The Inmates are Running the Asylum

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Author: Alan Cooper

Summary:

This book attempts to compare humans and computers and tries to explain the interactions between them.  It comments on many difficulties most users find.  It also tries to explain the problem by pointing the finger at the software engineers who are making the products.  Cooper claims that bad systems are the software programmer's fault because the programmer does not think in the same way normal humans think.

Apart from not being human, programmers are terrible at design, always, period.  He proposes the introduction of a field known as the interaction designer and explains that this is necessary to the production of good usable software.  Cooper also says that the bad design is not completely the programmer's fault because they are comfortable with technology not with being a part of the human society.  Overall, the entire idea I got from the book was that software sucks because programmers do as well.

Personal Reflection:

I did not like this book at all.  I kept trying to be unbiased while reading and found that Cooper had many good points to be made... he just never fully made them.  His main reason for every problem I remember from the book was, "does software not make sense to you? blame a programmer" or "software is badly designed because programmers cannot read our minds."

Despite my distaste for the book, I did find one topic useful.  This topic was the metaphor of "dancing bearware" or software that works, but does not work well.  Everyone who sees the software working is too entranced by it actually working to see how badly designed it is.

Other than this sole useful information that was surprisingly not directly explained by "programmers are dumb" (it was eventually tied into "programmers are dumb"), the book had little to no use to me, nor did I care to read it.

Overall, the book just made me angry.

The Application of Forgiveness in Social System Design

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Authors:
Asimina Vasalou - University of Bath
Jens Riegelsberger - Google, Ltd.
Adam Joinson - University of Bath

Summary:

This paper talked about the ability to add forgiveness to online systems such as eBay and Amazon to make user ratings not necessarily the most important thing.  It is common for users to be angry for an unknown reason and to take it out on others.  In this way, these online systems fall short.  Sometimes an angry user will give a seller a bad rating to discourage others from buying from them only later to regret the decision.  The process of rectifying the situation is currently nonexistent.  In order to account for this, the systems should employ a system that allows the "victim" to change their mind in situations like these or for unjust bad ratings to be nullified.

Personal Reflection:
While this paper was interesting and had a good point, I believe this technology already exists in many of the systems referenced such as eBay and Amazon.  I think it is a good idea and more companies should use the system of forgiveness, I just think the paper did a poor job of finding sources to back up their research

Theory-driven design strategies for technologies that support behavior change in everyday life

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Authors:
Sunny Consolvo - Intel Research Seattle
David W. McDonald - University of Washington
James A. Landay - University of Washington

Summary:

This paper presents the idea that providing private, positive feedback when a goal is reached can help to motivate people to continue doing some task.  Particularly, this paper presents a system that utilizes a dynamic cell phone background that changes based on if a certain goal has been reached or not.  In this case a field of flowers is shown and flowers bloom as you progress towards your goal.  Once you have reached a weekly goal, a butterfly is added to your flowers.

This paper focuses on the idea that providing positive feedback only is essential to the process.  Studies have shown that having negative feedback can discourage a participant from reaching a goal.  Alternatively, a person would feel more motivated if they were privately working towards something that would be a realization of a personal goal.

Personal Reflection:
I really enjoyed this paper and it helped me to realize that system "punishment" is not the best tool for learning.  Instead, solely providing positive feedback can enhance learning and motivate a person to continue striving to reach a goal.

Empirical Evaluation for Finger Input Properties In Multi-touch Interaction

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Authors:

Feng Wang - Kochi University of Technology
Xiangshi Ren - Kochi University of Technology

Summary:

This paper is about different strategies to read in multi-touch input from a finger.  The paper begins by explaining their device that is used for input.  This device is commonly known as a FTIR table, or a Frustrated Total Internal Reflection table.  Traditional input has been read in as a centroid coordinate, meaning, the entire blob of the finger is read, and center point is determined, and that center point is where the "click" occurred.

This research attempts to take into account many factors such as a orientation, contact area, length, width, and the coordinate to provide a more accurate touch interface.  The paper also hopes to not only provide a more accurate touch interface, but to also define a desired "minimum pixel length" for buttons.  This information is crucial to designers.  In order to create an easy to use interface, all of these considerations must be taken into account.

Personal Reflection:

I wanted to read this paper because I find FTIR touch interfaces interesting because it provides multi-touch technology while the device itself can easily be created.  I hope to be making my own FTIR device and this research greatly influences my idea of what such a multi-touch device could do.

Body and Mind: A Study of Avatar Personalization in Three Virtual Worlds

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Authors:

Nicolas Ducheneaut - Palo Alto Research Center
Ming-Hui Wen - National Chiao-Tung University
Nicholas Yee - Palo Alto Research Center
Greg Wadley - The University of Melbourne

Summary:

It is commonplace in today's society for many people to "lead second lives" in the online domain in the form of an avatar.  In this paper, researchers explore the connection between users and their avatars focusing on the customization provided to the users in three different games.  The games studied are Maple Story, Second Life, and World of Warcraft, each with a unique character customization system.

Through various questionnaires and online interviews, the researchers were able to extract key data to show trends in avatar users.  It was found that the avatar's feature that is most important is the hair.  Across all games, hair was a clear and consistent leader in features that users both spent the most time on and cared about the most.  The study found that hair is usually the first and most distinguishing feature of any avatar and, thus, is used to convey some individuality of the user behind the avatar to the rest of the virtual world.

It was also found that the age differences in the users did not directly effect the user's personal connection with their avatar, but it did effect how much the user tried to make the avatar look like themselves.  The older the user, the projected age difference between themselves and their avatar was much wider.

Personal Reflection:

I enjoyed this paper because I have played all of these games at one point in time for various different lengths of periods.  I frequently found myself realizing the same things presented in this paper while playing these games.  I did find it interesting that hair was a driving feature in all games and that it afforded the most customization.

Learning from IKEA hacking: i'm not one to decoupage a tabletop and call it a day.

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Authors:
Daniela Rosner - University of California, Berkeley
Jonathan Bean - University of California, Berkeley

This paper comments on the interactions of online members of DIY groups namely "IKEA Hackers."  IKEA hackers are people who buy IKEA products with the intention of changing them artistically to become unique pieces of furniture.  Whether it is simply changing a lamp to fit in a smaller space to taking apart pre-built furniture to construct a completely different design, the goal of IKEA hackers is to simply be creative and share your idea with others.  Online blogs are kept by members to share their current projects and ideas.  Community members are then able to comment, criticize and become inspired by others' projects at their leisure.

This paper simply introduced these communities as potential places to research, so I am not sure what to comment on.  I myself could be classified as an IKEA hacker so I did find it interesting that the hobby of buying products from companies with the intent of using it as a raw material for some other purpose has caught possible research attention.  I have never explicitly chosen IKEA products, but it was very interesting nonetheless.

Simulated Augmented Reality Windshield Display as a Cognitive Mapping Aid for Elder Driver Navigation

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In this paper Seung Jun Kim and Anind K. Dey from the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University explore the benefits of using augmented reality in vehicles and the effect it has on the driver, namely elderly drivers.  It is common that elderly people often have much more trouble driving as they get older.  It is also common that as they lose their ability to navigate the road, even in familiar territory, they feel less likely to leave for fear of being lost.  This fear leads to a major reduction in individual mobility.  The goal of this paper is to directly address this problem with an easier to use GPS.

The common factor that varies from conventional GPS systems is that they are often placed outside the direct line of view of the driver.  Meaning that the driver must divide their attention, half the time on the road, half the time on the GPS.  The system proposed in this paper projects a 2.5 dimensional GPS display onto the windshield.  This effect would help the driver to visualize the roads and more easily recognize streets along with the original functionality of the GPS systems we use today.

With the use of this software, studies found that when comparing conventional GPS systems to the windshield projected display GPS system, the windshield device slightly increased the driver's ability to correctly navigate in young drivers.  In older drivers, the windshield device substantially improved the driver's ability to navigate unfamiliar roads correctly.  All drivers were more aware of their surroundings and kept their eyes on the road more often with the augmented reality windshield device than with conventional GPS systems.

Discussion:

I believe this idea is well worth the research that was put into it.  Of course this sounds like a good/cool idea, but what if the projected display is not transparent enough and actually heeds the drivier's vision?  The author didn't directly address this statement, but I believe further research will help develop an idea of what a good transparency level would be.  While this paper would not have been my first choice of reading, the thoughts and ideas proposed are valid and worth reading.

The Design of Everyday Things

Author:  Donald A. Norman
Previously published as:  The Psychology of Everyday Things

This book focuses on how everyday things such as doors, sinks, telephones, etc. have many design issues that affect the actual use of the object.  It turns out that not all designs are thought through completely.  Sometimes exceptions are made for purely aesthetic reasons which in all reality cancel out the usefulness of the item in the first place.  For instance, the author repeatedly mentioned the fact that doors are sometimes ambiguous on how to open them.  Either pushing, pulling, push then pull, slide left, slide right, slide up, etc.  Sometimes this works, but often the natural mapping of the action is completely lost.

Natural mapping is a key part in the book.  An object must upon first glance be understandable of its use and function.  Objects that accomplish this task and that look aesthetically pleasing are rare and should be noted for the designers hard work.  This is often not the case.  Often, the exact opposite is true.  Designers are awarded for the most aesthetically pleasing objects and functionality is completely disregarded.  This only furthers the problem.  Another key point in the book.

This book is a very interesting read and I am very glad I got the chance to read it.  It gave me many thought provoking ideas and made me question why things were designed the way they were and why it hasn't changed for the better yet.  If this book is a marker for what this class will entail, I would be very excited about this semester.  I am not sure if this will hold true for the rest of the course, but I will definitely be more willing to start the books early for the mere fact that it is enjoyable reading.