Tom Hope

Familial collaborations in a museum

Studies of interactive systems in museums have raised important design considerations, but so far have failed to address sufficiently the particularities of family interaction and co-operation. This paper introduces qualitative video-based observations of Japanese families using an interactive portable guide system in a museum. Results show how unexpected usage can occur through particularities of interaction between family members. The paper highlights the necessity to more fully consider familial relationships in HCI.

Doing community: co-construction of meaning and use with interactive information kiosks

One of the challenges for ubiquitous computing is to design systems that can be both understood by their users and at the same time understand the users themselves. As information and its meaning becomes more associated with the communities that provide and use it, how will it be possible to build effective systems for these users? We have been examining these issues via ethnographic analysis of the information and community supporting system that we have developed and employed at conference events. This paper presents initial analysis and suggests greater focus on the interaction between members of micro-communities of users in future ubicomp research.

Sipping Science: The Interpretative Flexibility of Science Cafés in Denmark and Japan

Science cafés were originally conceived as an informal, dialogue-based venue for public participation in science. The first science cafés took place in the United Kingdom and France in 1997–98. Two formats—one featuring a single speaker (United Kingdom) and one with a panel of speakers and a moderator (France)—resulted from these first initiatives. Since then, science cafés have been adapted to other sociocultural contexts, and today, science cafés are being conducted in many different countries and for many different purposes. We examine the emergence and development of science cafés in Denmark and Japan with particular focus on the role of science and technology studies (STS), national contexts of science communication policy, and cultures of public participation. We find that in both countries, despite different expectations of public deliberation about science and technology, science cafés have been easily embedded in the “new” scientific governance programs (Irwin 2006). This is mainly due to institutional support in the national research systems and the involvement of STS scholars who, in their support of public participation in science and dialogue-based science communication, have advocated science cafés as a meaningful way to intervene in science-society relationships. “Sipping science” in a science café, enabling public participation in science deliberations, has interpretative flexibility, appealing to a wide variety of people and stakeholders engaged in public communication of science and technology.

Pair Matching: Transdisciplinary Study for Introducing Computational Intelligence to Guide Dog Associations

There have been attempts to tackle visual impairment issues in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). However, we can scarcely see HCI research outcomes are widely used by the blind. In this research, we aim to investigate new design possibilities as a transdisciplinary approach for guide dog training and education. We work with guide dog trainers, the blind, and guide dogs. In detail, we focus on matching guide dogs with visually impaired people. This work contributes to igniting research on designing interactive systems for the community of the visually impaired and also other human-animal-matching processes.

Spatial design, designers and users: exploring the meaning of multi-party service cognition

This paper examines service cognition from the perspective of the design of public or semi-public spaces. Results are presented from a workshop with students using an approach and system we developed to engage users with the design of their communal space. The paper ends with a brief discussion of these results, which suggest that multi-party service cognition has features that must be addressed in the design of systems, particularly in the context of spatial design.

A collective map to capture human behavior for the design of public spaces

This paper explores potential uses of publicly created behavioral data for spatial (re)design. The widespread use of mobile devices and access to the Internet has made spontaneous sharing of information about ones life increasingly common. These emerging trends of pervasive life logging and sensing in communal space provoke new opportunities for designers and architects. This paper reports on work in progress, introducing a set of tools to support spatial design via the collection and analysis of human behavior using Twitter, and presents the result of a workshop using the tools in a university library in Japan. We offer ways to analyze and visualize the data and discuss what we can observe from the collected data that may be useful for designing such communal spaces.