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Design studies
2006 Technology Probes In parallel with the ethnographical studies, we have begun to progress with design activities informing the user requirements for our initial concept. These exercises took a form of Technology Probes- a method used to test new technological propositions with the potential end users. We have designed and deployed two generations of those probes. The first generation attempted to explore how the individual factors such as: urgency, importance, time-demand, availability, professional hierarchy and social relationship could be presented to the office workers to increase their awareness for one of these factors. With the second generation of the probes we tried to present end users with a device, which would enable them to set different characteristics of the nature of their interruptions and convey the chosen values back to the potential interruptee. The six probes have been designed, built and assessed for their design applicability with potential users. The evaluation has clearly shown that the level of interpretation of different interruption demands is too detailed and that the potential technological solution should be approached from a more abstract level. Furthermore, social proximity turned out to be a factor determined by the generic social construct created between the interruptee and the interruptor over time and difficult to influence in a straightforward manner. Therefore, another iteration using the Technology Probes method has been planned that aimed at designing probes addressing the two remaining interruption characteristics: the nature of the interruption subject, anticipated interruption duration. The new generation of probes was designed to stand outside as well as in the office. Settings made inside the office were mirrored to its 'brother' outside communicating the status of the interruptee. Interruptors could adjust probe according to their own settings/ desires, which in turn would be immediately communicated back to the interruptee allowing him/her to prepare for the interruption negotiation. Both probes were fully deployed and shortly tested in the realistic setting by two users each. The tests took three days and showed that despite the probe straightforwardness in informing the interruption process and the simplicity of their interaction the additional support in the visual inspection phase of interruption negotiation was highly valued by both interruptees and interruptors. However, the information needs seem to be more refined than the simplistic approach of addressing the main factors defining the interruption and these should be addressed in the conceptual design of the proposed awareness solution for supporting informal communication in the office environment. 2007 Conceptual Design The design of an awareness system supporting people in their informal communication at the office should provoke, stimulate and assist people in their interpersonal communication by representing F2F availability information about their colleagues but not to enforce the any explicit procedures on them. For these systems to be accepted, on the one hand the users need to feel comfortable with the level and detail of information they share and trust that the system is not violating their privacy. Furthermore, controlling the system has to be easy, unobtrusive and intuitive. On the other hand, the user interface has to stimulate collaboration without being excessively intrusive or distractive. Thus, the following design challenges were identified that need to be addressed in the conceptual design: - How to create a system that remains attractive for its users and stimulates increase of socially-appropriate behaviour as well as development of commonly recognized social culture? - What level of information provided by the system is desired and acceptable given that they are partially public displays? - What are the means of visualization for such a system (raw form or abstraction, audio, visual or multimodal representation, well fit for the culture of an organization, decorative but unobtrusive, easy to interpret and effective in creating opportunities in social interaction) - How to bring back the effort to establish the interaction back to the interruptee, so that the interruptor can clearly understand the possible costs of each attempt to initiate an opportunistic communicative activity? The design should address two situations, in which intent for initiating interruption is produced: (i) a moment when the interruptor forms a plan to go and interrupt someone, while still remaining at his/her own working place and (ii) a moment when the interruptor takes an opportunistic decision to interrupt when either passing by the interruptee's office or remaining in the same office that the interruptee. The design will be informed by a series of creative brainstorm using methods such as interaction relabelling, tinkering and others and will be carried out by creation of a number of low and high quality prototypes, each of them evaluated with a group of office workers. Future plans System deployment and evaluation The final concept will be then fully implemented and deployed in various offices and then extensively evaluated with its users. The results of the evaluation will address necessary design improvements and will produce further design guidelines for future designs. |
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