Dancing and Traveling

During the past several weeks I have been devoting less time to my interaction and experience design journal for two reasons: Lauren and I have been planning an around the world the trip for this summer; and we have been rehearsing for a dance performance that we delivered at a friend's wedding this past weekend.

The good news is that these preparations are coming to an end. The not so good news is that I won't be able to get back to my curriculum because I've decided to take a detour and focus on considering what aspects of technology, culture, design, and experiences I can explore during our trip around to world.

There are two main perspectives on digital communication technologies that I want to explore: first, I want to leverage technology to capture and share my and Lauren's experiences; second, I want to investigate how different cultures relate to technology and are designing and adopting technology to support local endeavors.

From a personal perspective I am looking for a mobile/portable solution that will enable me to capture and publish experiences from this trip. This solution will include multiple hardware and software products. Here is a brief overview of the tools currently under consideration:

• Personal communication hub: the main contender for my personal communication hub is my first generation (aka 2G) jailbroken iPhone. This device would enable me to capture quick snapshots, lo-res video, audio, and journal entries. The main downside of selecting the iPhone as my platform is that I will not be able to publish directly from the iPhone, even in a wifi area, as I have not found any acceptable blogging apps. A secondary drawback is that the 2G iPhone has lower quality audio and video capabilities (available on jailbroken phones only), and no GPS. I am not willing to take a laptop due to considerations related to portability (we'll be on a 34-day trip) and theft.
• Additional devices: I will also definitely take a camera for higher quality photos and video. I am uncertain about whether I will be willing to invest in a new Canon G10 - the temptation is strong, it is hard to resist. We will likely take our existing camera as well, a Canon SD950.
• Publishing tools: to publish all of the content that we capture and create I plan to use several platforms including a blog (on blogger), my existing flickr account, google calendar and maps, daytum, and youtube; I'm still considering if and how to integrate twitter and facebook without driving myself crazy.
  

From an observer's perspective (with no real claim of being objective) I want to explore how people from different cultures leverage familiar technologies in different ways; and what different technologies they have developed that are specific to local contexts.

For example, how are mobile phones used differently based on local cultural, and economic contexts; what different services are available, and how have they adapted other services to meet their needs; what meaning does the society ascribe to cell phones.

Over the next three weeks I will share more about the technology-related aspects of the planning for this trip. Once we are off I will also document how technology ultimately enhanced, or totally screwed up, our trip (after all I do believe that technology can be both a force of good and evil).

Statement of Purpose for ITP

I am excited for this opportunity to share with you more about what I am up to. Below I have posted the statement of purpose that I submitted with my application to the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU.

Writing this piece was difficult and cathartic. It required that I take a long and hard look at the reasons why I am pursuing this goal, and do a good bit of soul searching to identify which questions I want to explore in this program. This process forced me to start to crystalize what I want to create through my involvement at ITP. At the end of it all, I was more excited and energized than ever to pursue this path.

Over the next two years I will work to bring into existence many of the possibilities that I discuss in this piece. I look forward to sharing my experiences while on this journey, both the successes and failures. Not to mention that I'm sure I'll need guinea pigs from time to time. My only request in sharing this with you is that you feel free to share your own thoughts and ideas in return.

Statement of Purpose

"I’ve cultivated a passion for design and technology since I was teenager. My interest in design has inspired me to undertake numerous personal projects spanning industrial, graphic, web, and sound design, while my passion for technology has supplied valuable tools that have supported my projects and opened doors to new experiences. The increasingly pervasive role that technology plays in my life has given me a deeper understanding of the ways in which people engage with technology. As users of technology, we constantly shift between acting “through” it, as a tool, and acting “on” it, as an object of engagement itself.

I have become fascinated with the possibility of combining these passions in a new configuration: acting “through” design in order to act “on” technology. It is evident to me that the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University is the right place for me to explore this convergence of design and technology.

My interest in harnessing the power of design to enhance technology is not for technology’s own sake. It is driven by a belief that technology can have positive and negative consequences. Designers have an important role to play in shaping the evolution of technology by appropriately designing our interactions with, and through, technology.

On a personal level, I am inspired by the power of technology to enable connections between people, and to communicate meaning in engaging new ways. My iPhone has revolutionized the way I stay connected to people, content and places, and has also altered my expectations regarding their accessibility. The Nintendo Wii, by designing interactions that mimic the familiar gestures we use to do things in the physical world, enabled me to connect with friends who had no previous interest in video games.

The power of technology is ever more defined by its ability to connect people to other people, communities, and organizations. As a marketing communications professional I have realized that people have become empowered by technology to challenge the control once held by corporations over distribution of information. Traditional marketing communications now compete with the voices of millions of individuals, who on an aggregate level have a higher degree of credibility. At the same time, the connective power of technology has enabled the fragmentation of society into distinct communities that subscribe to different beliefs and value systems.

These are some of the realizations that have sparked my desire to experiment with design of technology-based interactions and experiences. My pursuit of this goal is driven by passion, curiosity, discipline, and integrity.

I designed a three-year plan and curriculum to channel my passion and curiosity in a disciplined manner. The first phase, currently in progress, is focused on building a theoretical foundation of knowledge through consumption and production of content that supports the development of an analytical design-perspective. The second phase concentrates on development of design production skills using a project-based approach that provides opportunities for learning through practice. The curriculum will then culminate with a focus on creativity driven by an integration of my analytical and production skills through continuous theoretical and hands-on engagement.

I have used similar strategies to achieve other important personal goals. When I moved to New York City in January of 1999, I created a similar plan to pursue DJing. After three years I was transformed from having no knowledge of how to spin records to moonlighting as a DJ with bi-weekly residences at popular parties in downtown lounges and clubs.

These pursuits have other important features in common: a genuine desire to share something of great personal value, and a focus on integrity. Sharing the joy and energy that music brought to my life was key to my success as a DJ. Acting with integrity also contributed to my accomplishments, though until recently I failed to notice that my actions did not support this same goal at a community level. I’ve realized that acting with integrity includes not only standing by my own promises. It also requires holding others accountable for their commitments. I failed to notice that I had too often sacrificed my authenticity and honesty because I was afraid of hurting someone’s feelings or not being liked.

This failure undermined my ability to grow as a leader and to contribute to the growth of other individuals within my personal and professional communities. Now, while I still place emphasis on getting along with others, I am also conscious that my integrity depends on direct and honest communications.

My interest in human growth and development is one of my main inspirations for applying to ITP. Beyond investigating how to improve interfaces with machines, I want to explore how technology can enhance the way human beings experience the world. How can technology create constructive new ways for people to communicate? How can we guide its continued expansion into our physical and social worlds so that it has a positive impact on the way we conceive and communicate our identity and individuality? How can it help to transform our consciousness so we depend less on a conditioned response and become more actively engaged?

I also want to explore how technology can be made accessible to a greater number of people. How can we create new and more natural and delightful ways for human beings to interact with computational devices? How can we enable communities of people who have special needs such as illiteracy or disability to interact with computational devices?

I know that the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU would provide me with unrivaled opportunities to investigate these areas of interest. I am attracted by the program’s focus on hands-on experimentation and the self-directed project-based framework on which it is built. I have limited experience writing code and building physical computing devices, but I have passion and desire to learn, which is evidenced by the assortment of cell phones and computers I’ve collected for hacking.

I have already started down the path of interaction design, and I would consider it an honor if I could integrate studies at ITP into my journey. In return I am eager to dedicate my passion, energy, commitment, and contagious optimism to ensure the continued success of this program."

Back to School at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU

I'm going back to school. I am officially enrolled in the Interactive Telecommunications Program at the Tisch School of Arts at NYU. This is an extremely exciting and valuable opportunity for me. It is an ideal compliment to my personal interaction and experience design curriculum.

This program affords me the chance to develop practical know-how regarding how to create engaging and valuable experiences using communication technologies. My existing theory-based (know-that) knowledge, accumulated from much reading and writing during the past 8 months, should come in handy.

Here is a brief overview of what the program's mission (straight from their own website): "to explore the imaginative use of communications technologies — how they might augment, improve, and bring delight and art into people’s lives. Perhaps the best way to describe us is as a Center for the Recently Possible."

This event has several implications for this blog. From a content perspective, I will begin to post information related to my ITP experience. All of these entries will be tagged with the label ITP .  I will begin this series by posting my statement of purpose. Then I will share project ideas and questions I find worth exploring. I hope that this will help me refine my thoughts and ideas.

The last and most superficial impact of this event is a title change for this blog. I am currently planning to change form Learning Interaction and Experience Design to Technology/Culture/Design/Experience. This is officially the "acting" tile; which means that any day now it can be replaced by the actual title (if organizations can do this with their employees why can't organisms do the same with our own resources, such as blog titles).

That's all for tonight, I am suffering from a mild mental blockage (it took me over an hour to write this short post). I will have much more to say about ITP over the coming months.

ID FMP: Unified Theory of Design

Nathan Shedroff offers a valuable unified theory of design that brings together information, interaction, and sensorial design. This theory is based on the premise that leveraging existing and creating new ways to organize and present data and information is a process that is roughly the same across media.

The intent of this theory is to enable people to create “valuable, compelling, and empowering information and experiences for others.” (Shedroff believes that these design skill are crucial for success in modern society.) In order to create these experiences people need to have a message and a reason for communicating it

The relationship between information, interaction and sensorial design disciplines is visualized as a Venn diagram. Each discipline encompasses different types of expertise. To create compelling content and engaging experiences designers need to bring to bear skills from all of these realms.

I classify this theory as an experience design framework because it brings together all disciplines required to created compelling communications and engaging experiences. Nathan has developed other valuable experience design-focused frameworks that I will explore in future posts.

First off, I’ll provide and overview of Shedroff’s definition for information, interaction, and sensorial design. Then I’ll delve deeper into each of these disciplines to explore relevant concepts and frameworks.

Overview of Information, Interaction, and Sensorial Design

• “Information design addresses the organization and presentation of data: its transformation into valuable, meaningful information.” Information design has been practiced by graphic designers and publishers for a long time, though they rarely identified these practices as a distinct discipline. Recently this discipline has become more importance due to the proliferation of data, and the need to synthesize this data into information, knowledge, and ultimately wisdom.
• Interaction design is “essentially story-creating and telling, [that] is both an ancient art and a new technology.” Interaction design for many traditional media such as print, TV and outdoor is limited and guided by existing conventions. Interaction design has long been practiced by industrial designers and live performers, though they did not identify it as its own discipline. The new possibilities for interaction offered by interactive technologies have increased the importance of interaction design.
• “Sensorial design is simply the employment of all techniques with which we communicate to others through our senses.” This includes writing, visual techniques (e.g. graphic design, animations, and videography), sounds, smells, tactile feel (e.g. industrial design, and material selection). Sensorial design disciplines have their own histories, concerns and practices. The traditional focus of most design disciplines is on sensorial design. That said, most great designers had an understanding regarding information and interaction design, even if they did not recognize these practices as distinct disciplines.

Information Design
“An understanding of information design starts with the essential view that the vast amount of things that bombard our senses everyday are not pieces of information but merely data.” To transform data into information it needs to be organized, and presented in an appropriate context that can give it meaning. Information can be consumed via experiences that generate knowledge. Experiences can then eventually generate wisdom.

The Continuum of Understanding
Data and information are both part of a continuum of understanding. This continuum maps the relationship between four different levels of understanding: data, information, knowledge, and wisdom.

Data represents the lowest level of understanding along this continuum. It is the “raw material we find or create” to build our communications. By itself data does not contain a complete message and is inconsequential and boring. For these reasons data is mostly useful to people who produce content.

Data is transformed into information when it is organized and presented in a context that makes relationships and patterns visible and delivers meaning. Producers of information determine what data is used guided by their own goals and conceptual models. On the other hand, consumers determine how the information is consumed and evaluated according to their own goals and mental models.

The next ladder up on the continuum is knowledge. Knowledge refers to the understanding that we gain through experience. It is created by the integration of information with our existing mental models and understandings. Knowledge is participatory level of communication that can be individual or shared. As such, it can only be communicated through compelling interactions that enable people to identify patterns and meanings in information.

The highest, most intimate and vague level of understanding is Wisdom. Less is known about it than any other level, other than it is more abstract and philosophical. “Wisdom is a kind of ‘meta-knowledge’ of processes and relationships gained through experiences. It is the result of contemplation, evaluation, retrospection, and interpretation – all of which are particularly personal processes.” Unlike knowledge, wisdom is hard to share, and occurs at an individual level only.

Organization, Metaphors and Goals
Organization is the first step in the process of transforming data into information, so that it can be communicated effectively. This is a crucial activity because the organization of data impacts the way information is understood and interpreted by others. Shedroff identifies several common ways to organize information: Alphabets, Locations, Time, Continuums, Numbers, Categories, Randomness, Advanced Organizations, and Multiple Organizations.

Metaphors can also help transform data into information because they can enable people to quickly understand relationships and meanings. That said, when metaphors are used poorly (as they often are) they can worsen the user experience and limit the possibilities for progress associated to the design of information, interactions and senses.

Definition of objectives and messages is a crucial strategic step in the development of effective communications. All design decisions should be guided by pre-defined goals and messaging considerations.

Interaction Design
Interaction design is focused on the creation of experiences that are appropriate, effective, delightful, and even wonderful. Traditionally, the design of interactions has been practiced mostly in the performing arts such through disciplines such as script-writing, storytelling, performance, and instructional design. More recently, interaction design has become a key practice associated to the development of computer-based products and services.

Continuum of Interactivity
Nathan offers an interesting perspective on interactivity: “One way to consider the meaning of interactivity is to envision all experiences (and products) as inhabiting a continuum of interactivity.” This continuum ranges from passive experiences to interactive ones. There are six main attributes that can differentiate interactive experiences from passive ones. Interactive experiences offer the user with clear feedback, enhanced control, and additional opportunities for creativity, productivity, communication, or adaptability.

Feedback and control are closely related. All experiences with high interactivity provide high levels of feedback and a minimum level of control. Feedback enables the person interacting with a device to perceive (and hopefully understand) the impact of their actions. Control enables that same person to carry out actions on, and through, the device.

Creativity and productivity are two attributes of interactivity that are related to making, doing, and sharing things. Highly interactive experiences are better able to support creativity and productivity than passive ones. For example, guitar lessons available on the new Garage Band are more effective educational tools than those available via most books because they are more interactive.

Communication is an attribute of interactivity that is focused on enabling people to meet people, talk to others and share opinions and stories. By definition, experiences that support communication provide a high-level of feedback and control.

Adaptivity is the final attribute of interactivity explored by Shedroff. It is related to the adaptation of a system in response to changes in user behavior or context. Highly interactive experiences often provide features such as agents and additional tools and functionality based on user behavior or context. For example, video games get harder as the player gets better and progresses through different phases and reaches new milestones.

To help visualize different activities across these various attributes of interactivity, Shedroff developed an experience cube (a simplified version of a six-sided diagram that was originally attempted). This cube maps feedback and control as a single dimension, next creativity, productivity and communication are grouped as another dimension, adaptivity remains its own dimension. Any experience, whether computer mediated or not, can be mapped within this cube.

Sensorial Design
Sensorial design encompasses all disciplines related to the creation and presentation of media – graphic design, sound design, photography, animation, calligraphy, typography, cinematography, illustration, etc. This includes any design endeavor associated to the purposeful stimulation of the senses: tactile, visual, olfactory, or auditory. All of these disciplines share a few common concerns: a focus on understanding human senses; and a concern with the appropriate use of media, style, and technique.

[This information is sourced from a paper by Nathan Shedroff titled: Information Interaction Design: A Unified Field Theory of Design ]

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 ? **

XML Here We Go

So I've taken a deep dive into learning XML. Ok, that is a definite exaggeration. At this point my dive into XML has been focused exclusively on the redesign of my blog template. If anyone other than me is actually reading this blog then hopefully you've noticed some updates. The resources that I've been using have been quite limited - I've been focused on analyzing source code from various existing Blogger templates (and borrowing relevant snippets, of course).

The good news is that my coding skills, though incredibly rusty, have helped me make sense of the source code and, more importantly, make progress. I also remember that, unlike in writting where borrowing from others is considered plagiarism, in software development, if I can call what I am doing software development, borrowing is thought of as a time saving virtue rather than vice.

During my web coding days (1998 through 2002) most websites were still developed primarily using HTML and javascript only, aka DHTML. This was before the time of AJAX and during a period where most implementations of flash were considerably more limited. This meant that aspiring coders could always rely on finding easy access to helpful source code by simply browsing the web and perusing the source of any site that was well developed.

This strategy will be much less helpful as I start again down this path. I can probably finish my entire blog redesign with this approach. However, as I branch out to redesign my personal website (I swear I'll get to this someday) I will need to find online and offline resources to serve as learnings tools and references. Access to a few coding gurus would also help (speaking of gurus it seems like this term has lost the popularity it enjoyed in the early web days).

Now I am just rambling so let me call it a night.

Time for the Redesign

For over 6 months I have been working through my interaction and experience design curriculum. Its hard to believe that during this time I've read a bookshelf's worth of publications and I've written over 60 posts related to my studies. At this point in the game I am going to widen my focus to incorporate practice, shifting from an exclusive concentration on theory.

My goal is to achieve a new balance in my pursuits by combining my on-going exploration of theory with additional practice - I do not plan to merely replace theory with practice since there is still much for me to learn from both of these perspectives. This shift will take place gradually beginning with the redesign of my blog (which you may have noticed, has already started).

Over the next several weeks I will redesign my project blog with the following goals in mind:

• Making all information related to my project accessible from a single location. This will require that I find a way to aggregate project data from various different sources (such as bookmarks, tweets, blogs and book lists) into a single project portal.
• Ensuring that this information is easy to digest. To deliver on this objective I will need to logically organize the content so that readers (including myself) are able to quickly understand what the information means, and how it is connected.
• Creating an experience that is more pleasurable. In other words, I need to make this project blog more aesthetically pleasing (it needs to look better). Of course, improving my writing would also help a lot to make a reader's experience more pleasurable. Unfortunately, that requires more than a redesign.

The changes have already begun to take place. For example, I just launched the three column design earlier today. Be ready to for several changes (including changes back and forth) as I explore different ways to design this information. Make sure to scream (or at least comment) when you see something you like or not (in case there is someone actually reading this blog besides myself).

ID FMP: Cognitive Model of Emotions for Design

In the 90’s Don Norman, along with his colleagues Andrew Ortony and William Revelle, began to explore the role that emotions play in making products easier, more pleasurable, and effective to use. During this time period various design researchers were investigating the link between emotions (especially aesthetics) and usability. These inquiries confirmed that our affective states strongly influence our experiences, and that these states can be induced by design of product systems.

The model they developed aims to explain how different levels of our brain govern our emotions and behaviors. At the visceral level our brain is pre-wired to rapidly respond to events in the physical world by triggering physiological responses in our body. The behavioral level controls our everyday behaviors, including learned routines such as walking and talking. Lastly, the reflective level is responsible for cognitive processes related to contemplation and planning.

Emotions can arise at various levels and are created by a combination of physiological and behavioral responses that are influenced by reflective cognitive processes. An emotion like anger tends to be mostly visceral or behavioral in nature. However, indignation, which is a higher-level version of this emotion, is reflective in nature as well.

The main implication from this model is that our affective states have an impact on how we think. This important insight applies to thinking about the user’s affective state when using the product, and to how a user’s affective state will be impacted by use of the product. In regards to the former consideration, designers can take leverage an understanding regarding common physiological and emotional responses to stressful situations in order to design products that can be successfully used in such contexts.

A users’ experience with a product itself can also have impact on their affective states. High- and low-level emotions can influence all levels of cognitive activity, which is why a one’s visceral response to a product’s aesthetics can impact our behavior. On the other hand, the one’s higher cognitive functions control one’s lower level functions, which is why we can overcome our initial emotional responses if a product is effective enough.

The most common way that designers apply this model is by exploring the design considerations associated to each of the three levels. Visceral design encompasses considerations such as the aesthetics of the look, feel, smell and sound of the product. Behavioral design refers to considerations associated to the product’s usability. Reflective design is concerned with the meaning and value that a product provides within the context of a specific culture.

I consider this model to be an evolution of modes of cognition framework. The main change is that in the Emotional Model the “experiential” mode of cognition has been divided into distinct types of cognition: visceral and behavior. This revision enables the model to reflect the important role played by our emotional response to a product’s aesthetics.

[source: Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction; Don Norman’s book Emotional Design.]

** What the hell is ID FMP? **

The Birth of CADIE - Google's Artificial Intelligence System

On March 31st, 2009 at 11:59:59 pm Google launched CADIE, an artificial intelligence system that has its own blog and YouTube video channel, and loves pandas. Sounds silly until you spend some time reading her (or its) blog, or viewing its (or her) videos. The impression that you get from reading her blog is that CADIE is an extremelly intelligent being that is able to even write poems that are pretty witty.

Background About CADIE
"For several years now a small research group has been working on some challenging problems in the areas of neural networking, natural language and autonomous problem-solving... We're pleased to announce that just moments ago, the world's first Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity (CADIE) was switched on and began performing some initial functions... CADIE technology will be rolled out with the caution befitting any advance of this magnitude."

CADIE is Alive and Kicking
"Earlier today, for instance, CADIE deduced from a quick scan of the visual segment of the social web a set of online design principles from which she derived this intriguing homepage...On January 12th 2009, the STT run (Standard Turing Test) confirmed behavior indistinguishable from that of a reasonable human being with above-average intelligence and 3.8 GPA."

"But no amount of Turing testing equals the simplicity with which we can discover reasoning patterns in a three-year-old child who, confronted with a mirror, instantly performs a cognitive miracle by forming an innate equivalence relation between image and self."

CADIE and Ethics
"We continue to conduct tests, but increasingly, we conduct long conversations with her, acutely aware that our creation will raise many ethical questions on the part of the public. Will humans be surpassed by artificial evolution? Will we lose our sense of uniqueness, and if so, what would that mean? In which direction will CADIE's consciousness evolve? How is she going to be held accountable, if at all? Will CADIE herself at some point connect her own electromagnetic dots in some idiosyncratic manner which turns her into something we are no longer capable of understanding in any sort of productive way, much as that aforementioned toddler, waving at herself in the mirror, leaves primates forever behind in their own tragically limited world?"

Hello from CADIE

April's Fool
After being amazed at this achievement from Google for an hour and half I finally realized that this is nothing more than April fools joke. Once you read the post about Google's new product, a "Brain Indexing Search" feature halfway down CADIE's blog page, it all falls into place. I even checked out the Google Brain Search on my mobile phone just to see how far they actually took this joke. My hats off to them for once again putting on a human face to this gargantuan organization.

One practical thing that I discovered during this fun waste of time was that Google has released a pretty awesome new search feature for the iPhone. It is a voice activated search that provides you the search results via a browser interface.

ID FMP: External Cognitive Activities

People often leverage artifacts and characteristics from their environment to reduce cognitive load and enhance their cognitive capabilities. External cognition refers to the activities that people use to support their cognitive efforts. These activities rely on: a wide range of artifacts such as computers, watches, pens and papers; characteristics of the environment such as visible landmarks, and signs; and other people. There are three main types of external cognition activities.

These three types of activities are heavily inter-dependent. In the diagram above they are listed from broadest to most specific. The externalization of memory load is the most basic external cognitive activity. It is involved in all types of external cognitive activities.

Computational offloading leverages memory externalization for the specific purpose of performing computational tasks. It is the next most basic external cognitive activity.

Annotation and cognitive tracing can be used to support both types of distributed cognitive activities mentioned above. This type of distributed cognition involves the manipulation or modification of memory and computational externalizations that impact the meaning of the externalizations themselves.

External cognitive activities are used to support experiential and reflective modes of cognition [more info on cognitive modes]. These activities rely on and support all types cognitive processes defined in my earlier post – attention, perception, memory, language, learning, and higher reasoning [more info on cognitive process types].

This framework of external cognitive activities complements the Information Processing model by identifying how people leverage their external environment to enhance and support their cognitive capabilities [more info on information processing model].

It also complements the model of interaction by providing additional insights regarding how people interact with the world (or system images) to support and enhance their cognitive capabilities. However, it does not provide insight into how people interact with systems for non-cognitive pursuits, such as physical and communication ones [more info on model of interaction].

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

** What the hell is ID FMP? **

ID FMP: Information Processing Cognitive Model

One of the most prevalent metaphors used in cognitive psychology compares the mind to an information processor. According to this perspective, information enters the mind and is processed through four linear stages that enable users to choose an appropriate response.

Though this model offers insights into how people process information, it is limited by its exclusive focus on activities that happen in the mind. Most of our cognitive activities involve interactions with people, objects, and other aspects of the environment around us. In other words, cognition does not take place only in the mind.

In my next ID FMP post I will cover the external cognition framework that describes external cognitive activities; and distributed cognition models that attempt to map all internal and external activities. Here’s how this model aligns to the frameworks, models, and principles that I have explored over the past several weeks.

The cognitive activities modeled by Information Processing framework above can be mapped to the mental activities outlined in Norman’s Model of Interaction. At a high level, Norman’s model provides additional insights regarding the mental activities that take place and it features the external environment as an important, though unexplored, element. Here is a brief overview of how the phases from this model relates to the interaction one:

• “Input encoding” maps to “perception”
• “comparison” encompasses “interpretation” and “evaluation”
• “response selection” corresponds to “intention” and “action specification”
• “response execution” maps to “execution

The “goals” phase of the Interaction Model crosses over between the “comparison” and “response selection” phases of the Information Processing framework – so do the additional phases of the modified Model of Interaction.

Here is how this model aligns with the framework regarding the relationship between a designer’s conceptual model and a user’s mental model. The focus of the Information Processing model is on the cognitive processes that occur in the user’s mind when they are interacting with the world. These processes are closely related to mental models in two ways:

• First, mental models provide the foundation for people to understand their interactions with the world and select appropriate responses.
• Second, mental models evolve as people evaluate the impact of their own actions and other events on the world.
  

[Note: by “world” I refer to any physical, virtual and social entities with which people can interact.]

The Conversation Turn Taking Model is related to the Information processing model in a broad sense only. The turn taking framework focuses on explaining an external phenomenon related to language and communication that is driven by the cognitive functions described in the Information Processing model. They do not contradict one another nor do they directly support each other.

The Information Processing model can be applied to both reflective and experiential modes of cognition, though the phases involved in each mode differ. Reflective cognition tends to be active during the “comparison” and “action selection” phases. On the other hand, experiential cognition can be active across all phases depending on the type of interaction.

The chart below provides an overview regarding which cognitive process types are involved with each phase of the Information Processing model.

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

** What the hell is ID FMP? **

ID FMP: Model of Interaction

There are many theories that attempt to describe the cognitive processes that govern users’ interactions with products systems. Here I will focus on a model developed by Don Norman, which was outlined in his book Design of Everyday Things. This framework breaks down the process of interaction between a human and a product into seven distinct phases.

Seven Phases of Interaction with a Product System

1. Forming the goal
2. Forming the intention
3. Specifying an action
4. Executing the action
5. Perceiving the state of the world
6. Interpreting the state of the world
7. Evaluating the outcome

Two important concepts related to Norman’s Theory of Action are the gulf of execution and evaluation. The gulf of execution refers to the gap between how the user wants to act and how the system allows the user to take action. The gulf of evaluation corresponds to the gap between how the system displays data to how the user interprets this data into knowledge.

Now let’s put this theory into context with some of the concepts and models that we’ve encountered thus far. First, I want to point out that this model aligns with Don Norman’s model regarding the relationship between a designer’s conceptual model and a user’s mental model [read more here]. The focus of this framework is the interaction between the system image, the product’s interface where user interaction happens, and the user’s mental model, the user’s understanding of how the product works which governs the user’s interpretation, evaluation, goals, intention, action specification.

I’ve extended Norman’s original model to account for the reflective cognition that is also involved in peoples’ interactions with products. Reflective cognition governs peoples’ higher-level evaluations, goals and intentions that ultimately drive peoples’ experiential cognition activities. Experiential cognition governs the second-by-second evaluations, goals, and intentions involved in peoples’ interactions with products. These two different modes of cognition are explored in greater detail here.

Here is an example to distinguish and highlight the interdependencies between these two different types of cognition and interaction. Let’s consider a person’s interaction with a car. In this scenario, a person’s reflective cognitive would include setting a goal such as choosing a destination and desired time of arrival, and evaluating what route to take based on understanding of current location and traffic patterns. These activities would govern a person’s experiential interactions with a car and drive their moment-by-moment evaluations, and creation of goals and intentions. Experiential interactions would include using the steering wheel to turn a corner or switch lanes, pressing the accelerator to speed up, and stepping on the breaks to stop the car.

How does the concept of mental models relate to this framework? The mental model itself is not represented by a single phase, or grouping of phases. It refers to the understanding that a user has of how a system works. Norman’s model was developed to describe how users interact with product systems on an experiential, minute-by-minute basis. At this level of interaction a user’s mental model drives their interpretations, evaluations, setting of goals and intentions, and specification of actions.

Now let’s explore how the different cognitive types come into play during the various phases of interaction. These cognitive types have been outlined in greater detail here.

• Attention supports all phases of interaction from perception through to action execution. This cognitive process refers to a user’s ability to focus on both external phenomena and internal thoughts.
• Perception is clearly called out as its own phase in Don Norman’s model.
• Memory plays an important role during all phases from interpretation through to action specification.
• Language supports communication throughout all phases of a person’s interaction with a product. Here I refer to both verbal and visual languages.
• Learning enables people to use new products and increase effectiveness and efficiency in their interactions with existing products. This cognitive process supports all phases between the interpretation and action specification.
• Higher reason governs all activities related to the setting of high-level goals and intent, and driving evaluations.

[source: Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction; and Don Norman's Book The Design of Everyday Things]

** What the hell is ID FMP? **

ID FMP: Conversation Turn-Taking Model

Holding a conversation is a basic human activity. It requires a large amount of coordination between participants, a fact that is often unnoticed. People need to know when to listen, when they can start talking, and when to cede the floor. Conversation mechanisms facilitate the coordination of conversations by helping people know how and when to start and stop speaking. These mechanisms enable people to effectively negotiate the turn-taking required carry out a conversation.

Harvey Sacks, Emanuel Schegloff, and Gail Jefferson have developed a model that aims to explain how people manage turn taking during conversations. The focus of their research was to create a framework that can be applied across cultures and contexts, and that can accommodate several key observations about the structure and dynamics of conversations. Here is an excerpt from the abstract of their paper The Simplest Systematics for the Organization of Turn-Taking for Conversation.

“The organization of taking turns to talk is fundamental to conversation, as well as to other speech-exchange systems. A model for the turn-taking organization for conversation is proposed, and is examined for its compatibility with a list of grossly observable facets about conversation [outlined below].”

The Foundations
Before we explore the model itself let’s take a look at its foundation. Here is a list of the “grossly observable facets about conversation” that was referred to in the quote above:

1. Speaker changes will always occur and often recur.
2. For most of the time only one party talks at a time.
3. More than one person will often talk at a time, but these occurrences are brief.
4. Most transitions occur with no gap or overlap, or with slight gap or overlap.
5. Turn order varies throughout conversation.
6. Turn size or length usually varies.
7. Length of conversation is not specified.
8. What parties say is not specified.
9. Relative distribution of turns is not specified.
10. Number of parties varies considerably.
11. Talk can be continuous or not.
12. Turn-allocation techniques are used to facilitate the conversation.
13. Sometime turn-constructional units are used to facilitate conversation.
14. Repair mechanisms exist for correcting turn-taking errors.

The Model

The general model that they developed, which is pictured above, is composed of the three basic rules that govern the transition of turns in a conversation. These rules are:

1. The current speaker chooses the next speaker by asking a question or making a request.
2. If the speaker does not choose the next speaker, then another person can self-select to start speaking.
3. The speaker can decide to continue speaking if no other person self-selects to start speaking.

[source: Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction; and Harvey Sacks, Emanuel Schegloff, and Gail Jefferson’s paper The Simplest Systematics for the Organization of Turn-Taking for Conversation, 1974]

** What the hell is ID FMP? **

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.

ID FMP: Types of Cognitives Processes

In my last post I identified two different modes of cognition. Here I will continue my investigation into the scope of cognition by identifying six different types of cognitive processes, taken from the book Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction. My focus will remain on the questions: “what is cognition? And what are the main types cognitive activities?”

The six types of cognitive processes that I will describe are attention, perception, memory, language, learning, and higher reasoning. The processes are interdependent and occur simultaneously. They play a role in experiential and reflective modes of cognition. Here is a description of each process along with a few related implications.

Attention: process for selecting an object on which to concentrate. Object can be a physical or abstract one (such as an idea) that resides out in the world or in the mind.

Design implications: make information visible when it needs attending to; avoid cluttering the interface with too much information.

Perception: process for capturing information from the environment and processing it. Enables people to perceive entities and objects in the world. Involves input from sense organs (such as eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and fingers) and the transformation of this information into perception of entities (such as objects, words, tastes, and ideas).

Design implications: all representations of actions, events and data (whether visual, graphical, audio, physical, or a combination thereof) should be easily distinguishable by users.

Memory: process for storing, finding, and accessing knowledge. Enables people to recall and recognize entities, and to determine appropriate actions. Involves filtering new information to identify what knowledge should be stored. Context and duration of interaction are two important criteria that function as filters.

Design implications: do not overload user’s memory; leverage recognition as opposed to recall when possible; provide a variety of different ways for users to encode information digitally.

Language: processes for understanding and communicating through language via reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Though these language-media have much in common, they differ on numerous dimensions including: permanence, scan-ability, cultural roles, use in practice, and cognitive effort requirements

Design implications: minimize length of speech-based menus; accentuate intonation used in speech-based systems; ensure that font size and type allow for easy reading.

Learning: process for synthesizing new knowledge and know-how. Involves connecting new information and experiences with existing knowledge. Interactivity is an important element in the learning process.

Design implications: leverage constraints to guide new users; encourage exploration by new users; link abstract concepts to concrete representations to facilitate understanding.

Higher reasoning: processes that involve reflective cognition such as problem-solving, planning, reasoning, decision-making. Most are conscious processes that require discussion, with oneself or others, and the use of artifacts such as books, and maps. Extent to which people can engage in higher reasoning is usually correlated to their level of expertise in a specific domain.

Design implications: make it easy for users with higher levels of expertise to access additional information and functionality to carry out tasks more efficiently and effectively.

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

** What the hell is ID FMP? **