UCD Project News Edition 6, June 23rd, 2003
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 SITCRC.
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In this issue:
1. Supriya: New Projects Underway
2. Expert Panel Review
3. Comments Invited re Annual Conference
4. First phase launch of Member’s Forum
5. SITCRC PhD Conference Wrap Up
6. Upcoming Conferences & Calls for Papers
7. Useful Links and References
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1. Supriya: New Projects Underway
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There is excitement in the air as we begin work on projects that
were funded in the last round and prepare for the next wave of joint
projects. As most of us are working with researchers and partners
at a distance, much of the communication is by email or telephone.
But inevitably there are local nodes of a project, where we have
begun to work on issues that appear central to virtual communication
in all guises.
The Nymity project headed by John Zic of Motorola is already beginning
to straddle issues of identity from the technical, personal, social
and cultural perspectives. If identity is to be at the centre of
personalizing applications, making communication effective and the
environment more intelligent, then it is important to be able to
establish identity in a manner that does not leave room for doubt.
This technical challenge has yet to be met.
For the user, it is important to be able to move from one role,
social context or persona to another, and yet be recognizable to
the machine as the same identity. However, the user at times, does
not want his or her identity to be revealed, and yet wants to be
able to access services. It is this requirement that was partly
behind the failure of digital cash and has been part of the large
percentage of credit card problems in the field of online adult
services.
This tension around identity will only increase with the growing
emphasis on context aware computing and richer and smarter virtual
communication. It is for these reasons that we in the UCD group
are delighted to be working on these issues together with the SN/IE,
SPA/NAUI researchers and industry partners.
Supriya
Assoc Prof Supriya Singh,
Project Leader
supriya.singh@rmit.edu.au
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2. Expert Panel Review
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The Commonwealth government requires all CRC's to be externally
examined at specified periods and the SITCRC has to undergo this
process in July. The Expert Review Panel of the SITCRC will be meeting
in Sydney on 17-18 July 2003.
The members of the Expert Review Panel are presently:
* Kim Silverman - Apple- Principal Research Scientist
* Siva Subramanian - Nortel Networks
* Peter Jonson - Australian Institute for Commercialisation
There have been some recent changes to the composition of the Expert
Review panel. Unfortunately Professor Mark Apperley has had to withdraw
- sadly his wife has died of cancer. This meant that I had to find
a substitute at short notice. I have suggested Professor Peter Gerrand
because he knows the CRC, participated at Stonlea and is supportive
of our work.
I was hoping that we might be able to meet with Peter on Wednesday
16 July, 1-3pm, at RMIT, and for him to learn about the UCD project
and meet some of the researchers. This would need to be a somewhat
formal meeting, with a presentation re UCD by Supriya. I will also
ask Steve Howard from Melbourne University to join us.
Peter has a particular interest in debates re mobiles so I hope
that Christine Satchell will also be available to join us. Details
to follow but UCD researchers please mark it in your diaries.
Trevor
Professor Trevor Barr
Program Leader, UE Program
tbarr@groupwise.swin.edu.au
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3 . Comments Invited re Annual Conference
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All members of the SITCRC community are invited to offer suggestions
regarding the Annual Conference which is set to be held on 18-19
September 2003. The dates are rapidly approaching and Lisette Cochienas
is keen to hear from you. Please email her with your ideas on Lisette.Cochineas@smartinternet.com.au.
The topics that need to be addressed are:
1. Venue (we have decided it should be one of our academic partners,
but which one?)
2. Themes
3. Topics
4. Speakers
5. Student presentations - how many and who should present?
6. Awards
7. Dinners
8. Workshops
9. Do we want external participants?
10. Fee for external participants?
11. Promotional channels
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4 . SITCRC PhD Conference Wrap Up
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The annual SITCRC PhD conference was held at SITCRC’s Technology
Park headquarters in Sydney on June 5-6. It was an excellent opportunity
for the 30 odd PhD students in attendance to engage in cross-linking
activities with other students participating in the SITCRC. Old
friends were reunited, new contacts established and many interesting
ideas shared.
The workshop gave the SITCRC an opportunity to hear how its research
students are developing as students gave presentations on their
individual research projects. Meanwhile, students received research
direction from the SITCRC and benefited from listening to those
"who have gone before them" explain the finer details
of working a PhD.
This year’s workshop included presentations from various projects
leaders from across different areas of the SITCRC. Coming from the
User Centred Design Group, it was especially good to see that the
user focus was being integrated across projects.
A highlight was a particularly inspiring presentation by UCD Project
leader, Supriya Singh, who included many personal accounts from
her experience in research. She also managed to capture the benefits
that could be got from cross-disciplinary research, providing spot
on quotes such as "when you come to the edge of a discipline
it is time to look further."
Another highlight of a less academic nature was the Thai dinner
on Thursday night and drinks at the Random Bar – thanks to
Lisette for organizing that.
All in all, it was an excellent conference which demonstrated how
one could never feel isolated doing a PhD as part of the SITCRC.
Just finally, congratulations to Amokah for finishing his PhD -
it is good to know that it can be done!
Christine Satchell
Robert Cox
Toan Phung
PhD Students
UCD Project
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4. First phase launch of Member’s Forum
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Last week saw the first phase of the launch of the new “Member’s
Forum” on the UCD website, which allows members to communicate,
collaborate and share knowledge online via a blog. All members of
the UCD project team were issued with a user name and password on
June 12 which allow them to access the Member’s Forum and
other secure information on the UCD Project website.
Following success of the first phase of the launch, the “Member’s
Forum” will be opened to the wider SITCRC community and all
members will be issued with login details within the next month
or so. It is hoped that the forum will help to stimulate and record
current and future discussions firstly within the UCD Project team,
and eventually across the entire SITCRC community.
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5. Upcoming Conferences & Calls for Papers
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* DRS 2004
The Design Research Society International Conference will be held
at Monash University in Melbourne from 17-21 November 2004.
The theme is FUTUREGROUND, and the conference will feature leading
edge design research from the international research community.
Supporting the central theme will be discourse around design as
both cultural activity and production; mapping the discipline's
development; and research in an industrial context. Particular emphasis
will be on the opportunities this presents for reconsidering the
nature of design and an exploration of the scope for future research.
FUTUREGROUND 2004 is a fully refereed international conference and
will be supported by a schedule of associated events. Further information
regarding keynote speakers and the paper submission timeline and
process, will be listed on the FUTUREGROUND website, operational
in July 2003.
In the meantime, if you have specific queries, please contact the
Conference Coordinator, at the Faculty of Art & Design on: futureground@ArtDes.monash.edu.au
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* HCI2003
The HCI Educators' Workshop: Making Learning Standards Invisible
will be held on September 9 2003 as part of HCI2003 in Bath, UK.
The workshop will consider the role of learning standards from an
HCI perspective.
Participants will focus on some of the issues surrounding the development
and reuse of learning objects and will go on to apply some techniques
deriving from HCI practice to the problem of conceptualizing a software
product that supports the development of standards?compliant reusable
learning objects.
Declarations of interest and queries should be directed to: john.rosbottom@port.ac.uk
or t.mcewan@napier.ac.uk
by Friday 11th July.
For further information, please visit: http://www.hcie2003.org
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4. Useful Links and References
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* Picard, R.W., Klein, J. “Computers that recognise and respond
to user emotion: theoretical and practical implications,”
Interacting with Computers, 14 (2) 2002, pp. 141-169
Prototypes of interactive computer systems have been built that
can begin to detect and label aspects of human emotional expression,
and that respond to users experiencing frustration and other negative
emotions with emotionally supportive interactions, demonstrating
components of human skills such as active listening, empathy, and
sympathy. This paper describes the philosophy of this new approach
to human computer interaction: deliberately recognising and responding
to an individual user's emotions in ways that help users meet their
needs. The authors define user needs in a broader perspective than
has been hitherto discussed in the HCI community, to include emotional
and social needs, and examine technology's emerging capability to
address and support such needs. They raise and discuss potential
concerns and objections regarding this technology, and describe
several opportunities for future work.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0953-5438(01)00055-8
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* Rainger, P., Draffan, E.A., Ball, S. & Phipps, L. (2003),
A Dyslexic Perspective on e-Content Accessibility
Current Web Accessibility Initiatives and other accessibility guidelines
mainly focus on the research affecting people with visual impairments
and the Blind. There is, however, little research available that
specifically deals with the issues surrounding accessibility for
people with dyslexia and other Specific Learning Difficulties. This
paper gives insight into the issues of web accessibility for users
with Dyslexia (and/or other specific learning difficulties). It
covers the four main areas of accessibility: presentation, content,
structure and navigation. The material covered contributes to research
into usability and accessibility issues surrounding electronic educational
content.
http://www.techdis.ac.uk/seven/papers/dyslexia.pdf
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Shell, J., Selker, T., and Vertegaal, R. “Interacting with
Groups of Computers” In Special Issue on Attentive User Interfaces,
Communications of ACM 46(3), March 2003.
Many of the features of the graphical user interface (GUI) were
designed under the assumption that computers would be used as isolated
tools with a one-to-one relationship with users. But today, each
user has many computers, causing existing channels of interaction
to break down. As a consequence, users are bombarded with interruptions
from their PDAs, email programs, instant messaging applications,
and mobile phones. The nature of these interruptions is often acute,
demanding full and immediate attention. To design less intrusive
and more sociable interfaces, the authors suggest augmenting computing
devices with attention sensors that allow the devices to prioritize
their demands for user attention. This process is key to a new paradigm
for computer interfaces—Attentive User Interfaces (AUIs).
The authors present some of the prototype AUIs designed at Queen’s
University and MIT and describe scenarios demonstrating how to design
systems that engage users in a manner complementary and appropriate
to their attentive context, in order to improve interactions among
people and ubiquitous computers.
http://www.hml.queensu.ca/papers/shellcacm0303.pdf
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