"Pimp My Roomba"

Title: "Pimp My Roomba": designing for personalization

Author(s): JaYoung Sung, Rebecca E. Grinter and Henrik I. Christensen

Summary: The authors of this article did a study on the use of Roombas that were given to 30 people for 6 months, and they did some sub research on the concept of robot personalization while they were at it. Out of the 30 participants in the entire study, the only gave 15 a personalization toolkit, which included stickers (both basic and some not so basic) and letters and other things that they could attach to their robot, in addition to a couple of coupons that could be used to purchase a skin for their Roomba online. They frequently checked in with participants to see who would personalize their Roombas, and with what, and what effect it had on their experience with the product. It turned out that only 6 of the people who received a personalization toolkit took the time to actually apply stickers or letters, or personalize it at all. However, compared to the 15 that did not receive the toolkit, that is quite a large number, because none of those participants decided to personalize theirs. The effect of the personalization on those who did it was that they felt closer to their product, were more apt to keep it out instead of hidden, and more apt to use it.

Shaun's Opinion: I think this research is a good example of how manufacturer's can potentially benefit from making their products more customizable, either ordering it personalized, or adding a toolkit, like the author did. The benefit is that customers become more attached to their product, and potentially the brand name, making possible revenue from repeat customers a greater possibility. It is also interesting to see the kind of words used to describe the roomba after it has been personalized (like "part of the family", etc). People really view their personalizations as turning their roomba into a person, or maybe a dog.

CHI 2009: Movable cameras

Title: Movable cameras enhance social telepresence in media spaces

Authors: Hideyuki Nakanishi, Yuki Murakami, Kei Kato

Summary: The authors of this article attempted to show the effects that movable cameras might have in the teleconferencing world, and how distance to the person from the camera (of the person you might be talking to through a remote media session) effects how "realistic" the connection feels, and whether or not you feel like you are in the same room as the person. The authors often use the term motion parallax, I believe, to describe this effect. The authors basically set up an experiment where they would take students or other people on virtual "tours" through their robot lab, where they would have the presenter, or tour guide (who is also the experimenter), sit in a room in front of a tv with a camera, and continually cycle through 5 or so robots until the end of the tour, or experiment, was reached. The unknowing test subject would be guided through this "tour" of sorts, also sitting, or standing at different ranges, in front of a tv with a camera. After the experiment ended, the test subject would be asked to fill out a couple of questionnaires, telling the experimenters how real the experience felt, and if the changing distance from the presenter to the camera had any effect on the realism of the tour.

Shaun's opinion: I found this paper to be excruciatingly difficult to read, because the authors take a liberty in assuming the reader knows exactly what a motion parallax is, or what a media space is. They take no time to explain all the different terms that they use, leaving people ignorant of their field of work (like me) lost in the dark. After reading for a while I got the general sense of what they were talking about, but it is not reader friendly at all. Past this, however, the idea itself is interesting. Having a movable camera in a room, attached to a rod jutting out from the tv seems a bit impractical to me, but the implications that can be drawn from the experience it creates are interesting. If you approach a tv that contains the image of someone in a remote location that you are talking to, and the camera moves closer to the person, does it feel more realistic, like YOU are actually moving towards the presenter in the remote location? Most of the people who participated in the study said yes.

Part 1 "The Inmates are Running the Asylum"

Title: The Inmates are Running the Asylum

Author: Alan Cooper

Summary: For the first 7 chapters of the book, the author attempts to describe to the reader just what is wrong with most software that exists today. He gives us examples of how frustrating current software can be, and the reasons why software seems to follow a different production trend that does, say, construction. The author also describes the different types of people that use software, mainly discussing "the apologist" and "the survivor." The "apologist" in the context of the book is someone who enjoys using software despite the problems with interacting with it, due to the raw power that a piece of software might have. The "apologist" tends to accept poor software layout and frustrating design, and even boast about a piece of software, because of the potential power that it has, no matter how hard it is to use. The "survivor" in the context of the book is someone who is forced to use software, because of their job or another reason, but realizes how frustrating the software is to use, or blames the complicatedness of their interactions with the software on their own stupidity. The author also goes into detail describing current software implementation processes, and the main problem with it: No one thinks to design the software before implementing it in code. The author explains that software companies usually consist of businessmen and software engineers, who create a product that they would want to use, not necessarily what their customers want to use. They give no thought to hiring outside designers in order to facilitate their goals of increased sales due to user loyalty or pleasure with using their particular piece of software.

Near the end of the seventh chapter, the author begins to describe how programmers are different from most other human beings in the way that they view complexity. He says programmers tend to view complexity as a necessary obstacle in order to gain control, whereas the average human being would gladly relinquish control in order to avoid complexity. This attitude, the author says, gives the programmer "jock"-like qualities when it comes to the real world workplace, where mental creativity and strength are more highly valued, and where the programmer can truly take control again.

Shaun's Opinion: I thought that the first half of this book was a very interesting read, if a bit redundant. I can't really count how many times the author said something similar to "current software is implemented and not designed". I think most of what the author said is true of current software companies. The programmers tend to build programs around what is easiest to implement, not necessarily what is easy to use. And when their product fails, or gets beat out by the competition, they rarely give thought to poor design as the main cause, instead choosing to blame the lack of features, or some other irrelevant or potentially detrimental reason. I also thought the seventh chapter was humorous in that it felt like the author was attempting to establish dominance over the bullies in high school by elevating the programmer's mental capabilities to good height.

UIST: Predicting Tie Strength With Social Media

Article: Predicting Tie Strength With Social Media

Authors: Eric Gilbert and Karrie Karahalios

Summary: This article delves into the attempts by the scientific community to be able to evaluate "tie strength" (How close one user is to another, how much they trust someone) via certain variables that arise from interaction between the two users. With the rise in popularity of social networking, like LinkedIn or Facebook, the value of this research and its potential result, a predictive model for tie strength, has dramatically risen in recent years. The authors first describe the background of the "tie strength" concept, which originated in the 70s, and has only recently become more of a hot issue. The authors wrote the article in an attempt to gather some quantitative data about "tie strength" and perform a proof-of-concept, showing that the theory of "tie strength" is a relevant one to both individuals and businesses. In order to gather this data, they first identified a target social networking site, and they chose Facebook. They then combed through Facebook in order to identify certain variables that could be "potential indicators" of "tie strength". They found 74 of these variables, each within different categories of the "tie strength" concept, such as "Wall words exchanged", "Mutual friends", "Inbox message length", etc. They gathered data from these variables as well as from a questionnaire that was posed to 35 participants that were asked to participate in the research. The participants were given 30 minutes to answer the questions about as many facebook friends as possible. The authors then ran this data through their algorithm, and came up with results, both suprising and not suprising, about the predicted "tie strength" given by the algorithm, and the actual "tie strength" according to the participants. The study was able to come up with an 85% accuracy at determining "weak ties" (acquaintances, business associates) and "strong ties" (family, close friends).

Shaun's Opinion: The research done in this field by these two authors is pretty interesting. While I don't see much value in this research for me personally, I can see how it would potentially be useful to politicians, who want to get a message out to people of similar background, experiences, and viewpoints. I think the most interesting part of this whole study is the fact that the authors were able to identify 74 potential "tie strength" indicators, just in facebook alone. That is quite a staggering number to identify, I think if the task were given to me I could've come up with 10 or so.

UIST: "My Dating Site Thinks I'm a loser"

Article: “My Dating Site Thinks I’m a Loser”:
Effects of Personal Photos and Presentation Intervals
on Perceptions of Recommender Systems

Authors: Shailendra Rao, Tom Hurlbutt, Clifford Nass, Nundu JanakiRam

Summary: The authors of this article decided it would be interesting to study the problem of people "gaming" social networking sites in order to procure better responses from the algorithm that the website uses in order to match them up with other people, in this article it is specifically dating sites that get targeted. The authors created a website, devoid of everything except for a questionnaire, that would be used to gather information from participants in the study (56 people, avg age 20.2). However, the responses that the website provided were not at all dependent on the answers to the questionnaire that the participant provided. The goal was to study the different website features that would have an effect on whether or not a person would feel it necessary to "game the system" (change their responses to the questionnaire) in order to gain a better response from the algorithm's matched results. What the authors discovered was mainly that a small element, such as the user's personal profile picture being displayed while the questionnaire was being taken, had a large effect on whether or not the user would take to "gaming the system". If a user had a profile picture present while answering the questionnaire, they would be far more likely to refrain from "gaming the system".

Shaun's Opinion: A very interesting look into the human psyche, I think. While there was a LOT of statistical information provided here, which made the article very hard to follow unless you have a degree in statistical analysis, the end result was nonetheless very interesting. To be able to quantitatively measure the probability that a person would lie about themselves in order to gain better results from a dating website is very fascinating. I suppose looking at your own profile picture, or simply having it displayed while answering a questionnaire, gives people a chance to look at themselves before they decide to lie, and most people chose not to after being able to see their own picture.

UIST: Speech and Dialed Input in India

Article: A Comparative Study of Speech and Dialed Input Voice
Interfaces in Rural India

Authors: Neil Patel, Sheetal Agarwal, Nitendra Rajput, Amit Nanavati, Paresh Dave, Tapan S. Parikh

Summary: The authors of this article took it upon themselves to test out two different interfaces for providing agricultural information to remote farmers in India, most of whom were illiterate and had never used a PC before. The two different interfaces that would be used to provide agricultural information to the farmers were both phone systems, but one used speech recognition in order to navigate through a menu, and the other used dial tones. They took a mobile phone and a dialpad to several homes of the farmers who were to evaluate the phone systems, and took measurements of error rates, facial expressions that would indicate frustration, etc, and took a post-use questionnaire in order to gauge user enjoyment of the system.

Shaun's Opinion: The first thing that struck me about this article is how it is very confusing, right from the get go, until you stop and think about what they are saying. The authors provide very little background on the work they are doing, and don't even delve into the meanings of most of the acronyms they use. However, I do applaud their work for trying to find the most cost effective and easiest to use (especially among a less educated user base).

Robots and Magic Cards

Article: Magic Cards: A Paper Tag Interface for Implicit Robot Control

Author(s): Shengdong Zhao, Koichi Nakamura, Kentaro Ishii, Takeo Igarashi

Summary: To begin this article, the authors describe the fast moving progress of robots out of science fiction into the real world, and provide examples of robots that are already popular in society, such as the Roomba and the Scooba, which are two robots used to clean surfaces. The authors also describe various stories and folktales that talk of gnomes or magical beings doing tedious chores for them, like housework, while they are asleep or away from home. The authors then describe an idea they have come up with to abstract away the layer of complexity that exists when users are forced into interacting with robots in order to instruct them to perform tasks. The idea is to remove the person instructing the robot via button inputs and move it to a "Magic Card" system. The Magic Card system works by having various types of cards used that can be placed in areas or on objects, that instruct robots to do various things at various times, or to avoid certain objects while accomplishing other tasks. The user, which in this case is a typical male or female doing housework, would place a card such as "clean this room" and "at noon" in order to tell the cleaning robot to clean a certain area at noon. These cards could eventually be memorized in a certain order to allow repeated tasks to become simplified. However, due to the current state of robotics, the article mainly only dives into cards that can be read on the ground, and performed with robots that are currently capable of doing ground-level chores, like vacuuming. The authors did a study in which they paid participants to give them feedback on their system, finding that there was very little confusion with the cards, and almost all of the participants were excited about the idea of the simplicity of having robots do chores while they were away simply with cards.

Shaun's Opinion: Kudos to the authors for their very creative method of abstracting the layer of complexity of robotics away from the end user, especially the elderly or disabled. This idea could save quite a bit of time for most people, if they were able to get things done while away simply by purchasing some robots. The card system is a very good one, with simplified tasks in an easy human readable form such as "clean this room at noon". However, the tag system itself seems to create a bit of tediousness in its implementation. In order to perform a task, the human user must create all of the tags and place them in the appropriate spots. For instance, the authors describe a system where the users could place tags on objects they wanted to be moved to a single location. The system, in this case, requires the user to go to each one of the items and "tag it" to be picked up, when the user could probably have just done it themselves in the same amount of time. Not to mention leaving these tags all over the place in your home seems to create a mess of its own. However, the possibilities that arise from an idea such as this have great commercial potential, especially if the interaction between users and robots could be simplified to make it available to a wide range of people, technical-savvy or not.

Book Review: The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman

Summary: The book "The Design of Everyday Things" by Donald A. Norman attempts to explain some of the problems that consumers, well just people in general, have with the products they use on an everyday or a not-so-everyday basis. The book describes (with the help of several real world stories) frustrations that people have with items they find around their home that are used everyday (Ex. Light switches, oven burner controls), items outside the home that are frequently used (Ex. their car), or items found at work (Ex. their work telephone, or computer). The book also describes frustrations with items that are found everywhere, like doors. After initially describing a lot of the issues that people have with these items (along with some hilarious or disastrous consequences), the book attempts to break down the mental functions that most normal human beings use to interact with these items, like memory, visual signals, or auditory signals. The book also goes into detail some of the behaviors, external or internal, that contribute to certain design decisions, whether it be good or bad. The author describes the difficulties that are encountered by designers, whether it be from figures of authority, third party interests, or flaws with the design process that are initiated, perhaps unknowingly, by the designer themselves.

Shaun's Opinion: While I thought this book was a tad lengthy, and perhaps a bit too wordy, it does a great job of pointing out the "obvious" factors that influence human interaction with products and the thoughts that may be occuring in the designers of the products themselves. The author frequently mentions considerations that must be taken during design that would seem obvious to most people, but over time some of these considerations have been lost to other outside influences, such as cost or aesthetics. Some of the stories in this article were pretty funny, such as the man with a degree in engineering who can't operate his own laundry machines. There were also a few that were eye opening, such as the many descriptions of the airline accidents that occured due to poor design. The author, to his credit, is very thorough and exhaustive of all the issues surrounding product design, but it also comes at a price. I felt like the author was being far too wordy for simple issues that he was trying to convey, or that he would frequently refer to other design flaws while explaining another, and that it was distracting. There is a lot of information that he covers, and it seems a bit chaotic at times during the book.

Ethnography Idea

I will be working with John Farst on his ethnography idea, which is posted here:

JD's idea