ID FMP: Distributed Cognition Models

Distributed cognition models conceptualize cognitive phenomena as happening across multiple individuals, objects, and internal and external representations of knowledge.  In contrast to the Information Processing Model, which is only focused on activities that happen inside the head, this model focuses on internal and external activities and encompasses External Cognitive Processes and Coordination Mechanisms described in my previous posts.

In comparison to these three frameworks, distributed cognition models provide more precise descriptions of internal and external cognitive activities. They are less abstract because their domain is limited to cognitive activities associated to specific contexts (e.g. piloting an airplane, doing taxes).

The three frameworks previously mentioned provide general descriptions of how human cognition works across all contexts. Their focus is on defining general laws that describe how our brain processes information and leverages the external world to enhance our cognitive capabilities. The distributed cognition model offers a phenomenological perspective that explores cognition as an embodied activity that takes place in specific physical and social contexts.

For example, a distributed cognition model that describes the activities that take place at an agency during creative development would differ considerably from that of a law office. They would feature many commonalities but the important thing is that the differences matter.

This perspective is important because designers need to understand how their product or service will actually fit into people’s day-to-day life. The insights that can be gleaned from the Information Processing and External Cognitive Activities Frameworks do not provide this type of understanding.  Distributed cognition models focuses on mapping these mundane day-to-day activities. They provide insight into how people actually make and share meaning and decisions within specific contexts.

A distributed cognition analysis is usually carried out as the basis for development of a distributed cognition model. Here is an overview of the main areas of examination in these types of analysis. As an example (and to work my brain just a little bit) I’ve carried out a high-level analysis of the distributed cognitive activities that take place at an advertising agency.

• How does distributed problem solving take place? How do people work together to solve problems? In an agency environment, tasks are distributed across several departments with specific areas of expertise (e.g. client services, account & strategic planning, media, production, creative and traffic). People work together by coordinating their actions using documents (such as schedules, briefs, spec sheets and emails), events (such as meetings, phone calls, and presentations), and shared work practices (such as common vocabularies, understandings, and culture).
• What ways does communication take place throughout the collaborative process and how is knowledge shared and accessed? Does it change as the activity progresses? Communications take place via meetings, emails and document artifacts such as presentations, briefs, schedules, conference reports, creative comps and spec sheets. The most important information is documented to facilitate sharing. Many of the document artifacts evolve as the activities progress. For example, a creative brief may be updated to reflect changes in strategy. The creative comps also change via multiple rounds of client reviews.
• What is the role of verbal and non-verbal communication? What types of things are said or implied? Verbal communication is the primary type of communication associated to the management of projects (and communication associated to those projects). Non-verbal communication plays a fundamental important in the activities of the project itself. Layout design, videos, images, graphs, and even experiences are be used to brief creative teams regarding products or brands, and in client and internal presentations. The final creative product delivered by Agencies also employs both verbal and non-verbal communication. To elicit emotional responses from people agencies use non-verbal tools such as images, visuals, videos, sounds, interactions online, and more. In agency communication is often reinforced through by verbal and non-verbal communication.
• What coordinating mechanisms are used? What are the rules and procedures that govern the workflow? There are several important coordination mechanisms that are used in an agency. These mechanism leverage external representations of knowledge such as schedules, job jackets, spec sheets, readers, status reports, conference reports, emails, calendars, scopes of work, etc. They also include meetings such as internal and client reviews, status meetings, and production kick-offs. Many rules and procedures are outlined in the agency’s process manual. These processes govern how work flows through the agency.

[source: Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction, page 129.]

** What the hell is ID FMP? **

ID FMP: Coordination Mechanisms

Coordination is an important skill that is required to carry out activities that range from basic to complex. All collaborative activities heavily rely on the ability of individuals to coordinate their actions; all group activities require some level of coordination. Even personal activities often require coordination such as prioritization and scheduling.

So what is coordination? Coordination is the “the regulation of diverse elements into an integrated and harmonious operation” (wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn). In other words, coordination refers to the phenomenon where one or more people act or interact with to accomplish a goal or complete a task. Much of the thinking related to coordination focuses on group, rather than personal, activities.

Sharp, Rogers, and Preece have identified three different types of coordination mechanisms that people use to coordinate their actions with others. I’ve modified their framework by adding one additional type of mechanism; I decided to break down their second category into two separate entities. As you will note, these coordination mechanisms are interdependent and overlapping.

• Conventions and shared practices: Conventions and shared practices refer to the shared social and cultural understandings and beliefs that provide a foundation for coordination. Examples include cultural expectations about punctuality, shared understandings regarding meaning of activities or artifacts. These phenomena account for why it can often be harder to coordinate activities with people from different socio-cultural backgrounds. Shared conventions and practices along with verbal and non-verbal communication play a key role in enabling people to effectively use schedules, rules and shared external representations to coordinate activities.
• Verbal and non-verbal communication: spoken and written language, and non-verbal gestures are often used as primary means of communication for the coordination of activities. Conversations are an important medium for the coordination of activities and negotiation of commitments. Written documents, such as agendas, presentations and reports, are also common tools for coordinating groups. Gestures play an especially important role in supporting the coordination of activities in situations where the conditions do not allow for users to communicate using verbal communication; examples include, a catcher using hand signs to communicate with a pitcher and a conductor using the motions of his arm and baton to lead an entire orchestra. Gestures can also help support communication between people who do not share the same language.
• Schedules, maps and rules: Schedules, maps and rules are artifacts that document communications that outline the order of activities, conventions and shared practices. Schedules focus on organizing activities and objects across time while maps organize activities and objects across space – both are crucial tools for personal and group coordination. Rules offer descriptions of conventions, shared practices and other principles that facilitate the coordination of activities. The benefit of rules and schedules is that they enable groups of people with different practices and conventions to create a shared set of documented principles to guide their coordination and collaboration.
• Shared external representations: Shared external representations are schedules, rules and other forms of visual or physical artifacts that are shared by a group of people. Examples vary widely across industries; in agencies like the one where I currently work, a job jacket and router is used to provide information regarding who has reviewed and commented on a given project during each round of its development. Shared online calendars, such as google calendar, offer the ability to share schedules and create shared external representations in a virtual, as opposed to physical, environment.

Activities associated to coordination are directly supported by the Cognitive Processes and External Cognitive Activities Frameworks. The mechanisms for coordination with groups encompass rely on the processes and activities outlined in these models.

Conventions and shared practices reside in the mind and are largely governed by cognitive processes such as memory, learning, and higher reasoning. While cognitive processes associated to language enable us to use verbal communication and plays an important role in our ability to create and understand external representations.

Externalizing cognitive activities is a crucial element most types of coordination mechanisms. Memory offloading is a crucial benefit provided by schedules, maps, rules, and external representations. Computational offloading is often employed using verbal communications and shared external representations. Annotating and cognitive tracing is mostly used on schedules, maps, and shared external representations.

[source: Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction.]

** What the hell is ID FMP? **

Chapter 5 Homework: What is Interaction Design

This assignment was taken from the fifth chapter of the book Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interactions, written by Helen Sharp, Jenny Preece, and Yvonne Rogers.

Assignment Questions
This assignment requires you to write a critique of the persuasive impact of a virtual agent by considering what it would take for a virtual agent to be believable, trustworthy, and convincing.

Question A: Look at a website that has a virtual assistant, e.g. Anna at Ikea or one of the case studies featured by the Digital Animations Group (DAG) at http://www.dagroupplc.com, who specialize in developing a variety of online agents, and answer the following:

• What does the virtual agent do?
  
• What type of agent is it?
  
• Does it elicit an emotional response from you? If so, what kind?
  
• What kind of personality does it have?
  
• How is this expressed?
  
• What kinds of behavior does it exhibit?
  
• What are its facial expressions like?
  
• What is its appearance like? Is it realistic or cartoon-like?
  
• Where does it appear on the screen?
  
• How does it communicate with the user (text or speech)?
  
• Is the level of discourse patronizing or at right level?
  
• Is the agent helpful in guiding the user towards making a purchase or finding out something?
  
• Is it too pushy?
  
• What gender is it? Do you think this makes sense?
  
• Would you trust the agent to the extent that you would be happy to buy a product from it or follow it guidance? If not, why not?
  
• What else would it take to make the agent persuasive?
  

Question B: Next look at an equivalent website that does not include an agent but is based on a conceptual model of browsing, e.g. Amazon.com. How does it compare with the agent-based site you have just looked at?

• Is it easy to find information?
  
• What kind of mechanism does the site use to make recommendations and guide the user in making a purchase or finding out information?
  
• Is any kind of personalization used at the interface to make the user feel welcome or special?
  
• Would the site be improved by having an agent? Explain your reasons either way.
  

Question C: Finally, discuss which site you would trust most and give your reasons for this.

Assignment Answers

Question A

Site selected: ikea.com 

What does the virtual agent do?

The virtual agent inhabits a pop-up window and is comprised of an avatar of a young blond woman who blinks and moves here head. The interface is primarily text-based, both input and output are provided in this format. The output can be enhanced with audio that sounds computer generated.

The primary function of the virtual agent is to provide help to visitors on the Ikea website. This help encompasses supporting users in all aspect of their shopping experience (it provides essentially a new interface for users to interact with the site). The agent provides support by enabling users to search for answers to common customer service queries using natural-language questions. These questions are posed through a text box. The response is provided via text and, optionally, audio (audio is available on the UK site but no on the US site). When appropriate the agent will load a relevant page on the main screen of the browser.

What type of agent is it?
The agent is a customer service representative. It is a friendly female avatar that offers a stylized representation of a human female that does not attempt to provide a realistic image of a female Ikea employee.

Does it elicit an emotional response from you? If so, what kind?
I must be upfront about my general dislike for avatar-based interfaces, with the notable exception of videogames. I often feel as though I am being patronized when I interact with an agent on a website, the Ikea agent was no exception. One of the few online agents that I found successful was Ms. Dewey [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ms._Dewey], a search-engine prototype developed by Microsoft. I can understand why it did not scale but it was pretty damn cool.

What kind of personality does it have? How is this expressed? What are its facial expressions like?
The agent has a friendly and relaxed personality. This is expressed through her facial expressions and the movement of her head. The agent is smiling all the while she opens and closes her mouth. Her large eyes blink at a natural while pace while she moves her head from side to side in a relaxed manner.

Where does it appear on the screen? What is its appearance like? Is it realistic or cartoon-like? What kinds of behavior does it exhibit?
The agent is situated in a pop-up window. Its appearance is stylized and cartoon-like. Her behavior seems for the most part fluid and natural until she responds with audio and her lips do not move. The computer-generated voice that is used only detracts from the experience because it is cold and is neither cartoon-like nor human sounding.

How does it communicate with the user (text or speech)?
The agent accepts questions via text input and is able to provide response via text and audio output.

Is the agent helpful in guiding the user towards making a purchase or finding out something? Is the level of discourse patronizing or at right level? Is it too pushy?
The Ikea agent can be helpful in guiding users towards making a purchase, or finding a product or retail location. One of the strongest features of the Ikea agent was its ability to load content that is relevant to the user’s query onto the main browser window. For example, when I searched computer desk it took me to the Ikea website’s computer solutions category.

Though I find agent-based interfaces patronizing in general, this one is much less so than most. The agent provides straightforward and short answers coupled with additional information on the main browser window. I actually found this agent to be useful, a fact that helped me overcome my initial aversion to this type of interface.

What gender is it? Do you think this makes sense?
The agent is a female. I think this makes sense largely based on my assumption that Ikea online shoppers are mostly women. I suspect that most men also prefer to deal with a female agent – especially since even the shiest guy would not be intimidated by an online agent. In the US there is a tradition of portraying customer service representatives as friendly females with a girl next door look.

Would you trust the agent to the extent that you would be happy to buy a product from it or follow it guidance? If not, why not?
I would trust the Ikea agent because she is informative, helpful and non-intrusive – she never initiates interaction with the user. The Ikea agent helps shoppers to find things and get answers to frequently asked questions regarding store and website policies.

What else would it take to make the agent persuasive?
Though I did find the agent useful, there are several things that can be done to improve its persuasiveness: improve interaction and visual design; enhance functionality; and upgrade audio interface.

Improve interaction and visual design: from an interaction standpoint the conversation with the agent should be recorded in a manner that enables the shopper to scan the queries and responses in search of answers (or a new chair). The look and feel of the agent should be upgraded to better reflect the design sense of the Ikea brand. Additional details should be added to enhance the enjoyment of users (e.g. have the rep read a book while she is waiting for the user). Since many shoppers like to go back and forth when they shop, the agent should help the user find products that they’ve looked at during their visit to the website.

Enhance functionality: additional functionality that could enhance the agent’s usefulness includes the ability to provide tips regarding other Ikea products that match pieces of furniture being viewed by the shopper. These recommendations should be provided in a non-intrusive manner.

Upgrade audio: The last thing that I would change is to upgrade the audio quality. This was one feature that I found to be very poor. Currently, the agent “speaks” in a computer-generated voice with a slight British accent. For the US version of the agent they should consider adding sound functionality, as if it is done right it can add to the user’s interactions with the agent.

Question B
Site selected: cb2.com (US furniture retailer akin to Ikea)

Is it easy to find information?
The cb2 website is pretty well organized, which makes it easy for the user to find information. Aside from the standard categorization of products by furniture type and context, they also provide lists of new and most popular products. These elements of the site help people find products through browsing. The search feature provides users with a way to shortcut the browsing process in an attempt to find a more direct route to the information they seek.

What kind of mechanism does the site use to make recommendations and guide the user in making a purchase or finding out information?
The CB2 site actual does a better job at making recommendations, though it is only equally effective at guiding users to find information regarding products, and features less compelling interactive guides. From a recommendation standpoint, the CB2 site provides shoppers with tips on other products that work with any piece that is being viewed. Though both sites differ in the way they categorize their product offerings, from a findability standpoint both the CB2 site and the Ikea site (including the agent and general information architecture) are equally effective.

Is any kind of personalization used at the interface to make the user feel welcome or special?
The CB2 site does not offer any personalization. Shopper’s are not asked to register and log-in during their visits to access special recommendations or offers. The Ikea site does provide a log-in feature, however, it has been down since I have been working on this assignment.

Would the site be improved by having an agent? Explain your reasons either way.
I don’t think an agent would have a big impact on the experience at CB2. The reason being, content on the site was easy to browse and find without the help of an agent. I believe that an agent would only improve the experience of a very small segment of the shoppers on the site. If voice-based interaction becomes more common on computers then there would be value in adding an agent to the CB2 experience. This is not an unlikely phenomenon considering that many applications now-a-days are striving to become voice-enabled to facilitate use via mobile phones (check out the new google search on iPhone and Android, cool stuff).

Question C

Finally, discuss which site you would trust most and give your reasons for this.
Both experiences were on par for one main reason: on the Ikea website the agent provides users with a supplementary interface that does not replace the traditional browsing paradigm on which the rest of the site is built. The Ikea and CB2 websites both provide well-designed information architectures that make information and products easy to find. Also, both companies have strong and respected brands that stand for modern and affordable design. I guess I have officially copped out of answering this question.

** What the hell is ID-BOOK ? **

Chapter 4 Homework: What is interaction design?

This assignment was taken from the fourth chapter of the book Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interactions, written by Helen Sharp, Jenny Preece, and Yvonne Rogers.

Overview
The aim of this activity is for you to analyze the design of a virtual world with respect to how it is designed to support collaboration and communication.

Visit an existing 3D virtual world such as the Palace, habbo hotel, or one hosted by Worlds. Try to work out how they have been designed for taking account of the following:

Assignment Questions
Question A: General social issues

• What is the purpose of the virtual world?
• What kinds of conversation mechanisms are supported?
• What kinds of coordination mechanisms are provided?
• What kinds of social protocols and conventions are used?
• What kinds of awareness information are provided?
• Does the mode of communication and interaction seem natural or awkward?

Question B: Specific interaction design issues

• What form of interaction and communication is supported, e.g. text/audio/video?
• What other visualizations are included? What information do they convey?
• How do users switch between different modes of interaction, e.g. exploring and chatting? Is the switch seamless?
• Are there any social phenomena that occur specific to the context of the virtual world that wouldn’t in face-to-face setting, e.g. flaming?

Question C: Design issues

• What other features might you include in the virtual world to improve communication and collaboration?

Answers
Virtual world selected: Second Life.

Question A
What is the purpose of the virtual world?
According to Linden, Second Life does not have a specific purpose. They describe Second Life as “a free online virtual world imagined and created by its Residents.” Most people use Second Life for entertainment. It enables them to escape to virtual world where then can interact with other real people. It offers an experience that can be likened to the birth child of the SIMS game crossed with a social network. A small segment of Second Life users actually make a living from creating virtual artifacts and owning virtual land.

What kinds of conversation mechanisms are supported?
Second Life supports many of the same conversation mechanisms that people are accustomed to using in real life to govern turn taking. In my personal experience, I continued to follow conversation practices that I am accustomed to using when speaking to someone in person, even though the conversation was taking place on a text-based medium.

The conversation turn-taking model developed by H. Sachs et al. [link] seems to be applicable to this environment (at least according to my very unscientific research). I assume that conversations using voice, which is available in Second Life, support standard conversation mechanisms even more effectively.

Another conversation mechanism that is supported by Second Life is body language. Let me clarify what I mean. Citizens are able select from a large pre-defined list of gestures that enable them to communicate attention, emotion, mood, and more. This is pretty cool feature that can be likened to emoticons on an instant messaging application or social network.

What kinds of coordination mechanisms are provided?
Second Life does a pretty good job here again. They offer robust support for both verbal and non-verbal types of communication. As stated above, users can communicate using a text or voice/audio interface. Avatars are also capable of using a variety of different gestures for communicate. These include nodding yes, or shrugging, clapping, blowing a kiss, and more.

Rules are the foundation of this virtual world on its most basic level. The software code provides a set of rules upon which the entire virtual world is build; these basic rules are documented in the online user guide and help tools. They define the “virtual-physical” world of Second Life, which is the platform upon which user coordination can take place.

One also encounters many rules while exploring the world itself. These external representations are created by users and Linden Lab. They inform other users and help coordinate personal and shared activities. Maps are another key mechanism that supports coordination. They are available to help the users easily locate and transport themselves between islands.

What kinds of social protocols and conventions are used?
Most people seem to mimic real world conventions in Second Life. Conversations are initiated in a manner more akin to real world conversations compared to other types of text-based conversations. Users are conscious of the organization and appearance of the physical artifacts in this virtual world. This is reflected by convention such as the practices of users face one another when speaking, and the fact that many users are extremely conscious of their avatars clothing and style.

What kinds of awareness information are provided?
At the most basic level of awareness, Second Life users are able know who is around them via the visual representation of the virtual world. For the most part, users are able to understand what is happening though this varies considerably based on expertise level. It is possible to overhear others’ conversations as long as they are not having a private chat. Most of the groups of people that I encountered whose physical proximity insinuated that they were having a conversation must have been holding private chats. An interesting design element from the game is how the avatars make a typing movement in the air when they are writing a reply in a conversation.

Does the mode of communication and interaction seem natural or awkward?
The mode of communication and interaction offered in Second Life is natural on most accounts. The natural feel of the text-based conversations is in large part due to our modern-day familiarity holding conversations using messaging applications such as IM and SMS. The overall look and feel of the virtual world is natural. The communicative gestures of the character are fluid and clear in their meaning.

Question B
What form of interaction and communication is supported, e.g. text/audio/video?
Second Life supports all main forms of interaction: text, audio, video, and computational.

What other visualizations are included? What information do they convey?
Second Life is well crafted from a visual perspective. The visual flair is actually provided mostly by the creativity of the members of the community, who develop most experiences and structures that exist in this world. Visualizations that are built into the interface include different modes for displaying chats, maps that provide location information, and the main interface of the virtual world environment.

How do users switch between different modes of interaction, e.g. exploring and chatting? Is the switch seamless?
The switch between different modes of interaction is seamless. If a user is exploring he can easily start chatting with someone else nearby by typing; if a user has a voice-enabled system then they just have to talk. Gestures are not integrated as seamlessly; these have to be selected from a drop-down menu.

Are there any social phenomena that occur specific to the context of the virtual world that wouldn’t in face-to-face setting, e.g. flaming?
As with any medium that allows people to communicate from a distance, people are definitely less concerned with politeness and manners. One social phenomena that I witnessed was a user who kept repeating everything that was said in a conversation between me and a third user.

Question C
Overall, I think that Second Life does a thorough job at providing users with effective communication and collaboration tools. So much so that technology companies such as IBM have built virtual campuses where they hold meetings with employees from around the world. Here are a few ideas that could be explored:

• Allowing users to select moods and emotions. These features would work in a similar way to gestures. The main difference is the duration of a mood or emotion in comparison to a gesture. Moods and emotions last longer and would be controlled using on/off switches.
• Make it easy for users to create and share documents on the fly. Provide capabilities for users to work on documents simultaneously with seamless ability to switch back and forth between focus on the document and on the virtual world.

Chapter 3 Homework: What is interaction design?

This assignment was taken from the third chapter of the book Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interactions, written by Helen Sharp, Jenny Preece, and Yvonne Rogers.

Assignment Questions
Question A: first elicit your own mental model. Write down how you think a cash machine (ATM) works. Then answer the questions below. Next ask two people the same questions.

• How much money are you allowed to take out?
• If you took this out and then went to another machine and tried to withdraw the same amount, what would happen?
• What is on your card?
• How is the information used?
• What happens if you enter the wrong number?
• Why are there pauses between the steps of a transaction?
• How long are they?
• What happens if you type ahead during the pauses?
• What happens to the card in the machine?
• Why does it stay inside the machine?
• Do you count the money? Why?

Question B: Now analyze your answers. Do you get the same or different explanations? What do the findings indicate? How accurate are people’s mental models of the way ATMs work? How transparent are the ATM systems they are talking about?

Question C: Next, try to interpret your findings in respect to the design of the system. Are any interface features revealed as being particularly problematic? What design recommendations do these suggest?

Question D: Finally, how might you design a better conceptual model that would allow users to develop a better mental model of ATMs (assuming this is a desirable goal)?

Assignment Answers

Question A

Here’s My Take
Here is my understanding regarding how an ATM functions. The user owns a card that has a magnetic stripe that holds his/her account number. To execute a transaction using an ATM, first the user has to insert his card in the appropriate slot for the machine to read the user’s card number. Next, the user is prompted to input a four-digit pin number to access the account.

Once the pin number is entered the ATM machine connects to a central server via the internet and authenticates the user. If authentication succeeds, then the ATM machine remains connected to the server to enable the user to access various services such as viewing account balance, funds withdrawal or deposit, and potentially account transfers. When the user performs an action on his account, the ATM machine communicates with the server to execute the command.

For security purposes the ATM machine will request that the user re-enter his pin number every time s/he requests to execute a new action, e.g. withdrawing money. Other security features include that the ATM machine asks the user whether s/he is ready to quit after every transaction; it also automatically logs off a user after a short period of inactivity.

Take from Subject One Card is entered and account is confirmed after pin number entry. The amount entered is calculated in terms of number of bills usually of $20 denomination and spit out at you, and appropriate debits are made on the account. You are then told to have a nice day. Meanwhile hardly noticed by you is that your bank, the bank that owns the atm, and perhaps the operator of the atm has embezzled “so-called” fees from your account.

Take from Subject Two
ATM works like a computer. Your ATM card is like an activation key only usable with the right password. If you don't provide the right password, the machine will eat it. The ATM uses software programmed by the bank (so I guess every bank's ATM is slightly different for that reason) and depending on which button you choose for what to do next, it does various things. So I guess you can think of the ATM like a road to search for treasure... Your cash is the ultimate treasure and what you do from the moment you stand in front of the ATM until you get the actual cash is like your path in search for the treasure. The ATM is also networked, so someone is always watching your every move.

[click on the charts to enlarge them]

Question B

For the most part everyone has a pretty accurate mental model regarding how an ATM works. All of us understand that the services provided by ATMs are accessed using a card with a corresponding pin number. Another shared understanding is that ATM services are enabled by connections to bank databases where transactions are authorized and captured.

The biggest difference between the each explanation was the focus of the author. I focused on providing a technical/systems description of how an ATM works; subject one’s description covered user experience elements such as frustrations with excessive bank fees; subject two provided an overview that from a much looser metaphorical perspective. Otherwise, there were small differences related to each person’s understanding about specific elements of the user experience (e.g. amount money that can be taken out, reasons for delay, response to wrongful input, etc).

These findings indicate that most people in my social circle have accurate mental models of the way in which ATM machines work. This seems to suggest that the way ATM systems work is, for the most part, transparent. However, there are certain elements of the interaction about which the users still lack clarity or dislike, these include: the amount of money that can be taken out; the total value of the fees being applied to the account; and the inability to count the money when the ATM is in a public place.

Question C

For the most part, users have a good understanding regarding how ATM systems work. Therefore, the improvement opportunities to address user issues are mostly small and incremental in nature (e.g. addressing the small information gaps). This is not to say that new technologies, concepts and approaches could not be used to improve the experience of using an ATM in ways that current users cannot envision.

Here are a few design recommendations to address the three design gaps identified between system image and the user’s mental model:

• Lack of clarity regarding the amount of money that can be taken out. Possible solution includes: providing users with information regarding their daily withdrawal limit (as well as any ATM specific limits). This issue is only present when using ATM machines that are not from the issuing bank.
• Lack of clarity regarding the total value of the fees being applied to the account. Possible solution includes: providing users with information regarding ATM and bank fees applied to transactions. This issue is only present when using ATM machines that are not from the issuing bank.
• The inability to count the money when the ATM is in a public place. Possible solutions include: create cash dispensers that leverage arrangement of bills and time delay to enable users to count the money in the tray while it is being dispensed.

Question D

Many advances have taken place in the design of ATM systems over the past several years. The new ATM from Chase Bank in New York is a great example of a well-designed ATM system. It has several notable improvements from older systems including easy, envelope-free, deposits, and improved touch screen interfaces.

Here are a few areas related to the conceptual model of ATM systems that offer opportunities for improvements:

Access to services provided by ATM
Using presence awareness technology, similar to that available on luxury car models, banks could design ATM machines that can identify the user without the need for a card. Users would have a key (rather than card) that contains an RFID chip, or similar technology. Therefore, when a user approaches a machine s/he would be prompted to enter their pin without the need to insert a card.

Rather then focus on improving the experience of using ATM machines, it is also valuable to explore how to provide the same services using different channels. Cell phones offer a lot of promise in this area. Many people already prefer to use their cell phones to check their account balance when they are on the go. Money transfers and payment by cell phone is becoming more widely available across the world.

Despite the increased use of electronic forms of payment, there are still many types of transactions for which people need cold hard cash. From a cash withdrawal and deposit standpoint, no alternatives exist to having a physical device such as an ATM (other than cash back services available at select stores that accept debit cards). For these types of transactions the cell phone could be used to enhance the existing experience. Perhaps using Bluetooth technology it could serve as the key to support the presence awareness described above. It could also provide the user with a confirmation or electronic receipt of their transaction, including all relevant fees.

Security of services provided by the ATM
New types of technologies can be leveraged to improve the security of ATM systems. Fingerprint or other bio-authentication methods could replace the pin, which would not only provide increased security, but also reduce the cognitive load required to memorize the pin number (or rather, all of your pin number and passwords). Of course, this would mean that you can no longer take out money from your significant other’s ATM card.

Chapter 2 Homework: What is interaction design?

This assignment was taken from the second chapter of the book Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interactions, written by Helen Sharp, Jenny Preece, and Yvonne Rogers.

Assignment Questions
Question A: Compare the ways the following information artifacts are organized:

• A personal pocket-sized calendar/diary (one week to a page).
• A wall calendar (one month to a page, usually with a picture/photo).
• A wall planner (displaying the whole year).

Question B: Using Johnson and Henderson’s (2002) framework, describe the conceptual models that underlie the design of:

• An electronic personal calendar found on a personal computer.
• A shared calendar found on the web.

Assignment Answers

Question A
Here is my analysis regarding the similarities and differences of the organization embodied in the following artifacts: (1) a personal pocket-sized calendar/diary (one week to a page); (2) a wall calendar (one month to a page, usually with a picture/photo); and (3) a wall planner (displaying the whole year).

The organization scheme leveraged in each of these artifacts features many similarities since all of these artifacts offer representations of the same phenomena – time. That said, the organization also differs in considerable ways to accommodate the different types and contexts of use that each of these artifacts is designed to support. Here is a list of the key differences and similarities that I was able to identify:

• All artifacts leverage the concepts of years, months, and days in a chronological fashion as central organizational elements. The relationship between these elements is kept consistent across all artifacts. What differs is how each artifact highlights different entities and relationships based on its purpose and the primary context of its use.
• Wall calendars and diaries lay out information across multiple pages due to the level of detail that they provide. Wall calendars display one-month per page and usually feature a length of 24 pages. Diaries display one-day per page and usually include a full 356 pages. Wall planners display a full year’s worth of information on a single poster-page.
• Wall calendars and diaries enable users to add annotations to specific dates. Wall calendars do provide limited space for annotations. They enable users to add special events and identify key dates. Only diaries provide users the ability to thoroughly plan a day’s activities by devoting a full page’s worth of space to single day. Diary users often fill up these pages with appointments and other time-relevant information. On the other hand, wall planners rarely offer space for users to add annotations to specific dates.
• Wall calendars and diaries always feature day-of-week information using visual or text notations. Day-of-week information is a core piece of data for users who want to plan their activities across a month or day; however, it less important for planning across a full year. That is why wall planners sometimes do not display day-of-week information.
• Wall calendars and diaries often feature images or quotes that are thematic or seasonal in nature. These features add variety to the experience associated to using these tools. They are also usually only discovered by the user when s/he views a new month or day. Though wall planners also tend to feature interesting designs, few are able to provide the discovery” and visual differentiation offered by an artifact with multiple pages.
• Wall planners and wall calendars feature multiple days worth of information on each page. As a consequence, these artifacts are more likely to include visual presentations that display days as a part of a week or month. In contrast, diaries focus on each day individually as its own entity. This feature of diaries enables them to capture substantially more in-depth information about the activities of each day. To help people organize their day’s activities, each page of a diary divides a day into half- or quarter-hours (check out this cool diary form Muji).
• Wall planners and wall calendars are both designed as posters and meant to be used in a single place, unlike dairies that are created in book format in order to be portable. Wall planners and calendars are designed to be hung up in a room to be used for reference and for annotation of key dates and events. On the other hand, diaries are designed to help people keep their lives organized minute-by-minute, including while they are on-the-go.
• Diaries often feature additional information such as contact books, world maps, notes pages, and personal contact information. These features are supported by the diary’s book-like format and they enable and reflect the diary’s role as a life organizer. Wall planners and calendars are not able to provide these additional features, nor would it make sense for them to support them considering the context of use.

Question B

Relevant Concepts: Johnson and Henderson’s (2002) framework for developing conceptual models: This framework identifies the standard components of a conceptual model. Thus providing guidance to designers regarding considerations that need to be addressed when developing conceptual models. The term conceptual model is defined as “high-level descriptions of how a system is organized and operates.” Components of a conceptual model:

1. Major metaphors and analogies: important metaphors and analogies used to enable the user to understand what a product does and how to use it.
2. Concepts: detailed overview of the concepts that users are exposed to and that they need to understand. Description should define the objects the concepts create and manipulate, any relevant attributes, and the operations that can be performed on concept.
3. Relationship between concepts: the relationship between concepts. Important things to define include whether an object contains another, or is part of it, and the relative importance of objects and actions.
4. Mappings: the mappings between the metaphors, concepts and the user experience the product is designed to invoke.

Analysis part 1 - An electronic personal calendar found on a personal computer

Major metaphors and analogies: The major analogy is managing a day planner. Other important analogies include a using yearly planner, monthly calendars, automatic alerts, text-editing applications, which feature file save, delete and create functions, and email applications, which include attachment and social capabilities. From a metaphor perspective, “events” is the most prominent one. Another important metaphor on calendars with sharing capabilities is “invitations.”

Concepts: These include the Calendar, a calendar, creating calendars, saving calendars, modifying calendars, deleting calendars; Events, single instance and recurring events, creating events, saving events, modifying events, deleting events, receiving events, sending events, accepting events, rejecting events, linking events to calendars, attaching documents to events, adding alerts to events, setting availability status for event.

Relationship between concepts: The calendar contains calendars, which in turn contain a group of events. Events are linked to calendars directly. Events can be linked to more than one calendar or event. Events are linked to other events via the calendars. Events contain start and end dates and times, locations, invitees, personal status, meeting name, and description. The ability to schedule and save an event is more important than the ability to invite participants to it, add an attachment or link the event to a calendar. Sending an event invitation is more important than being able to respond or receive response to an invitation.

Mappings: The calendar refers to the chronological organizational structure of the interface. This organizational structure is based on years, months, weeks, days, hours and minutes. Calendars and events are created and added to this structure. An event corresponds to real-world events. When a user creates an event the system requires that they create a name, and define start and end dates/times. Additional optional attributes can also be defined at the time of creation or later through modification. A calendar corresponds to a group of events such as “work,” “birthdays,” or “personal.” When a user creates a calendar the system requires that they create a name only. User can add existing events or create new ones. An “invitation” corresponds to an email message that is used to invite individuals to an event. Invitations include information regarding the meeting and links that enable recipients to respond to the meeting request (accept or reject). When a recipient accepts an invitation from another user the event is automatically created on his/her calendar.

Analysis 2: A shared calendar found on the web.

Major metaphors and analogies: The major analogy is managing a day planner. Other important analogies include a using yearly planner, monthly calendars, automatic alerts, text-editing applications, which feature file save, delete and create functions, email applications, which include attachment and social capabilities, and negotiating schedules to book a meeting. From a metaphor perspective, “events” is the most prominent one. Another important metaphor on calendars with sharing capabilities is “invitations.”

Concepts: These include the calendar, private calendars, shared calendars, others’ calendars, creating calendars, saving calendars, sharing calendars, viewing calendars, deleting calendars, setting and changing calendar owner and participants; Events, single instance and recurring events, private and shared events, mine others’ events, creating events, sharing events, saving events, modifying events, deleting events, receiving events, sending events, accepting events, rejecting events, linking events to calendars, attaching documents to events, adding alerts to events, setting availability status for event, setting and changing event owner; Owners and participants, setting owners and participants, changing owners and participants, deleting participants, blocking participants, adding participants.

Relationship between concepts: The Calendar contains calendars, which in turn contain a group of events. Events are linked to the Calendar and calendars directly. Events can be linked to more than one calendar or event. Events are linked to other events via the calendars. Events and calendars can be private, or shared. Events contain start and end dates and times, locations, owners, invitees, personal status, meeting name, sharing status and description. Calendar and/or event have owners, who determine who is able to modify their shared calendars and events. The ability to schedule and save an event is more important than the ability to invite participants to it, add an attachment or link the event to a calendar. The ability to make a calendar private is more important than the ability to make it shared. Sending an event invitation is more important than being able to respond or receive response to an invitation. The ability for calendar owners to set rights privileges for events within their calendar supersedes the event owners privileges.

Mappings: The Calendar refers to the chronological organizational structure of the interface. This organizational structure is based on years, months, weeks, days, hours and minutes. Calendars and events are created and added to this structure. An event corresponds to real-world events. When a user creates an event the system requires that they create a name, and define start and end dates/times. Additional optional attributes can also be defined at the time of creation or later through modification. A calendar corresponds to a group of events such as “work,” “birthdays,” or “personal.” When a user creates a calendar the system requires that they create a name only. User can add existing events or create new ones to calendars. An “owner” corresponds to the person who has the rights privileges to make modify a calendar or event. “Participants” correspond to people who are related to an event or calendar but are not able to make modifications to that entity. When a user creates a calendar or event s/he is automatically assigned as the owner. Owners can modify ownership status and rights privileges assigned to participants of an event or group. An invitation corresponds to an email message that is used to invite individuals to an event. Invitations include information regarding the meeting and links that enable recipients to respond to the meeting request (accept or reject). When a recipient accepts an invitation from another user the event is automatically created on his/her calendar.

Chapter 1 Homework: What is interaction design?

This assignment was taken from the first chapter of the book Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interactions, written by Helen Sharp, Jenny Preece, and Helen Sharp.

Assignment Overview: Find an everyday handheld device and examine how it has been designed, paying particular attention to how the user is meant to interact with it. Device selected: iPhone (not very original, I know. I'm sure thousands of students from around the world are making this same pick right now).

(a) from your first impression, write down what first comes to mind as to what is good and bad about the way the device works:

The good list:

• easy to learn and use most functionality
• fast access to most important device features
• leverages natural gestures for smooth and fluid interactions
• touch screen interactions are responsive and accurate
• easy to organize and add content and applications
• seamless synch with computer via iLife suite
• flawless great integration of music player and phone
• aesthetically pleasing software transitions (and in general)
• form factor fits well and feels good in-hand
• device is reliable

The bad list:

• inability to run multiple applications at once
• missing cut & paste functionality
• lack of ability to switch battery
• missing tactile feedback from physical device
• limited support of file types
• purchase and activation process
• limited availability and bad customer service (only on AT&T)

(b) Give a description of the user experience resulting from interacting with it:

The best word to sum up the experience of using the iPhone is delightful. Before you even turn on the device you can notice that it is beautiful in both look and feel. From a tactile perspective, the plastic casing of the phone provides a pleasant feel that is soft and warm. Its curved casing helps the device fit ergonomically in one’s palm. All this and I haven't even turned on the device yet. To describe the user experience associated to interacting with the device here is one user scenario and one description:

Scenario 1: Let’s meet up spontaneously
On a chilly Saturday afternoon as Julio wraps up his visit to BAM he calls two good friends who live nearby. He is unable to reach them but leaves them both messages. He then proceeds to turns on the ringer of his iPhone, using the physical switch on the top left corner of the device, to make sure that he doesn’t miss the return calls.

Next, Julio puts on his headphones, takes out his iPod, double clicks on the home button, and then touches the play button that appears on the screen - the iPhone starts playing music where he had left off earlier. After 10 minutes waiting Julio decides to head back to Manhattan. He strolls down to the subway stop shaking his head and enjoying the Presets latest release at his usual ear-busting volume. As he takes his first step down the stairs the music is suddenly interrupted by an incoming call. He checks the caller ID and picks up the phone, once he confirms who is calling.

After a quick exchange of friendly insults and taunts, Abe invites Julio to join him at a nearby bar to get sloshed. Since Julio doesn’t have the slightest clue about how to get to this bar, he takes out his iPhone and opens up the Google Map application. There he inputs the destination and requests directions from his current location. He is also able to determine that the subway is the best way to head over, so after blocking a bunch of impatient fellow New Yorkers for 5 minutes Julio continues heading the down the steps to the subway.

User description: experience using the device
The first thing you notice when you power up the device is the size, vividness and crispness of the screen - images look great. Then you start interacting with the device via the smooth and responsive touch screen display.

The experience of using the touch screen is impressive. Apple has done an amazing job at designing interactions that feel natural. From sliding your finger across the screen to unlock the device, to pinching content to reduce it, or best of all flicking your finger to quickly browse through your phone list or long page of content. Across all of these interactions the device is extremely responsive in a way that makes it feel very natural.

The functionality on the device is also well prioritized. Phone and music player functions are definitely the two most prominent features of the device, unique shortcuts provide quick access to these apps. This helps make the device a pleasure to use. Though I don't like to admit it, a pleasurable part of the experience of using an iPhone is the coolness factor. It is a device that exudes coolness and from a social perspective one feel's cool using this product.

(c) Compile a set of usability and user experience goals that you think are relevant in evaluating the device. Decide which are the most important and explain why:

Usability goals:

• Efficient to use: device supports use of frequent tasks efficiently. Provides fast access to most important applications and functionality. Delivers high level of responsiveness and reliability.
• Good utility: device to product provide an appropriate set of functionality? Supports most common voice and text message protocol, and multimedia content formats. Enables media player functionality where phones not allowed and functionality enhancements/upgrades via software.
• Easy to learn: device is easy for first-time users to learn. Provides an intuitive interface.
• Safe to use: device protects users against common errors? Protects users against calling people in error, entering mis-spelled text into messages, and loosing data when they quit applications.

The most important usability goals for this product are efficiency and utility, here’s my rationale: now-a-days users are very picky about cell phone and portable media players since most have already owned several portable devices. Multi-function mobile phones need to deliver the appropriate set of functionality to succeed (this is the most basic price of entry into the market). Considering the frequency and variety of uses to which people put their mobile devices, it is crucial that these devices supports frequent use in an efficient manner. No one wants a multi-function portable phone that does not allow you to quickly and easily switch between making calls, listening to music, or checking your email.

Experience goals:

• natural feeling gestures
• cool, fun & enjoyable
• enhancement of sociability
• pleasurable & delightful
• aesthetically pleasing

The most important experience goals are natural-feeling gestures, enhancement of sociability and pleasurable interaction, here’s my rationale: Hard to use interfaces have kept people from adopting advanced functionality long offered their devices. That is why multi-function mobile phones need to offer interfaces that are based on gestures that feel natural. Enhancement of sociability is an important goal for this device considering that main function of mobile phones is to help connect people via voice and text messaging capabilities, and that people tend to use these devices in social or public environments. Lastly, since this device is used so often – you spend more time with your phone than with your significant other – it is crucial for users to feel pleasure when interacting with the device.

(d) Translate your set of usability and user experience goals into two or three specific questions. Then use them to assess how your device fares.

Usability goals-related questions:

• Is the product able to provide users with fast access to the most important and commonly used functionality?
• Does the product support the most common communication and entertainment uses (e.g. does it support voice and text message protocols, common media file types, and usage contexts?)
• Can users learn how to use the product without needing to refer to the manual or other types of support?
• Does the product help users avoid, and easily recover from, common errors associated to use of mobile communication and entertainment devices?

The iPhone stacks up well against all of these criteria. First, it provides fast access to all of the most commonly used functionality. This is done via the design of the software application launcher (a.k.a. “home”), and shortcuts using the few hard buttons available on the device. Next, the device does a great job at supporting a wide variety of file formats and messaging protocols. However, this is a area where the device could be improved by adding support for MMS messages and additional music and video file types. From an ease-of-learning perspective the iPhone is unrivaled. You can pick it up and learn how to use the basic features with little help (assuming you have familiarity working with computers, which holds true for most people in developed nations). The iPhone does have some nice features that help users avoid common errors.

Experience goals-related questions

• What is the user’s response to the aesthetics of the device? How does the user feel about the gestures required to operate the device (fluid, natural, awkward, silly)?
• What is the user’s response to his/her interaction with the device (delight, excitement, annoyance, frustration)? How does the initial reaction differ from subsequent ones?
• How does the user’s relationship with, and response to the device evolve over repeated interactions? What types of emotional bonds does the user create with the device (trust, affection, pride, love, hate, admiration)?
• How does the user feel about using his device in different contexts such as social, personal, professional, and public environments?

From an experience perspective, the iPhone delivers the goods once again. The device has the nicest aesthetic of any device in its category (and I mean the entire cell phone category). The gestures required to operate the phone feel natural and are extremely easy to learn as you go (you stumble into learning). From the first time I played with an iPhone I felt a bit of delight – it often brings a smile to my face. That is not to say that I don’t ever experience frustration but, overall, no portable digital device has ever provided me with more delight. I definitely have an emotional bond with my iPod – my wife may even call it an iPhone fetish. I can understand why, considering I am always playing games, surfing the web, using a messaging application or messing around with one of my many applications. The device is cool but not snobby. So you can use pretty much anywhere. I know I sound like a bloody Apple ad.

(e) Compile a set of design principles that you think are relevant in evaluating the device. Decide which are the most important and explain why. Translate your set of usability and user experience goals into two or three specific questions. Then use them to assess how your device fares.

Design Principles:
Though the following five design principles played an important role in the design of this device – visibility, feedback, constraints, consistency, and affordance – affordances and visibility are the most important principles for this design. The importance of visibility is obvious considering that this device packs an unbelievable amount of features in a pocket-sized package. In light of the device’s size, it is extremely challenging to find a solution for making affordances associated with different “modes” accessible to, and understandable by, the user.

Design principle-related questions

• are the most important possible actions clearly visible? Is the prioritization appropriate?
• does the device make affordances visible, easy to recognize, and use?
• does the device provide sufficient feedback to the user throughout the interaction?

The iPhone scores well against the design-principle assessment. The design of the iPhone interface makes the most important possible action clearly visible and accessible. Users are even able to customize menus to ensure buttons and information is organized according to personal preferences and priorities. To make affordances visible to users, applications leverage large buttons on the touchscreen display and provide directions on the screen regarding other potential actions. Feedback is provided through intelligent visual and audio cues that help the user easily interact with the device to carry out a diverse range of activities such as inputting text, playing games, creating music, dialing a phone number or using navigation capabilities.

[questions taken from textbook Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction, link to website here]

10-15 Week Self-Taught Interaction Design Course

For the next 10-15 weeks the content of my blog is going to be associated to my reading of the text book Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction. This book was written by three British ladies, Sharp, Rogers and Preece, and published on Willey. Here is a link to their website, which is somewhat underwhelming considering the depth of the book. This is not to say that other topics may not occasionally pop up - the will be the exception rather than the rule.

For the past five months my personal curriculum has focused on reading and applying the theoretical knowledge and perspectives in my everyday experience with interactive devices and services. Moving forward I want to take a more structured approach to exploring interaction design before I delve into experimentation with design itself (those who would rather just dive in head first into the practice of design itself may think this sounds like looking at a porno magazine - albeit a good one - in substitution for the real thing).

So for the next few months my posts are going to feature my "homework". I will be sharing the assignments that I will be completing from the end of each chapter in the text book. Here is an overview of what the book covers (of course, I will likely focus on some areas and assignments, while glossing over others - one of the main benefit of following your own curriculum):

1. What is Interaction Design?
2. Understanding and Conceptualizing Interaction
3. Understading Users
4. Designing for Collaboration and Communication
5. Affective Aspects
6. Interfaces and Interactions
7. Data Gathering
8. Data Analysis, Interpretation, and Presentation
9. The Process of Interaction Design
10. Identifying Needs and Establishing Requirements
11. Design, Prototype, and Construction
12. Introducing Evaluation
13. An Evaluation Framework
14. Usability Testing and Field Studies
15. Analytical Evaluation