Book Reading #31: Coming of Age in Samoa

Chapter 10: The Experience and Individuality of the Average Girl

Coming of Age in Samoa

Margaret Mead

Summary: In this chapter Mead discusses in depth the Samoan customs about sex, focusing more in the young (past poverty) girls than in the rest of society, but still explaining a bit about each age group. In the Samoan culture, children are exposed to situations like birth, death, and sexual relations, at a very young age; Mead states this fact does not seam to affect them in a negative, traumatic way. This is the first chapter were it seems like mead starts analyzing and explaining to the reader her own thoughts, rather than just the customs, like it is seen in the previous chapters.

Discussion: Like I said, I feel that this chapter is the very first one where she is able to present her studies in the girls, and give the reader an explanation about her findings. The previous chapters seemed to be aimed at giving the reader background of the Samoan society in order to better understand the meat of her studies. It seems to me that their view regarding sexuality is very different from what I expected - in America, at least that is my understanding, virginity was given much regard around those days. However, there is that big irony of how they do not express any signs of 'love' in front of others, but (1) there isn't much privacy around anyway, and (2) they do not give sexual interactions much regard any way.

Book Reading #30: Emotional Design

Chapter 3: Three Levels of Design: Visceral, Behavioral, and Reflective

Emotional Design

Donald A. Norman

Summary: In this chapter, Norman discusses the three levels of design: Visceral, Behavioral and Reflective. He goes more in depth of what factors are considered and affect these three levels of design. Visceral design consists of emotions, appearance, the first impression of an object. It is important because it hooks the user's attention, sometimes without knowing what the item really is or what it is for. Behavioral design is concerned with usability - basically the topic of The Design of Everyday Things. And finally Reflective design, which relates to our perspective to the product. How it affects our lives, culture and other factors may affect this level of design.

Discussion: It is a big change from the readings from The Design of Everyday Things, but at the same time Norman is integrating both sides of design, and understanding not only usability is important. "I want it, I don't know what it is, but I want it." I've heard this before, from myself and from others... my little cousins and their toys, they don't even what the toy is for, but they want it. Appearance. I do think that appearance is a major part of design, that is how users' attention is called in the first place.

Book Reading #29: Opening Skinner's Box

Chapter 8: Lost in the Mall

The False Memory Experiment

Opening Skinner's Box

Lauren Slater

Summary: Slater discusses experiments regarding memory. She presents part of the life of psychologist Elizabeth Loftus, how spent much of her career trying to demonstrate that fake memories can be created by suggestion. She wanted to prove this idea scientifically in order to help individuals she thought may be innocent about crimes that were supposedly committed years ago, and their accusations insisted they had just remembered about the event.

Discussion: I really don't buy the idea that you can forget some event if it was really traumatic, unless you are like really, really young. However, I don't understand how easily they claim that memories can be suggested and believed as if they were true, and how people would elaborate in the 'memories' as if they were true. If its not easy to forget, it should not be easy to manipulated into believing a made up story.

Book Reading #28: Coming of Age in Samoa

Chapter 9: The Attitude Towards Personality
Coming of Age in Samoa
Margaret Mead

Summary: In this chapter Mead introduces a few specific characteristics and words that describe the personality of Samoans. She opens the chapter by describing the musu attitude and a peculiar answer to questions that want to be avoided Ta ilo. Mead also explains the lack of privacy, and how this leads to much secrecy; she discusses how attitudes are describe by Samoans (very differently from Americans) and how are judgments made about people with different titles.

Discussion: It is almost expected to try to have some secrecy in a place where almost every aspect and action of an individual is public. I wonder if the size of the community would have something to do with that. I'm from a small town in Mexico, and I know what it is for a whole community to know and gossip about an individual's actions. However, by Mead's discussion, I get the feeling that their custom of knowing about everybody went much further than that of my home town's community.
In Mead's discussion about their choice of language when describing or judging attitudes, I get the feeling that their language skills were not very refined, or maybe some details got lost in the translation or interpretation, and that was the best way Mead was able to interpret her results.

Book Reading #27: Emotional Design

Chapter 2: The Multiple Faces of Emotion and Design

Emotional Design

Donald A. Norman

Summary: In the first part of this chapter, Norman discusses how the three levels the cognitive and emotional system work together to provide the user an overall experience of the product. He also discusses objects that evoke memories and the effect they have for example souvenirs and photographs. The feelings that design, marketing, and the use of products bring to individuals and how they change they way we think of ourselves. 

Discussion: Reflecting on the examples given by Norman, about the personality of items (video game consoles) and how the use of different things makes us feel (cake mix), and they are true. There are still many products that are designed and geared for only part of the population, but other people still use them. However, there are others that have changed. My computer is pink! Just like its cover, and my backpack! I usually don't like buying products marked with the "Just add water!" phrase because I think they are only for those who want to avoid the hazel of going through the process, and personally I don't think they taste the same way (I may be wrong).

Paper Reading #11: Eden: Supporting Home Network Management Through Interactive Visual Tools

Comments:

Shena Hoffmann

Zach Henkel

Reference Information:

Title: Eden: Supporting Home Network Management Through Interactive Visual Tools

Authors: J. Yang, W. K. Edwards, D. Haslem. 

Presentation: (Conference Paper) UIST 2010/2009

Summary: 

In today's world, network management has become a household task. There are many devices, including computer, printers, mobile devices, routers, etc., that people need to know to configure - which becomes a difficult task for those with no or little background in networking. For this reason, there is existing technology in the format of wizards or built-in tools that allow the user to set up all these configurations. However, they do not provide them with the knowledge necessary to understand at least the minimum of what is going on, they will eventually need this knowledge when they need to troubleshoot their systems.

In this paper, the authors introduce Eden. Eden is an interactive home network management system that allows for a direct manipulation and interaction from the user, but also provides an understandable model of what is going on so that users understand enough to create a mental model of their network flow. As mentioned before, previous research has developed useful tools for network management, however not directed to the household user, instead for network professionals. The tools that are targeted for home networks lack the characteristic of giving the user enough information to understand their network. There is only one system, Network Magic, that can be compared to Eden, however it lacks of direct interaction.

Screen shot of Eden's User Interface

Researchers first gathered data regarding the features households desired on their network management systems. Three main areas were discovered: membership management, access control and network monitoring, and QoS policy for bandwidth policy. Users want to be able to know quickly the status of their network and each device in it in order to make troubleshoot easier. Also, they want to have security - they want to make sure they are not granting access to all of their devices to guests as well as parental control for children. And third, they want their system to be up and running, and mainly their most important applications.

The result: a spatial + logical user interface giving users the ability to see what is inside their 'Home' network and allows them to group their devices in different 'Rooms.' This grouping can be useful in different ways, depending on the user's choice. The rooms could represent physically where the devices are, or maybe different configurations and settings  given to each room. Their system is also able to provide badges which represent the additon of settings, and provide useful information about each device. 

The system was evaluated by 20 participants of age ranging from 20's to 50's and with different kinds of backgrounds. Majority with technical background, but their knowledge about network management varied. Their testing was composed of two evaluations, conceptual, and functionality + usability evaluations. Researchers obtained positive results from the evaluations and expressed their desire to continue expanding this application. One feature they want to add is to make the system accessible remotely, maybe as a web application. 

Discussion:

I feel like my summary is really long, but I was trying to highlight the most important points about this development - and even then, I don't think I covered them all! This is a great technology, I think the user interface allows users to understand what is going on with their network, which will actually teach them at least the very basics of networking. I am one of those persons that will understand better if I put things on paper, maybe a drawing, or a sentence, or something... visualizing the network system will be definitely helpful.

This reminds me of the little mappings shown in the Windows Network and Sharing Center, the one that maps your computer to the network access, to the internet. Each component in the map as an icon that will help you understand and create a mental model of your internet connection. For example if something goes wrong, it will usually display a big X in one of icons indicating what went wrong.

Overall I think Eden is a great system to implement, and will definitively like to try it.

The Design of Everyday Things

The Design of Everyday Things

Donald A. Norman

Summary: In this book, Donald A. Norman introduces design concepts that are necessary to understand and follow in order to develop successful designs. Visibility, mappings, affordances, constraints, feedback, conceptual models, and design models are all important and throughout the book Norman discusses and gives examples how these can be use to develop great designs. Norman recognizes design is not an easy task and one of the main reasons is because designers have to meet the expectations of many, including the manufacture, the stores, and of course the customers.

As humans, sometimes we make ourselves believe certain misconceptions and erroneous ideas in the efforts of making out lives simpler. Many of us, at some point of our lives, have falsely blamed ourselves about not being able to use an object, when in reality the object has a bad design, and we are not the only ones having trouble with it. Another example is blaming the wrong cause for something else that happened just because one occurred right after the other. Norman explains we are explanatory creatures, thus we try to have an explanation of everything. He identifies the concepts of learned and taught to be reasons behind self blame. Norman also presents the Seven Stages of Action that individuals "use" when carrying out an action.

We make "mistakes" all the time. Norman discusses the relationship between errors and the design of everyday things. He differentiates between mistakes and slips - slips are errors in the execution of the action, we try doing something, but end up doing something else; mistakes on the other side are errors of though, we aim at an "inappropriate goal." Norman tries to give a logical explanation to errors. Norman then introduces the concept of tasks, and how there are part of our daily life; we don't really have to give them much thought before performing them. This leads to the discussion of conscious and subconscious behavior, where Norman discusses how humans react to explaining away errors; how social pressure can sometimes lead to mistakes; and how forcing functions try to avoid errors, but sometimes they are not designed properly.

Norman also relates design to knowledge. He makes the distinction between knowledge we keep in our minds and knowledge we keep in the world, objects we keep around us. Many expert typists cannot spell out the order in which the letters are ordered in a keyboard, and people that "memorize" poems do not really memorize line by line, but they have the ability to recite such poems thanks to constrains found in the lyrics. These are just examples of activities that we can perform, even though we do not have the detailed knowledge to reproduce the relating activity. According to Norman, the knowledge we keep in easier to retrieve than that we keep in the head; it is not necessary to learn what we keep in the world, but it is necessary to learn what to keep in the head and keeping knowledge in the head may be more efficient to use than that of the world, depending on the environment.

As mentioned before, designing is not an easy task. Norman explains the natural evolution of design, which is not always possible to obtain. He also claims designers put the aesthetic goals before usability and effectiveness, which is something he disagrees with. Another problem is that designers are not able to identify the flaws of their own designs. The reason being that they are not the typical users, they have worked on this design for so long that they think there is no ambiguity in its use. Also, the designer's clients are not the users of the designs, thus explaining the many factors that designers try to accomplish (marketability for example) before usability. Another problem is trying to design for everyone who can use a device, there are many special characteristics of users and one design alone cannot meet all expectations.

In the final chapter of the book, Norman summarizes and uses all the concepts discussed in previous chapters to provide designers with a set of seven principles that can transform difficult tasks into simple ones. Norman analyzes how technology and design affect society in both positive and negative ways, and reiterates the importance of good design. Norman advices designers to take the challenge of designing and analyzing designs, users to analyze design as well and congratulate those designers that are doing a good job developing usable and desirable products.

Discussion: I had never in my life read a book about design. It was really interesting to read about things that maybe I had though about before, but never really realized how significant they were. The examples and the ideas, I would read and say "that's so true!." Norman does a great job in explaining the psychology behind our behavior and how we interact with objects. His explanations about mistakes and misconceptions about how things work make a lot of sense. 

One thing I like about this book is that it can be read by anyone. It is written in an easy to understand and easy to read format, that gives not trouble when reading. Another aspect of the book that I found useful was how every chapter build on the previous one. The concepts introduced in the very first chapter are utilized in the last one in order to wrap up the book with a small guide designer can follow. 

Something I did notice is some kind of repetitiveness. I am not sure if it is because Norman expands on a small concept or because every chapter is linked to each other, but at times I just felt I was reading the same thing over and over again.

Overall, this booked changed my perspective about things, things we use every day. From the first chapter until the last there was always something new, a new concept to learn about. And I enjoyed seeing how Norman's methodologies show up on some other readings for this class and outside of class as well.

Book Reading #26: Opening Skinner's Box

Chapter 7: Rat Park

The Radical Addiction Experiment

Opening Skinner's Box

Lauren Slater

Summary: Slater relates research  done in the area of addiction. She first describes research where animals where caged and with doses of drugs at their reach where they on their own would press a button when they wanted to receive a doses. Alexander claimed the behavior of the animals was not due to a physical addiction, but that is more psychological since they were caged. With the help of other researchers, Alexander created a Rat Park, a "normal" environment to prove his point. In fact, the addiction of the rats decreased compared to those in the cages (even to a minimum). However, towards the end of the chapter Slater claims the Rat Park was not a "normal" environment, but a perfect one; one that humans will never be able to obtain on earth.

Discussion: I found the Rat Park idea quiet interesting, however I must agree with Slater that the Rat Park is not a normal environment at all! It was a perfect place, which does not exist for humans... If we were to live in a Rat Park - like for humans, then we would have no problems at all, our lives would be perfect! How does this relate to Computer Science? Well maybe it is telling us that we should be realistic, develop our technology to be used for the average environment, so that any user can find it effective and desirable, and not just wonder how perfect it would be if...!

Book Reading #25: Coming of Age in Samoa

Chapter 8: The Role of Dance

Coming of Age in Samoa

Margaret Mead

Summary: In this chapter Mead discusses the importance of dancing in the Samoan community. She describes it as a very unique activity where all the common customs seen elsewhere do not apply, instead, they are in the opposite extreme. Dancing allows children to show their 'education' and are able to display their skills and abilities without being criticized for trying to do better than others. Also, adults instead of scoffing children as usual, encourage them to dance, and sit back to allow them to be the main focus of the activity.

Discussion: I never imagined how different and relevant dancing could be for their society. Mead mentions the pride of the parents when their children are talented and skilled at dancing, how they cheer for them. I can relate this to our society, for example when parents go to see their children play. I think there is a lot of commonality between their custom about dancing, and our traditions at sports games.

Book Reading #24: Emotional Design

Chapter 1: Attractive Things Work Better

Emotional Design

Donald A. Norman 

Summary: In this opening chapter, Norman exposes the idea that attractive things work better, like the title says. He claims when a device is aesthetically more attractive than another, but both share the same functionality, users will prefer to use and will rate higher the one that is more attractive. He also discusses the three level of processing: visceral, behavioral, and reflective.

Discussion: I really enjoyed reading about aesthetic design from Norman's point of view, since in The Design of Everyday Things he completely ignored and even made it seem irrelevant compared to usability. I was curious about this change, so I skimmed through the prologue and found that Norman states he has actually changed his mind and now understands how important the aesthetic part is.

Ethnography Results, Week 3

Culture at Sweet Eugene's House of Java

Tuesday February 15, 2011

5:30-7:30pm 

Quantitative: 

All quantitative information is only taken from the spaces that I was able to observe from where I was sitting.

Totals for the evening:

Reading: 2

On Computer: 9 (4 Macs, 6 PCs)

Headphones on:4

Using phone at least one: 8

Electronic book: 1

Studying (w/wo computer): 22

Guys: 7

Girls: 16

Alone: 12

Groups of 2 or more:4

Were there before I came in, left while stay: 2

At 5:30pm there were 13 people sitting at the “Living Room Space”

At 6:00pm people have left, but others have come. 13 again, it seems to be the average

At 6:30pm 12 people…

At 7:00pm 10 people...

At 7:30pm 8 people...

Qualitative 

My location

Today I’m sitting at the ‘Big Living Room’ space. I was thinking it would be a good idea to observe each of the different spaces the coffee shop provides each time I come in so I can get a feel of the different environments patrons can obtain from each space.

This space has brick walls and painting hanging around, with arches and lamps sitting around. It certainly looks like a big living room... There are 7 sofas and around eight tables in the room. The tables can sit up to 25 people (with the chairs that were already in the room). Sofas invite patrons for reading or studying with few materials, a notebook, and/or a textbook at the most. Chairs and tables will more likely be used for studying with many things out, and maybe in a group.

It is a really quiet place; I see much more interaction in the middle room (where I was sitting last week). I suppose the students who choose this space know they can have a quiet reading time when they are here, however there are no written signs indicating it's a quiet area.  

The Employees

The employers seemed to be a bit more outgoing than last week. The service is pretty fast so there really isn't much time for more conversation. However, I did notice a patron who got there behind me, and as soon as he got there he was greeted by one of the employees. After that, I noticed the employee took his food to his table, and asked him if those were the chips he wanted, if not he could go and exchange them. I'm not really sure if that's how all patrons are treated by employees, I will try to observe and contract in my following visits.

The customers
All of the patrons who were sitting in this space seemed to be students. From now on I will refer to them as students. Majority of them were wearing comfortable cloths, shorts, t-shirts, tennis shoes - just like majority of college students dress to go to class at A&M. Only a few of the girls were wearing more dressy cloths, boots or dressy shoes. There was one girl that caught my attention she seemed to be very athletic - tall, slim, wearing athletic clothes and accessories including backpack, watch fluorescent green stripes tennis shoes, and even an athletic drink.

Students and Study Groups 
There were only four small groups (2) of students, and strangely enough, three of them sitting at sofas (contrary to what I thought) with some study materials out and they were all girls. Most of the time they were quietly studying or quietly discussing their studies. Again, this contributed to the quietness of the place... 

Studying alone

It seems like this space is heavily sought by students who decide to have some quiet time of reading or studying alone. Majority of the people that was there were by them selves. Four of which at some point were only reading. Two of them were studying with different study materials (other than computer) for example one girl got there and sat in one of the sofas and started reviewing flash cards. Another girl had her own mini white board where she seemed to be practicing some math related problems. The rest of the students, including me, had their computers out along with other study materials.

A Place of Meetings for the Education College

This week again, I saw the same lady I saw last week, but this time she was leading a meeting with maybe 15-20 girls in one of the smaller spaces (the one right across the counter, in the middle of the coffee shop). I asked my roommate, and in fact there was a schedule meeting for the student teaching girls.

Use of Electronic Devices while studying, an Aid or a Distraction?

As it is noted in the top quantitative data, this week I observed students who were using their electronic devices while at the shop. Even though I was in a very quiet area, almost every student that was there, took out their phone at least once, some of them more than once for sure. 

Only four people out of the nearly 22 that were present at some point, did not have a computer out while they were there. These students seemed to be doing readings or practicing problems (making reference to the girl with the mini white board). 

Surprisingly enough, not many students had their headphones on... maybe they did not need them since the place was quiet enough that allowed them to focus in their endeavors - I believe listening to the music you like can help you concentrate in whatever you are doing if you are in a crowded place. 

For the rest of them who did have a computer, only two of them I observed (besides me) did not have any other materials out, and to my surprise they both were girls, and they both sat at the exact same place (a sofa towards the back, of course one after the other one left). 

Only one girl was reading out of an electronic book, she did not have anything else out but the e-book device.

Paper Reading #10: Gesture Search: A Tool for Fast Mobile Data Access

Comments:

Jessica Gonzales

Comment 2

Reference Information:

Title: Gesture Search: A Tool for Fast Mobile Data Access

Author: Yang Li

Presentation: UIST 2010/2009

Summary: 

Mobile phones' power and storage capacity is increasing, however their accessibility to all this data is not as efficient. Just like personal computers, mobile phones' interfaces are not as efficient for searching data. This article discusses how touch screen gestures are being employed for the process of searching data. However, current gesture systems are somewhat inefficient, since users need to remember the shortcut gestures given to each file. Li discusses how Gesture Search provides a more efficient way to search data, by using shape writing. The user will only need to remember what they are searching for, and start writing part of the file name.

 

The author provides an example of how the Gesture Search system works. Besides looking at only the gesture characters entered, the system also considers frequency and search history when displaying the matching results (the order they are displayed matters).The author emphasizes this is not only a handwriting recognition technology, but it is couples with searching techniques.

Gesture Search allows for a maximized input area because it overlays the gesture input area on top of the results list. The system implements a mode less input, which means that the system is able to identify if the user is inputting a gesture, or trying to scroll or tap on the results list. In order to separate the GUI and the Gesture Systems, they had to study the difference between the touch traces between the two.

Gesture Search has already been implemented in Java using Android SKD 2.0. An it has been tested in various devices out in the market already. However, the developers did carry out a longitudinal user study with over a hundred mobile phone users before its release. In their study, they collected qualitative data by a user survey, and quantitative data by a log that would save data from each user. The studies revealed that users use this tool the most to find contacts,  instead of  music, applications, and web page bookmarks. Users noted the current way to invoke Gesture Search was not very convenient, and recommended a few ideas.

Discussion: 

The distinction made between gesture recognition only and search techniques is very important. I have only used gesture recognition before with the text input application my phone has, but I think the combination of both is a great idea. This is an interesting application, and the fact that they overlay the touch input with the gesture input is really appealing and it seems to be more effective than just being limited by an input space. Something else I liked was the search history feature and how it enhances the search.

Book Reading #23: Opening Skinner's Box

Chapter 6: Monkey Love

Harry Harlow's Primates

Opening Skinner's Box

Lauren Slater

Summary: Slater discusses the life and experiments of Harry Harlow. Her main topic is the experiments involving primates and the effects they had in the psychology field. According to Slater, Harlow was the first scientist who would make experiments about love (attachment, proximity, etc. were the words other scientists preferred). Harlow is described as someone cold, since his experiments could be seen as crude; however, his son describes him as someone who loved his family very much. The idea of animal cruelty is discussed, bringing the question of giving value or preference of human lives of animal lives.

Discussion: This chapter makes me reflect about the value that I give to animals' lives. When we were discussing the experiments done by Milgram, my position was that even though they provided useful information and advances in psychology, they were still wrong and unethical. It is wrong to play with people's feelings and mind sanity, much more their own physical health. However, when the ethical question about animal experiments was raised, my opinions and views were suddenly confused. If the life of a loved one could be saved by research done with animal testing, then I am for it. But it still makes me feel bad about myself, animals are also living things, and if we, humans, are so similar to primates, why are their lives values less? It is complicated!

Book Reading #22: Coming of Age in Samoa

Chapter 7: Formal Sex Relations

Coming of Age in Samoa

Margaret Mead

Summary: Mead describes how the attitude of little girls towards boys is first one of avoidance, however this changes a few years after puberty. She continues to talk about the recognized forms of sex relation, focusing in those outside formal marriage.Mead goes in much detail about the relationships between the unmarried young people.She also discusses their attitude towards virginity, which is not really relevant or required from girls of lower ranks. She also discusses the affairs about a wedding, and how in some cases chastity is important for taupo girls. 

Discussion: I must admit that the whole concept about virginity was really schoking for me. I thought it would be relevant and expected from all girls, not only the taupo. Their custom to ammend adultery is really unique and unexpected. I also enjoyed reading about their traditions for preaparing a wedding, the gift exchange process, etc. I think I was expecting something along those lines, not surprising.

Book Reading #21: Design of Everyday Things

Chapter 7: User-Centered Design

The Design of Everyday Things

Donald. A. Norman

Summary: In this chapter, Norman summarizes and uses all the concepts of previous chapters to provide designers with a set of seven principles that can transform difficult tasks into simple ones. Norman also analyzes how technology and design affect society in both positive and negative ways. The closing section to the chapter is the closing section to the book; Norman reiterates the importance of good design, advices designers to take the challenge of designing and analyzing designs, users to analyze design as well and congratulate those designers that are doing a good job.

Discussion: This last chapter was a good review of the book. It reminded me of the most relevant concepts, and with Norman refering back to the major examples used in the previous chapters, it was easier to understand how it all ties together. I also enjoyed reading the last small section of the chapters, which is the last section of the book... Norman encourage both, designers and users, to push for designs that will increase usability and effectivenes.

Paper Reading #9: Performance Optimizations of Virtual Keyboards...

Comments:

Jessica Gonzales

Adam Friedli

Reference Information:

Title: Performance Optimizations of Virtual Keyboards for Stroke-Based Text Entry on a Touch-Based Tabletop
Author: Jochen Rick
Presentation: Department of Computing. The Open University. Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK

Summary: In this article, Rick discusses his studies about enhancing and optimizing the performance of text entry on tabletops. He explains that even though a physical keyboard could be attached to such a device, it is impractical, it defeats the purpose of the interaction between the user and the tabletop. According to him, not much research has been done in this area, and his goal is to find a viable technique that will enhance the use of shape writing - stoking through all the letters in a word on a virtual keyboard - and how this technique is affected by using different keyboard layouts.

Rick provides some background about the history of keyboard layouts, how the QWERTY layout came about, and why it has stayed as the most popular and standardized keyboard layout internationally. As he discusses each of the layouts, he starts analyzing how stoke based entry text would work in such a layout. Much of the work that has been done in this area has been based on Fitt's Law. Rick implements a user study to investigate the role of distance and angle for a sequence of stokes. With the information revealed in this study, he is able to create a mathematical model. He then is able to apply this model, and in order to recognize a word from the sequence of strokes, he uses the list of 40,000 most popular words in the English, Project Gutenberg.The basis of his model were a three step stroke, a Beginning, Middle and End as it is shown in the picture below and it was based in calculations regarding distance and angle of the strokes.

He then evaluated his technique and how it performed when using it with different keyboard layouts. He finds that this technique has a gain in performance of 17.3% when used with the QWERTY layout, however there was a 29.5% gain in performance if using the OPTI II layout - much faster than QWERTY.

Discussion: I have heard of this kind of application before, but I have never tried it myself. Hopefully my next phone will have such an application. Even though I am so used to the QWERTY layout for both my computers and my phone, I think it would be interesting to use a different layout for a shape writing application. I think there can be a better mapping of words created specially for shape writing. Maybe one where the vowels are placed in convenient places, also where two letters that are not often used together are not placed together. As Rick explains, the QWERTY layout was first originated by placing letters that were often used one after the other in separate places to avoid mechanical problems. Now in this application it would be way more useful if those letters were placed next to each other, instead of in the opposite extremes of the layout. From a user's point of view, I would prefer something that look like the Hexagon OSK layout.

Book Reading #18: Design of Everyday Things

Chapter 6: The Design Challenge

The Design of Everyday Things

Donald A. Norman

Summary: In this chapter, Norman discusses the main challenges that design and designers face. He starts our by explaining the natural evolution of design, which is not always possible to obtain. Also, designers put the aesthetic goals before usability and effectiveness. Norman also notes that designers are not able do identify the flaws of their designs because they are not the typical users, they have worked on this design for so long that they think there is no ambiguity, etc. Also, the designer's clients are not the users of the designs, thus explaining the many factors that designers try to accomplish (marketability for example) before usability. Another problem is trying to design for everyone who can use a device, there are many special characteristics of users and one design alone cannot meet all expectations. Towards the end of the chapter, Norman focuses to the flaws and challenges on the design of computer systems.

Discussion: This chapter was extremely long, and I don't say it because of the reading load, but because Norman discusses so many ideas that it is difficult to summarize what the chapter was about in a short paragraph. I enjoyed reading the final part of the chapter where he focuses on the design of computer systems. I like how we are able to read and see connections between Norman's ideas and what we have read from the essays in HCI Remixed. The concept of "disappearing computers" shows up in this chapter as well, and Norman given a very specific example. Reading this chapter helped me better understand some of the previous readings.

Paper Reading #8: Planz to Put Our Digital Information in Its Place

Comments:
Jessica Gonzales
Kevin Casey

Reference Information:
Title: Planz to Put Our Digital Information in Its Place
Authors: W. Jones, J. Gemmell, D. Hou, B.D. Sethanandha, S. Bi.
Presentation: (Conference Paper)  CHI 2010. April 10-15, 2010, Atlanta, GA, USA


Summary:
This article explores and discusses the importance of digital space, the past and current research that has been done in this area and how there are opposing views about the topic. The authors describe some of the problems that user's have had with the storing of information in their digital space, including the fact that they rather navigate their file system instead of searching. Some researchers have concentrated their studies in exploring "placeless alternatives" to enhance the users' interaction with digital space, while others, like the application that this article describes, are trying to obtain a greater sense of "place" and "placing" of digital information that will allow the user to better interact with their file system.

Planz allows users to manage their file system through this document like overlay. When modifications are done through the file system they are reflected on Planz, and when they are done from Planz the file system is updated as well. They are able to create and modify projects from this document like planner, they are able to write notes on it as if it was a word document they are able to like folders, files, email, etc.

The testing was not very extensive, only eight people tried the application for a completion of a project. Basically they worked in two similar projects, one they managed with the tools they have used in the past, and one with Planz. At the end, they were interviewed and filled out a survey. The results were not very relevant, since like they stated they have been using their previous preferred tools for a long time so of course they find them beneficial.

Summary:
This is a very interesting project. I was a little surprised their testing methodology wasn't more extensive. Even for me as a student, I have so many files saved that I forget they even exist. I would really like to try this tool, it seems very promising, at least for me since I try to be very organized with my files. The integration of email to the organization system is very innovative for me, I hadn't heard of before... I'm not sure how I can relate email to documents or folders, but I'm sure that once having the functionality I would find an application for it. I'm still not sure how this document overlay would work, I mean does it cover the complete file system, or only projects that you create and attach or link files from the file system? Hopefully I get to read more about it, and try it out! 

While looking for a picture online, I found the website where Planz can be downloaded: http://kftf.ischool.washington.edu/planz_install.html
 
 

Book Reading #20: Opening Skinner's Box

Opening Skinner's Box

Lauren Slater

Chapter 5: Quieting the Mind

The Experiments of Leon Festinger

Summary: In this chapter, Slater presents some of the experiments and main concepts introduced by Leon Festinger. She focuses on his experiments about Cognitive Dissonance, and how individuals are willing to adjust their own beliefs for those that better fit or justify one's behavior. In a major part of the essay, Slater discusses her own interactions with a woman that fits the characteristics studied by Festinger and tries to understand if in reality she was interacting with a person reacting to cognitive dissonance.

Discussion: Lying for one dollar or lying for 20? Interesting experiment. Even though I don't know much about psychology, it makes sense that someone who lied for twenty dollars would accept it, but maybe those that lied for only one were ashamed of themselves and tried to justify it. In the Design of Everyday Things, Norman ascertains that humans are rational being, that we want an explanation for everything. I can relate this idea to the cognitive dissonance. If we don't have an explanation for something, we will try to adjust our ideas and beliefs to where they match, and maybe trying to give an explanation of something is what changes one's beliefs.

Book Reading #19: Coming of Age in Samoa

Chapter 6: The Girl in the Community

Coming of Age in Samoa

Margaret Mead

Summary: In this chapter, Mead discusses in further detail the type of society and titles that the highest ranking individuals in the community would hold, including younger and older men, as well as younger and older women; how these titles were recognized by the rest of the community members and visitors. Mead focuses on the role that the girl plays in society and how it relates to the rest of social groups. Overall, she explains that the titles hold by women and girls were far less relevant than those hold by the men.

Discussion:  Mead had already given us a hint about the role that women played compared to that of men. But in this chapter she goes into further detail. I am not completely sure why it doesn't surprise me the fact that a men organization would be given more importance than a women's. What does surprise me, and it is so ironic is the fact that the taupo, who is given such an honor of being the princess of the village, would still have to serve others. I think there is high complexity in their social organization, maybe even more complex than our own.

Ethnography Results, Week 2

Culture at Sweet Eugene's House of Java

Thursday February 11, 2011

5:30-7:30pm

Quantitative:

All quantitative information is only taken from the spaces that I was able to observe from where I was sitting.

Totals for the evening:

Order drink to go: 3

Purchased and stayed (at least an hour) 12

Reading: 2

On Computer: 9

Working with computer and book: 10

Headphones on: 8

Sitting alone: 14

Groups of 2 or more: 11

Visiting: 2

At the shop with no signs of consuming a product: 4

Qualitative

My location

Being this the first time I have ever been to Sweet Eugene’s I was a bit unsure where would be a good place to sit. I decided to go for the middle section. To my right I was able to observe the counter and the space that was between me and the counter space. To my left, I could the see two spaces, one that gave the impression of a big living room, and one towards the back with chairs and tables. In the space where I was sitting there were enough chairs for around 28 people and during the time that I was there, in that single space there were an average of 12 - 14 people.

The Employees

When I first came in, I dropped my backpack at a table and headed to buy some coffee… How could I be at a coffee shop and not buy something with caffeine! A Caramel Java Shake, LOW Fat! The interaction between me and the employers that were currently working the counter was minimum, however it seems like they were having an interesting conversation between them.. While I finished ordering and paying for my shake to the girl, the guy went ahead and started making it.  

I did not notice much interaction between the employees and the patrons when they came to deliver some food or pick up plates.

The customers

Students and Study Groups

To my right there were two girls with some mathematics books out, notes and a computer… they were sitting by the window and seemed really interested in what they were studying.

Another group of three students, two girls and a guy, were sitting by a window. They were studying something that to me sounded like anatomy or something along those lines… However, they were not as interested in their studying, since they had much conversation going, and not necessarily about they studies.

Two other guys called my attention. I think I’ve had a class with one of them. Both seem to be cadets. They both ate some sandwiches and chips; both with headphones on, and after eating they started studying, not much conversation going on.

Studying alone

Two more guys were sitting by a wall, each sitting individually with a computer and coffee by their sides. It seems that they enjoy being alone.

A girl came in after I got here, and left before I did… she was not here more than 45 minutes… She seemed to be reading an article while listening to something as well. A guy came in, bought some coffee and sat with here for about 10 min… finished his coffee and left. She started reading again, and then left. At first it gave me the impression they did not know each other but you never know!

Almost towards the end of my stay I saw two girls, who were also by themselves. Each one of them got there at different times, but they did sit close to each other. They were both reading with no computer out. I wonder if when someone comes in, and sees someone doing something similar to what they have in mind, would they try to sit close to that other person. I observed this behavior twice. One with these girls, and one when one of the two guys mentioned above left, another guy with a computer entered the shop and occupied the place of the guy that had just left.

A Place of Meetings for the Education College

To my left there was a student and an older lady. At first I thought it was her mom, but then I was able to over hear parts of their conversation. Apparently the student was an education major, maybe doing her student teaching semester. The lady was talking to her as a mentor, giving her advice of the better techniques to get the kids attention. How to better present/stand and talk in front of them; the younger girl seemed a bit worried… maybe she was having trouble with her class.

My guesses were pretty accurate. My roommate is an education major doing her student teaching semester, when I got back to my apartment I asked her if she had ever been to Sweet Eugene’s. To my surprise she says yes and explains that many of the meetings she has had for preparation for this semester have taken place there. 

A Place for a Korean Bible Study

To my great surprise, a friend of mine comes in to shop. I hadn’t seen him in while. He asks what I am doing here, so I said I was just doing some homework… If I would have said what I was really doing I would of being weird to explain… plus more than one would have heard me. Anyways, I ask him what is he doing there, and another surprise… He was here for a Korean bible study… Even though I did not observe many minorities at this place, it seems that it is a welcoming place for everyone. I mean, I’m a minority too… and I must say that I did not feel out of place or anything like that… sometimes I get that feeling from some places.

Thoughts for week #3

It was difficult to try to keep track of everything and write down observations. I have been thinking and maybe next week each one of us can concentrate in one aspect. For example, the interaction with employees, students with study groups, the use of technology while at the shop, etc.

Book Reading #17: HCI Remixed

Chapter 6: A Creative Programming Environment

Henry Lieberman

MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

D.C. Smith, 1977: "Pygmalion: A Creative Programming Environment."

Summary: Lieberman discusses how the discovery of a not highly published thesis opened many doors to important advancements in the fields of computer science and human-computer interaction. Lieberman as a researcher was interesting in finding new creative ways of making computer programming available for younger generations. Smith's thesis provided him with the foundations and ideas he was looking for in order to gear his research towards this creative way of programming.

Discussion: I think it is amazing how such an application like Pygmalion and the ideas behind it, though not successful, they did inspired and provided the basis for such an important aspect of computer science. More than often we find out that what we less think would be meaningful is what gives us the greatest benefits. It is always interesting to learn about the history of computing overall, this is not something we learn in the classroom.

Chapter 7: Fundamentals in HCI: Learning the Value of Consistency and User Models


Sara Bly
Sara Bly Consulting, Oregon, USA

The  Xerox Red Book: Star Functional Specification, Revision 5.3 for Star-1 1981.

Summary: Sara Bly discusses the impact the Xerox Red Book has had on her research, and on the study and design of user interfaces throughout time. The Xerox Red Book is a functional specification about the user interface implemented for the first Xerox Star workstation. Bly discusses three aspects of the Xerox Red Book that have had the most impact on her: UI specification, consistency and the desktop metaphor.

Discussion: One observation that Bly made and that definitively called my attention was the fact that they were giving user-interfaces a high level of priority, even before developing the workstation itself. Also, it was interesting to read about the first computer that was designed with the intent of aiding office workers... I can see the importance of HCI in this chapter, developing a workstation that would be useful and efficient, that would provide a positive change to workers, for example the undo capability, that a read desk/office environment cannot provide.

Chapter 9: The Disappearing Computer

Norbert A. Streitz
Fraunhofer IPSI, Darmstadt, Germany

M. Weiser, 1991: "The Computer for the 21st Century."

Summary: Streitz provides an overview of the movement encouraging the "disappearing" of computers for the 21st century. By 'disappearing,' they mean integrating computing technology to everyday things to the point that the presence of such technology is irrelevant, but the benefits it provides is the important aspect.  The basis for this revolution came along with a prediction given by Weiser in 1991, "the most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it."

Discussion: This is a whole new concept to me. I had never heard of such an effort to 'disappear' computers, but it was really interesting and convincing to read about. Today, there are 'computers' embedded in everyday objects, that we as users, do not really think of as a computer. If I would of read this chapter before readings from the Design of Everyday Things (Norman), maybe the understanding of this chapter would have been l
limited. 

Chapter 10: It Really Is All About Location!

Anind K. Dey
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

R. Want, A. Hopper, V. Falcao, and J. Gibbons, 1992: "The Active Badge Location System"

Summary: Dey discusses the importance and widespread of location-based services and applications. She gives an overview of the research done with the Active Badge location system in the early 1990s at Olivetti Research and how it improved their daily activities at the research center. Dey sees this research as the basis of location-based services and sees it as a predecessor of all the LBS services we have available today.

Discussion: The research done with the Active Badge was definitely impressing. However, when I was reading about it I was wondering in the back of my mind about the privacy issues that this could rise. I was glad they did discuss at least briefly this issue at the end of the chapter. Also, I like to see how all these chapters relate to each other, they mention researches that are discussed previously. I think this is a great way to learn about these people and at least be able to recognize and know a little bit of their contributions to the field of computer science.


Chapter 46: The Essential Role of Mental Models in HCI: Card, Moran and Newell

Kate Ehrlich
IBM Research, Cambriedge, Massachusetts, USA

S.K. Card, T. Moran, and A. Newell, 1983: The Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction


Summary: In this chapter, Ehrlich analyzes how different fields of study contribute to HCI, emphasizing in psychology. She discusses the role Mental Models play in HCI, for both design and usability enhancements. She makes reference to the book Card, et al  published in the early 1980's and how it can still be applied today. 

Discussion: I think this chapter really emphasizes the multidisciplinary characteristic of HCI. It is interesting to learn about the controversy that is raised by this combination of fields. From the readings that we have had in this class and the conclusions that I have been able to draw, I can say that the contribution of all these fields is necessary in HCI, and HCI itself is really important for the field of computer science. It is really important to study how well or how bad designs are, the ultimate goal is to provide users with effective, usable and desirable technology, like Norman emphasizes as well in his books.


Chapter 47: A most Fitting Law

Gary M. Olson
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

P.M. Fitts, 1954: "The Information Capacity of the Human Motor System in Controlling the Amplitude of Movement."

Summary: Olson shortly discusses the life and works of Fitts and its impact in the Psychology field as well as HCI.  Olson focuses his discussion  in the movement law that Fitts developed and how it has been applied in HCI in things like the value of the edge of the screen, the pop-up menus, selecting from a pop-up menu, fittsizing a menu, organization of walking menus and expanding items as you move toward them. 

Discussion: Even though the reading about how this formula has impacted HCI and UI is well explained, I still found it a bit confusing to understand. I like how in previous chapter we read about the importance of all these fields that affect the computer science field, and then in this one we see how mathematics, which is something we haven't discussed in this class before, has affected HCI as well.