Future User

Contact person: Antti Oulasvirta, antti.oulasvirta(at)hiit.fi

New: See the newly released video recording equipment we have developed in the PASION project!

Problem description

From the perspective of the user, what does it mean that computers will be increasingly more distributed into our environments, act more on their own, and assume new ways of making themselves understandable? The era of desktop-based Human-Computer Interaction has focused on tasks (e.g., visual search from a graphical user interface), activity domains (e.g., information retrieval) and contexts of use (e.g., organizational or work context) that are too narrow for understanding the future user. The challenges that are novel in comparison to desktop-based HCI include:

• use of space
• using while moving
• being present in a virtual and a "real" world simultaneously
• constant multitasking, integration of interaction with "natural", non-computerized tasks
• use of novel modalities
• leisure-oriented activities
• being connected all the time
• managing information and computation distributed into the environment
• understanding the operating logic of intelligent systems
• ...

Studying the fragmentation of cognitive processing of interactive task in mobile HCI

Research questions

The track centers on studying the human as a user of novel interactive technologies and in novel settings. From the perspective of the track, interaction per se is not of primary interest, but the latent causes of behavior in HCI. Through analyses of psychological and social factors, the track aims to contribute to theories in HCI. It will describe and explain the user in the various emerging settings of HCI. This scoping of research represents a distinctive position in the field of HCI focusing organizational and safety-critical settings and on direct construction of ubiquitous systems.

The main contribution of this kind of research will be two-fold. First, the track will identify new problems and opportunities in human-computer interaction. Second, the track will produce concepts, models, methods, and theories for and of the user and user groups, helping to solve those problems. The accuracy and validity of these theories will be put into test from the perspective of how sound bases they form for the design and engineering of "natural" ubiquitous technologies.

Projects

The track is advanced in in ContextCues, Pasion, IPCity, and CALLAS.

Publications

Jacucci, G., Oulasvirta, A., & Salovaara, A. (in-press). Active construction of experience through multimedia: a field study with implications for recording and sharing. Accepted to Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, Vol 10.

Oulasvirta, A., & Blom, J. (in revision). Motivations for personalisation of information technology. Interacting with Computers.

Oulasvirta, A., Petit, R., Raento, M., & Tiitta, S. (2007). Inferring and acting upon mobile awareness cues. Human-Computer Interaction.

Oulasvirta, A., & Sumari, L. (accepted). Mobile kits and laptop trays: Managing multiple devices in mobile information work. Accepted to Proceedings of CHI 2007, ACM Press.

Oulasvirta, A., Tamminen, S., Roto, V., and Kuorelahti, J. (2005). Interaction in 4-second bursts: The fragmented nature of attentional resources in mobile HCI. Proceedings of CHI 2005, ACM Press, pp. 919-928.

Oulasvirta, A. (2006). Studies of working memory in interrupted human-computer interaction. Research reports of the Department of Psychology, no. 38, University of Helsinki.

Tamminen, S., Oulasvirta, A., Toiskallio, K., & Kankainen, A. (2004). Understanding mobile contexts. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 8 (2), 135-143.