Template for report

For your report, please use the template (Word .dot format) that I've placed on the course website here. The template includes a number of styles for headings, paragraphs, etc. Please email me if you have any problems with this.

Multi Touch Table, by Microsoft

Microsoft Surface, looks neat

Will probably cost just under USD 10,000 when its out. Though it seems to be also tangible as well as just touch. Hence the name, "Surface".

Swales Introduction

Briefly Defined


Move 1. Establish field
– Assert centrality
– State current knowledge
Move 2. Summarise previous research
– Outline issues in literature
Move 3. Prepare for present research
– Indicate a gap
– Raise a question
Move 4. Introduce present research
– State purpose
– Outline present research





More Detailed

1. Understand the wider context and importance of the project


• State the general topic and make a claim about why it is important.


• Describe what is generally known about this topic.






2. Summarize previous research


• State the core ideas in the literature and structure them in a logical sequence.


• Draw conclusions from the literature review by summing up the relevance of the literature review for the project and listing the informed decisions that need to be made.






3. Prepare for the current research




• List the gaps. That is, given all the research reviewed in Step 2, what is left to be done? An accurate summary of this situation is one of the critical aspects of a project. Are there gaps related to an area that has not been studied, or to a new method that needs developing?


• List possible methods for addressing the gaps. For a large project, usually at least five different approaches are possible. Understanding the breath of questions that could be addressed is a major step in understanding why your project is addressing the gap that it is.


• Select a gap and a methodology for addressing it. A gap can be selected because new technology, theoretical tools or methods have recently become available. It can be constrained by length of time available for the project or by resources available.
  The gap is frequently large. By appreciating that many approaches would be valid, you can see what aspects you will be able to address with your chosen methodology, and what will be outside the scope of the project. Don’t confuse the gap with your research plan (which is the next Step). It is conceivable that someone else could address the same gap using the same general methodology but design a different specific plan.






4. Research plan


• State the overall goals and the specific aims of the research. In an empirical study, the hypothesis is stated here. Make the aims as specific as possible.


• Outline the methods to be followed. A timeline is frequently useful in this section.

Implications for Design

Implications for Design
Paul Dourish

In the article Dourish is discussing the balance between theory and practice and how the implications that this has on the design.
Although HCI has been merged out of psychology and IT over the years it has created its on identity, conventions and conduct to describe the research that is undertaken within this field.
Historical Context
• Ethnographic studies originated in the area of anthropology
• Dourish states that “ethnography advocates long-term, immersive field work combining observation with participation.”
• Two trends of ethnographic studies
o Computer-supported Cooperative Work as the area of inquiry
 Emphasis on the social organisation of the activity
o Participatory Design (PD)
 “For PD, ethnography may have been an expedient tool rather than an intellectually motivated approach.”

Marginalisation of Theory
• Ethnography is often used as term to mean an investigation that is open ended or qualitative
• Generally can answer questions about how technology is used in the field
• Dourish suggests that by viewing ethnography as a method it supports implication for design. As it will generate a different understanding then if you to do the test in a laboratory
• Anderson’s exploration of the relationship between ethnography and requirements
o 3 considerations
 1st – form of reporting
 2nd – particular rhetorical strategies
• Reveals conceptual organisation of cultural settings
 3rd – reflective character of ethnographic analysis
The study not only reflects the culture being study but also the culture in which it is being written for

Power Relations
• As the aim of ethnographic study is to have implications for the design
• This therefore suggests that there is a ‘end-point’ for the research
• UCD and HCI are the domains of the study
• The main information gained from ethnographic studies is what not to build.

Technology and Practice
• Ackerman suggests that there is a “social –technical gap” which is suggesting that ethnographic studies look at where the technology is not in practice.

Summary Paper by Dourish

During the development of different intellectual disciplines there has been a certain way in which they conform to some kind of similar approach. The same goes for the scientific discipline and HCI in particular; conventions exist in the way in which we conduct and document research. When it comes to ethnographical studies meeting HCI it is very common for the ethnographical field results to be solely used as a way for finding “implications for design”. This is a misperception of the value of ethnographical studies, since it misses where ethnographic inquiry can provide major insight and benefit for HCI research (p. 542).

Ethnography is a sub discipline of anthropology, which itself arose during the colonial era of the Western civilization during the nineteenth century. Anthropology was mainly concerned with the activities of the cultures it studied, while ethnography focused on what the members of the culture actually experienced while acting the way they did. This was accomplished through daily participation in everyday life [p. 542]. Over the years ethnography proved to be useful to a number of different disciplines. For HCI it provided insight into the real-world, offering a description to the way in which technology was actually being used, through a number of different field techniques for collecting and organizing data (p. 543).

The thing is that ethnographic methods are purely seen as a methodological approach from which designers can deduct “implications for design”. By doing this, the actual theoretical and analytic value of ethnographic analysis is blocked and the way it provides benefit for HCI research is missed. The ethnographer is seen as a channel which conveys the observations to how they can be used in design, while it is so much more that has to be taken into account. It must be recognized that the gathered ethnographic data is a result of an encounter of the ethnographer with the subject under a specific setting and an analysis of the data with this in mind is what ethnography actually is.
Seeing the social discipline of ethnography merely as a way to pave a path towards design puts it away as less important and secondary to the scientific disciplines it is used for. Also, since the users of the eventual technologies are the actual creators of the meaning the technologies will have in practice, ethnography can be seen as a way to research how those technologies take on specific social meanings through their embedding within systems of practice (p. 546).

Ethnography has two ways of contributing; on an empirical level and on an analytic level. The empirical level describes the actual happenings while the analytic level encompasses the way in which something useful can be said about these happenings. The key is to find a connection to design at the analytic level instead of the empirical one. That is, to be able to appropriately compare methods and assess results (p. 548). As ethnography may play a large part in uncovering constraints and implications for design, it has an evenly great role in the way it shapes research and strategy. It provides a way of thinking.

Why Heideggerian AI Failed

On a bit of a tangent, but related to the phenomenological theories covered in Dourish's book, this paper isn't intended as a set reading, but rather as an interesting read for you (and something that should now be an easier read following what we've covered so far).

Dreyfus paper for presentation at KTH

Reading: Norman Chapter 3

The ways in which humans respond to the world are influenced by a number of different factors. In a commercial sense designers try to play a role in this, by designing products that appeal to people on a number of different levels that make up human user experience.

The first is visceral design. This level of perception has its roots in nature and the way in which we humans are biological beings. Over the years humans have evolved to pick up emotional impulses from the biological environment they live in. Bigger and more colorful are some features that get perceived as more appealing. Even now, we still look at products in a visceral, perhaps without even noticing it. The judgment of a product at the visceral level are made regarding physical features; the look, feel and sound a product has. It is up to the designer to make a product as appealing as possible by controlling these features.

Then we have behavioral design. The four components of good behavioral design are function, understandability, usability and physical feel. A product has to have a certain function and perform well according to what it's supposed to do. In this case it is important to understand how people will use a product. This can be quite difficult from a designer's perspective. When enhancing an existing product observing users could do the trick, but if the design is an innovative this can be tricky.
The design has to make the user understand how to use the product. This can be obtained by connecting the designer's intention of use to the user's understanding through the system image; the way the product actually communicates its way of use by its physical presence. Feedback giving the user information about the effect of his/her actions is of importance in making the product understandable.
The usability of a product is the ease of which it can be put to use. A well functioning and understandable product doesn't necessarily imply that it is has a high usability. It is how well the product performs when it is actually put to use.
The physical feel of a product is important because it connects with our inner world of emotion, how we experience things. Well designed touch and feel of a product can make it more appealing.

Reflective design covers the personal meaning a user will give a certain object due to cultural aspects or the message it sends out to other people. It is not about functionality, but about satisfying the emotional need people have; one of them being the establishment of one's self-image and one's place in the world (p.87).