of manual penetration in eye tracking analysis. With high quality wearable cameras for eye-tracking and Google glasses, video analysis for visual attention analysis will become ubiquitous for automated large scale annotation. We describe for the first time precise gaze estimation on mobile displays and surrounding, its performance and without markers. We demonstrate accurate POR (point of regard) re-covery on the mobile device and enable heat mapping of visual tasks. In a benchmark test we achieve a mean accuracy in the POR localization on the display by 1.5 mm, and the method is very robust to illumination changes. We conclude from these results that this sys-tem may open new avenues in eye tracking research for behavior analysis in mobile applications.

Assisted collection and organization for laddering interview data

Today several narrative techniques for acquiring subjective information from users are widely applied in HCI Research. As an emerging technique in this field, the laddering approach is widely used in marketing research contexts to learn more about personal values and customer behaviors. However, the method is in search of serious improvement in terms of ensuring objectivity and reliability of the resulting data. In this paper we propose a tool that supports the collection and organization of qualitative data from narrative laddering interviews. We describe how LadderAssist supports the interviewer by preventing errors in data acquisition and saving time in data organization and processing.