UCD Project News Edition 23, May 31, 2004
UCD Project News is a fortnightly e-newsletter devoted to increasing
awareness of user-centred design (UCD) principles and contributing
towards a culture of UCD within the Smart Internet Technology CRC.
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In this issue:
1. Supriya: Looking Ahead
2. Project Highlight: Multiplayer Gaming
3. UCD Researchers Wow ‘Em in Griffith
4. In Focus: DRM & The Free Trade Agreement
5. Upcoming Conferences & Calls for Papers
6. Useful Links & References
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1. Supriya: Looking Ahead
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This is an in-between time. We are engrossed with our linkage and
methodology work. We are also deepening our user studies. At the
same time, RAC gave us the opportunity for looking ahead. Dr Paul
Turner and I visited Griffith to meet with our UCD team members
to have some relationship time, but also to work out what is exciting
us in UCD. Liisa and her team as always made us feel welcome and
created an atmosphere where we could delve into our wish lists.
One of the things we decided we would do is to develop a UCD methodological
tool kit. Many of us now can draw on our experience in working with
technologists and our corporate partners. Combining this with our
backgrounds in the social and information sciences, we are in a
good position to speak of ways of dealing with the challenges of
some stages of UCD.
Supriya
Assoc Prof Supriya Singh,
Project Leader
supriya.singh@rmit.edu.au
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2. Project Highlight: Multiplayer Gaming
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This project, titled “Immersive Audio Communication For Massively
Multiplayer Games”, is a collaborative Smart Internet project
that will develop the immersive communication service for a multi-player
game.
The first stage will involve researchers from the Smart Networks
program, User Environment program (UCD team based at University
of Tasmania) and Telstra’s Broadband Laboratory. The team
will explore existing modes of communication in the multiplayer
online gaming environment and conduct a series of user studies to
identify the benefits, potential difficulties and opportunities
for immersive audio. The outcomes of the user and interface studies
will be to build a set of personas and scenarios to aid the development
of the immersive audio environment.
The second stage of the project will assess the technology with
selected gaming enthusiasts in the Launceston area. Telstra’s
Broadband Laboratory has already identified over 180 individuals
who have indicated interest in the online gaming arena. It is expected
that the broadband multi-player gaming trial will run over several
months to evaluate the technology. The trial will provide an evaluation
of the technology and key insights into the value proposition, feasibility
and the potential end user market for immersive audio technologies.
For further information about the Multiplayer Gaming project, please
contact Paul Turner at: Paul.Turner@utas.edu.au
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3. UCD Researchers Wow ‘Em in Griffith
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The UCD team at Griffith University enjoyed two great days with
Supriya Singh and Paul Turner on May 20 21, 2004. There were lots
of reflective as well as forward thinking discussions about UCD
project activities. The outcome was a set of excellent ideas on
directions for collaboration and integration of our research for
the next year. Collaboration in relation to SMEs has taken new strength
with a focus on innovative technology adoption, a meeting place,
and a methodological toolkit that allows visualisation of user studies,
enabling the selection of the most appropriate UCD methodology.
Work has commenced on papers regarding cross cultural aspects of
technology use. New research directions were discussed with Abdul
Sattar, Director of the newly established Category A Institute for
Integrated and Intelligent Systems (IIIS). Professor Sattar is very
supportive in suggesting new, productive ways to engage Griffith
University researchers in Smart Internet activities. The IIIS is
our main sponsor of the upcoming QualIT Conference to be held at
Griffith University 24 26 November this year (http://www.gu.edu.au/conferences/qualit2004).
It is hoped that the conference will be a “meeting place”
for Smart Internet researchers to share their qualitative research
experiences within their projects.
The staff research seminar on May 20 was a huge success with good
feedback from other staff who appreciated the opportunity to learn
about the Smart Internet UCD Project through presentations from
Supriya, Paul, Liisa von Hellens, and Gunela Astbrink, in a session
chaired by Rene Hexel. Particular comments included “The seminar
was really well organised and run, with room for four presenters
and a moderator, and still time for discussion!” A/Prof David
Billington and “The presentations left me in awe of these
people. I found that everyone had very different academic backgrounds,
which is really interesting, yet here they were working together
on joint projects under the authority of the Smart Internet. After
the research lunch I found that the UCD project made sense to me,
as it related to my work and study in a complex University environment
and also related to my personal interests. I viewed the research
being undertaken as significant because there are potential commercial
applications for products that actually meet user requirements and
not the other way around, in that users normally must meet the user
requirements of the products. I found that although I knew academic
staff in the School were working on Smart Internet projects, I had
no idea how broad the CRC is and how many projects were underway”
Karen Guest (School Admin Officer).
About 50 people attended, including honours and postgraduate students
and academics from a range of IT disciplines including AI, software
engineering, mathematics and computer science. The turnout was 2.5
times than usual which was encouraging. Well done to all involved!
Liisa von Hellens, Jenine Beekhuyzen & Michelle Morley
Griffith University
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4. In Focus: DRM & The Free Trade Agreement
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Professor Margaret Jackson gave a presentation at this month’s
RMIT UCD Symposium on the impact of the Australian and United States
Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) copyright provisions on Australians.
Margaret said there is potential for AUSFTA, if implemented, to
lead to a reduction in the rights of individuals and other copyright
users. This is through a narrowing or removal of some existing rights
and an increase in the cost of being able to access copyright material.
The benefits to Australian society of adopting the AUSFTA are not
immediately apparent.
The Australian and United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) contains
a strong focus on intellectual property issues, particularly in
the digital copyright area. AUSFTA was signed by both countries
on 18 May 2004 but this signing does not mean that the Agreement
becomes legally binding in either country. It will only attain legal
status when each government passes legislation transforming the
various parts of the Agreement into law. This is not expected to
occur until at least January 2005.
The main areas of the AUSFTA to impact on Australian Copyright law
are as follows:
1. The extension of copyright duration from the current 50 years
to 70 years, the current American position
2. Introduction of criminal sanctions outside the Copyright Act
for breaches of copyright
3. Fewer exceptions for circumvention of technological security
measures (following the American approach)
4. Introduction of an easier process by which copyright owners may
be able to force ISPs to remove material suspected of infringing
copyright and require them to hand over personal information regarding
suspected copyright infringers (similar to the American approach).
5. Removal of the rights of non copyright owners to make temporary
digital copies without the consent of the owner.
To view Professor Margaret Jackson’s presentation on the impact
of the AUSFTA copyright provisions on Australians, please visit:
http://www.ucd.smartinternet.com.au/presentations.html
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5. Upcoming Conferences & Calls for Papers
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* OZCHI2004
The Annual conference of the Australasian Computer-Human Interaction
Special Interest Group will be held 22 - 24 November 2004 at the
University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia. OZCHI is the annual
conference for the Computer-Human Interaction Special Interest Group
(CHISIG) of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society of Australia.
It is Australia and New Zealand's leading forum for work in all
areas of Human-Computer Interaction.
OZCHI attracts an international community of researchers and practitioners
with a wide range of interests, including human factors and ergonomics,
human-computer interaction, information systems, design, software
engineering, artificial intelligence, social sciences and management.
Contributions on all topics are welcome, but papers must be submitted
by June 11, 2004.
For further information, please visit: http://www.dsl.uow.edu.au/ozchi2004/
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* Usability and Internationalization Conference
The Usability and Internationalisation Conference is being held
in association with the 11th International Conference on Human-Computer
Interaction (HCII 2005), July 22-27, 2005 in Las Vegas, USA.
As the conference chair Nuray Aykin says, “This is the first
internationalization conference is association with HCI, and I would
like to make a strong statement and have a strong visibility regarding
Internationalization and cross-cultural design -- still a neglected
topic. Therefore, I am looking for papers on concepts, guidelines,
case studies, culture studies, organization reviews, international
studies including usability testing, etc”
For further information please visit http://www.hci-international.org
Also see http://www.hci-international.org/thematic-areas_description.asp?ID=7
Supriya is aiming to organise a special session on cross-cultural
user centred design. If you are interested in presenting, please
submit the title of your presentation, and a few lines about your
abstract by June 3 to supriya.singh@rmit.edu.au
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6. Useful Links and References
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* Jonathan Lazar , Alfreda Dudley Sponaugle and Kisha Dawn Greenidge
(2004) Improving web accessibility: a study of webmaster perceptions,
Computers in Human Behavior, 20(2), March, pp 269-288
Large percentages of websites continue to be inaccessible to people
with disabilities. Since tools and guidelines are available to help
designers and webmasters in making their websites accessible, it
is unclear why so many sites continue to be inaccessible. In this
paper, we present the "Web Accessibility Integration Model,"
which highlights the multiple points within web development where
accessibility can be incorporated or forgotten.. A survey was created,
and data was collected from 175 webmasters, indicating their knowledge
on the topic of web accessibility and the reasons for their actions
related to web accessibility. Findings and future directions for
research are discussed.
http://www.apa.org/divisions/div21/MemberActivities/chb2004/jl.pdf
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* Huw W. Bristow , Chris Baber , James Cross , James F. Knight and
Sandra I. Woolley (2004) Defining and evaluating context for wearable
computing, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 60(5-6),
May, pp 798-819
Defining `context' has proved to be a non-trivial problem for research
in context-awareness. In this paper we address two questions: what
features of activity are required to define context? and does the
use of context-awareness measurably improve user performance? The
first question was addressed by a study of everyday activities,
using a Photo Diary method to arrive at a set of Context Identifiers.
We feel that it is important to discover what features of activity
are needed in order to describe context. Two user trials were carried
out to address the second question. We conclude that the use of
context improves user task proficiency.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6WGR-4BVPRYH-1/1/40b8fcfd053e1e771ce245547b0d8793
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Nitish Singh, Hongxin Xhao, Xiaorui Hu (2003) Cultural adaptation
on the Web: A study of American companies' domestic and Chinese
websites, Journal of Global Information Management 11(3), July-September,
pp 63-80.
In the academic literature and the business press, there seems to
be a lack of guidance and lack of cross-cultural models to support
companies’ localization strategies on the Web. To address
this deficit in literature and to provide marketers and Web designers
with insights into website localization, this paper conducted a
comparative analysis of the US based international companies' domestic
websites and their Chinese websites. A framework to measure cultural
adaptation on the Web is presented. Forty US-based Fortune 500 companies
are surveyed to investigate the cultural adaptation of their Chinese
websites. Content analysis of the 80 US domestic and Chinese websites
reveals that the web is not a culturally neutral medium, but it
is full of cultural markers that give country-specific websites
a look and feel unique to the local culture.
http://www.idea-group.com/articles/details.asp?id=4104
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