The BIG lab team are very pleased to announce that we have had three papers accepted to CHI 2013 the premier international conference on human-computer interaction.
Close The Doors
“Using Crowdsourcing to support Pro-Environmental Community Activism” studies the use of a mobile app to support Close The Doors, a community activist group encouraging shops to keep their door shut in winter. The app lets volunteers collect data as to which shops have their doors open or closed, and maps the data for use by Close The Doors to target their activity. The paper studies the effect of gamification – scoring points and appearing on a leaderboard – on volunteer engagement, and also explores other factors which motivate and enable the volunteers.
More info about Close the Doors.
Talking about Tactile Experiences
A common problem with designing and developing applications with tactile interfaces is the lack of a vocabulary that allows one to describe or communicate about haptics. In this paper we present 14 categories for a human-experiential vocabulary (H-E-Vocabulary) based on findings from a user study using the explicitation interview technique. The H-E-Vocabulary is tied back to neurophysiological and psychophysical data on the human hand and is illustrated with example design implications for haptic systems.
More info about UltraHaptics.
Morphees
We introduce the term shape resolution in 10 features, which adds to the existing definitions of screen and touch resolution and helps the design of shape-shifting mobile devices. We then present six building strategies of Morphees that are self-actuated flexible mobile devices adapting their shapes on their own to the context of use in order to offer better affordances.
More info about Morphees.