Abstract

We explore the design and utility of situated manual self-tracking visualizations on dedicated displays that integrate data tracking into existing practices and physical environments. Situating self-tracking tools in relevant locations is a promising approach to enable reflection on and awareness of data without needing to rely on sensorized tracking or personal devices. In both a long-term autobiographical design process and a co-design study with six participants, we rapidly prototyped and deployed 30 situated self-tracking applications over a ten month period. Grounded in the experience of designing and living with these trackers, we contribute findings on logging and data entry, the use of situated displays, and the visual design and customization of trackers. Our results demonstrate the potential of customizable dedicated self-tracking visualizations that are situated in relevant physical spaces, and suggest future research opportunities and new potential applications for situated visualizations.

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Abstract

We report on findings from seven design workshops that used ideation and sketching activities to prototype new situated visualizations - representations of data that are displayed in proximity to the physical referents (such as people, objects, and locations) to which the data is related. Designing situated visualizations requires a fine-grained understanding of the context in which the visualizations are placed, as well as an exploration of different options for placement and form factors, which existing methods for visualization design do not account for. Focusing on small displays as a target platform, we reflect on our experiences of using a diverse range of sketching activities, materials, and prompts. Based on these observations, we identify challenges and opportunities for sketching and ideating situated visualizations. We also outline the space of design activities for situated visualization and highlight promising methods for both designers and researchers.

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Abstract

Astral is a prototyping tool for authoring mobile and smart object interactive behaviours. It mirrors selected display contents of desktop applications onto mobile devices (smartphones and smartwatches), and streams/remaps mobile sensor data to desktop input events (mouse or keyboard) to manipulate selected desktop contents. This allows designers to use familiar desktop applications (e.g. PowerPoint, AfterEffects) to prototype rich interactive behaviours. Astral combines and integrates display mirroring, sensor streaming and input remapping, where designers can exploit familiar desktop applications to prototype, explore and fine-tune dynamic interactive behaviours. With Astral, designers can visually author rules to test real-time behaviours while interactions take place, as well as after the interaction has occurred. We demonstrate Astral's applicability, workflow and expressiveness within the interaction design process through both new examples and replication of prior approaches that illustrate how various familiar desktop applications are leveraged and repurposed.

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Abstract

We investigate how people discover the functionality of an interactive visualization that was designed for the general public. While interactive visualizations are increasingly available for public use, we still know little about how the general public discovers what they can do with these visualizations and what interactions are available. Developing a better understanding of this discovery process can help inform the design of visualizations for the general public, which in turn can help make data more accessible. To unpack this problem, we conducted a lab study in which participants were free to use their own methods to discover the functionality of a connected set of interactive visualizations of public energy data. We collected eye movement data and interaction logs as well as video and audio recordings. By analyzing this combined data, we extract exploration strategies that the participants employed to discover the functionality in these interactive visualizations. These exploration strategies illuminate possible design directions for improving the discoverability of a visualization's functionality.

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Abstract

Because gesture design for augmented reality (AR) remains idiosyncratic, people cannot necessarily use gestures learned in one AR application in another. To design discoverable gestures, we need to understand what gestures people expect to use. We explore how the scale of AR affects the gestures people expect to use to interact with 3D holograms. Using an elicitation study, we asked participants to generate gestures in response to holographic task referents, where we varied the scale of holograms from desktop-scale to room-scale objects. We found that the scale of objects and scenes in the AR experience moderates the generated gestures. Most gestures were informed by physical interaction, and when people interacted from a distance, they sought a good perspective on the target object before and during the interaction. These results suggest that gesture designers need to account for scale, and should not simply reuse gestures across different hologram sizes.

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Abstract

Toolkit research plays an important role in the field of HCI, as it can heavily influence both the design and implementation of interactive systems. For publication, the HCI community typically expects toolkit research to include an evaluation component. The problem is that toolkit evaluation is challenging, as it is often unclear what 'evaluating' a toolkit means and what methods are appropriate. To address this problem, we analyzed 68 published toolkit papers. From our analysis, we provide an overview of, reflection on, and discussion of evaluation methods for toolkit contributions. We identify and discuss the value of four toolkit evaluation strategies, including the associated techniques that each employs. We offer a categorization of evaluation strategies for toolkit researchers, along with a discussion of the value, potential limitations, and trade-offs associated with each strategy.

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Talk

Abstract

In this thesis, I propose methods for repurposing existing hardware and software to enable designers to create live interactive prototypes for smart interactive objects without the need to write code or create custom circuitry. The advent of ubiquitous computing brought the promise of interactive artifacts that integrate into our everyday lives. While this has led to a myriad of “smart objects”, the problem is that it is difficult for interaction designers to devise interactive behaviours for such objects. For example, how might an interaction designer prototype behaviours for a smart speaker? How can they go beyond voice responses and, for instance, animate lights to show that the speaker is listening, or searching for an answer on the web? Designers today face three challenges: (1) needing multiple expertise of designing behaviour, form, circuitry, and programming the functionality; (2) lacking software tools to author fine-tuned dynamic behaviours; and (3) needing closer-to-product representations to physically manipulate the prototype. I overcome this gap through a method and two interactive systems. I propose a design metaphor: Soul–Body Prototyping, which suggests leveraging off-the-shelf mobile phones and watches to create smart object prototypes. By enclosing the mobile device (“soul”) into a physical enclosure (“body”), the designer can exploit the mobile device’s rich sensing, outputs, and internet connectivity. I then operationalize Soul–Body Prototyping through two proof-of-concept prototyping tools. Pineal features trigger-action behaviours which automatically generate 3D models for physical forms. These forms fit a mobile device and expose the necessary inputs and outputs. Astral is a tool where designers can mirror a portion of the desktop’s screen onto a mobile device, and create mappings that convert live mobile sensor data into mouse or keyboard events. Thus, the mobile device remote controls (and repurposes) familiar desktop applications for dynamic behaviour prototyping. Overall, my work contributes an alternative way to prototype smart interactive objects, which informs the design of future prototyping tools. Moreover, I investigate fundamental questions such as the meaning of interactive behaviour, as well as evaluation methods for prototyping tools and toolkits in HCI research.

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