Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2017

Widespread adoption of touchscreen phones among blind users seems inevitable. Blind users face significant challenges in terms of accessibility and inclusion in the smartphone environment, despite prevalence of screen-readers and assistive software. This can lead to a variety of security and privacy risks while using smartphones. This paper presents qualitative research findings of a user study about security and usability aspects of smartphone usage by 51 blind smartphone users of age 18 to 40 years in a metropolitan city of India. We discuss the challenges users face, their coping strategies, and key insights that could inform design for security and usability.

Rapid increase of data in different fields has been resulting in wide applications of Machine Learning (ML) based intelligent systems in predictive decision making scenarios. Unfortunately, these systems appear like a ‘black-box’ to users due to their complex working mechanisms and therefore significantly affect the user’s trust in human-machine interactions. This is partly due to the tightly coupled uncertainty inherent in the ML models that underlie the predictive decision making recommendations. Furthermore, when such analytics-driven intelligent systems are used in modern complex high-risk domains (such as aviation) - user decisions, in addition to trust, are also influenced by higher levels of cognitive load. This paper investigates effects of uncertainty and cognitive load on user trust in predictive decision making in order to design effective user interfaces for such ML-based intelligent systems. Our user study of 42 subjects in a repeated factorial design experiment found that both uncertainty types (risk and ambiguity) and cognitive workload levels affected user trust in predictive decision making. Uncertainty presentation leads to increased trust but only under low cognitive load conditions when users had sufficient cognitive resources to process the information. Presentation of uncertainty under high load conditions (when cognitive resources were short in supply) leads to a decrease of trust in the system and its recommendations.

Trust has shown to be a key factor influencing user uptake and acceptance of technologies. Despite the increase in interest in trust research and its stated importance in HCI, prior research has mainly focused on understanding its role in human to human interactions mediated through technology. The ongoing and rapid technological developments have made it necessary to move beyond studying trust relationships between people mediated by information technology (IT) and focus on studying the relationship of the user with the IT artifact itself. We recognize that HCI discipline lacks a focused body of knowledge on trust and there is a lack of theoretically grounded and robust psychometric instruments for quantifying trust. With this in mind, this article is aimed at empirically evaluating a socio-technical model of trust so as to assess its feasibility in user technology interactions. Using prior established measures and theories, we identify seven trust attributes and test the proposed model using partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Our study contributes to the literature by advancing the discussion of trust in human-artefact relationship.

In this paper we investigate the question whether users’ personalities are good predictors for privacy-related permissions they would grant to apps installed on their mobile devices. We report on results of a large online study (n = 100) which reveals a significant correlation between the user’s personality according to the big five personality scores, or the IUIPC questionnaire, and the app permission settings they have chosen. We used machine learning techniques to predict user privacy settings based on their personalities and consequently introduce a novel strategy that simplifies the process of granting permissions to apps.

Self-monitoring technologies (such as heart rate monitors and activity trackers) that sense and collect physical activity data are becoming increasingly common and readily available. These devices typically represent the captured data using numbers and graphs that primarily appear on digital screens. More recently, representing data in a physical form such as 3D printed physical artifacts is gaining currency within HCI, owing to the engagement opportunities that come with physical representations. However, there exists a limited understanding of how to design such physical representations of personal data. To contribute to this understanding, we present a set of ten design themes, developed from the analysis of two independently designed systems that construct 3D printed physical artifacts from physical activity data. Each design theme describes a unique design feature that designers could incorporate in their design to make physical representations more engaging and playful. We envisage that our work would encourage and guide designers to think about different ways of supporting physical activity experiences.

We present Breathing Friend – a portable and tangible device that uses haptic interaction to unobtrusively stimulate mindful breathing as efficient stress coping method. Its design is optimized for holding in user’s hands. By changing its shape, it sends haptic signals to the user. Several studies were conducted where we explored and verified the form factors of the artifact, interaction methods, therapeutic effect, fitting to everyday life, and influence on the breathing pattern.

This paper discusses Citizen Tagger (CT), a mobile application for tagging audio-based chat-show content. The application allows users to create audio and text tags (annotations). Through an iterative design process, CT was designed and deployed with 16 members of a faith-based community who tagged a panel discussion about ‘faith and vocation’. Based on usage statistics, analysis of created tags, and other qualitative data, the user experiences of tag creation were assessed. Questions around how to configure tagging-related parameters were investigated, and diverse user motivations for creating tags were also explored. Tagging was discovered to be a subjective experience, with participants expressing a desire to customise their tagging setup. Furthermore, despite being instructed to tag for content organisation and retrieval, users utilised tagging as a tool for self-reflection.

Much social media research has been done to understand interactions and communication on social media, while less attention has been paid to the offline contexts of social media use. How do offline contexts influence everyday social media use? This paper presents an interview study with a focus on Chinese citizens’ use of social media in everyday activities. The study found that informants’ use of social media and attention on social media was intricately related to their offline social and physical contexts, as well as their varying levels of consciousness. The work draws on activity theory to analyze the interplay between informants’ consciousness, everyday social media use, and offline contexts. Implications for design and social media research are provided.

While research studies of digital and mobile payment systems in HCI have pointed out design opportunities situated within informal and nuanced mobile contexts, we have not yet understood how we can design digital monies to allow users to use monies more easily in these contexts. In this study, we examined the design of Alipay and WeChat Wallet, two successful mobile payment apps in China, which have been used by Chinese users for purposes such as playing, gifting, and ceremonial practices. Through semi-structured interviews with 24 Chinese users and grounded theory coding, we identified five contexts in which the flexibility and extensive functions of these payment apps have allowed these users to adaptively use digital monies in highly flexible ways. Finally, our analysis arrived at our conceptual frame—special digital monies—to highlight how digital monies, by allowing users to alter and define their transactional rules and pathways, could vastly expand the potential of digital monies to support users beyond standard retail contexts.

The essence of usability evaluations is to produce feedback that supports the downstream utility so the interaction design can be improved and problems can be fixed. In practice, software development organizations experience several obstacles for conducting usability engineering. One suggested approach is to train and involve developers in all phases of usability activities from evaluations, to problem reporting, and making redesign proposals. Only limited work has previously investigated the impact of actively involving developers in usability engineering. In this paper, we present two small-scale case studies in which we investigate the developers’ experience of conducting usability evaluations and participating in a redesign workshop. In both case studies developers actively engaged in both activities. Per the developers, this approach supported problem understanding, severity ratings, and problem fixing. At the organizational level, we found that the attitude towards and understanding of the role of usability engineering improved.

This paper describes an action research study focusing on adoption of UX and UX evaluation methods in a software organisation. The aim of adopting UX was to exceed a traditional approach to design of banking applications. The action research study involved collaboration over several months between the researchers and a group of developers with no prior knowledge of UX. The study demonstrates how UX methods can be introduced in an IT organisation and how UX decisions can be prioritised in the software industry. Focusing on understanding, supporting and improving the practice of the development team, we employed several adoption activities of UX evaluation methods by presenting these in a visual form (video records) and a practical form (workshops). Our results show that specific UX materials have been adopted in the development process of the IT department. Based on the study, we present our experience with adopting UX in an IT organisation with focus on the collaboration process, working with the UX definition, and the obstacles that occurred during the collaboration.

Lack of insights into potential issues in enterprise projects is a major problem that leads to cost and revenue targets being missed. This not only lowers project margins but also adversely affects customer relationship and future businesses for the organization. Many oversights occur during the project execution phase, especially for large scale enterprise projects, where the project manager spends a lot of time in proactively ensuring various deadlines are met. Commercial Project Management is an Enterprise solution from SAP that provides Project Managers an overview of the potential issues along with insights into their impact on margin, statuses and several key performance indicators. This allows Project Managers to ensure smooth delivery while meeting project targets, thereby gaining time to hone skills needed increase profit for their organizations. This paper explains how SAP adopted the Design Thinking methodology to build this product that addresses their varied customer’s needs from diverse industries.

Human-computer interaction (HCI) is increasingly becoming a subject taught in universities around the world. However, little is known of the interactions of the HCI curriculum with students in different types of institutions and disciplines internationally. In order to explore these interactions, we studied the performance of HCI students in design, technology and business faculties in universities in UK, India, Namibia, Mexico and China who participated in a common set of design and evaluation tasks. We obtained participants’ cognitive style profiles based on Allinson and Hayes scale in order to gain further insights into their learning styles and explore any relation between these and performance. We found participants’ cognitive style preferences to be predominantly in the adaptive range, i.e. with combined analytical and intuitive traits, compared to normative data for software engineering, psychology and design professionals. We further identified significant relations between students’ cognitive styles and performance in analytical and creative tasks of a HCI professional individual. We discuss the findings in the context of the distinct backgrounds of the students and universities that participated in this study and the value of research that explores and promotes diversity in HCI education.

This paper examines the views of user experience (UX) professionals on the definitions of usability and UX, and compares the findings between countries and within different socio-cultural groups. A mixed-method analysis was employed on data gathered on 422 professionals through a survey in Turkey, Finland, Denmark, France, and Malaysia. Usability appears to be an established concept, respondents across all countries agreeing on the importance of the ISO 9241-11 definition. There is also a tendency that UX professionals attach organizational perspective to usability. UX professionals diverge when defining UX, and there are systematic differences related to socio-cultural conditions. UX professionals in Finland and France incline more towards the definition highlighting the experiential qualities, when compared to Turkey and Malaysia that incline towards the definition reflecting the ease of use, utility, attractiveness, and degree of usage. Further research should address the implications of the diverse meanings and contexts of usability and UX.

Head-Mounted displays, while providing unprecedented immersiveness and engagement in interaction, can substantially add mental workload and visual strain on users. Being a novel technology, users often do not know what to expect and therefore accept visual stress as being state of the art. Assessing visual discomfort is currently possible through questionnaires and interviews that interrupt the interaction and provide only subjective feedback. Electroencephalography (EEG) can provide insights about the visual discomfort and workload of HMDs. We evaluate the use of a consumer-grade Brain Computer Interface for estimating visual discomfort in HMD usage in a study with 24 participants. Our results show that the usage of a BCI to detect uncomfortable viewing conditions is possible with a certainty of 83% in our study. Further the results give insights on the usage of BCIs in order to increase the detection certainty by reducing costs for the hardware. This can pave the way for designing adaptive virtual reality experiences that consider user visual fatigue without disrupting immersiveness.

This research addresses the issue of the memory-experience gap, the disconnect between momentary perceptions and post experience reporting as relates to HCI research methodologies and the study of immersive technology-mediated experiences in particular. The paper presents an overview of contemporary understanding of immersion and examines HCI methods that investigate participant experiences. We introduce Experience Probes, an integrated design and evaluation methodology that affords momentary reporting by blending states of reflection and immersion in a structured activity situated within the immersive experience. A pilot study is presented that examines an immersive soundscape installation and an Experience Probe enacted through participant-authored sound maps. The maps provide data for thematic analysis, and are coded for signs of self-perception and a sense of place to evaluate participants’ sensations of presence and immersion. Preliminary results are discussed in relation to the reality-virtuality continuum and suggest that the reflective act of reporting, and the experience of immersion within the soundscape installation are not mutually exclusive. This research seeks to extend HCI methods by overcoming the memory-experience gap in the evaluation of technology-mediated experiences.

Interactive omnidirectional videos (iODV) can offer informative, entertaining, and immersive experiences, especially when combined with novel platforms such as head-mounted displays. However, omnidirectional videos, and interaction with them, present many unique challenges. In the absence of existing guidelines that accommodate for these challenges, we present dos and don’ts for designing and producing interactive omnidirectional videos. We base these guidelines on numerous interactive systems that we have produced in the recent years. Our work offers useful guidance for those working with omnidirectional videos, especially when designing interactivity and navigation within such systems.

As a consequence of prolonged muscle contraction, acute pain arises during exercise due to a build-up of noxious biochemicals in and around the muscle. Specific visual cues, e.g., the size of the object in weight lifting exercises, may reduce acute pain experienced during exercise. In this study, we examined how Virtual Reality (VR) can facilitate this “material-weight illusion”, influencing perception of task difficulty, which may reduce perceived pain. We found that when vision understated the real weight, the time to exhaustion was 2 min longer. Furthermore, participants’ heart rate was significantly lower by 5-7 bpm in the understated session. We concluded that visual-proprioceptive information modulated the individual’s willingness to continue to exercise for longer, primarily by reducing the intensity of negative perceptions of pain and effort associated with exercise. This result could inform the design of VR aimed at increasing the level of physical activity and thus a healthier lifestyle.

A high level of presence is an important aspect of immersive virtual reality applications. However, presence is difficult to achieve as it depends on the individual user, immersion capabilities of the system (visual, auditory, and tactile) and the concrete application. We use a vibrotactile grid around the head in order to further increase the level of presence users feel in virtual reality scenes. In a between-groups comparison study the vibrotactile group scored significantly higher in a standardized presence questionnaire compared to the baseline of no tactile feedback. This suggests the proposed prototype as an additional tool to increase the level of presence users feel in virtual reality scenes.

Omnidirectional video (ODV) is a medium that offers the viewer a 360-degree panoramic video view of the recorded setting. In recent years, various novel platforms for presenting such content have emerged. Many of these applications aim to offer an immersive and interactive experience for the user, but there has been little research on how immersive these solutions actually are. For this study, two interactive ODV (iODV) applications were evaluated: a CAVE system and a head-mounted display (HMD) application. We compared the users’ expectations and experience and the level of immersion between these systems. Both indoor and outdoor recorded environments were included. First, the results indicate that the user’s experiences with these applications exceed their expectations greatly. Second, the HMD application was found to be more immersive than the CAVE system. Based on the findings of this study, both systems seem to have a great potential for presenting ODV content, thus offering the user an immersive experience for both indoor and outdoor content.

The ecosystem of skilling & placement in India is faced with unique set of challenges. On one hand there are millions of unemployed youth looking for suitable opportunities in an apparently low demand market. While on the other, employers believe that there is a dearth of skilled talent. This problem persists despite numerous skill development programs being conducted by the government across the country. The prime reason for the lacuna is the absence of a scalable platform adopting a holistic approach towards solving these eco-system challenges, thereby unable to provide the right opportunity to all stakeholders. In order to address this employment paradox the social inclusion team at Mindtree, in collaboration with UNDP India, decided to develop a Digital Employability Marketplace based on the principle of platform economics. The idea was to develop a multi-sided cloud based platform leveraging information technology to enable meaningful interactions between stakeholders and processes.

Beside decreasing the abilities, individual difference prevails among older adults, as some individuals are completely healthy at the age 90 while some are not at even 60. In context of touchscreen interface design, it is critical to understand the design space as a function of abilities. In this work, we articulate a better understanding of the effects of ageing and examine their HCI task performing capabilities in terms of interfaces design. We design a text-entry interface in particular, as ageing users often achieve slow text entry performance, thus proving to be a bottleneck for technology use. Our developed text entry interface is tuned based on the parameter values for Elderly having finger tremor. We present initial study results showing the improvement of the accuracy of touch typing in smartphone over the baseline Qwerty keyboard. By carefully considering other sensorimotor abilities, we believe that the current smartphone text-entry interface designs will become more usable to the ageing populations.

This case study showcases the exploration and integration of structural analytical methods into an IOT based scenario which comprises of assets that have structural significance. The work showcased in this study was pursued at Sap Labs, Bengaluru as a part of the Digital Assets and IOT team. It would mainly revolve around the various stages and scenarios that the project underwent. The scenarios considered for the explorations were chosen based on their ability to portray what structural analysis is, and to portray how structural analysis would be critical when integrated in an IOT scenario.

This work discusses the affordances of the textbook in current classroom scenarios, and identifies the need to design learning media that support dynamism and enaction, specifically in science education. We illustrate this by a learning tool we’ve developed - Vector canvas, an AR based application linked with the textbook and the curricula. This is a work in progress attempting to observe and articulate changes in learning practice brought by introducing mixed media.

This case study presents the key learnings derived from the twenty-user profiler journeys designed by Moonraft Innovation Labs for IDFC Bank. These profiler journeys were created to tackle challenges faced by banks in improving user engagement and simplifying data collection processes through digital experiences. These insights can be applied to create similar experiences for other sectors. The learnings are presented with examples.

Location based services in social networking mobile applications are on the rise. Considering the benefits of incorporating location for collaboration amongst users, we were approached by a client to develop a location based social networking mobile application for a specific requirement. The mobile application thus developed was evaluated with users. Findings from the user study are summarized and recommendations for implementation and adoption of location based mobile social networking applications are discussed.

Reimagining the ‘SAP Investigative Case Management’ frame-work from a log-based register of events to a direct interaction environment with the possibility to search, explore relationships between multiple entities in one or more cases/incidents. This case study is about our approach in conceptualizing a generic network visualization method by deconstructing the existing data models. We devised a set of guidelines that can be employed to represent a large number of entities with the intention of examining their relationships.

This paper presents a case study on the design of spatiotemporal interactive visualizations of movies, both collections and contents, to provide enhanced support for conveying meaning and for browsing, targeting casual and professional users, with encouraging results for future research and adoption.

This paper is a case study of a user experience based project in an enterprise setting at Cisco systems, Bangalore to improve an agent desktop experience through HCD methodologies in an Agile software development setting. The core experience revolved around agents’ interactions with customers to solve their queries and resolve them. The product, already existing in the market was dated and needed a user experience refresh. The product, already existing in the market was facing a crisis because customers were not using them actively. The design team was brought in to help design the upcoming features in a User-centered way. Intensive user-driven research using the principles of systems-oriented and interaction-design were applied and the team identified core personas, made task flows, collected customer feedback, conducted user interviews, customer validations and made design concepts, recommendations and approaches. Pursuing this path, the methodologies led to some changes - design, technical and operational. This case study explores the journey and underlying issues of what challenges were faced and lessons learned by the user experience design team in an enterprise setting.

Passenger acceptance is a key factor for the successful integration, uptake and use of autonomous vehicles (AVs) in the domain of public transportation. Especially knowing opinions and attitudes around safety, comfort and convenience. We discuss a pilot study conducted as part of a larger research project where AVs are being tested to transport members of the general public on a specified route with designated stops. We present preliminary findings of fieldwork conducted where people were asked their opinions and attitudes both before and after riding on an AV shuttle as a passenger for the first time. This allows us to compare user expectation beforehand with actual experience afterwards.

Meetings in a business context are organized for a wide range of purposes and with varying contexts. Minutes of Meeting, are a good tool for capturing the formal discussions, but fail to capture finer details. Recognizing this limitation, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) decided to use an innovative visual note-taking approach to capture a client visit. The objective was to have a single graphic encapsulate the events across all days of the visit, to ensure a good client recall and create a lasting impact.

This paper reports on an exploratory case study on the use of Google Expeditions in the context of an intensive Greek language course for specific academic purposes. Google Expeditions are collections of linked virtual reality content that can enable teachers to bring students on virtual trips to places like museums, human anatomy, surgical processes etc. Thematic analysis of instructors’ field notes, students’ reflections, interviews and focus group was employed aiming at identifying the potential of Google Expeditions for extending the language classroom through virtual trips. The use of Google Expeditions enabled students to extend the borders of the classroom by making virtual walkthroughs in places that would normally be unreachable and trigger social exploration through inter- and extra-VR communication, sharing of ideas, concepts and experiences. This study acts as a pilot with an eye to inform larger-scale investigation of Google Expeditions in the future.

In this paper, we present a case study focusing on the design challenges and evaluation process of Color Visualizer, a mobile phone application developed for Nippon Paint Singapore. The application enables users to visualize paint color on home interiors and decide on the best color match. Color Visualizer was incrementally built upon iterative design & successive development sessions, all based on extensive hours of user research. Design decisions, evaluation results, lessons learned and future work are presented.

The objective of this course, is to introduce the participants to location-based games and to the challenges relating to designing them. Key characteristics of this new genre are introduced first, followed by a design framework and a set of design guidelines. Examples of location-based games will be presented and typical design patterns as extracted from previous workshops will be discussed. This course has already been run in the frame of several conferences and summer schools (Sintoris 2015). Typical course participants include interaction designers, game designers and developers, practitioners and researchers interested in location-based games. The course is presented by researchers who have been involved in designing and studying human interaction with location-based games for many years. Examples of games developed by the course organizers include MuseumScrabble, RebelsVsSpies, Taggling, etc.

This two-part course takes a practical approach to introduce the principles, methods and tools in task modelling. Part 1: A non-technical introduction demonstrates that task models support successful design of interactive systems. Part 2: A more technical interactive hands-on exercise of how to “do it right”, such as: How to go from task analysis to task models? How to assess (through analysis and simulation) that a task model is correct? How to identify complexity of user tasks.

Involving a wide variety of end users and in particular those with a disability or who are older when designing web pages and apps requires a good understanding of how to involve those end users, assistive technology, and evaluation methods. This course will introduce the basics of assistive technologies built into using mobile phones and describe major barriers in web pages, and how to analyze them with end users. It will also outline a range of appropriate tools to use in this work.

The shift of creating valuable products, from only aesthetically pleasing, usable, or loveable products, has required adjustment of skills to create value as well as a mindset change. Instead of spending weeks and months to design a product, a rapid validation process takes place to explore how a product should be transformed into a valuable one. This course will teach the participants several key Design Sprint techniques in a nutshell (80 min). Google Ventures initially introduced Design Sprint to tackle critical business problems and come up with viable solutions within five days. Open to anyone who is involved in product and service design, the course aims to teach Design Sprint key techniques to create meaningful insights and hands-on experience for the participants. At the conclusion of the course, the participants are expected to envision how the lessons learned from the course can be applied in either academia or industry.

This course addresses the service design of wellness and health services which include digital components. The course will cover methodological and practical aspects of service design, focusing on three key methods – stakeholder maps, consumer journey and blueprint. The service design methods are tried out with interactive exercises, where participants in groups apply the methods to a digital health design case. Service design is an emerging field, which applies a holistic design approach to understand and design for human experience. With an increasing number of digital wellness and health services, both in commercial and public frontiers, it is important to develop services that are easy to use, and where the consumer’s journey through the service pathways is fluent and consistent.

Planning and conducting User Experience (UX) activities in a structured and scientific manner has many advantages. It is important that UX Professionals understand the scientific basis of UX methods and leverage them to enhance the UX of the application being designed. It would also be easier for the UX designer to get a buy-in from the stakeholders if his design recommendations are based in scientific logic and whetted by supporting data. In this course, UX relevant social sciences based scientific concepts and methods will be presented to the audience in a way which is simple to understand and easily to assimilate.

Patient coaching is integral to cardiac rehabilitation programs to help patients understand, cope better with their condition and become active participants in their care. The introduction of remote patient monitoring technologies and tele-monitoring solutions have proven to be effective and paved way for novel remote rehabilitation approaches. Nonetheless, these solutions focus largely on monitoring patients without a specific focus on coaching patients. Additionally, these systems lack personalization and a deeper understanding of individual patient needs. In our demonstration, we present a tool to personalize e-coaching based on individual patient risk factors, adherence rates and personal preferences of patients using a tele-rehabilitation solution. We developed the tool after conducting a workshop and multiple brainstorms with various caregivers involved in coaching cardiac patients to connect their perspectives with patient needs. It was integrated into a comprehensive tele-rehabilitation application.

Though many computer games have recently become accessible for gamers with visual impairments, these players still face difficulty in manipulating game characters and acquiring visual information. It is true that although an increasing number of games for visually impaired people called audio games are being developed, many of these games cannot satisfy their basic needs because of the shortage of contents and are difficult for sighted people because of no visual information. Based on this situation, we have been developing accessible games for visually impaired people that feature enriched materials and multimodal information presentation. However, the needs of real-time action on accessible games remain unsolved. In this article, our objective is to develop an inclusive side scroller game with high real-time performance and accessibility functions for visually impaired people, and be available to play with more than one person including sighted persons.

Computing devices such as mobile phones and tablet computers are increasingly used to support early childhood learning. Currently, touching the screen is the most common interaction technique on such devices. To augment the current interaction experience, overcome posture-related issues with tablet usage and promote novel ways of engagement, we propose gaze as an input modality in educational applications for early learners. In this demonstration, we present the Little Bear, a gaze aware pedagogical agent that tailors its verbal and non-verbal behaviour based on the visual attention of the child. We built an application using the Little Bear, to teach the names of everyday fruits and vegetables to young children. Our demonstration system shows the potential of gaze-based learning applications and the novel engagement possibility provided by gaze-aware pedagogical agents.

The motorcycle could soon be the new frontier for the exploration of human interaction with advanced digital technology. In this paper we present a demo of a system designed and implemented to explore the design of personal informatics tools for motorbike commuting and help us conduct in-situ evaluation of such tools. We present the system architecture and demonstrate the capabilities of the system by presenting a case instantiation in the form of an interactive soft-and-hardware prototype that collects rider’s posture data, visualizes the data on the motorbike dashboard in real-time, and pushes the data to the cloud server for later retrieval.

While physiotherapists are increasingly organizing video consultations, assessment of lower body movements over video remains a challenge. We present a wearable technology, SoPhy that captures and presents information related to three key aspects of lower limb movements - range of foot movement, weight distribution and foot orientation. SoPhy consists of a pair of socks embedded with sensors for the patients to wear, and a web-interface that displays the captured information to physiotherapists in real-time. The objective of this demonstration is to offer first-hand experience of SoPhy and to create conversations around designing technologies for supporting bodily communication in video consultations.

One-hand usage of handheld devices results in poor reachability, re-gripping, occlusion and reduced accuracy. This results in poor user experiences, especially with user interactions that require multi-finger usage. Use of deformation gestures can augment touch gestures to extend the limited functionalities experienced in one-handed usage. We present BendSwipe - a combined bend and touch enabled input interaction to perform target zooming on a flexible handheld device. It uses the bend gestures to augment a swipe interaction performed anywhere at the back of the device to perform target zoom-in and out on any area of the display content. This paper presents the details of proposed input interactions, prototype and future directions to evaluate the designs.

Although the issue of limited mobility affects a large portion of the population, current navigation systems working with roadway-based geodatabases are designed primarily for cars and therefore cannot efficiently help. Usage of the professionally created sidewalk-based geodatabase is a solution. However, the professional geographical “on-site reconnaissance” is labor demanding. In this poster, we report on results of preliminary research focused on a design of the gamified collection of accessibility attributes by non-expert crowd, which will reduce the data collection cost. Preliminary results suggest the feasibility of the approach supported by a proper guidance of non-experts and creativity of achieving precise measurements.

3D objects are now being embedded within HTML pages without the need for additional software, such as browser plug-ins. However, 2D and 3D web content are still typically treated as separate entities with limited interaction. Our research presents a working prototype implementation of a dual-mode user interface for interactive 3D environments. The developed interface allows the user to instantly switch between a traditional hypertext interface and an immersive 3D environment that incorporates 2D HTML elements. The results from an initial user study show that 2D and dual-mode interfaces allow for quicker retrieval of information than 3D websites alone and result in higher user satisfaction.

This paper proposes to recommend privacy settings to users of social networks (SNs) depending on the topic of the post. Based on the answers to a specifically designed questionnaire, machine learning is utilized to inform a user privacy model. The model then provides, for each post, an individual recommendation to which groups of other SN users the post in question should be disclosed. We conducted a pre-study to find out which friend groups typically exist and which topics are discussed. We explain the concept of the machine learning approach, and demonstrate in a validation study that the generated privacy recommendations are precise and perceived as highly plausible by SN users.

This work shows the feasibility for document reader user applications using a consumer grade non-invasive BCI headset. Although Brain Computer Interface (BCI) type devices are beginning to aim at the consumer level, the level at which they can actually detect brain activity is limited. There is however progress achieved in allowing for interaction between a human and a computer when this interaction is limited to around 2 actions. We employed the Emotiv Epoc, a low-priced BCI headset, to design and build a proof-of-concept document reader system that allows users to navigate the document using this low cast BCI device. Our prototype has been implemented and evaluated with 12 participants who were trained to navigate documents using signals acquired by Emotive Epoc.

This work presents a virtual reality snowboarding application which uses a Nintendo Wii balance board for richer interaction modalities. We present the application and test the prototype with 7 participants to investigate immersion, enjoyability and to an extent performance. The outcomes from the study will be used to start forming research directions and questions to indicate likely research and development directions for future research.

Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) are essential link to healthy communities in resource-constrained environments. However, they are insufficiently trained to solve community health challenges. In this paper, we present Pragati - a mobile-based Virtual Reality (VR) platform to train and educate ASHAs in rural Assam, India. Mobile based VR platform was chosen due to its ability to increase focus, attention and learnability among users. We developed 3 modules on maternal and child healthcare. Modules were presented via audio-visual interface in local Assamesse language. This paper presents the design of Pragati, user interactions, technology implementations and future directions of our study.

In this poster, we are addressing the topic of “system’s evaluation” from the point of view of assessing the usability of a gamified experience with 20 teenagers aged 15–17 years. The currently tested experience was ideally designed for children 9–10 years. In order to adapt the application to teenagers, we tested it with 20 targeted users. In this poster, we share the results and encourage a discussion among the researchers about how to adapt the gamified experience designed for children to a teenage audience.

Touch typing software teaches a user to use the correct finger combinations with the correct keyboard buttons. The ultimate goal is to teach the typist to type faster, more accurately and ergonomically correct. Our research presents the working prototype of a software and hardware setup that tracks not only the speed and accuracy of the correct buttons being pressed but also which fingers are used to press them; a dimension of training that has previously not been integrated into touch typing tutorials. We use novel technology (leap motion) to detect the accurate interaction between the user and the keyboard, giving precise feedback to the user in order for him or her to improve.

Amazon recently opened its first intelligent retail store, which captures shopper movements, picked-up products and much more sensitive data. In this paper we present a privacy UI, called URetail, that returns to the customer control over his own data, by offering an interface to select which of his private data items should be disclosed. We use a radar metaphor to arrange the permissions with ascending sensitivity into different clusters, and introduce a new multi-dimensional form of a radar interface called the privacy pyramid. We conducted an expert interview and a pilot study to determine which types of data are recorded in an intelligent retail store, and grouped them with ascending sensitivity into clusters. A preliminary evaluation study shows that radar interfaces have their own strengths and weaknesses compared to a conventional UI.

Bringing interactivity and effectiveness of teaching in the classroom is always challenging especially in the developing countries. Previous studies show best practices of smart technologies in the classroom.This research was conducted to develop an efficient and low-cost solution for teachers in managing the higher number of students, assessing progress and increasing student engagement in the classroom. We developed My Class Manager; a Smartphone application for quiz and paper marking, audio quiz for native language learning and performance management throughout the semester. We conducted a series of five evaluations of three classes of sizes 30, 35 and 40. Results of the evaluations show an increasing interest of students in the classroom, improved class engagement & attentions. It creates a time-efficient learning environment.

Anganwadi workers [1] form the core of healthcare system for a large section of rural and semi-urban population in India. They provide care for newborn babies and play an important role in immunization programs, besides providing health related information to pregnant women. Traditionally these Anganwadi workers use paper based information leaflets as a part of their job to spread awareness among the people. Although mobile phones have made their inroads into the day to day life of these workers for basic communication (making a call), however it is yet to be seen how a mobile device is being used as a technological aid for their work. There are enormous challenges in addressing these issues especially in developing regions owing to numerous reasons such as illiteracy, cognitive difficulties, cultural norms, collaborations, experience and exposure, motivation, power relations, and social standing [2]. The purpose of this field visit would be to enquire the role of mobile devices in their day-to-day work; and if being used as a technological intervention, then in what manner and form is it being used? The methodology used to conduct the study would involve contextual enquiry, open-ended interviews and observing the Anganwadi workers using ICT solutions and other informational artefacts.

Technological products are increasingly equipped with data collection and personalization mechanisms that allow them to adapt to an individual user’s needs [4]. However, the value and perception of these practices for users is still unclear. This field trip proposal investigates users’ mental models of personalization as well as perceived benefits and drawbacks using semi-structured interviews. The interviews make use of the critical incident technique and drawing tasks. We expect that findings from the field trip will result in rich understanding of the prospective of a collectivist society on personalization and privacy. Results of the field trip can, hence, be contrasted to the results of an equivalent study conducted in Germany, an individualistic society. The overall goal of our studies is to highlight differences in user needs of collectivist and individualistic societies for researchers and practitioners who develop highly personalized systems.

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is a popular and one of the most deployed technology interventions in the developing countries. One of the primary business drivers is that it does not mandate the user to use any technologically advanced device. On the other hand, IVR has been studied for its usability issues. Even for the service providers, IVR costs are higher than services on data channels. However, given the sunk costs and low-technology investments, they are an attractive business proposition and continue to garner support. In this field trip, we propose to have an “experiential” trip of manning and experiencing the system when in use by a less-literate user. Our field trip would allow the participants to “listen” onto and experience first-hand the roller coaster experiential ride when using an IVR system. This will help us to reveal a lot of contextual data such as performance of a low-literate user with IVR, turn taking behaviour, machine and user relationship building, ambiguities etc. This will lead to interventions in the development of dialog structure personification, emotional value association, interaction design and user experience design. The methodology used to conduct the study would be wizard of context, and field observations followed by an affinity analysis.

Smartphones are increasingly becoming a device of choice or are imperative in the discourse of Digitization of services such as banking within a developing country like India. At the same time, a large population within India is less-literate [1, 4, 5] who are also the primary beneficiaries of our research. We believe that Emergent Users [2] are the next set of users who are likely to adopt smartphones and technology in a larger context. Amongst these emergent users we expect that a large class of users are less-literate, more comfortable with native languages and have never directly consumed any digital technology based information system. For this fieldtrip study, we would be considering only users who fall under such criteria. Specifically those within an age limit of 40 years, prior exposure to a smartphone for a duration of at least 6 months, education not more than class 10, and no prior (non-mediated) use of desktop computer information systems. Within the ecosystem of the smartphone, namely, the phone itself comprising of an operating system and mobile applications on the phone, as well as those on the Internet cloud, a mandatory creation of a Digital Identity in the form of a Google Account is required.Currently, the notion of digital identity Authorization in most smartphone-based applications is implemented using a variety of choices, such as, password, PIN, patterns, biometrics such as fingerprint, voice. In the context of our users, namely emergent users [2], each of these authentication modes has a Usability aspect to it, which has a strong influence on the user and their adoption. For example, issues such as literacy levels are expected to play a role in the composition of passwords or use of local languages in usability of passwords.In this Field Study, we wish to explore the Migration Model of the users amongst all these authentication modes. For example, how do users trade off PIN to Passwords to Biometrics; what triggers in their context of use, bring about these migrations when potentially the user may have chosen an alternative authentication mode.

Government and NGO schools catering to children from low-income urban environments are increasingly introducing technology in the Indian classroom. However, one of the challenges is convincing low-literate parents the potential benefits of technology in education. In this study, we aim to uncover the concerns and expectations of low-income low-literate parents towards educational technology for their children, through semi-structured interviews. This is an extension of our ongoing work in designing sustainable educational technology models for low-literate urban populations.

This field trip proposes a two-day program to understand and evaluate technology adoption of digital wallets among the elderly population in one of the urban slums of Mumbai, through training, probes and shadowing. The aim of the study is to analyse perceived challenges, influences & motivations, barriers to adoption and issues faced during wallet transactions. The findings from this study will be interpreted to formulate design recommendations and guidelines, useful to deploy meaningful propositions suitable for the elderly population, especially to facilitate a smooth transition to the digital vision of India.

We proposes a field trip to understand how older adults in India construct and maintain informal support networks. The aim of the study is to get a nuanced view on older adults’ practices of receiving from and providing support to peers, family, friends, and neighbors. Group discussions and collaborative photography will be applied to investigate. Findings will be interpreted to understand implications for how to design for support.