Table of Contents
VOLUME XI.5 September + October 2004
-
Editorial
-
Emotion
Steven Pemberton
Sometimes I think that the times I experience the most emotion are when I'm watching either the big screen or the little screen. With decennia of experience the filmmakers know extremely well how to provoke emotions: I have (as a child I admit) hidden behind the seat in fear…
-
-
Research alert
-
Modeling individual and collaborative construction of jigsaws
Hilary Johnson, Joanne Hyde
The core concern of our research is how to represent, model, and understand collaborative tasks, and use the resulting models to develop systems to support collaboration. Recent years have seen an overwhelming interest in how people collaborate and how collaborative working might be supported. There have also been significant…
-
-
What's happening
-
What’s happening
Marisa Campbell
Workshop HCI and the Older Population Workshop, British HCI 2004, Leeds, U.K., September 7, 2004 The proportion of older people in the population is rapidly increasing. This workshop will provide a forum for academics and practitioners to discuss how technology design can meet the needs and wants of this…
-
-
Business
-
The myths of usability ROI
Daniel Rosenberg
Why has this never been necessary? Have I just been lucky in my choice of employers? Did these companies all have CEOs so enlightened about usability that no such analysis was necessary? I suspect not. Rather, I believe that the ROI analyses we are reading in the literature just…
-
-
The whiteboard
-
Log on, tune in, drop down
Ken Becker
You've got a challenge: A bank has decided to provide its customers with online banking and has declared you Web Designer Extraordinaire. On the statement page, you have to show the account number and the name of the month for the statement displayed. You want to provide a way…
-
-
More funology
-
Introduction
Mark Blythe, Marc Hassenzahl, Peter Wright
Information and communication technology has become a pervasive part of our personal and private lives. In recent years the field of human-computer interaction (HCI) has greatly broadened its scope to reflect this shift. Practitioners and researchers are now as likely to be concerned with how enjoyable a new technology…
-
-
HCI and the Web
-
Breadcrumb navigation
William Hudson
In a popular Grimm fairytale, Hansel and Gretel are taken deep into the forest in the hope that they will not find their way out. However, clever Hansel has left a trail of breadcrumbs to show their return path. While the story inspires the term "breadcrumb navigation," it also…
-
-
More funology: positions
-
Beyond fun
John Carroll
One of the most interesting threads of development in human-computer interaction through the past 25 years is the field's conception of "usability." Initially, this term was taken as synonymous with "easy" or "simple." As understanding of people's experiences with technologies has developed, the concept of usability was enriched with…
-
Interview with Patrick Jordan
Mark Blythe, Patrick Jordan
MB: For readers who aren't familiar with your work could you give an example of the four pleasures you talk about in Designing Pleasurable Products? PJ: OK, here's a brief summary. Physical pleasure is to do with the body and the senses. It includes things like feeling good physically…
-
Technology as experience
John McCarthy, Peter Wright
User Experience User experience is now becoming central to our understanding of the usability of technology. Today many interactive technology companies describe on their Web sites their commitment to experience-based design. There is also a trend in HCI communities to foreground experience-centered approaches to technology, a movement reflected in…
-
Interview with Don Norman
Mark Blythe, Marc Hassenzahl, Donald Norman
MB: Most of our readers will be aware that your new book marks a change in direction for you. Why the turnaround? Are you hoping to inspire more designs like the Incredible Tea Juicer? DN: The Incredible Tea Juicer? But of course! I am trying to influence designers, so…
-
Emotions can be quite ephemeral; we cannot design them
Marc Hassenzahl
The "new" HCI stresses the importance of emotions. However, this emphasis might be misleading or at least not as valuable as hoped. Let me explain why. Emotions are important. They are an essential part of our lives. We cannot function without them. There is a long tradition of accentuating…
-
Designing for fun
Ben Shneiderman
Designing for fun? Fun-filled experiences are playful and liberatingthey make you smile. They are a break from the ordinary and bring satisfying feelings of pleasure for body and mind. Joyful sensations often come during physical activities such as entertainment, recreation, or sportsparties are fun, dancing is fun, skiing is…
-
-
More funology: inspiration
-
Pastiche scenarios
Mark Blythe
Maureen, are you tied up at the moment? Not at all, Professor Dingbat, I was simply idling away a few minutes, putting Dr. Quintock's Cultural Studies slides online for the first years, sending out a reminder that no one has yet paid their ten pounds towards the examiner's dinner…
-
Cultural probes and the value of uncertainty
William Gaver, Andrew Boucher, Sarah Pennington, Brendan Walker
Designing for pleasure demands a different approach from designing for utility. The latter can be done from outside a given situation, standing back to assess difficulties and seek solutions. The former, in contrast, is better done from within. To give pleasure to someoneto tell a funny joke, recount a…
-
-
Conferences
-
NordiCHI 2004
Marisa Campbell
The conference will cover all the main areas of CHI research, but will focus on considering the challenges of new applications addressing the following areas: human-environment interaction, proactive computing, mobile user, and user-centered design. Speakers Kristina Höök, IT University, Sweden Gilbert Cockton, University of Sunderland, UK Bonnie John,…
-
- More funology: humor
-
More funology: design
-
Freedom of fun, freedom of interaction
Stephan Wensveen, Kees Overbeeke, Tom Djajadiningrat, Steven Kyffin
The modernist tradition still drives our society and our scientific endeavors. Modernity stood for technology push, progress through industry, linearity, money, the abstract, and the logical. But it has resulted in a feeling of uneasiness, even coldness. That is why, we think, there is now such a drive to…
-
It felt like clown sparkles
Kristina Andersen
A small group of children are playing in a theatre space. One of them, a four year old boy is carefully investigating a man's hat. The hat is making a singing sound that changes pitch when it is moved. He plays on his own for a long time turning…
-
Taking fun seriously
Alan Dix
Have you watched a child at play? Small hands carefully pile blocks one upon another, tongue tip protruding between clenched teeth, lost totally, concentrating. Children know how to take play seriously. Often people feel that play, fun, and aesthetic experience should not be analyzed too deeply; by dissecting them,…
-
What sounds do people love and hate?
Jonathan Effrat, Lisa Chan, B. Fogg, Ling Kong
After presenting our research about sounds people love and hate at a recent Stanford Media X Conference, we were approached by a program manager from a large software company. She told us a story about how her company learned a hard lesson about sound. They were testing a new…
-
Feeling lucky?
James Kalbach
Searching for information is an emotional experience. We've all experienced confusion and frustration while searching the Web, as well as the occasional joy of discovery. But how do we conceive of emotions within search design? A key message from recent investigations is that feelings affect thought and actions. To…
-
Connecting mothers and sons
Wouter van der Hoog, Pieter Stappers, Ianus Keller
Beauty is in the details. Often small things carry an important emotional undertone that determines whether or how we enjoy an event or a product. In this article, we describe how small details of everyday routines were incorporated in the design of a hi-tech communication appliance. As ID-StudioLab's entry…
-
-
More funology: games
-
Beyond usability in games
Randy Pagulayan, Keith Steury
Video games are an art form that combines traditional artistic endeavors such as the visual arts, story-telling, and music, with more modern technical and engineering achievements. At the center of this effort is the game designer who drives the creative vision and who decides what needs to be accomplished…
-
Computer games as interfaces
Dennis Chao
We can learn a lot from computer games. While most application software can be a source of confusion and frustration for users, people consistently find enjoyment in their games. One way to make everyday software more fun is to incorporate game-like elements, such as action, narrative, and interactive graphics.…
-
Narrative construction as play
Brenda Laurel
Narrative construction as a kind of play is highly underrated in the design of interactive media. I began to uncover evidence of this during my dissertation research. That quest led to my first book, Computers as Theatre [2]. I learned more about the powers of narrative construction from the…
-
-
Fast forward
-
Branding 101
Aaron Marcus
The antagonism and misunderstandings are familiar from both sides of the fence. In one recent Internet discussion, a CHI professional asked plaintively if we were actually going to have to include the branding people in our design process. Well, CHI folks, it turns out that branding, a key aspect…
-
-
More funology: elephants
-
Human computer (sexual) interactions
Mark Blythe, Mark Jones
There are few better examples of the pervasion of computing technology into private life than the proliferation of human-computer sexual interactions. Although the HCI community has become increasingly interested in leisure contexts, entertainment, emotion, affect, enjoyment and fun, it tends to ignore the fact that one of the ways…
-
The age of auspicious computing?
Genevieve Bell
Information and communication technologies are so pervasive that they are becoming a part of our spiritual lives. By December 2003, more than 35 million Americans will have searched for religious or spiritual information online [3]. On the face of it, that might not seem like much, but in the…
-
-
Books
-
Books
Will Schroeder
Emotional Design: Why We love (Or Hate) Everyday Things Donald A. Norman Basic Books, 2003 ISBN 0465051359 $26.00 As a person involved in the work of designcreating things for others to use and enjoyI look to the author of The Psychology of Everyday Things for a framework…
-
