Paper Reading #3: Experience in Social Affective Applications: Methodologies and Case Study

Comments:

Reference:

Experience in Social Affective Applications: Methodologies and Case Study

P. Andre, A. Dix, R. White, M. SchraefelCHI 2010

Summary:

This paper discusses the concept that CHI can be used in social networking to convey the physical and emotional well-being of the user.  To this end, the authors of the paper created Healthii, "a social networking tool for conveying well-being."  This tool enables research into how such an application might be utilized and if it is perceived as valuable.  Healthii uses four seperate areas that the user can employ (busy, enjoyment, stress, and health).  In addition, each of these categories can be set to one of three values (not, quite, and very).  The user's well-being status can then be represented via avatar or numeric code.  While this design limits how expressive the user can be, it maintains ease of use and group comprehension.

The long-term goal of Healthii is to enhance quality of life.  Before this can occur, however, it must be determined if the approach used in Healthii is utilized and valued, and if so, in what ways the utility and value are experienced.  In making this assessment, the researchers selected ten of their peers and asked them to use Healthii for five weeks.  Each week, they would meet as a group and discuss how the tool was being used.  The researchers would take suggestions on how to improve the functionality or the interface.  In their  evaluation, the researchers considered how the usage of Healthii personnally affected participants, how its use affected perception towards other users, how to optimize user experience, discussion between participants, and a lengthy evaluation timespan to ensure an in-depth discussion. 

The methodology the researchers used was not impervious to criticism.  Some complaints against the study were that refining the design during the trial undermined the scientific process, and that the designers were already familiar with the group participants.  The researchers argue that their methods were geared toward optimizing the experience for participants, and that they would have been limited by only observing and monitoring the use of the application.  However, the researcher stressed that their methods were tailored for this particular application, and should not necissarily be used for other social applications.

Discussion:

The concept of a well-being social network is an interesting one.  Based on the general design described, it seems like it would be easy to keep friends and family members updated on your current physical and emotional state (though the Twitter interface is much less intuitive, consisting of a string of numeric digits).  I have to wonder though if this could lead to some level of narcissism amoung its users.  As it is, I don't think much of constantly giving the world a play-by-play of my activities.  The world doesn't need to know if I'm drinking coffee or eating lunch.  So I ask, is it good for a person to tell everyone how they're feeling every fifteen minutes?  I don't necissarily have the answer, but if nothing else it is something to ponder.