Recently held in Toronto, Canada, the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems is the premier international conference of Human-Computer Interaction. Arnel, Judith and Manna from our Toronto office recently held a Lunch & Learn to share what they learned over four very full days of talks, courses and demos, covering everything from best practices in research to robotics.

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April 26 – May 1, 2014
Toronto, ON
CHI 2014
1CHI 2014

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Agenda
CHI 2014
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• What is CHI?
• Manna: Research Methods & Tools
• Arnel: Power to the People!
• Judith: Mobile HCI; Hardware & Interaction

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CHI the premier international conference
of Human-Computer Interaction.
CHI 2014

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A typical day…
CHI 2014
• 9am – 5pm
• Approx . 50 sessions per day
• Academic papers, courses, special
interest groups, panels

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Highlights…
Courses, Talks, Plenaries Exhibitions and Hands-on
Demos
Inspiring Keynotes!

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Course:
Methods of Design Synthesis –Moving from Data to Innovation
Jon Kolko – VP of Product, Innovation, and Design at MyEdu
and founder of Austin Center for Design
6CHI 2014

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Data Information Knowledge Wisdom
Making5Meaning5
out5of5Data
Methods:5
affinity5diagramming
hierarchy5creation
flow5diagramming
scenario5development
Experience5
Frameworking
Methods:5
concept5mapping
temporal5zoom
semantic5zoom
storyboarding
Gaining5Empathy
Methods:5
reframing
insight'combination
participatory5design
The process…
CHI 2014

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Method: Insight Combination
A method of building on insights and established
design patterns in order to create initial design ideas

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I saw this + I know this = Insight
Method: Insight Combination
Data gathered through research Ethics, morals, world view,
experience
Clear, deep, meaningful perception into
human behavior in a particular design
context
CHI 2014

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Insight + Design Pattern = Design Idea
Method: Insight Combination
Clear, deep, meaningful
perception into human behavior in
a particular design context
A trending paradigm or piece of
culture and society
A new, creative concept, somewhat
facilitated by existing design paradigms
CHI 2014

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Insight + Design Pattern = Design Idea
Exercise: Insight Combination
People are expanding their
understanding of “appropriate”
human to human interactions as
they search for meaning in the
minutia of their daily lives.
Reality TV has moved from realistic
to surreal, to ‘car-crash-in-slow-
motion’.
A dating site that puts people into
finite situations of absurdity, which is
live-streamed to the internet and open
to online commentary.
CHI 2014

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Course:
Designing Unbiased Surveys for HCI Research
Hendrik Muller &
Aaron Sedley, UX Research, Google
12CHI 2014

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What is a survey?
A method of gathering
information about a
population by asking
questions to a sample.
CHI 2014

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Biases
CHI 2014
• Satisficing
• Acquiescence
• Question Order
• Social Desirability
• Answer Options
• Hypotheticals
• Leading Info

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Activity
CHI 2014
• Select a questionnaire
• Identify the biases
• Re-write questions to improve
• Discuss findings as a group

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Special Interest Group:
Effectively communicating user research in order to drive
design and product decisions
Karen Holtzblatt, InContext Design
Shoshana Holtzblatt, Google
16CHI 2014

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Introduction
CHI 2014

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Tips from Shoshana
CHI 2014
① Forget Numbers – Make Themes
② Pretty Counts
③ Make it Interactive

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Tips from Karen
CHI 2014
① Immersion – own the customer data
② Translate data into:
a. Contextual models
b. Affinity diagrams
c. Identity models
d. Sensation boards

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Course:
Mobile Human-Computer Interaction
Niels Henze – University of Stuttgart, Germany
Enrico Rukzio – University of Ulm, Germany
20CHI 2014

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Mobile Human-Computer Interaction:
The design of interactive mobile
systems for human users in their
surrounding context

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What’s Changed Since the iPhone Launched?
2007: the first iPhone 2014: the iPhone 5S
CHI 2014

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Challenges in Mobile HCI
CHI 2014
1. Limited Input Capabilities
2. Limited Output Capabilities
3. Unknown Contexts
4. Interaction in the Real World

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Paper:
Is My Phone Alive? A Large Scale Study of Shape Change in
Handheld Devices Using Video
Esben W. Pedersen - University of Copenhagen
Sriram Subramanian - University of Bristol
Kasper Hornbæk - University of Copenhagen
24CHI 2014

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Early Prototypes of Shape Changing Devices
Morphees Nokia Kinetic
CHI 2014

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Video Prototypes & User Testing
CHI 2014
o Produced 51 videos of a shape-
changing handheld device
o Assessed user reactions to videos
using open-ended questionnaire
o Related differences in
experiences back to model
parameters
o Key Assumption: User reactions
to videos capture (at least
partially) how they’d perceive
physical devices
Smartphone Shown in Video
160x90x4 mm
6.9” screen
Thickness of 4 mm
Moving Beyond Physical Prototypes

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Use Scenarios
Notification & Hand Approach

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AREA: a device’s ability to change its surface area

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CURVATURE: a device’s ability to change the curviness of its surface

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ZERO CROSSING: the capability of a shape to have wave-like patterns

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AMPLITUDE: the range of displacement of a point on the surface

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TAPERING: diminishing or reducing the thickness toward one end

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CORNER BEND: bending the corner of the phone upwards

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Empirical Study
CHI 2014
o 200 participants recruited through
Amazon Mechanical Turk
o Each participant shown 3 videos in
random order
o Each participant asked to complete a
UX questionnaire evaluating:
hedonic quality, pragmatic quality,
goodness, beauty, urgency, & attend to

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AREA: a device’s ability to change its surface area
Finding: Strongly correlated to pragmatic qualities like predictable & simple

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ZERO CROSSING: the capability of a shape to have wave-like patterns
Finding: Strongly correlated to hedonic qualities like stylish & creative

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TAPERING: diminishing or reducing the thickness toward one end
Finding: Tapering towards the user increases level of urgency

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Conclusion:
Manipulations of shape and the level of shape
change had large effects on experience,
perceived urgency and emotions.
CHI 2014

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Paper:
Paddle – Highly Deformable Mobile Devices with Physical
Controls
Raf Ramakers, Johannes Schoning &
Kris Luyten
Hasselt University – tUL – iMinds
Expertise Centre for Digital Media
Diepenbeek, Belgium
39CHI 2014

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The Current Smartphone: A Nontransformable Device
CHI 2014
The Design Problem:
Touch screens don’t provide
physical controls or affordances

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Paddle:
A highly deformable mobile device that
can be transformed into various special-
purpose physical controls.

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What is Paddle?
A loop of square sized tiles held together by wires.
How does it work?
Through tiny infrared reflective markers and an optical tracking system. Projection
provides visual output. Touch interactions are enabled via markers on the user’s fingers.

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Paddle Transformations
Paddle as Map:
Shape Fits Digital Content
Paddle as Game Controller:
Ergonomically Designed
CHI 2014

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Paddle Controls: Peeking, Scrolling & Leafing
CHI 2014

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Paddle Controls: Peeking, Scrolling & Leafing Continued
CHI 2014

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Paper:
Panelrama: Enabling Easy Specification of Cross-Device Web
Applications
Jishuo Yang & Daniel Wigdor
University of Toronto
Department of Computer Science
46CHI 2014

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Panelrama:
A web framework that facilitates the
automatic distribution of UI elements
across multiple devices

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How Does Panelrama Work?
02 03Rank Usability of
Device Characteristics
Distribute Each Panel
to Best-Fit Device01Divide UI Elements into
Panels

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How Would Panelrama Distribute this Presentation?
CHI 2014

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Clock & Time Elapsed Displayed on Smartwatch

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Speaker Notes Moved to Google Glass
CHI 2014

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Slide Carousel Moved to Smartphone
CHI 2014

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Presentation Remains on Laptop
CHI 2014

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Paper:
Persuasive Technology in the Real World: A Study of the Long-
Term Use of Activity Sensing Devices for Fitness
Thomas Fritz - University of Zurich
Elaine Huang - University of Zurich
Gail Murphy - University of British Columbia
Thomas Zimmermann - Microsoft Research
54CHI 2014

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Have I Reached 10,000 Steps Yet!?
CHI 2014
FitBit as Persuasive Technology
Study:
Examined long term use of the
FitBit to identify if there’s a
threshold for use
Participants:
30 (16 F & 14 M) with average of
15 months of use
Findings:
Motivation persists over long
periods of time and increased
activity level maintained
Metrics and numbers become more
important than actual health
benefits

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Panel:
Can You Do Good and Do Well? Exploring HCI Careers in
Development
Ed Cutrell - Microsoft Research India Bangalore
Tawanna Dillahunt - University of Michigan
Jacob Korenblum - Souktel
Rowena Luk - Dimagi Inc.
56CHI 2014

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What is HCI for Development?
CHI 2014
• A growing field of HCI practitioners
and researchers who create tools to
impact international development,
human rights and socio-economic
development
– Focus on 80% of the world that
makes <$10/day
– Work on low-tech solutions, think
Nokia phones

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CommCare by Dimagi
CHI 2014
• A free and open-source platform
for creating forms and capturing
form data in an electronic
repository
• Examples:
– Rural clinics in Zambia
– Educating clients of low-literacy
health activists in India

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Job Matching by Souktel
CHI 2014
• Low-cost platform that connects
job seekers with employers using
SMS technology
• Examples:
– Youth employment in Gaza
– Female job-seekers in
conservative areas

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Course:
Make This! Introduction to Electronics Prototyping Using
Arduino
Dave Sirkin – Stanford University
Wendy Ju - Stanford University
60CHI 2014

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What is Arduino?
CHI 2014
• An electronics prototyping kit. Like LEGO
for prototyping electronic devices.
• Composed of:
– Arduino microcontroller: hooks up to
your computer and programs the circuit
board and the doodads attached to it
– Breadboard: circuit board, no soldering
needed
– Doodads include: potentiometer, LEDs,
resistors, light sensors, switches,
motors, etc.
Arduino
so,ware
Breadboard
Doodads

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What I made?
CHI 2014
• A ROBOT!

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Why I took this course
CHI 2014
• Get out of my comfort zone of 2D
interfaces, I’m intimidated by
electronics
• Eventually want to learn how to create a
full on robot!
• If you ever get a chance to do something
at a conference that looks fun but not
part of your discipline, DO IT!

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Closing Keynote:
The Physical Web
Scott Jenson – Google
64CHI 2014

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We could be heading towards a UX Disaster
CHI 2014
• The more things we build around the Internet of Things, the more we have
to be careful of the UX (Kindle vs. Bluetooth)
• Bad design could cause a cascade of errors that negatively affect our lives

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The “Shape of Innovation”
CHI 2014
• Step 1: inappropriately recycle an
old model, get familiar with it
(tillers on cars)
• Step 2: technology matures
(steering wheel)
• Step 2.5: getting attached with this
solution. We get so attached to it
we don’t want to give it up. Holds
us back from a revolution.

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Look past the iPhone Apps …
CHI 2014
• We are stuck in the iPhone model of apps
• To move forward with the Internet of Things, we need to look past this
model of Native Apps

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… and step into the Physical Web
CHI 2014
• There are going to be 1000s of
devices and objects to interact with
in the future
• Current, Unscalable model: a native
app for each device
• Instead, Just in Time interaction:
make all mobile devices be able scan
interactable objects in an area. That
object points users to webpages that
they can use to interact with the
object

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In conclusion
CHI 2014
• As innovators we need to be aware of the Shape of Innovation to make sure
we’re not getting stuck. Native Apps = Technology Tiller.
• Revolution requires freeing ourselves from the constraints of Native Apps.
Power to the people!

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Thank You.