- Social Media, Social Networking, Mobile Technology, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), Trust, Mobile Commerce, and 14 moreSocial commerce, Mobile Payments, User Experience (UX), Ecommerce, Mobile HCI, eCommerce research, Impression Management, Ubiquitous Commerce, Human Computer Interaction, Fanfiction, Tumblr, Fandoms, Culture, and Mobile Communicationedit
- Serena Hillmanedit
In-product feedback mechanisms allow for capturing user feedback while the user is engaging with the product or service. Traditionally in-product feedback has focused on metrics such as Net Promoter Score (NPS) [21] and Customer... more
In-product feedback mechanisms allow for capturing user feedback while the user is engaging with the product or service. Traditionally in-product feedback has focused on metrics such as Net Promoter Score (NPS) [21] and Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) [5] which look to measure customer loyalty or overall product satisfaction. By introducing complementary user experience (UX) metrics that are focused on user outcomes, UX teams have greater insight into measuring the successes or challenges of their users in the context of use. This case study describes and discusses the process employed and the lessons learned while designing and implementing a user-centered in-product feedback system. We specifically call out challenges and opportunities around aligning with business outcomes, navigating current frameworks, unlocking self-serve data to stakeholders, informing strategy, and feeding additional research. In conclusion, we present these learnings as a framework, dubbed BLUE, to help other UX teams create in-product feedback mechanisms.
Neurodiversity was coined in 1999 [9]. At its start, the movement was used to advocate for people with Autism and has since broadened to include other neurological conditions such as ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder),... more
Neurodiversity was coined in 1999 [9]. At its start, the movement was used to advocate for people with Autism and has since broadened to include other neurological conditions such as ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), dyslexia, and even mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety. While the neurodiversity movement has made efforts into researching and designing technology with diverse voices and experiences at its center, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done in this area. For example, cognitive accessibility user research deals with the challenges for people with cognitive or learning disabilities when using technologies [5]. However, these developments are limited to the scope of web users but have the potential to reach all technologies, from wearables to mobile apps to data analytics and visualization tools.
As new movements arise and thoughts shift towards social justice, it is becoming more and more apparent that marginalized groups can no longer be left out of design conversation and innovation. For example, design justice focuses on the ways that race, class, gender, and disability, 90% of which are invisible, account for a variety of user needs [10]. As Harvey Blume noted, “Neurodiversity may be every bit as crucial for the human race as biodiversity is for life in general. Who can say what form of wiring will prove best at any given moment?”[4]. Though it is difficult to separate the intersection of these groups, we can contribute to the discourse and goals of disability justice in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) through the lens of the neurodiversity movement and those impacted by being left out of design to guide our practice and create opportunities for collaboration and solutions.
In this position paper we highlight two neurodiversity topics of interest as discussion points for the Dreaming Disability Justice (DJ) in HCI 2022 CHI Workshop. The first topic is DJ and intersectionality, and the second topic is the expansion and complications of neurodiverse approaches to HCI. We selected these topics to discuss both the roots and potential direction of this space within HCI.
As new movements arise and thoughts shift towards social justice, it is becoming more and more apparent that marginalized groups can no longer be left out of design conversation and innovation. For example, design justice focuses on the ways that race, class, gender, and disability, 90% of which are invisible, account for a variety of user needs [10]. As Harvey Blume noted, “Neurodiversity may be every bit as crucial for the human race as biodiversity is for life in general. Who can say what form of wiring will prove best at any given moment?”[4]. Though it is difficult to separate the intersection of these groups, we can contribute to the discourse and goals of disability justice in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) through the lens of the neurodiversity movement and those impacted by being left out of design to guide our practice and create opportunities for collaboration and solutions.
In this position paper we highlight two neurodiversity topics of interest as discussion points for the Dreaming Disability Justice (DJ) in HCI 2022 CHI Workshop. The first topic is DJ and intersectionality, and the second topic is the expansion and complications of neurodiverse approaches to HCI. We selected these topics to discuss both the roots and potential direction of this space within HCI.
Teachers need to communicate material effectively in a clear and engaging format. Many teachers use presentation software such as PowerPoint, Google Slides or Keynote to create and display educational content. These presentation products... more
Teachers need to communicate material effectively in a clear and engaging format. Many teachers use presentation software such as PowerPoint, Google Slides or Keynote to create and display educational content. These presentation products offer mobile companion applications (apps) designed to both sync with content on a second screen and add additional tools to navigate and interact with slides. In this paper, we conducted two exploratory studies to investigate the mobile digital presentation needs and current experience of K-12 teachers when using mobile companion apps. We identify that current solutions fall short of addressing these needs and suggest potential design implications to better align with the in-classroom experience. Findings suggest improvements could be made by allowing teachers to capture teachable moments-through text and annotations on slides-improving these.
Research Interests:
Over the past decade, there has been an increase in educational software use within classrooms as well as continuing demand on K-12 teachers extending beyond in-class activities. Yet, we still do not have a deep understanding of current... more
Over the past decade, there has been an increase in educational software use within classrooms as well as continuing demand on K-12 teachers extending beyond in-class activities. Yet, we still do not have a deep understanding of current teacher behaviors outside the classroom. Our paper presents insights on how to better design for technology use in this space by reporting on key themes such as communication, privacy and student technology at home. These findings translate into design implications to increase transparency with student data, the need to design first for technology students have access to in the home (e.g. mobile) and designing for the teacher need of setting personal boundaries within communication tools.
Research Interests:
Our research looks to understand how to best design manipulatives within a mixed-reality (MR) system for the classroom. This paper presents insights around how teachers currently use physical manipulatives to inform future MR designs in... more
Our research looks to understand how to best design manipulatives within a mixed-reality (MR) system for the classroom. This paper presents insights around how teachers currently use physical manipulatives to inform future MR designs in the K-5 classroom. Manipulatives are physical objects used for teaching; Examples include, coins, blocks, puzzles markers etc. K-5 teachers have been using physical manipulatives to help illustrate abstract concepts for decades. Physical manipulatives have proven high value for students [7] and their high level of adoption by grade school teachers makes them a potential candidate for introducing MR into the classroom. In this research, we use participatory design, journey maps and interviews to identify teacher challenges with current physical manipulatives and explore potential design directions for MR manipulatives in the classroom. Our preliminary findings suggest that MR could help improve autonomy around student learning and increase opportunity for collaboration between peers, as well as between teacher and student.
In this paper we present lessons learned from a diary study completed for Electronic Arts' AAA video game NHL16 in August 2015. Key findings suggest that while there is high risk to use the method, there is also great benefit in terms of... more
In this paper we present lessons learned from a diary study completed for Electronic Arts' AAA video game NHL16 in August 2015. Key findings suggest that while there is high risk to use the method, there is also great benefit in terms of impact via actionable data and ability to collect rich artifacts to tell the users' stories. To reduce the risk, this work presents a series of suggested guidelines for conducting a diary study in games user research, which has not been investigated in past work. We lay a foundation for diary methods in GUR and how to further improve the method by providing examples and real results through an AAA game example.
Research Interests:
In this paper we present the Tumblr analytics dashboard, tApp. tApp is designed based on findings from a study we completed on Tumblr and fandoms. Within, we describe an overview of seven sections of the dashboard, reasoning behind the... more
In this paper we present the Tumblr analytics dashboard, tApp. tApp is designed based on findings from a study we completed on Tumblr and fandoms. Within, we describe an overview of seven sections of the dashboard, reasoning behind the design, current prototype screen shots, one use case scenario and proposed future work.
Research Interests:
A growing trend is the participation in online fandom communities through the support of the blogging platform Tumblr. While past research has investigated backchannels—chatter related to live entertainment on micro-blogging sites such as... more
A growing trend is the participation in online fandom communities through the support of the blogging platform Tumblr. While past research has investigated backchannels—chatter related to live entertainment on micro-blogging sites such as Twitter—there is a lack of research on the behaviours and motivations of Tumblr users. In our study, we investigate why fandom users chose Tumblr over other social networking sites, their motivations behind participating in fandoms, and how they interact within the Tumblr community. Our findings show that users face many user interface challenges when participating in Tumblr fandoms, especially initially; yet, despite this, Tumblr fandom communities thrive with a common sense of social purpose and exclusivity where users feel they can present a more authentic reflection of themselves to those sharing similar experiences and interests. We describe how this suggests design directions for social networking and blogging sites in order to promote communities of users.
As smartphones continue to increase in popularity in North America so too does the opportunity to expand their use and functionality. Our study looks at one of these new opportunities, Mobile Payment Services (MPSs). This study... more
As smartphones continue to increase in popularity in North America so too does the opportunity to expand their use and functionality. Our study looks at one of these new opportunities, Mobile Payment Services (MPSs). This study investigates user behaviours, motivations and first impressions of MPS in Canada and the United States through interviews with veteran users and interviews and diaries with new users. Participants used a variety of MPSs, including: Google Wallet, Amazon Payments, LevelUp, Square and company apps geared towards payments (e.g., Starbucks). Our preliminary findings are presented as user successes and challenges.
Research Interests:
Personal informatics applications are increasingly available for amateur endurance athletes to record and monitor their performance and training. This information can be valuable for coaches who tailor training programs based on this... more
Personal informatics applications are increasingly available for amateur endurance athletes to record and monitor their performance and training. This information can be valuable for coaches who tailor training programs based on this data. Despite this, it is not clear if the information provided by such tools map to the real needs of the amateur athletic community. To address this, we conducted interviews with eight amateur athletic coaches of endurance athletes. Our results show that athlete-specific contextual factors can be important to track and monitor in relation to performance-based metrics. This information can be difficult to capture, analyze, and share. This suggests design opportunities for personal informatics applications for amateur athletes and coaches.
eCommerce has dramatically changed over the last several years with the increased adoption of smart phones and social networking, leaving a gap of knowledge around what these changes mean to—and how they affect—the user and their... more
eCommerce has dramatically changed over the last several years with the increased adoption of smart phones and social networking, leaving a gap of knowledge around what these changes mean to—and how they affect—the user and their experiences. To address this gap, we collected empirical evidence through three studies. The first looks at mobile web commerce, and focuses heavily on the issue of trust. The second looks at group shopping sites, an example of social commerce. Finally, the third study investigates mobile payment services and user challenges and successes. While each study has introduced specific design implications, together we hope to expand the work in traditional eCommerce to include social and mobile aspects and thus contribute new knowledge towards a more ubiquitous commerce (ubi-commerce) experience.
Research Interests:
We report the findings of an ethnographic study exploring how 13 participants from rural and slum regions of Kenya communicated with remote family members using technology. We focus on communication practices that enabled family members... more
We report the findings of an ethnographic study exploring how 13 participants from rural and slum regions of Kenya communicated with remote family members using technology. We focus on communication practices that enabled family members to support economic sustenance activities and also investigate the social aspects of using technology to provide or receive moral, emotional or other forms of support from distributed family members.
A growing trend is the participation in online fandom communities through the support of the blogging platform Tumblr. We investigated Tumblr fandom users’ motivations behind participating in fandoms, and how they interacted within the... more
A growing trend is the participation in online fandom communities through the support of the blogging platform Tumblr. We investigated Tumblr fandom users’ motivations behind participating in fandoms, and how they interacted within the Tumblr community. Our results show that fandom users feel their Tumblr experience is ‘always-on’ where they participate at nearly any point in the day. They have also adopted a unique set of jargon and use of animated GIFs to match their desired fandom activities. Overall, our results show that Tumblr fandom users present a unique culture, much different from other social networking sites.
Research Interests:
Group-shopping sites are beginning to rise in popularity amongst eCommerce users. Yet we do not know how or why people are using such sites, and whether or not the design of group-shopping sites map to the real shopping needs of end... more
Group-shopping sites are beginning to rise in popularity amongst eCommerce users. Yet we do not know how or why people are using such sites, and whether or not the design of group-shopping sites map to the real shopping needs of end users. To address this, we describe an interview study that investigates the friendship networks of people who participate in group-shopping sites (e.g., Groupon) with the goal of understanding how to best design for these experiences. Our results show that group-shopping sites are predominently used to support social activities; that is, users do not use them first and foremost to find ‘deals.’ Instead, group-shopping sites are used for planning group activities, extending and building friendships, and constructing one’s social identity. Based on these findings, we suggest improved social network integration and impression management tools to improve user experience within group-shopping sites.
Research Interests:
ABSTRACT Mobile devices are increasingly being used in a variety of new contexts, including situations at home or work where one might previously have used a computer. One area in which this is increasingly occurring is mobile shopping... more
ABSTRACT Mobile devices are increasingly being used in a variety of new contexts, including situations at home or work where one might previously have used a computer. One area in which this is increasingly occurring is mobile shopping termed mCommerce. To understand this space better, we conducted a diary and interview study with mCommerce shoppers who have already adopted the technology and shop on their mobile devices regularly.
Research Interests:
ABSTRACT When a patient has a chronic illness, such as heart disease or cancer, it can be challenging for distributed family members to stay aware of the patient's health status. A variety of technologies are available to support health... more
ABSTRACT When a patient has a chronic illness, such as heart disease or cancer, it can be challenging for distributed family members to stay aware of the patient's health status. A variety of technologies are available to support health information sharing (eg, phone, video chat, social media), yet we still do not have a detailed understanding of which technologies are preferred and what challenges people still face when sharing information with them.
Teenagers are increasingly using video chat systems to communicate with others, however, little research has been conducted to explore how and why they use the technology. To better understand this design space, we present the results of... more
Teenagers are increasingly using video chat systems to communicate with others, however, little research has been conducted to explore how and why they use the technology. To better understand this design space, we present the results of a study of twenty teenagers and their use of video chat systems such as Skype, FaceTime, and Google Hangouts. Our results show that video chat plays an important role in helping teenagers socialize with their friends after school and on weekends where it allows them to see emotional reactions and participate in activities like shared homework sessions, show and tell, and performances over distance. Yet video chat is also used to engage in more private activities such as gossiping, flirting, and even the viewing of sexual acts. This presents an interesting design challenge of supporting teen use of video chat while mitigating privacy and parental concerns.
Research Interests:
Recently, there has been widespread growth of shopping and buying on mobile devices, termed mCommerce. With this comes a need to understand how to best design experiences for mobile shopping. To help address this, we conducted a diary and... more
Recently, there has been widespread growth of shopping and buying on mobile devices, termed mCommerce. With this comes a need to understand how to best design experiences for mobile shopping. To help address this, we conducted a diary and interview study with mCommerce shoppers who have already adopted the technology and shop on their mobile devices regularly. Our study explores typical mCommerce routines and behaviours along with issues of soft trust, given its long-term concern for eCommerce. Our results describe spontaneous purchasing and routine shopping behaviours where people gravitate to their mobile device even if a computer is nearby. We found that participants faced few trust issues because they had limited access to unknown companies. In addition, app marketplaces and recommendations from friends offered a form of brand protection. These findings suggest that companies can decrease trust issues by tying mCommerce designs to friend networks and known marketplaces. The caveat for shoppers, however, is that they can be easily lured into a potentially false sense of trust.
Research Interests:
Recently, there has been widespread growth of mobile shopping and buying, termed mCommerce. With this comes a need to understand user’s routines and social behviours in mCommerce activities so we can understand how to design for the... more
Recently, there has been widespread growth of mobile
shopping and buying, termed mCommerce. With this
comes a need to understand user’s routines and social
behviours in mCommerce activities so we can
understand how to design for the mobile space. To
address this, we conducted a diary and interview study
with regular mobile device users to explore their mobile
shopping activities. Our results describe a variety of
usage patterns including spontaneous purchasing and
routine shopping where people gravitate to their mobile
device even if a computer is nearby.
shopping and buying, termed mCommerce. With this
comes a need to understand user’s routines and social
behviours in mCommerce activities so we can
understand how to design for the mobile space. To
address this, we conducted a diary and interview study
with regular mobile device users to explore their mobile
shopping activities. Our results describe a variety of
usage patterns including spontaneous purchasing and
routine shopping where people gravitate to their mobile
device even if a computer is nearby.
Research Interests:
Over the last decade, research in the CHI and CSCW communities has expanded in scope to move away from a solely-workplace focus to investigations of the ways in which family members appropriate and make use of technology as a part of... more
Over the last decade, research in the CHI and CSCW communities has expanded in scope to move away from a solely-workplace focus to investigations of the ways in
which family members appropriate and make use of technology as a part of domestic life. Our research premise is ‘the home is not the office’; in order to understand how to design technology to fit within and extend the routines of family members, one must carefully consider the intricate nuances of domestic life, including family and friend relationships and the everyday routines people employ.
Within this space, our research broadly focuses on the study and design of ubiquitous and mobile technologies for family members. This has included the study of communication and awareness needs for families [1,7], family calendars [8-10], family photo sharing [11,13], and video communication systems for families [2-4,6,13]. We are now building on this research to explore: connecting family members over distance in situations where technology may be limited, the design of systems for families to share health information, and the design of
technologies focused on mobile shopping.
which family members appropriate and make use of technology as a part of domestic life. Our research premise is ‘the home is not the office’; in order to understand how to design technology to fit within and extend the routines of family members, one must carefully consider the intricate nuances of domestic life, including family and friend relationships and the everyday routines people employ.
Within this space, our research broadly focuses on the study and design of ubiquitous and mobile technologies for family members. This has included the study of communication and awareness needs for families [1,7], family calendars [8-10], family photo sharing [11,13], and video communication systems for families [2-4,6,13]. We are now building on this research to explore: connecting family members over distance in situations where technology may be limited, the design of systems for families to share health information, and the design of
technologies focused on mobile shopping.
In this paper I will present a case study of eight generational web usability tests. The tests are focused around three web usability standards which are defined by leaders of the online usability world. The results are then compared to... more
In this paper I will present a case study of eight generational web usability tests. The tests are focused around three web usability standards which are defined by leaders of the online usability world. The results are then compared to two different generations in regards to their experience with information and communication technology (ICT). The two generations are based on definitions outlined by Marc Prensky's and Gordon Hotchkiss' digital natives and digital immigrants. The hypothesis is that through generational web usability testing, results will indicate that current web usability standards follow the usability needs of a generation who has not grown up with ICT.
In this paper I will review and discuss the concepts outlined in Dr. Donald A. Norman's The Design of Everyday Things Chapter 1: The Psychopathology of Everyday Things and Wright and McCarthy's Technology as Experience Chapter 3: a... more
In this paper I will review and discuss the concepts outlined in Dr. Donald A. Norman's The Design of Everyday Things Chapter 1: The Psychopathology of Everyday Things and Wright and McCarthy's Technology as Experience Chapter 3: a pragmatist approach to technology as experience. Furthermore, I will take an exploratory look these concepts in the online space; their adaptability, relevance, and how they can relate to a different generations.
In this paper I will present my case study of an artificial neural network system designed to identify duplicate XML content in live event listings. The application was built to identify uplication of event data including times, dates,... more
In this paper I will present my case study of an artificial neural network system designed to identify duplicate XML content in live event listings. The application was built to identify uplication of event data including times, dates, venues, event names and cities. This case study is a niche example of a solution to a large scale dirty data problem. Contributing to advancements in data scrubbing concepts is important because of the explosion of content feeds, user-generated content and mash-up applications that leave site aggregate content, such as comparison shopping engines and affiliate sites with dirty data. My hypothesis is that by applying heuristics, fuzzy logic, and an artificial neural network, the software can identify similar data.