Reference:
Coming of Age in Samoa
Margaret Mead
1928 Harper Perennial
Summary:
Samoans generally don't intrude on the personal privacy of their fellows. If someone suddenly changes their attitude on something, their motives go unquestioned. A moderate attitude is ideal, so as long as someone isn't overly emotional or extreme with their attitude, they have few issues.
Discussion:
It's interesting how some of these attitudes can be found in other cultures. A couple of years ago, my father spent a few weeks in the middle east for his job. During that time he was primarily working with Muslims, and he would often hear the phrase "Insha'Allah," or "If it is God's will," as an explination/excuse for many situations. In functionality, this is similar to the Samoan "Ta ilo," or "Search Me," as a throwaway phrase to end a discussion.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Book Reading #27 - Emotional Design
Reference:
Emotional Design
Donald A. Norman
2004 Basic Books
Summary:
Emotions play a large part in how a device is received. An elegant looking tool can cause someone to forget the frustrations they've had with similar instruments. A cheap souvenir aids in recalling fond memories of vacations past. Photographs bring back crystal clear snapshots of days gone by. A project put together with some complexity provides more satisfaction and self-worth than a two or three-step project. All these things and more contrbute to how products are viewed.
Discussion:
The effect that nostalgia has on people is quite interesting. It is so easy to forget the undesirable things that went along with something when reflecting on it. For example, hearing a dial up modem would bring back memories of my first experiences with the internet and all the information I had accessible at my fingertips. Then again, considering that it would take 20-30 seconds to navigate between pages, it probably would have been just as efficient to use a book.
Emotional Design
Donald A. Norman
2004 Basic Books
Summary:
Emotions play a large part in how a device is received. An elegant looking tool can cause someone to forget the frustrations they've had with similar instruments. A cheap souvenir aids in recalling fond memories of vacations past. Photographs bring back crystal clear snapshots of days gone by. A project put together with some complexity provides more satisfaction and self-worth than a two or three-step project. All these things and more contrbute to how products are viewed.
Discussion:
The effect that nostalgia has on people is quite interesting. It is so easy to forget the undesirable things that went along with something when reflecting on it. For example, hearing a dial up modem would bring back memories of my first experiences with the internet and all the information I had accessible at my fingertips. Then again, considering that it would take 20-30 seconds to navigate between pages, it probably would have been just as efficient to use a book.
Paper Reading #12 - TwinSpace: An Infrastructure for Cross-Reality Team Spaces
Comments:
Reference:
TwinSpace: An Infrastructure for Cross-Reality Team Spaces
Summary:
TwinSpace is an application that connects interactive workspaces with virtual worlds, the main purpose of which is to provide a "...flexible infrastructure for exploring and implementing collaborative cross-reality (CoXR) envrionments." This expands from the current assumption that people interacting in virtual worlds are physically individually isolated from each other. TwinSpace assumes individual collaborative groups sharing a virtual space.
Some of the problems encountered were how to make events in the physical world correspont to events in the virtual world, and vice-versa. What kinds of actuators could be mapped between the two worlds? They tested a layout based on activity mappings, where a team room is composed or assemble/array, aside table, and aside wall regions. These are used for extended group discussions, comosing and modifying content, and generating whiteboard content, respectively. Brainstorm mode promotes group collaboration and decision making, and present mode provides facilities for users to give a presentation.
Reference:
TwinSpace: An Infrastructure for Cross-Reality Team Spaces
Derek F. Reilly, Hafez Rouzati, Andy Wu, Jee Yeon Hwang, Jeremy Brudvik, W. Keith Edwards
UIST '10Summary:
TwinSpace is an application that connects interactive workspaces with virtual worlds, the main purpose of which is to provide a "...flexible infrastructure for exploring and implementing collaborative cross-reality (CoXR) envrionments." This expands from the current assumption that people interacting in virtual worlds are physically individually isolated from each other. TwinSpace assumes individual collaborative groups sharing a virtual space.
Some of the problems encountered were how to make events in the physical world correspont to events in the virtual world, and vice-versa. What kinds of actuators could be mapped between the two worlds? They tested a layout based on activity mappings, where a team room is composed or assemble/array, aside table, and aside wall regions. These are used for extended group discussions, comosing and modifying content, and generating whiteboard content, respectively. Brainstorm mode promotes group collaboration and decision making, and present mode provides facilities for users to give a presentation.Through recognizing common abstractions in virtual and physical spaces, TwinSpace provides a flexible fromework for promoting group collaboration and interaction in cross-reality environments.
Discussion:
I would like to see some data from test users to see just how intuitive and useful this environment is. Most of the paper is simply describing how things work with the system, and the only case studies provided consisted of the design team's experiments. To be fair, it appears that they were still in the prototype stage at the time the paper was written. This is reflected in some of their own criticisms, where they note the need for better awareness of who's who in the virtual environment and the lack of representation of remote collaborators. At the time, I must admit that this feels like a gimmick, but given enough time and modifications I think it could lead to practical and efficient cross-reality environments.
Ethnography Results, Week 4
Karma... I must have it...
Anyways, in week 4, I continued my monitoring of the Politics subreddit (hereafter known as /r/politics). As before, I found that I could predict most of the content and discussions they provoked, and once again the protests in Wisconsin were a major topic of discussion.
However, there were a couple of notable differences from previous weeks. The first involved a situation where a conservitive response to a liberal one was being buried in downvotes, causing it to no longer appear by default in the discussion. That changed when the original poster, the liberal, edited his comment to ask what people thought they were doing. He came to the defense of the buried poster, advocating that reddit was a place to share ideas, and that the downvote should be reserved for posts that do nothing to further a discussion instead of posts that contain a contrary opinion. The comment subsequently got enough upvotes to become visible again, and the conservative expressed his grattitude to his defender.
The second notable difference was seeing people called out for posting stories that were either false or presented in such a way that the truth was obscured at best. For example, a story was posted claiming that Canadian PM Stephen Harper had been thwarted in an attempt to pass legislation that would overturn a Canadian law that prevents news broadcasts from lying. Soon after being posted, a comment explained that this was a totally inaccurate characterization, as the legislation had been proposed ten years ago by a Holocaust denier and had nothing to do with Harper. Furthermore, the only reason it finally came to a vote was that the comittee in charge of it had run out of stalling tactics, as it never wanted to deal with it in the first place. These examples of intellectual honesty have made me hopeful that constructive debate is more possible than what my first impression suggested, and I look forward to seeing what the next week holds.
To comment on the culture of reddit as a whole, it seems that karma is one of the reasons people get as involved as they do. People get karma when they receive upvotes, so high karma represents doing good in reddit. According to the FAQ, high karma is like a high score in a videogame. It has meaning for the person that gets it, but has no practical purpose. Still, after gettiing some karma myself, I can see the appeal. Wish me luck this next week, as I may fall into the karma trap and be lost to the world forever. Or just spend too much time on reddit.
Anyways, in week 4, I continued my monitoring of the Politics subreddit (hereafter known as /r/politics). As before, I found that I could predict most of the content and discussions they provoked, and once again the protests in Wisconsin were a major topic of discussion.
 |
| Summary of /r/politics from 2/22 to 3/1 |
The second notable difference was seeing people called out for posting stories that were either false or presented in such a way that the truth was obscured at best. For example, a story was posted claiming that Canadian PM Stephen Harper had been thwarted in an attempt to pass legislation that would overturn a Canadian law that prevents news broadcasts from lying. Soon after being posted, a comment explained that this was a totally inaccurate characterization, as the legislation had been proposed ten years ago by a Holocaust denier and had nothing to do with Harper. Furthermore, the only reason it finally came to a vote was that the comittee in charge of it had run out of stalling tactics, as it never wanted to deal with it in the first place. These examples of intellectual honesty have made me hopeful that constructive debate is more possible than what my first impression suggested, and I look forward to seeing what the next week holds.
To comment on the culture of reddit as a whole, it seems that karma is one of the reasons people get as involved as they do. People get karma when they receive upvotes, so high karma represents doing good in reddit. According to the FAQ, high karma is like a high score in a videogame. It has meaning for the person that gets it, but has no practical purpose. Still, after gettiing some karma myself, I can see the appeal. Wish me luck this next week, as I may fall into the karma trap and be lost to the world forever. Or just spend too much time on reddit.
The Design of Everyday Things: Full Blog
Reference:
The Design of Everyday Things
Donald A. Norman
1988 Basic Books
Summary:
In The Design of Everyday Things, Norman attempts to impress upon the reader how much the design of a device can lead to, or inhibit, understanding of it. He argues for physical mapping whenever possible, as arbitrarily mapped controls require specialized knowledge instead of intuitive understanding. What is more, in many instances a user will blame themselves for their lack of operating knowledge, so typically a designer won't receive negative feedback about poor designs. As a result, when they do get complaints they often dismiss them as minority views.
When interacting with the world, people rely on cues to accomplish their tasks. We learn what results from specific actions in specific environments, but when attempting the same action in an unfamiliar environment we tend to mess up. This is a result of the fallibility of memory, so care must be taken in the design stage to make arbitrary knowledge easy to remember. When the user has a good mental model, they have a better understanding of a system. When the designer chooses an unconventional model, a task becomes much more difficult for someone to complete since they don't have the appropriate knowledge. Ideally, labels should not be needed to explain a device.
In designing a device, the architect should try to reduce the possibility of errors. Slips are unconsious errors, while mistakes result from reaching an incorrect conclusion. One way to minimize both is through the use of forcing functions. These functions behave in such a way that action B can't occur until action A is completed. While these functions can be a nuisence to a user, when user properly they can prevent disastrous errors.
Convention and aesthetics must be taken into account during design. When designing a device with many arbitrary mappings, like a keyboard, it should probably be manufactured with the conventional layout even though morre efficient arrangements exist. It would simply be too costly for everyone to have to relearn how to type. Aesthetics behave in much the same way. One design might look better than another, but an ugly functional device is better than a pretty unusable one.
Many things must be considered when designing something. The designer must consider conceptual models, mapping, constraints, and standardization just to name a few. The designer should focus on giving the user what they need, because as the functions of a device increase, so does the complexity of it.
Discussion:
While I agree with most of Norman's writing, he tends to get a bit... repetative... with his points. In many cases it seemed like I was reading a variaton of the same idea over and over and over again. Still, I suppose he made his opinions clear. I certainly learned a thing or two from this book. To me, some of the ideas seemed like simple common sense, but there were others that I hadn't considered before. In the past, I have written programs and thought that the complexity was getting out of hand. Now I have a better understanding of methods to prevent that from happening.
The Design of Everyday Things
Donald A. Norman
1988 Basic Books
Summary:
In The Design of Everyday Things, Norman attempts to impress upon the reader how much the design of a device can lead to, or inhibit, understanding of it. He argues for physical mapping whenever possible, as arbitrarily mapped controls require specialized knowledge instead of intuitive understanding. What is more, in many instances a user will blame themselves for their lack of operating knowledge, so typically a designer won't receive negative feedback about poor designs. As a result, when they do get complaints they often dismiss them as minority views.
When interacting with the world, people rely on cues to accomplish their tasks. We learn what results from specific actions in specific environments, but when attempting the same action in an unfamiliar environment we tend to mess up. This is a result of the fallibility of memory, so care must be taken in the design stage to make arbitrary knowledge easy to remember. When the user has a good mental model, they have a better understanding of a system. When the designer chooses an unconventional model, a task becomes much more difficult for someone to complete since they don't have the appropriate knowledge. Ideally, labels should not be needed to explain a device.
Convention and aesthetics must be taken into account during design. When designing a device with many arbitrary mappings, like a keyboard, it should probably be manufactured with the conventional layout even though morre efficient arrangements exist. It would simply be too costly for everyone to have to relearn how to type. Aesthetics behave in much the same way. One design might look better than another, but an ugly functional device is better than a pretty unusable one.
Many things must be considered when designing something. The designer must consider conceptual models, mapping, constraints, and standardization just to name a few. The designer should focus on giving the user what they need, because as the functions of a device increase, so does the complexity of it.
Discussion:
While I agree with most of Norman's writing, he tends to get a bit... repetative... with his points. In many cases it seemed like I was reading a variaton of the same idea over and over and over again. Still, I suppose he made his opinions clear. I certainly learned a thing or two from this book. To me, some of the ideas seemed like simple common sense, but there were others that I hadn't considered before. In the past, I have written programs and thought that the complexity was getting out of hand. Now I have a better understanding of methods to prevent that from happening.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Paper Reading #11 - Eden: Supporting Home Network Management Through Interactive Visual Tools
Comments:
http://jaiachi.blogspot.com/ http://chi-garza.blogspot.com/
Reference:
Eden: Supporting Home Network Management Through Interactive Visual Tools
Jeonghwa Yang, W. Keith Edwards, David Haslem
2010 UIST
Summary:
As technology progresses, home networks have become larger and more complex. Unfortunately, most people are unequipped to manage these increasingly confusing networks. Eden seeks to remedy this problem by providing a visual interface to manage home networks.
The first step was determining what information needed to be presented to users. Should low level information be presented, or should it stick with high-level information? In what way would a user want to utilize this software? After conducting a study, the designers determined that the top three desires of home network managers are network monitoring, security, and performance.
Several iterations of the interface were designed. Technically inclined users preferred a tree representation, while less skilled users preferred a spatial depiction of the network. All users agreed that there was value in having the physical arrangement of devices in the home mapped to the interface. The final design recognizes this, and connected devices can be placed into "rooms" indicating their physical location. New devices appear outside of the home area, but can be moved to or removed from the network with a simple drag-and-drop procedure. A user can set device permissions and restrictions, such as blocking certain websites or preventing guest devices from connecting to other devices. The user is even able to indicate if certain devices or applications should take precidence over other traffic.
Twenty participants were used in the evaluation of Eden. Most described themselves as technical novices or intermediate users. All of the participants understood the association between the virtual rooms and the physical locations in the house, but a few took the concept too far and assumed that rooms were tied to permissions. Some took the device locations literally, assuming that a device outside the home indicated a device on the porch or in the yard. The visual representation of network use was enormously helpful to several participants, teaching them some of the finer points of home networking. Of the twenty participants, seventeen preffered Eden to other networking systems, and two others preffered a combination of Eden and another system.
Discussion:
I'm no stranger to home networking problems, and Eden seems like it would alleviate many issues just by making them easier to understand. It gives the user an effective mental model of how the network behaves, and provides a simple and intuitive way to control various tasks. I especially like the hybridization of the visual interface and technical information. It's certainly easier learning about networks through a visual traffic map instead of searching for the correct answer on the internet. I am curious if the evaluation participants who claimed that they could now "master" home networking ever tried to do so under different circumstances, as that would indicate a deep understanding of networks can be gleaned from something like Eden. In any case, Eden sounds great, and I wouldn't mind using it myself.
http://jaiachi.blogspot.com/ http://chi-garza.blogspot.com/
Reference:
Eden: Supporting Home Network Management Through Interactive Visual Tools
Jeonghwa Yang, W. Keith Edwards, David Haslem
2010 UIST
Summary:
As technology progresses, home networks have become larger and more complex. Unfortunately, most people are unequipped to manage these increasingly confusing networks. Eden seeks to remedy this problem by providing a visual interface to manage home networks.
The first step was determining what information needed to be presented to users. Should low level information be presented, or should it stick with high-level information? In what way would a user want to utilize this software? After conducting a study, the designers determined that the top three desires of home network managers are network monitoring, security, and performance.Several iterations of the interface were designed. Technically inclined users preferred a tree representation, while less skilled users preferred a spatial depiction of the network. All users agreed that there was value in having the physical arrangement of devices in the home mapped to the interface. The final design recognizes this, and connected devices can be placed into "rooms" indicating their physical location. New devices appear outside of the home area, but can be moved to or removed from the network with a simple drag-and-drop procedure. A user can set device permissions and restrictions, such as blocking certain websites or preventing guest devices from connecting to other devices. The user is even able to indicate if certain devices or applications should take precidence over other traffic.
Twenty participants were used in the evaluation of Eden. Most described themselves as technical novices or intermediate users. All of the participants understood the association between the virtual rooms and the physical locations in the house, but a few took the concept too far and assumed that rooms were tied to permissions. Some took the device locations literally, assuming that a device outside the home indicated a device on the porch or in the yard. The visual representation of network use was enormously helpful to several participants, teaching them some of the finer points of home networking. Of the twenty participants, seventeen preffered Eden to other networking systems, and two others preffered a combination of Eden and another system.
Discussion:
I'm no stranger to home networking problems, and Eden seems like it would alleviate many issues just by making them easier to understand. It gives the user an effective mental model of how the network behaves, and provides a simple and intuitive way to control various tasks. I especially like the hybridization of the visual interface and technical information. It's certainly easier learning about networks through a visual traffic map instead of searching for the correct answer on the internet. I am curious if the evaluation participants who claimed that they could now "master" home networking ever tried to do so under different circumstances, as that would indicate a deep understanding of networks can be gleaned from something like Eden. In any case, Eden sounds great, and I wouldn't mind using it myself.
Book Reading #26 - Opening Skinner's Box
Reference:
Opening Skinner's Box
Lauren Slater
2004 W. W. Norton & Company
Summary:
Bruce Alexander questions the notion that drug addiction is caused by physiological dependencies. He experiments with two groups of rats provided with normal and morphine-laced water. One group is put into small, cramped cages, while the other is put into a veritable rodent paradise. The rats in poor conditions would often drink the drugged water, while the pampered rats generlly avoided it. This leads Alexander to conclude that social standings and conditions are the causes of drug addiction.
Discussion:
Being such a strong believer in free will and personal accountability, I find Alexander's conclusions a bit hard to swallow. Certain conditions may lead to substance abuse, but I don't believe that necissarily excuses people who succumb to the temptation. In addition, I would argue that there is certainly an element of chemical dependency in drug addiction. One late night/early morning about two years ago I would up in the ER with what I was sure was appenicitis. When I was finally admitted five hours later, I was in agony. I was given a half-dose of morphine intreveinously to ease the pain, and after about three seconds I hardly had a care in the world. It's powerful stuff, and I definitely see how easy developing an addiction would be.
Opening Skinner's Box
Lauren Slater
2004 W. W. Norton & Company
Summary:
Bruce Alexander questions the notion that drug addiction is caused by physiological dependencies. He experiments with two groups of rats provided with normal and morphine-laced water. One group is put into small, cramped cages, while the other is put into a veritable rodent paradise. The rats in poor conditions would often drink the drugged water, while the pampered rats generlly avoided it. This leads Alexander to conclude that social standings and conditions are the causes of drug addiction.
Discussion:
Being such a strong believer in free will and personal accountability, I find Alexander's conclusions a bit hard to swallow. Certain conditions may lead to substance abuse, but I don't believe that necissarily excuses people who succumb to the temptation. In addition, I would argue that there is certainly an element of chemical dependency in drug addiction. One late night/early morning about two years ago I would up in the ER with what I was sure was appenicitis. When I was finally admitted five hours later, I was in agony. I was given a half-dose of morphine intreveinously to ease the pain, and after about three seconds I hardly had a care in the world. It's powerful stuff, and I definitely see how easy developing an addiction would be.
Book Reading #25 - Coming of Age in Samoa
Reference:
Coming of Age in Samoa
Margaret Mead
1928 Harper-Perennial
Summary:
Dancing plays a major role in Samoan society. It is one of the few activities that everyone participates in, and can determine a growing child's self confidence. Children learn to dance from a very early age, and the dance is one of the few times they don't have to worry about rebuke.
Discussion:
While many of the situations that Mead has described can still be found in modern society, these small informal dances are now largely gone. I've never been particularly interested in dance, but it's still worth pondering what society has lost in our advancement. I wonder what else will be lost as progress continues.
Coming of Age in Samoa
Margaret Mead
1928 Harper-Perennial
Summary:
Dancing plays a major role in Samoan society. It is one of the few activities that everyone participates in, and can determine a growing child's self confidence. Children learn to dance from a very early age, and the dance is one of the few times they don't have to worry about rebuke.
Discussion:
While many of the situations that Mead has described can still be found in modern society, these small informal dances are now largely gone. I've never been particularly interested in dance, but it's still worth pondering what society has lost in our advancement. I wonder what else will be lost as progress continues.
Book Reading #24 - Emotional Design
Reference:
Emotional Design
Donald A. Norman
2004 Basic Books
Summary:
Recently, studies have shown that things that are designed to be aesthetically pleasing seem to be easier to use, even if they are functionally the same as a drab device. It turns out that when people are introduced to pleasing stimuli, their thinking becomes more creative and they are able to see more solutions to a problem. When the brain encounters a negative situation, it becomes more focused, sometimes causing people to miss obvious solutions.
Discussion:
Interesting read, especially since we just finished a book in which Norman constantly knocks on things that are aesthetically pleasing. I'm curious if he's changed his stance since writing DOET, or if he's going to once again point out that too much emphasis is put on aesthetics.
Emotional Design
Donald A. Norman
2004 Basic Books
Summary:
Recently, studies have shown that things that are designed to be aesthetically pleasing seem to be easier to use, even if they are functionally the same as a drab device. It turns out that when people are introduced to pleasing stimuli, their thinking becomes more creative and they are able to see more solutions to a problem. When the brain encounters a negative situation, it becomes more focused, sometimes causing people to miss obvious solutions.
Discussion:
Interesting read, especially since we just finished a book in which Norman constantly knocks on things that are aesthetically pleasing. I'm curious if he's changed his stance since writing DOET, or if he's going to once again point out that too much emphasis is put on aesthetics.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Paper Readin #10 - Gesture Search: A Tool for Fast Mobile Data Access
Comments:
http://jaiachi.blogspot.com/
http://jngonzales-chi2011.blogspot.com/
UIST 2010
Summary:
Gesture searches involve a sequence of gestures that consist of one or more characters. Search history is recorded to optimize future searches. Based on a study of 125 users covering almost 5,500 searches, the data show that 66% of searches are for contacts, 28% for applications, 4% for web bookmarks, and 2% for music. With a ratio of 1.00 representing one-to-one query to target mapping, an 80% confidence interval can be found in a range from .8 to 1.4. Feedback for Gesture Search was generally positive, with the main criticism being that it could only be accessed with an application on the home screen.
http://jaiachi.blogspot.com/
http://jngonzales-chi2011.blogspot.com/
Reference:
Gesture Search: A Tool for Fast Mobile Data Access
Yang LiUIST 2010
Summary:
Gesture Search is a tool that allows users of mobile devices to quickly access specific data items. As mobile device screens are small, interacting with tiny QWERTY keyboards can be frustrating. Gesture Search attempts to alleviate that by interpreting gestures on a touch screen as input. So, if someone were searching for "Anne," they would draw the letters A and N on the screen. Gesture search is tolerant to some ambiguity, so if a letter such as A could be interpreted as H then the system will give both options.
By studying gestures for simple GUI interactions and character entry, data concerning both types of movement was gathered and plugged into an algorithm. It was found that the more square a boundry box of a guesture, the more likely it was meant as a gesture and not GUI input.
Gesture searches involve a sequence of gestures that consist of one or more characters. Search history is recorded to optimize future searches. Based on a study of 125 users covering almost 5,500 searches, the data show that 66% of searches are for contacts, 28% for applications, 4% for web bookmarks, and 2% for music. With a ratio of 1.00 representing one-to-one query to target mapping, an 80% confidence interval can be found in a range from .8 to 1.4. Feedback for Gesture Search was generally positive, with the main criticism being that it could only be accessed with an application on the home screen.Discussion:
As I have stated in previous blogs, I'm not a huge fan of the tiny keyboards on mobile devices. While I don't see myself needing such an application to search for applications or web shortcuts, I would definately appreciate a better way to search for contacts. Ideally this program (or something like it) could be expanded to include general use like typing in a URL, but I don't know if this system would prove to be any faster than what we use now. Still, Gesture Search is a simple and practical application that I wouldn't mind having on my own phone. If only my phone were smart...
Book Reading #23 - Opening Skinner's Box
Reference:
Opening Skinner's Box
Lauren Slater
2004 W. W. Norton & Company
Summary:
Slater covers Harry Harlowe's experiments on monkeys. These experiments were geared to determine what level of contact was sufficient in rearing a baby monkey. Initial findings showed that a soft surrogate "mother" was sufficient, but were later revised to include motion and some play once the surrogate babies began to display abnormal behavior.
Discussion:
I must admit that about halfway through the chapter, when Harlowe was delivering his first triumphant speech, I thought to myself "I don't buy this 'surrogate alone is sufficient' rhetoric." When it was revealed that these monkeys were greatly disturbed, I felt vindicated. By and large, I have found that studies either confirm what common sense suggests, or they're wrong. On a different note, I think that instead of "Would you pick your child over an animal," a better question would be "Would you pick your pet over a stranger?" I wonder how Slater would answer this question.
Opening Skinner's Box
Lauren Slater
2004 W. W. Norton & Company
Summary:
Slater covers Harry Harlowe's experiments on monkeys. These experiments were geared to determine what level of contact was sufficient in rearing a baby monkey. Initial findings showed that a soft surrogate "mother" was sufficient, but were later revised to include motion and some play once the surrogate babies began to display abnormal behavior.
Discussion:
I must admit that about halfway through the chapter, when Harlowe was delivering his first triumphant speech, I thought to myself "I don't buy this 'surrogate alone is sufficient' rhetoric." When it was revealed that these monkeys were greatly disturbed, I felt vindicated. By and large, I have found that studies either confirm what common sense suggests, or they're wrong. On a different note, I think that instead of "Would you pick your child over an animal," a better question would be "Would you pick your pet over a stranger?" I wonder how Slater would answer this question.
Book Reading #22 - Coming of Age in Samoa
Reference:
Coming of Age in Samoa
Margaret Mead
1928 Harper Perennial
Summary:
Mead describes Samoan sexual relationships. Overall, they are more casual than Western relationships. Intermediaries are often used during the courtship period, and virginity is rarely expected to last until marriage. The exception is the taupo, or the daughter of the villiage chief. She is sheltered and guarded at all hours, and can only marry outside of the villiage.
Discussion:
While Samoan attitudes on sex seem much more casual than those of the West, I am surprised at the almost casual regard of rape. As described, it seems like more of a game than a violation, and the typical punishment for those caught in the act is simply ridicule. For that matter, Mead has yet to discuss any kind of justice system in Samoa. It seems to all be done locally according to custom, though future chapters might explain it in further detail.
Coming of Age in Samoa
Margaret Mead
1928 Harper Perennial
Summary:
Mead describes Samoan sexual relationships. Overall, they are more casual than Western relationships. Intermediaries are often used during the courtship period, and virginity is rarely expected to last until marriage. The exception is the taupo, or the daughter of the villiage chief. She is sheltered and guarded at all hours, and can only marry outside of the villiage.
Discussion:
While Samoan attitudes on sex seem much more casual than those of the West, I am surprised at the almost casual regard of rape. As described, it seems like more of a game than a violation, and the typical punishment for those caught in the act is simply ridicule. For that matter, Mead has yet to discuss any kind of justice system in Samoa. It seems to all be done locally according to custom, though future chapters might explain it in further detail.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Book Reading #21 - Design of Everyday Things
Reference:
The Design of Everyday Things
Donald A. Norman
1988 Basic Books
Summary:
Norman covers the topics covered in his previous book, Psychology of Everyday Things, and summarized the topics discussed in the Design of Everyday Things. He reviews conceptual models, mapping, constraints, standardization, and other considerations that go into a well designed product. He concludes by urging the reader to support well designed products and shun poorly designed ones.
Discussion:
Not much new to say here. The chapter was pretty much a rehashing of the previous chapters, so apart from the increased use of anecdotes, nothing really stood out.
The Design of Everyday Things
Donald A. Norman
1988 Basic Books
Summary:
Norman covers the topics covered in his previous book, Psychology of Everyday Things, and summarized the topics discussed in the Design of Everyday Things. He reviews conceptual models, mapping, constraints, standardization, and other considerations that go into a well designed product. He concludes by urging the reader to support well designed products and shun poorly designed ones.
Discussion:
Not much new to say here. The chapter was pretty much a rehashing of the previous chapters, so apart from the increased use of anecdotes, nothing really stood out.
Enthnography Results, Week 3
As I delved deeper into the Politics section of Reddit, my generalizations from last week were, for the most part, supported. The majority of the most popular stories this week concerned the protests occuring in Wisconsin, and all of these postings (that I saw) were from a liberal/left viewpoint. The comments on these stories generally varied from things like "Wisconsin is the new Egypt" to "Gov. Walker hates the working class" to "Republicans are evil and sell their souls to corporations." There is much anger toward corporations in the Politics subreddit.
I must say I was disappointed by the quality of the comments, but not entirely surprised. I fully admit that my political bias runs against the predominating view in this subreddit, but the apparent lack of intelectual honesty and serious thought was disturbing to me. Then again, the same could be said about most large group settings, so as previously stated I was not surprised. Again, there were some thoughtful liberal postings, but they were the exception to the rule. Interestingly, the few comments from conservative viewpoints were well structured, reasoned and clear. I believe this is due to there being such a small number of conservative voices, so they feel they have to take care when posting if they want to generate any constructive debate. I selected one such commenter at random and read through his past postings. I read dozens of his comments, and with few exceptions they followed the same reasoned approach as the first. Furthermore, this commenter almost exclusively stayed in the Politics subreddit (I only saw one post that could have been posted in a different area). Perhaps the most revealing thing about these post was that out of the dozens of thoughtful posts I read, only three garnered a large amount of upvotes. I am prepared to make the following generalizations based on my research from this week:
I must say I was disappointed by the quality of the comments, but not entirely surprised. I fully admit that my political bias runs against the predominating view in this subreddit, but the apparent lack of intelectual honesty and serious thought was disturbing to me. Then again, the same could be said about most large group settings, so as previously stated I was not surprised. Again, there were some thoughtful liberal postings, but they were the exception to the rule. Interestingly, the few comments from conservative viewpoints were well structured, reasoned and clear. I believe this is due to there being such a small number of conservative voices, so they feel they have to take care when posting if they want to generate any constructive debate. I selected one such commenter at random and read through his past postings. I read dozens of his comments, and with few exceptions they followed the same reasoned approach as the first. Furthermore, this commenter almost exclusively stayed in the Politics subreddit (I only saw one post that could have been posted in a different area). Perhaps the most revealing thing about these post was that out of the dozens of thoughtful posts I read, only three garnered a large amount of upvotes. I am prepared to make the following generalizations based on my research from this week:
- Comments will typically agree with previously posted comments
- The majority view in this subreddit thinks the worst of its opponents
- Dissenting arguments will typically be more thoughtful than the posts agreeing with the premise of the story
- Those arguments will largely be ignored
- Many of the popular pictures posted to Reddit end up in picture galleries on other sites, suggesting that Reddit is the source
- Redditors will rally like-minded people to various causes (e.g. a posting in the Atheist subreddit asking readers to "crash" a poll on a Christian website)
- When Redditors post links to other sites, such as Youtube, it is not uncommon to find comments on the video that "Reddit gave my computer a virus." (redditors claim these are fans of digg trying to scare people away)
Reddit uses a "flasher" version of its mascot when a section has an age requirement
Finally, two things really stood out to me this week. The first was a comic done by some guy in Paris detailing how he was chatting with some girl in Las Vegas via Chat Roulette (or some other random chat program, can't remember) and lost his internet connection just before he asked for her contact information. After unsuccessfully trying to find her again on the chat program, he decided to post his plight on Reddit on the offchance that the girl was a reader. I don't know if he was successful or not, but in any case it's certainly a fascinating use of the website. The second was this awsome picture celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Legend of Zelda. Nothing earth shattering from a technology standpoint, but still awesome.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Paper Reading #9 - Performance Optimizations of Virtual Keyboards for Stroke-Based Entry on a Touch-Based Tabletop
Comments:
http://jaiachi.blogspot.com/
Reference:
Performance Optimizations of Virtual Keyboards for Stroke-Based Entry on a Touch-Based Tabletop
Jochen Rick
UISK '10
Summary:
Thought the keyboard is the norm for a standard desktop, it is difficult to utilize on other computing situations. Scaled-down and virtual keyboards have been created for handheld devices, but interactive tabletops constitute an area yet to be thoroughly explored. Rick proposes that a stroke-based text entry system can be applied to these tabletop devices.
http://jaiachi.blogspot.com/
Reference:
Performance Optimizations of Virtual Keyboards for Stroke-Based Entry on a Touch-Based Tabletop
Jochen Rick
UISK '10
Summary:
Thought the keyboard is the norm for a standard desktop, it is difficult to utilize on other computing situations. Scaled-down and virtual keyboards have been created for handheld devices, but interactive tabletops constitute an area yet to be thoroughly explored. Rick proposes that a stroke-based text entry system can be applied to these tabletop devices.
 |
| The OPTI II keyboard |
While a virtual qwerty keyboard is acceptable for tap-based input, it is inadequate for stroke-based. To determine what model should be used for a stroke-based virtual keyboard, Rick studied the time required to
complete various stroke-based movements. He then determined which keyboard layout would be optimal based on the recorded data. Based on his findings, Rick estimates that stroke-based qwerty input would have a 17% increase in imput speed, while switching to a layout such as OPTI II could yield speed improvement in the range of 50%.
complete various stroke-based movements. He then determined which keyboard layout would be optimal based on the recorded data. Based on his findings, Rick estimates that stroke-based qwerty input would have a 17% increase in imput speed, while switching to a layout such as OPTI II could yield speed improvement in the range of 50%.
Discussion:
While I doubt that I will have access to a tabletop computer anytime soon, this research could have long-term implications. I certainly have issues with the current tap-based input that is common on portable devices, so I would welcome new technology to improve upon it. However, I have to wonder how often errors occur using stroke-based input instead of tap-based, and how tolerant it is to user mistakes. I guess we'll find out sooner or later.
Book Reading #20 - Opening Skinner's Box
Reference:
Opening Skinner's Box
Lauren Slater
2004 W. W. Norton & Company
Summary:
This chapter examines how people are able to rationalize their behavior. Some rationalize their beliefs in a group setting (such as a cult). Some people will compromise their beliefs for a token payment (i.e. since they can't justify that they would compromise their views for a pittance, they must have really held different views the entire time). If nothing else, these observations work against the previous findings of Skinner and the behaviorist theory.
Discussion:
While interesting, I have long observed that people will be able to rationalize their behavior in almost any circumstance. Perhaps the most important thing to take from this chapter is that no one theory can be used to describe humanity.
Opening Skinner's Box
Lauren Slater
2004 W. W. Norton & Company
Summary:
This chapter examines how people are able to rationalize their behavior. Some rationalize their beliefs in a group setting (such as a cult). Some people will compromise their beliefs for a token payment (i.e. since they can't justify that they would compromise their views for a pittance, they must have really held different views the entire time). If nothing else, these observations work against the previous findings of Skinner and the behaviorist theory.
Discussion:
While interesting, I have long observed that people will be able to rationalize their behavior in almost any circumstance. Perhaps the most important thing to take from this chapter is that no one theory can be used to describe humanity.
Book Reading #19 - Coming of Age in Samoa
Reference:
Coming of Age in Samoa
Margaret Mead
1928 Harper Perennial
Summary:
As Samoan youths come of age, the boys are inducted into a group of their peers in which they do the hardest work in the village and learn the proper execution of customs and rituals. Girls, on the other hand, join a disorganized group (if their villiage even still follows the custom) where they do little work and typically complete chores and favors for the older women of the villiage.
Discussion:
Coming of Age in Samoa
Margaret Mead
1928 Harper Perennial
Summary:
As Samoan youths come of age, the boys are inducted into a group of their peers in which they do the hardest work in the village and learn the proper execution of customs and rituals. Girls, on the other hand, join a disorganized group (if their villiage even still follows the custom) where they do little work and typically complete chores and favors for the older women of the villiage.
Discussion:
Book Reading #18 - The Design of Everyday Things
Reference:
The Design of Everyday Things
Donald A. Norman
1988 Basic Books
Summary:
Norman discusses various challenges that come up during the design process. Sometimes a design fails because it would be too costly to change a previous, well-known design. Sometimes the designers concentrate on aesthetics over usability. At times a designer gets so wrapped up in the design that they are unable to step back and see their design from an outside perspective. The designer must also make choices on how many people will/will not be able to use a product. Finally, the more features available in a product, the more complex it becomes.
Discussion:
Norman has some interesting points in this chapter. I've never really considered the applications of designing something to discourage use (like the cafeteria mentioned in the text). I guess the main point of this chapter is that in design, there will always be some give and take.
The Design of Everyday Things
Donald A. Norman
1988 Basic Books
Summary:
Norman discusses various challenges that come up during the design process. Sometimes a design fails because it would be too costly to change a previous, well-known design. Sometimes the designers concentrate on aesthetics over usability. At times a designer gets so wrapped up in the design that they are unable to step back and see their design from an outside perspective. The designer must also make choices on how many people will/will not be able to use a product. Finally, the more features available in a product, the more complex it becomes.
Discussion:
Norman has some interesting points in this chapter. I've never really considered the applications of designing something to discourage use (like the cafeteria mentioned in the text). I guess the main point of this chapter is that in design, there will always be some give and take.
Ethnography Results: Week 2
Culture of Reddit.com
This week I chose to focus mainly on the political subreddit section. Based on the top stories of the day and the hundreds of comments I went over, I can say with relative certainty that this section is primarily comprised of people with liberal views, with a smattering of liberarians thrown in for good measure. Convervitive comments are few and far between. When people in this subreddit comment on stories, it is common to see straw man arguments, unsubstantiated claims, feeble analogies, and outright rudeness. When people start posting constructive, thought out, and intelectually honest comments, however, then clarifying debate between opposing viewpoints typically ensues. Current topics that can be found on the "what's hot" page include the PATRIOT act, FOX news, and Ron Paul.
This week I chose to focus mainly on the political subreddit section. Based on the top stories of the day and the hundreds of comments I went over, I can say with relative certainty that this section is primarily comprised of people with liberal views, with a smattering of liberarians thrown in for good measure. Convervitive comments are few and far between. When people in this subreddit comment on stories, it is common to see straw man arguments, unsubstantiated claims, feeble analogies, and outright rudeness. When people start posting constructive, thought out, and intelectually honest comments, however, then clarifying debate between opposing viewpoints typically ensues. Current topics that can be found on the "what's hot" page include the PATRIOT act, FOX news, and Ron Paul.On a different note, I found how easy it is to sink hours and hours into browsing reddit.com Here is a sample of some observations I made during my explorations:
- people will post on anything and everything, from current events to old TV shows to their new haircut
- user-made comics based on various rage faces are common
- the programming subreddit is among the largest (~338K subscribers)
- the Atheism subreddit subscribers (~121K) outnumber both the Christian and Religion subreddit subscribers (~ 10K each) by about 12 to 1
- the cannabis subreddit has the most detailed description I've encountered
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Paper Reading #8 - Planz to Put Our Digital Information in Its Place
Comments:
Reference:
Planz to Put Our Digital Information in Its Place
William Jones, Dawei Hou, Bhuricha Deen Sethanandha, Sheng Bi, Jim Gemmell
CHI 2010
Summary:
Planz is a system that overlays a file-folder system and provides a single, document like interface. This overlay uses XML fragments to provide references to files, emails, web pages, and informal notes. Links in the Planz document can be created via a "drag & link" method, where a user drags an external document to a location in Planz, or via an in-context link creation, where a new document is automatically linked in Planz. In evaluating Planz, it was found that while Planz is an improvement over the status quo in things like visibility, it is typically equal to or less useful the norm in thing like organizing new files and finding existing documents. As noted by a participant, this is likely because they had used Planz for about a week, while they had years of experience with mainstream systems.
Discussion:
Reference:
Planz to Put Our Digital Information in Its Place
William Jones, Dawei Hou, Bhuricha Deen Sethanandha, Sheng Bi, Jim Gemmell
CHI 2010
Summary:
Planz is a system that overlays a file-folder system and provides a single, document like interface. This overlay uses XML fragments to provide references to files, emails, web pages, and informal notes. Links in the Planz document can be created via a "drag & link" method, where a user drags an external document to a location in Planz, or via an in-context link creation, where a new document is automatically linked in Planz. In evaluating Planz, it was found that while Planz is an improvement over the status quo in things like visibility, it is typically equal to or less useful the norm in thing like organizing new files and finding existing documents. As noted by a participant, this is likely because they had used Planz for about a week, while they had years of experience with mainstream systems.
Discussion:
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Book Reading #17 - HCI Remixed Microblogs
Reference:
HCI Remixed
edited by Thomas Ericson and David W. McDonald
2008 The MIT Press
Discussion:
I have seen presentations on this before, and must say that while when using techniques to improve selections times, care needs to be taken. In programs where a users next move is predicted, for example, it is all too easy for the prediction to override the actual intent of the user (like Apple devices assuming that their spelling auto-correct is right and replacing the intended word).
HCI Remixed
edited by Thomas Ericson and David W. McDonald
2008 The MIT Press
Chapter 6
Summary:
In the late 70s, Henry Lieberman read an essay about a creative programming environment. He got to meet the author of the piece a few years later and viewed a brief demo of the program on which the essay was written. The program, Pygmalion, is recognized as the first system to make use of icons as individual, self-contained entities. It also introduced the concept of programming by example, or by developing a program by showing the computer an example of what you wanted to do. Many of Pygmalion's features are a part of the foundations of modern interfaces.
Discussion
It's interesting that so many features that we take for granted today came from this one program. Without it, who know where we would be today.
Chapter 7
Summary:
The Xerox Star workstation provided a number of fundamental HCI principles that remain important to this day. The Star interface was modeled after physical office properties. Documents could be put into folders, which in turn could be put into cabinets. Printer, in-baskets, and wastebaskets were also available. It could also allow selection of an object that could then be modified.
Discussion
I had never thought about how many functions that we use today were based on an actual office environment. This goes to show that the study of CHI can have a huge impact for years down the road.
Chapter 9
Summary:
This chapter deals with the art of making a computer "disappear." This can be done through making computers smaller and integrating them with everyday objects, or by hiding the computer in an object that is seen as "interactive." For example, instead of placing a touch-screen interface in a wall, replace the majority of the wall with the interface.
Discussion
When considering this chapter, I couldn't really think of many examples of disappearing computers. I'm not sure if this indicates a minimal use of such systems, or if they are so successful that I don't notice them.
Chapter 10
Summary:
Location based services are an area of computing that is just now becomming technologically viable on a large scale. In the past, indoor location systems were tested and found to improve several aspects of the involved test subjects everyday activites. To give one example, a receptionist could track where a particular employee was, and forward a call directly to their location. With the advent of individual GPS compatible machines, it is likely that similar services will become more and more prominant.
Discussion:
While I like the concept of having location-based services available, I can't help being concerned over the possible privacy issues. It's one thing to have special benefits based on your location, but I don't doubt that the technology will be used in some kind of Big Brother capacity.
While I like the concept of having location-based services available, I can't help being concerned over the possible privacy issues. It's one thing to have special benefits based on your location, but I don't doubt that the technology will be used in some kind of Big Brother capacity.
Chapter 46
Summary:
Mental models are an important part of the design process. When designing a system, the designer must determine the goals, operators, methods, and selectional rules that explicitly represent how the user will view the system.
Mental models are an important part of the design process. When designing a system, the designer must determine the goals, operators, methods, and selectional rules that explicitly represent how the user will view the system.
Discussion:
Mental models should always be considered when designing a system. If a designer can conceive how a user will view the product, then it will more likely than not be a success.
Mental models should always be considered when designing a system. If a designer can conceive how a user will view the product, then it will more likely than not be a success.
Chapter 47
Summary:
Fitt's law describes the amount of time it takes to reach a target based on the size of the target and the length of the required movement. In CHI, this can be applied to targets on a screen. To improve selection times, a target could be placed next to a "hard" boundry (i.e. the edge of a screen), or an item could expand as the curser approaches it.
Discussion:
I have seen presentations on this before, and must say that while when using techniques to improve selections times, care needs to be taken. In programs where a users next move is predicted, for example, it is all too easy for the prediction to override the actual intent of the user (like Apple devices assuming that their spelling auto-correct is right and replacing the intended word).
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Paper Reading #7 - Manual Deskterity: An Exploration of Simultaneous Pen + Touch Direct Input
Comments:
http://jaiachi.blogspot.com/
http://chi-garza.blogspot.com/
Reference:
Manual Deskterity: An Exploration of Simultaneous Pen + Touch Direct Input
Ken Hinckley, Jerry Rodenhouse, Koji Yatani, Michel Pahud, Andy Wilson, Hrvoje Benko, Nicole Coddington, Bill Buxton
CHI 2010
Summary:
With the proliferation of touch-screen technology, there are many products available that allow either pen input or touch input. However, there are few products available that incooperate both. Manual Deskterity is a scrapbooking application that lets a user write with a pen, manupulate with touch, and explore other options with a combination of the two.
To determine the design of this project, eight test subjects were given a notebook and some creative materials and told to design a short film. The behaviors of the subjects were observed to determine how a typical user naturally utilizes pen and paper in combination. With few exceptions, the actions observed were uniform across the test subjects.
The foundation of Manual Deskterity's design lies in these observations. Objects can be created, deleted, and manipulated through touch, while the pen is utilized for writing. Specific modes are avoided by giving each object a radial context menu. Touch and pen controls can be combined to perform actions such as stapling items together, cutting and tearing items, copying items, and using an item as a straightedge or ruler.
Since the design of Manual Deskterity is based on real-world behaviors, the gestures used to interact with the system seemed obvious and intuitive to users. However, the designers believe that designing a more general purpose system would be difficult without adding layers of complexity to the design.
Discussion:
I am excited by the possibilities this research opens up. One of my personal gripes with touch-screen technology is that precision movements are difficult to achieve with just one or two fingers. Furthermore, fingers can obscure what someone wants to interact with, leading to unneccisary frustration. On the other hand, a pen based device seems unwieldly when broader motions are required. In combining the two we get the best of both worlds. One thing I would like to see more research on is how left handed people would interact with the system. Lefties typically hold a writing instrument in a radically different manner than their counterparts, so I suspect that the sensors would be thrown off by this variation. Barring that, I look forward to a commercial use of this software with anticipation.
http://jaiachi.blogspot.com/
http://chi-garza.blogspot.com/
Reference:
Manual Deskterity: An Exploration of Simultaneous Pen + Touch Direct Input
Ken Hinckley, Jerry Rodenhouse, Koji Yatani, Michel Pahud, Andy Wilson, Hrvoje Benko, Nicole Coddington, Bill Buxton
CHI 2010
Summary:
With the proliferation of touch-screen technology, there are many products available that allow either pen input or touch input. However, there are few products available that incooperate both. Manual Deskterity is a scrapbooking application that lets a user write with a pen, manupulate with touch, and explore other options with a combination of the two.
To determine the design of this project, eight test subjects were given a notebook and some creative materials and told to design a short film. The behaviors of the subjects were observed to determine how a typical user naturally utilizes pen and paper in combination. With few exceptions, the actions observed were uniform across the test subjects.Since the design of Manual Deskterity is based on real-world behaviors, the gestures used to interact with the system seemed obvious and intuitive to users. However, the designers believe that designing a more general purpose system would be difficult without adding layers of complexity to the design.
Discussion:
I am excited by the possibilities this research opens up. One of my personal gripes with touch-screen technology is that precision movements are difficult to achieve with just one or two fingers. Furthermore, fingers can obscure what someone wants to interact with, leading to unneccisary frustration. On the other hand, a pen based device seems unwieldly when broader motions are required. In combining the two we get the best of both worlds. One thing I would like to see more research on is how left handed people would interact with the system. Lefties typically hold a writing instrument in a radically different manner than their counterparts, so I suspect that the sensors would be thrown off by this variation. Barring that, I look forward to a commercial use of this software with anticipation.
Book Reading #16 - Opening Skinner's Box: Ch. 4
Reference:
Opening Skinner's Box
Lauren Slater
2004 W. W. Norton & Company
Summary:
After a horrific, highly publicized murder in 1964, John Darley and Bibb Latane set out to discover why none of the 38 people who witnessed the crime made any serious effort to help the victim. They set up a study where a test subject would be tricked into believing that someone else was having a serious siezure. They discovered that in situations where the subject thought they were interacting with an individual one on one,
they would almost always seek help within a short time period. When the subject believed they were in a group of people, however, the ratio dropped to about 1 in 3. This suggests that social cues have a hand in influencing our behavior, even when these cues are at odds with reality.
Discussion:
While the implications of this study are unsettling, I don't believe that it excuses poor behavior. Everyone has a choice when the moment of truth comes, and just because social cues may make the right choice more difficult, it doesn't make it impossible. Also, if these cues are as powerful as they seem, why don't we harness them in a constructive way? If reports of suicide cause suicide rates to climb, why don't we report on instances of goodness? Why don't we act better toward others? If these things can spur people to lead better lives, then perhaps the power of social cues is more of a mixed blessing than a curse.
Opening Skinner's Box
Lauren Slater
2004 W. W. Norton & Company
Summary:
After a horrific, highly publicized murder in 1964, John Darley and Bibb Latane set out to discover why none of the 38 people who witnessed the crime made any serious effort to help the victim. They set up a study where a test subject would be tricked into believing that someone else was having a serious siezure. They discovered that in situations where the subject thought they were interacting with an individual one on one,
they would almost always seek help within a short time period. When the subject believed they were in a group of people, however, the ratio dropped to about 1 in 3. This suggests that social cues have a hand in influencing our behavior, even when these cues are at odds with reality.
Discussion:
While the implications of this study are unsettling, I don't believe that it excuses poor behavior. Everyone has a choice when the moment of truth comes, and just because social cues may make the right choice more difficult, it doesn't make it impossible. Also, if these cues are as powerful as they seem, why don't we harness them in a constructive way? If reports of suicide cause suicide rates to climb, why don't we report on instances of goodness? Why don't we act better toward others? If these things can spur people to lead better lives, then perhaps the power of social cues is more of a mixed blessing than a curse.
Book Reading #15 - Coming of Age in Samoa
Reference:
Coming of Age in Samoa
Margaret Mead
1928 Harper Perennial
Summary:
Before the age of 7, Samoan children typically only interact with peers within their own household. When they reach this age, they begin to socialize with larger groups of children their own age, though not with members of the opposite sex. As they age, these large groups fracture into smaller groups. While the boys form groups regardless of relation, the girls will withdraw into groups made up of family members.
Discussion:
The most interesting thing to me in this chapter was the similarities and differences between Samoan age groups and American age groups. I remember as a kid how all the kids in school were friends with one another, leading to things like massive birthday parties. As I grew, however, I found myself hanging out with a handful of closer friends, and the big group no longer seemed important. For girls, however, I think the experience is different than what was described in the book. Modern girls seem to follow a similar trend, but rather than withdrawing into a closely knit family group as the Samoans did, they remain social with a multitude of people. I'll admit that this is coming from an outsider's perspective, so if this generalization is incorrect than feel free to let me know.
Coming of Age in Samoa
Margaret Mead
1928 Harper Perennial
Summary:
Before the age of 7, Samoan children typically only interact with peers within their own household. When they reach this age, they begin to socialize with larger groups of children their own age, though not with members of the opposite sex. As they age, these large groups fracture into smaller groups. While the boys form groups regardless of relation, the girls will withdraw into groups made up of family members.
Discussion:
The most interesting thing to me in this chapter was the similarities and differences between Samoan age groups and American age groups. I remember as a kid how all the kids in school were friends with one another, leading to things like massive birthday parties. As I grew, however, I found myself hanging out with a handful of closer friends, and the big group no longer seemed important. For girls, however, I think the experience is different than what was described in the book. Modern girls seem to follow a similar trend, but rather than withdrawing into a closely knit family group as the Samoans did, they remain social with a multitude of people. I'll admit that this is coming from an outsider's perspective, so if this generalization is incorrect than feel free to let me know.
Book Reading #14 - The Design of Everyday Things: Ch. 5
Reference:
The Design of Everyday Things
Donald A. Norman
1988 Basic Books
Summary:
Errors are an everyday part of human life. There are typically two types of errors: slips and mistakes. Slips occur when someone makes an unconsious error, while mistakes happen when someone consiously reaches an incorrect conclusion. Steps must be taken in design to minimize slips and errors. One such method is to use "forcing functions," or functions that won't let action B take place until action A has been completed. Generally, forcing function are a nuisence, but are well worth it when they prevent catastrophe.
Discussion:
I like the idea of forcing functions, as it is easy to forget just how many warning alerts and signals that we ignore. For example, I can't remember the last time that I heard a car alarm where I was actually concerned that a car was being stolen. Since we do so many things on autopilot, it is important to make people think about what exactly they are doing before making a devastating mistake.
The Design of Everyday Things
Donald A. Norman
1988 Basic Books
Summary:
Errors are an everyday part of human life. There are typically two types of errors: slips and mistakes. Slips occur when someone makes an unconsious error, while mistakes happen when someone consiously reaches an incorrect conclusion. Steps must be taken in design to minimize slips and errors. One such method is to use "forcing functions," or functions that won't let action B take place until action A has been completed. Generally, forcing function are a nuisence, but are well worth it when they prevent catastrophe.
Discussion:
I like the idea of forcing functions, as it is easy to forget just how many warning alerts and signals that we ignore. For example, I can't remember the last time that I heard a car alarm where I was actually concerned that a car was being stolen. Since we do so many things on autopilot, it is important to make people think about what exactly they are doing before making a devastating mistake.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Ethnography Results - Week 1
After the first week of studying trends concerning free samples in grocery stores, the observations I made were not in line with my private guesses. I decided to go to HEB and covertly observe people in the baked goods section (there were no displays with employees handing out samples at the time), and I was surprised at the low volume of samplers. During my time at the store, only 17 shoppers tried free samples. Of these, I classified 9 as elderly (people who looked 60+), 4 as middle aged (40-60), 3 as young adults (20-40) and 1 as young (a child with his grandmother). While there were more females than males who took free samples (11 to 6), there seemed to be more women than men in the store at the time, so the ratio was more or less proportional
Of these 17 samplers, I only observed one who purchased the product. An additional three seemed to consider the product they were sampling, waiting a few seconds after trying the product to walk away. The other 13 simply took a sample when they passed the display. The majority of people only took one sample, with the exception being the child/grandmother combo (she got at least 1 for each of them).
When setting out on this assignment, I expected that there would be more youths to take free samples than older people. I was surprised to find the correlation to be exactly the opposite, though observations at different times of the day could yield different results. I must note that based on Dr. Hammond's comments last week, I plan on pursuing a different ethnography study with my team for the remainder of the semester.
Of these 17 samplers, I only observed one who purchased the product. An additional three seemed to consider the product they were sampling, waiting a few seconds after trying the product to walk away. The other 13 simply took a sample when they passed the display. The majority of people only took one sample, with the exception being the child/grandmother combo (she got at least 1 for each of them).
When setting out on this assignment, I expected that there would be more youths to take free samples than older people. I was surprised to find the correlation to be exactly the opposite, though observations at different times of the day could yield different results. I must note that based on Dr. Hammond's comments last week, I plan on pursuing a different ethnography study with my team for the remainder of the semester.
Ethnography Proposal
I've decided to expand on my idea of studying how many people take free samples in a grocery store without buying the product.
Group studied:
Ideally I plan on studying a representative cross-section of grocery shoppers in the College Station area.
Expect to learn:
I expect to learn if there are products that are purchased more regularly after being sampled. I also expect to see if there is any correlation between people who take free samples and age/gender/race/etc.
Time per week:
I will simply have to go to a grocery store for at least two hours in a week. I will likely have to break up the time into smaller chunks, because I'm pretty sure that some guy watching the same spot for two hours would make people nervous.
Quantitative data:
I would record the total number of people taking free samples and how many of those then purchased the product (that is, how many then put the item into their cart/basket, as I'm not going to follow people through the entire store to see if they buy the item or not).
Qualitative data:
Observe how many people consider purchasing an item, and how many are just there for the free food (i.e. how many people walk away from the display before even tasting what they have).
Interaction:
At this time I don't plan on interacting with the test subjects, but I could ask store employees if they notice any trends concerning people who receive free samples.
Group studied:
Ideally I plan on studying a representative cross-section of grocery shoppers in the College Station area.
Expect to learn:
I expect to learn if there are products that are purchased more regularly after being sampled. I also expect to see if there is any correlation between people who take free samples and age/gender/race/etc.
Time per week:
I will simply have to go to a grocery store for at least two hours in a week. I will likely have to break up the time into smaller chunks, because I'm pretty sure that some guy watching the same spot for two hours would make people nervous.
Quantitative data:
I would record the total number of people taking free samples and how many of those then purchased the product (that is, how many then put the item into their cart/basket, as I'm not going to follow people through the entire store to see if they buy the item or not).
Qualitative data:
Observe how many people consider purchasing an item, and how many are just there for the free food (i.e. how many people walk away from the display before even tasting what they have).
Interaction:
At this time I don't plan on interacting with the test subjects, but I could ask store employees if they notice any trends concerning people who receive free samples.
Paper Reading #6 - Adaptive Mouse: A Deformable Computer Mouse Achieving Form-Function Synchronization
Comments:
http://jaiachi.blogspot.com/
http://jngonzales-chi2011.blogspot.com/
Reference:
Adaptive Mouse: A Deformable Computer Mouse Achieving Form-Function Synchronization
Sheng Kai Tang, Wen Yen Tang
CHI 2010
Summary:
The design of computer mice has always been limited by physical constraints. Some mice are designed for only right or left handed people, and some mice are designed to be neutral. The Adaptive Mouse embraces the latter philosophy.
The Adaptive Mouse consists of a magnet, a Hall-effect sensor, and a layer of foam. The Hall-sensors are placed in the foam, and they record their distance from the magnet in the center. In this way they substitute for the buttons found on a typical mouse and allow the mouse to be gripped from any angle. Based on a sample of 30 test subjects, the researchers recorded the most common ways to hold a mouse (right and left handed). Based on these findings, they were able to use hand orientation to calculate the expected direction of mouse movement.
After completing their first prototype, the researchers had the same 30 subjects test the mouse. The subjects were generally pleased with the results, commenting on the intuitive controls and possible uses in dark rooms. On the other hand, the mouse had to be held correctly to work properly, and some of the women in the study noted that their hands were too small to be able to hold the mouse correctly.
Discussion:
While this technology is certainly interesting, I don't see much commercial viability for it (at least not without significant changes). Foam is acceptable for a prototype, but I doubt very much that it would last long under everyday use. It would also need to be available in multiple sizes to accomidate the gammut of hand sizes. Finally, I think most left-handed people would be more or less indifferent to such a mouse. I may be in the minority, but I am a lefty who long ago adapted to the right-handed mouse. In fact, I currently use a mouse that is designed specifically for the right hand, and I couldn't be happier with it. I do know of one or two people who would benefit greatly from a mouse of this design, but that translates into a very narrow user base. I don't see conventional mice going anywhere anytime soon.
http://jaiachi.blogspot.com/
http://jngonzales-chi2011.blogspot.com/
Reference:
Adaptive Mouse: A Deformable Computer Mouse Achieving Form-Function Synchronization
Sheng Kai Tang, Wen Yen Tang
CHI 2010
Summary:
The design of computer mice has always been limited by physical constraints. Some mice are designed for only right or left handed people, and some mice are designed to be neutral. The Adaptive Mouse embraces the latter philosophy.
The Adaptive Mouse consists of a magnet, a Hall-effect sensor, and a layer of foam. The Hall-sensors are placed in the foam, and they record their distance from the magnet in the center. In this way they substitute for the buttons found on a typical mouse and allow the mouse to be gripped from any angle. Based on a sample of 30 test subjects, the researchers recorded the most common ways to hold a mouse (right and left handed). Based on these findings, they were able to use hand orientation to calculate the expected direction of mouse movement.Discussion:
While this technology is certainly interesting, I don't see much commercial viability for it (at least not without significant changes). Foam is acceptable for a prototype, but I doubt very much that it would last long under everyday use. It would also need to be available in multiple sizes to accomidate the gammut of hand sizes. Finally, I think most left-handed people would be more or less indifferent to such a mouse. I may be in the minority, but I am a lefty who long ago adapted to the right-handed mouse. In fact, I currently use a mouse that is designed specifically for the right hand, and I couldn't be happier with it. I do know of one or two people who would benefit greatly from a mouse of this design, but that translates into a very narrow user base. I don't see conventional mice going anywhere anytime soon.
Book Reading #13: Opening Skinner's Box
Reference:
Opening Skinner's Box
Lauren Slater
2004 W. W. Norton & Company
Summary:
In 1972, David Rosenhan conducted an experiment in which he and eight others attempted to get committed to a mental institution. Upon achieveing this first objective, the "patients" would then revert to their normal personalities. Rosenhan was trying to determine the ease and consequences of obtaining a misdiagnosis from psychiatrists. His results had a profound effect on the field of psychiatry, resulting in many changes that can be observed to this day.
Discussion:
While I acknowledge that psychiatry is at least an imprecise science, I find myself agreeing with Spitzer and his defense of the field. I've had enough medical problems to give me an intimate knowledge of medical examinations, and it has always been stressed that total honesty is cruicial to a correct diagnosis. In a profession where a diagnosis entirely hinges on the behavior and commnentary of an individual, it is no great surprise that false information leads to an erronious diagnosis. In the more recent experiments carried out by the author, I believe that an unrecognized factor was in part responsible for her misdiagnoses. I think that the doctors decided that it was safer to diagnose a patient and prescribe medication than to refuse treatment and risk a malpractice suit. I could be totally wrong on this, but considering the volume of frivilous lawsuits in the court system I am content with this hypothesis.
Opening Skinner's Box
Lauren Slater
2004 W. W. Norton & Company
Summary:
In 1972, David Rosenhan conducted an experiment in which he and eight others attempted to get committed to a mental institution. Upon achieveing this first objective, the "patients" would then revert to their normal personalities. Rosenhan was trying to determine the ease and consequences of obtaining a misdiagnosis from psychiatrists. His results had a profound effect on the field of psychiatry, resulting in many changes that can be observed to this day.
Discussion:
While I acknowledge that psychiatry is at least an imprecise science, I find myself agreeing with Spitzer and his defense of the field. I've had enough medical problems to give me an intimate knowledge of medical examinations, and it has always been stressed that total honesty is cruicial to a correct diagnosis. In a profession where a diagnosis entirely hinges on the behavior and commnentary of an individual, it is no great surprise that false information leads to an erronious diagnosis. In the more recent experiments carried out by the author, I believe that an unrecognized factor was in part responsible for her misdiagnoses. I think that the doctors decided that it was safer to diagnose a patient and prescribe medication than to refuse treatment and risk a malpractice suit. I could be totally wrong on this, but considering the volume of frivilous lawsuits in the court system I am content with this hypothesis.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Book Reading #12: Coming of Age in Samoa
Reference:
Coming of Age in Samoa
Margaret Mead
1928 Harper Perennial
Summary:
Samoan social life consists of a web of traditions and relationships. With few exceptions, an individual gains power and authority with age. Families joined through marriage are expected to help each other out, but only when a specific set of actions is carries out, and only while the marriage lasts. All the while, political forces are at play as youths jockey for positions of noteriety.
Discussion:
I find it odd that while in the previous chapter Mead talks about how the boys limit their successes, in this chapter she describes a struggle for power in their ranks. On the other hand, Mead describes how the position of taupo is given to an underqualified girl who has no desire for it. It will be interesting to see if these types of trends continue through the text.
Coming of Age in Samoa
Margaret Mead
1928 Harper Perennial
Summary:
Samoan social life consists of a web of traditions and relationships. With few exceptions, an individual gains power and authority with age. Families joined through marriage are expected to help each other out, but only when a specific set of actions is carries out, and only while the marriage lasts. All the while, political forces are at play as youths jockey for positions of noteriety.
Discussion:
I find it odd that while in the previous chapter Mead talks about how the boys limit their successes, in this chapter she describes a struggle for power in their ranks. On the other hand, Mead describes how the position of taupo is given to an underqualified girl who has no desire for it. It will be interesting to see if these types of trends continue through the text.
Book Reading #11: Design of Everyday Things
Reference:
The Design of Everyday Things
Donald A. Norman
1988 Basic Books
Summary:
People constantly have to adapt to new experiences, and they can do so quickly when guided by physical, semantic, cultural, or logical constraints. These constraints, combined with real world experience, lead people to make the correct choices when facing a new experience. However, sometimes designers choose a model that defies conventional wisdom, and confusion reigns supreme. Devices should ideally be intuitive enough that labels and instructions are not needed. In situations where multiple switches are involved, there should be something that distinguishes one switch from another.
Discussion:
Norman makes several good points, but I have to wonder how effectively his ideas could be translated into software. It stands to reason that the more complex a program is, the less intuitive it will be for the user. On an unrelated note, I never really thought about how important sound is as a source of feedback.
The Design of Everyday Things
Donald A. Norman
1988 Basic Books
Summary:
People constantly have to adapt to new experiences, and they can do so quickly when guided by physical, semantic, cultural, or logical constraints. These constraints, combined with real world experience, lead people to make the correct choices when facing a new experience. However, sometimes designers choose a model that defies conventional wisdom, and confusion reigns supreme. Devices should ideally be intuitive enough that labels and instructions are not needed. In situations where multiple switches are involved, there should be something that distinguishes one switch from another.
Discussion:
Norman makes several good points, but I have to wonder how effectively his ideas could be translated into software. It stands to reason that the more complex a program is, the less intuitive it will be for the user. On an unrelated note, I never really thought about how important sound is as a source of feedback.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
symTone: Two-Handed Manipulation of Tone Reproduction Curves
Reference:
Celine Latulipe, Ian Bell Charles L. A. Clarke, Craig S. Kaplan
GI '06
Summary:
While existing photo manipulation software is extraordinarily powerful, the knowledge and learning required to utilize all of the featers is often prohibitive. To alleviate this, symTone was created. SymTone utilizes a dual-mouse system to easily provide a way to fully explore the tone mapping domain. While most programs track tone information and the tone reproduction curve in a seperate widget, requireing users to split their attention between the picture and the information, symTone overlays the TRC on the image itself. The left hand controls the lower bounds of the tone range and the right controls the upper. After collecting data from 18 participants in the experiment, 13 preffered symmetric bimanual curve manipulation.
Discussion:
Since I dabble with photo manipulation software, I can attest to the learning curve required to effetively use the software. I recently helped a friend who was attempting to correct the RGB spectrum of a video that had been recorded with strange settings. After half an hour spent manually adjusting the various fields, we were only slightly closer to our goal. While reading this paper, I kept thinking about how much software like symTone could have helped us achieve the result we were lookning for.
Celine Latulipe, Ian Bell Charles L. A. Clarke, Craig S. Kaplan
GI '06
Summary:
While existing photo manipulation software is extraordinarily powerful, the knowledge and learning required to utilize all of the featers is often prohibitive. To alleviate this, symTone was created. SymTone utilizes a dual-mouse system to easily provide a way to fully explore the tone mapping domain. While most programs track tone information and the tone reproduction curve in a seperate widget, requireing users to split their attention between the picture and the information, symTone overlays the TRC on the image itself. The left hand controls the lower bounds of the tone range and the right controls the upper. After collecting data from 18 participants in the experiment, 13 preffered symmetric bimanual curve manipulation.
Discussion:
Since I dabble with photo manipulation software, I can attest to the learning curve required to effetively use the software. I recently helped a friend who was attempting to correct the RGB spectrum of a video that had been recorded with strange settings. After half an hour spent manually adjusting the various fields, we were only slightly closer to our goal. While reading this paper, I kept thinking about how much software like symTone could have helped us achieve the result we were lookning for.
Paper Reading #5: Tangible Video Bubbles
Comments:
References:
Tangible Video Bubbles
Kimiko Ryokai, Hayes Raffle, Hiroshi Horii, Yotam Mann
CHI 2010: I Need Your Input
Summary:
They researchers let a group of 18 children play with the bubbles without an in-depth explination of the bubbles. The kids were able to grasp the concept quickly, and were soon playing with the video and sound editing. Kids recorded all sorts of topics, from the lighthearted ("I'll be 9 next month") to the serious ("I miss Mom, it's been over a year since I've seen her"). In the end, this project was able to turn an intangible recording into a tangible, malleable medium for the kids to play with.
Discussion:
To be honest, I've never heard of anything like this before. From the description in the paper and the results it contains, I think that the TVB could be a useful tool in getting kid's creative juices flowing. Furthermore, the kids in this study played well together, in one case pretending they were filming a movie. If this proves to be a common trend across a larger sample, this tool might be able to help quieter kids come out of their shells. On the other hand, this could end up like a slew of past "must have" Christmas toys, where the kid plays with it for a week before it gets buried somewhere in the closet.
References:
Tangible Video Bubbles
Kimiko Ryokai, Hayes Raffle, Hiroshi Horii, Yotam Mann
CHI 2010: I Need Your Input
Summary:
Ages 5-7 are when children are most creative, and they move quickly from one art form to another. In an attempt to use interactive technology to help foster this creativity, the Tangible Video Bubble was conceived. The TVB consists of a flexible shell that acts as an input and output device. Inside the shell is a foam bubble that can record things like expressions. The child can then "squeeze" said expression onto a seperate screen via a physical platform. Squeezing with varying strength and speed can speed up or slow down the recording. In its natural, undistorted form, the width of the bubble represents the length of the video. The child can change the speed and the length of the recording until they are satisfied with it, and when the bubble is removed from the platform the recording is transferred to the screen. The screen can be used as a digital canvas, and the child can add as many "bubbles" to the canvas as they like.
Discussion:
To be honest, I've never heard of anything like this before. From the description in the paper and the results it contains, I think that the TVB could be a useful tool in getting kid's creative juices flowing. Furthermore, the kids in this study played well together, in one case pretending they were filming a movie. If this proves to be a common trend across a larger sample, this tool might be able to help quieter kids come out of their shells. On the other hand, this could end up like a slew of past "must have" Christmas toys, where the kid plays with it for a week before it gets buried somewhere in the closet.
Book Reading #10: Opening Skinner's Box
Reference:
Opening Skinner's Box
Lauren Slater
2004 W. W. Norton & Company
Summary:
In 1961, Dr. Stanley Milgram performed a study of obedience. He recruited test subjects by telling them they were participating in a study of learning, then had them quiz the "learners" while administering electric shocks for incorrect answers. Even though the learners appeared to become more and more agitated as the electric shocks became more and more powerful, 65% of the test subjects would continue to administer the shocks based on the orders they were given. While the data collected showed that some groups were somewhat more likely to continue administering the shocks, there were no conclusive findings in the data.
Discussion:
While the implications of this study are fascinating, I feel I must address some of the presumptuous statements that the author made. First of all, it came as a shock to find that since my father works for Exxon, he is a bad man. I grant that she didn't make any explicit statements on the sinister nature of Big Oil, but when considering how she repeatedly stated how she was surprised how the defiant individual worked for Exxon, I think my analysis is sound. I happen to know for a fact that, in spite of working for Exxon, my father is not a bad man. He provides for his family and works tirelessly to sustain our quality of life. Believe it or not, Exxon is not out to gouge people at the pumps, as my father's work helps prevent gas prices from soaring.
Secondly, the author is clearly strongly biased against war. There's no getting around the fact that war is hell. This does not, however, mean that war is necissarily amoral. For example, Slater mentions that following this experiment one of the 65% became a consiensence objector to "the war," which I assume refers to Vietnam. That would place this individual as a part of the group that won the public opinion in the US, leading to congressional refusal to support South Vietnam during the North's offensive following the Paris Peace Accords. America pulled out of Vietnam and the South fell. Then comes the part that nobody likes to talk about. Nobody likes to talk about mass killings and ethnic cleansings by the Communist states that followed the fall of Saigon. Nobody like to talk about the one and a half million people slain in Cambodia. Nobody likes to talk about how this shouldn't have been a big surprise, because nobody likes to talk about about the fact that people had a habit of dying under Communist rule (10-20 million under Stalin and 40-70 million un Mao, just to name a couple). So I ask, which is the lesser evil: fighting a war against an enemy that would cut down anyone in their path, or pulling out of a war with the same people.
Thirdly, when WWII vet Joshua talks about the "SOB Japs" that he captured during the way, the author is clearly at the least shocked, at the most appauled by Joshua's un-PC language. I wouldn't condone that description at any other time, given the context and given what I know about Japan during WWII I don't have any big problem with it. Several years ago I had the opportunity of reading the debriefing of a relative who served in the Pacific theater. He was captured by the Japanese and ended up in a Philippine POW camp. He then took part in a little something called the Bataan Death March. I won't go into the details, but believe me when I say that debriefing was one of the hardest things I've ever read. Let's just say that Joshua's description of the people he was fighting was one of the gentler descriptions he could have used.
Opening Skinner's Box
Lauren Slater
2004 W. W. Norton & Company
Summary:
In 1961, Dr. Stanley Milgram performed a study of obedience. He recruited test subjects by telling them they were participating in a study of learning, then had them quiz the "learners" while administering electric shocks for incorrect answers. Even though the learners appeared to become more and more agitated as the electric shocks became more and more powerful, 65% of the test subjects would continue to administer the shocks based on the orders they were given. While the data collected showed that some groups were somewhat more likely to continue administering the shocks, there were no conclusive findings in the data.
Discussion:
While the implications of this study are fascinating, I feel I must address some of the presumptuous statements that the author made. First of all, it came as a shock to find that since my father works for Exxon, he is a bad man. I grant that she didn't make any explicit statements on the sinister nature of Big Oil, but when considering how she repeatedly stated how she was surprised how the defiant individual worked for Exxon, I think my analysis is sound. I happen to know for a fact that, in spite of working for Exxon, my father is not a bad man. He provides for his family and works tirelessly to sustain our quality of life. Believe it or not, Exxon is not out to gouge people at the pumps, as my father's work helps prevent gas prices from soaring.
Secondly, the author is clearly strongly biased against war. There's no getting around the fact that war is hell. This does not, however, mean that war is necissarily amoral. For example, Slater mentions that following this experiment one of the 65% became a consiensence objector to "the war," which I assume refers to Vietnam. That would place this individual as a part of the group that won the public opinion in the US, leading to congressional refusal to support South Vietnam during the North's offensive following the Paris Peace Accords. America pulled out of Vietnam and the South fell. Then comes the part that nobody likes to talk about. Nobody likes to talk about mass killings and ethnic cleansings by the Communist states that followed the fall of Saigon. Nobody like to talk about the one and a half million people slain in Cambodia. Nobody likes to talk about how this shouldn't have been a big surprise, because nobody likes to talk about about the fact that people had a habit of dying under Communist rule (10-20 million under Stalin and 40-70 million un Mao, just to name a couple). So I ask, which is the lesser evil: fighting a war against an enemy that would cut down anyone in their path, or pulling out of a war with the same people.
Thirdly, when WWII vet Joshua talks about the "SOB Japs" that he captured during the way, the author is clearly at the least shocked, at the most appauled by Joshua's un-PC language. I wouldn't condone that description at any other time, given the context and given what I know about Japan during WWII I don't have any big problem with it. Several years ago I had the opportunity of reading the debriefing of a relative who served in the Pacific theater. He was captured by the Japanese and ended up in a Philippine POW camp. He then took part in a little something called the Bataan Death March. I won't go into the details, but believe me when I say that debriefing was one of the hardest things I've ever read. Let's just say that Joshua's description of the people he was fighting was one of the gentler descriptions he could have used.
Book Reading #9: Coming of Age in Samoa
Reference:
Coming of Age in Samoa
Margaret Mead
1928 Harper Perennial
Summary:
With the exception of a great feast upon birth, little attention is paid to Samoan children. The babies are looked after by children a few years older then them, and these children are responsible for the basic learning of the babies. When these older children reach the age where they are able to contribute to their families, the babies they have looked after are old enough to look after new babies. The older children begin learning the various skills they require in Samoan society, but while the boys are pushed to excel (to a reasonable degree), the girls are more or less allowed to get by. Both sexes have motivation to do well, but are hesitant to take up the responsibility that comes with being an adult.
Discussion:
There's a poetic justice in the way the child rearing system is described. Though the babies figure out that they can coerce their caretakers into doing all kinds of things, when it comes time for them to take care of the newborns they discover what unholy terrors they had been. Beyond that, it sounds like the children live in a privelage system, where up to a certain point as they age they receive more privelages. After that point, however, privelages follow accomplishment (and in some cases, only as long as it is not too good of an accomplishment). It will be interesting to see if Mead examines this in closer detail.
Coming of Age in Samoa
Margaret Mead
1928 Harper Perennial
Summary:
With the exception of a great feast upon birth, little attention is paid to Samoan children. The babies are looked after by children a few years older then them, and these children are responsible for the basic learning of the babies. When these older children reach the age where they are able to contribute to their families, the babies they have looked after are old enough to look after new babies. The older children begin learning the various skills they require in Samoan society, but while the boys are pushed to excel (to a reasonable degree), the girls are more or less allowed to get by. Both sexes have motivation to do well, but are hesitant to take up the responsibility that comes with being an adult.
Discussion:
There's a poetic justice in the way the child rearing system is described. Though the babies figure out that they can coerce their caretakers into doing all kinds of things, when it comes time for them to take care of the newborns they discover what unholy terrors they had been. Beyond that, it sounds like the children live in a privelage system, where up to a certain point as they age they receive more privelages. After that point, however, privelages follow accomplishment (and in some cases, only as long as it is not too good of an accomplishment). It will be interesting to see if Mead examines this in closer detail.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Book Reading #8: The Design of Everyday Things
Reference:
The Design of Everyday Things
Donald A. Norman
1988 Basic Books
Summary:
On any given day, people must rely on cues from the world in order to accomplish their tasks. This reliance stems from the fallibility of memory. Our brains will often learn just enough information to complete a task in the correct context, but will fail when trying to describe it in an alternitive setting. There is simply too much information in the world for the brain to remember all of it, so steps must be taken in order to increase what is retained. Arbitrary knowledge is the most difficult to remember, but it becomes increasingly easier to recall when someone has a good mental model or in depth understanding of said knowledge.
Discussion:
This chapter really made me thing of all the things I do and see that I wouldn't be able to accurately describe in a non-contextual setting. For example, I use the keyboard upon which I am typing every day, but if asked for the location of the scroll lock key I would be clueless, not to mention skeptical about the existence of such a key. To continue with the keyboard theme, there are passwords that I type out several times a day with absolutely no trouble, yet when using a virtual keyboard I find myself having to think hard about the correct sequence of characters. Since there is so much information we have to learn in our lifetimes, I am all for devices with intuitively mapped controls. At the very least, it's one less thing I have to remember.
The Design of Everyday Things
Donald A. Norman
1988 Basic Books
Summary:
On any given day, people must rely on cues from the world in order to accomplish their tasks. This reliance stems from the fallibility of memory. Our brains will often learn just enough information to complete a task in the correct context, but will fail when trying to describe it in an alternitive setting. There is simply too much information in the world for the brain to remember all of it, so steps must be taken in order to increase what is retained. Arbitrary knowledge is the most difficult to remember, but it becomes increasingly easier to recall when someone has a good mental model or in depth understanding of said knowledge.
Discussion:
This chapter really made me thing of all the things I do and see that I wouldn't be able to accurately describe in a non-contextual setting. For example, I use the keyboard upon which I am typing every day, but if asked for the location of the scroll lock key I would be clueless, not to mention skeptical about the existence of such a key. To continue with the keyboard theme, there are passwords that I type out several times a day with absolutely no trouble, yet when using a virtual keyboard I find myself having to think hard about the correct sequence of characters. Since there is so much information we have to learn in our lifetimes, I am all for devices with intuitively mapped controls. At the very least, it's one less thing I have to remember.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Paper Reading #4: Tangible Interfaces for Download
Comments:
http://jaiachi.blogspot.com/
http://jngonzales-chi2011.blogspot.com/
Reference:
Tangible Interfaces for Download: Initial Observations from Users' Everyday Environments
Enrico Costanza, Olivier Kung, Matteo Giaccone, Simon Shelly, Jeffery Huang
CHI '10
Summary:
Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) have been hyped for the past 15 years, but such interfaces are typically only found in museums and research labratories. The authors of this paper have designed a program called Audio d-touch, a TUI for synthesizing music. The program is relatively inexpensive, requiring only a webcam, printer, and computer. Audio d-touch uses the webcam to view a printed board or mat, upon which printed blocks are placed. These blocks can be folded from the paper, or pasted onto common household items. The setup works through calibrating the board via markers on the corners. It then processes information depending on how the blocks are arranged on the board.
Currently Audio d-touch has only two fully functional modes. The first is a drum machine, with the x-positions on the board representing the time of the drum strike, and the y-positions determining the type of drum used. The second mode is a music sequencer. As before, the x-position relates to time, but this time the y-position determines the playback volume.
The developers of Audio d-touch released their product to the public, then tracked feedback from the users. The program typically operated without a hitch, though it would not always work properly in poor lighting. In general, feedback on the product has been positive and optimistic.
Discussion:
The idea of TUIs is an interesting one. One of the common gripes associated with motion-driven interfaces, like the Xbox 360 peripheral Kinect, is that users want something to interact with instead of flailing blindly into space. A TUI would be a way to bridge that gap. On the other hand, I have to wonder what general use applications could be derived from this technology. Based on how the product is described, it seems this technology is limited to specific applications, each requiring its own board and pieces. Furthermore, what can be done to prevent losing information when accidently bumping a table? While I believe this technology will enjoy greater commercial use in the future, I don't expect it to replace the mouse and keyboard anytime soon.
http://jaiachi.blogspot.com/
http://jngonzales-chi2011.blogspot.com/
Reference:
Tangible Interfaces for Download: Initial Observations from Users' Everyday Environments
Enrico Costanza, Olivier Kung, Matteo Giaccone, Simon Shelly, Jeffery Huang
CHI '10
Summary:
Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) have been hyped for the past 15 years, but such interfaces are typically only found in museums and research labratories. The authors of this paper have designed a program called Audio d-touch, a TUI for synthesizing music. The program is relatively inexpensive, requiring only a webcam, printer, and computer. Audio d-touch uses the webcam to view a printed board or mat, upon which printed blocks are placed. These blocks can be folded from the paper, or pasted onto common household items. The setup works through calibrating the board via markers on the corners. It then processes information depending on how the blocks are arranged on the board.
Currently Audio d-touch has only two fully functional modes. The first is a drum machine, with the x-positions on the board representing the time of the drum strike, and the y-positions determining the type of drum used. The second mode is a music sequencer. As before, the x-position relates to time, but this time the y-position determines the playback volume.Discussion:
The idea of TUIs is an interesting one. One of the common gripes associated with motion-driven interfaces, like the Xbox 360 peripheral Kinect, is that users want something to interact with instead of flailing blindly into space. A TUI would be a way to bridge that gap. On the other hand, I have to wonder what general use applications could be derived from this technology. Based on how the product is described, it seems this technology is limited to specific applications, each requiring its own board and pieces. Furthermore, what can be done to prevent losing information when accidently bumping a table? While I believe this technology will enjoy greater commercial use in the future, I don't expect it to replace the mouse and keyboard anytime soon.
Book Reading #7: Opening Skinner's Box
Reference:
Opening Skinner's Box
Lauren Slater
2008 W.W. Norton & Company
Summary:
Slater summarizes the life and experiments of B. F. Skinner. Skinner, influenced by Pavlov's work in conditioning reflexes, experimented with conditioning behavior. Skinner found that he was able to alter the behavior of rats, pidgeons, dogs, pigs, and other animal by simply using positive reinforcement. However, these findings led Skinner to more or less reject the notion of free will. As a result, there are many who demonize him and his work.
Discussion:
I've heard the argument that people only behave the way they do because of the experiences they've had in life, and I'm just not buying it. If there is no free will, then ethics and morality are pointless. If someone commits a crime, it's not their fault because they were only behaving in the way predetermined for them. Like Kagan diving under his desk, I believe that we can chose what we want to do when we want to do it. (As a sidenote, I also don't buy the assertion that negative reinforcement has no effect. If someone burns their hand on a hot stove, I'm pretty darn sure they won't be reaching for the stovetop anytime soon. There are some lessons you only have to learn once.)
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| Taken from xkcd.com |
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