D. Gergle, D. R. Millen, R. E. Kraut, and S. R. Fussell. Persistance matters: Making the most of chat in tightly-coupled work. In Proceeding of CHI2004, pages 431–438, Vienna, Austria, April 24-29 2004. ACM Press. [pdf]

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This paper present a controlled experiment to asses the effect of the history of conversation on task performances. The study shows how the history of the conversation has an impact on computer-mediated communication tasks that require semantic coordination to disambiguate utterances.

The author used a puzzle task where an “helper” has to guide the “worker” to solve the puzzle. In their experimental setup the author controlled wether the helper could see the space of interaction of the worker and can refer to the objects by the mean of deictic expressions. The shared visual space is a resource for grounding that makes the conversation more efficient.

The results demonstrate the importance of two resources for conversational grounding: a persistent dialogue history and a shared visual space.

How much history of the dialogue should a chat client include? Some chat clients have minimized the dialogue history to deploy the space for other purposes. A theory of conversational coordination suggests that stripping away history raises the cost of conversational grounding, creating problems for both writers and readers. To test this proposition and inform design, we conducted an experiment in which one person instructed another on how to solve a simple puzzle. Participants had chat clients that showed either a single conversational turn or six of them. Having the dialogue history helped collaborators communicate efficiently and led to faster and better task performance. The dialogue history was most useful when the puzzles were more linguistically complex and when instructors could not see the work area. We present evidence of participants adapting their discourse to partially compensate for deficits in the communication media.

Tags: collaboration tools, Computer Supported Collaborative Work, human computer interaction, interaction design, user experience

Attrape-moi si tu peux (catch me if you can) is a network game where the goal is to catch a murderer, Mister X, who is hiding in the center of London. The Scotland-Yard inspectors, the players, have to follow some hints to find him but dealing with “the city” transport system. They have a limited number of tickets to move around and they have to spend them consciously to find the murder. The game has been developed at Software Engineering Laboratory, at EPFL.

AT T R AP E – MOI SI TU PE UX est un jeu de stratégie en réseau où une équipe de détectives tente d’arrêter Mister X dans sa fuite. Une bonne communication et un sens aigu de la déduction sont nécessaires pour réussir à AT T R AP E – MOI SI TU PE UX, que l’on soit détective ou Mister X.

Tags: map algorithms, maps, games

One of the cool things of the States are Tazo’s teas. I really enjoyed these refreshing drinks after seafood or during lunch. I tried to find them here in Switzerland but unsuccessfully. Fortunately is it possible to shop them online [1], [2]. Also, it is kind of cool to see that social rating is reaching all sorts of markets …

The Carnivorous Syndrome in 3D explores the astounding lives of the carnivorous plants, in mind-bending 3D. Travel to the Venezuelan tepuis, African Savannahs, and the rainforests of Borneo, while learning about the mysterious plants which live there. Discover the beauty and complexity of these fascinating creatures.

Featuring unprecedented close up 3D time lapse video shot by jasper, a robot made of Lego (R) bricks. Additional habitat photography by Chiaki Shibata and Romuald Anifraix. Also featuring stunning 3D animation, and an incredible electronic soundtrack composed by John Teagle. Narrated by Marguerite C. Wilson. Written and directed by Mike Wilder.

Tags: ecology, education, hack, new technology, open source, plants

Here are some of the resources that people pointed me towards:

– http://ganttproject.sourceforge.net (project management tool with timeline feature)

– other gantt chart tools, like http://echo2gantt.sourceforge.net

– MS Project

– Other, more free-form project organization tools, such as “Basecamp” at: http://www.37signals.com

– http://simile.mit.edu/timeline/ (simile timeline – this is what I think I’ll end up using)

Green is definitely the photoblog that I prefer. The navigation is simply flawless and the pictures are astonishing. Enjoy!

P.S. Its about green stuff …

Tags: art, ecology

K. N. Purnell, R. T. Solman, and J. Sweller. The effects of technical illustrations on cognitive load. Instructional Science, (20):443–462, 1991. [pdf]

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The effects on cognitive resources of splitting attention between technical illustrations and their descriptors were examined in four experiments with high school students of good to very good reading ability. Experiment 1 looked at the effect of having descriptors incorporated within technical illustrations and found that there was an observable advantage for combined formats over split formats. In Experiments 2,3 and 4 the combined form of presenting a technical illustration was superior to having the descriptors for the technical illustration in an adjacent key. Attempts to obtain increases in the advantage for the combined format with reinforcement failed to demonstrate any reliable result. These data suggested that the format of technical illustrations which required students to integrate mentally disparate sources of information imposes a heavy cognitiveload. It was concluded that the format of technical illustrations was superior when descriptors were contained within the diagram as cognitive resources were not required to integrate the descriptors and the diagram.

The results of this work show that technical material consisting of mutually referring, disparate sources of information that cannot be understood in isolation should be integrated into a unitary entity. Using this solution, the authors found both memory of those elements and the ability to make inferences beyond those elements to be facilitated compared to the frequently used structures that incorporate distinct sources of information. In the picture below, the experimental material used with the split key, on the left, and with the combined key, on the right.

Tags: information visualization, learning technology, maps, pedagogy, cognitive science

I have been involved many times in experimentations which required human subjects. That’s recurrent for each HCI researcher. As I have been working both in the States and mainly in Europe I also noticed great differences in the practices around these experiments: while in the States there are lots of protocols in place, in Europe things are a bit more, … hum …, fuzzy!

EPFL, for instance does not have proper guidelines. Probably because our lab pioneered HCI research  into this technical school with no tradition around these themes. I like the American way, in this regard, and I would love to have some more “structure” around these experiments.

To start off the discussion I think is important to have a proper Consent Form whenever we host an experiment involving humans. Each participants should be made aware of the following:

1. The purpose of the experiment;

2. The aim and procedure of the experiment;

3. The risks related to the execution of the task;

4. The time required;

5. The conditions of participation and withdrawal;

6. The benefits obtained in participating;

7. The confidentiality of the results;

8. How and where the results will be published;

9. The person/lab responsible for the experiment.

I tried to google around to find some templates but with no satisfactory results. I found an example from Harvard, one from Grinnell university and one from myself 🙂 Here are some nice guidelines.

Tags: human computer interaction, research, research methodology

O. W. Bertelsen and S. Bodker. Cooperation in massively distributed information spaces. In Proceedings of the Seventh European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work ECSCW’01, Bonn, Germany, 16-20 September 2001. Kluwer Academic Publishers. [pdf]

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Common information spaces are often, implicitly or explicitly, viewed as something that can be accessed in toto from one (of many) location. Our studies of wastewater treatment plants show how such massively distributed spaces challenge many of the ways that CSCW view common information spaces. The studies fundamentally challenge the idea that common information spaces are about access to everything, everywhere. Participation in optimisation is introduced as an important feature of work tied to the moving around in physical space. In the CSCW literature, peripheral awareness and at a glance overview are mostly connected with the coordination of activities within a control room or in similar co-located circumstances. It is concluded that this focus on shoulder to shoulder cooperation has to be supplemented with studies of cooperation through massively distributed information spaces.

This study reports an interesting field study where some of the classical CSCW concepts are reconsidered, as for instance the notion of peripheral awareness that usually is conceived as local and immediate (“at a glance”), while in the study the authors found evidences of this awareness embedded in how people move about in the plant. The observed users were able to identify the location of each other in the plant despite the fact that they could not see and hear each other.

This study fundamentally challenge the idea that common information spaces are about access to everything, everywhere. The overview created by the wastewater workers cannot be retrieved from any central position in the plant; neither it can be separated from being physically present in particular parts of the plant.

The authors conclude that the watewater plant, in contrast to many cases described in the CSCW literature, and in contrast to such ideal cooperation devises as common artifacts, reveals a continuum of places of which many are geographycally fluent: “spaces of understood reality”, spaces that are dealt with through movement, and movement as a precondition for learning, participation and experimentation.

Tags: Computer Supported Collaborative Work, ethnography, geography, human computer interaction, interaction design, location awareness

Fabien pointed me to this nice project of the University of Madrid and the MediaLab Madrid. The idea is similar to many other projects on collaborative annotations of maps like: YellowArrow, DigitalGrafffiti, etc. Their interface though is really sexy!