Microsoft Usability Research
http://www.microsoft.com/usability/default.mspx
Interesting Project:
Baudisch, P., Pruitt, J., and Ball, S. (2004). Flat volume control: improving usability by hiding the
volume control hierarchy in the user interface. In Proceeding of CHI 2004, Vienna Austria, pp.
255-262.
Description:
The hardware-inspired volume user interface model that is in use across all of today’s operating
systems is the source of several usability issues. One of them is that restoring the volume of a
muted application can require an inappropriately long troubleshooting process: in addition to
manipulating the application’s volume and mute controls, users may also have to visit the
system’s volume control panel to find and adjust additional controls there. The “flat” volume
control model presented in this paper eliminates this and other problems by hiding the
hardware-oriented volume model from the user. Using the flat model, users use one slider per
application to indicate how loud they want the respective applications to play; the slider then
internally adjusts all hardware volume variables necessary to obtain the requested output. By
offering a single point of control for each application, the flat model simplifies controlling
application volume and restoring muted applications. In our studies, participants completed all
four volume control and mixing tasks faster and with less error when using the flat model than
when using the existing hardware-oriented volume control model. Participants also indicated a
subjective preference for the flat model over the existing model.
Article:
Perkins, Annuska and Cohene, T. (2006). The impact of user research on product design: A case
study on the accessibility ecosystem for Windows Vista. Proc. of ACM conference on Computers
and accessibility 2006 (SIGACCESS), Portland OR, 281 – 282.
This paper describes the impact of user research on the accessibility features of the Windows
Vista operating system. Conducting user research for a complex and widely-used product
requires assessing a wide-range of users, experiences, and an ecosystem of PC hardware and
software. Our user research for Windows XP gave us a greater understanding of the user’s
selfperception of their abilities. We also uncovered three pivotal usability issues: awareness,
discoverability, and learnability. To address these issues for Windows Vista, we iteratively
researched the product while focusing on universal design. The impact of this research resulted
in design changes to the following major accessibility areas: an enhanced entry-point, a
recommendation process that maps user needs to relevant accessibility components, and
enhanced features of Windows Speech Recognition.
We demonstrated how user research has impacted the Windows Vista accessibility ecosystem.
Our interdisciplinary approach leveraged the expertise of user research, marketing, and product
development. In particular, the research has helped us focus on the user’s self-perception in the
user requirements analysis. We believe our user research has enhanced our understanding of
our users’ needs and our relationships with users. In the future, we hope to build further
collaborations with academic research, government research, industry research, and users
themselves.
Xerox PARC
http://www.parc.com/default.php
Project:
3Book — a 3D virtual book display for rapidly navigating, skimming, and reading large
documents, which includes a dynamically reorganizing book index customized to user interests.
Article:
Ducheneaut, N.; Moore, R. J.; Oehlberg, L.; Thornton, J. D.; Nickell, E. SocialTV: designing for
distributed, social television viewing. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction.
Media research has shown that people enjoy watching television as a part of socializing in
groups. However, many constraints in daily life limit the opportunities for doing so. The Social
TV project builds on the increasing integration of television and computer technology to support
sociable, computer-mediated group viewing experiences. In this paper, we describe the initial
results from a series of studies illustrating how people interact in front of a television set. Based
on these results, we propose guidelines as well as specific features to inform the design of
future “social television” prototypes.
Carnegie Mellon University
http://www.hcii.cmu.edu/
Project:
Alice
We are developing a tool called Alice that allows novice programmers to author interactive 3D
virtual worlds. By identifying the unnecessary challenges of learning to program (such as syntax)
and removing these challenges, we hope to make the fundamentals of programming accessible
to middle school children.
Article:
ALPS: Bringing Active Inquiry into Active Problem Solving Scott Stevens, Albert Corbett, Kenneth
Koedinger, Angela Wagner, Chih-yu Chao, Harry Ulrich 2004, Proceedings of the IADIS
International Conference: Cognition and Exploratory Learning in Digital Age (CELDA 2004), pp
543-544 Lisbon, Portugal
The ALPS project (Active Learning in Problem Solving) is building and evaluating an educational
technology that combines cognitive tutors with a novel interactive questioning environment
called Synthetic Interviews. Our goal is to develop an “active learning” environment that rivals
the effectiveness of human tutors. The first version combines an existing cognitive algebra tutor
with a virtual algebra teacher that students can query for additional help. Beta versions of the
system have been used by over one hundred middle school (six, seventh, and eighth grade)
students. This demonstration will allow participants to work through a simple algebra problem
with the cognitive tutor while they ask deeper questions of the Synthetic Interview.
IBM Watson Research Center
http://www.watson.ibm.com/index.shtml
Project:
Virtual worlds come to life at IBM
Since IBM first started experimenting with virtual worlds almost a year ago, progress has been
rapid. Not only have virtual retail storefronts for clients such as Sears and Circuit City been built,
but IBM has also created SOA and new hire training environments and even held a "block party"
for The Greater IBM Connection. Our chairman, Sam Palmisano, directed his avatar to open a
virtual town hall in IBM’s replica of the Forbidden City.
These experimentations are part of an IBM-led initiative to collaborate with clients and partners
on both conducting business inside virtual worlds and connecting the virtual world with the real
world to create a richer, more immersive Web environment - thereby solving business problems
in a new way.
IBM has a series of areas in the virtual world of Second Life open to the general public. On these
"islands" -- spaces where people can build three-dimensional objects and interact with other
people in a way that is more like real life than a web conference or phone call -- IBM has been
experimenting on extending virtual worlds for business in three key areas: virtual commerce and
work with clients to apply virtual worlds to business problems; driving new kinds of
collaboration and education; and experimentations on pushing the limits with a broad
community on what might be possible in virtual worlds.
"We view these virtual worlds at a very early stage, both technically and culturally. The user
experience will improve as we do more experimentation and figure out how to better apply
them to solve real problems in business and society," said Irving Wladawsky-Berger, IBM's chief
technologist. "Commerce and collaboration are two key areas ripe for applying virtual worlds to
real life, but we also see applications in education, healthcare and many other areas."
IBM is working with dozens of clients to experiment and help them understand and apply virtual
worlds to their business. While IBM is prototyping and developing in Second Life, it has a bigger
strategy to collaborate with a community in an open fashion to build out the next generation
Web, which IBM calls the 3-D Internet.
In addition to virtual commerce, IBM works with clients, employees and alumni to use virtual
worlds to drive collaboration and provide a more immersive online educational experience. For
example, IBM uses virtual worlds to connect with its alumni population and for on-boarding and
educating new and current employees. Virtual worlds have proven an effective tool to help
simplify the complex, with 3-D models and interactions that cannot be recreated in a Web
conference or phone conversation, and have been useful in connecting people around the globe
to drive collaboration.
IBM also makes space available on its virtual islands to work on experiments that push the limit
of what might be possible in virtual worlds, with the aim of creating the foundation to build out
the next generation, 3-D Internet and to drive open standards. Our goal is to experiment with
ways to replicate business processes in these worlds to improve and experiment with real world
solutions.
“We believe that these rich, immersive, social environments will have a huge impact on the Web
as we know it,” Colin Parris, VP of Digital Convergence, stated while closing his keynote speech
at Virtual Worlds 2007. “It is clear that we are at the beginning of a new inflection point and that
we have a chance to accelerate our future.”
Article:
G. Cockton, M. Harrison, B. Kwasnik, R. Penner, R. Procter, L. Bass, A. Dix, M. Beaudoui, N.
Carlsen, J. Ukelson (1992). "HCI - Whose Problem Is It Anyway" in Information Processing.
Transactions, volume 18, (no ), pages 397-03
The current state of HCI suggests an urgent need for the HCI community reassess its goals,
internal composition, and relationship with the `user'. We address these issues from the
perspective of `problem ownership', which we believe is central to understanding the scope and
future prospects of HCI. Internally, questions of problem ownership are apparent in the claims
advanced by competing constituencies of expertise to de_ne and address the fundamental
problems. The scope of HCI's problem de_nitions have become broadened as the character and
goals of IT applications have developed; as perceptions have shifted about the causes of the gulf
between expectations and experience of IT; and as a wider range of expertise has been brought
to bear. This raises dilemmas for the HCI community's intellectual programme regarding the
knowledge claims it can articulate, and the respective contributions of di_erent bodies of
knowledge germane to understanding HCI. Progress in constructing a synthesis has been slow,
and research often seems more driven by fashion than by a coherent vision of the issues.
The notion of problem ownership is also relevant to exploring the di_culties apparent in the HCI
community's conceptualisation of, and relationship with, the `user' it is trying to serve. This is
especially evident when HCI practice is placed within an organizational context. Is the user the
`end user', the person who directly interacts with the computer, or the `client', the person who
commissions the system? There is insu_cient acknow- ledgement of the complexities of
organisational life, and that the requirements of various interested parties might conict. The HCI
community seems unprepared to grapple with the realities of the workplace, and organisational
politics [1]. A topical example of the consequences can be seen in the failure of computersupported cooperative work tools to transfer successfully from the research laboratory into
commercial environments [1, 2]. We argue that HCI practice needs to pay greater attention to
organisational theory in general, and to concepts of power in particular.
MIT Media Lab
http://www.media.mit.edu/
Project:
CityCar
The CityCar is a stackable electric two-passenger city vehicle. The one-way sharable user model
is designed to be used in dense urban areas. Vehicle Stacks will be placed throughout the city to
create an urban transportation network that takes advantage of existing infrastructure such as
subway and bus lines. By placing stacks in urban spaces and key points of convergence, the
vehicle allows the citizens the flexibility to combine mass transit effectively with individualized
mobility. The stack receives incoming vehicles and electrically charges them. Similar to luggage
carts at the airport, users simply take the first fully charged vehicle at the front of the stack. The
City car is NOT a replacement for personal vehicles, taxis, buses, or trucks; it is a NEW vehicle
type that promotes a socially responsible and more effective means of urban mobility.
The CityCar utilizes fully integrated in-wheel electric motors and suspension systems called,
"Wheel Robots." The wheel robots eliminate the need traditional drive train configurations like
engine blocks, gear boxes, and differentials because they are self-contained, digitally controlled,
and reconfigurable. Additionally, the wheel robot provides all wheel power and steering capable
of 360 degrees of movement, thus allowing for Omni-directional movement. The vehicle can
maneuver in tight urban spaces and park by sideways translation. This technology is patentedpending and under design development at the MIT Media Lab.
Article:
Design and HCI Applications of a Low-Cost Scanning Laser Rangefinder by Joshua Andrew
Strickon Submitted to the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering in Electrical Engineering
and Computer Science at the MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY June 1999 c Joshua
Andrew Strickon, MCMXCIX.
A low-cost scanning laser rangefinder was developed and optimized for applications involving
real-time human-computer interaction (HCI). The usable range extended across several meters,
enabling the device to be applied to such applications as tracking hands (e.g., as in touchscreens)
in front of large displays. The system was implemented as a continuous-wave, quadrature
phase-measuring rangefinder. This thesis will examine the current states of laser rangefinders
and discuss the design and function of the prototype system, as well as propose and
demonstrate new HCI applications of such a low cost device.