Title: COMP3501/7904 Lecture 1
1COMP3501 Social Aspects of HCI Designing for
Collaboration and Communication. Affective HCI
and emotional design. Prof P M
Sanderson (Based on Chs 4 and 5, Preece et
al.,2002)
2Overview
- Social aspects of human interaction
- Conversation
- Coordination
- Awareness
- Designing collaborative technologies to support
the above. - Computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) and
ethnography. - Affective HCI and emotional design.
3Social aspects of human interaction Conversation
- Formal
- People have specific roles which constrain
turn-taking - e.g., board meeting.
- Informal
- Take place in a wide variety of settings
- Facilitated by physical proximity, gesture and
posture.
4Social aspects of human interaction
Conversational rules
- Turn-taking to coordinate conversation
- A Shall we meet at 8?
- B Um, can we meet a bit later?
- ------------------
- A Shall we meet at 8?
- B Wow, look at him?
- A Yes what a funny hairdo!
- B Um, can we meet a bit later?
- Back channeling to signal to continue and
following - Uh-uh, umm, ahh
- Farewell rituals
- Bye then, see you, yeah bye, see you later.
- Implicit and explicit cues
- e.g. looking at watch, fidgeting with coat and
bags - Explicitly saying Oh dear, must go, look at the
time, Im late
5Social aspects of human interaction What happens
in technology-mediated conversations?
- Do same conversational rules apply?
- Are there more breakdowns?
- How do people repair them?
- Phone?
- Email?
- Instant messaging
- SMS texting?
6Supporting conversations
- How to support conversations when people are at
a distance from each other - Many applications have been developed
- Email, videoconferencing, videophones, computer
conferencing, instant messaging, chatrooms,
collaborative virtual environments (CVEs), MUDs,
MOOs, media spaces - How effective are they?
- Do they mimic or extend existing ways of
conversing?
7Conversational coordinationHydra
- Designed to capture spatial cues of gaze, head
turning, gaze awareness and turn taking that are
found in face-to-face meetings. - Preserve spatial relationships "around the
table.
Designer John Arnott http//www.dgp.toronto.edu/OT
P/TPHomepage/Toys/16.jpg
HCI developer and tester Abi Sellen
8Conversational coordinationHydra
- Sellen (1992) tested peoples ability to conduct
conversations with the Hydra system compared with
the conventional quad or four-quadrant display. - Hydra system arrangement was the only arrangement
of sound and images that supported parallel
conversations. - Hydra system preserved direction of eye gaze,
making it possible to form subgroups within the
larger group.
9ConversationsWill video succeed on mobile
phones?
- Will judder, sudden jerks and shadowsdisappear?
- Can people establish eye contactand read lips on
such a small image? - Is it socially acceptable to talk to an image of
someone in the palm of your hand?
10New forms of interaction
- Move beyond trying to support face-to-face
communication to new ways of interacting and
talking - Examples include
- SMS texting via mobile phones
- Online chatting in chatrooms
- Collaborative virtual environments
- Media spaces
11ConversationsCharacters in collaborative
virtual environments
The rooftop garden in BowieWorld, a Collaborative
Virtual environment (CVE), supported by
Worlds.com. Users take part by dressing up as
an avatar. There are 100s of avatars to choose
from, including penguins and real people. Once an
avatar has entered a world they can explore it
and chat to other avatars.
12Hypermirror(Morikawa and Maesako, 1998)
- Allows people to feel as if they are in the same
virtual place even though in physically different
spaces
People in different places are superimposed on
the same screen to make them appear as if in same
space.
Woman in white sweater is in a different room
from the other three
13HypermirrorCreating personal space
They move apart to allow person in other real
space more virtual personal space.
Two people in this room seem to be invading the
virtual personal space of the other person by
appearing to be physically on top of them.
14HypermirrorEveryone happy
15Social aspects of human interaction Awareness
- Involves knowing who is around, what is
happening, and who is talking with whom - Peripheral awareness
- Keeping an eye on things happening in the
periphery of vision - Overhearing and overseeing - allows tracking of
what others are doing without explicit cues
16Social aspects of human interaction Awareness
Clearboard (Ishii et al, 1993)
- ClearBoard - transparent board that shows other
persons facial expression on your board as you
drawleads to better, swifter, coordination. - Development of ClearBoard from early prototypes
to current form discussed on http//web.media.mit.
edu/ishii/CB.html. See further examples plus
videoclips of ClearBoard in use at
http//www.wtec.org/loyola/hci/c3_s1.htm
http//www.ntticc.or.jp/Calendar/2000/Tangible_Bit
s/Works/clear.html
http//www.hitl.washington.edu/publications/r-98-3
6/Image276.gif
17Social aspects of human interaction Awareness
Clearboard (Ishii et al, 1993)
http//www.wtec.org/loyola/hci/fh3_3b.gif
18Social aspects of human interaction Awareness
Portholes (Xerox PARC)
- Regularly updated digitized images of people in
their offices appeared on everyones desktop
machines throughout day and night. - One of many attempts in the 1980s and 1990s to
provide media spaces that aided communication
while preserving privacy.
19Social aspects of human interaction Awareness
VideoWindow system (Bellcore, 1989)
- A shared space that allowed people 50 miles apart
to carry on a conversation as if in same room
drinking coffee together via 3 x 8 ft
picture-window - People did interact via the window but strange
things happened (Kraut, 1990) - Talked constantly about the system
- Spoke more to people in the same room
- When tried to get closer to someone in other
place had opposite effect - went out of range of
camera and microphone - Between 2 and 3 times less communication than
when co-located.
20Social aspects of human interactionEntry into
personal space
- People approaching electronically do so via a
monitor and speaker mounted above the door (inset
on right image). - Same social conventions are used for both
physical and electronic visitors. (Buxton
website) - Video Surrogate principle
- Don't think of the camera as a camera. Think of
it as a surrogate eye. Likewise, don't think of
the speaker as a speaker. Think of them as a
surrogate mouth (Buxton website)
21Social aspects of human interaction Coordination
- Coordination takes place when a group of people
act or interact together to achieve something - Coordination mechanisms
- Verbal and non-verbal communication
- Schedules, rules and conventions
- Shared external representations
- Pilots in cockpit
- Conventional cockpit cues to mental activity
from location of physical activity - Glass cockpit cues to mental activity less
available from locationtends to all be in same
place (CRT or MFD). - Ground operations control rooms
- Monitor others activities
- Adjust own actions appropriately to achieve goals
22EthnographyDefinition
- For some, the term ethnography is loosely applied
to any qualitative research project whose purpose
is rich description. A more precise definition,
rooted in ethnography's disciplinary home of
anthropology, is a qualitative research process
and product whose aim is cultural interpretation.
The ethnographer goes beyond reporting events and
details of experience and works to explain how
these represent the webs of meaning in which we
live. - http//labweb.education.wisc.edu/cni916/def_eth.
htm
Lucy Suchman Cultural anthropologist and
ethnographer of the workplace http//sln.fi.edu/tf
i/exhibits/bower/02/ccscience.html
23Ethnography and design
- Conducting an ethnographic study is one of the
main ways to inform the design of collaborative
technologies that take into account social
concerns. - An ethnographic study is a type of field study
involving observation of people as they engage in
work and/or collaborative practices. - Home, public place, school, work, etc.
- Ethnography can be used to inform the design of.
- Specific products for specific workplaces
- New generic technologies
- Ethnography may be used to analyse problems with
existing interactive technologies.
24Affective computing and emotional designOverview
- Expressive interfaces
- how the appearance of an interface can elicit
positive responses - Negative aspects
- how computers frustrate users
- Anthropomorphism and interface agents
- The pros and cons
- Designing synthetic characters
25Positive affect makes us smart Norman
(2003) http//www.jnd.org/dn.mss/Emotion-and-desig
n.html
- Affect makes us smart that's the lesson of my
current research into the role of affect. - Negative affect can make it harder to do even
easy tasks positive affect can make it easier to
do difficult tasks. - This may seem strange, especially to people who
have been trained in the cognitive sciences
affect changes how well we do cognitive tasks?
Yup.
26Subtle effect of aesthetics and affectNorman
(2002) http//www.jnd.org/dn.mss/Emotion-and-desi
gn.html
- In the early days of the personal computer, all
the display screens were black and white. When
color screens were first introduced, I did not
understand their popularity. ... From a cognitive
point of view, color added no value that could
not be provided with the appropriate use of
shading. But businesses insisted on buying
color monitors. Obviously, color was fulfilling
some need, but one we could not measure. - In order to understand this phenomenon, I
borrowed a color display to use with my computer.
After the allocated time, I was convinced that my
assessment had been correct -- color added no
discernible value for everyday work. However, I
refused to give up the color display. Although my
reasoning told me that color was unimportant, my
emotional reaction told me otherwise. - I can hear it now "Hey, Norman says it's OK to
be pretty," and off people go, feeling free to
ignore decades of work by the usability
community. That's the wrong lesson to learn from
this essay.
27Affective aspects
- HCI has generally been about designing efficient
and effective systems (efficient effective
satisfying) - Recently, move towards considering how to design
interactive systems to make people respond in
certain ways (satisfying fun enjoyable) - Some evidence that affective aspects affect the
perceived usability of an interface - People are prepared to put up with certain
aspects of an interface (e.g. slow download rate)
if the end result is very appealing and aesthetic - Some evidence that affective aspects do not
affect consciously judged usability as much as
previously thought.
28Friendly interfaces
- Microsoft pioneered friendly interfaces for
technophobes - At home with Bob software - 3D metaphors based on familiar places (e.g.
living rooms) - Agents in the guise of pets (e.g. bunny, dog)
included to talk to the user - Supposedly make users feel more at ease and
comfortable - Users have created emoticons to compensate for
lack of expressiveness in text communication - -) -) -(
29Negative affectUser frustration
- Many causes
- When an application doesnt work properly or
crashes - When a system doesnt do what the user wants it
to do - When a users expectations are not met
- When a system does not provide sufficient
information to enable the user to know what to do
- When error messages pop up that are vague, obtuse
or condemning (see Shneidermans guidelines in
text) - When the appearance of an interface is garish,
noisy, gimmicky or patronizing.
http//www.usabilitypartners.se/news/2001/editoria
l11.shtml
30Anthropomorphism
- Attributing human-like qualities to inanimate
objects (e.g. cars, computers) - Well known phenomenon in advertising
- Dancing butter, drinks, breakfast cereals
- Much exploited in human-computer interaction
- Make user experience more enjoyable, more
motivating, make people feel at ease, reduce
anxiety
31AnthropomorphismShould computers say theyre
sorry?
- Reeves and Naas (1996) argue that computers
should be made to apologizeviz, as per human
etiquette - BUT would users be as forgiving of computers
saying sorry as people are of each other when
saying sorry? - How sincere would they think the computer was
being? For example, after a system crash - Im really sorry I crashed. Ill try not to do
it again - How else should computers communicate with users?
32AnthropomorphismWhich do you prefer?
- 1. As a welcome message
- Hello Chris! Nice to see you again. Welcome
back. Now what were we doing last time? Oh yes,
exercise 5. Lets start again. - User 24, commence exercise 5.
- 2. Feedback when get something wrong
- Now Chris, thats not right. You can do better
than that.Try again. - Incorrect. Try again.
- Is there a difference as to what you prefer
depending on type of message? Why?
33AnthropomorphismEvidence to support it as a
design goal
- Computers that flatter and praise users in
education software programs -gt positive impact on
them (Reeves and Naas,1996) - Your question makes an important and useful
distinction. Great job! - Students were more willing to continue with
exercises with this kind of feedback but they
sometimes can make people feel anxious, inferior
or stupid - People tend not to like screen characters that
say - Now Chris, thats not right. You can do better
than that.Try again. - Many prefer the more impersonal
- Incorrect. Try again.
- Studies have shown that personalized feedback is
considered to be less honest and makes users feel
less responsible for their actions (e.g.
Quintanar, 1982)
34Virtual characters
- Increasingly appearing on our screens
- Web, characters in videogames, learning
companions, wizards, newsreaders, popstars - Advantages
- Provide a persona that is welcoming, has
personality and makes user feel involved with
them - Disadvantages
- Lead people into false sense of belief, enticing
them to confide personal secrets with chatterbots
(e.g. Alice) - Annoying and frustrating
- E.g. Clippy
- Not trustworthy
- virtual e-commerce assistants?
35Virtual charactersSales agents
http//www.ncr.com/repository/case_studies/self-se
rvice/westpac.htm Bank customer interacts with
an ATM whose instructions are given by an
obliging female bank employee.
36Virtual charactersSales agents
- What do virtual agents do?
- Do they elicit an emotional response?
- Are they trustworthy?
- Is the style of interaction different for men and
womans clothes? - Is Miss boo.com believable, pushy, helpful?
- Would it be different if she was a male figure?
37Virtual characters
- Can be classified in terms of the degree of
anthropomorphism they exhibit - Synthetic characters
- Animated agents
- Emotional agents
- Embodied conversational agents
38Virtual charactersSynthetic charactersSilas
the dog
Autonomous, with internal states and able to
respond to external events.
(Blumberg, 1996 - MIT)
39Virtual characters Embodied conversational
agents
- Rea, real-estate agent, showing useran apartment
- Human-like body
- Uses gesture, non-verbal communication (facial
expressions, winks) while talking - Sophisticated AI techniques used to enable this
form of interaction
http//gn.www.media.mit.edu/groups/gn/projects/hum
anoid/index.html
Cassell, 2000, MIT
40Virtual characters Embodied conversational
agents conversation with Rea
- Mike approaches screen and Rea turns to face him
and says - Hello. How can I help you?
- Mike Im looking to buy a place near MIT.
- Rea nods, indicating she is following.
- Rea I have a house to show you. (picture of a
house appears on the screen) - Rea it is in Somerville.
- Mike Tell me about it.
- Rea looks up and away while she plans what to
say. - Rea Its big.
- Rea makes an expansive gesture with her hands.
- Mike brings his hands up as if to speak, so Rea
does not continue, waiting for him to speak. - Mike Tell me more about it.
- Rea Sure thing. It has a nice garden... etc
41Affective computingWhich are the most
believable agents?
- Believability refers to the extent to which users
come to believe an agents intentions and
personality - Appearance is very important
- Are simple cartoon-like characters or more
realistic characters, resembling the human form,
more believable? - Behaviour is very important
- How an agent moves, gestures and refers to
objects on the screen - Exaggeration of facial expressions and gestures
to show underlying emotions (cf animation
industry)
42Affective computingKey points
- Affective computing is are concerned with how
interactive systems make people respond in
emotional ways - Well-designed interfaces can elicit good feelings
in users - Expressive interfaces can provide reassuring
feedback - Badly designed interfaces make people angry and
frustrated - Anthropomorphism is increasingly used at the
interface, in the guise of agents and virtual
screen characters
43Affective computingInterviews, commentary
- Your textbook doesnt have an interview for Ch 5.
- Read the following online interview with Don
Norman - http//www.acm.org/ubiquity/interviews/d_norman_2.
html - Read obituaries for Clippy
- http//www.microsoft.com/office/clippy/
- http//www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/ptech/04/12/office.cl
ippy/
44END