And here she is in all her glory:An Empirically Derived Experimentally Validated Framework for Interactions in Information Environments
(Principal Investigators: Dr. Margot Brereton, Dr. Helen Purchase and Prof. Simon Kaplan)
Abstract
This project will investigate and design ways of interacting with the information infrastructure that maintain natural social interactions, take advantage of physical space and utilise our extensive human abilities to recognise and manipulate physical objects.
Expected outcomes include:
1. a theoretical framework that describes the range of possible interactions that mediate information between the physical and virtual worlds.
2. a prototype instrumented information environment that demonstrates and validates naturalistic information transactions identified in the framework.
This research is highly innovative in its field. It will use an iterative cycle of video observation, interaction analysis, interaction design, device design, deployment and evaluation.
Introduction
Development of future information environments - multi-modal environments supporting seamless, integrated access to both physical and virtual artifacts - is hampered by the lack of ways to support expressive and low-overhead manipulations of virtual objects from the physical world, or physical objects from the virtual. For example, while it is simple to annotate a piece of paper with a pen, or cut out a dress pattern using a template and scissors, it is clumsy, slow and inconvenient to perform the same operations using the 'comment' function in Word or by marking a shape with a mouse or tablet. Similarly, while it is straightforward for one to point to, pick up and rearrange papers on a shared surface during a face-to-face meeting, it is effectively impossible to 'reach through' the virtual world and do the same thing when one is participating remotely in a videoconference.
While on the face of it these are 'mere inconveniences', in practice they are indicative of a wide range of operations and activities, particularly in industrial settings, which could potentially mix the physical and virtual worlds together, if we could develop new interactional modalies that would make them possible. Such modalities are likely to be a rich mixture of gestural (interaction by pointing or orienting one's body), tangible (manipulations of physical objects correspond to activities in the virtual world, or actions in the virtual world cause objects in the physical world to respond), and speech-based interactions.
While there have been projects investigating gestural, tangible and speech-based interactions, success has been limited. The underlying problem preventing significant progress in this regard is twofold. First, we lack a reasonable abstract framework within which to build, experiment with and validate new kinds of interactional modalities. Second, the development of such new modalities is an example of a wicked problem (Rittel 1973), where understanding a problem and solving it are inextricably intertwined. The only viable approach to dealing with wicked problems is to proceed bottom-up, with development of appropriate theory and validation through experiment proceeding hand-in-hand, each shaping the other. This is the approach that we plan to take in this project.
Approach
Our research will consist of three phases:
1. The first phase will be to observe and videotape how people interact with physical devices (tools, books, files, meters) and information technologies (desktop PC's with GUI's and PDA's) as they go about their daily work.
2. The second phase will involve analysis of these interactions using the method of Video Interaction Analysis (Jordan and Henderson, 1994). We will also draw upon frameworks from semiotics (Bruner, Peirce, 1931) (Nadin 1988), gesture analysis (MacNeil, 1992) and engineering design activity (Brereton, 1998, 1999) to develop a theoretical framework that describes the scope of interactions in physical space with physical devices.
3. The third phase will involve designing a prototype instrumented information environment to test and demonstrate aspects of the theoretical framework. This design work will happen in collaboration with our DSTC Ambience project in which we are designing a ubiquitous computing environment using location and context awareness and in collaboration with the Maestro gestural interface project currently funded by a UQ small grant, which is moving towards commercialisation.
Description of Personnel
The three chief investigators bring complementary expertise in engineering design, ethnography, video analysis, semiotics and computer supported cooperative work to this project. In combination, they have an ideal background for this project. The project will hire two Research Assistants, one of whom will be funded by an ARC PhD scholarship. One research assistant will be more device design oriented one will be more theoretically oriented.
Dr.Brereton will direct the project and is responsible for guiding the interaction analysis, interaction design and device design. Prof Kaplan will collaborate in structuring, analysing and interpreting the observational work. Dr. Purchase will guide the development of the theoretical framework in collaboration with Dr. Brereton. Collaboration in device design will also be sought from Electrical Engineering academic staff when needed.
The study design will be determined by the chief investigators, drawing on their prior experience. Recruiting of subjects and preliminary observation and interviews will be done by Dr, Brereton and Research Assistant 1. The study administration (collecting the data, organising the data, distilling the data, clustering the data, representing the data) will be done by the research assistant 1, under the direction of Dr. Brereton. The Video Interaction Analysis will be done by the entire team of CI's and the two research assistants. The informance design, interaction design and prototype design and development will be done principaly by research assistant 2 under the direction of Dr. Brereton. Information Environments students at University of Queensland will be engaged in Informance Design work as part of their Interaction Design studies. Research as-sistant 2 will be able to participate in a community of Informance Designers in order to ac-complish the informance design task.
Preliminary work being performed in 2001: A preliminary study is being performed under an Early Career Researcher Small Grant to Brereton titled "Developing a Theoretical Frame-work for Ambient Device Design"
Task 1: Organize prior research into a preliminary framework to develop an integrated method of representing what is known and a preliminary means of distinguishing interactions
Task 2: Videotape users in one domain
Task 3: Develop low fidelity prototype of ambient data gathering device and means of dis-play, that gathers data unobtrusively in a user environment. Test. Report results.
Work Plan for 2002: The major tasks to be performed in 2002 are:
Task 1:Observe and interview users in the domains to identify typical tasks and associated activities that they perform and to prepare for examining interactions in these activities.
Task 2: Videotape activity in three domains. Human subjects clearance will be secured
Task 3: Analyze videotaped activity in interdisciplinary teams using the method of Jordan and Henderson. Identify interactions and information contained in interactions observed. Note that this videotape analysis is very detailed work and that many viewings of a videotaped activity are necessary to identify all of the subtleties of an interaction.
Task 4: Document the observations and analysis of the interdisciplinary team and develop a framework to represent activity based on these observations. Compare this framework with the preliminary framework built from existing research. Present frameworks to the interdisci-plinary team for review and refinement.
Task 1A; Explore and test existing technologies and map onto preliminary theoretical framework. Begin design of testbed for prototype information environment.
Work Plan for 2003: The major tasks to be performed in 2003 are:
Task 5: Choose domain for informance design. Interview users about requirements and de-velop scenarios of use with users.
Task 6: Brainstorm, refine scenarios. Produce quick non-functional form mockups. Bodystorm and act with prototypes. Refine scenarios and mock-ups.
Task 7: Interview users about information appliance mockups and role play use of informa-tion appliance mockups in domains by walking through task scenarios with users. Refine sce-narios with users.
Task 8: Videotape scenarios. Analyse and characterise interactions. Map interactions onto framework.
Task 9: Write interim reports on theoretical framework.
Task 10: Refine user centered-design of information appliance mockups, developing instru-mented testable prototypes. These prototypes will be developed using user-centred design techniques but drawing upon existing technology.
Task 11: Detailed design of instrumented testable prototype information environments, in-cluding software, electronics and hardware.
Work Plan for 2004: The major tasks to be performed in 2004 are:
Task 12: Procure parts and build instrumented testable prototypes. Develop software.
Task 13: Demonstrate feasibility with alpha system.
Task 14: Test in user domain, videotaping activity.
Task 15: Test theoretical framework by examining videotape of augmented interactions.
Task 16: Write Final reports. Disseminate information about prototype information environ-ment and validity and usefulness of theoretical framework.
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